Living as Four Bodies and One Mind - Part 2

As I drove back home, I felt a little guilty at what I'd done. I mean, at the back of my mind, I knew that I was being unreasonable. As a wise man once said, men give love to get sex, and women give sex to get love.

Priorities differ. For me, the physical aspect was more important, and for the two women in the group, the feeling of attention and the feeling that they were needed (and someone considered them beautiful) was perhaps more important. By putting a condition that the relationship should be kept on a physical plane only, I knew, I was being selfish.

But also at the back of my mind, I knew it was almost impossible to keep it that way.

The first day after being back from the holiday had passed relatively quietly and without incident. Sara had pinged me, and unfortunately, I was extremely busy at work at the moment. So it was more or less just a 'hi, how are you..' sort of conversation. I hoped Appu would have the required conversation with her today evening.

I reached home to find Shama engrossed in her daily soaps. To my surprise, she was wearing a t-shirt and a knit cotton pant we had bought at a sale almost a year ago.

After the purchase, she had steadfastly refused to wear them, saying that she didn't want to wear skin tight clothes.

Being from the village, she was uncomfortable even with tight salwars. She never wore anything other than salwars and 'nighties' -- a long burqa-like dress that mercifully did not cover the face.

She seemed engrossed in her serial, and I proceeded to check out if there was something worthwhile in the fridge. She would get up only at 8:30, when her favorite serials ended. The kid was laid next to her on the sofa.

"How was the day," she asked. "Fine," I said, slightly surprised that she'd was not totally engrossed in the TV.

"Want dinner?" I was surprised again.

"Yeah.. I am kind of hungry," I said, putting down the dairy milk bar on the dinner table.

"Ok, wash up and get changed," she said, getting up with the obvious intention of heading for the kitched.

I was odd, I thought. It was only 7:30 and we normally have dinner only by about 9.

Looking at her, I realized why she thought tight clothes were 'too sexy' for her. Unlike Sara, Shama had a well-endowed body. Her hips were wide and her buttocks were big, but not big like you see on some aunties. She was not fat -- her's was an average figure, with a little bit of baby fat, especially on the face -- making her cheeks look a little big.

But her body was well proportioned. Her butts had tendency to 'hang' down a bit - or probably that was their shape. In the thin cotton dress that clung to her, it was looking like she was wearing nothing at all.

The outline of her ass was very clear and they were pretty big, I noted. Of course I'd seen her naked lots of times, but I had never been able to compare because I hadn't seen many girls naked anyway.

I was more used to checking out ass when they were housed in pants, or jeans, or at least a tight salwar-kameez.

Now, for the first time, I could make an apple-to-apple comparison -- and she was large and shapely, and I suddenly felt a tinge of pride. I mean, since Sara always wore jeans, I could see how big (or small) hers were, and Shama definitely had the more shapely, and more feminine ass of the two.

I could see that she was abashed, particularly as she saw me checking her out.

"Are they bad?" she asked.

"I thought I would wear them indoors, since we've bought them anyway," she went on, without waiting for me to answer.

"No, they're good. You look good," I said, trying not to show much interest. I knew that she would get self-conscious if I acted like the pant was showing off her assets in a big way.

I realized she was wearing her normal, cup-bra under the t-shirt. The wrinkles in the bra-cups were easily visible under the pink t-shirt.

Her boobs were pretty small when I 'got' them more than three years ago. Credit for the current enlarged size goes to my son. They were pretty big now, I thought. Perhaps her bra was not right, I thought.

With these thoughts, I went and had a wash, changed and came to the dinner table.

She seemed a little restless as she sat with me and had her food. "Am I looking fat, Sometta?" she asked with a worried expression, laying down the rice server.

"Whoever told you that?" I said, turning my attention to serving the food.

"Lathika was saying that I should cut down on food now.. Otherwise I will keep gaining weight," she said, referring to the woman next door. Apparently, she had convinced her that unless women who have given birth recently watch their food, their figures would get totally out of shape.

"No, you look fine right now," I assured her.

After dinner, Shama turned off the TV and turned her attention to the kid, to try to get him to sleep, while I picked up the day's newspaper.

"I am feeling sleepy.. Do you wanna sleep?" she asked after about 15 minutes. She had put the kid to sleep, but the time was barely 9. We rarely slept before 10:30.

"Hm.. Ok, I'll be there," I said.

"Ok, don't just say that sit here for another two hours," she warned with mock anger and went in.

I followed her in after five minutes. She had already got her t-shirt off and was waiting for me in her bra and the grey pant.

I took off my shirt and laid myself next to her as she took me in her arms. It was not everyday that she would 'initiate the proceedings'. Normally, I would be the one to do anything, since more or less, sex depended on whether I was horny or not.

Mostly, she would turn towards the kid and start going to sleep.

I wasn't sure what she was doing, but I noticed a distinct smell of sweat as she tightened her hold over me. She would smell like that only on days that she hadn't bathed, and there were only one or two such days since we got married.

Anyway, I didn't have much time for thoughts, as she was going all aggressive over me, even as I was still trying to match up. She seemed in a hurry and I thought she was trying to chew my lips off me after getting on top.

I was also turned on by seeing her 'spirit', and we made love like we had never done before. Her pussy was wet within a minute, and I was able to get my not so small rod right up into her in the first thrust. I had forgotten the last time I was able to do that. Normally, I would have to push it in bit by bit, waiting for her pussy to release juices.

Today, it went right in, smooth as butter, and judging by her exclamation of 'ha', she enjoyed it as much as I did. She did not let go of my lips, and was sucking my saliva out of my mouth while I valiantly tried to keep up with her.

I realized what 'female excitement' really meant. In all our married life, she had never shown this kind of aggression. Early on, she must have held back because girls are not supposed to show it, and lately, both of us had lost much of our interest in sex - at least, with each other.

She was riding to and fro now. That's what she does - not up and down, but to and fro. Only her hips actually moved. When they moved forward, my dick would ride right in, and she pushed at the end, trying to get even more in. Of course, there was nothing more left of my dick of course -- all 6-7 inches were already inside her.

And she would move her hips in a wave-like fashion - rhythmically, pulsating and struggling to get as much of me inside her as she could. I have seen women sort of bounce up and down on their partners in porn movies, but Shama didn't need to life herself at all to ride the length of my rod with her wet pussy.

All she needed to do was move her hips back and forth.. I tried not to spurt too soon by holding back.. I tried to think of other things, so that I won't spew my seed too fast. But she was going at it like there was no tomorrow, and was making noises, and calling my name 'Sometta.. Umm.. Sometta.. Umm.. Sometta.. " I could literally feel the juices inside her pussy hole squirting on my dick - lubricating the passageway even more and stimulating my already highly-stimulated cock. Not surprisingly, after about 10-15 'up and downs' by her, I was ready to come.

She always knows when I am ready to come, probably from the twitching in my cock. At these times, she normally tightens her grip behind me. Today, however, she stopped her pelvic thrusts, plunging my dick into total confusion. It did not know whether to come or not..neither did I. With her hips still, she started kissing me on the neck, and I moved to kiss her again on her lips.

Like most men, I really didn't feel turned on when somebody kissed anywhere other than my dick or my mouth. Of course, Shama liked the full-body kiss -- starting from her eyes and going all the way down to her 'center point'. She was unbelievably sensitive to my lips on most of her body, especially on her nipples, belly, neck etc..

Some days, she would wake up with bite marks on her neck and other places because I had got a little too carried away.

After about a minute, she again started thrusting, and this time, I came within a minute.

The next day morning, I remembered that I had forgotten to tell her the main thing.

"Shama," I began, seeing an opportune moment at the breakfast table, "I was talking to Appu yesterday..."

She looked up at me without saying anything - a kind of anxiety showing on her face.

"And we decided that we will interact only during the weekends.. That means, he will not make phone calls or emails or anything to us in between." By 'us', I meant 'her' of course. But we still had not discussed what happened in Goa openly with each other.

That meant that, for the two us, that episode more or less did not exist.

That creates its own problems when you are trying to set boundaries to the new relationship.

"Ok.." she said, trying to hide her anxiety and curiosity.

"Yeah, that's better. I've told them to visit on Saturday," I added. She seemed happier now, the hint of a smile flashed across her lips.

She turned her attention to her plate again.

"That should be enough," I thought.

Almost as soon as I logged in to Gmail at office, Sara pinged -

"Hi"

"Hi"

"How are you?"

"I am good, how are you?"

"Good too.. Howz the baby?"

"Just fine.." I said.

There was a gap of about one minute as I wondered what to do. So I pinged Appu.

"Did you tell her?"

"Yeah.. I mean, I told her that we both had decided it would be better to interact over the weekends, and only the in the presence of all four of us," he said

"I didn't tell her 'don't call him' or anything. I mean, I can't say that in so many words," he added.

"Yeah.. Same here," I said.

I turned to Sara's chat window.

"So what's up?" I asked.

"Nothing yaar.. Just work.. Goa was such fun.. I want to go back there," she said.

"Me too," I said, and realized that I was actually starting to miss her.

She worked about 5 km away from my office, and it was not totally impossible to go and meet her there. But I dismissed the thought, warning myself that I would end up with two wives instead of one if I wasn't careful.

Suddenly, the phone rang. "Hi, are you busy?" It was Sara, and it was the first time in our lives that she had called me on the phone directly. Her nervousness was obvious.

"No.. Not really.. One sec," I said, getting up from my seat and looking for an empty meeting room nearby.

"What's up," I said, as I entered an empty room.

"Nothing really.. Just felt like talking to you, so I called," Sara said, sounding like a 15 year old.

"Hm.. So how is it going with Appu," I said; really, without thinking.

"He's good. We are planning to come to your place on Saturday," she said, suddenly perking up. "What's the plan," she asked.

"Nothing as of yet... Let's first meet," I said.

"Yeah.. It would be nice to meet," she said. "You know, I am not supposed to call you," she added. "Appu said it's better not to.. He'd discussed with you too," she said.

"Yeah, we did discuss that..," I said, suddenly realizing that I was on sticky territory. "We thought it would be better to go slow..," I said.

"Yeah, that is right," she said, obligingly. "Anyway, think of something fun to do on Saturday," she said.

"Ok.. Bye then."

"Byeee.." she said in a tone that would turn a heart of stone into water.

I cut the phone, and spent the rest of the day with a smile on my face. Somehow, it felt nice.. Despite a cautionary feeling at the back of my mind that I should not encourage it, it felt really good to know that she thinks about me.

She sent me a 'friendship card' on my email in between, with the picture of a red rose. I didn't reply.

