31 comments/ 58051 views/ 11 favorites Antarctica By: ukresearcher Jeff was my best friend at school, through teenage years and into early twenties. We were in our element when picking up girls, working as a practiced partnership and enjoying more than moderate success. On the dance floor we were perfect combination for splitting up girls dancing together and in outside situations we were a polished double act with the chat up lines. We regarded ourselves as the two musketeers. Jeff is some two inches taller than me with a slightly heavier build. He has black wavy hair and rather piercing blue eyes, I had never seen his penis erect but from the times we had stripped in each others company I was aware that he had the larger equipment, or at least he had more dangle. That was far from conclusive because I knew that while some dicks can increase in length by up to a factor of three between flaccid and erect, others initially longer merely go stiff. As to performance, I could tell, from the number of times that we had fucked girls in adjacent beds, that there was little to chose between us because we both had very satisfactory results. His conquests tended to be more vocal but then he had a somewhat rougher fucking technique than me. He did always seem to finish up with the better looking girl; maybe because he was the somewhat pushier but my big triumph came with Shelley. At the start she was just one of a pair of girls that we joined up with on the dance floor but where I hung on to her and subsequently got married, he dumped his girl after just a matter of weeks. Since then he has had a series of live in partners but none seem to last longer than a couple of years. Our friendship has continued ever since and Shelley and I have enjoyed countless very pleasant fun evenings with Jeff and his current squeeze. To my eyes Shelley is simply gorgeous, with every right to be rather big headed but it is her total modesty which is a large part of her appeal. She is a nice girl and I mean that in a caring gentle way rather than the usual moralistic sense. The night of that first pick up, Jeff finished up in bed with his girl but I didn't. To be honest I thought that Shelley was too 'nice' so I didn't even try. Many years later from the safety of marriage I asked if I would have been lucky if I had tried to seduce her that first night. Shelley gave me an unqualified Yes, explaining, "I always thought that if I intended to let a guy into my pants on a second or third date then why not do it on the first? As you well know I really like sex. I've never tried to hide the fact that I've had my share of experience but then so have you." Even in retrospect I was kicking myself for having missed that opportunity when Shelley added, "Mind you, it was the fact that you were such a perfect gentleman that night which first started me thinking that you might make a long term prospect." Shelley is 5' 5" tall, some five inches shorter than me but wearing her heels brings her up to the ideal height. Her breasts are neither small nor too big but equipped with very noticeable nipples, her waist is narrow and her bottom nicely rounded but her legs are by far her best feature and they truly are spectacular. I've already mentioned that I am most attracted by her nice giving nature but her love of sex runs a very close second. I've always been highly sexed but her libido is even greater than mine. I never actually did but there were times when I came close to claiming a headache. We regularly had sex on at least five days out of seven and many times, particularly at weekends, played the two backed beast game more than once during the day. Although we were both reasonably intelligent men, both my pal Jeff and I had been so engrossed in chasing pussy that our studies remained neglected, with the result that we failed to accumulate enough points to gain access to any of the universities we would have considered going to. Instead I became fully trained as an electrician and later gained some expertise and knowledge of heating and ventilation. The latter offered a better paid career and my hopes lay in that direction but when I got a good job working for a university as a sparks the die was cast. Jeff became a builder, not becoming skilled in any one trade but reaching competence in the lot, ranging through plastering, carpentry, bricklaying and plumbing. Ironically the only thing he failed to master was electrics. Early in the marriage, with me well paid and Shelley having a good salary in insurance, we fully extended ourselves by buying a nice house on a maximum mortgage and then a couple or so years later when our situation had eased due to pay rises, we compounded our error by extending the mortgage to pay for an extension. We even frittered the 'spare' cash on a very expensive luxury second honeymoon. We returned from that holiday discussing the possibility of starting a family but almost immediately the sub prime thing hit and escalated into the financial crisis which still grips almost the entire world. Shelley's company was right had the heart of the storm and she immediately lost her job and was only able to find poorly paid waitressing or temporary work. At the university overtime had always been readily available but that was now stopped and I was informed that, although my position was safe, any out of hour's emergency work would have to be done without pay. After five years of marriage we were in a desperate situation, because although we could just about cover the massive mortgage there was absolutely nothing left over for food and keeping warm. Selling up was not an option because our negative equity had now acquired nightmare proportions. I had rather confided my problems to my boss at work, when failing to negotiate a salary increase. A few days later he called me to announce, "I think I have the answer to all your problems but you may not like what it entails because it will mean you leaving home for a year." He was correct, the thought had zero appeal but the position I was in meant that I couldn't reject it out of hand. "What does it pay?" I asked, my mercenary instinct taking over. "Triple your current salary and because you will be working outside of this country, the majority of that will be tax free." That changed my perspective because I immediately saw what a difference that amount of money would mean, "Where would I have to go?" My boss gave a hollow laugh. "You will be spending a year in the Antarctic at the Halley research station, situated fifteen kilometres from the coast on the Brunt ice shelf. You'll be there through the long ten month winter when the temperature can fall to minus fifty-five degrees Celsius and the sun doesn't even rise above the horizon for a hundred and five days. During that period there is total isolation with nobody able to get in or out." "What about communicating with home?" "Not good. There is a broadband connection for Email and fax but there is only the one link and that has to be shared between sixteen winter staff. The speed is only a quarter the speed of a normal domestic connection, so that means no uploading or downloading at all. In addition the communication can be completely disrupted for extensive periods due to weather or solar effects." I gave a dry laugh, "You aren't making it sound very attractive." "I'm doing that deliberately. I researched this before mentioning to you because I wanted you to know exactly what you are up against. To be honest, I wouldn't fancy it one little bit myself but even if I did I'm not what they are looking for." "And I am." "They want an electrician but the key is your heating and ventilation training. As you can appreciate those skills are vital in that environment, so if something nasty happened to the main man and then there was an emergency, they would be in a real mess unless there was someone who was double skilled and capable of taking over." "Can I think about it," I asked. To be honest I was only giving the impression that I was giving it consideration rather than reject the job out of hand. While he was talking I had tried imagining a whole year separated from Shelley and found