I just stared at her. I couldn't seem to make any sense of what she was saying.

"Dick, are you all right? Did you hear what I said?"

I finally managed to mumble, "No, I don't understand."

"Snap out of it, Dick. This is your wife speaking. Surely you couldn't have believed I would do all that garbage. Don't you know I love you?"

"You love me?" It was starting to sink in. "You're not going to do ... what you said?"

"No, I'm not. I just wanted to make you suffer for a while. But I warn you, I haven't gotten over what you did. I may never get completely over it.

"For starters, the idea that you had your penis in some other woman's vagina is totally revolting. Right now I couldn't possibly let you put it in my vagina, or even touch me with it, not anywhere."

"I can see why you would feel that way, and I'm willing to wait a few days for you to get over that feeling. But can I at least kiss you ... everywhere ... and make you feel good?"

"Did you kiss her ... everywhere?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn't kiss her anywhere."

Nancy rolled toward me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and pulled my cheek to hers.

"Oh, Dick, I'm so glad of that! Not that I forgive you for having sex with her, but it means you don't love her."

"No, I certainly don't love her, and I didn't "make love" with her. It was just raw sex. I know; 'just sex' doesn't make it any more right. Would it help if I told you I wasn't the first guy who had sex with her that night, and I wasn't the last one either?"

Nancy pulled away from me, her eyes wide.

"You mean she was taking all three of you, one after the other?"

"Yeah, that's what she was doing."

"What a slut! ... Richard," she suddenly said in horror, "I hope you at least used a condom."

"What, you think I carry condoms around with me? No, I didn't have any, and she got me far too hot to even think about it if I had had some."

"So you fucked a total slut without a condom. Who knows what kind of nasty stuff she probably gave you. There is no way you are going to touch me with that filthy cock of yours."

"Oh, God," I moaned, "how could I have been so stupid!"

"Your little "just sex" the other day could have ruined your entire life. For God's sake, go get tested ... for everything."

I stared at her, horrified. "I will," I promised. "I'll make an emergency appointment with Dr. Howard tomorrow. Oh, God, Nancy, what if I have AIDS?"

"Oh, Richard! I certainly hope not."

The first thing I did when I got to work was make the appointment. I insisted it was urgent, so they slipped me in at 3:30 that afternoon. I left the office at 2:30 and stopped at the drug store for condoms. I figured the only way Nancy was going to let me fuck her anytime soon was if I was wearing one. Actually, I got two packages, planning to leave one in the night stand beside our bed and hide the other one under my car seat, up in the springs. After all, there were still two more weeks of "special" poker parties after the guys came to my house this coming Tuesday.

I got to the doctor's office fifteen minutes early, and had to wait until fifteen minutes after the appointment time before I was shown to an examination room. Add the time there before Dr. Howard came in, and I swear it was the longest, hardest, wait of my entire life.

I told him what had happened, and he just nodded. I guess he must hear that sort of thing all the time. He had me pee into a test tube and had a nurse take a mouth swab, and told me he would have some of the results early next week, but the rest might take two weeks or more.

I explained that to Nancy when I got home, and she thanked me but said she wouldn't feel like doing anything with me until I got the results back. I showed her the condoms, but she still shook her head.

The package was still in the night stand, unopened, when Tuesday night came around. Immediately after dinner I pulled Nancy into the living room for a serious talk.

"I looked her in the eyes and said, "Nancy, the guys are going to be here soon for the poker game."

"So you didn't cancel it," she sighed. "Are you going to leave me alone with them the way you are supposed to?"

"I have to. I couldn't find any way out of it. At least you know; that makes me feel better about it."

"It doesn't make me feel any better, though," she complained.

"I know, and I'm sorry. Nancy, please, it's just one night, and then it will be over. I beg you, be pleasant, but firm. They won't force anything, I promise. But, whatever you do, please, please, don't admit you know anything about the plan."

She nodded. "OK, I won't. I guess we'll both be pretending. I ... I'm going to go get snacks ready for them. I don't think I want to see them when they first come in."

I heard her doing some things in the kitchen, and a bit later saw her go back to the bedroom, while I just sat on the sofa, waiting, and dreading what was about to happen.

Eventually the doorbell rang, and I answered it to see Bob standing there.

He looked me up and down and said, "You look like shit."

I scowled and said, "You don't look like a rock star yourself."

"Hey, look, Dick, I know what you're going through. Remember, I was there myself last week. It was hell, but I made it, and you can too. Buck up, buddy."

I relaxed a bit at that, and thanked him. His words helped me get through greeting Pete and Tom when they arrived, and soon we were all seated at the table starting our first hand.

I had my back to the hall, so didn't see Nancy come out, but I knew when she did, from the grins on their faces. A minute later she brought in a bowl of pretzels, and I was surprised to see that she had changed from the jeans and loose sweater she had been wearing to a very pretty blouse and skirt. I was even more surprised when she came back out two minutes after that carrying a tray with four frosty mugs of beer.

This didn't seem like a good idea at all, and I shot her a look, but she just shrugged. I didn't get a chance to ask her about the clothes or the drinks before the phone rang.

Nancy took it in the kitchen, but popped her head in almost immediately. "Dick, it's someone from the office, and they say it's urgent."

I took the call on the kitchen phone, and soon came back with the "emergency" story that everybody knew I would be feeding them.

I got a jacket from the hall closet and started for the door, but Nancy stopped me.

"Can I talk to you for a minute in the kitchen before you go?"

"Sure."

She kept her voice very low as she said, "While you're out tonight, wherever you're really going, I want you to think about what you did last week, and what the guys are going to try to get me to do tonight. And I want you to know I haven't decided yet how much I'm going to let them get away with. It's possible that things might get out of hand. If they do, you have nobody to blame but yourself."