Soon, it was D-day (again).

Appu and Sara arrived at about 11.. Sara was a light blue t-shirt and a wearing a floral skirt that reached over her knees.

Shama had been up since 7, making breakfast and arranging the house. She was still busy in the kitchen, preparing lunch. But she came out to say hi to the couple. She was wearing a salwar kameez.

"Hi, please give me some time, I need to finish some work in the kitchen," she said, sounding like a typical Indian housewife, but her happiness and excitement was unmissable.

Appu and Sara plonked themselves on the sofa as usual, Appu taking hold of the remote. Sara got busy with the kid, as usual.

In fact, things hardly seemed to have changed from the old times, before we got 'close'. The routine was so much the same. I sat in the single chair of the sofa, adjacent to the other two, and me and Appu started our usual discussions about the world etc.

Sara rarely took part in these discussions, but usually paid attention. Today, I noticed that she was paying attention -- but she was nearly totally fixated on me. Unlike the old days when she would only fleetingly look at me, now she was only looking at me.

She did not seem to care that Appu was sitting next to her, and that he might feel ignored, or angry. Not that, Appu was paying attention to her.

I also slowly adjusted my behaviour so that I could also look at her during the conversation, though normally I would fix my gaze more or less exclusively on Appu, or the TV.

I started to loosen up a bit. I realized that though we have spent time with each other's wives in private, we haven't really spent time with each other's wives when their husbands were present. And it was not as easy as making loosetalk with the wife when the hubby was not around.

We were still talking only about worldly subjects -- politics, technology.. And stuff that we normally talk about. After a while, Sara got up and went into the kitchen, while we continued to blabber away.

After a while, I saw Sara go into one of the bedrooms, presumably to lay down her baby on the bed.

And by about 11:45, my wife and Sara rejoined us in the living room, Sara sitting next to Appu and my wife coming and sitting next to me on the hand-rest of the sofa-chair.

"Sit here," I said to my wife, getting up and pointing to the chair.

"Why.. I am fine here," she said.

"I'll sit on the floor.. I want a head rub," I said.

"In that case, I also want one," Appu said, leaning over to his side and putting his head in Sara's lap.

Soon, we were both having our wives run their fingers through our hair, me sitting on the floor with my head between her legs and Appu lying on the sofa.

We continued to talk this and that, but now involved the women..

"You know, my wife does this much better than yours," Appu said, leading Sara to blush a little.

"No way, Shama is an expert hair masseur," I said.

"Really? Let me see then," Appu said, and got up from Sara's lap.

"Fine, let me see how good Sara is meanwhile," I said.

So saying, both of us switched places. This time, thankfully, there was no mock protests from Shama, as I half expected.

Instead, she made space for Appu to sit on the floor by spreading her legs wide, and took his head in her arms with a smile.

"Come on then," Sara said, turning sideways and putting both her legs up on the sofa and pointing to her lap. The blue-red floral skirt still covered most of her legs, including the knees.

As I lay down with my head facing the roof, I realized that I won't be able to see the other two as I was lying with my head towards them.

Sara started with her fingers on the sides, slowly weaving them into the my hair and pushing upwards. Her first touch itself was enough to turn me, and I realized that I was getting a hard on, and there was no way to hide it as I was lying on my back and body was sprawled across in front of Sara.

I was looking up at Sara's smiling face, and of course, her boobs were within licking distance.

"This chairs not comfortable, let's sit on that one," I heard Appu saying, and I turned my head to see what he meant. He was pointing to the other sofa-chair with its back towards us, for obvious reasons. He probably did not want my wife to constantly see me and Sara make out.

The two got up and sat up in front, and now we could only see the back of Shama's head. Everything else was hidden from our view.

Almost immediately, Sara bent down to kiss me. Our lips locked with our head facing in different directions vertically.

Sara was hungry, and she was threatening to tear my lower lip away from me. A sense of urgency took hold of me too, and trying not to make too much noise, I broke the kiss and turned around.

Now I was lying on my stomach with my head up against Sara's breasts, protruding beneath her blue t-shirt. I put both of my hands behind her, and pulled her down on the sofa, pushing her under me so that her head was now resting on the sofa cushion, and kissed her as she pulled me to her with both her hands behind my back.

We lay there, just kissing, four or five feet behind a chair where my wife was giving her husband a head massage.

My dick was now fully hard and it was almost bursting from my knickers. I pushed it against her crotch, making her feel how hard it is, as I put my hands under her t-shirt through the sides. I reached my hands all the way through the back (inside her t-shirt) to her shoulders, using the grip that it offered me to squeeze her chest onto mine.

Our mouths were making slurping noises that would have easily told the other two what we were doing. I broke the kiss momentarily to see what was going on at the other chair, and I could see Shama's head. However, her face seemed to be facing slightly upwards, and not downwards. Probably Appu had his face buried her chest as well, I thought.

The thought made me ever hornier, and I bit my way through Sara's neck. I pushed her t-shirt up, revealing her bra's half-cups. Though this was not part of the plan, I put my hands behind her again and unhooked the bra.. And moved it up, freeing her breasts, and started sucking on them, one after the other, madly.

"mmmm.. Aaaa.." Sara started moaning. I looked momentarily over to the others, and this time I could not see any part of Shama, but, through both sides, I saw Appu's feet in front of the chair - one on each side. From the position of the feet, I could make out that he was on his knees, facing the chair. From the ruffling and slight sucking noises, I realized he must be busy doing what I was as well.

I pulled her skirt up, running my fingers - almost clawing - along her thighs. I moved my head down as she put both her hands on the back of my head. I sucked on her belly, which would have been totally fat before her pregnancy, but now had just an inkling of fat here and there. I moved further down. Her pink panty was slightly moist where her slit was, and there was an strange aroma -- mixed with a touch of urine smell -- coming from her pussy. I did not remove the panties, but tried to nose-fuck her, trying to put my nose inside her crevice.

She started arching her back, pushing her crotch up against my face. I bit her what I could make out was the outline of her pussy lips through the fabric, which was by now totally wet.

Normally, before I went down on my wife, I would make sure she washed. I did not particularly like sticking my tongue into an unwashed pussy hole.

But this time, it was apparent that she'd had her bath only recently, so I decided to pull down the panties. Unlike my wife, she had the habit of shaving, and it seemed like she had shaved either today or yesterday.

Her folds were brownish (she had folds, unlike my wife, who had, basically, a slit, and not much around it). Unlike my wife's vulva, which was very hard to grip, this was a feast. I could chew on it, suck on it, slip my tongue all over, and between it.

However, my face was totally drenched in her juices, which were rushing out of her vulva onto the sofa. I don't try to drink the juice or anything, but some of it, of course, ends up in your mouth if you are trying to show women a nice time. I moved my lips to her clit, a small one, but still bigger than my wife's.

Her moans were getting louder and she was pushing my face into her pussy now. I was swallowing the spit and liquid that was collecting in my mouth - there was no other option. Spitting, like I would in case of my wife, did not feel right.

Sara was now almost bow-shaped, and her skirt was now covering her upper body, hiding her breasts under it. The good thing about Sara was that she was not as heavy as my wife, she was, after all, much thinner than her. So it was easier to lift her hips up to my mouth, and counter her arching. I spent about three minutes sucking, pulling and biting, my hands gripping her smallish buttocks tightly, perhaps a bit too tightly.

She seemed to have come two or three times, going by her vibrations and the sudden tightening of her grip on my head, which was becoming painful and she tended to pull my hair when she reached a crescendo, or whatever it was.

I still can't be sure about women's orgasms. I don't know whether they even have a clear cut orgasm like men do, or whether they have a series of not-quite-as-powerful climaxes. After about 3-4 minutes, I decided it was enough, at least like this on the sofa.

I pulled out my head after she had another shuddering session, and pulled off the skirt from her belly, and started going back up, sucking and kissing and biting on the way.. She took me in both her arms like I was some baby, and raised me to her mouth. She must have got a taste of her own juice next as we lay back on the sofa kissing.

I was now on top of her, and I wanted to fuck her more than anything. My dick would explode, I thought. But I thought it was not the correct time, or place. So I got up slightly, and trying hard not to peek into what the other two were doing, got hold of her panties and slipped it on her legs, moving it up.

I lay on her, after putting her skirt in its place over her legs. I took her bra, and instead of bothering to put it back on, threw it under the sofa, where no one would be able to see it easily. I lowered her t-shirt back on top of her breasts, and lay on top of her once again, sealing my mouth against hers, again sucking and pulling.

"I love you Soman," Sara whispered in my ear. "I love you a lot."

I never had a habit of saying this sort of thing. So I didn't.

We lay like that for about two minutes, watching a movie song on TV.

Looking towards the chair, I could see my wife and Appu were now lying flat on the floor, using the chair as a cover. I could still see the lower part of their body, and both of them had their clothes on. But my wife's kameez was not visible, and I could see the cream of her bare skin under Appu, as he lay on top of her, doing whatever he was doing to her upper body.

I could see his feet rubbing on her feet desperately, even as she was reciprocating. She now spread her legs, shifting Appu to the floor in between her legs.

It was tough to tell what they were doing - but there definitely was kissing, and her kameez seemed to have been pushed up. There was a lot of slurping and sucking noises.

If they don't stop soon, I would fuck Sara right here, I thought.

After two minutes, they seemed to realize that we had stopped, and I saw them trying very hard to move back on to the chair, without looking at us. I noticed that this time Appu was on the chair, and Shama seemed to be sitting in front of him, like two love-birds, watching TV.

I changed the channel using the remote, to indicate that normalcy was now restored, and sat up straight, with Sara sitting next to me.

"Do you want something to eat," I asked in their direction, getting up to go to the fridge. Shama suddenly got up, looking in the other direction, and not facing us. She must be feeling quite abashed, I thought. She had just let another man ravage her secrets sitting 4 feet in front of her husband.

Appu now got up, turned to us, and walked to the main sofa saying "Yeah, if you have something light," he said, pretending as if nothing had happened.

He went and sat at the first sofa chair Shama had occupied, next to us, and I went to the fridge to get something to eat. Sara was fixing her hair which had all been undone by the tussle and she too got up to follow me to the dining room. Perhaps she didn't feel like facing her hubby either, like Shama, who was now watching TV, sitting in the chair at the front, looking away from us.

All the excitement, and no relief was sort of driving me crazy, and I could see Appu was also going mad. He won't be able to hold it in much longer, I thought.

I took a dairy milk from the ref and tossed him a half. He got up, came to the table and poured himself a glass of water. Somehow we were not making eye contact. Some level of discomfort was only to be expected, I thought.