that it didn't bear contemplation." "Of course you can, I know you will need to talk this over extensively with your wife," he said reasonably. "As a little sweetener I can say that you don't have to stay for the full year. If you like you can leave on the first supply boat of the summer. That will be when the summer people all flood in and you will no longer be so vital. If you do finish early you salary will not be affected but by that time you may want to stay. I've heard that that the views are spectacular during the two month summer with plenty of places to visit and things to see." Back at home I waited until we had eaten before asking Shelley, "How long do you think you could manage without sex?" "A week max," she said as an automatic response but then added, "Possibly longer if it was important for some reason." "How about a whole year?" "No chance." "What if it meant saving the house? We are going to lose it unless some miracle turns up." Shelley had been treating this as a sex conversation but now she was very serious. "What's happened? Ever since you got turned down for a rise I've been worried sick." "I've been offered the chance to go on a detachment for a year at three times my current salary. The problem is that it is in the Antarctic, I'll be completely isolated for most of that time and communications are very poor. One very slow internet connection has to be shared between sixteen staff." I could almost see the cash digits rolling up behind my wife's eyes as she calculated how much that was in cash, "How many of those other fifteen will be female?" she asked, "I wouldn't want you locked up for a year with a load of horny women." "They could easily all be male, two females at the most and they are likely to be much older women." "How about you lasting a whole year without sex?" Shelley asked, turning my initial question back on me." "Once I get out there I reckon I won't have much option," I said ruefully. "Unless I hook up with a guy." I could safely say that because Shelley was well aware of my mild homophobia." "I really don't think we've got any choice. It won't be pleasant but we love each other enough to get through it," my wife declared. We subsequently talked about it endlessly before my February departure but it was that short discussion which decided the future events. When I told Jeff about my plan he shook his head in amazement and said, "You're a better man that I am Gunga Din. Just trying to imagine what it will be like makes my dick go limp." I explained about the fantastic pay and the mess were in with the mortgage, pointing out that even if we lost the house that wouldn't be the end of it because the money still left owing would leave us in debt for years. "I understand better why you are going but I still don't think I could do it," he replied, "I think I'd rather rob a bank." In late January, as the date of my departure drew ever closer, I took a break from the frantic sex with Shelley to go out for the evening with Jeff. I arranged this deliberately because I needed to speak with my friend in private. "I want you to look after Shelley while I'm away," I said broaching the subject. "That goes without saying, I would have done that automatically without being asked," he told me sincerely, "Was there anything specific you had in mind?" "I don't like to think of her all alone, so if you take her out occasionally it would help, you know for a drink or even to the cinema." "That will be a pleasure rather than a chore." "The most important thing is that I would like you to look after all the heavy and dirty jobs around the house, you know all the stuff that I would do if I was still at home." "You're wish is my command," Jeff said with a grin but then his face went serious as he went on, "I'm just pleased that you can go down there with the peace of mind knowing that your lovely wife is in safe hands." That was it. I did see him one more time to say goodbye shortly before I left but I think that otherwise he stayed away deliberately to let Shelley and I concentrate all of our energies on each other. We took full advantage and during the last moth we spent every available minute in bed, deliberately trying to cram a full year of making love into a few short weeks. When I caught my train on that final day, I literally had sores on my cock and I think that Shelley's vagina was possibly in even worse condition. That however was only a minor discomfort compared to the real pain of clinging together and swearing undying love just before we parted. There were ten of the others waiting at RAF Brize Norton and we were to find the remaining winter staff in Stanley, they having arrived there by other means. We then flew non stop in a Tri-Star aircraft down to the Falklands, apart from a refuelling stop at Ascension Island. There was very little interaction during the flight. I think everybody was too engrossed in their own thoughts and I certainly was in no mood for conversation. After a couple of days rest, we were carried by boat to the edge of the ice shelf and from thence to the installation, (a distance of roughly 15 kilometres), by Sno-Cat vehicles pulling sledges loaded with cargo. On arrival we all milled around gazing with a measure of awe at what was to be our home for the next year. There were three buildings altogether and I heard that the accommodation block weighed fifty tons. It was mounted on stilts. I had read that this was the fifth version of the research station. The predecessors had all stood at ground level but as there was an average annual snowfall of 1.5 meters, the accumulation of ice had eventually crushed them. It was reassuring to know that this prototype was regularly jacked up to prevent that happening again. The temperature that day was a couple of degrees below zero but it didn't feel particularly cold. Three of the sixteen of us confined together for the next ten months were female. The only scientist amongst the trio was a lady who looked to be in her early fifties. A crop haired, sturdy, thick bodied woman with a serious unsmiling face she gave the impression of being either lesbian or completely asexual. She was studying the effects of prolonged isolation, I think with relevance to future settlements on either the moon or even Mars. The other two were there to assist in the catering and both were unusually attractive females. Sue was married to Rob, one of the three specialist electronic staff and a guy who was to become my best friend for the winter. The remaining 'girl' was Mimi and she was something else. She was petite, no more that 5' 2", with a mass of curly brown hair and dark flashing eyes. A bundle of energy she had instant appeal. Her breasts were slightly too large for her small frame but with nipples that were always noticeable, even through several layers of clothing. But it was her bottom which was her crowning glory, (so to speak). I think that the term 'bubble butt' is usually used to describe her type of rear anatomy but it utterly fails to do justice to the phenomena that was Mimi. When she was walking away, those glorious thrusting buttocks moving independently and enhanced by the sensual, clinging quality of soft ski pants always caused involuntary salivation, or at least it did with me. Her appeal was not lost on others because she quickly acquired a close coterie of admirers. From very early days, I started to associate with Rob during leisure times in the common room and at first Sue used to join us. In figure and looks and even temperament she reminded me a lot of my wife and it made me feel less far from home when I was in her company. Rob was also very like me and I think it was that which caused us to gel so well, right from the moment we first met. Even though in many ways they were a mirror image couple to me and Shelley, I had the feeling that that something wasn't quite right with them, as if there was some underlying strain below the affectionate surface but it was some weeks before I found out what that was. Although time soon became relatively meaningless due to the almost constant darkness, meal times, if nothing else, meant that we stuck to a fairly normal