Heartache and Renewal

Daunt here.  I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, so I thought I’d catch you up on me and Madison.

Not long ago Madison and I went on a lovely trip to Paso Robles wine country.  We spent five nights together -- this is no small thing considering that she is married.  Prior to the trip she was feeling pretty confident in the direction her life was going; she had decided to make plans to leave her husband. No, not for me, I wouldn’t accept that.  Madison has become frustrated with me on many occasions when I have come to her husband’s defense; strange, right? However by the end of the trip Madison had become very pensive and I’m feeling like something has gone awry.

The ride back to Sacramento was quiet. Although we had made love that morning, and both enjoyed it, Madison wasn’t with me so to speak.  Her body was there, but her much of her mind was elsewhere.  Something palpable had manifested between us, but neither one of us were acknowledging its presence. As she got in her car to go home she kissed me and smiled, but her eyes betray deep concern.

I watch her car drive away and I begin to ponder our time together.  We had had a fantastic time.  We both thoroughly enjoyed our outings wine tasting, our meals at various restaurants were wonderful and rich with fun, sometimes deep, conversation; and our lovemaking was hot and fulfilling.  We found ourselves reaching a surprising level of comfort with one another.  Then my thoughts are interrupted by a phone call.  It’s Madison.

She starts off by saying, “I’m having all these strange feelings, I don’t know what’s going on.  Maybe I’m feeling guilty.”  We chat a while and come to the uneasy conclusion that maybe it was simply the amount of time spent together and the level of comfort we feel with one another, but the conversation ends feeling unsettled.

At roughly 4PM, while she is on her lunch break from work, we chat again on the phone.  Madison’s guilt and conflicted feelings persist, if anything they’ve become worse.  I listen, try and help her sort her feelings, but at the same time I am careful to avoid influencing her.  She’s sounding like she wants to reconcile with her husband, but at the same time wants me in her life. As the conversation goes on I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  The level of duress Madison is feeling is worrisome.

After our afternoon phone conversation I find myself wrestling with what I want and what I feel Madison needs.  I am concerned. I fear I am clouding her ability to figure out what she needs for herself.  In the end I reach a decision.  I have to stop seeing her.  If she truly wants to work things out with her husband she needs to be released to do so, and if that’s not the case she needs the space to get her head clear.

Sometime after 8PM I tell Madison the decision I had come to. The tears begin to flow.  As I try to explain a war takes place within me; part of me is wanting to take it all back.  She says she understands, but it’s clear she is hurting.  Madison had told me that she would be attending an event with her husband and his family over the weekend.  I suggest that she really try over the weekend to open her heart to her husband, to really try and decide if he can fulfill what she is lacking in her life.  I tell her that we shouldn’t communicate until Monday so she can have the space to do this.  She agrees and we say our goodbyes.

Something that I think is often overlooked in regard to affairs, is that they are almost never a person's first choice.  The majority of people that enter into an affair do so because something in their marriage relationship is already very broken.  Often, as was the case was with my marriage, one party in the marriage will believe that everything is fine.  And frequently the party that feels the marriage is okay will dissuade the other from seeking help like counseling.

Listen up folks.  If your spouse is asking for counseling, there is a problem.  If this problem could have been handled without outside help, it would have been.  Just go.  I also suggest seeing an individual counselor.  An objective party trained to listen and help you organize your thoughts can be an enormous help.

Madison and I couldn’t even make it through a weekend without a couple of text messages, but we were mostly good.  Come Monday we talk on the phone.  She said she really made an effort to open herself to her husband and that the weekend mostly went well.  They had gotten into a couple of deep discussions that caused her to feel disheartened, but they were going to another couples counseling session that evening.

Tuesday I touch base with Madison again.  I learn the couples counseling didn’t go so well.  She’s seeing more clearly the issues she has come to believe can never be overcome.

Friday rolls around.  Madison sees her individual counselor.  Much of what she is feeling is validated and for the first time she shares with her counselor about her friendship and time spent with me.  Shockingly, in light of what was shared with the counselor, the counselor doesn’t see me as a negative force in Madison’s life.

In the end my decision to stop seeing Madison lasted less than a week.

Make up sex... don’t you love it?

During the following week Madison and I set a time in the evening to see each other.  Next to the bed I kiss her deeply then light a candle.  Slowly we undress one another.  I sit her on the edge of the bed then with a lingering kiss lay her back. No toys, no tethered cuffs, in my heart I wanted our time to be about re-connecting and so did she.

I stand back up next to the bed and gaze down at Madison. Her legs dangle off the edge of the bed at the knee and my hands are resting on her thighs.  She raises herself up on her elbows and looks at my face, from her expression I can tell she’s wondering what I’m thinking.  I smile and say, “Madison, tonight I’m going to treat you.  Roll over onto your stomach.”  A questioning look flutters across her face, but then she does as was bid. She rolls over and stretches out. For a moment I allow myself the simple pleasure of looking at her, the profile of her face, eyes closed; the smooth slope of her back narrowing to her waist, the bell flare to her hips and bottom.

