Paul never mentioned me directly in his kinky discussions and presentations to Harry, but the implications were clear. Paul was offering Harry a quid-pro-quo, where he would give Harry free access to Carol in exchange for his access to me. The men he allowed to sleep with his wife all had a similar deal with him, Paul explained, and so far, it had worked out marvelously.
"The secret," Paul went on, "was to make sure that you and your wife and everyone involved is completely in the know: no secrets, no betrayals. Just boil it down to simple, innocent sex and no more."
Harry listened intently. He had been visiting Paul every evening now, spending an hour or so with him before dinner. He viewed his interactions with Paul as an education of sorts on a whole new fascinating universe of kink he hadn't suspected existed in the peaceful, wholesome world of suburbia. He took notes and paid attention, asking probing questions and nodding as Paul spoke.
"You couldn't do this if you were a young couple. Not mature enough," Paul explained. "You have to have been married at least ten years, and even then, you have to have matured enough to be able to understand fully that marriage is about love and commitment, not about sex, and that sex is a separate parallel world of animal impulses. If you and your wife can separate the two in your mind, then you can engage in what we are doing. Before that, it's dangerous."
It didn't occur to Harry that Paul was selling him on a concept until I pointed it out to him.
"He wants us to join his clan," I explained to Harry, who was going over his notes as we sat to drink Jasmine tea after dinner.
Harry raised his eyebrows and took off his thick glasses. I had genuinely caught him by surprise, it seemed.
"Hmmm.... You are right," he said. "He is pitching me."
"Has he offered you directly to sleep with Carol?"
"No! I would have told you." Harry's energetic denial meant that he had at least thought about it.
"Would you say yes -- if he had?" I asked.
"No, I would not. I would first talk to you about it." Harry was sitting back, looking a little afraid.
I nodded and looked him in the eyes.
"He has shown me tapes of him and Carol making love. And also tapes of the other men screwing her in their bedroom."