schedule, with most work done between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. This meant that computer access took place during the eight hours between then and midnight. With sixteen of us to share, everybody was allocated half an hour per day. At first in Emails home there was a lot to talk about, me describing my new life and my wife chatting about how she was coping with my absence but soon with everything unchanging there was little new to say. We resorted to declarations of love and filling our mails by with talk about our frustrated desires but quickly realised that this was making us feel worse instead of better. At first Shelley spoke a lot about Jeff and how much he was helping but suddenly his name seemed to come up far less frequently and then wasn't mentioned at all. For the first couple of months I was rather busy checking circuits and making repairs. This was a blessing in disguise because I had little time to brood and generally fell into bed so tired that sleep came fairly easily. It was only really when life became more leisurely that the pain of separation became acute and I was constantly worrying how my wife was managing at home. I liked to linger late in the common room, keeping my mind active, because I knew that in my solitary bed my mind would be overwhelmed with thoughts of Shelley and awareness of my state of deprivation. There were only four others left in the room when Mimi plonked herself down near me. "I like you," she announced, "You don't say much but you've got very expressive eyes." Not knowing quite what to say I just smiled upon which Mimi followed up with, "And I think you rather like me. I've noticed the way that you watch me all the time." "I'm sorry, I didn't mean," I blustered but my apology was met with a big grin. "Don't worry; I like men to look at me. I would think I was losing my touch if they didn't. Which particular bit of me do you like looking at most, my tits or my bum?" "Your bum," I told her enthusiastically without hesitation. "Thank you kind sir," Mimi said with a big smile, "That is the correct answer and it entitles you to become to become a member of my fan club. It just happens that I also happen to have a vacancy at the moment." I was pretty sure what she was offering but I had to make sure. "What exactly is this fan club?" She laughed. "Come on, you must have noticed my small collection of men friends. If you become a member I make sure that you get plenty of what you a missing the most at the moment, just like I do with the others." Instantly my cock swelled to full length and my heart started to pound as a vision of Mimi's naked nubile body lying under me, flashed in front of my eyes. Had I been able to speak quickly I would have grabbed at the chance but suddenly my tongue felt thick and clumsy. Before I could manage to get the words out, that lewd image had been replaced by a picture of Shelley's trusting face. Instead I said, "I'd love to join but I'm married." Mimi looked at me in surprise, "Well you're certainly a rare fish. Most of the men that I fancy are married but fortunately, with the majority that doesn't seem to matter." "How many of the men are in the club?" "You would have been number six. I like to limit it to six because even a girl like me needs a day off." Mimi paused and then laughed, "That was just a joke, I'm quite capable of looking after two or more of my gentlemen on the same day." "What did the old number six do to fall out of favour?" Antarctica "He started to get possessive and that is the ultimate sin so I've sentenced him to a period of celibacy. Don't worry I'll let him back in when he's learned his lesson." I was stuck for words; in fact I was already bitterly regretting my rejection of the offered vacancy. Mimi seemed to sense my hesitation. "You could be an associate member. It's only the cock in hole bit which classes as infidelity and there's a whole load of other stuff we could do instead, at least enough to ease the pressure you're suffering." I was in turmoil with my mind rapidly vacillating between my alternatives. Taking a deep breath I said, 'Mimi' but before I could continue she interrupted to say, "That actually isn't my real name. I was born Sharon but that seems a bit common now and I thought that Mimi reflected my bubbly sexy personality. " "Why are you here in the Antarctic it doesn't seem to be quite your scene?" I asked. I didn't particularly want to know this but I was desperate to move the conversation away from her associate membership offer. "I love sex, I can't get enough and I also like variety. I live in a small town and I had pretty much exhausted the possibilities so I was looking for pastures new when I saw the advert for this place. Up to fifteen horny men, shut away with nowhere to go for ten months out of the year. I thought it would be like shooting fish in a barrel and I'm pleased to say that's exactly how it has turned out so far. The only problem is sneaking away discreetly so that everybody doesn't realise what's going on." Mini said this last bit with a broad grin on her face because both she and I knew this was something she had singularly failed to do. I stood up. I was enjoying the conversation but I knew that my resistance would begin to crumble if I remained exposed to her availability very much longer. I uttered some pleasantry about enjoying our conversation and then started to move away but Mimi had the last word. "There are a lot of months to go and you're bound to get even more desperate than you are now. When that happens the offer is still open even if I'm screwing the whole compound by then. If you don't, you are going to finish this tour with very hairy palms and you might even need to wear glasses." At around the five month mark, I became concerned that Jeff had abandoned my wife and I mentioned my worry to her. She replied that I was mistaken because he was still as diligent as ever. There was also a mail from him in which Jeff reassured me that he checked on Shelley's needs every day and that he had done everything I had asked of him and more. Those last two words 'and more' started to bother me as I worried about what they could mean, in fact I became rather paranoid about them. It got so bad that I eventually mentioned it to Shelley. Her explanation made me feel quite foolish when she said he had simply been doing all the repairs that she had mentioned to me but which I had never quite got round to. I had assumed that Rob and Sue had been hired as a pair and was rather upset to find that she had been employed independently. I kicked myself for not trying the same thing, my wife was a very good cook, she could easily have filled the role and having her to share my bed during these long months in the Antarctic would have made the year far less of an ordeal than it was proving to be. However when talking to Rob one day when he was alone he told me that I was mistaken. He explained that his wife's job was the priority and he had only applied for his when hers was secure, "You see," he explained, "I'm not out here for the extra money, my whole motive was getting Sue away from our home environment. She was having an affair you see." He went on to explain that he had been unaware of the affair for several months and had accepted her overnight absences and even weekends away were all to do with her work. He had eventually become suspicious, alerted by the usual clues and had finally followed her when she met up with her lover. A confrontation followed during which Sue maintained that she still loved him and that the affair was only a fling. "She claimed it was because I no longer satisfied her sexually but there had never been any problems that way until that bastard turned up," Rob told me bitterly. "She swore she wouldn't have any more to do with him and I forgave her but it wasn't long before I knew she was seeing him again," Rob went on, "It wasn't anywhere near as bad as it had been before but I could tell she was still getting fucked. Sue said she still loved me and I believed her but it was as if she couldn't help herself. I think she was besotted by him. There was no point in another