Brief Encounters

Many thanks to talented author/editor HMAuthor for first editing and improving this story.

Special thanks to winterhunny713 for fresh perspectives and challenges that resulted in major improvements.

The drop-dead gorgeous woman blindsided me in the bar on the last night of the conference while I was gazing at another beautiful woman.

"I haven’t figured you out," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday morning you asked someone to take pictures of the people in our breakout session with your camera, and you stood so close to me I could hear you breathing. Last night, I saw you staring at me across this room. But you haven’t said one word to me."

I looked down at her hands.

"That's because you're married.”

It made her laugh. I liked her laugh. It was a full, honest laugh. She didn’t hold back.

"That was a good one," she said. "We both know that's not it. My guess is you’re a Photoshop expert. I've been trying to imagine what you’re going to do with the photos of you next to me. Most of my ideas are really perverse."

"Care to share them?"

She laughed again.

"You are good. I see you're married, too. What would happen if your wife saw the photos?"

"I’ll show them to her as soon as I get home. She's interested in my work."

"You don't say."

She was thoughtful for a moment.

"You’re either a genius or a pervert, maybe both. I just got it. Now I'm going to blackmail you, so listen carefully if you don’t want to be called in for sexual harassment. I promise I won't make any trouble for you if you do as I say tomorrow.

“It’s only a half-day, but I’ll be with you as much as I can. We’ll both use your camera. I will take pictures of you next to good-looking women, and you'll take pictures of me next to good-looking men. Before we leave, you'll upload your pictures of me onto my laptop. Got it?"

"Not the blackmail part," I said. "All my photos are totally innocuous group shots. If you accuse me of anything, I'm going to tell everyone the truth, which is that you came up to me tonight and started talking dirty. I can pass a lie detector test on that one. Maybe the bartender saw you and will be my witness.

“Now that we’ve dispensed with the blackmail, I can tell you I think your idea is terrific, and I'm looking forward to working with you tomorrow and doing everything you suggested. By the way, my name is Val. I've seen you in the building, but I don't know who you are or which department you work in."

*******

I saw the woman from work – her name was Jolie – a few times at the office after that. We nodded at each other. She was at a convention with me five months later, and after the Wednesday night session, I was sitting in the bar and saw her make a beeline for me.

She ordered a vodka martini, took a sip and made almost a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation as she looked around the room before she spoke softly, looking toward the entrance and not at me.

"It worked like magic, way beyond anything I expected. The first two nights, all he did was glance at a few of them and he was rarin’ to go. It was fantastic.

“After that, he wanted me to talk about the men. He was disappointed when I told him I didn’t know any of them, and the photos were only to make him jealous so he would be motivated to proving his manhood. I said it obviously worked.

“I thought that would be the end of it, but he kept asking questions, and I got confused. It took me couple of days to realize what he wanted. I started to make up stories. That got him more turned on than the when I showed him the photos. Some of my stories even turned me on.”

"That's because you're a woman," I said.

"Thanks a lot. So your wife likes stories. How do you come up with them?"

"That's what I do when I stare at women in the bar. It's not connected to the photos. When I'm taking pictures, all I do is look for a hot woman to stand next to.

“When I'm in the bar, I look around and try to spot an interesting looking woman who isn’t close to me. I sneak glances at her and start imagining meeting her and seducing her or her seducing me in her room or mine. I often make notes so I don't forget the story. Sometimes, I see the woman catching me looking at her. If she starts returning my glances, I get up and leave, so I don't give her the wrong idea."

"It’s a great system," Jolie said. "I don't think it would work for a woman. Let me tell you something strange. After a couple of weeks, I was worried that my husband might really believe me, so I told him that I was happy about how my stories aroused him, but I promised him that I would never cheat on him. You won’t believe what he said.”

"Something like this. He appreciated your loyalty, but from now on you didn't need to remind him, because it was much more exciting to imagine you might really do the things you were telling him."

"That’s right," she said, "and look what he bought me. I’m supposed to use it the next few days.”

