Love Me Tender - Please Pt. 01

As soon as the words came out of Ray's mouth he knew he was in trouble.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Karen growled at him. "You know I work. Just because you sit around all summer doesn't mean that everybody else does."

"Aw, come on, Karen, I was just kidding. Ease up a little, OK?"

"Bullshit!" she exclaimed as she stomped back into the house. "If you don't like the way things are done around here you can always move out you know."

"Or you can," Ray muttered under his breath.

"Dad? Why are you and mom always fighting anymore? Are you going to get a divorce?"

"I don't know the answer to either one of those questions, son. Get your stuff ready and I'll take you over to Paul's, I've got to get out of here for a while."

"Dad? Does mom know where Melody is?" Brian asked on the way to Paul's. "She never even missed her. Did she?"

"Oh, she knows," Ray lied. "She asked me when she first came home from work."

"I don't believe you. Something's the matter with mom, isn't there? She's not the same anymore."

"She's working hard at starting her new career. She'll be all right in a little while, after she gets her license and all. Have fun and if you need me, give me a call on my cell phone. Love you, bye."

"He's right, she's not the same anymore," Ray muttered as he turned out into traffic on the way home.

"Ray, we have to talk about Melody's graduation party, it's only two weeks away," Karen said when he returned from dropping off Brian.

She started the conversation as if nothing had happened just a few minutes before. She was sitting at the kitchen table with the opened Yellow Pages in front of her.

"I haven't had time to call a caterer and I'm not sure we are going to be able to get one at this late date."

"Why don't we just have a little party here? We can invite mostly family and her classmates but if I remember right her friends will make an appearance and then disappear. They don't want to hang around parents and grandparents on their graduation day."

"I'd like to invite some people from work. Here, I've started a list. Do you have any friends at the college you want to invite?"

"We used to have a lot of friends but you don't like them anymore. We haven't seen or heard from 'my' friends since you started working."

"Please, I don't want to get into another fight. Let's just do this for Melody. OK?"

"OK. I'll go along with anything you want but don't forget she's leaving for Europe the Tuesday after graduation. She'll need clothes and all that stuff."

"I forgot to tell you, I gave her a credit card two weeks ago. It's in her name and she has been buying the stuff she needs."

"How did you get a credit card for her?"

"It's actually in my name. I want to establish my own credit and not be tied to yours."

"Oh, that's interesting. You're really getting to be independent aren't you?"

"It's got nothing to do with independence. I just think I can do things I never did before since I have my own income now."

"Speaking of income, the bank statement came today and I didn't see any of that huge bonus you said you were going to get."

"It'll take a month to get the sale settled and I'm going to put it into my account anyway. There's enough in our account with your salary to cover what we need."

Ray looked at her like she was out of her mind.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Do we now have separate bank accounts or is yours just separate and mine is still joint?"

"Don't use language like that in front of me. What are you getting so upset about? I don't ask you what you do with your money, do I?"

"No you don't because you don't have to. I tell you when I want to make any major purchases. I would tell you if I wanted to open a credit card and a bank account in my name only. Why didn't you tell me?"

Karen's voice rose a few notches.

"I didn't think it was that important. You keep telling me you want me to succeed in this but then you turn around and hand me this bullshit. Make up your mind."

"Well, Karen's learned a new phrase. Is there anything else that's 'not that important' that you haven't told me? Maybe something like going to Las Vegas for a few weeks? Are you going to practice your Salsa dancing with some Latinos down there?"

Karen's eyes went wide and her head snapped up.

"Where did ... how did? I mean I was going to tell you but it wasn't the right time and I didn't want to get into a fight like we are in now."

"When was the 'right time' going to happen? Maybe at the airport or maybe you could text me like that singer did to her husband. Dear Ray, I'm in Las Vegas dancing the Salsa, see you when I feel like coming back."

"Who told you I was going?"

"What's the difference? Was there ever any intention on your part to ask me if I thought it was OK or if I wanted to go with you?"

