Erotic Potential

"So, what are you thinking?" Natalie whispered in my ear. "They look very comfortable together, don't they? Can you see any erotic potential?"

"Yes." I barely squeaked. Natalie's hand was on my thigh.

"Come dance with me." She stood up and took my hand. We didn't move too far from the love seat as I took her in my arms. She melted against me with her body pressed against mine. I had my hand on her waist and our other hands were against our chest. My knuckles were pressing her breast. Her free hand was around my neck and she started teasing the hair on the back of my neck.

We danced for a few moments before she whispered, "What do you think he could do that would arouse her?"

I whispered back, "If he kissed her neck just below her ear. That would probably do it."

"How would she respond?"

"If she responds like she does with me, she would move and straddle his thigh a little."

"Like this?" Natalie moved just a couple of inches and her mound was pressing against my thigh.

"Yes, just like that."

"A little vicarious thrill to spice up the evening?"

"I guess. I have never seen her do anything like that with anyone else before."

"Have you ever paid attention before?" She pressed a little harder against my thigh.

That was a jab to my pride and my ego. "I....."

"I didn't say that to be mean or to hurt you. It is natural to overlook a lot of little things when you trust someone. These are the kind of questions I have asked myself about my husband. It isn't easy to face the possibility that he might be aroused by another woman. But the fact is that people are attracted to others all of the time. It doesn't mean that anything will happen but that there is the potential for something to happen. I doubt that your wife has noticed that you have been with me for most of evening. And my husband hasn't noticed anyone but that woman all night."

"But you have noticed both him and my wife. I guess I am not as observant as I ought to be, huh?"

"Hey, nibble my neck just under my ear." I did as she asked and was overwhelmed by her sweet smell. "Hmmm, that's enough. Your body temperature has risen enough for now."

I pulled back and asked, "Are you just teasing me or what?"

She smiled at me and replied, "Yes, I am teasing you but for your information, I have never talked or acted this way with anyone, ever. When we first met, I felt something about you; a connection of some kind. Tonight, one thing led to another and I have told you more about me and what I do than I have ever told anyone. And unless I missed the signs, you are getting caught up just like I am. Am I wrong?"

"I'm a little confused and overwhelmed but I won't say that you are wrong. I'm not sure what I feel right now."

"Then why don't you pour us each another glass of wine while I go to the ladies room. Then we can go outside and talk some more." She smiled and caressed my cheek. Then she went towards the restroom.

I stood still for a moment and looked around. My wife was still dancing and Stan's hand was now resting lower on her ass and she wasn't resisting. She also had his thigh rubbing against her mound as he gently nibbled on her neck. I couldn't be certain, but it also appeared that his fingers were extended and stroking her breast. I broke myself away from that scene and went to the bar to pour us another glass of wine. From this vantage point I could see Natalie's husband dancing with the woman he had been talking to. He made no pretense of hiding his efforts. His hand was on her ass and was caressing it aggressively and he occasionally kissed her lips. Her hand seemed to be under his pullover shirt and caressing his chest. If this has been going on for some time, I really had been oblivious to what was going on around me and that didn't sit well with me. Natalie had opened my eyes to the potential for things happening.

Then I felt a hand slip around my waist. "Are you having fun?" It was Lidia.

"It has been different tonight."

"I noticed. Are you having a good time talking to Natalie? I had a feeling that you and she would get along well together. Maybe you can invite them over for dinner next weekend so we can get to know them better."

"I'll talk to her about it. Are you having a good time?"

"Yes; I think I was ready to get out after this lousy weather we have been having. I'm going to the restroom. Have fun." She kissed my cheek and went toward the restroom.

I guess that being oblivious was a condition that didn't afflict just me. She knew I was talking to Natalie but was unaware that we were watching her. Natalie wasn't back yet so I took our wine near the back door and ate a couple of items and turned back to the room and looked from the other side. I had probably known that several others were friendly with non-spouses but I never thought that there might be erotic potential going on with others.

