Married at First Sight

She put her arm around him and said, "Am I really pretty to you? I mean, you're super hot and...I'm not. Am I really pretty enough for you?"

"Okay, this is getting a little crazy here. What I have ever done to give you any reason to even think that?"

"Well, you haven't. I guess I was just curious. I see the way other women look at you and I know why. Maybe I'm just a little insecure, that's all."

"Well, you have no reason to be, Mrs. Palmer. I love you and only you and I always will. Okay?"

She loved when he smiled at her. She also loved the way he loved her, and she knew there was more she could do to love him back and she wanted to; more than anything she wanted to. She just wasn't sure she could do this one thing, even for him.

"Will you make love to again?" she asked sweetly. "It's the last night of our honeymoon and I don't want to leave anything on the table, so to speak."

Owen rolled on top of her causing her to smile. "Then by all means, let's clear the table completely." Moments later he was deep inside her, fucking her as hard as could, enjoying the sounds of her moans and sighs as she squeezed his cock, begging him to fuck her harder.

The following afternoon, they headed back home. Owen had the much larger, much nicer home so they'd agreed to live there at least for the remaining five weeks of the experiment. It was a little farther for Reagan to drive to get to work, but living at her little apartment would mean the same issue for Owen and it wasn't really big enough for two people.

Reagan secretly worried things would change once they got back from their honeymoon. Not just the obvious like being apart during the workday, but that Owen would stop being so thoughtful and considerate. She also constantly fretted about this one thing she knew was so important to the man she so desperately loved but which she found so very difficult to do.

The first concern disappeared after two weeks of him leaving her little love notes hidden in her clothes, her purse, and around the house. He sent her flowers at work, bought her clothes and jewelry or some little thing nearly every day, and even wrote poems for her! And he was SO loving and attentive in bed. The guilt was growing day by day as was her desire to please this man who loved her the way she'd always dreamed of being loved.

As the final week of the experiment drew to a close, Owen could sense something was very wrong with his wife. He'd ignored it then pretended it didn't exist, but as they got toward 'decision day' the thought hit him that Reagan might possibly say she wanted a divorce.

Owen knew it was irrational. It made no sense. They both couldn't wait to get to home to one another and still made love 4-5 times a week. If she didn't really love him, she was the best, most convincing actress he'd ever met.

The day before the final televised interview, he asked the camera crews to give them a few minutes alone. When the left he said, "Reagan? Is everything okay? With us?"

She looked at him with total incredulity. "What did you just ask me?" she asked not sure she'd heard him correctly.

"Tomorrow's the big decision day and...I'm a little worried."

She sat right next to him and said, "Why? What have I done to make you feel like this?" She was sick to her stomach just hearing him say that and that's when it hit her. He wasn't really talking about her, he was talking about himself! He was unhappy and he was going to ask for a divorce tomorrow! That was the only possible answer.

She was staring into his eyes when hers welled up with tears. "Oh, my God! You want a divorce. Oh...my...God!" she cried literally and figuratively. "Why? What have I done? Oh...my...GOD!!!" Reagan was beside herself and Owen was lost. Completely lost.

"Hey, what's going on? That's insane! I don't want a divorce. For crying out loud, I'm stone-cold in love with you, honey. How can you even think that?"

Her face was already a mess of mascara and tears and wrinkles—and fear. "Because I don't do anything to show you I love you!" She was sobbing and trying to breathe as she said, "You do all that for me. The notes, the poems, the gifts, the...."

"Yeah. So? I know you love me, okay?"

"You do?" she asked desperately needing to know.

"Yes. I do," he assured her. "Of course. You show it all the time. You don't nitpick—too much. You give me my space." He smiled when he said it because he knew it was a struggle for her not to say something when he left his socks on the floor or didn't put his dishes straight into the dishwasher. All that mattered was that she was really trying and he could tell she was.

He wiped her tears with his shirtsleeve then said, "I'm the one who's worried. You seem like...like maybe you're hiding something from me. Are you?" He was asking very sweetly with no hint of accusation in his voice. "Is there something we need to talk about?"

Reagan shook her head but didn't look at him. "No. There's nothing to talk about, honey. Talking wouldn't help, anyway."

