Page 5 of Indulgence
I went for the tablet first. Natalie’s entire lifetiedinto one device—her phone, iPad, and computer.
The first place I thought to check was her messages. I searched my name in the search bar and scanned through the conversations where my name was present, hoping to find some answers.
She wouldn’t have discussed bedroom issues with any of our parents, so I scrolled passed those. My sister was out because I doubted Nat would discuss our sex life with Isabella. She might discuss it with her sister, though, but only if there was no one else in the world to speak with, so I doubted Deanna knew anything. I scrolled through, looking for anything sex related over the last three months, but came up empty. There was nothing in her conversations with her two best friends, Norah and Penelope either.
Maybe it was in an email. I checked her email next, searching Norah and Penelope’s names first, thinking they would most likely be her confidants for something like this. They’d been close since college, and I was fairly certain nothing was a secret between them—those three had no boundaries.
But, again, I came up empty. I checked her sister’s email address next, but nothing was there either.
The image of Nat in the shower, touching herself, flickered in the back of my mind. I clicked the Safari app and checked her search history. Scrolling back to the week before, I found something useful—Natalie’s porn views in the browser history.Link after link of videos she’d clicked on.
I felt guilty, as if I were invading her privacy, but I pushed through it and clicked on the first link.
Holy shit.
The video was of a woman sandwiched between two men, each one thrusting in and out of her body. I clicked back and found links for a few more of those. Then I found one of a woman tied to a bed with a man using toys on her, making her come over and over. There were videos ofanaland even a few threesomes with two women and a guy.
Jesus, I would have never guessed that was what Natalie was getting off to. Was this what she wanted? Threesomes, anal sex, and bondage? No wonder she wasn’t getting off during regular sex. She wanted more.
A conversation I walked into a few weeks ago dinged in my mind. Penelope and Norah were here, and the girls were discussing some book. When I entered the living room, they were gushing over a woman being collared by two men.
When I asked what that meant, I got more than I expected in an explanation. They rambled on about the inner workings of the relationship then fawned over the way she was loved by two men, blah, blah. I wished I had paid a bit more attention since this was what my wife seemed to be into. At least to two parts, I didn’t think Natalie was looking for a BDSM relationship.
I closed out the Safari app and opened the Kindle app. Maybe I should see what kind of books she was reading. That may shed some more light on the things Natalie found enticing. I made note of the title she was reading and the last few she read. I grabbed my iPad and opened my Kindle app. We shared the Amazon account, so I had access to all her books and shemine. I downloaded the ones she read most recently before closing out of the app and returning her iPad to her nightstand. She’d be none the wiser that I had snooped through it.
The porn was an eye-opener. The books would be helpful too. She was always talking to Norah and Penelope about how sexy these book boyfriends were, so there was no harm in seeing what made these men so damn appealing. If they were anything like the porn scenarios she was watching, I sure had my work cut out for me.
Chapter Three
Natalie
With having to run afew extra errands after work, it was close to seven when I finally pulled into the driveway. The house was oddly quiet as I walked in, yet the scent of something delicious filled the air.
There was no fighting over who would set the table for dinner coming from the kitchen.
The kids’ backpacks weren’t abandoned on the floor for me to step over as I hung my jacket on its hook.
No sound heard from any of the televisions.
I didn’t hear any TikTok music coming from phones.
Matteo’s car was in the garage, so I knew he was definitely back from picking Jackson up from practice and Emma from the library. Maybe he took them out for a quick bike ride or walk or something. Maybe I should enjoy the rare moment and embrace the quiet.
“Matteo? Emma? Jackson?” I called as I entered the living room.
“In here,” Matteo answered from the kitchen.
I followed his voice and the scent of garlic to find him standing in front of the stove cooking. The table had been set for two, complete with wine ready to be poured and a single red rose in a vase sitting in the center.
“What’s this?” I asked, wracking my brain to see if I’d forgotten some important date. It wasn’t our anniversary, a romantic holiday, or my birthday. I had no idea what the occasion was.
He turned from whatever he was making in the skillet, looking casual in his jeans and gray T-shirt, and smiled. “Dinner.”
Well, the table settings and smell of food gave that away.
“Where are the kids?” I asked. Fridays were typically a free-for-all after a week’s worth of school, activities, emotions, and exhaustion.
A gleam I hadn’t seen before shone bright and sneaky in his green eyes. “I dropped them off at my parents’ for a sleepover.”