confrontation if I wanted to keep her because I had no threats left, so I fixed up both our jobs and told her it would be proof of her love if she agreed to come with me." He laughed, "The worst situation would have been me stuck out here for a year with her back there, on the loose and completely fancy free. I knew my job was available but I had to make sure she would be coming with me before I put in a formal application." There is one guy amongst the winter staff called Craig who I dislike intensely even though we had barely spoken. I took an instant dislike the moment that I saw him because he was a recognisable type, big and brash, self centred, self opinionated and extremely pushy. It was no surprise when he was the first one to hit on Mimi. I'm not sure whether he scored but assume that he did. Whether or not, he didn't remain amongst Mimi's chosen few for very long, so it was almost inevitable that he would eventually turn his attention to Sue. I was unhappy to observe that his approaches were well received. I mentioned this to Rob but he just shook his head helplessly saying, "I was afraid of this from the moment we arrived because he's almost the spitting image of that other swine back in Derby." This new development continued to escalate. At first Craig was all over Sue only when Rob was not present but soon they started to openly associate in the common room even if Rob was there. Likewise initially the sneaking away for privacy only happened when Rob was absent but then they stopped the pretence and on one occasion Craig and Sue walked hand in hand right in front of her husband as they went off to find some place to fuck. Throughout the year I acquired an instant erection when ever I was close to Mimi and I think she was well aware of that, in fact I suspect that she flaunted herself especially for my benefit. Also, whenever she was headed off to enjoy some surreptitious nookie with her chosen beneficiary for the day, her eyes always seemed to find mine just before she exited the room. It didn't help that there was often a noticeable damp spot on the crotch of her pants, caused either by natural wetness or leaking semen. This combined with the blatant sexual activity of my friend's wife made my enforced celibacy particularly hard to bear. Because of my low state I empathised with my friend perhaps more than was natural and one day I blurted out that I didn't know how he could stand it. "It doesn't hurt so much after a time," he assured me. I still have sex with my wife and she continually insists that I'm the only one that she loves but she says that Craig gives her something that she needs." Midwinter day was the major occasion of the year, with a week of celebration culminating in a big feast on the actual day. Before the meal there was a tradition of everybody streaking round the base of our quarters, weather permitting. This took place even though the temperature outside was thirty below. We were allowed to wear a hat, boots, gloves and a scarf but nothing else. This allowed protection of the extremities from frostbite but it struck me that one vital extremity was left exposed to the icy air. The lady scientist refused to join in on the basis that she was an observer not a participant but both of the other females stripped off with abandon. Sue had a nice dark bush between her legs while Mimi was completely bare and it was her that I chose to follow as we streaked around the perimeter. After dinner there was a special broadcast by the BBC overseas service to connect us with our families. The different relatives were gathered at four locations, each covered by an outside broadcast team. When Shelley moved forward for her turn in front of the camera, I spotted Jeff amongst the small crowd seated behind her and as if sensing that I had seen him, my pal raised his hand to give a cheery wave. Seeing Shelley gave me a marvellous boost. I had expected her face to look as strained as I felt but instead she appeared glowing and contented. Unlike all the others, that left me with only four months go but with endless day following endless day, at times I felt that it would never pass. I can remember little of that horrible time and if it hadn't been for my friendship with Rob and the joy of seeing Mimi around the place, I might easily have sunk into a very deep depression. I had tended to avoid the subject but when I had about a week to go I asked Rob about his marital situation. "OK," he said, "Nothing has change but I suppose that I've become resigned to it. Sue is still very loving towards me and doesn't deny me or anything. If she wasn't fucking Craig all the time you could say we have an ideal marriage." "Only a couple of months before you are out of here as well and than it will be all over," I offered in consolation. Rob shrugged his shoulders, "We won't be going back to Derby but wherever we go I think she'll find someone else. It's just the way she is made I reckon." With I had everything packed and I was going round saying goodbyes, Mimi came up to me, stood on tip toe and planted a very warm but chaste kiss on my lips before saying, "I hope that that wife of yours appreciates what she has got because you are a keeper." That was the first and first last time that I regretted not staying for the summer. It seemed that I was missing a treat because there were many things to see, notably the large colony of Emperor penguins that lived nearby. It seemed that the population of the research station exploded up to seventy during the summer months, most of them scientists but with some sightseers amongst that number. Usually the winter staff were recruited well in advance where I had been employed at short notice to cover an emergency. The reason that I could go home early is that my replacement had stated that he wanted to be down there for two summer periods. I had instructed Shelley to wait at home for my arrival because my convoluted journey home was variable to say the least. When I opened the door to our house she ran into my arms and smothered me in kisses as I did to her but almost immediately I encountered the first small jar to my euphoria. Pulling my mouth free from hers for a moment I suggested that we should go straight to bed but she replied, "Wouldn't you like a sit down and talk or have something to eat first?" It was a small thing and might have been sensible but had I made the same suggestion before I went away, she would have run along the hall shedding clothing as she went and been lying on the bed, naked and with legs spread by the time I arrived. We did make love but then and the subsequent times when we had sex, Shelley seemed to lack the same hoarded up need that I had in abundance and her passion seemed even less than before I left. It was as if she had lost her sexual hunger. This bothered me a bit but then I decided that I was just expecting too much. We did have a great deal of loving sex, in fact during the days before Xmas part of the time we spent either visiting, her parents, my parents, relatives and friends and the rest of the time we were in bed. Even left with no more energy for the act, I loved lying close to Shelley, revelling in the knowledge that I could reach out to touch and feel her. I wondered why Jeff never put in an appearance but then realised that he was staying away rather than distract from what he knew would have top priority in my mind. He eventually turned on Boxing Day and the three of us had a long pleasant evening. I was rather puzzled by his apparent need to reminisce because he constantly wanted to talk about our more youthful scrapes and our credo of 'All for one and one for all'. At times he became quite maudlin and he also had a funny look on his face when he left. Unusually Shelley failed to join me at the door to give him a quick goodbye kiss but I assumed she was a bit miffed by him seeming to ignore her all night. Two days later he was back. I had been resigned to an evening watching TV and welcomed the prospect of conversation instead. Unfortunately he seemed very subdued even constrained. I was just settling down, leaving Shelley and Jeff to get the drinks when I noticed him silently