I went back to the sofa to sit next to Sara, who was smiling away and seemed generally pleased with life.

"Shama, do you want something to eat?" Appu asked in my wife's direction.

"No Appuvetta.. I am not hungry," she said, fleetingly looking in his direction, before going back to watching tv.

I changed the channel to Movies Now, which was playing transporter 3.

Shama always took the remote away if I tried to watch action movies with her.. Especially English. The only English movies she would watch with me are the romantic ones. This time, however, there was no protest. Appu was back at his seat.

Shama now went to the kitchen, and came back with some achappam in a plate -- a sort of friend sweet preferred by the Mallus. She set down it on the tepoy in the moddle of all three of us, and sat on a plastic chair on the left side of the sofa - facing Appu.

"I'll go and check on the kids, see if they're still sleeping," she got up again, betraying a sense of discomfort. Normally kids sleep for 1 to 1.5 hours, and ours had been asleep for about 1.5 hours already.

We went back to watching TV.

Appu was engrossed in the movie.

Sara put her hand on my hand that was placed in between us on the sofa, and gave a squeeze of love. I looked at her. She was obviously still very horny, and the outline of her nipples were visible through her blue 'banian' as she did not have anything under it.

Her boobs, though nowhere as big as my wife's, were still bigger than I thought, I said to myself as I saw her lie back on the sofa, with both her boobs lying free and unfettered under the blue cloth. She looked a bit slutty like that, I thought, wonder what Appu thinks. Anway, the room was smelling of hormones and sex and there wasn't any of us who was not horny.

She squeezed my hand again. I remembered my own advice to Appu, and the fact that he would definitely be jealous, and so did not respond. It was one thing to fuck a man's wife, but it was totally a different thing to snatch her away from him completely, I thought.

Sara took her hand away as she heard the slight creak of our bedroom door, and Shama's footsteps coming towards us.

"I want to sleep off for some time," Appu said, pretending to be tired.

"You can sleep in our bedroom," Shama suggested, again getting up from the chair where she'd hardly sat down.

"Before that, let's play a game," I said. Everyone was now looking at me, curiously.

"Yeah.. It's a quiz competition with a difference," I added with a smile.

Appu seemed to have realized I had something up my sleeve. "Ok, so game it is," Appu he said, suddenly showing much enthusiasm.

"First we'd need to turn the chair around," I said, pointing to the sofa chair that was in the front, and on which Appu and had their fun just now. "Get up and turn that one also, so that both are facing each other.. And leave 3-4 feet of distance between them," I suggested, getting up to go to my study table to make a lottery.

I looked around for a notebook to tear a page off, and then realized that we did not have any. Finally found a computer print out, divided it into four parts and wrote 'shama' in two and 'appu' in two of them, rolled them up and put them in a bowl.

"Ok, the rules of the game are like this -- it's a blindfold GK quiz. Two people will be in each team. The special rule about this is that all participants will be blindfolded and you are not allowed to touch your feet on the ground, and both members of the team have only one chair to sit on," I said. "There is one more rule, but that I'll tell when are ready to play," I said, with a smile.

"Blindfolded? With what? And only one chair? For two people?" Shama asked, showing mock irritation.

"Yeah.. This is not a plain old boring quiz," I said.

"Ok," Sara quickly intervened, "so who are the teams?"

"Oh, we have a lottery for that.. You pick your own team-mate," I said, holding out the bowl to Shama.

"No, I don't want to pick.. Someone else should pick," she said.

"Ok," I said, moving the bowl in front of Appu.

"Go ahead Shama, don't be shy," Appu said, pushing me away again to Shama.

"Ok, fine," she said.

She picked up a roll, opened it and laughed. "Aiyyo, this is my name only," she said.

"Ok.. Pick again till you get one of our names," I said.

"I hope I get Somettan as my partner," she said, dipping for the second time.

This time, she didn't say anything, and turned the roll to us so that we could see the name - on it was written 'Appu'.

"Hm.. That means you two are the team, and then we will be other team," I said, turning to Sara.

"Yay, we will beat you guys so easily now," Sara said.

"Ha, ha, we'll see," Appu said.

"Can you get the blindfolds please.. Towels would be fine, like we had last time," I suggested. I was getting a hard on already, and it was apparent from the rising bulge in my knickers.

I saw Sara's eyes slipping towards my knickers even as we were speaking. I hope she doesn't jump up and pull it down, I thought. Though I had done oral sex to her twice, she was yet to return the favor, I remembered. Fact is, I had never had any one suck my dick since I was an adult. (There was a guy near our house who used to suck it some times when I was kid, on my way from school. But I was too scared and young to enjoy it. Now, when I wanted it, nobody would do it - and I didn't want to force my wife, who had once said she didn't want to do it.)

"Ok, now Appu, you tie one for Shama, I'll tie for Sara," I said. Earlier, in conversations with Appu, I never referred to Sara by name, always calling her 'your wife'. Somehow it didn't feel right to call her by name, though Appu had always called my wife by name. Now, somehow, I didn't feel like calling her his wife, rather, I wanted to call her Sara. Sara was neutral, and didn't imply that she was his, or for that matter, mine. It was open to interpretations.

Shama was still reluctant, and showed no signs of leaving her plastic chair. So Appu went behind her with a piece of red cloth Shama had thrown on the sofa, kneeled down and gently started putting the cloth over her eyes.

"No.." she said, shaking her head slightly.. But Appu was having none of it. "How can we play the game if you don't wear it?" he asked, and slowly managed to tie the cloth behind her bead.

Sara stood up with all the enthusiasm of a school girl, facing the other way, waiting for me to tie it for her.

"Now, your turn," I told Appu, and tied the blindfold for him as well, making sure it was not too tight, unlike for Sara.

"Ok, now I am done too," I announced after tying one on myself.

"Now Appu's team go to the chair in front and we will be on this chair," I said.

I stumbled across to the main sofa where Sara was sitting, thinking I will help her locate our chair. I put my hand on her shoulder, almost stumbling on top of her as she sat. She held my hand to help me balance, without saying anything, and holding onto my hand, stood up - her body pressing against mine. I could feel her breath of my neck. She put both her hands behind me and hugged me tight, as I bent down, our lips joined hungrily.

"Shit, nothing seems to go according to plan today," I thought, as we engaged in a passionate kissing session, and I moved down further. I put both my hand on the under her t-shirt, on the sides of her belly, slowly moving them up -- pulling the t-shirt up along with them.

I embraced her tightly, as tightly as she held me. This time, I realized I was embracing her out of love. Earlier, it was always sex. This time, perhaps the 25 minutes or so of interruption had made both of us restless, and it felt good simply to just hold her, my face on her shoulder.

The intensity of the embrace was so high that her legs were in the air, and I felt her I might have bitten her lips a bit too deeply. But we were beyond care, and kissed like two long lost lovers meeting after 5 years.

The cloth held over our eyes was making me uncomfortable, but I didn't take it off, as I didn't want to leave her even for a minute. After about two minutes, we moved as one towards our chair, stumbling and swaying.

I sat first and she sat over me, facing me. I moved to the edge of the large chair, adjusting her in my lap even as I kept her close to my body in a tight embrace. Her legs went over the sides and met behind me, holding me in a sort of 'leg embrace' as if our hands were not enough.

At that moment, I knew one more truth -- no matter what I had planned, this was going way beyond all that. I was in love. There was no running away from that fact. I felt I could spend an eternity in her embrace like that as I hungrily inhaled the sweet smell of scented coconut oil from her hair. I realized I was happy - simply happy as I have ever been. I realized I was a fool to have thought I could keep my feelings in check. "No way, Som, you are just the old love fool you've always been, and now you're in love," I heard a voice say inside my head.

"Ok, you guys set?" It was Appu's voice that broke me from my reverie.

I must have lost track of time.

"Yes, we are," I said.

"Ok, so how do we take it forward," Appu asked.

"First, are you sure both are sitting on the same chair," I asked to make sure they were not 'cheating'.

"Yeah.. We are on the same one, opposite you guys," he said.

"And you are not supposed to have your feet on the ground.. If it's too tough, one of you can have your feet on the ground, but the other person definitely cannot," I said.

I used one of my hands to ease the blindfold on my left eye so that I could see what they were doing. They were sitting with Shama on Appu's lap, but Shama was facing us, not like how we were sitting. However, Appu was holding Shama tight with his hands over her stomach.

I could also see that he had kept his head on her shoulder, and was possibly kissing her on the neck as well.

However, Shama's feet were also on the floor.

"Ok.. One minute then," Appu said. Shama was wearing a salwar kameez, which restricted her maneuverability. Appu now put both his hands on her thighs and pulled it sideways, indicating to her that he wanted her to lift her legs from the floor to the sides.

Shama lifted her ass a bit from Appu's laps and with her hands, pulled up her brown kameez to her stomach level. Though that was not her intention, doing so exposed a bit of her naked stomach and by coincidence or luck, as Appu was trying to pull her back to his lap, his hands found the opening.

He spread his hands on her stomach, moving from the sides to the front. For a moment, Shama was perfectly still, laying back but not moving at all. Appu now pulled her towards him tightly, with his hands still on her creamy skin, and started kissing her neck again, moving the hair out of the way with his face at the same time.

I could see the expression change on Shama's face, to an intense expression of lust and love. She turned her head so as to give Appu more access to her face and soon, after some rubbing of the cheeks and lips, their lips found each other and drank hungrily from each other.

My dick was even harder than it had been. This the first time that I had directly seen Shama make out with Appu, or for that matter, with anyone, and it was not like watching just two people making out.

This was someone I knew very closely.. In fact, two people I knew very closely. My dick started pulsating as I saw the intensity with which my wife was slurping and biting Appu. I realized what had been missing from our sex life. We never kissed like that, with so much passion and intensity. It looked like the two were love, or perhaps it was just my own experience two minutes earlier that made me think like that.

But seeing Shama give devour Appu with no shame was a life changing sight for me -- and did for my sex life more than anything else could have. It was not about cuckolding tendencies -- as some would argue, but was more related to the sheer taboo of the situation -- the fact that the unthinkable was happening. That was the turn on -- the forbidden was happening. It was nice to see my wife, who always played sati-savitri, without the mask of good behaviour -- to see her as a shameless pleasure seeker. We are all like that inside, but a lot of us pretend that we are not. My wife always pretended that she never thought about anyone else etc.. Seeing her enjoy herself openly, without any masks or inhibitions, was a very big big turn on. The pleasure of the forbidden is unlike anything else. Sex is sex only when there's an element of the forbidden in it.

