A Time For Us (Michael Kaplan Mysteries) Read online

  Michael worried about what Myra would think. She was lying next to them, undoubtedly watching, waiting, wondering what he would do next. Was she thinking, Would the temptress succeed? His concern about Myra’s thoughts was unnecessary.

  As if reading his mind, Myra spoke. “It’s okay, baby,” she encouraged him in a sensual purr. “Go ahead. Make love to Kimberly. Please. I want you to. I really mean it.”

  Michael could not believe his ears. Is this a test of some kind? he wondered. Why on earth would Myra urge me to have sex with Kim? Does she think it will ease her guilt for allowing—no, encouraging—Kim to have sex with her? But if Myra felt any guilt, she failed to show it.

  Then, remembering what he had just watched take place between the two women, all his reservations and inhibitions dissolved. What the hell … why not? he thought. I’ve wanted to make love to Kimberly for a long, long time.

  In reality, Michael’s belated decision to let Kimberly possess him didn’t matter at all. The issue was completely moot, as her flesh had already engulfed his hardness.

  Kimberly reveled in the knowledge she had finally succeeded in seducing Michael. Moreover, she had done so with the explicit approval of his wife. They’d made a deal.

  A few minutes later another flash of lightning lit up the room. The peal of thunder arrived just in time to annotate Michael’s climax.

  But Myra and Kimberly did not allow him to stop. It was another two hours before the women, taking turns, finished with him and each other for the night, turned off the television, and drifted off to sleep.

  Three

  MICHAEL WOKE UP in an otherwise empty bed. The room was darkened, as Myra had closed the heavy floor-to-ceiling draperies that covered the sliding glass door leading to the balcony, to keep the morning sun from streaming in and disturbing his sleep.

  For a brief moment Michael was disoriented, failing to realize he was in Cancun and not lying in his own bed in Las Vegas. He arose groggily, stretched, yawned, and checked his watch. It was twenty after nine. So much for getting an early start on the day.

  Suddenly he remembered. Myra and Kimberly. Then all three of them. There were so many questions to be answered. Last night seemed more like an erotic dream than reality, but when he spotted a pile consisting of his striped pajamas and two nighties, one peach and the other turquoise, any doubts in his mind as to whether they actually all made love together were quickly dispelled.

  He could hear the women talking and laughing merrily in the kitchen. Dishes clinking and pots clanking told Michael they were preparing breakfast.

  He slipped into a blue bathing suit, and, with more than a little apprehension, headed for the kitchen. Kimberly was sitting at the table, Myra standing near the stove. Both were wearing bikinis.

  “Good morning, precious,” his wife greeted cheerfully. “You’re finally awake. Kim and I have been moving about for hours. We’ve already had a dip in the pool.”

  “Hi, lover,” Kimberly purred suggestively. “I wanted to wake you when we first woke up, but Myra said you needed your sleep.”

  “Good morning,” Michael muttered in a monotone.

  “Breakfast’s almost ready. Sit down and I’ll serve you,” Myra offered. She filled his cup with coffee.

  Michael put two spoons of sugar and a dash of cream in his coffee and stirred indifferently.

  “My, are we a bit grumpy this morning?” Myra observed. “Not even a ‘thank you’ for the coffee?”

  “Sorry. Thanks,” Michael muttered again.

  “Kim, you’ll have to excuse my husband,” Myra apologized, with an immense grin on her face. “You wouldn’t have any way of knowing this, but he’ll bite your head off in the morning until he gets at least two cups of coffee in his system.”

  “Oh, I already know that, Myra. Don’t forget, Michael slept over at my house while the two of you were having your little riff.”

  “I would have imagined Michael would have been on his best behavior while he was your house guest,” Myra commented wryly.

  “Oh, he was on his best behavior, all right. His behavior was beyond reproach—damn it.”

  Michael was doing a slow burn. “What do you think I am—chopped liver? Is it really necessary for the two of you to talk about me like I’m not even in the room?”