Stan's wife was dancing with another guy and they appeared to be as tightly clutched as her husband had been. Several other couples were involved to a varying degree. Another couple was sitting on the love seat we had vacated and had their arms around each other. I had failed to notice that someone had dimmed the lights somewhat so that there was a more intimate setting. Oddly, there were only a few people just sitting around.

I turned to look out on the patio and found a group of men talking and a group of women also clustered. Obviously, I had missed that a number of people had already left. I was musing about my change in outlook when I felt two hands on my sides again but I knew that these weren't Lidia's hands.

"Did you miss me?" Natalie's sweet voice whispered in my ear.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I was just looking at everyone with the new eyes you opened for me tonight."

"Interesting isn't it?"

"Yes; and maybe a little disturbing too. I'm still not sure about that."

"I hear that we are having dinner at your house next weekend. Are we going to prepare the dinner together?"

"I'd like that. I guess that you met Lidia in the restroom."

"Yes and we talked for several minutes. Let me have a sip of wine and then let's dance again before we go outside." I handed her a cup of wine and took a sip of my own. Then I put them in a place where they were unlikely to be disturbed.

I took her hand and led her back to the dance floor where she once again came easily into my arms. This time her head went straight to my shoulder with her arms around my neck. I had both of my arms around her waist holding her close to me. She felt so natural like this and once again I was lost in her charms. Since she was taller than Lidia, she fit against me more naturally and I didn't have to lean over as far to hold her. That also meant that she didn't have to move as far to have contact with me. Her lips kissed my neck just below my ear and then whispered, "Notice anything different about me?"

"No, I don't think so. You look pretty much the same as you did before."

"What could I have done that would have increased the erotic potential between us?" She kissed my ear again.

I thought a moment and then said, "There are a number of things but I guess that if you had taken off your bra that would increase the potential without actually doing anything visible."

"Good guess. What made you think of that?"

"I think that most men are enchanted with a woman's breasts and that even if they can see or know that they are bare, they are aroused just by knowing that."

"Excellent; but wouldn't it be the same if a woman wasn't wearing panties? Ultimately, that is the dream of every man too."

"True, but that almost takes it out of the realm of erotic and into the area of overt sexual openness, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I guess it could. But even if you couldn't touch or see, wouldn't it be erotic just knowing that the woman you were with was commando for the night? You don't have to answer that; I can feel how you are responding to that possibility. So did I do either of those things or perhaps something else?"

"Since you are wearing a heavy sweater and skirt, it is kind of hard to tell without checking." I ran my hands up and down her back but could only feel the heavy knit of her sweater.

"True. I'll give you a hint. I did virtually the same thing that Lidia did. You might want to check her out again."

We were dancing about ten feet away from them and in the dimmer light, I couldn't tell much; so I maneuvered us closer. Lidia's head was turned away from me and I gave her a close look over. She appeared to be the same as before. Then I took a closer look. His hands were still resting on her ass and he was gently squeezing her cheeks. Her blouse was tight across her back but I couldn't discern a bra strap. Then she pulled away from him to say something in his ear and I saw that his hand was definitely cupping her breast and her nipple was poking through her blouse. As I watched her whisper in his ear, I saw his hand unbutton another button on her blouse. When we arrived, she had one button undone. This one made the third one undone. I had little doubt that when they closed again at least his fingers would be touching her warm flesh.

"She's putting on quite a show for you, isn't she?"

"Is she doing that for me? I would have thought that it was for her or his benefit."

"It is hard to say for sure but she obviously wants you to see at least something. So she isn't afraid for you to witness her erotic explorations. That in itself is erotic, don't you think?"

"I guess that is the part that I am not sure of. When we walked in tonight, I would have told you that she had never strayed or gone outside of our marriage. But now, I'm not sure."

"And you haven't either but you have thought about it, haven't you?"

I started to lie but then shut my mouth and replied, "I guess if I am totally honest, I have thought about other women but I have never acted on it."