Sara seemed to have realized something hot was going on, as she was sitting directly on my dick and could feel every pulse on it.

She too adjusted her blindfold and had turned her face to look at what was going on. I could feel her hold tightening on my back as she kept track of the action on the chair opposite. I wanted to kiss her again, but the action opposite us was just too riveting.

After a bit, they seemed to relax, as a smile spread over Shama's face. Then Appu sort of lifted Shama up as she pulled both her legs up beside her, bending her knee. Now she was sitting on top of Appu directly on top of where his dick would be, with her legs folded on the sofa-chair and placed on both sides of Appu's thighs. She was still facing us, but it looked like she was reverse-riding Appu's cock. All that prevented it from happening were the clothes.

"Ok, we are ready," Appu said.

"Ok, great," I said, putting my blindfold back on, and indicating to Sara to look towards me so that in case one of them removed their blindfold, they wouldn't catch us staring them. I gave Sara a juicy kiss, before making the next announcement.

"Now, the last two rules," I said. "First is that you get only 5 seconds to answer the first question.. In fact, you need to wait 5 seconds before giving the answer. For every question, this time delay will double. So, for the second answer, you need to wait 10 seconds, and for the third 40 seconds and so on," I explained.

"Ok," Appu said. "What is the second rule?"

"This is the most important rule, and reason why we are all blindfolded," I said, "If you are not able to give answer to any question, you need take any one item of clothing and throw it in front of you.. In front of both of us," I said.

"What? What sort of quiz is this," that was Shama's voice, and there was a touch of mock-scorn in her voice. "I don't want to be part of such dirty games!"

"Don't worry Shama," Appu cut in quickly, reassuringly. "We are very strong, we won't lose even a tie. Let them try their best."

"But still.." Shama went on..

"I told you no.. They will be the losers," Appu said confidently.

"Fine.. We'll see," I said, "you can ask the first question -- anything related to general knowledge, and nothing related to C++," I said, referring to his specialization at work.

"Hm.. Capital of Nigeria," he said.

"Lagos," I said, waiting a bit so that 5 seconds were up.

"Who sang most of the songs in Sargam, the movie," I said, lobbing an easy one as I knew the film was one of Shama's favorites and she knew everything there was to know about it.

"Yesudas," Shama said with a squeal as expected.

"That answer won't count, as you are supposed to wait for 10 seconds before saying," I said.

"Ok, we can forgive this time Sometta," Sara said.

I couldn't see Shama's face when Sara said that, but I would have loved to -- it was the first time Sara was calling me Sometta -- a term of endearment, normally reserved for relatives.

I changed my position a little, bringing both of my legs up on the chair and attempting to sit cross legged -- my left foot under my right thigh and vice versa. That way, Sara was now sitting in a sort of trough in created by my legs in front of me. She had her legs around me and I had mine around her. This was much more comfortable as I was not supporting all of her weight unlike when I had my feet on the ground.

Besides, it had the advantage of squashing our crotches together - with only her panties separating her pussy from my knicker as her skirt was covering our combined laps and our hips met under the cover of the skirt. I could feel the heat coming from her pussy now.

"Ok.. Next question -- who's the commander in chief of the Pak army," Appu said.

I knew the answer, I think it was some Kayani or someone. But I asked Sara: "Do you know?".

"Nopes."

"Ha ha, see, see how the game is turning," Appu said. "Ok, so what are you dropping?"

"I'll drop my t-shirt," I said, and pulled it off.

I had to take off the blindfold to pull my t-shirt over my head. I saw that Sara still had only one eye covered. In a way, it was ok for her since she was facing away from the other two. Now that the t-shirt was gone, she lovingly slipped her hands under my arms and started sexily caressing my back and chest, slowly.

She bent down sucked at my nipples, which was kind of titillating (no pun intended). I put the blindfold back on.

"Done?" Appu asked.

"Yes."

I had a feeling that at that moment he peered through the blindfold to see whether I had actually undressed or whether I was bluffing. Perhaps he wanted a bit of the voyeuristic pleasure.

"Now the next question -- which minister is in charge of department of space?" The answer was the PM.

However, they couldn't get it, and this time, it was Appu's turn to be shirtless.

The next question came and went without doing us any damage, and it was our turn again.

"Shall I ask," Sara asked me.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Name Mahesh Bhatt's younger daughter who has just entered the film field?"

It was simple question -- but either Appu didn't know or he pretended he didn't know. My wife was no big fan of Hindi movies, so it was unsurprising that she didn't know the answer.

My wife was wearing only the salwar and Kameez and her undies, and Appu only had his jeans and his underwear.

"Ok. I'll do it," he said, after about half a minute of silence in their team.

I pretended to be rubbing my eyes, and managed to move some of the cloth to see what was going on.

Shama was getting off Appu's lap onto the floor.

"By the way, you are not supposed to get on the floor, ok?" I said, looking away from them. "That is the rule."

"But how am I supposed to change on the chair?" Appu asked.

"Well, you got to," I said.

I could not really see very clearly, since I was peering through a thin layer of red cloth, and could only make out the outlines.

Appu removed his blindfold, stood up on the chair and indicated to Shama to get back on the chair. Shama kneeled on the chair, facing him, with her face where Appu's zipper was. Of course, she was still blindfolded.

Appu somehow wriggled out of his pant, revealed grey jockey underwear and a very erect dick. As he wriggled, his dick (inside the underwear of course) rubbed against Shama's face as both were at the same height. Shama did not move back her head or anything, though her expression could not be seen.

It was obvious that he liked the way we were sitting, because after he dangled his legs on the two sides of Shama, and put his hands on her hips and indicated her to sit down facing him, as she was kneeling.

He then pulled Shama's feet from under her, and put them around him all the way to the back, supporting her by holding her from behind using his free hand. He raised her kameez once again, and put his hands under it, just below her bra.

The new posture was too much for Appu who pulled Shama to himself and started kissing her. Shama was also responding well, going by what I could see from behind her.

We couldn't get the next question, and I too ended with up in only my underwear, and this time, unlike in the case of the other couple, our dicks and pussies were separated only by thin underwear. Her pussy was smoldering hot, but I didn't do much more as I wanted the game to go on.

"Who invented computers?" I asked.

I was pretty sure Appu would know the answer, being from the same field. But he said he didn't. That led to silence as everyone knew that Appu only had his underwear left on him.

I saw him raise Shama from his lap, and with a grimace, slide his underwear on his legs all the way to the floor. He was now completely naked, and Shama was sitting in his lap facing him.

As soon as Shama sat down, I saw Appu do some juggling with his hips, probably poking her in her pussy and letting her know that little Appu was now fully ready.

I answered the next question, and then I asked -

"Who got the state government award for the best actor this time?"

"I am not sure.. So it's Shama's question," Appu said, putting the ball in her court.

"Mohanlal," she said.

"Wrong, it was Prithviraj," I said.

"When will this quiz end?" Shama asked.

"After 10 more rounds."

"Ten more?" she asked, taken aback.

"Yeah. In all, there has to be 15 rounds," I made up a rule on the fly.

"So what are you putting down now?" Sara asked.

"We'll do something," Appu said.

I saw him mumble something in Shama's ear, and saw Shama shake her head vigorously.

He mumbled again.

"Can we quit?" Shama asked.

"No."

"You guys are all blindfolded, right?" she said.

"Yeah."

"No peering?"

"Of course, not."

To my surprise, she slowly pulled off her Kameez to Appu's total delight. I saw Appu run his hands all over her back and pull her so close to him that I felt she had some breathing difficulty. She too had her hands behind Appu for a long time, partly to ensure that she didn't fall of the chair.

They spent a minute hugging and kissing.

While pulling the top off, her blindfold had moved, and it was clear that she was now able to see.

I saw her look down in between, probably at Appu's equipment, and then she looked back at us, turning her head. Because I was seeing through cloth, I couldn't read her expression, but she quickly looked back in Appu's direction.

The next question turned out to be a tough one, and it was clear I was going to be totally naked as well. To my surprise, Sara whispered in my ear "I'll do it."

"Ok," I said.

Even without taking her blindfold off, she stood up on the chair and next thing I see is her panties slide down her legs.

"Fuck," I thought, "she's going to melt my balls now."

"What did you put?" Appu asked.

"Underwear," I replied.

"Hmm" he said, meaning that he was trying to have a peek as well.

Sara sat down and I could feel the heat of her pussy again. The way she was sitting, with both of her legs stretched out on my sides, her pussy must have been open, and wet. My underwear started getting moist as well, as it was rubbing her right inside her love hole.

I moved my right hand from behind her back, and put it under her skirt on her right thigh and slowed moved it in, past her lobes and into the hole.

"Hup", she caught her breath, as I touched the soft, slippery and wet flesh inside. Since my finger was wet, I put one in, slowly -- finger-fucking her. She tightened her grip on me and thrust her tongue inside my mouth. I sucked on it..

"Your turn," Appu said, perhaps eager to get Shama's bra off her.

"Who is the main actor of the movie Sargam?"

This was an easy question.

"Hm.. I have never seen it, so I don't know," Appu said.

"Have you," Appu asked Shama.

Of course she had. I saw her watch it on TV a week ago.

"Stop asking such tough questions.. How would I know all these heroes and actors? My job is not watching movies," she said, semi-angrily.

Again, the whispering sessions started. After a while, I saw Appu unhook Shama's bra and throw it forward. I saw him bent down in front of Shama, possibly making of the boobs.

Next question was about Science.

"Who invented the theory of relativity," as he moved from one breast to the other.

Both of us must have known the answer, but I said I didn't, and Sara said likewise. "Finally!" I thought.

There was no doubt among the two of us what we wanted to get rid of.

She raised her hip so that I could slide my wet underwear onto the floor. My dick sprang to attention, like a flag pole. Sara adjusted her skirt, so that it spread all around us, and slowly lowered herself.

However, because of the pre-cum and juices, it was all very slippery. Besides, I could not see what was happening because it was all happening under the blue skirt.

But I realized that her plan of sitting with her pussy around my dick won't materialize without some help from my hands. Her hands were on my shoulders, so if anyone had to help, it was me.

I again put my hand in and steadied the pole, and this time, Sara slid right on to it. Again, paradise was upon us. To anyone looking from outside, it looked like she was just sitting on me, but inside the skirt was where the real magic was happening. No wonder the skirt was designed for women.

She started squirming and a slight pumping action was also starting off. I tapped on her hips to tell her not to. I would squirt my stuff if she did any more of pumping. I wanted to play the rest of the game like that -- with my cock deeply embedded inside her. A sheath of velvet covering my manhood. I wanted to talk to Appu with his wife's pussy around my dick -- as if nothing was happening. Somehow, it felt fantastic to be able to do that - talk to a man when your dick is lodged in his wife's cunt.