  “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Myra leaned over and planted a kiss on his forehead.

  “Me, either,” Kimberly added apologetically, kissing Michael on the cheek.

  Myra brought their breakfasts to the table: a stack of whole wheat toast, fresh pineapple slices, scrambled eggs, and what looked like bacon.

  Kimberly was surprised. She knew that even though Myra and Michael didn’t keep kosher, Myra would allow no pork into her home. Perhaps Myra relaxed the rule when they were somewhere else.

  Kimberly picked up a rasher and nibbled on it. “This bacon has a different taste to it. Did you buy it here in Mexico?”

  “That isn’t real bacon,” Myra corrected. “It’s kosher bacon—cured beef strips. I brought it with us. It takes a little getting used to.”

  “Well, it’s not bad at all,” Kimberly said approvingly. “I could get used to it.” She reached for a plastic container. “Michael darling, let me pour you a glass of orange juice.”

  Myra and Kimberly were so saccharine-sweet that Michael was becoming cloyed. He ate silently, but the two women talked nonstop throughout the meal. Yet, not a word was mentioned about the previous night. Myra and Kimberly were acting as if nothing exceptional had happened.

  “What do you want to do today?” Myra asked, between sips of coffee.

  Kimberly waited until she had swallowed before replying. “Let’s take a bus to Kukulcan Mall. I need to pick up a few things, but my shopping won’t take very long. After that, I’d like to spend some time on the beach; or, if you don’t like saltwater and sand, we can hang around the pool again.”

  Michael could contain himself no longer. “I think it’s about time we had a talk.”

  “I thought that’s what we were doing, honey,” Myra responded.

  “You know what I mean. About last night.” Why are they making this so damn difficult?

  “Oh, yes. Last night,” Kimberly repeated. She exchanged impish glances with Myra. “Let me think for a moment. You fell asleep on us—figuratively, not literally—and missed a really cute movie. Want me to tell you about it?”

  Michael pounded his fist on the table. He was fuming. “You know darn well what I want to talk about, and it’s not the movie. I want to talk about what happened after the movie.”

  “Oh. That.” Kimberly teased.

  “Yes. That.” Michael insisted. “I want to know why you and Myra were having sex.” There. He’d said it. The subject was out in the open.

  Kimberly giggled. “Well, the movie was over and there wasn’t anything else on TV we wanted to see and you were sound asleep and snoring and we were still wide awake—”

  Myra put a hand on Kimberly’s arm. “Kim, you’d better let me explain things to Michael. He’s turning purple as a beet and I’m afraid he might have an apoplectic stroke if he doesn’t get his answers soon. What do you want to know, Michael?”

  Michael was somewhat subdued. “I didn’t know … I didn’t know the two of you had a thing for each other. I’m not mad at you, either of you, really I’m not, but I just need to have some understanding. Something to make sense out of everything that happened.”

  Myra turned serious. She and Kimberly had teased Michael enough and he really did deserve some answers. “I told you last night was the first time Kim and I ever made love. That’s the truth.

  “We almost had sex once before, though. Many years ago, when we were in high school. Kim spent the night at my house and we were in bed watching a romantic movie on TV and kinda fooling around and all of a sudden things started to get hot and heavy. We probably would have gone all the way that night, if my parents hadn’t pulled into the driveway just then.

>   “I’d pretty much dismissed the whole incident from my mind. I nearly forgot it entirely, in fact. That is, I forgot about it until Kim moved to Las Vegas and we started hanging around together again. She never said anything to me about what happened that night in L.A. and I never said anything to her. But I started having erotic dreams about Kim several times a week and sometimes I’d even have sexual fantasies about her during the day.

  “Yesterday, I finally told Kimberly how I’d been feeling and she confessed she’d been having similar thoughts about me. Our curiosity was raised. So, last night, when you completely pooped out on us, we started playing around a bit, just to see if either one of us would respond, and you know what happened after that.”

