Chapter 1: The Birthday Strip and String-Up Game
There is something to be said for it: the wife trying to be understanding when you reach a "big 0." Like 30.
I know, I know—30's nothing. When you're looking at the big 50, or, shudder, the big 60, and some...kid...blinks rapidly, voice quavering, and says "I'm trying to deal with the big 30...," it's like: "Hey, they don't award the Purple Heart for stubbing your big toe."
Something to be said for the wife acknowledging that you are a man, married, trying to get her pregnant, but, also, "trying" to pay the mortgage, gain on the other rats as they round the first bend of the executive stadium...
Your wife tries to reassure you that your years on the high plains, galloping after the mares, rearing over the obedient, terrified mare's haunches, inserting the unspeakable rigid black nightstick of flesh into the quavering...tries to assure you that that is not over. And if you are cursed with a vivid memory, so that you always are reliving that unhooking of the first white bra, always working down the panties over the full hips and it's her very first time, and she gasps, "Oh, no! No!" but in sync with thrusts of her plump pooch against your...
But the wife views your special big 0 "treat," your rediscovery of that wild boiling over-as though molten lava would go spurting across the room if she so much as touched the swollen reddened thing—as all about recovering that long lost lust for her...And maybe getting her, pregnant, at last, just as a boner bonus...
In brief (as brief as I get), this explains why I was standing in my own living room in my own over-mortgaged house in our nice suburban neighborhood with my arms stretched way over my head and my hands tied firmly (I'm surprised she used such good knots-maybe she had Googled it), and wide apart, by ropes that went over a sturdy beam and down the other side to be secured to either leg of the sofa. Exciting, I guess.
She planned it all. You have to love Susan. You do. She was trying. And not just on my birthday. She trained like a prize fighter to stay in shape: exercise classes, running in her nice snug mauve sports bra, swimming in her brief black two-piece, yoga (duh!), and... It tires you out, doesn't it?
On the tallish side for a girl, but not the fashionable lanky boy's shape. Too full in the hips, too hefty in the chest. But NO fat. I had loved it, when I met her. I mean, I still do love it. When a woman is that that compact, her big breasts are really out there. They seem almost deliberately provocative: Hey, who attached those to you, baby? Susan has a full face, with long hair to match. Not blonde and not brown. Think of a lioness—tawny. And green eyes. Lioness, again. No tail, but I know she has done due diligence to reduce and tighten her genetically big ass. It embarrasses her.
Lot of time to think, standing there. The "fun" began around early cocktail hour, when Susan said: "Okay, this is what we do for your big 30," and patted the chair beside the coffee table. I tried hard to be a sport. I said, "Wow! What's happening, here?"
She perched on the couch, knees pressed together, and produced a deck of cards, holding them up, smiling. (I could struggle to describe that smile, a fair approximation at cunning, mystery, and female stalking.)
I am being bitchy, here. If you are a woman, you are thinking, "This guy doesn't deserve her." If you are a guy, you are thinking, "Well, I would love this...if it was with his wife, not mine."
I'm going to hurry; it was all-too-predictable. We played, not strip poker but a single round of penalty. She began by stating the rules: "You lose, you do anything I tell you that is not illegal or dangerous. Anything." She added severely, " And you shut up about it." She knows me.
I said, "Oh, I tie you up naked and have Frank and Hal drop over for a nice beer and a good look, maybe twist a nip? They've been dying to. I can tell."
She actually tossed her tawny hair, shrugged her compact shoulders, and looked right at me. "Yes. If that's what you want, for me, go ahead. I'll play. Tie me up and have the guys tease my tits."
Okay, but I lost. Again that smile, but this time I thought I detected a brief struggle against an outright giggle. She ordered, "Stand right here"—walking over to indicate the spot on the floor beneath the beam.
"Should I strip?" I asked hopefully. I knew what was coming. I wanted to get on with it. Not exactly get it over with. I did look forward to a nice blow job, with my not having to do anything in return—or maybe she spanks my butt or something. Or does a strip tease in front of me, as though I haven't seen it all.
She was returning with rope. "Where did you get that?" I asked.
"I got it," she said, already working on one of my wrists.
"You actually bought rope on just the possibility that you would win the game, not me?" I frowned. "You didn't fix that game, did you? How come I didn't get to cut the deck?"
"You watched."
"Actually..."
"I know," she said, not looking up from her task, "you weren't much into it, were you? And you aren't, are you?" Rope over the beam, tie the other wrist. The excitement, I gathered, was to involve her wickedly stripping me and maybe commenting on my dick. You know: "Oooh...the little man has a big one..."
"Of course I'm into it," I said gamely. "How often do I get tied up and exposed to the every whim of a gorgeous, sexy, lustful woman?" And if we would hurry up, I could get to cocktails—the problem with having both hands tied. A drink might help to induce the romantic haze, disinhibit the domesticated beast... Take a lot of drinks, though.
She had finished. She stood looking me up and down. She stood straight, as always, never self-conscious about how the boobs pushed their way into the spotlight. "Don't worry about forcing yourself to get interested," she said curtly, looking right into my eyes. "Leave that to me."
She turned. "But right now, I have to run a little errand."
"If I were naked, it would pretty exciting," I ventured. "Anyone could come along." My imagination had begun to work, slowly, creakily, you see. Standing here dressed, without a drink, on my birthday, thinking about how it really is all over for me—you know what I mean, "it." Obvious, by now.
"Be patient," she said, "maybe that will happen."
"Come on, give me a hint. You're the social planner. Is this a game changer?" I wasn't controlling my irritation well. "Is there really going to be anything new?"
She turned and walked back very slowly. The smile had faded from her face. Standing right before me, she even frowned, as if wondering what the hell I was all about.
"Yeah," she said, very quietly. "Yeah, this is going to be different. You aren't going to be in control, Thomas." (At last, you know my name, but she always calls me "Tom" or "Tommy.")
She said, "You aren't going to know what will happen. And you won't have any say about it. None."
She was trying so hard. I needed a drink. To dissolve the boredom. I wasn't very nice. I said, very mocking, "Oooo..."