In the excitement, I was now lying almost totally flat with my legs on the floor, and there was not enough space to lie like that. Though lying flat was the only way to achieve full penetration, it was not possible to maintain the posture for long due to the shape of the chair.

Holding onto Sara, I started sitting up, dragged her in, all the time careful not to let the sword slip out of its sheath. However, it slipped out anyway.

So I decided to sit properly first, and then see what I could do.

So I took both my legs, folded them creating a gap in the middle into which Sara lowered herself. However, getting my dick inside her was not as easy in this position as it was with me lying almost flat. However, with some teamwork, we were about to be 'joined at the hip' again.

This way, nearly our whole body was in contact as both of us were nearly upright.

From now on, the questions were a mere formality. None of us were actually interested in the questions, all questions went unanswered.

After the next one, Shama stood up to remove her salwar. I could see the redness of Appu's dick as she stood up to remove her salwar.

As she pulled down her salwar, I realized that she was also pulling down her panties along with it. By mistake, I thought at the time.

She pulled both off her legs and put it on the side handle. She was still standing and had her vagina right in front of Appu's nose. Either her hair must have brushed against his nose, or he must have got the strong scent of pussy.

Either way, he immediately put his hands on her naked butts and buried his face between her legs. Shama immediately held onto Appu's hair, probably to balance herself. She stood there like that for 2 minutes while Appu seemed to be licking her out totally.

Appu was now biting her thighs on the sides and running his hands all over her legs and big round butts. This looked like it would go on forever, so I said:

"You guys done?"

"Hmm.." Appu said, without taking his head out of my wife's crotch.

"Ok, next question is yours," I said.

Slowly, Shama started sliding down, with Appu continuing to kiss her as she slid down -- first on her belly and then on her chest.

Unlike us, they didn't have any cover for their laps and I could see them struggling to have 'an exact match' in their seating.

But Appu's dick was only about 5-6 inches, from what I could make out, and it would be difficult to sit like we were doing, I thought.

Sure enough, after some struggling, Appu decided to slide down a bit with his feet on the floor, and Shama sitting right on top of him -- like a cowgirl.

She had started moving her hips, indicating that she was now totally aroused.

"Who was the first president of India?" Appu blurted out with a lot of effort.

"No idea," I said, taking off Sara's t-shirt and taking her nipples into my mouth. "Umm.. Aaa..," Sara started moaning slowly.

She also started thrusting, and I too slid down on the chair, wanting to get all of my dick inside her.

From the other side, we could hear Shama's moans and noises. I moved my blindfold to my forehead, and saw Appu do so too.

Both of us were now in the same position - sprawled on the chairs with each other's wives pumping away to glory.

I came first. Appu had a more muscular body, as he goes to the gym now and then. And he seemed to have more stamina.

Since Sara was on the pill, I decided to come inside her, though she was not stopping even after I had come.. After about 30 seconds, she collapsed on top me, and we devoured each other's mouths.

Soon, I heard grunts from Appu and knew he was coming too.. Good thing I had started Shama on the pill two days ago, I thought.

It was plain to everyone what had happened. But appearances had to be kept up. So I said: "Me and Sara are going to the bedroom to check up on the kids.. We'll play the rest of this later.. You guys can go to the other bedroom a minute after now," I said.

"Cool," Appu said.

Both of us got rid of our blindfolds, collected our clothes and moved to the bedroom where the kids were sleeping.

We entered the bedroom at the front, leaving the one at the back to Appu and Shama. Sara promptly went into the bathroom, leaving the door open. I followed.

"Can you help me clean up," she asked, pointing to the hand-spray with a naughty smile.

"Sure," I said. I closed the door so as not to disturb the kids, took the handspray and adjusted the temperature of the water while Sara stood there looking at me, both of us stark naked.

"Turn around," I said.

I directed the spray on her reddish brown skin, around her shoulder blade, and started softly rubbing with my right hand, now and then letting them slip to the front where they would make contact with her nipples.

I planted kisses on her back now and then, like a sculptor making sure the surface he just chipped over is smooth.

I then pointed the spray further down at her ass. I noticed once again that she had cute, sort of pointed, taut and athletic butts, unlike my wife's round, soft ones. I grabbed one of them and rubbed as water sprinkled over them.

I moved my hand between her ass-cheeks, and then again further down, rubbing her pussy from behind. She raised and put one of her right leg on the pot, spreading her crotch-area, and her pussy lips along with it.

I could see she was enjoying the water rub on her pussy, so I kept at it, putting a finger in now and then to make sure everything was totally clean. The presence of water made the experience smooth and enjoyable.

"Turn around, let me see if it's clean," I said.

Once she'd turned, I semi-squatted in front of her, bending like a doctor eager to examine some inaccessible part of his patient's body. "Seems clean enough," I said. Indeed, her pussy was spotless, and her inner lips were now red like a cherry, or rather a flower.

I moved in and took her outer, brown lobe in my mouth, clutching her ass with my hands tightly. In about two minutes of action, she'd came twice -- probably because of the recent excitement. After the second one, she lowered the toilet cover and sat on it, semi-exhausted.

I retook the handspray and cleaned her from her neck down, rubbing her breasts with my hands first, and them using my tongue to make sure they were as clean as they should be. She moaned as I 'examined' her breasts with my mouth.

"You're done, I think," I said, opening the door and looking for a towel. Since this was the spare bedroom, it didn't have our wardrobe. But luckily, there was a dry towel lying on the chair and I came back with it.

"Are you going to dry me off already? How will I help you clean yourself if you do?" Sara asked, half serious and half joking.

My dick was half erect already, and yearning for some more play.

"You can help me after you are dry," I said. My dick twitched in anticipation.

Normally, I don't get an erection so soon after an orgasm. This, however, was not a normal situation.

Shutting off the tap, I rubbed her all over with the towel -- first on her stomach in front, then moving to her breasts, which, to be frank, were not as erect as breasts of young girls are. I rubbed both of them thoroughly. "You are really good at this, aren't you? You won't starve if you lose your current job," Sara teased.

"Thank you dear, your satisfaction is my aim," I said, and indicated her to turn around. Once she was dry totally, I took the spray and directed it to my now fully erect penis.

Sara grabbed the spray with her left hand and caught hold of my dick with her right hand. She used the spray to make sure that my dick was totally clean, using her fingers to rub away any dirt or salt that may be trapped between the 'dome' and the skin folds. My dick was now as big and hard as it has ever been.

Without saying anything, she stopped the water and again sat on the toilet seat, turning me to face her. She then took my cock in her mouth slowly, and with a bit of hesitation, not like you see in American porn movies.

I had a feeling that she was not used to oral sex much. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked. I didn't want her to feel obliged to return my favor, though I certainly didn't want her to remove her lips which were now encircling my 'dome'.

She showed me her palm, indicating that it was ok. I felt her tongue touch the tip of my dick inside her mouth - making my dick quiver.

She was now slowly pushing my dick into her mouth as her tongue licking it from the inside -- first at the tip, and then the shaft. She then removed my penis totally from her mouth, and started licking it like it was some fast-melting ice-cream, sucking on it.

"I won't be able to take this much longer," I thought. She started a slight pumping action with the right hand that she had at the base of my cock, even as her mouth was doing the same to the other half of my dick.

In about 1 or 2 minutes, I was ready to come and my dick quivered and twitched. She removed her mouth, but kept pumping with her hand.

There wasn't much cum -- perhaps less than a spoonful, compared to about 3 or 4 spoonfuls that I would normally have.

She didn't show any disgust when I spurted on to her -- with the sperm landing on her stomach and a bit of it on her thigh. Instead, she stood up and took my upper lip in her mouth, squashing her naked body against mine -- her boobs plastered on my chest and her legs now encircling me at the hips. I could feel the stickiness of my cum on my hip. I supported myself by pushing my hands against the white, tiled bathroom wall.

My mind was slightly troubled as I lay next to Sara on the sofa, absentmindedly watching the TV as she flipped channels.

Was she right about the fact that I may be, as she put it, too emotional, and my true nature was not the rational and practical person I had become?

I realized I, and probably she, were thinking with our hormones, rather than our brains. I remember how thrilled I was initially to have married Shama. She was a good housewife, and understood my likes and dislikes intuitively. There was no need to tell her a lot of stuff.

She looked up to me and I remember there was much more mutual respect and love between us. Biggest of all, she trusted me -- both as a person, and in my judgment.

And I have always lived up to that trust. I have always been 100% honest with her, even when I knew some of the things I would tell her would invite her wrath.

We were a happy couple -- we were never very demonstrative of that, but there was always a feeling of mutual support and that we would be there for each other always.

In the past 3-4 years, that trust seemed to have gone missing somewhere, and with it, the love that we shared.

I don't know what happened, but I suspect the old bard was right when he said 'familiarity breeds contempt.' I guess we probably have grown tired of each other. Day in and day out, especially for Shama, the world has comprised only of us.

My theory has always been that in the first 1-2 years of marriage, we too were in the 'hormonal' love condition. When the hormones are raging, you tend to only see the good things in your partner, and tend to plaster over the bad. You try to adjust your needs, emotions, interests and likes to please the other person.

But, perhaps because of nature, hormones don't last forever. Especially after our first child, and especially for Shama, it was a new life. She was more demanding, less forgiving, more assertive. There was no need to change her personality to please me -- there was no 'risk' in the marriage. The arrival of the child gave the relationship, and her, a sense of stability.

She did not need to please me much.

This was accompanied by a feeling of boredom on my part. I don't know how it happened. But somehow, the smell of breast milk that seemed to hang around her in the first 3-4 months was a strong turn-off for me. I am pretty sure that is nature's way of making sure that men left women with very small babies alone.

She too did not seem to have huge sex needs either, and was always busy with the baby, and life set itself into a new rhythm in which we were father and mother, rather than husband and wife.

At the same time, my sexual urges were as strong, or even stronger than before. I started fantasizing about other women. Shama seemed boring. Perhaps that too was nature's way of ensuring that men procreated with different women to enhance the genetic diversity of his offspring, thus ensuring higher chances of survival for his genes.

The genetic factor was also probably behind Shama's new found lack of tolerance for me, and my mistakes. Perhaps nature intended humans only to mate till they have a child, and then break up, setting both parties free to look for new partners.

It would indeed make sense from an evolutionary point of view. If you have 10 children from 10 partners, there is a higher chance of having 1 or 2 highly successful offspring in all that permutation and combination (along with a high chance of having highly deleterious offspring as well, but then nature always cared only about the winners.)

