This is an addition to the adventures of Brynn and Shawna, the Game Night series. You could say that this is the first in the series, but the second released into the wild. Game Night is all about a married couple connecting and enjoying their marriage/sex life together. They can more-or-less be read in any order. All characters engaged in sexual activities are 18 or older.
The email's subject line announced, "Game Night Tonight" Brynn's heart rate surged when he saw the email land in his inbox. The little chime on his cellphone alerted him to the new email drew his attention away from the data query that had been coming together slowly since noon; tapping the screen brought up the text of the message.
"Tonight after supper, you will settle in to write at your desk, no need to change out of your work clothes and no worrying about dishes. I will tend to that.
Make sure you close the bedroom door. Then, when you hear the knock on the door, say 'Come in' that is when the real fun starts.
Love, Shawna.
-- Oh, one more thing. Tonight you're in charge."
After nearly 20 years of marriage and two kids, Brynn and Shawna's sex life had ebbed and flowed. After their honeymoon period, there were times when sex was placed on the back burner; there were also times - even after the children were born - that nights burned with their passion.
Recently a dry patch had descended upon them. Several weeks before Ryan received the email, Shawna mentioned her awareness of and frustration with the lack of sex.
"It has been a while." She had said, not looking up from the screen of her cellphone.
"What has?" Brynn had answered; his eyes had remained locked on the television.
"Since we have had any naked time," she had remarked.
"It has been a busy month or two. First, the kids have been buried with projects, then dance, soccer, gymnastics, and second we have been so tired getting to bed lately; I'm not surprised." Brynn replied. He tore his eyes off his show, looking over at his wife, wondering if the night was going to turn interesting.
He knew that it had been a while. Lately, Brynn had been feeling anxious for a roll or two in the hay. Though he recognized that both he and his wife had been so crazy trying to keep up with their kids that he didn't want to burden Shawna with the guilt of turning him down for sex. It was sad and depressing that it had gotten to this point that sex had become coupled with words like stress and burden.
"I want to try something; I've been calling it Game Night. The rules are flexible and straightforward. We pick a schedule, and we stick to it. As in, this is in ink on the calendar. One of us is responsible for selecting the game. Game meaning something that ends with us naked and sweaty." Shawna only glanced at Brynn while she explained.
"Okay, that sounds like fun," Brynn said, hoping that she had something in mind to kick off her experiment immediately. His shorts became tighter.
"I will go first," she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before turning back to her phone. "I will let you know when we start; after that, I thought every third day we will have another game night."
Brynn had almost forgotten about the conversation. True, it had spun around his head for the first few days after it had been mentioned, but when the charge of anticipation had worn down, he settled back into his regular routines. Work, time with the kids, an hour of writing, then an episode or two of a favorite show in bed with Shawna.
The email had now stirred him up. It was all he could do to focus on any of the work he had left to do.
When he finally sat down at his small desk, which was settled in the corner of his and Shawna's bedroom, he was so distracted that he could barely remember anything that had happened since receiving the email from his wife. Usually, just before bed, he would sit and write. Adding a couple of thousand words to a short story or novel that teased his mind like an exotic dancer full of promises. Tonight though, he was caught in a loop rewriting the exact hundred words over and over again.
It wasn't writer's block, the words were there for him to write, and the story was begging to move forward; it was that evil email that kept pulling at his attention. Shawna had given no hint at what he was in store for or how he was in charge. He erased a sentence that wasn't quite right and tapped out another version that only really adjusted a single word. A small chime, this one dedicated to text messages from Shawna, altered him to a new message.
"Not long now... If you laugh, it is GAME OVER!"
His curiosity went wild with the possibilities of what she was planning. He turned in his chair, looking at the closed bedroom door, waiting for the knock. It did not come. He stared at the door, willing a knock to sound. Nothing.
Finally, realizing how silly he was being, he turned back to the computer. Brynn laughed at himself; he was eager for sex with his wife but was not starving like a teenager who just discovered the wonders of an orgasm. The spell, to a degree, was broken. Brynn's fingers flew across the keyboard. Before he knew it, three hundred new words appeared.
The knock came. Three short reports against the wood of the door. They weren't too loud or demanding. Slightly more intent than the knocks of one of the children trying not to interrupt but still needing something. Brynn found his mouth dry, and before answering, he took a gulp from the water bottle that sat next to the keyboard.
"Come in," Brynn called. The doorknob twisted; he watched it turning as if he were in a horror movie. The door cracked open. From where he sat, he couldn't see his wife in the doorway.
"Mr. Crosswind, do you have a minute?" Shawna entered the room. Brynn almost fell off his chair. She had pulled her hair into a pair of braided pigtails; not a single hair was out of place. Her makeup gave her already smooth skin a youthful, almost innocent glow tempered by bright red lipstick that strongly implied that nothing innocent was planned for the evening. When Brynn and Shawna first started dating, there had been a little costume play in the bedroom, but that had died off not long after the news of their firstborn's impending arrival. Shawna stood before her seated husband dressed in a white oxford shirt that was unbuttoned on the bottom, the tails tied up exposing a hint of her stomach, a plaid skirt that stopped about two inches from her knees, and a pair of clean white stockings that clung to her legs finishing with polished black flats.
When Brynn noticed the shoes, he almost laughed but remembered her text. On the occasions they watched porn together, Shawna regularly mocked that nearly every woman wore insanely tall and spiky heels. Sure it was sexy sometimes, but what nurse that would be on her feet all day would wear stilettos or what private school would have their female students tromping around in heels. The answer, of course, was because horny men - and women - expect sexy women to wear heels...
