Page 75 of His Wife

“So you’ve really had a lazy week, haven’t you?” Lisa asks her husband one night over dinner. He has taken four out of the five working days off, and when he did go into the office, it was just for a quick meeting that he really couldn’t get out of.

“You keep telling me to take time off,” Harvey responds. He sounds like he is responding to an accusation, which catches Lisa by surprise.

“I know. But I thought we could coordinate the days you took off with days that I wasn’t so busy, you know,” Lisa says, trying to recover.

“I know lover, and I’m sorry,” he says, and suddenly sees an opportunity. He knows that this will come completely out of left field, but he does feel like he will explode if he doesn’t get his fantasy out in the open. He takes a deep breath, and then adds to his ‘I’m sorry’ a rather casual, “So, I told you about Lauren.”

“The assistant to your assistant? Yes, you mentioned her,” Lisa says, her stomach knotting almost immediately.

“I’ve been playing with this idea. It’s silly really, probably the beginnings of a midlife crisis or something…” Harvey starts to explain, noticing the blood drain from his wife’s face. She couldn’t possibly know what he intends to ask her, could she? Well, even if she does, it’s too late to turn back now, the question is already hanging, half-asked, in the air.

“What idea?” Lisa asks, really having no clue what her husband is about to say next, the many possibilities playing roughly with her sensibilities.

“Look, honey, you know I love you, right?” he starts, losing his nerve a little but knowing that he has to go through with it.

“What is it?” she asks, concerned.

“The thing is, I really want to sleep with her. I don’t want any sort of relationship with her, please understand. I just really want her to join us, in the bedroom, or wherever you choose. I know this is a big ask, but if you will just let me have this one thing, I will never ask you for anything again, I promise. I just really want to get this fantasy out of my system. It is the only one I have, and I feel that I can do it with you, you know?” He uses his billionaire negotiation skills here now, making it sound like something she wants to do simply because he chose to do it with her.

Lisa looks at her husband, bewildered. She has more questions than answers in her head, and so she asks none of them. Harvey doesn’t know what else to say to her, knowing that if he says he was just joking, this wouldn’t be a very funny joke. Lisa is aware that during his off days in the week, Lauren has come over to drop off documents or to have Harvey sign papers. She wonders now if this was really the case, or if Harvey had actually made a move on Lauren, and if she had agreed to his advances.

Harvey watches as Lisa gets up and leaves the room. He walks slowly in her direction, struggling for something to say, unable to judge by her blankness whether just a little bit of his strange request has resonated. She walks towards the study and then seems to have a change of heart, making her way instead up the stairs towards their bedroom. Her mind is really racing now.

When Harvey enters the bedroom she turns towards him suddenly, still blank, and he almost expects her to slap him. She doesn’t. But still, when she takes a step toward him, he steps back. Then he plants his feet firmly on the solid wood floor, thinking that if she needs to slap him, then the least he can do is to let her. She says nothing for the longest time, just looking at her husband, at his face, in his eyes, seemingly searching for something.

“Say something please?” he says, more a question, and then he is the one stepping forward towards her. Lisa looks at her husband a moment longer, and then she turns away from him and walks towards the large French windows, looking down into the darkness where she knows the ocean is.

And then, her voice comes quietly. He breathes deeply, waiting. In the most serious tone Harvey has ever heard her use, she says, quite frankly, “I want to meet her!”

Chapter Nine

Lisa looks at Lauren in her sunroom the next afternoon. Harvey thinks, correctly, that the sooner he gives Lisa what she wants, the sooner he will know either way how this will end.

She really is beautiful, Lisa thinks, much as she hates to admit it. Every instinct makes her want to hate this woman that has captured her husband so. Lisa looks at her through half-closed eyes. She looks like a porcelain statue, tall, gracious, her face still and emotionless. Lauren must know why she has been called here today, even though Lisa doesn’t know quite how the conversation between Lauren and Harvey went. She cannot think of this now, though, trying hard to think of a way to wrestle back control of this situation, and perhaps lose her hold on her husband.

“You know why you’re here I take it?” Lisa starts, measured.

“I do, and I’m really not sure what to say,” Lauren starts, giving nothing away of the fact that she has already on several occasions, all of them in this very house, slept with Harvey.

“Do you want to sleep with him?” Lisa gets straight to the point.

“Honestly?” Lauren asks, trying for a minute to delay her response to this question.

“That’s my answer, thank you. So, I think we give him what he wants, and then you disappear from our lives forever. Deal?” Lisa is as cold as a mafia boss.

After a moment’s hesitation, Lauren answers with a feeble ‘yes’. This situation has really become more complicated for her than she cares for it to be. It is what she has dreaded. She will lose her job, and this man she has grown to love being with. How could she have been so stupid?!

Her mind is racing to her plan B. She has always wanted to work as a news-anchor. A friend has offered her a part-time job as a PA in Chicago. She’s toyed with the idea of taking it while working toward pursuing her dream… Is something telling me the time has come? she wonders.

“Good. Now let’s get the sonofabitch in here and make this an afternoon he won’t soon forget, even after he has forgotten you!” Lisa says, pulling her hair free of the delicate expensive pin keeping it in a casual up-style. She decides to approach this like a lesson, an opportunity for her to learn what the younger women in the world are doing to keep men’s attention.

When Harvey walks into the room, he looks at Lisa, determined not to look at Lauren until he knows how this conversation has gone. Lisa’s hair falls wildly around her face, the way he likes it. She walks towards him, and smiles. Then she goes to work on his belt buckle, looking back at Lauren, instructing her with her eyes to join her in her efforts, reminding her to make it good.

Lauren unbuttons Harvey’s shirt, and he finally looks at her, pulling it away from his well-toned body. Then he looks at his wife, and mouths ‘thank you.’ Lisa just smiles back at him, wondering if he will still thank her when he learns that this is the last that he will ever see of Lauren. As she pulls her husband’s underwear down, there is a look on Lauren’s face that says that she isn’t surprised by the impressive tool. There is a familiarity in her eyes that assures Lisa now that she made the right decision to send the girl packing.

Harvey stands completely naked now in front of them, and again taking her cue from Lisa, both women get undressed. Lisa is glad that she made an effort with the gym since she married Harvey, because her body, except for the occasional stray freckle, looks no less appealing than the perfection that is Lauren. They all are naked now, and Harvey isn’t sure where to start. He decides that the best thing is to take his cue from Lisa, who really seems to have assumed the role of leader. Little does he know that Lisa is approaching this completely as a student.

Lisa pulls her man close to her and kisses him deeply on his lips, her groin thrust into his. She pushes Lauren down to her knees, so that Lauren comes face to face with the python she seems to know well. As Lisa kisses her husband a moment longer, her eyes on Lauren, she feels a mixture of excitement and nervousness as she watches another woman take her husband into her mouth. Lauren doesn’t struggle at all with the now fully formed erection, and this is all the confirmation that she needs.

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