She pulled out an expensive miniature camera, one of those high-resolution spy things that you can put in your pocket or hide in your sleeve.

"We're going to take turns using it,” she said. "Deal?"

"Deal," I said.

***************

Our company finished buying out a competitor a week after the convention, and the CEO scheduled a retreat for the acquisition's top executives to get to know our key people. Jolie was among the seventy people at the resort six weeks later.

After the first session, we sat at the bar again.

"When I spoke to my husband yesterday before I left, I felt he wouldn't mind if I seduced you," she said quickly and laughed. It wasn’t the laugh I liked. It was a short, nervous laugh.

"My wife said the same thing. Do you think they talked it over?"

She laughed her real laugh, her good laugh.

"What an imagination you have!" she said. “I think they’re playing games with themselves to make our stories feel more real.

"You know, even though I never talk to you except out of town, I feel like I know you a little bit. You are an attractive man with a good sense of humor, and you don’t cheat. If I had met you before my husband, who knows?”

"And you are one of the most beautiful women I've ever met. I know that doesn’t mean much to you, because you’re one of those women who takes pride in her brains and is insulted when someone compliments her looks.”

"Not necessarily," she said.

"So your husband knows about me? I bet it's for the same reason my wife knows about you."

"Yes," said Jolie. "When I came home with all those photos last time, he said I must not have attended any work sessions. So I told him how you helped me and I helped you so we could get quite a bit done in a short time. He asked a lot of questions about you."

"After I told her about you, my wife grilled me and was disappointed I couldn’t tell her things like what perfume you wear. She wore me out with her questions, but she had more orgasms that night than I could ever recall. Am I getting too graphic? Shut me up if I’m offending you."

"You realize we could both be fired for inappropriate behavior if someone knew what we were talking about," she said, and she quickly looked around before speaking again.

"I’ve flirted a little at the office, but only in fun. I never imagined having this kid of conversation with anyone but my husband.

“Funny thing. I’m less concerned with getting caught than with my husband’s reactions the last time I spoke about you. Afterward, I had an uneasy feeling and started regretting that I ever met you. Maybe the rewards aren’t worth the risks.”

"I know what you’re saying,” I replied. “I guess I was naive in thinking it was all innocent fun. It’s just a game, but when she told me she wouldn’t be angry if I slept with you, it spooked me.”

"That's exactly the way I felt. He didn't come out and say it like your wife did, but I could tell that's what he was hoping for. What are we going to do?"

"We can't do anything now," I said. "I think we've been here too long already.”

"Come to my room tonight after the evening session," she said. "Don't look at me that way. I will be fully dressed, and there won't be any drinks. We can work on our stories together and get them done fast and you can sneak back to your room."

"Okay," I said. "We've already got the beginning of the story. It’s about meeting in the bar and me sneaking to your room."

*****

"I'm worried, Val," said Jolie. It was four months after the merger retreat, and we were at another conference. She had come over to where I was eating breakfast alone and asked me to come to her room so we could talk privately. We were taking a big chance, because it was daytime, and someone might accidentally spot me going in there.

"Me, too," I said. "I think this is the last time we are going to meet, and I'm not taking any photos at this conference."

"I hope that works," she said. "I picked up the phone at least three times to call you at the office in the last couple of months, but I felt I couldn't break our unwritten agreement just because I felt trapped. After the merger retreat, my husband didn't want to hear any stories about the men in the photos. He just wanted to talk about you.

“He was disappointed with my story of our hotel room rendezvous and even accused me of lying, because he was sure we did a lot more than what I told him. He wanted to know details about you, about your body, about your sex equipment. He's obsessed by you.
“A couple of times, I wanted to slap him back to reality. I don’t know what I should do. The way he talks disturbs me. I'm crying myself to sleep a lot of nights. What have I done to our marriage?"

"My wife said she’d like to meet your husband. She's sure they have a lot in common. I told her under no conditions was she to try to contact him.