I stared at her with my mouth open. "You said ..."

"Yes, and before that I also said I was going to party big time tonight. What really happens will be somewhere between nothing and an all-out orgy, and you are going to have to spend the evening wondering what is going on with your sexy little wife.

"Oh, by the way, I had a guy come over today and install a new burglar alarm system. I told him I was worried about somebody sneaking into our yard, and he assured me that it can't happen now without waking up the whole neighborhood."

"But ..."

She smiled sweetly. "You said you'd have to work very late, so I won't expect you until at least midnight."

With that she ushered me back to the living room and out the front door with awkward kisses and rather stilted protestations of love on both sides. How in the world did she guess that I was planning to play peeping tom?

'The woman is a devil!' I thought as I drove away. Somehow that triggered a memory, a quote, but it took a while to dredge it up. Finally I remembered: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

It sounded like something Shakespeare might have written, but it could have been someone else. Whoever it was had hit the nail on the head. Well, maybe "scorn" wasn't the most apt description of what I'd done, but I sure as hell was feeling the fury.

I didn't go anywhere, really. Just drove out into the country and did a whole lot of thinking. I tried to remember what it was like being with Cindy last week. All I could really remember was thinking later that it had been fantastic. But the actual feelings of being with her were gone.

I tried to remember the first weekend I had spent with Nancy, eight years ago, and the memories came rushing back. My chest was bursting with my love for her, the tears were running down my face, my body was tingling with the closeness of her skin. Those memories were forever burned into my being.

What a fool I've been. What a damned fool. And perhaps damned forever by my moment's passion. Somehow, some way, I had to win her back.

I drove back into town and searched frantically for a florist's shop that was still open, but none were. I finally remembered that supermarkets sometimes had a florist section, and drove to the nearest Safeway. I was in luck, and bought out their entire stock of roses; four dozen in all.

Then I waited, emotions oscillating as never before, sometimes euphoric, sometimes bawling like a baby. I waited for midnight. At 11:45 I could stand it no longer, and drove home.

I was five minutes early, so I drove past the house. The guys' cars were gone. I drove around the block and pulled into the driveway, but didn't go on into the garage. Instead I gathered up the four dozen roses and went to the front door, where I rang the bell.

I waited for what seemed forever, and finally rang again. This time the door opened after a short delay, and Nancy was looking out at me, obviously puzzled.

I held out the flowers, and in a choked up voice said, "I want to start over. Can I come in?"

She burst out into tears, and finally managed to say, "Oh, darling," as she pulled me into the room.

Then we were in each other's arms, but OUCH! Why do roses have thorns? We dropped the roses on the floor, and reached for each other again. We were suddenly kissing more passionately than we had kissed in years.

"Let's go to bed," she whispered.

When we got to the bedroom she gave me an enigmatic smile, and then stripped seductively, all the way, before climbing into bed. I got the point, and stripped myself before joining her. I rolled against her and we resumed where we had left off in the living room.

Her pelvis started pressing against me, pressing and releasing. I reached down to stroke her naked hip and ass and thigh. She stuck her knee up in the air, and my hand moved to the inside of her thigh. She thrust up against me, and my hand slid down to her furry pussy.

Nancy tore her mouth away from mine, and began chanting, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

My finger slipped between her outer lips, then her inner lips, to find a boiling cauldron.

She gasped, and grabbed my penis, pumping it frantically.

"I NEED IT!" she groaned.

Remembering the test results that hadn't come back I reached behind myself, fumbling to open the bedside table drawer.

"NO!" she said with an edge of panic in her voice, as she grabbed for my arm. "Not that way. I need to feel you, just you."

"Are you sure?"

"YES, I'm sure! TAKE me!"

No words were needed after that. We soared to heights that night we hadn't experienced for years, and finally fell asleep in each others' arms. I'm not sure which of us woke first in the morning, but we were soon both awake and working on an encore. It would have been met with thunderous applause, had anyone been watching.

Finally, after some much gentler and more romantic kissing, she pulled away from me and giggled.

"I need to get to the toilet. I seem to be stuffed full of something that keeps trying to run out between my legs."

"I'll be right back," she tossed over her shoulder as she dashed into the bathroom.

I just lay there, totally relaxed, completely at peace, until she returned. After that we must have cuddled for nearly an hour without exchanging any words.

Finally she kissed me one last time and whispered, "I'm going to go make breakfast for my lover."

Shortly after she left I got up to shower and shave. When I walked back into the bedroom the bedside table caught my eye, and I thought of the condoms we didn't use last night. It seemed now that they would never be needed. Idly, I opened the drawer, and my mouth dropped. The box had been opened.

I reached for it with morbid fascination, and shook out the little packages. One was missing. I stared at them for a long time, my heart pounding. Finally I shook my head, and remembered what I had learned in the car last night. Yesterday was behind us. It didn't matter any longer. I put the condoms back in the box, fastened the box lid, and closed the drawer.

I got dressed and went out to the living room to see vases of roses perched in several places. I found Nancy at the kitchen stove, and reached around her from behind as I kissed her neck.

"I love you so much, Nancy!"

She spun around so she could hug and kiss me back. "I love you more, Dick."

I never have asked her about the missing condom, and I doubt if I ever will. The box itself disappeared mysteriously some time during that first full day of our new love life.

Would anyone like an unopened, but slightly crumpled, box of condoms? It's still in the springs under my car seat, and I really should get rid of it.

I'd like to hear what you think, whether you loved it, or hated it, or wanted more. If you use this form I'll know what you were reading and where you ended up in this interactive story. But this is an anonymous mailer, so I won't know your email address unless you provide it here.