  “And you actually enjoyed making it with Kimberly?”

  Myra nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. Very much. It was fantastic. It was perfect. It was extremely satisfying.”

  “I enjoyed the experience too, Michael,” Kimberly chimed in. “It had been a long, long time since I’d had sex with anyone—no thanks to you, though I told you often enough I was ready, willing, and able to be your mistress.”

  Michael was disconcerted that Myra now knew Kimberly had been blatantly propositioning him. “Okay. I don’t fully understand what you’ve just told me, but I suppose I can accept it. Now that your little experiment is over we can get back to a normal life.” He buttered a slice of toast and shoved it into his mouth.

  “It’s not quite that simple,” Kimberly explained patiently. “The genie is out of the bottle.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Michael snapped.

  Myra answered him. “It’s too late to lock the barn door. We can’t make the clock run backwards. We can’t unring a bell. We’ve crossed the Rubicon. We’ve passed the point of no return. We’ve reached the Event Horizon.”

  “Skip the precious metaphors, please. What are you trying to tell me?”

  “Both Kim and I thoroughly relished everything we did last night. Everything. With each other, and with you. You always told me you’d do anything in the world to make me happy. Are you saying now you’re not going to be supportive of my desire to continue having sex with Kim?”

  That was the last thing Michael wanted to discuss right then. He decided it was best to change the subject. He could get back to the Myra-Kimberly relationship later. “Another thing. A few months ago you were livid with jealousy when you suspected Kim and I were having an affair. Yet, last night, you not only said it was okay for me to make love with Kim, you actually encouraged me to have sex with her. Why?”

  “Your examples are as different as night and day,” Myra answered pedantically. “When I thought you were cheating on me behind my back, I felt my marriage was threatened. Last night, I wanted you to have sex with Kim to save our marriage.”

  Michael shook his head in disbelief. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me.”

  “I’ll try, Michael. I know you’re a little confused right now, but everything makes perfect sense to Kim and me. Really, it does.

  “I’ve known for a long time that Kim is in love with you. She’d even told me so. Right, Kim?”

  “Right.”

  “If you’re honest with me, Michael—and with yourself—you’ll admit you’re in love with Kim, also. Every time you look at her I can see the desire in your eyes. The same way you used to look at me when we were dating. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there were times when you were fantasizing about Kim while you were making love to me.”

  Michael averted Myra’s eyes. How did she know that? “Suppose you’re right,” he halfheartedly admitted. “Kim and I never had sex, even though we’ve had plenty of opportunities. Our love for each other was entirely platonic. Until last night.”

  “So—you’re telling me that because you and Kim had sex last night, your love is now other than platonic. In other words, romantic love.”

  Michael had stepped into that trap himself. He might as well come clean. “Okay, so I’m in love with Kimberly. I have been for a long time. I’m in love with you, too. You know that. The difference is that you and I are married and Kim and I are not. Even though I may have wanted to make love with Kim, I repressed my feelings because of our wedding vows.”

  Myra rubbed Michael’s shoulders. She could feel the tenseness in his muscles. “I respect you for your restraint, Michael. You—Kimberly too—sacrificed and did without something you both very much wanted, because of your love and respect for me. But if you and Kim had slept together, would you have loved me any less afterwards?”

  “No. Of course not.” Where is she going with this? Michael wondered.

  “Did you enjoy making love to Kimberly last night?” Myra asked. “Better be careful how you answer. If you don’t say yes, she’ll probably hit you on the skull with a frying pan.”

  “Of course I enjoyed making love with her. What did you expect me to say?”

  Myra sat down and took Michael’s hands in hers. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you and Kim slept together. The two of you were like an accident waiting to happen, a ticking time bomb, a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse. Kimberly was determined to make love with you, and sooner or later she would have succeeded, because you wanted her, too. All it would take to set you off would be the right surroundings and a casual kiss or even an accidental touch.

