We could still hear muffled noises from upstairs while I stood in the kitchen making fresh coffee. My nerves felt stretched tight, like a wire pulled too far. I’d thrown on an old housedress that covered nearly everything, while Chris sat naked at the table as though none of the day’s events had unsettled him at all.
“We need to talk,” he said.
The words instantly filled me with dread.
I kept my back turned for a moment, pretending to focus on the coffee maker. “About what?”
Chris leaned back in his chair. “About today. About everything that happened.”
That only made me more nervous. I wrapped the belt of the housedress tighter around my waist, grateful for the thin layer of protection it gave me.
“How do you feel about it?” he asked.
What kind of question was that? My entire body still felt overheated and restless from the afternoon. Even hearing the sounds upstairs made my pulse jump all over again.
“I don’t know,” I answered cautiously. “How do you feel?”
Chris didn’t hesitate. “It turned me on watching you with her.”
His honesty stunned me. There was no embarrassment in his voice, no attempt to soften the confession.
“And now,” he continued, “I keep wondering whether I’d feel the same way watching you with another man.”
I stared at him across the kitchen, trying to decide whether he was serious.
“What about you?” I asked carefully. “Would you want to be with another woman too?”
To me, that had always been the real question hiding underneath all the others.
Chris smiled immediately and shook his head. “No. That’s not what I want.”
“You’re sure?”
“You’re the one I want,” he said simply. “I just… like seeing you desired. It does something to me.”
The sincerity in his voice caught me off guard. I’d expected excuses or fantasies about freedom for both of us, not this strange mixture of devotion and obsession.
For a long moment neither of us spoke. The coffee brewed quietly between us while the sounds upstairs faded into silence.
Finally, I stepped closer to him and raised an eyebrow. “So,” I said softly, “are you planning to keep talking all night?”
Chris laughed under his breath, the tension between us breaking for the first time since the conversation started.
But the next morning, over breakfast, he surprised me all over again.
“What would you think,” he asked carefully, “about us joining a private club for couples?”