Owen wanted to ask her what that last line meant but decided to leave well enough alone. He felt reassured and believed that if there was an issue they needed to discuss, she'd tell him. Even so, there was one other thing he wanted to ask just to rule it out.

"Honey? Are you be any chance pregnant?"

"Pregnant? God, no!" she told him emphatically. "I never miss a day when it comes to birth control so no, definitely not. I mean, someday—maybe, but not now and not anytime soon. Why? Do you want me to be?" Suddenly she was worried sick again.

"No. Not at all. I don't want kids for several more years—at least," he told her. "Just wondering. That's all."

Reagan knew he could tell something was bothering her. She also felt quite sure he had no idea what it was. But it was indeed bothering her almost constantly of late now; it was on her mind all the time. So much so that she finally decided to share her concerns with Anna, the co-owner of her business as Anna was the only friend she had who smoked. She began by explaining how attracted Owen was to women who smoked. Well, to attractive women, anyway.

"I've heard of that," Anna told her. "In fact, I've been hit on several times by guys who eventually admitted they thought smoking is sexy as hell."

"Seriously? Guys have hit on you because you smoke?"

"Serious as a heart attack," she replied. "I have no idea how many men out there find women who smoke sexy, but I know for a fact they're out there."

"Well, Owen is one of them. I can tell you that for a fact!"

Anna laughed. "You're not actually thinking about...doing it for him, are you?"

"Actually? Yes, I am."

She told her the story about Beth and Anna stopped teasing and kidding around.

"Oh, my God, that is just SO awful! And yet so...romantic."

"I know, right? His best friend, Art, says it's THE one thing he wants more than anything in a relationship—except for a loving, committed, faithful wife. He even made Art promise not to tell me that if I asked so I know he'd love to see me smoke. I'm all of those things for him to the degree I can be, and yet I feel like such a failure because I know what he wants. I just can't seem to do it."

"Maybe that's a good thing, right? I mean, smoking is very unhealthy and I can tell you it is very addictive."

"But you enjoy it, right?" Reagan asked.

"Enjoy it? Hah! I absolutely love smoking," Anna said.

"Seriously? It's not just a habit you wish you could quit?" Reagan asked hardly able to believe what she'd just heard.

"I'm not kidding. I don't just like to smoke, I love it. I have almost since the first time I tried it."

"Wow, that just really surprises me."

"What can I say? It is what it is, right?" Anna laughed knowing Reagan hated that saying. "So when's the final episode on your big TV show? You're obviously staying together so what's the big reveal gonna be?"

Reagan looked at her for a moment then said, "You know, you just gave me the perfect idea, Anna!"

*****

"Okay you two. You ready to do this?" the producer said. "We'll be talking to you about the last six weeks as we air snippets from each previous show to track your marriage from before the wedding up through the final episode. You'll only be here a few minutes but the viewers will think this interview went on for the length of the show. In the end, we'll ask you the big question and get your decision. Any questions?"

Owen and Reagan were asked questions which went hand in hand with whatever clips the producers would be showing. All in all they were only in the studio for about an hour and that included makeup and being prepped.

The only controversy was the wedding night and one of the experts asked about it. "Yeah, that was really hard. I was so upset about Owen's smoking."

"Well, you had every right to be, Reagan. That was a big deal."

"So Owen, have you smoked since then?" Dr. Schweitzer asked.

"Not since we got on the plane for our honeymoon. It was hell the first day, bad the second, and tough the rest of that week," he told her.

"But you'd have never known it," Reagan said. "He was so sweet and so giving."

"Oh, right! The daily gifts," Schweitzer recalled. "How romantic."

They went through the next five weeks' questions rather quickly then said, "Okay. It's time. Owen?" She paused dramatically then asked, "Do you want to stay together or will you get a divorce?"

He know the show would cut to commercial and let the suspense build, but his answer was simple. "I love Reagan with all my heart and I don't ever want to live a single day without her. I want to stay together."

"Reagan? What is your decision?"