mouthing words to her in a kind of urgent way to which she shook her head in response and probably said something I didn't hear over the music. Almost immediately Jeff abruptly departed and I reluctantly started checking the TV schedules again. When my wife same back from seeing him off, she sat on the settee with me, took hold of my hand and asked me to tell her about the females who shared my accommodation during my months away. I described all three, much as I've done here, saying that Sue was the wife of my best friend but failing to mention her extra marital activities. With Mimi I came clean, telling about that erotic conversation and admitting how very close I had come to cheating with her, both then and at other times when feelings of sexual deprivation had become almost overwhelming. Dropping my hand, Shelley said fiercely, "I wish you had fucked her." I was shocked, not only by the sentiment but also for the fact that that was a word she never used, except for certain moments in the bedroom. "Why ever would you say that?" "It would make me feel better if you had because I haven't been faithful to you," she said quietly. This was something that I had half expected. I had come very close to straying so I knew how easy it was and I knew that Shelley would have had far more opportunity than me. I also believed that she had a weaker will than me. "Who was it?" I asked. "Jeff." That did shock me; he was the last person I thought might stab me in the back. "How often?" "Lots of times, so many I've lost count." "When did it start?" "About three months after you left. I thought I could go a year without sex but I was already going crazy for it by then. I can't remember exactly how it started but after that first time I had to do it again and then I couldn't get enough because it was the best sex of my life. Jeff has a much bigger cock than you and he does it somehow differently. "Did you spend whole nights with him?" For some reason this seemed important to me. Shelley nodded, "Alan, I'm not going to lie, for the past few months he's almost lived here. He even took me on holiday in Portugal for a week -- he paid for everything before you ask." "Did you use our bed?" "Yes. At first we only did it downstairs, then switched to the guest bedroom but our bed is so much bigger and more comfortable so it seemed silly not to use it." "Were you and he fucking in our bed right up to me getting home?" "No we stopped a week before but that was only because I didn't intend to tell you and we didn't want to accidentally leave any clues for you to find," my wife told me honestly. That provoked another nasty thought. "Have you and he done things that you've never done with me?" "Yes we did but I'd prefer not to talk about it. I will if you insist but darling, I honestly don't think that you knowing that sort of stuff will help." Ignoring her warning, I persisted, "Tell me one thing you've done with him and not me." Shelley paused for a moment and then said reluctantly, "I love the taste of Jeff's cum and the feel of it on my tongue so whenever he got close I had to decide whether I wanted it in my mouth or deep inside my vagina. Then I thought of a way of enjoying both. Sometimes, after he squirted inside me I got into a squatting position, Jeff would then hold his hand underneath my slit so that it could all slide out of me into his palm for me to lick up. I've only ever done that with him." I suddenly felt very cold, far colder than I had ever felt in the Antarctic. "Does this mean you are going to leave me for him?" "No it doesn't," my wife reassured me passionately, "You are the only man I love. I don't love Jeff, with him it was just the sex." My head felt numb, despite what she had just said I couldn't think of a word to say. Shelley allowed several minutes of silence to pass but then, apparently feeling a need to completely unburden herself, speaking softly she said, "You don't really know me. I told you I had a pretty wild past but I kept a lot hidden from you and I think if you knew the truth it might help you understand why I behaved the way that I did while you were away. Jeff actually isn't my best ever lover because I was once with a guy who was even better than him in bed. He's the one I never told you about when I was admitting my past. I actually lived with him for almost a year. He drank a lot and started hitting me but I stayed with the bastard for months longer than I should have done because I didn't want to lose the fantastic sex. It was just after leaving him when I had my really promiscuous period. I had a collection of regular boy friends and slept with a different one every night, even taking on two at a time occasionally, but then I settled down and started enjoying ordinary sex again." Her last words were a shaft to my heart (or was it my pride?) "Are you saying that my love making is only ordinary?" I asked sadly. Shelley was contrite," I didn't mean that at all. I love having sex with you, I always have. You make me cum every single time and that's something that very few of the men I've slept with can say. The difference is that Jeff gives me loads of orgasms, at times they seem to keep coming continuously." That was information that I would rather not have known but I didn't let that affect the decision I had come to. I had started off prepared to forgive a minor transgression and I could now see that the same logic applied to a major infidelity. The base fact was that I couldn't bear the thought of losing her. "I'm going to forgive you," I said quickly, before I changed my mind. A happy smile came to my wife's face but it wasn't the joy and relief that I had expected. In fact she still seemed very anxious. "I still love you, what more do you want me to say." "Can I keep on seeing Jeff? "You can't be serious," I exploded. "I love you and I want to stay with you but I don't think I can give him up," Shelley said simply. "What have you in mind, once a month, once every other month," I asked coldly. "I was hoping for once a week," she told me honestly. "How about every other week?" "That would be perfect," she said, her face brightening up completely. "You can bloody well think again, you must think I'm crazy," I told her angrily, "I don't want to lay eyes on that fucking sod Jeff ever again and if I ever find out that you've been with him after this, it's all over between us." "I could have said nothing and carried on seeing him without you knowing," my wife pointed out reasonably. "I know you could and I don't know why you didn't." With sincerity shining from her face, Shelley told me, "We were going to but I'm terribly ashamed of what I've done and I decided that I couldn't keep it a secret. I love you with all my heart and I want to be with you but Jeff has a hold on me, it's like an addiction, and I can't trust myself to stay away from him. I can't bear the thought of deceiving you any more but I hoped you might let me have sex with him again." Antarctica I knew that she was telling the truth and that made me realise that things were not as straightforward as I had thought. Confusion overwhelmed me. "I can't talk about this now, it needs a great deal of thought and my mind isn't working at all at the moment," I told her, "I'll give you a decision in a day or two but I've absolutely no idea what it will be." With that I got up and left the room. That night I slept in the spare room. The next day we were civil but I found it unbearable to be in the house faced with my wife's hopeful glances, so I went out and wandered round for most of the day. Late December is not a good time to spend a lot of hours out of doors, even though I was somewhat inured to the cold. The next day I went to the university to the place where I worked. My boss immediately urged me to go home again. He said, "You're not expected back until the middle of February, so why don't you take your wife on holiday somewhere warm, I'm sure you can afford it." I said that I preferred to work and didn't need any pay but he replied that my temporary replacement was on a year's contract and probably wouldn't like me interfering. I bargained to go in for a few days, to chat