"If you have those erotic thoughts, why can't she? It is fairly normal to be aroused by someone you are attracted to."

"But acting on it takes it to another level and that breeds consequences."

"Ah, you have found the magic word; consequences. Of course there are consequences and that is what changes the erotic potential into erotic participation. Has she done anything tonight that you are going to get angry at her about?"

I just stared at Natalie for a moment trying to decide if I was or could be angry. "At this level, I guess not. So far she has mostly just received attention and hasn't given any and it has been minimal. What about your husband; he has been the aggressor with that woman and it could lead to more. I don't know yet if Lidia will allow things to go any farther."

Natalie smiled at me. "It used to bother me that he would rather play with someone other than me but then I realized that he is a salesman and when all he does is give a sales pitch, he isn't happy. He wants to close the deal. So I quit worrying about him."

"You're kidding! You know that he plays around on you and it doesn't bother you."

"I didn't say that it didn't bother me; I said that I quit worrying about him. He travels a lot and there is no way that I can know what he is doing when he's gone. When he is home, he mostly ignores me. So I turned my feelings into my writing and observing other people. So far, I have no regrets."

"You'll have to explain that to me better."

"Let's get our wine and go outside and find a quiet place to sit and I'll try."

We left the dance floor and I picked up our wine cups as I followed her out the door. We walked past the two groups still talking on the patio and went around the corner to a bench sitting under a tree. It was much darker there as I sat down and she sat next to me.

She held her hands in her lap and looked down. "I met Ron in college and we had a whirlwind romance. I was shy and introverted; he was the big man on campus. When he showed interest in me, I was shocked. We got married right after we graduated and he started working for the company he is with now and I went to work for a startup company that couldn't pay a lot but did offer us a nice stock ownership plan. If the company did well, then we would do well also. Ron's family had some property that he was due to inherit so he wanted a pre-nup to protect the land. I didn't see the need but he insisted, so I signed it. Part of it was that my stock options were separate property for me. By the end of the first year, he had discovered that he was a really good salesman and traveled a lot. Initially, it was overnight and he just drove but later, they began sending him all over with a big expense account. The second year he was the second top salesman and in the third year, he was the top salesman and has been one or two ever since. He makes good money but he also likes to spend it. We had a townhouse that he liked because he didn't have to do yard work and maintenance. I wanted a garden but couldn't very well have one there. In any event, things were going along fairly well except that as his reputation grew, so did his ego."

She paused and took her breath while she collected her thoughts.

"He had been very loving when he came home from his trips but after a while things slowed down. I wondered if he was playing around while he was out of town and it kind of became an obsession with me. After a year or so of worrying about it, I asked myself what I could do if he was. Would I divorce him or yell at him or what. What I finally came to realize was that there really wasn't much I could do to stop him. I could threaten him or divorce him but so what? All that would do would be to make him more careful or make our lives miserable. So like I said, I quit letting it worry me. I don't like the idea of him messing around but I am not going to let it cause me to lose sleep over it. So I began focusing on the side of what if he did? What would she be like and how would they meet and hook up. He is usually only in one place for a short period of time; so things would have to happen quickly. I wrote my first novel based on what I thought might happen. It has sold pretty well. That is what I meant by not worrying about it."

"I see. So do you think that he is playing around when he is gone?"

"I don't know for sure but I would expect that he is. Like I also said, he is a salesman and he isn't happy until he closes the deal. Just flirting wouldn't satisfy his ego. I don't think that he is a serial seducer or anything but if an attractive woman came along, his interest would skyrocket."

"Hmmm. And you have been happy since you made this realization?"

"Yes; I am happy but not because of that. That realization freed me up to focus on what was important to me. I focused on work, I focused on gardening and cooking, and I started writing. The combination of those things has made me happy. The only shortcoming in this is the loss of some of the personal intimacy I previously felt. I had friends at work and a few girl friends to hang out with but there wasn't any real erotic potential going on in my life. Everything was just vicarious dreams and wishes."

"That sounds like a pretty big hole in your life to me."