The tendency is sometimes called the 'seven year itch'.

Now Shama and I were two individuals with our own likes, dislikes, opinions, interests and emotions thrown together by life to live under the same roof. Worse, one was male and the other was female -- and as they say, the two are from two different planets.

The only two things that would make such a life tolerable are 1)both should be in 'hormonal' love or 2)they should have a lot of shared interests, personality traits etc.. Even if point 2 was true, I doubt if it would be enough to counteract the pull of genetics and evolution -- the contempt of the familiar and the quest for change and diversity.

In our case, as in 95% of all arranged marriages, the congruence of interests, hobbies and passions was almost zero. She, being a woman, was interested in certain things -- shopping, TV soaps, clothes, gossip, that I was not. I liked to watch Discovery channel, while she wanted her Saas-Bahu serial.

Earlier, she would never express her desires. Now that she was not in love, and on the contrary was quite tired of the quirks and peculiarities of my personality, she made the grab for the remote.

So, like all marriages, ours was made with a self-destruct date on it. The only reason we didn't go the way most couples in such a situation would go (for divorce), was the kid. Both of us loved him too much to even think of having him separated from our lives.

At the same time, we were honest enough individuals to hate the idea of cheating our spouses. I know I was tempted. And I know Shama was also tempted. I have seen her throw repeated and meaningful glances at strangers even when I was there, though, unlike me, she would never admit to the fact. In fact, I know that she used to come to the window of our living room whenever she heard the whirr of the motor car driven by one of our neighbours. He was a lecherous fellow, and I personally didn't like him much, but somehow Shama seemed to like him.

At the same time, I didn't want my marriage to break up, partly because I knew that it was a never-ending chase. Even if I did break up with Shama and married another, I knew that we'd be walking the same road after another three years. My belief in Darwin and evolutionary theory, and the influence of inherited instinct on our behaviour was unshakable.

All this, in a way, left only one way for us to prevent us from killing each other -- redeveloping our love-lives independently while still being married to each other.

As a result, I was a bit perturbed when Sara seemed to suggest that my marriage with Shama was the problem. I knew it was not the problem. All marriages are like that. A lot of men simply stray, having affairs with other women, and their own wives often compensate by having their own affairs. Sometimes, men simply forget about love and sex and focus only on work and other affairs, while their wives find the missing love elsewhere.

Sometimes, it is the wife who tries to sublimate her sexual restlessness and lack of love-life in things like religion, shopping, career etc..

But most often, emotionally active people simply cheat to get the love they require. It is only emotionally stunted people who can live without love for years. Others always seek it out -- one way or the other.

So, I thought, Sara was wrong. All marriages are doomed from the word go -- the only two options are to stray, or to remain unhappy, after 3-4 years. There is no 'made for each other', or any 'happily ever after'. Happiness is yours for the taking, but only if you are willing to be bold enough to stand up and say, yes, I want to be happy, and accept the human condition.

And both me and my wife were emotionally demanding people. In that sense, perhaps Sara was right about I being 'deeply emotional'. We were not people who were happy living a passionless, loveless life like a lot of Indians.

I lay there, with such thoughts inside my head, and my head caught up in her hair.. Enjoying the smell of her coconut oil hair-oil mixed with the intoxicating smell of her sweat. Now that I had cleared the cobwebs of doubt and confusion in my head, I was feeling more reassured and adventurous.

Appu and Shama came back by about 8, complete with three large shopping bags in tow.

"There's one more bag in the car.. For us," Appu said, as he settled back into the sofa after washing his face.

"We should probably get going now," Sara said, looking at Appu who was sitting facing her.

"Yeah, yeah.. I didn't expect it to be this late," he said.

I could see a look of disappointment and worry cross Shama's face as she looked at us from the dining area, where she was unpacking the bags onto the floor.

"Why don't you guys sleep over? You can go back tomorrow.. It's not as if someone's waiting for you there," I said, looking at Appu and then at Sara. I said it very matter-of-factly, though I wanted them to stay over as badly as perhaps Shama did.

Appu looked at Sara, trying to gauge her response.

"Well, I have a set of spare clothes for Nikhil," she said, alluding to her kid.

"But not for us," she said.

Well, I knew how to solve that problem. We could all sleep in the nude. But as things stood, I couldn't very well blurt it out.

"That shouldn't be an issue.. I am sure Shama can find you something.. I certainly can get something for Appu," I volunteered. I was expecting Shama to chip in now and help me convince them to stay back. I could make out from her face she wanted them to. However, she kept quiet, but kept watching what we were doing.

Appu and Sara had never stayed back at our place though they have visited many times. Besides, none of us really knew how it would play out -- this was not anticipated by me, or I suspect, by any of us.

In a way, I could understand Appu's reluctance. He didn't want to seem overkeen. I felt Sara also must have had similar concerns. But Sara was more used to taking the lead, and she indicated the direction by saying with an exasperated tone:

"I guess it's too late to go and make dinner today."

Now Appu felt more confident. His wife had given the green signal.

"Ok, but only if it won't be a burden on Shama," he said, meaning, of course, that she would have to cook extra for dinner.

"That's not an issue, after all Sara is there to help," Shama finally opened her mouth, mostly looking at me to make sure that I was not taking this in the negative sense.

So the question was settled.

After a while, I found Sara wearing one of Shama's silk nighties. The nighty was a bit too hot for 'normal' purposes and Shama rarely wore it. Being made of a pink silky material, not only was it too sheer, but it also 'flowed' over her body, giving one a tantalizing outline of her butts and boobs as they moved about on her mobile body.

Appu was still sitting in his original clothes. By about 10:30, dinner was ready and we all gulped down our rotis and sabji eagerly, without much talk, as if we had a train to catch after that.

"I am feeling very sleepy today," Appu said, as he plonked back on the sofa after having his dinner.

The ladies were in the kitchen, tidying it up before getting ready for bed. After about 10 minutes, Shama came to us and said,

"Sometta, let them take the guest bedroom, we'll sleep in the main one."

"Ok," I said.

"Shall we go to bed? Appu looks like he's half asleep already," Shama added, as Sara also joined us from the kitchen.

"You go ahead.. I'll come in a while," I said.

"You can also hit the sack if you are feeling sleepy.. I'll release Appu in a bit," I told Sara.

I wasn't sure if Sara was in a mood to sleep right then. It looked like she was heading for the spot next to me on the sofa. However, she looked at me once, and seemed to have decided to hit the sack as well.

The two ladies retired to the bedroom with the kids.

"Wait for 15 mins, I'll tell you what to do," I told Appu, who was looking at me trying to figure out what I had in mind.

After 15 minutes, I went to the main bedroom. Shama was sleeping in the middle of the king-size bed, with the kid on the side on which the wall was there, leaving the other half vacant. She normally always wears her salwar kameez to the bed. Today, she was wearing the top of a two-piece nightdress that I had never seen her wear before. It was a normal cotton night suit. However, instead of the pant, she had worn one of her long skirts.

She was facing the other way, and seemed to be asleep. To make sure she was, I opened our wardrobe and then the drawer inside it. Normally, if she was awake, she would ask me what I was looking for. She didn't, and continued to sleep on her side, with her back towards me. A small bit of her midriff was visible between where the shirt ended and her skirt began.

I went back to the sofa where Appu was sitting up all alert -- waiting for me to tell him what I had in mind.

"Ok, you can sleep in the main bedroom, and I'll sleep in the spare one," I said, again matter-of-factly.

"I'll see you in the morning," I added to make sure he wouldn't come back in the middle of the night.

"Yeah, good night," he said, without looking back at me.

As expected, Sara was not asleep when I slipped into the room with a smile. Instead, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, and the kid was already asleep. As soon as I had latched the door from the inside, she pulled off her nightie from the top, and got up in her underwear to greet me with a kiss.

After a rather short love making session and some small talk, we dozed off in each other's arms. The next thing I remember is waking up in the morning. Sara was still sleeping with nothing on her under her blanket. I had moved out of the blanked in my sleep.

It was 8 am. Sara would be up, I thought. I got up slowly, took my undie, shorts and t-shirt from the floor, wore them and peered outside into the living room. There was nobody there. But there was some noise from the kitchen. I decided to investigate. Shama was back in her salwar and she was boiling milk. She had kept a jar of coffee-powder by the stove. That was odd, I thought. After all, no one in the house drank coffee. I prefered tea, and so did Shama.

Catching me looking at the coffee jar, she said quickly, "It's for Appuvettan."

For a second, I don't know what happened. But the way she had said 'it's for Appuvettan' irked me a lot.

I mean, who was the master of the house - Appu or me? Whose wife was she - Appu's or mine? I realized I was angry. I mean, it's true that I was ok with them having sexual relations with each other. That was part of the plan. But I realized with a kick that I was not ok with Shama giving him privileges that were previously reserved for me. To be frank, even I had not seen it coming -- either that she would start giving such considerations to Appu, or that I would become so angry and hurt at that.

Logically, it was only to be expected. I wanted them to fuck, and fuck they did. And love was only to be expected as a side-effect. Yet I realized I was not open to sharing my status as Shama's husband, or her affections that came with that status. In a way, that was the whole reason behind the whole fascade that we had created. We were all pretending to be normal couples, even when we knew that we were fucking each other's partners.

The reason for keeping up appearances, I realized, was that I, and certainly Shama, would not be able to see our partners giving the same love and consideration that were reserved for us to others. That is the reason I never held Sara's hand when Appu was looking, or do anything to her that would be considered out of place in a normal wife-of-friend relationship. In an instinctive way, the four of us had realized that we would not be able to share statuses and privileges.

We were, after all, conservative Indians, I realized. As conservative Indians, we could not tolerate our wives or husbands sharing what was ours with anyone else. It was not about the tea, I realized. It was more than that. It was the feeling that my own wife was giving a higher priority to what Appu wanted compared to what I wanted. It was intolerable for me, and I looked away to make sure she didn't see the emotion on my face. Perhaps she did.

"I thought you were still asleep.. Otherwise I would have made tea for you," I heard Shama say.

"Anyway, I'll make tea from this. I'll make coffee after this," she added.

Three-four years of living together had made her very sensitive to my feelings, and she also knew how to placate my hurt feelings. Now I could smell the aroma of tea as she converted what would have been coffee into tea at the last minute. She brought me my tea as I sat on the sofa.

"I wonder if Sara likes coffee or tea," she said, not really wanting to ask me that question directly.

I didn't say anything as I didn't have a clue.