"Owen is the most loving, giving, caring, generous man I've ever met. I can't thank you and the other experts enough for putting us together." She took his hand and said, "He's given me so many things from the little gifts on our honeymoon to showing me what real love is. I not only want to spend the rest of my life with him, starting very soon, I'm going to give him something he's wanted all of his life; something I never thought I could give. But for Owen, a man who's given me everything, a man who seemingly has everything, there's one thing I know he wants but is too kind to ask me. So tonight, my gift to him is a promise of that one thing."

"You can't leave our viewers hanging like that, Reagan. Can you share with it us or at least give us a hint about this big secret gift?"

"All I'll say is it was something he once had for too short a period of time from someone he loved before it—and her—were taken away from him. I'm sure by saying that, he knows what I mean and that's all that matters to me." She turned to Owen and said, "I love you with all my heart and from now on I intend to do more than say that."

"Okay...cut!" the director said. "That's a wrap."

"Are you guys coming to the after-show party tonight?" the producer asked them.

"No, sorry. Owen's leaving for a four-day conference tomorrow so we have a kind of romantic evening planned," answered for them.

The producer told them he understood and wished them well. "We'll be in touch sometime around the start of the next season, okay?"

And that was that.

Reagan was by no means ready to spring the big surprise on her husband that very night but after making love she asked him, "Do you ever fantasize about me?"

"Yeah, of course I do. All the time," he told her truthfully.

"When you do, do you picture me...smoking?"

Owen was laying on his back when she asked. He reached up and rubbed his eyes then ran his hands down his face.

"Does that really matter?" he asked as nicely as he could.

"Do you miss smoking?"

"No, not really. I'm actually kind of glad you forced me to quit," he told her.

"So...you don't want to start smoking again?"

Owen rolled over and looked at her. He put his hand on her cheek and told her, "No, I don't want to start smoking again."

Based on what she'd said during the final interview he couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe she was actually contemplating the unthinkable.

"But you do still wish I'd start, huh?" she asked tenderly.

"Honey, there's fantasy and then there's reality. Fantasy can be fun, but we live in the real world. Just as I don't waste time wishing I could change the past, I don't spend time hoping for the impossible."

"But you wouldn't mind if I did, right?

"I'd mind if I felt like I'd pressured you into it. I'd feel guilty as hell and wouldn't be able to enjoy it."

"You didn't pressure Beth to start but she did."

"I didn't pressure her, but I was pretty heavy-handed in the way I kept um...hinting about it," he told her.

"That's only because it was so important to you. Even then you left it up to her. I don't call that pressuring someone. It's just letting them know what you liked. And Beth loved you enough to do something very special for you and you loved her even more for it."

"You know I love you, right?" he asked rhetorically.

"Of course I do. Unlike me, you show it every day," she said forlornly.

"Hey, you show it! Come on, that's ridiculous," he told her.

"Yeah, okay," she said. She snuggled up closer and said, "I want to show it every day."

With that they fell asleep in one another's arms.

Reagan drove him to the airport early in the morning and he insisted on being dropped off knowing she couldn't go into the waiting area with him.

"We've never been apart before," she said as he got ready to get out.

"I know. But I'll be back Friday evening." He leaned over and kissed her and told her he loved her.

"I love you too, honey. And...I'm going to start showing it every day from now on."

As she watched him walk inside she felt her eyes welling up with tears. A car horn behind her shook her back to reality as she pulled into traffic. As soon as she was clear of the airport, she hit 'dial' on her car's Bluetooth and said, "Call Anna."

Four days later Reagan was as well prepared as one could get in that short a period of time. She'd absorbed everything Anna had told her and shown her and she was confident she could do this for the man she loved. As she drove to the airport to pick him up, she had a feeling of excitement and anticipation the likes of which she'd never felt before. She compared it to the feeling of seeing Owen that first time before reciting their wedding vows. That had been close, but this was different. It was more intense. Getting married was in some respects a passive act. Doing this for the man she loved was not only active but an act of love and that thought filled her with happiness that could be felt every day for the rest of her life.

Reagan had showered, shampooed her pretty, long hair, and brushed her teeth before coming to pick up her husband. When she saw him get off the plane, she ran to him and hugged him as hard as she could then kissed him passionately right there in front of everyone.