"It was; but I think I have solved that."

"Oh, do you want to tell me about that part or is that going someplace you don't want to talk about?"

"I'm not ready to talk about it totally yet but let's just say that there is the potential for erotic potential in my life. But let's talk about you for awhile. You were a little surprised at Lidia tonight. Have you not thought about what she does or might do when she travels?"

"No, I didn't really think about that. She usually calls me at lunchtime when she is out of town and she is usually very open about who she is with and what they are doing. She travels to the same places regularly and stays for four or five days. She tells me when they are going out to dinner or out to a club. I haven't seen any signs of anything out of the ordinary. But from what you have said, I guess that the possibility exists that something might be going on or at least has the potential to happen. But you are also right in that there really isn't much I can do to stop her if she really wanted to do something. I tend to get wrapped up in my work so deeply that I haven't thought about it."

Natalie smiled, "So you have a hole in your life that you haven't realized yet, don't you?"

I thought for a moment and finally replied, "I guess I do. I just fill the void with work usually."

We sat silently for several minutes. Then we heard someone coming off the patio and walking around the side. I was about to make our presence known when I heard a familiar voice.

"Come on Lidia; you've got me so wired up tonight I am going crazy."

"Stan, I told you before and I'll tell you again; I am not going to mess around this close to home. A little light flirting and necking is ok; your wife is doing it too. But nothing else. I am not going to mess up my marriage for a quickie."

"But you agreed to meet Greg in Nashville this week."

"We are both going to be there on business and we are going to dinner Wednesday night. That isn't the same as screwing like teenagers."

"But you saw the look on Greg's face. He wants you badly and your reaction to him says that you were receptive."

"Look, Stan, come to Nashville this week and maybe we can get together but nothing is going to happen here tonight. Let's go back inside and find your wife; you are pushing me too hard."

They went back the way they came. Both Natalie and I looked at each other for several more minutes before I broke the ice. "I guess that both of us are going to wonder about the erotic potential going on in Nashville Wednesday night, huh?"

"I have a better idea."

"What's that?"

"You take me to dinner Wednesday night and we won't worry about them at all."

I looked at her for a moment and then grinned. "Would you like to go out to dinner Wednesday night? I know a very nice little Italian place that has good food and wine and a nice atmosphere."

"Oh, this is so unexpected but I'd love to go out with you. Since you didn't know, Wednesday is my birthday and this would be really special. Thank you. What time and what shall I wear?"

"Let's say, I pick you up at 7:00 and you choose the dress."

"Alright, I will wear a sundress since I want to impress you."

"Then I'll wear a turtleneck and sport coat. And we will make a happy birthday for you."

"As long as you don't ask me how old I am."

"Deal. I guess we better get back inside; it is probably about time for me to start cleaning up."

"If you can give me a ride home, I'll stay and help."

"You better say that quietly; if someone hears you, you will be on the clean up committee permanently."

"And the problem with that is?"

I grinned at her. "The problem is that when you are on that committee and you can't get off of it."

She laughed as we entered the clubhouse again. Most of the people had left except for a few people who were still talking. These included Greg and Lidia. Two of the regulars on the committee were starting on the dishes so Natalie and I started gathering glasses and plates from various places and took them to the kitchen. As we neared the talking group, Greg asked Natalie if she was ready to go. She replied that she was going to stay and help clean up and that I would give her a ride home. He nodded but Lidia grinned at me as if to say, "You naughty boy."

Shortly after that, they left and we continued cleaning up. It took about an hour to finish putting the last trash bag out to the pickup area. Natalie and I each took a cup of wine as I locked the door and led us to my truck. As I pulled into her driveway, Natalie leaned over and whispered in my ear. "I wasn't wearing a bra tonight at all but I took my panties off in the restroom earlier. Now you have something to dream about tonight." The she kissed me on the lips and got out of the truck and went inside. I sat there for a moment digesting everything she had said tonight. Then I drove the short distance to my house. Lidia was already in bed asleep.