Offering Me Claire Ch. 01

I handed her the check which she took without looking at me. She dropped it in the till then said, "I want another cigarette, so if you want to find out more about my special methods, you'll have to sit outside with me. And as I recall from our last talk, you won't mind watching me smoke." She logged off, grabbed her purse, and said, "So are you going to join me or not?"

I'd stopped blushing a few years ago but there was a time when I'd have flamed on beet read over that comment. I'd told Claire about my smoking fetish after she told me she really wanted to quit and why. It wasn't that she wanted to quit. She actually really enjoyed smoking. If was just that she'd begun to think it was the reason she wasn't getting dates with the kinds of guys she found attractive. Like a little puppy dog, I followed her outside. It was warm and sunny and Claire looked so damn cute. She wasn't wearing anything I liked, but even so, she was still smokin' hot. And smoking—hot-ly.

She lit a cigarette then exhaled a beautiful stream of smoke and said, "After our talk a couple of months ago, I decided the problem wasn't with me smoking but with the kind of guys I was looking for." She took another huge drag before continuing. "Our conversation made me start wondering how many guys there are like you who think girls like me are...sexy?"

I answered her question by saying, "Sexy is an understatement. You, without smoking, are sexy. You are very cute. No, make that—hot. In fact, you are perhaps the most attractive girl I know. But for a guy like me who finds girls who smoke to be a 'must have', you are off-the-charts desirable. If you don't understand the power of the smoking fetish, then you'll never realize how desirable you are."

Claire took two more long hits while I spoke then said, "I guess I really didn't realize how much you're into it. I honestly had no idea it was that big a deal. I thought it was just a kind of little kink or something only you were into." We sat there for a few minutes as Claire smoked and I watched. She finished her cigarette and said, "You don't mind if I have one more, do you?"

I smiled and said, "To answer your question directly, I'd sit her all day and watch you smoke. But more importantly, I haven't forgotten you just told me you have a crush on me. I may be a guy, but I am capable of listening—occasionally—and I definitely heard you say that. So if you're trying to use smoking as a way to tempt me, then you're either very smart or very evil—or both. Are you a bad girl, Claire?"

Claire laughed and said, "I can be. Bad, that is. Since we talked, I stopped thinking about me as the problem. Or more specifically, me smoking. I started thinking I just needed to find the right guy." She inhaled very deeply then looked right at me and said, "Then I realized I'd already found him."

I played along and said, "So you've met someone you like, find attractive, and who is okay with you smoking. That's wonderful. He's a very lucky guy."

She finished her cigarette with two back-to-back double pumps and a monstrously large exhale and said, "He could be." She looked away again then said quietly, "If he wanted to, that is."

I laughed softly and Claire said, "Is that funny to you? It took a lot of courage to get up the nerve to tell you how I feel and share this with you. I didn't expect to be laughed at."

I could hear genuine hurt in her voice so I stood up and moved to her bench and sat next to her. I put my hand on hers and said, "I wasn't trying to be mean. I just wasn't sure if you were serious or not so I was being playful to avoid getting my own feelings hurt in case you were just...well, I don't know. But if I hurt your feelings, I'm very sorry. If that really is how you feel about me, then I'm very flattered, Claire. Is it? Do you feel that way about me even though I'm married?"

Without turning to look at me she said very quietly, "Yes."

I squeezed her hand and she slipped her fingers inside of mine. I reached up with my free hand and brushed her hair back. "I'm also very attracted to you, Claire. I'm just not sure where to go from here because I really do love my wife."

It seemed like every girl I ever knew cried. Okay, sure. They're girls. I get it. Claire was no exception. Claire said quietly, "I find myself thinking about you all the time. It's crazy, I know. I do know you're married, and I understand I don't have a chance with you, but I can't stop thinking about you." She was blinking back tears and I didn't have any tissues with me. I reached up and brushed away what I could then Claire dabbed the rest away with a tiny hanky she hand in her purse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry or to do...this...to you."

I pulled her closer and she laid her head on my shoulder. "May I ask you something very personal?"