“She asked me to take pictures of you naked at this meeting. Not just naked, but in certain positions. She even went to a porn star's blog and showed me photos of the positions she wanted. I couldn't believe it."

"He wants naked photos of you, too," Jolie said. "I asked him if he was bisexual, but he said, no, all he wanted was photos of you before and after you are aroused. It would help him picture us making love.

“I could tell what he really wanted was photos of us having sex, but he was scared to ask. Thank goodness! It's time to stop this now. I'm not going to see you again, and I'm bringing nothing home to my husband. He doesn’t sound like the man I married anymore. I need to find a way to go back to what we had before we started doing this."

"I feel the same way, Jolie," I said. "I'm worried what my wife is going to say I return empty-handed."

*******

The Monday after we came back, I was on my third cup of coffee at my desk and staring at my screen when Jolie called. I wasn't surprised.

"I have to see you tonight," she said between sobs. "I'm in such a state that I had to call in sick. Can you meet me at the Denny’s a block from the office at eight? It should be mostly empty by then."

"Yes," I said.

When she joined me in the booth her eyes were red and her voice was almost robotic.

"It was terrifying watching my husband going ballistic," she said. "When he calmed down, it was even more frightening. He told me he was going to find out your real name. He doesn't want to talk to you. He wants to talk to your wife. I don’t know what to do.”

"I think my wife will find him before he finds her," I said. "I can't even imagine what they will say to each other. I've never seen her the way she was last night."

"We can’t give up, Val," she said as she took one of my hands and held it tightly. I looked down at her hands on mine and up at her.

"Jolie, forgive me," I said. "You're so beautiful and sexy that I sometimes forget what a wonderful person you are. Your stupid husband doesn't deserve someone who loves him as much as you do. And I'm the one who started all your troubles. I feel terrible."

"Don't say that, Val," she said. "If I hadn't been so smug about confronting you that first time in the bar, this would never have happened. You had your arrangement with your wife, and you both were happy. But I had to butt in. I should apologize to your wife and ask her to forgive me."

"That would be a mistake, Jolie," I said. "She's not herself. We have to find a way to bring her and your husband to their senses."

I was looking down at her hands, which were still holding mine. They were beautiful and elegantly manicured. They showed class, but they were also warm and comforting.

I looked up at her face and saw she was staring at me and crying. I put my other hand on top of our hands and squeezed them. She looked down to the four hands together, looked me in the face again and slowly pulled her hands back.

******

"What?"

I stared at her and couldn't find the strength to speak.

"What?" she repeated. "What is it, Val?"

"Nothing," I finally said.

She was standing a few feet from me.

"I imagined what you would look like naked, but my imagination failed me. You are the most beautiful woman in the world. Until you undressed just now, I never thought I'd see a woman who excited me as much as my wife, but you did it."

"I'm turning red, Val, so maybe you should start taking pictures now. It will look like I'm aroused. Do you have that list of disgusting poses your wife gave you? I'll get on the bed, and you can read them to me. Let's get this over with."

"You don't shave your pubic hair," I said. "I was sure that you were a naked oyster down there, but you've got a bigger bush than my wife. She calls it her forest, but you've got a jungle. You have no idea how much that turns me on."

"Yes I do," said Jolie, "because you sound like my husband. Sometimes I have to lift his head up and remind him there's more to do than rub his face in it. Come on. We need to finish this, because we have early meetings tomorrow."

"Okay," I said. "I still can't believe I'm doing this."

"Stop it! We've been over that too many times. What choice do we have? I'm on the bed and I'm waiting. That sounds bad, doesn't it? I'm sorry."

"God, you look amazing. I want sex with you so badly right now. Please forgive me. Do you remember the first one or should I read it to you?”

“I can’t forget it. I wish I could.”

She lay back on some pillows and spread her knees wide so that her lips were open. I could see inside her moist red vagina, which looked even brighter because it was framed by her thicket of dark hair. I was supposed to use my tongue or have her masturbate until she was aroused, but it wasn’t necessary. I took photos of her whole body and then some close-ups.