to the new chap and learn anything I needed to know before I returned officially. He agreed and I went in on each of the next three days. At home Shelley prepared me some very nice meals but we walked round each other and seldom spoke. During that time, as I contemplated the issue, my mind continually swung first one way and then the other. The only constant was that I still loved my wife. Many different arguments flooded my mind, some in favour of letting the affair continue and some against. One thing that I had to admit is that if Shelley was going to be unfaithful anyway, I did prefer that it had been with Jeff rather than some other sleazy bastard such as Jack Mann. Her going with Jeff was even better that her being fucked by a load of different men, cheered on by Sylvia. A powerful argument against letting the affair continue was the question, what man in his right mind would agree to share his wife with a man that she admitted to preferring in bed. Against that he and I had shared women before, (never in a threesome for some reason), but they were not females that we had any real feelings for. But then I always knew that Jeff outgunned me in the sex department and that fact had never bothered me. I knew that I had my own merits which he lacked. Knowing that Rob had trodden this path before me, I reasoned that his experience might be invaluable in helping me reach a decision. He had said that both of his wife's known infidelities had hurt him but in some ways the one south of the equator was the worst. Back in Derby the affair had been managed discreetly but in the close confines of our quarters everybody had known what was going on and he had found that extremely humiliating. However, on the other hand, during her UK affair he had seldom had any feelings of arousal from it but when he knew that his wife was with her southern hemisphere lover, he had very powerful and not unpleasant erections. His last words to me had been that he was now able to live with it on the basis that her behaviour was due to a flaw Sue's character and not his own shortcomings. In a comparative analysis, I had one big advantage over Rob in that I had a large measure of control over whether or not Shelley continued to be unfaithful to me where he was totally of the mercy of the whims of his wife. There was one big question that I could not answer. If Shelley never had sex with anyone other than me again, could I enjoy a truly contented life if I knew she was living with an unsatisfied craving? From another angle, could I ever be certain that they were not continuing to meet and if not wouldn't I be forced to live a life of suspicion? At the end of my mental marathon, these two arguments were the ones left uppermost in my mind. On the third night when I got home, Shelley announced tearfully, "Jeff wants to talk to you; he'd like you to go round to his place after you've eaten." "Has he been here?" "No, he rang me on my mobile." "Why didn't the sod come here, he knows where I am?" "He's feeling rotten about what's happened and I think he would rather face you on his own territory." "I'll bet," I said but no other words were spoken before I found myself knocking on the door to his flat. Hearing the words 'Come in' I pushed open the door and entered. It led straight into the living room and Jeff was standing facing me, about ten feet away. By accident or design he was wearing just a shirt and jogging bottoms with bare feet, that last fact making us more nearly the same size. "Come and take a poke at me," he invited. "I won't try to duck or retaliate, so make it a good one because I deserve it." "You are an unmitigated bastard, a total shit," I told him. Jeff cringed under the verbal lashing but didn't respond. "I'm not going to dirty my hands by hitting you, I just want to know why," I said calmly. "I thought of you as a brother." "Brothers are even more notorious for this kind of betrayal than best friends are." "So you admit it was a betrayal?" "Undoubtedly but that wasn't my intention at the start. I honestly thought I was looking after your best interests." "You thought you were acting in my best interests by fucking my wife," I repeated incredulously. "Pray do explain." "It's rather a long story so can I get you a drink, beer or whiskey?" "I think I'm going to need something but you better make that a beer, I am driving," I said, walking forward to sit uninvited in the armchair. When we both had bottles in our hands Jeff began, "At the start I was being the dutiful friend doing all that you asked and spending a lot of hours with Shelley talking about everything under the sun. The only topic that was never mentioned was sex and how much she was missing you in that way. Even so, after a few months, I could recognise the build up of sexual hunger. It's in the eyes; both you and I know the signs. Even more worrying was the way she kept glancing at my groin. So I asked how she was doing without you in her bed. Jeff paused to light a cigarette. "She said she was missing it even more than she expected. At first her sex toys helped but then something happened to her favourite dildo and it stopped working. She thought she'd probably been using it too much. Well I offered to see if I could repair it and if not I would try to get her a replacement. The fault was electrical and I was lost with that so I treated her to an expensive all singing all dancing version at the sex shop. That seemed to do the trick because the next few times that I called she seemed far more composed." My one time friend became noticeably uncomfortable at this point and I guessed it was getting near to the sexual activity. "Then on one visit on a Saturday afternoon, Shelley was very excited as she told me that she was going clubbing that evening with Sylvia. Well that Sylvia is a right little tart and I knew that she would like nothing better than lead your wife astray. That set alarm bells ringing so I found out the name of the club they were going to and that night I went to the same place and hovered in the background to keep an eye on things. They were late arriving and at first I worried they had gone somewhere else but when they did turn up I could hardly recognise your wife. " Thus far I had remained silent but now I had to ask what was different about her. "For a start she was dolled up very revealing clothes of a kind I have never seen her wear before, I suspect they were borrowed from Sylvia and on top of that it was pretty obvious that she had already had quite a lot to drink. When they got on the floor, every male in the place could immediately tell she was up for it. Within seconds they were round her like flies and Jack Mann was leading the pack. With almost all of those glorious legs on show, who could blame them? You remember Jack Mann? He used to call himself 'The man' and with some justification because the bastard was a pussy magnet. The trouble is that the guy is a real sleaze ball and every one of his conquests ended up feeling used when he dropped her. You would think that kind of reputation would soon get around but it didn't seem to lessen the flow of silly females eager to fall into his clutches." At this point Jeff needed another drink but this time he skipped beer and tipped a generous splash of whiskey into a glass. He held the bottle up to me but I declined. Continuing, Jeff said, "Soon Jack had cut out all the other contenders and he and Shelley were dirty dancing, he was groping her at every opportunity and she wasn't making the slightest objection. It was only going to end up one way and I couldn't bear the thought of Jack's filthy hands all over her so I intervened, grabbed Shelley's arm and told her that I was getting out of there. Jack wasn't at all pleased but he knew who I was and he backed off. I got her into a taxi and took her home." "Then what happened," I asked. I hadn't intended to speak but the words seemed to come out of their own volition. "I got her onto the settee and then went to make two coffees but by the time I got back with the mugs she was either asleep or passed out. I put the mugs on the floor and placed my hand on her thigh just above the knee