"Sure. Why not. I've already humiliated myself. How could it get any worse?"

"Would you ever consider being involved in an open relationship?"

Claire sat up and looked at me then asked, "What do you mean by open?"

I spent the next few minutes explaining how Kate had agreed to be with another man (I left out the fact that he was only 18 and barely out of high school) and that we'd both enjoyed it very much.

"Are you asking me to be a part of a threesome with you guys?"

I didn't hear any hint of judgment or condemnation so I answered her question. "I'm really very attracted to you to you, Claire. But as I said, I won't leave my wife and as much as I'd love to be with you, I couldn't have an affair. And believe me, you're the first and only woman who's been able to temp me to think about it. But this would be a way for us to be together without lying and sneaking around. You have no idea how much I wish there was some other way I could be with you, but I just can't."

"I understand. I was just being so...childish...hoping you might feel the same way as I do and that well, maybe you'd want to, you know..."

"I do want to. Believe me. You have no idea how much. But I could never cheat on my wife."

Claire was looking straight ahead as she spoke. "How would that not be cheating? If you and I have sex, isn't that cheating?"

I explained to Claire the way Kate and I saw the world. "We don't believe in God so we humans make our own morality. If we both agree to share ourselves with someone else then it isn't cheating. That only happens when one person goes behind the other one's back and has an affair."

She sat quietly for a minute or so then turned to me and asked, "Is your wife into women?" Again, it wasn't judgmental. It was a sincere question asked with genuine curiosity.

"I'm not really sure. She says she's not but she's very much into um...pleasing me. I'm going to share something very personal here with you if that's okay."

"Of course," Claire said.

"Kate has her own kind of needs. Mine are fairly simple. I like attractive girls who wear pretty sweaters and who enjoy smoking. Hers are very different."

"How so?" she asked as she reached for another cigarette. I lit it for her and she thanked me before taking a first long drag.

"Kate is very...submissive. She needs to do things that make me happy in order for her to be happy. Does that make any sense?" I asked.

"This isn't going to come out the way I want it to but I took a class called Abnormal Psychology last year. I learned a lot about the different kinds of things people need outside of the so-called traditional model of love, marriage, sex, and children. It really opened my eyes. I had no idea people liked doing things like you know, getting spanked and being tied up and that sort of thing. Is that what your wife is into?"

I smiled and said, "If only you knew!"

Claire exhaled a long plume of smoke and said, "Knew what? What am I missing here?"

"I'm going to tell you this because you need to know it just in case, you know, you might want to consider joining us sometime." Claire didn't react negatively so I continued. "Kate is one of those people, Claire. She really likes being paddled and tied up and..."

"Oh, my God! Are you serious?" Claire said. She was laughing but not to ridicule Kate. It was more of a nervous laughter when I told her Kate is like the unnamed people she'd studied in her psych class.

"Very serious. In fact, she's become almost obsessed with it lately. I'm fairly confident she would be very um...open...to the idea of bringing in another woman if I could convince her I'm not going to fall in love with her.

Claire finished her cigarette and said, "But you have to know that doesn't mean she—this other woman—might not fall in love with you."

"She would have to know going in that that's not going to happen. Falling in love is part of a traditional romance and that's what I have with Kate. Admittedly, it's anything but traditional in one sense, but there is still a traditional aspect to it and that's the part about not cheating or falling in love with anyone else."

"So basically, this would just be sex then. Is that right?" she asked.

"Yes. Well...almost."

"What does that mean?" Claire asked me.

"With the guy we brought in, it was just sex. With you, it would be something more."

"But you still wouldn't fall in love with me."

"I believe we can love more than one person, Claire. I love my wife but it would be easy for me to love you, too. I just wouldn't leave my wife in order to marry you. That's as honest and as open as I can be. I'm sure it's not enough for you and I understand if you want to try and find that guy like me who can offer you love and a ring and..."

"I'm in," Claire said. "If this is the only way I can be with you, then I'm in."