"I missed you SO much!" she told him.

"I missed you too, honey," he said back. "I love the welcome, but you'd think I'd gone away to war and come back a year later."

"It felt like a year to me," she said as they headed to baggage claim.

When they got home Reagan asked if he was hungry or wanted a drink. "No, I'm just gonna take a shower if that's okay," he told her. "I ate just before I got on the plane so I'm good. But I wouldn't mind having you for dessert."

Reagan purred with delight. "I'd like that very much. In fact, I'm going to get ready while you're in the shower."

Once he was in the bathroom, Reagan undressed and found the lacy new black double-V teddy she'd bought from Victoria Secret and slipped into it. Then she pulled on a pair of barely black stockings and her black, four-inch heels with ankle straps before touching up her glossy, dark-red lipstick.

Lastly, she removed the rest of the first pack of Virginia Slim menthol lite cigarettes she'd ever bought along with a very nice looking silver lighter and went to the living room to wait. Her heart was pounding as she thought about his reaction as well as happy she felt about finally be able to give her loving husband the thing he wanted most.

She heard him toweling off followed by a quick blast of the blow dryer and then the sound of a dresser drawer opening. She anticipated he was getting out a pair of his comfortable nylon shorts to wear around the house until he took her to bed. Her heartbeat quickened even further when she heard him then saw him walk into the living room.

He saw her sitting on the couch with her legs crossed and smiled as he said, "Oh, wow! You look...amazing!" He came closer and said pointing to her teddy, "That's new and sexy as hell."

"Sit down right there, honey," she said before he could sit next to her. She wanted him sitting across from him at least this first time. She was putting on a show she wanted to be indelibly seared into his brain for the rest of his life.

"Okay," he said not sure why he was six feet in front of her rather than right beside her. "It's going to be hard to kiss you from over here."

"It'll be worth the wait," she said smiling happily at him. "Close your eyes, okay?"

"Okay," he said unsure of what was going on.

She pulled the green and white box out from behind her and removed one of the white-filtered cigarettes and grabbed her lighter. She held the cigarette between her long, slender fingers with freshly-manicured nails, then said, "Okay, you open your eyes now."

Owen did so, looked at her, then blinked rapidly several times. "What in the world...."

"We can go outside if you prefer," she said.

"Reagan. Honey. What...what is this?"

"You know exactly what this is, honey. This is me showing you how much you mean to mean. This is me finally giving myself to you in the way you most want me to. This is me showing you how much I love you. So...inside or out?"

"My, God. Honey, are you sure? Are you really sure?"

"Unless you tell me right now you don't want me to smoke, I am absolutely sure. Do you?"

She saw the material of Owen's shorts rising slowly but surely then saw him squirm to find a way to keep his growing hard on from showing. Reagan looked down at it then smiled. "That's my answer, isn't it?" she said coyly.

"Yes," he said quietly. "Let me...let me get my phone. I want to record this first time." He jumped up and ran to the bedroom. He was in and out and back in just seconds.

"Okay. On, camera, video, on...." He held it up then said, "All set!"

Reagan smiled and said, "I've been in love with you since the moment I saw you and I've wanted to find a way to show you that's how I feel ever since. I've tried to be as giving as you, but I can't. You're unbelievably giving, loving, and caring. I've known for some time there's one thing I can do to let you know how much I love you; that I'm willing to give everything I have because I love you so much. Sweetheart? This is my gift to you."

She raised the cigarette to her lips and flicked the lighter just once. The end glowed red hot as Reagan inhaled, held the smoke her mouth briefly as Anna had taught her, then inhaled. She smiled sinfully at her husband as she exhaled a thin stream of smoke. "I love you, Owen," she said as she took a second, slightly deeper drag.

"My God. You are SO gorgeous!" he said as he continued recording.

Reagan couldn't smoke the entire cigarette yet, but she could get fairly close down to the letters before it got too strong. She also had to take long pauses between drags, but during those she was still turning her husband on like never before just by her holding it with her tiny wrist bent back or tapping the ash.

She took another long drag, let a small amount escape as she opened her mouth, then quickly inhaled it, holding it her lungs before exhaling a very nice plume of smoke.