[Series] After Hours - Part 5

[anesthesiagirl.livejournal.com]

Title: After Hours
Part: 5
Pairing: Colin/OC (Audrey)
Rating: NC-17 for HET, yes, HET SEX. Necessary for the plot......sorry folks. It is near the end and not that long if you wish to skip over it.
Summary: Colin's wife returns unexpectantly from her adventures abroad and Colin wrestles with inner conflicts.
Disclaimer: We don't own anything except our own imaginations.


Colin rolled back from his desk and kicked off his shoes. He was thumbing through the phone book, considering his dinner options, when the phone rang. He jolted up, nearly dropping the yellow pages, surprised by the sound that broke the quiet solitude of the early evening. He dove onto the desk, grabbing the handset on the fourth ring.

“Mochrie Incorporated,” he answered, putting on his business voice despite the late hour.

“Colin, honey, it’s Audrey. I’m in Chicago. I finished up early and wanted to come in and surprise you, but your secretary said you’d been staying at the office overnight most nights lately, so I wanted to make sure you’d be home,” Audrey said, her voice dry and whiney over the crackling cell phone.

“Audrey? You’re……uh…….yeah……..hi,” Colin stammered, shocked and temporarily unable to regain his footing on reality.

“My flight’s due in at 8 pm your time, can you be there to pick me up? I can’t wait to get home,” she continued, not breathing and not giving Colin a chance to answer. “Hey, honey, I gotta go. I’ll see you at 8.”

Colin sat down, the receiver still in his hand. The conflict that stabbed at his conscience far exceeded anything he’d felt in the past few weeks. He loved Audrey, but lately he’d realized that he more accurately liked the ‘idea’ of her. Marriage was easy when it was separated by thousands of miles and was held together only by phone calls. But, the events of late not withstanding, Colin’s doubt in the ‘till death do you part’ bit of the vows had been growing for months.

*****

Colin stood at the baggage carousels, watching the crowd stream down the hallway from the arrival gates; hundreds of eager eyes, searching for a familiar face, hopeful for safely arrived baggage. He shifted back and forth on his feet, nervously spinning the gold band on his left hand. Looking down at his hands, Colin absently wondered what he’d done when he was nervous before he wore a wedding ring. I can’t do this, he thought, eyeing the ‘arrivals’ board which told him that her plane had just touched down safely. I’ve never been able to keep secrets from her. She’s always read me like a book. Always. From the first day we met. She’ll see it in my eyes. Hell, she’ll probably smell it on me.

He felt a sharp jab of pain in his finger and, looking down, noticed he’d been twisting his ring so hard, he’d worn a patch of skin off. Deliberately, he yanked his hand away. He might as well be shouting his guilt to the world. And Audrey, well, she was quite aware of what that particular habit signified.

He shook his head. The band, a simple gold thing that promised forever, seemed to have gained weight. The weight of his guilt, he knew. God, he must be crazy.

He wondered which was worse: that he’d cheated on her, that he’d spend enormous sums of money to cheat on her, or that he’d cheated on her with a man.

None of the above, he realized. It was that he’d probably keep on doing it whether she found out or not.

Jesus.

“Col! Hey!” came an excited voice.

Shocked out of his reverie, Colin looked up just in time to see Audrey leap forward, dropping her carry-on to throw her arms tightly around his neck. His startled arms managed to wrap themselves around her as she leapt, embracing her more tightly than he meant to.

“Oh, I missed you so much,” she crooned, kissing him lightly on the cheek before pulling back, the big smile she wore betrayed by her tired eyes.

“How was your flight?” Colin asked evenly, unable to muster enough excitement to match his wife’s enthusiasm.

“Not bad. Oh, hey, there’s my bag,” Audrey announced, gesturing towards a large green duffel bag that was moving steadily towards them. Colin stepped forward to grab the bag, but she snagged it before he could reach it. “You don’t have to do that,” she said, slinging it over her empty shoulder. She gave him a sideways glance, doe-eyes twinkling. “Been getting into trouble without me?

“You know me,” he managed to deadpan. “Party animal of the Great White North.”

She laughed. “Yup. That’s you alright.”

“Alright then, let’s go home,” Colin said, already walking towards the glass doors that lead out to the parking lot.

*****

Colin slipped between the cool white sheets, careful not to disturb the peacefully sleeping form of his wife. She’d gone to bed hours ago, just after dinner, exhaustion plainly etched across her face. He had finished up the dishes and settled down to watch television. He’d flipped through the channels for better than 20 minutes, searching for anything that might peak his interest, before finally settling on an old movie.

He’d watched the black and white flick, totally enraptured by the tale of unrequited love, and he’d found himself quietly crying as the credits rolled across the screen at the end. It wasn’t really like that, he reasoned to himself. No one really ever knew a love that deep, that pure. Real life didn’t have time for love. With that, he’d begun to cry in earnest, scrubbing at his eyes like a schoolboy just whipped by his headmaster.