"Make coffee and give it to Appu," I said.

I felt a bit guilty for getting all emotional over such a small matter.

"Yeah.. It's on the boil," Shama said.

I went out and got hold of the newspaper. As I sat reading, I could see Shama go in with a cup opening the door and closing it again. There was a light click, indicating that she'd probably bolted it from the inside. Normally, there would be a distinct click. The slight click would come only if someone was bolting it very gingerly. After about ten minutes, I went and switched on the TV, setting it to CNN, which was showing some footage of a blizzard in the U.S.. Another 5 minutes later, I saw the door open and a slightly flushed Shama come out.

She went in to the kitchen. I wanted to go in and get my toothbrush, which was inside the bathroom of the main bedroom. However, since the door remained closed, I chose to wait. After about 15 minutes, Appu came out, looking all refreshed and relaxed. He was now wearing a lungi (a color-patterned dhoti), and one of my t-shirts.

"Such a nice sleep I had.. I haven't slept like that for months," he said.

"Me too," I said.

I felt a bit pissed when I saw how satisfied he was. I mean, I didn't really have any reason to feel unhappy.

Things had gone exactly according to my plan. Yet, suddenly I felt my happiness and satisfaction was not as high as that of Appu's. With such thoughts, I went inside the bedroom to get my toothbrush.

My intention was to go straight to the bathroom, get my toothbrush and come back to the dining area to brush. But as I opened the door, I couldn't help looking at the bed. Shama must have changed the sheets last night, as the bed had a blue spread yesterday, and today it had a pink one. The kid was still sleeping, turned towards the wall.

On the bed, the spread and the sheets were all crumbled. I would have been surprised if they were not, after all Appu would be the last one to put them back in order. Surprisingly, I found Shama's skirt on the floor, at the bottom end of the bed. Normally, she hates clothes lying on the floor. She must have been too preoccupied to notice, I thought.

Not sure why, but I went near the bed to investigate. The blanket they'd used was lying half crumpled at the led-side. I lifted the blanket, pretending to be putting it straight, and I found Shama's red night shirt crumpled up at the bottom, towards where their legs must have been. A close look also revealed her pink-flowers-on-white panty, and at the far corner was a green brief - Appu's, I thought.

"What the hell, both of them are in the living room without any underwear?" I wondered.

"Sometta, are you done yet?" it was Shama's voice from the living room. Sara seemed to have woken up too, I could hear her voice.

I didn't reply for fear of waking the baby. But instead, kept the blanket down and moved away. I saw that the chair had two of my t-shirts lying on it. Appu must have tried them on before settling on the blue one he's wearing now, I thought. Did Shama help him 'shop' from my wardrobe, I wondered.

"That's nice Appuvetta, it looks good," she must have said when he finally got the right one, I imagined, with the jealous feeling coming back.

I moved to the bathroom to get my brush.

Till lunch time, the day passed as usual. Shama was busy in the kitchen and Sara took care of the two kids, bathing them. In between, I went down to buy a pair of toothbrushes for Appu and Sara. I had a feeling they would need it often.

We decided to go to the nearby mall after lunch.

This time, though initially I started walking with Shama, after a while, automatically, it was Sara who was walking with me in the mall, with Appu and Shama walking in front about 20 feet away. They stopped at an 'export garments' shop - the kind where you get cheap clothes. Appu seemed to be persuading Shama about something, and Shama was refusing.

"Soma, you don't let your wife wear anything stylish?" Appu asked when we'd caught up with them, pointing to the store.

"Of course, I do. She just doesn't like anything other than Salwars," I said.

"No, no, Appuvetta, don't listen to him. Somettan is just saying that. He hates spending money on clothes," Shama said. Though I am bit tight with money, I have often asked her to wear more 'modern' clothes. But she's always refused.

"Ok, buy what you want. I'll pay," Appu said.

I am pretty sure Sara must have felt jealous at that point. Her husband was clearly flirting and spending money on another woman in front of her. But I didn't look at her as I didn't want to add to her embarrassment.

"Come," he said, putting one of his hand behind my wife's back and giving a gentle push. He was carrying his baby.

"Ok, we will be in this shop here," I said, pointing to the neighbouring shop where Sara had started checking out bangles and stuff.

After a while, she said: "It's pretty expensive here."

"Don't worry, buy anything you want," I said with a smile, of course not just for fun. I actually felt that way.

"No baba, it's too costly.. Let's check out somewhere else," she said, turning around.

Once outside the shop, we peered into the next one -- it was built more like a huge stall, so you could see all the way through. Appu and Shama were at one end, checking out what looked like t-shirts, possibly for her. Appu was urging her to put one on her and see.

"Come," Sara said, grabbing my arm and tugging me away. Both my hands were around the baby I was holding.

It felt good to be held by a woman. Shama never held me. I mean, we had a 'husband-and-wife' relationship, and in a typical Mallu husband and wife relationship, there was almost no romance, and certainly no public display of affection. My relationship with Shama was more practical - we were always discussing things like how much the price of rise has gone up in three months, which nappy to buy for the kid next time, and other similar stuff like how to save more money this month.

In all the four years or so that we'd been together, we'd never indulged in any public display of affection like Sara was doing with me now. She still had her hand around me, though no more in a playful fashion. We must have resembled a husband and wife. Sara was more open about showing her love. I remembered the initial days of her marriage with Appu. They were more open than I was with my wife.

It felt good, but I was also embarrassed. The mall was only 2 km away from my house. Though I didn't know most of my neigbours, there was still a chance that some of them might be there, and could find me playing 'husband and wife' with another woman.

Sara, however, didn't seem to care, and was practically walking in-step with me. Nobody in the mall seemed to care either. People were busy going on with their lives. Anybody who saw us would have only thought that we were one of those lucky couples who still had romance alive even after having a child.

Frankly, the thrill was the fact that it was not Shama. I mean, I wouldn't want to do this with Shama. It just didn't appeal, or rather, it was not something that one thought about. Perhaps it's because of her 'conservative Indian woman' morality. Perhaps I have only started seeing her as the mother of my child. But it never occurred to me to walk hand in hand with her in a mall - I mean, I would feel so foolish.

But I was enjoying Sara's company. She constantly looked at me, as we made conversations about god-knows-what.

We reached the central fountain of the mall. "Let's sit," I pointed to the edge of the fountain. I wanted a respite from the baby's weight.

We sat there, like two, newly-in-love college students, with the exception, of course, of the kid in my hands.

"Don't you miss me on week days?" Sara asked.

"Yes," I said, honestly.

"So, why don't you come during weekdays as well," she asked.

"Hmm.. " I said. "Don't see how that's possible, though," I added.

"Perhaps you can come home instead of Appu one day after work," she said, smiling naughtily.

That set me thinking. I thought I should discuss the idea with Appu.

We went on to discuss other things - about work, long-term plans of where I wanted to be etc.. I soon realized that here too, I was not lucky when it came to movies. Sara liked bollywood movies - mostly love flicks - while I mostly watched hollywood movies, mostly action etc. I might as well stick to discussing movies with Appu, I thought.

But being a working girl, Sara had a better understanding of career-related issues. She too seemed to hate the big city, like me, and Appu.

After about five minutes, I suggested that we grab ourselves something to eat at the KFC store that was right in front of us, opposite the fountain where we were sitting.

We grabbed two burgers and cola and went up to the first floor, grabbing a table adjacent to the glass. From here, we had a clear and overlooking view of the fountain, which was now one level below us.

Barely had we settled in when we saw Appu and Shama come out of the garments store. Shama had a plastic cover in her hand with her new purchases. Both were laughing, and it seemed Shama was pulling Appu by his hand, out of the store. From what we could make out from the distance, Appu seemed to be reluctant to leave and Shama was pulling him, clasping his palm in hers.

Almost as soon as they were out, she released Appu's palm, and walked in front of Appu, instead of walking with him. She seemed to be looking around for us. Both of them reached the fountain, and were talking to each other. I saw Appu take out his phone, and shortly, the phone in my pocket rang.

"Where are you guys?" Appu said.

"We are in a store.. Where are you?"

"We are at the fountain."

"Ok, you guys wait there, we'll reach in about 10 minutes," I said.

"Ok" Appu said.

I saw him turn to Shama and explain the situation.

Shama seemed to be disappointed or worried, but Appu was trying to convince her it was alright.

Appu looked around and saw a yellow wrought iron bench nearby, and pointed to it. Both went and sat down on it.

"Why didn't you tell them we were here," Sara asked curiously.

"I don't know.. I guess I didn't want to," I said.

"Hm.. Jealous, are we?" she said, tauntingly.

I just smiled. I mean, at the end of the day, should I be jealous of my wife sitting on bench with a friend of mine, or about a friend of mine being near his wife? Jealousy had lost its meaning for me the day I had lifted my naked wife's blanket to let in a friend.

We turned our attention to the food, and I gave a small piece of bread to my kid, who was installed in a baby chair.

We were both watching the other couple. Because of the KFC logo and other stuff stuck on the glass, it was nearly impossible to see inside, while we were easily able to see the outside.

Shama was sitting a foot or so away from Appu, and they were talking. Shama's plastic bag was in between the two. Then I found Shama take the bag in her lap, even as she was talking, and look inside it - as if making sure everything was there.

Satisfied, she kept it on her lap.

Appu now slided a bit on the bench, and landed close to her, and both were now sitting close by, like we were sitting five minutes ago. With his kid in his lap, Appu put his right arm on Shama's shoulder, drawing her closer to him.

Shama turned to him and was saying something, probably scolding him.

At this, Appu took out his mobile again, and Shama took it from him.

"Where are you?" Shama asked me, when I picked the call.

"We are at a store on the fourth floor.."

"How long do we have to wait here.. We are on the ground floor," she said, showing a bit of impatience.

"We'll take at least another 10 minutes.. Probably 15 minutes. I'll call when we are done with here," I said.

She cut the call, and was speaking something to Appu.

When she finished, Appu again drew her close to him. This time, she did not protest, but on the other hand, rested her head on his shoulder, but still seemed wary and reluctant. Appu's hand was on her waist, just below her breasts.

She adjusted her dupatta a bit, and it became harder to see his hand.

Every now and then, Shama would raise her head to look around, perhaps searching for us.

Shama, who was sitting on Appu's right side, turned to Appu and told him something. So Appu took his hand off her and lifted the baby from his lap and put it next to him, on his left side. The baby was only old enough to sit, and it leaned against Appu and seemed to have found a position to sit comfortably.

"What the hell," Sara exclaimed. "Why'z he keeping the baby on the bench," she asked.