Taking her right foot in my hands I begin massaging and kneading it. Madison’s lips part then shortly after I hear a quiet contented moan.  I continue for some time watching the flickering shadows of candlelight on her skin.  Then I switch to the left foot.

I’m going to share something I’ve truly come to adore about Madison, her skin -- and I don’t mean a particular patch of skin, I mean all of it.  The more aroused Madison becomes, the more sensitive her skin becomes.  I love this.  Her whole body becomes an adventure in discovery.

As her arousal builds I’ll start lightly tracing my fingertips over her.  She will shudder and writhe, sometimes suddenly her hand will dart out and snatch mine because the sensation is simply too much.  Then I’ll find a spot and gently continue swirling my fingertips over it.  The game is on... I get to find out if I can get her to orgasm.  If I win my reward is her sheepish embarrassed laugh.  So far I’ve won our little game with her ear and neck, but those aren’t too uncommon. A more fun one was near one of the dimples at the small of her back.

So after finishing the foot massage I begin running my hands lightly over Madison’s back searching, giving her time to enjoy and take in the sensation.  As I begin to identify a few hot spots I get an idea.  I lean down and kiss her back.

“Let’s have you roll back over”, she can hear the mischievous tone in my voice.  Her eyes open and she smiles rolling to her back.  Still standing next to the bed I grab her thighs and pull her toward me so I’m between her knees, her hips right at the edge of the mattress.  I give her a deep kiss, then kiss and lick her neck.  Then I begin tracing my fingers over her skin again, between her breasts, down her sides, over her thighs, slow circles teasing their way toward her nipples.  I grin as she shudders  and her breathing deepens.

I reach down and slowly ease myself inside her.  She gasps and tilts her hips to take me deeper.  Then I give her a sly half smile and grab her right foot.  Madison watches as I bring her foot to my mouth and touch my tongue to her second largest toe.  She grins back with a look indicating that she thinks I’m just teasing, then she looks a little startled as I take her toe into my mouth.  She gently tries to pull her foot back.  I run my tongue under the back side of her toes, her eyes widen briefly then become half-lidded.  I hear her quiet moan as I take her toe back in my mouth caressing it with my tongue.  She shudders and by being inside her I can feel her climax.  Her eyes pop open and she giggles.

Yes, I won our little game again.

DauntlessD Exposed

I just looked back at my very first post, Nice Guys are *NOT* Attractive, and discovered it was posted back in January. It's funny thinking about that first post. It took Kat quite a bit of urging to get me write something, anything. During this span of time I avoided exposing my personal life.

This was for two reasons. First, I have an unusually strong bent in regard to privacy. Even with the anonymity of the blog I felt uncomfortable. This post is about getting past that. Second, I just didn't feel you would enjoy reading about my rather mundane life. Yes my marriage is crumbling so I have the same type of strife as Kat and many others, but outside of participating as co-author on this blog I have not been engaged in any activity that could be considered saucy or controversial; trust me, you would have yawned.

Maybe I'll learn I'm wrong, but Kat has an amazing ability I don't think I have. Even while writing about the rather ordinary struggles with her husband and life, she is able to pull out and highlight some insights and thoughts that make for a fun read. I think my writing on my real world struggles would have simply sounded like whining.

So what's up Daunt, why do you suddenly want to share now?

Here comes the exposure part. My life has suddenly gone from a sickly simmer, to an outright cantankerous boil of change. My marriage is ending and I am moving my wife to the east coast. So with that I have a hunch I'm going to have quite a lot to write about in the near future as I embrace this and face new struggles. AND I have something a bit saucy to share! (Bet you didn't see that coming did you?)

Time to bring up you to speed. I'll try and be brief.

Roughly last October I hit a strange crossroads in my life that rose up in me suddenly and compelled me to make a change. Initially I thought it was a mid-life thing. The thought of an affair at the time appealed to me so I set out to make one happen. I signed into Ashley Madison and went to work. I met a number of women, but for some odd reason something in me just didn't want to pull the trigger so to speak; PWK readers paying attention may have noticed me alluding to this in our 200th post. However, one beautiful thing did come out of this time, I met Kat; read Prowling Friendships, for a bit more insight.

After meeting Kat, something strange happened. As my friendship with her grew, that weird feeling I was having that drove me to Ashley Madison shrunk. Now in retrospect I can finally put a word to that feeling: loneliness. I had never really felt it like that before so I didn't know what it was. However my marriage was gasping and I had roughly a year prior helped my closest friend move out of state. So it makes sense. I was just... lonely.

Oh Daaaauuunnt. DauntlessD, you said you had something saucy for us where is it?

Ah, yes. Well in that phase of meeting women through Ashley Madison, there was one other than Kat that perked my interest. Madison. With this woman I felt that... chemistry... It's the feeling that comes out in Kat's naughty posts. You can almost envision a lioness patiently stalking, then with zest, power and strength the prey is brought down in the blink of an eye. That vibe that causes Kat to POUNCE. That heart pounding sexual energy that causes DauntlessD to... be insufferably nice -- for 7 whole freakin' months!

And with that intro, meet Madison.

To be continued...

(and yes, the saucy part is coming...)