He rolled to his side, his eyes glancing over the Audrey’s smooth silhouette under the sheet. Colin tentatively reached out and gently ran his hand down the line of her body, but she didn’t stir. He moved his head forward, taking in the sweet scent of the shampoo she’d always used. She smelled good. Sweet and earthy and feminine, nothing at all like the heavy musk of Ryan, or, to be truthful, himself. He felt the tentative beginnings of arousal twist through his belly and smiled slightly, in pure relief. Oh, thank God, he thought. Thank god. If he could still be aroused by a woman, his wife, maybe everything would be okay. Sure it was much too simplistic a thought, but right now in the dark of the night, he was willing to be convinced. The thought that he might be gay weighed so heavily on him, he was surprised he could still walk upright. But maybe, just maybe….

He scrunched forward, putting his arm around her and pulling her into his chest. He delighted in the warm muscles of her back as they moved against his chest, her body beginning to stir with awareness.

Colin wiggled against her, the beginnings of an erection forming as he gently nibbled her neck. She sighed softly and pushed back into the warmth of his body, driving his desires further. He slid his hand up her belly, goosebumps forming on the smooth skin as his fingertips passed, and his hand came to rest around her breast, squeezing slightly, his breath catching as he felt her nipple rise to a firm point.

Audrey moaned low in her throat and turned to face her husband. Their lips met, tentatively at first, the kiss of former lovers unsure of how to proceed, but deepened into passionate familiarity as their tongues danced. Colin’s erection throbbed with need, his breath coming in quick gasps. His heart felt light and free, and that, too, spurred on his passion. He lavished attention on each breast in turn, delighted, as always, by her responsiveness. He eased a hand down her body and between her legs, which willingly parted for him, testing her readiness. She moaned softly and moved her hips sensually, easing herself back and forth against his fingers. She was wet and lush and ripe with promise, swollen with her arousal. “Yes,” she whispered, tilting her head up to kiss him. “Yes, Col. Oh…yes….”

He eased her onto her back and lowered himself down onto her waiting form. He proceeded slowly at first, but was quickly overwhelmed by the all-encompassing warmth of her, the first time he’d made love to her in months. He began to pump in earnest, drawing nearly out before slamming back in. Her muscles tightened and relaxed around him creating a dizzying sensation in his groin and his head.

Her breathing and moans quickened, urging him on, until he couldn’t hear anything except the blood rushing in his ears. As he neared the edge, his mind blanked out, the heat building in his body his only awareness.

“I….want…….you…….inside…..me.” Colin moaned, unaware that he’d even vocalized the subconscious thought. He continued to thrust, stumbling over the precipice and falling into the depths of orgasmic bliss.

*****

Colin snored quietly beside her; he’d barely moved off of her before giving into post-orgasmic sleep. Although she’d been exhausted earlier in the evening when she’d climbed into bed, she was now wide-awake, sleep seeming like a far-off possibility. For the first few moments she’d questioned if she’d really heard what she thought she’d heard, but, down deep, she knew it was real and she’d spent the last few hours trying to process it. Was Colin gay? Had he been unfaithful? Did he even know he’d said it? If he hadn’t cheated, did this mean that he wanted to?

She wasn’t sure how to feel. Her initial reaction of denial had passed and now she was vacillating between fury and sadness. She was angry at Colin for saying it and angry at herself for not seeing it coming. The reality was that things hadn’t been good for awhile, and she’d found her eyes wandering on occasion as well. But she hadn’t cheated. She’d never cheat, and it was this that made her furious.

But she was also scared. A woman, she thought, she could handle. It wouldn’t be easy, of course—these things never were—but she could handle it. But a man…that was a different story altogether. She wasn’t worried about contracting anything. She knew her husband well enough to know that he’d be careful about something like that, if not so much for his own sake, at least for hers.

It wasn’t even that the thought that he might be gay repulsed her. It didn’t. She’d gone through her own experimentation stage back in college, had even had a few passionate flings before deciding that it wasn’t where she wanted her life to go. When she met Colin, she’d known that he was ‘the one’, even though he wasn’t the type of man to which she’d normally be attracted. There was just something about him that sparked her curiosity, and later, her passion.

She thought back over the years of their lives together, trying to remember if there’d ever been any inkling, any sign, that he might be attracted to men. She couldn’t remember a one. That didn’t mean there hadn’t been any, of course, just that she hadn’t noticed them.

Then again, maybe all the worry was for nothing. They’d been apart a long time, and she was sure he’d sought release by his own hand many times, as she had. Perhaps something had caused him to experiment with penetration. It wasn’t exactly unheard of. She’d worked with several straight men who were really into it, and if that were the case, she’d certainly have no problem accommodating him. He’d never pressed her for anal sex, which was good because she didn’t think she could handle him, but if he wanted it for himself, she wouldn’t have a problem with that. They’d needed a little variety in the bedroom anyway.

Problem was, she didn’t think that was the case at all.

Gnawing at her lip, she stared at the darkened ceiling, the hardest decision of her life weighing on her shoulders.