"With me? Why would you want to go with me?" Karen asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"Because you're my wife, Goddammit! I think you've forgotten that part, haven't you?" he screamed and went out the sliding doors onto the patio.

Ray waited outside until his rage had dissipated. He was afraid he would break something or say something that make him angrier than he already felt. Karen had left the table and he watched until she came back into the kitchen a half-hour or so later.

She had changed into a nightgown and hadn't bothered with a robe since she knew the kids weren't around. He had the feeling that she was trying to seduce him and calm him down. Their little fight had been more vicious than any he could remember in a long time.

He could tell she knew he was still outside and he caught her peeking through her hair at him a few times but he made no move to go back inside and talk to her. He wondered how she had been able to distance herself from him and their family so quickly. He couldn't understand the evolution except that she was so focused on her goal that she was willing to step on everybody and everything to get there.

"Is she having an affair?" he muttered.

Their sex could no longer be called lovemaking. He tried to tie in some of the signs of infidelity that he had read about with her actions of late, but he couldn't come up with anything specific. The hidden lingerie was suspicious but maybe it wasn't really hidden. He never had any reason to look at her bra and panties unless they were on her.

Ray was torn about what to do. He didn't like the fights they were having but he wasn't willing to back down on some of the things that she was doing. Separate accounts and credit cards and the car in her name with her own financing was the first step. He hadn't recognized it for what is was but she was slowly distancing herself from him.

He finally decided to go in and to try to talk to her but just as he was getting ready to stand up when the lights went out in the kitchen. He watched as the hall light on the stairs came on and then off again followed by the light in their bedroom.

Apparently she did not care that he was still sitting out here and that he would have to find his way through the house in the dark. He sat and watched but the curtains were drawn and he could not see anything inside of their bedroom. When the bedroom lights went out he got up and went into the house and upstairs.

Hesitating at the top of the stairs, he almost headed towards the guest room but decided that he was not the one at fault here. He was the victim and he would sleep wherever the hell he wanted. Ray hesitated once again at the closed door to the master bedroom. He steeled himself to the possibility that she had locked the door and the thought that she might have locked him out brought his temper to a boil again.

He made no attempt to be quiet when he turned the knob. He was prepared to put his shoulder to the door and force it open if it was locked. To his relief, more than his surprise, the knob turned and the door practically burst open with the force of his push against it.

There was enough light in the room for him to see Karen jump with the noise but she remained on her side of the bed with her back to where he would be sleeping. He undressed in the bathroom and noticed that her nightgown was hanging on the back of the door. His cock stirred a little when he realized that she was either naked in bed or had changed into a tee shirt.

Stripping off his clothes he looked at himself in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. He still was not used to his clean-shaven reflection with just the hint of a shadow of a new growth.

"I'll have to shave tomorrow morning," he thought followed by another realization that he didn't have a razor.

The only razor type instrument he owned was the one he used for trimming the edges of his beard and it would not do to shave his whole face. He considered using Karen's but he knew that the blade would be dull and he didn't want to start off like that.

The thought that, "Brian shaves, I'll borrow his razor in the morning," went through his head as he rinsed out his toothbrush head and turning out the light went into the bedroom.

Ray's eyes were not yet accustomed to the dim light coming through the bedroom window as he slowly made his way to his side of the bed. He felt, rather than saw the edge of the sheet and pulled it down so he could climb into bed. The sheet had pulled off of Karen's back and he could now see enough to realize that she was naked. He figured that she was planning to get another make-up sex session going to appease her guilt.

Ray lay with is back towards her and tried to let his mind quiet down. It was tumbling with thoughts about his wife, his marriage, and their future. He was also starting to wonder why she would be acting this way.

"What's wrong with me?" he thought. "Have I done something wrong? What am I not doing for her that she needs? Maybe I'm just paranoid. We've been married nearly twenty years and I should know what she needs."