We continued through the rest of the poses, each one more degrading than the one before. After I finished with my list, she picked up her camera and said, "Let’s get through this fast. Please get undressed."

"Aren't you going to dress," I said.

"Not now. I want to finish and get you out of here. Come on! Faster!"

I looked at her while I undressed and saw her breasts heaving as she watched me. She had to arouse herself for some of the photos I took, and her face and chest still had a rosy color.

"I see that I'm not going to get any photos of you when you're soft,” she said with a strange laugh.

“It’s your fault,” I said.

“Okay stand over there. Now thrust out from your hips. That’s all I can think of. Help me. I don't know what to do. That’s good. Keep going. He wants video, too. He would like to see you come.”

“No way!”

After a while, she stopped and said, “All right, I think that's enough. Get dressed and get out of here."

I looked at her red face.

"May I ask what you're going to do when I leave," I said.

"No, you may not, but you may guess it's the same thing you're going to do when you get back to your room. We’re as bad as they are. We're all disgusting animals. I guess we deserve each other."

She laughed, but it was the strange laugh again, the one I didn’t like because it felt like there was pain in the middle of it.

“What happened to us?” she asked. “Not us. You haven't changed. You’re still the loving husband who took some photos as a joke to see if he could make his wife jealous and then found out she got turned on by them. She’s the one who has changed, and my husband – and me."

"What are you talking about, Jolie," I said. "Of all of us, you’re the one who hasn’t changed at all. You're still thinking about everyone else first and yourself last. What did I say? Why are you crying?"

"Val, you can't see it, but I've changed the most. If I told you how much, you would have nothing but contempt for me. I can't tell you how much I disgust myself.

“It may be grasping at straws, but as long as you’re willing, I’ll try anything to save our marriages. I even thought of calling their bluff."

"It wouldn't have worked," I said. "When the four of us met, I realized how much in tune they were. They spoke like one person. It's a good thing we were on our toes, because otherwise it could have been worse."

"I'm glad you put your foot down and said nothing was going to happen until we were at a conference out of town."

"I tried to keep them from going crazy," I said, "but I failed, because here we are. I’ve got to find a way to stop this.”

********

Two months later, we were sitting across from each other at a small table in a fancy hotel room in our home town. We were staring at each other, and I felt as though I was in a trance. She was crying.

"What are we going to do, Val? Why are we here with all the lights and the video cameras on tripods?"

"It's better than what they wanted to do," I said. "I couldn't believe they wanted to film us themselves."

"But you know that's what they'll demand next time," she said. "They can't stop themselves. They’ve become cruel and sadistic.

“They want us to hurt and humiliate each other for the cameras so they can see it. I have a list of what I'm supposed to do to you, but I’m not allowed to tell you. I have to be sneaky, so you will be surprised for the camera.

“Some of it involves anal things that are disgusting and painful, stuff you would never agree to do. They told me how to trick you so that when you realize what's happening, it will be too late. I’m sure your list has similar things for you to do to me. Val. Val, wake up! Did you hear a word I said?"

I shook myself.

"Yes," I said, "I heard, but I've been thinking, Jolie. I've gone along with everything my wife wanted up to now because I felt I was the one who started this. Last time, when you were posing in those degrading positions, it was painful because I didn’t want to be aroused like that. I wanted to stop and take you in my arms. It took all my will power to keep from touching you and turning us into sleazy cheaters.

“If my wife had said to make love to you and film it, I might have gone along with that. But she told me she wants that kind of sex only for herself. For you, she wants only pain and sexual humiliation. I think that's what finally did it.

“She’s gone too far. I don’t think she understands how evil this is. I don’t wish her any harm, but I've decided, I'm not going to do these things to you. Can you believe that she wants me to try to put my hand inside your vagina?"

"One of the things he wants me to do is twist your balls around until you're doubled up in pain," Jolie said. "They see those things on the Internet."

"I'm not going to do any of the things she wants," I said. "I respect you too much. More than I respect my wife."