(4950 Words)
Linda basked in the afterglow of sex. Bill, his breath slowing back down, grinned at her and ran a fingertip along her arm. She closed her eyes and pulled the sheets up over her body with a contented sigh. She had a lovely orgasm. They laid in bed together in peaceful quiet. Linda worked her feet under the sheets kicked to the foot of bed.
Bill rolled out of bed a few minutes later and headed to the shower. He worked the late shift today which allowed them to indulge in some delightful morning sex. The kids were finishing out the school year and the house was quiet so Linda and Bill took advantage.
But …
Was everything good? she wondered.
Linda didn’t want to put a curse on it but she sometimes wondered if their sex life was good enough for Bill. It was good for her and she figured Bill felt the same. They discussed it with each other every so often yet Linda imagined every relationship spanning two decades led to some kind of rut. She knew the two of them weren’t unique.
Let’s call it a routine, she thought to herself. The word ‘rut’ sounded negative to her.
Bill and Linda did have regular sex after 20 years of marriage so there was that. It was a once-a-week thing (mostly) and it followed the same basic pattern. Kissing leads to light touching, then he’d kiss her breasts, they’d provide oral for each other, and then intercourse. Most of the time they’d both orgasm during sex and then they would move on with their days.
Did she need more? Did she want more? She came almost every time and she was lucky her body responded well to Bill. He didn’t ask for much and he seemed okay with things but the question percolated in her mind every few months. Linda had never gone as far as to check his browser history or see what else he was up to on the internet. His personality simply didn’t suggest he had a wide variety of tastes and preferences or secret desires. They were probably fine.
Twenty minutes elapsed while Bill got ready to leave. Linda was quiet and he noticed. He asked if she was okay. She nodded and said she was thinking about her day. He let it pass though she saw he knew she wasn’t feeling her usual self. He kissed her forehead and told her he was around if she needed anything.
“Oh, you already gave me what I needed,” she said and wrinkled her nose at him. He smiled and headed out the door.
His car pulled out of the driveway. Linda gave him a few minutes and went to her phone. She tapped the icon for the internet and started searching. She looked for sexy ideas every so often but today would be in earnest.
“Ways to spice up married sex” seemed like a good start. She typed, tapped, and started scrolling.
“Food.” Absolutely not.
“Lingerie.” Linda had tried that much earlier in their relationship. Bill had offered up that while he enjoyed the complicated puzzle of the strings and ties and buttons and hooks with lingerie, he liked bare skin more. The few times she wore anything slinky, he just got it off her and moved on. And Linda didn’t exactly need her current body squeezed into any material these days. She was fine for her age, early 40s, but she wasn’t a size 2 any more. Or a size 6 for that matter.
“Role-playing.” Bill could not be relied upon for improv or spontaneity. His ad-lib skills were non-existent and there was no way he’d go along with taking a new role or pretending to be something or someone else. The same rule applied for dirty-talk. Bill had told Linda he was around if she needed anything. She could have tried something more fun: “I need your cock in my mouth again.” And Bill would have blushed and panicked at her language.
On second thought … She decided she would talk dirty to him, maybe sext him today, just to see him react. She recognized it would be for the fun of it, though, not because it would be sexy or give them a new experience.
“Make a Home Movie.” Linda preferred low-lighting or darkness so to have her body recorded and saved for posterity was a big triple nope. Nope, nope, nope, she thought to herself.
“Sex Outside.”
Linda paused on that entry. She read the comments about it.
For a fun way to explore sex, try it outside! You can feel the wind and sun on your skin and pretend like you’re from an ancient civilization, having sex with wild abandon in the wilderness! Just make sure you look out for bugs and other people! Don’t get caught!
Linda almost rolled her eyes at the author’s writing skills. She didn’t need John Steinbeck when scanning for fun and new sexy ideas but list-makers should take at least a few minutes to look at what they wrote.
But there was something to what the author (who actually had a credit with “Dr.” in front of her name) was saying.
Upon further thought this one was a viable option. Linda didn’t have an immediate reason to not try it She didn’t need to be registered as a sex offender but if they did it right there’d be no issue.
Linda thought back to when they may have had outdoor sex. She didn’t immediately come up with anything. They had vacationed in Hawaii years and years ago and never ended up going to that nude beach on Maui. Bill didn’t show any interest and Linda hadn’t paid much attention to its existence. There weren’t any other times she could think of where outside sex was on the table. Neither she nor Bill had gone out of their way to try it.
She thought about it now. Logistically, the timing would be excellent. Bill was working late shifts the next month so he’d be available mid and late morning. School wasn’t out for another two weeks so there wouldn’t be kids around. The weather had broken for good and was now trending in the mid-70s before 9:00 am so it wasn’t cold. Winter was official over.
Outside of the whole ‘being arrested’ thing, why not try it? It’d be different and at least give them something to talk about. Hopefully having a new experience, hotel rooms in faraway cities excluded, could inject some novelty into their relationship.
Linda turned the idea around in her head, examining it from different angles. Would she suggest this and inadvertently upset Bill? Would he think their current sex life was failing her? Would he want to offer up his own fantasies that involved group sex or something even more fringe? Bill was a loving husband and they were generally open with each other. Linda truly believed if he had fantasies or desires he would have communicated them already. Two decades of being together provided both the time and the trust to talk it out.
Linda thought about it from her own frame of reference. Could she have sex outdoors?
Sure, why not? She’d do some research and pick a spot that was quiet and out of the way. She didn’t want them interrupted or spotted or anything. So, where? She went back to work at her phone hunting for locations.
An hour later, she had identified the spot: Ridgeview County Park.
Linda made columns for the pros and cons and laughed at herself that she was reducing her sex life to a list that looked like a P&L statement.