hoping to rouse her but her legs sprang wide open as if on a spring exposing her panties in the process. They were wet through and even from that position I could feel the warmth radiating from her cunt. It was the first time I fully realised what the expression 'a female in heat' really means. Just at that moment, Shelley's eyes came open; she held out her arms and said 'Please'. Alan I'm only human. It was very obvious that she was going to get fucked by someone before you got home, so I convinced myself it was better me than Jack Mann or any of the other lecherous bastards out there. I knew it wouldn't be a one off because she would need 'topping up' again before Xmas, I thought it might happen up to half a dozen times at most but that isn't the way it turned out and I'm sorry." "You are a fucking self centred swine; just the sight of you offends me," I told him angrily, "Just saying 'sorry' isn't enough. I can't understand how I could have thought you were a pretty decent guy for so long." "I've no defence," he said, "I don't blame myself for the first time because I would have needed to be an iron man to resist and I could even excuse doing it a handful of times but the way I carried on was totally wrong. What makes it worse was that I started enjoying the wrongness, fucking your wife almost every night and actually taking pleasure in the fact that you were stuck on the opposite side of the world and didn't have a clue." "If you were aware it was so wrong then why didn't you stop? I'm sure you used to have better instincts at one time." "It's only since you got home that I've fully realised, I hadn't tried putting myself in your shoes before and now I'm utterly disgusted with myself. It's less than three weeks since we stopped and I'm already going out of my mind so I'll never know how you managed for so many months without going crazy." I could see how it all happened very easily. However I could not think of anything to say because my mind was too full of images to formulate words. After must have been several minutes of silence, Jeff said, "The irony is that but for a quirk of fate our positions might have been reversed, I could be sitting where you are and you could be over here." "How the fuck do you make that out?" I asked sharply, feeling a renewed surge of anger. "Remember when we picked up Shelley and Claire that first night, Shelley was the one I fancied, mainly because of those legs and when the four of us were loosely dancing together, she and I seemed to click. I thought the pairings had been decided but when I got back from the bar with the drinks, you were sitting with Shelley. If you had gone for the drinks we would have finished up the other way round. At the time I thought it would be a one night thing, a couple of weeks at the most, so I decided to let you end up with the chick for a change. If I had even dreamed how things would pan out I would have given you competition from the start." He smiled sadly. "Just imagine, if I had been the one to win Shelley then I would be the one who bought a house and you would have made do in rented accommodation. It would have been me with the mortgage problems, me who had to live for a year at the bottom of the world and it would have been me sitting where you are right now, deciding whether or not to kill me." He paused and then said, "You're the one the one that Shelley loves. Despite what I have just said, I never had any intention of trying to take her away from you and I still don't. You've got to believe that." This was the natural lead in to discussing Shelley's statement that she wanted to carry on seeing Jeff but I just couldn't do it. Standing I said, "I'm not sure if I ever want to see you again but in tribute to our past friendship I will shake your hand." Jeff leapt forward to take advantage of that small generosity and I then left without another word being spoken. When I got home Shelley looked anxiously up at me. "What happened?" "We didn't fight it that's what you mean. He got me a drink and we talked." "What about?" "We talked about you and what happened while I was away." "What was said exactly?" I knew that she was desperate to know if her desire for continued contact had been mentioned. "I told him that I never wanted to ever see him again, if that answers your question," I said. "But." "I know what you want and I'm still considering it," I told her, "But one thing is certain, if I do agree to you continuing to see him, it will be a matter of you going to his place because I definitely don't ever want him in this house again. You should expect my answer to be No, at the moment I think you're lucky that I'm not talking about divorce." With an effort Shelley suppressed her disappointment and asked, "Then what did you talk about?" "I told him that he was an unscrupulous bastard." "He wasn't the only one to blame, I think I was possibly worse that he was." "He told me that he actually revelled in the fact that you were cheating with him behind my back, did you feel the same way?" "No I certainly didn't, I was always ashamed at what I was doing and kept trying to stop but every time I got to the point of telling him he must leave, I always put it off until the next day. By the end I had even stopped trying." "I believe you," I said, "The trouble is that I believe him as well." Shelley allowed my remark to hang in the air for a moment and then asked, "Was anything else said?" "Jeff claimed that had we paired off differently that very first night, then he would have been the one you married and our positions would now be reversed." "He's mistaken," my wife stated categorically. "Whatever had happened I would never have married him. I'll admit that first night I would have been happy to pair with him and was a bit disappointed when it didn't turn out that way but I was very soon glad that it did. For a start, as you now know, his character isn't a patch on yours. I can fully understand why he can't seem to hang on to a girl for longer that a couple of years. I've always been fond of Jeff and this past year hasn't changed that either way but I could never love him the way that I love you. He just isn't as lovable as you but perhaps that's why he is better in bed." Her closing remark failed to make me feel any better, so I went up to my solitary bed. The next day I found it difficult to stay in the house faced with Shelley's hopeful looks so I took to spending some hours in the pub. It was plain from her tormented face that she was torn between loving me and wanting him and I knew that I might very easily capitulate just to bring a smile back to her lovely face. The last night I spotted Jeff drinking at the bar but I deliberately avoided him and took my drink to a table. Less than a minute later he sat down opposite me and it was obvious that he had been imbibing for a while. "I can't see why you won't agree to me sleeping with Shelley occasionally," he blurted out the moment he was seated. "After all the sex she and I have had this year what difference will a few more times make? I love her as well you know. I don't want to take her away from you but I do need to touch her sometimes." "When I was in the Antarctic I was unaware of what was happening and when I got home it was in the past but can you imagine how I would feel watching her set off, knowing that she was going to spend the night in bed in bed with you?" "It doesn't have to be all night." "Makes no difference it's the knowing that matters." Jeff suddenly seemed almost sober as he said quietly, "I can actually imagine very easily how you will feel because it is exactly how I've felt whenever I've been together with the pair of you, ever since you got married and even before. I was always tormented by the knowledge that she would end the evening lying naked beside you and not me and it didn't make a blind bit of difference whether I had a girl of my own at the time or not. I've spent years looking for a Shelley of my own, why do you think I can never spend more than two years with any woman?" I stood up and told him, "Come round to the house at eight o'clock tomorrow evening, I think I've decided." Jeff rang the bell and