Ray was moving around to try and get more comfortable and to concentrate on going to sleep when he felt the mattress shift behind him. He held his breath and waited to see what she was doing.

"Maybe she's just getting comfortable too," he thought, but a moment later he felt her knee touch the back of his thigh.

He kept his breathing in a steady rhythm as if he was asleep, but he felt her move again and press herself up against his back. He could feel her warm breath on his neck and her soft breasts on his back. Her nipples were punching into his skin as she squirmed to mold her body against his. She slid her arm around his side and pushed it up under his to feel for his nipple.

He almost gasped when she rubbed the pads of her fingers across his nipple before gently pinching it and rolling it between her thumb and forefinger.

"Where the hell did she pick that one up?" he thought. "She never did that before. Who did she learn that from? Is she really having an affair?"

Ray had already made up his mind that he was not going to allow her to seduce him. He could do without sex for one night. After all they had only been having sporadic sex for several months anyway. Her hand slid down over his belly and her fingers found his navel. She knew he liked to have his belly button tickled and in the past she would tease it with her tongue. Tonight she settled for running her finger around the outside edge before pushing the tip in and gently twisting her hand.

It was becoming more difficult for Ray to pretend he was asleep. His body was responding and his cock was quickly becoming hard. He could feel the head of it sliding along the sheet as it filled with blood. He knew what was coming next and he willed himself not to react to her fingers twirling in his pubic hair before sliding down and cradling his balls in her hand. Her arm was too short to reach all the way and he could no longer feel her breath or her breasts on his back. He felt her sliding herself down towards the foot of the bed so she could reach him.

Her breasts were now pressed against his ass and her hand had moved from cradling his balls to stroking his cock. Ray knew he could not last long and he didn't want to give her the satisfaction that she had successfully manipulated him.

Giving a sleepy grunt, he straightened out his legs and muttering an almost unintelligible "no" he rolled over onto his belly.

"You shithead!" Karen said and slapped him on the ass.

"Huh, what?" Ray muttered and than lay quiet.

"Asshole! I'll fix you," Karen growled and turning back around she curled up into a ball and lay quietly on her side.

"Shit, I screwed up again," she admonished herself as she felt tears forming under her closed eyelids. "I should have told him about the checking account."

Karen had opened a separate checking account on the advice of Mike. He suggested she keep her earnings separate from Ray's because she would be basically a sole proprietor with a business of her own. She would no longer be on salary once she got her license. There were a lot of tax and deduction ramifications with real estate professionals and it would be better all around if she started thinking about them immediately.

She had no idea why she didn't tell Ray about the account. She honestly didn't think she was trying to hide if from him. After all, he would find out since she had transferred the automatic deposit of her salary checks into her new account. The change just hadn't taken effect yet.

Karen's struggle for independence was tearing her and her marriage apart. On the one hand she was excited about her new life but she still wanted some of the old, comfortable parts of her life the way they were "before."

Her mind whirled like she was running in a squirrel cage.

"Before what?" she asked herself. "When I was a wife and a mother. I was Mrs. Royals, Ray's wife, or Melody and Brian Royals' mom. I had no identity of my own. Where had Ray heard about my trip to Las Vegas? And the Salsa dancing? Who could he have been talking to? Is he following me? No, that's not it because only a few people know about the trip and, oh shit, I don't know what to think.

I've discovered that there is so much fun to be had out there in the world. I never knew what went on. It's like a soap opera. I'm not going to do anything wrong, I mean really wrong, but I'm having a little fun and I think I deserve it and it should be OK. People like me and tell me that they like me. I'm not some piece of furniture to them. I'm a real, live woman and I feel desired and wanted."

That last thought took Karen's mind back to her dancing and Trey's remark that she was his best client. She had already aroused herself trying to seduce Ray and now she unconsciously squeezed her thighs together and felt more moisture seep out. Snaking her hand down she soothed herself by gently rubbing her pussy.

The last thing she remember thinking right before she fell asleep was, "If he doesn't like it then he can do what ever the hell he wants to do about it!"