Claire turned toward me and said, "Now it's my turn to be honest. I have more than a crush on you. I...I think I love you. I know that's crazy. I know it's irrational. I know it's very sophomoric. But it's how I feel. And if doing this will make you love me, too, then I have to try. I know you may not ever leave your wife and I promise I won't do anything to destroy your marriage, but if you do fall in love with me, then I will fight to take you away. So if you can live with how I feel then I'm willing to risk trying and failing. But I want to be with you and if that means having to be with your wife, too, then I'll do it."

"There's a third person involved here, too, Claire. Everything hinges on her agreeing to this. I know she's very jealous of me but I also know she desperately wants and needs to do things to please me. That's why she said yes to another guy. I won't guilt her into saying yes, but I do plan to tell her how I feel. There is one thing I can't work around without lying, though."

"What's that?" Claire asked.

"I can't tell her I know you and that I...that I think...well, that I think you're the most beautiful woman I've even known."

Claire reached out and took my hand this time. "I want you to kiss me so bad I can't stand it," she said. "This is all so wrong and so crazy but I don't really care. So if I need to tell a lie, then I will. Just tell me what to say, okay?"

"I'll post on ad on Craig's List. I'll sort through all the replies and select you. When we meet, we don't know one another. You just thought this would be very hot—especially the part about Kate being a submissive woman—and you wanted to try something new and different."

"I've never been with another woman let alone one who has...special needs."

"I have some ideas. Some things to kind of sweeten the pot for Kate. I'll text you as this develops and let you know first of all whether it's going to happen and then, if so, how to prepare. The main thing is to somehow convince Kate to ask me to make love to you. And I think I have just the thing we need to make that happen."

"Does your wife check your cell phone?" Claire asked me.

"No. Never. In fact, can you go ahead and put your number in it for me."

"Sure. Let me have it," she said. She punched in her number and handed it back to me.

"So what now?" she wanted to know.

"We wait. I need time to set this up. Time for Kate to come around to wanting to do this."

"I'm not very good at waiting. I've been waiting since 10th grade, though, so I guess a few more days won't be...that hard."

We stood up and I walked Claire back to the library. Just before we went inside I remembered the way she hugged me the last time so I decided to try for a repeat performance. I can't justify what I did, but I can easily explain it. I'm a shit. I was in love with my wife, but it was as though a switch had been flipped like with the Mormon Church, and I wanted to break all the rules. Not because I didn't love her but because well...I'm a shit. (I've never been satisfied with any relationship since but that's another story. Oh, right! I've written about most of those, too.)

I had my hand on the door but didn't open it. I held it there for a moment then let go and waited for her to look at me. She had her hands together and said, "What? Are you going to let me in or not?"

Our eyes met and locked on one another's. I reached out and put my hands on her upper arms and said, "You know, you really are beautiful, Claire."

She looked down and said very quietly, "Thank you."

"Would you mind if I kissed you goodbye?" I said as I moved slightly closer.

"That might not be...I mean maybe we should wait until..."

As she was speaking, I leaned in and as I did our eyes met again and as mine closed, so did hers. I kissed her softly on her beautiful, full lips. No tongue. Just a two-second, open-mouth kiss.

"I'll text you soon, okay?" I said after I pulled back. She was clearly very surprised by my actions but she also clearly wasn't at all upset by them. She most likely just wasn't sure whether or not she should do anything or just stand there.

"Okay," was all she said.

"You taste so wonderful, Claire. That was amazing."

I turned to walk away as Claire reached out and grabbed my arm. She pulled me back toward her and put her hand behind my head pulling me toward her warm, smoky mouth. She kissed me hard, long, and passionately. Her tongue was warm and tasted of smoke and I wanted to fuck her so bad it was killing me.

"Don't forget you kissed me first," she said as she broke the kiss. "And don't forget that I'm falling in love with you. I can only play fair for so long," she told me.

Reluctantly, we let go of one another and I opened the door for her before I headed home. I sent Kate a text and told her I wanted to take things to the next level in the bedroom. Her response was off-the-charts excited! I'm going shopping during my lunch break! There's something I want you to see. Can't wait to see you soon! LuvU!