entered without speaking when I opened the door. I took him into the living room and sat him in one of the armchairs, then after handing out pre-prepared drinks I deliberately seated myself by Shelley's side on the settee facing him. Before I had chance to speak Jeff said, "Please can I say this first, if you decide that you can't allow me to keep seeing your wife occasionally then I'll leave the area and go to live in some distant part of the country or even abroad. Otherwise, I know I will try to keep seeing Shelley behind your back and I think she could find that hard to resist. The only honourable thing to do will be to remove myself from temptation completely." "I don't think I can let you do that," I said, "You're whole life is here, family, job, friends, in fact everything you know. It's too much of a sacrifice." "Then what do you suggest?" "I could be tempted to agree to what you both seem to want but there's one big issue stopping me." I paused to observe his face before saying, "Just before we got into financial trouble, Shelley and I were talking about starting a family. That is what I want to do now because I think that a baby will give stability and something else to focus on but her coming off the pill isn't an option if you are having sex with her as well as me." With a more hopeful look on his face, Jeff offered, "I can promise to always wear a condom." I shook my head. "That's not good enough. I have to consider heat of the moment and accidents." "Then I'll have a vasectomy." "If only for our past friendship, I can't allow you to do that either because you could easily bitterly regret having taken such drastic action in the years to come." My ex friends shoulders slumped. "Then I don't know the answer," he said helplessly. "I've been giving a lot of thought to this, in fact I've though of nothing else for the past few days, "I said. "This is what I've decided. You and my wife can continue to have sex together but with rather harsh conditions. I think it likely to take up to six months for Shelley to fall pregnant and you and she can't be together during that time. In fact I intend to double the length of your exclusion because I've just suffered a year of hell and I don't see why you shouldn't do the same. I want both of you to promise that that you won't meet or contact each other during that time but if you succeed in getting through the year then you can start spending the night together every other Friday." Antarctica Afterwards There was total silence following the end of my small speech. I don't think either had realistically expected my offer but they were also realising what they would need to suffer to earn the prize. After a while Jeff said, "I'm just wondering about the no contact bit. During your time away you were able to Email your wife so you didn't feel completely out of touch." It was a valid objection. I was trying to be fair and that restriction did seem a bit hard, so I lessened the rigor by saying, "OK, no voice contact or texting but you can exchange one Email per week." Jeff thanked me and Shelley smiled her appreciation of the concession but no more was said and after a moment or two, I said that I was going upstairs for fifteen minutes to allow them to discus the situation in private. I actually gave them a long twenty minutes before I returned because my intention was to allow them to say goodbye. I fully realised that they had opportunity for physical contact but I could live with that. When I got back they were still sitting exactly as I had left them, I could tell from Shelley's lips that they had kissed but no clothing was disturbed that I could detect. Jeff stood up with obvious intention of leaving and I escorted him to the door. Just before stepping outside, he turned and said, with forced cheerfulness, "See you in a year, hopefully." Shelley seemed lost for words because she had nothing to say about what had occurred but that night I think she showed her appreciation by being extra loving. During that year perhaps I should have been extra vigilant but I wasn't. I had decided that they were both honourable and had just been caught up in something bigger than themselves, besides which I believed they had too much at stake to risk a few brief liaisons. Shelley made a big show of being transparent by giving me her Email password and even inviting me to read Jeff's letters to her. She also left her mobile lying around for me to inspect but I availed my self of neither. In one small way I did make a protective gesture. My stand-in at the university had complained about the workload and the result was an assistant for me. He was a retired electrician who came in a few hours a week to supplement his pension. There had always been time in lieu available to compensate for the unpaid overtime, before I didn't bother but now I did. I started randomly going home unannounced during the day, sometimes picking up my wife when she finished work at lunchtime, sometimes going home early and occasionally turning up in the middle of the afternoon. My new assistant was adequate excuse and prevented my actions from seeming born of suspicion. Near the end of March the pregnancy test was positive. Shelley must have told Jeff by mail because I got a short Email from him, giving his congratulations and saying that he was looking forward to the birth as much as me. I knew this was true because the baby was projected to be born only a handful of days before the end of his year in purdah. Only a couple of weeks or so after my decision evening, I detected the return of my wife's old sexual hunger. I knew that I had to make the most of this because it was almost certain to disappear again when she had Jeff back in her life. The pregnancy was also likely to foreshorten this 'hungry' period but then I reasoned that the advent of children put an end to some aspect of the early sexuality that most couples enjoy. Our daughter was born on Boxing Day and we called her Denise. I was not at all unhappy that on his return Jeff would be denied the immediate fuckfest that he must have hoped for at one time. On doctor's orders I was not allowed intercourse for at least a month after the birth and there was no reason why he couldn't abide by the same rules. It was a bit of relief that this allowed me to acclimatise myself to sharing my wife gradually. After previously checking with me by mail that he could do so, Jeff arrived at our door on the due day bearing gifts, a diamond bracelet for Shelley, twenty year old malt whiskey for me and a cuddly toy. There were initial greetings all round during which I watched he and Shelley engage in a passionate embrace, without the sight particularly bothering me. I pointed out to him that although our agreement allowed him to take her home with him for the night, that wasn't feasible at the moment due to the breast feeding routine. The same logic also precluded anything over night. I said that he could have a couple of hours alone with Shelley, during which time I would either go to the pub or if they preferred, I would stay downstairs and look after Denise to ensure that they had no interruptions while they were in the bedroom. They chose the latter option or at least Shelley did. This was my first taste of the experience which Rob had described, of sitting waiting while his wife was having sex with another man. It was far less painful than expected but I knew it was bound to get a lot worse when intercourse was back on the menu. I did get an erection but after having been on short rations for the past few weeks I was rather prone that way. When they came back downstairs, Jeff seemed anxious to leave immediately while Shelley had gone into shy mode and seemed unwilling to meet my eyes. At the door Jeff shook my hand and asked it was possible that we could be friends again. I told him that I didn't see why not because I had badly missed his friendship. Coming back I grabbed Shelley and tried to kiss her but was surprised when she put up a bit of s struggle before melting into my arms and fully returning my fervour. I think that her initial reticence due to not wanting me to detect the semen on her breath.