Chapter 20

Ray watched quietly as Karen got ready for work on Saturday morning. She didn't acknowledge him or even look at him from what he could see from under his barely opened eyes.

The running shower had awakened him and he pictured what she looked like and what she was doing in the bathroom from the sounds that he heard.

"That's what being married for twenty years does for somebody," he thought.

He could hear the hum of their electric toothbrush and then the sound of her gargling. She was trying to be quiet but not making too much of an effort at it. He watched as she walked naked around the room to collect what she was going to wear and take with her to work. He felt another stirring in his cock. He still loved her and he was always amazed at how her nude body still turned him on so much.

Carrying some clothing articles back into the bathroom he listened to the rustle of fabric through the half-closed door as she dressed. The sound of her makeup drawer closing told him that she would soon be coming back into the bedroom. She wore a white blouse and a pair of white slacks when she reappeared. Going into her closet she came out with a clothing bag from a store and several pairs of shoes. Hanging the bag on the closet door she placed the shoes on her dresser and reached up to get the bag full of lingerie from the shelf.

Searching through the bag she pulled out a light green, bra and panty set. She held them up and shaking her head she put them back into the bag. Next she retrieved a set of red lingerie. He watched as she removed the clips that held them together and stuck the hanger under her arm. She maneuvered the panties until she had her fingers in the waistband and held up a triangle of red, mesh cloth tied at the corners with strings. Holding the panty in her hand she tested a cup of a bra that looked to be made out of the same mesh as the panties.

Returning the bag to the shelf she came out with another one and pulled out a two-piece, white bathing suit with black trim. There was nothing to it and in the quick glimpse he got of it, he saw it did not appear to be any more substantial than the lingerie. Not bothering to check the suit, she stuffed it and the lingerie together into one bag. Picking up her shoes and the clothing bag she left the room without a glance at him.

Ray waited until her heard her start her car before pulling on a pair of shorts and walking down to the kitchen. He wondered what was in the clothing bag. He didn't remember seeing it in her closet the other day but he wasn't looking for anything like that and he could have easily missed it.

After starting the coffee he shaved in Brian's bathroom.

"I'll go out and get my own razor later," he thought as he scraped away at his face.

He had not shaved in over twenty years and he was surprised at how easily the motions came back to him. He expected to cut himself to ribbons but there was only one little nick to remind him that he was out of practice.

"These new three-blade razors sure beat my old adjustable," he thought as he rubbed his smooth face.

He still wasn't used to his new reflection and he continued to admire himself in the mirror thinking that maybe he did look younger. He had no plans for the day so he decided to go out to breakfast and to take his digital video camera with him. He had been meaning to try and get some images of the new Savannah Station office building for his classes in the fall.

"I should have stayed with Moffat's. I could have been a successful architect making lots of money and Karen and I wouldn't be in this mess."

It was quiet in the restaurant and he read the newspaper while enjoying a cup of coffee and a biscuit. He watched the people flowing in and out and was surprised at the number of women who returned his smile.

"They either think I'm a dirty old man and they are humoring me, or shaving off my beard took twenty years off of my looks," he thought and then laughed. "Who do you think you're fooling old man?"

Wal-Mart was crowded this Saturday morning but Ray quickly found what he needed in the pharmacy section. He was waiting in line at the checkout when he heard a voice behind him.

"Excuse me, young man. Do I know you?"

Turning around he was surprised to see Donna Flannery standing there.

"Oh, hi," he said. "Gee, twice in two days. We have to stop meeting like this or my wife will get suspicious."

"I doubt that," she replied. "She has enough on her plate now."

Mike wondered what she was implying but before he could ask her, she continued talking without pausing for a breath and giving him an opening.

"Wow! You had a pretty face under that beard, didn't you? You look great," she exclaimed and pressing her shoulder into his side she turned her head to look up at him.

"Thanks," he replied and felt the color rising up his neck towards his cheeks.