Kate got home every day about 5:15. She left the office at 5 o'clock then walked across a very large parking lot which served several buildings in the complex where her tariff services office was located. It took her a few minutes to get down the elevator and outside. Then she would light a cigarette and begin walking back to the house which was just across the street from what we called "Pavement City."

I was doing some more research about B&D on-line when she came in. She was always, always in such a good mood and I looked forward to seeing her every day. She came in, saw me, and smiled her beautiful smile. "Hi! How was your day, honey?" she asked me. She came over and gave me a very long, very smoky kiss that made me moan. "I missed you today," she said playfully. "I was a very bad girl today so perhaps you could punish me later tonight?" Her voice was so hopeful and after today I knew I had to say 'yes.'

"I think that can be arranged," I told her. "What did you do that was so...bad?"

She reached into her purse and pulled out a brown paper bag and handed it to me. "I found this at a bookstore today on my lunch break."

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Take a look and see!" she said happily.

I pulled out a very thin book that was more a book-let called The Joys of Submission. There was a leather-clad man holding a crop and a woman whose hands and feet were bound with a gag ball in her mouth kneeling at his feet.

"Wow! This is some kinky shit, honey. You had the nerve to walk in and buy this?"

"Yes, I did!" she exclaimed proudly. "There are just so many other things we haven't tried yet. I didn't have time to read through them all but the ones I did look at made me SO wet and SO horny. So that's why I need to be punished tonight. See how bad you good-girl wife was today?"

Kate was genuinely excited and very proud of herself. "Why don't we have a glass of wine and take it outside so we can look through it together?" I suggested.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Kate bubbled. "Let me get a new pack of cigarettes. I had about 15 in the pack I took to work and they're already gone. I was just so turned on today thinking about you and me and me smoking for you and now...this. Are you excited, honey?"

I wasn't turned on by the B&D stuff itself, but I was very excited about the prospect of it opening up new doors. Okay, one very specific new door. "Yeah, this looks very interesting," I told her. It did look interesting. That part was true.

It only took her half an hour to finish it. She sat it down and said, "Wow! There a lot of new ideas in here. Some of them really, really turn me on!" She was bubbling with excitement about this, that, and the other. I was listening but not really paying attention.

"Which ones did you like the most?" I asked her.

"All of them," she said immediately. "I mean, there aren't any ideas I didn't like but there were many of them that sound like so much fun. How about you? Which ones do you want to do to/for me?" Kate crawled up on my lap and kissed me while she was smoking.

As I looked through the list I realized this just might be possible! It was essentially a list of things to help a submissive woman feel loved and appreciated by treating her the way she needed to be loved along with a few paragraphs on each as to how to make it happen. For her, love was pleasing her dominant partner. If Kate would willingly submit to any or all of the things on this list (which was very extensive) then it followed logically that at some point, she'd be ready to accept me fucking another woman or at least sharing her with me. Now that made me hard!

I made sure to do all of the things she loved that night and then asked her if she was ready to take things to the next level. She was so excited she squealed and kicked the bed with both feet very fast. "Yes, yes, and yes! I am so fucking excited!" she said. "Thank you, honey. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you so much. I can't wait to show you how much. I can't wait for you to decide which of those things you want me to do for you." She kissed me again and again and again.

So far, so good.

The next day was Friday and the following Monday I'd be back in school. I wanted to set the wheels in motion while I had time to think. Before Kate got home at 5:15, I had what I thought were the basics of a pretty solid plan. I texted Claire with the general outline of my plan and she immediately wrote back, "OMG! That sounds perfect. Can't wait to hear how it goes. Can't wait to be with you." There was big read heart followed by her name.

The first was to exercise control even more control over her by getting her used to doing my will. I had several things in mind.

I was getting hard thinking about my pretty wife coming in and giving me a kiss right after she'd finished a cigarette. Right on schedule, she came in and did just that. "God I love that," I told her as usual.

"Me too," she said. "Smoking and kissing you. I love them both. What do you want for dinner tonight?" she asked.

"Just you," I said.

"No, silly! Besides that. Sex is like Chinese food. You can eat it all night but never get filled up." I loved it when Kate giggled at her own jokes.