  “Maybe I would have had to go out of town on a business trip and you would be lonely and take Kim out to dinner and wind up in her bed. Maybe we would have a silly little argument and you would turn to Kim for consolation. Or maybe the day would come when you just couldn’t suppress your longing for her any longer. And then, you’d cheat on me.

  “Desire is a hideous monster. I knew once you started, you wouldn’t be able to stop—just like the guy in the potato chip commercial. I could visualize myself sitting alone at home, night after night, waiting for you to come in with some flimsy excuse—a lie—to explain where you were and why you were out so late. Think what all those transparent lies would do to your self-respect and to the trust in our relationship!

  “I’d be able to sense you were having an affair, of course, even if you were careful not to come home smelling of Kim’s perfume and your shirts weren’t smudged with her makeup. Contrary to the popular saying, the wife isn’t always the last person to know—though she’s usually in denial and the last one to admit, even to herself, that her husband is being unfaithful.

  “I’d be insanely jealous. But then, so would Kim. She’d be devastated every time you would slip out of her bed in the middle of the night to go home and climb in bed with me. She’d resent the time you spent with me and would be putting pressure on you to spend more time with her, perhaps even to leave me. Whichever one of us was alone at any given moment would be miserable, letting her imagination run wild, visualizing in her mind’s eye what you and the other person might be doing in bed. Moreover, since you and Kim work together, your affair would place a tremendous strain on both of you at the office.

  “Sooner or later, things would come to a head and you’d be forced to make a decision. Divorce me and move in with Kimberly, or sever all ties with her. Two of us would be heartbroken—whichever woman you rejected, and you, because you had lost one of your loves. And trust would be forever missing from the relationship that survived. No matter what choice you made, none of us would escape unscathed.

  “So, since you were in love with both Kim and me, it seemed to me the sensible solution would be for you to be able to make love with either or both of us whenever you wished. Freely, openly, with no duplicity. The fact that Kim and I discovered that we desire each other sexually made the solution to our problem a whole lot clearer.

  “I know now your love for Kim won’t diminish our relationship—nor will my having sex with her affect my feelings for you.”

  Michael shook his head. “You’re wrong. Sure, while we’re here in Cancun we can party, if that’s what you and Kim insist on doing; but, when we go back to Las Vegas after
our vacation, things can never be as they were before. You’ve seen to that.

  “You say you want to continue having sex with Kim. Well, now that I’ve had sex with her, so do I. Often. When we get back home, I’ll be torn between you and Kim, just as you described in your scenario. Your worst fears will be realized. Except all three of us will be jealous. I’ll be jealous of you and Kim.

  “How are you going to solve those little problems?”

  Kimberly had been waiting impatiently to get a few words in. “There won’t be any problems, Michael. Myra asked me to move in with the two of you and I’ve accepted, pending your approval of the idea. It’s the perfect arrangement. All of us will be able to make love whenever and however we want, without any resentment, because there will never be any cheating and no one will ever have to sit home alone.”

  The light suddenly turned on in Michael’s head. “Are you talking about us engaging in a ménage à trois? That’s impossible. What would our friends say?”

  “It’s not impossible,” Myra retorted. “It’s the only viable answer to our needs. We have a two-bedroom condo. Nobody will know we’re using only one of the bedrooms or what we’re doing in it unless we choose to tell them. Besides, if people are truly our friends, they won’t be judgmental; they’ll want only what’s best for us.

  “We can make love every night in whatever combination pleases us at the time. Because we’ll be sharing and not trying to manipulate or control or possess one another, there will never be any cause for jealousy. When you made love to Kimberly last night it took nothing away from our marriage, Michael. In fact, it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, because I knew I had given both you and Kim most precious gifts—each other. It may take a little getting used to, but perhaps someday you’ll feel the same way when Kim and I have sex.”

  “I caught you surreptitiously watching us last night, Michael,” Kimberly interjected. “You pretended your eyes were closed, but they weren’t. I saw what watching Myra and me making love was doing to you. Don’t try to tell me we weren’t turning you on.”