"Don't worry, it's sitting comfortably," I offered.

She pursed her lips, and continued to watch, seeming to forget the burger that was in her hands.

Appu and Shama again went back to the 'couple' position, with his arms around her and her head resting on his shoulder.

We could see that they were talking, though we could not make out what. In between, we could see Shama sit up in mock anger and 'beat' Appu with her dupatta (shawl). Appu would only laugh, and pretend to shield himself, and they would soon go back to the original position.

We turned back to our food, though our eyes were watching the other two.

I between, we saw Appu try to snuggle too close to her face. He seemed to be smelling her hair or something. Shama turned her face away, pushing Appu's face away with hand and scolding him.

We finished our food in about 5-6 minutes, and sat there for another 2-3 minutes.

Then I called Appu on his phone. Appu took his hand off Shama's shoulder and sat up straight.

"Where are you guys?" I asked.

"We are near the fountain.. " he stuttered.

"Ok.. I can't see you near the garment store," I said.

"Ok, wait, I'm coming there," Appu said.

Shama took the child and they moved off back to the garment store.

We got out of the KFC and went behind the fountain.

"I am near the fountain.." I told Appu on the phone. "Wait, I think I see you," I said, and cut the call.

"Where were you guys," Shama said when she spotted us.

"Sara was looking at some exercise machines," I said.

"Sometta.. . Sometta.." she mumbled in between kisses.

After a bit, I put my hands on her back, and she relaxed. "Sit down, let me clean you again," I said, gently prodding her to sit on the commode. I was probably going to have body pain for two days, I thought.

In two minutes, we were out of the bathroom, staring at our crumpled clothes.

I looked around, but there was nothing else. "Don't wear your panties," I said to Sara, "they're wet."

I got hold of my knicker and t-shirt while Sara got into her flowery skirt, and nothing under it.

Her bra was still wedged behind the main sofa, so she was totally underwear-free as she stood ready to go out and face the world.

"I need to boil something to give to my son. Do you have Cerelac?" she said, pointing to her baby. My own was starting to stir a bit, disturbed by the noises. "Ok, pick him up then," I said, stooping to pick up mine.

The living room was empty, and Sara went to the kitchen to see if there was something she could give the child. I plonked on to the sofa, reaching for remote.

I heard the sound of flushing from the other bedroom. .and a minute later, Shama was out looking like nothing had happened.

"Oh, you're awake," she said to my son, picking him up and heading for kitchen where Sara was opening and checking cans to see if there was some baby food.

The next three hours were more or less like any other Saturday lunches that we've had them for.. Except, of course, for the fact that Shama was without underwear, and her boobs were swinging about more than usual. However, after a while, I saw her discreetly grab her bra from behind the sofa and sneak in to the bedroom.

We had lunch, and watched a malayalam movie about a wannabe-detective on TV.. At least me and Appu did, while the girls were busy wrestling with the kids to get them to have food, not swallow plastic balls, and not pull each other's eyes out.

By 4 O'clock, the movie was getting over. "Do you want to go shopping today?" I asked Shama.

We do our weekly trip to the nearby Big Bazaar on the weekends, and spend about Rs 2,000 there every visit, followed by a visit to a cold storage to buy meat and fish.

The purchases normally take about 4-5 hours, and constituted an 'outing' for us.

"We can.. Or we can go tomorrow," she said.

"Appu was saying he also wanted to buy some stuff as well.. What do you have to buy, Appu?" I asked.

Appu was not expecting that, and started stumbling. "The usual, rice, dal etc.." he said, looking desperately at Sara for help.

"Let's all four of us go then," Shama said earnestly.

"Oh.. I have a slight headache or something coming on I think," Sara said.

"Even I am not in a mood," I said.

"That's fine, we'll go and buy the stuff," Appu said as he started getting up, looking at Shama.

Shama was looking at me to see if it was alright or whether I would mind if she went with him. "Sure.. That would be nice," I said, not looking at anyone in particular.

After some more persuasion, Shama, my kid and Appu got ready to go shopping in Appu's car.

Even before they'd got inside the car, Sara stepped back inside the house, pushed the main door shut, and held me in a tight hug, not letting me move.

"C'mon.." I said.

"No."

So I dragged and lifted her back to the sofa.

I heard the noise of the engine start, and then get lost in the other noises as the car pulled away.

The kid was lying in a grass-mat on the floor, looking up at nothing in particular.

I pushed Sara down on the sofa and lay over her.

"So?" I said, quizzically.

"What?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Nothing. I just want to lie here with you."

"Hmm.." I said, slightly alarmed. Is she falling totally in love with me or something, I wondered.

As if reading my thoughts, she said, "Do you love me?"

"What?" I said, hoping to dodge the question.

"Do - You - Love - Me," she said, making sure I had enough time to understand each word.

"Yes.. In a way, yes," I said. I didn't want to simply say "yes", though I suspected that such an answer would not have been dishonest either.

"Why in-a-way?" she asked.

"Well.. Do you love Appu?" I asked.

She looked at me intently -- trying to judge my intention behind asking the question.

"Why do you ask," she asked.

"He's your husband, isn't he?" I said.

"Yes of course he's my hubby, and I do love him too," she said.

Realizing that I was probably not satisfied with the answer, she said "But it's not the same thing. I mean, I love him the same way I love my parents. I like him. I want him to be with me, you know," she said.

"Huhuh"

"And I love you too. But it's not the same," she said.

"Then?"

"You tell me what you feel," she said.

"I love you too.. I mean, I am in love with you.. Like I used to fall in love when I was at college, or high school. I feel that love feeling, sure,"

"Then Shama?"

"Well, she's my wife. And she'll probably always be my wife," I said.

"Really, are you sure?" she asked, smiling to hide what I suspected was a bit of disappointment.

"Yup, absolutely." I said, turning my eyes away slightly from hers. I wasn't really sure about that, and I didn't want her to know.

"So what am I?" she asked.

"You are my love. We are in love. We love being with each other. We enjoy each other.."

"Hm.. " she said, weighing my answer.

"Why do you say that you'll always be with Shama?" she asked, again with half a smile on her lips.

"Because she's the mother to my kid.. And I want my kid to grow up with a mother and a father," I said.

This was a question that I had seriously thought over ever since we returned from Goa, and I had my answer clear.

"Won't she be able to find someone else, who will also be a good father to your child?" she said.

"I don't think anyone can be as good a father to my child as I can," I said. She seemed lost for a response for a moment. Perhaps it was the tone of conviction in my voice that discouraged her from probing further.

"Will you leave me?" she asked.

"Not at all.. If fate doesn't intervene, we shall be as close as today for the rest of our lives."

"How is that possible?"

"Why not? Appu and Shama seem to like each other.. Of course, if they have a fight, or fall out of love and start hating each other, it would complicate things. But otherwise, I don't see any problem," I said.

"Hm.." she said, lost in thought.

"How come we didn't get married to each other in the first place?" she asked, wistfully.

"If we had, perhaps you'd be feeling for me much the same way as you'd be feeling for Appu now," I said.

"That's not true. I mean, Appu's a nice guy.. But he's not deep."

"Deep?"

"Yeah.. I mean, when I heard of Appu's tales about you, your school life together.. I knew what sort of person you are. You are a romantic at heart. Appu's ok.. But you are actually a romantic trying to pretend that you don't have all these feelings," she said triumphantly.

I was quite surprised at her observation. She was in many ways spot on. Deep down, I was a very romantic guy, perhaps hopelessly so. My feelings were deep, but I always hid them. But that also meant that I was what people would call 'ultra emotional'. My emotions always made my relationships with girls difficult. I tended to get carried away in love, expecting too much -- at least, as a teenager.

I always thought it was impossible to appreciate my feelings were unless you were also someone like that.

My wife was not like that. She was more into demonstrations of love etc., but seemed to miss the more subtle expressions of love. She wanted someone who was overtly romantic, which was not my style at all.

"In a way, Appu and Shama are a good match, because their wavelengths match," I said.

"Yes.. That's what I was thinking too. Appu's very good in maintaining appearances in a relationship, and Shama seems to be someone who is yearning for a person to show her some love and attention," she said.

That was true too. Shama always wants someone who was 'demonstrably romantic'. Someone who would buy roses for her, remember the wedding anniversary, buy gifts on Valentine's day, take her out for romantic dinners.. And generally make her feel special. She would often say that she wished she the sense to marry someone like that. She and I, in many ways, communicated at different wavelengths, and I always, perhaps unfairly, thought of her as 'shallow'.

Sara, however, seemed to communicate at my wavelength.

"When I first saw you on Appu's Facebook profile, I didn't really think much of you," I said. "But then, our eyes started talking when we met. They have spoken so much that I now feel I understand you. It's true that I love you, but I am afraid of that too," I said with as much honesty as I could muster.

She pulled me down and hugged me. I relaxed. As the poet would say, I enjoyed the sweet imprisonment of her arms, content to just be alive and inside her.

"I hope Appu and Shama always love each other.. And we are never separated," Shama said after a while.

"Let's see.. Perhaps, after some time, you'll start loving me like you love Appu now -- like a family member!"

"Shut up!"

Shama looked at me suspiciously.

Anyway, we roamed around a little bit more, this time with the women carrying the children. After another half an hour, we were on the 4th floor, which had a multiplex.

A mallu movie, Spirit, was playing in one of the halls.

"Let's watch Spirit," Shama said as soon as she saw the poster.

Though both of us have wanted to go to a movie hall and watch something, it's been almost three years since we did that - the reason, of course, being the child.

So normally, we don't even go to the top floors of such malls, and this time, had reached by mistake, sort of.

Appu was looking at me to see what I would say, while Sara was checking out the other movies listed at the counter.

"The children.." I began.

"Oh, ok. Never mind," Shama quickly interjected.

"Would have been nice to watch," Appu said.

Sara turned to look at us.

"I am not in a mood for 'spirit'," she said, "and I can watch the kids."

This time, there was no need for any persuasion or drama. We were all getting used to playing our parts. So I just said, "Ok, so I am Sara will look after the kids. You guys watch the movie. But remember to return the favor," I said.

Of course, Shama being Shama, she had to put up her mock protestations, and she began, "I don't know.. Are you sure.. I am not that keen.."

Long story short, me and Sara were driving out of the mall in about 20 minutes.

We considered going to a park or something, but the fact that we had to mind two kids made that an unattractive option.

Instead, we decided to go home, and pick up Appu and Shama later in the evening.

We got in, and Sara went to the bedroom. I followed, though she had left the door only half closed. She was looking to change into the night dress again.

"There's no one here, you know," I said, slipping behind her as she was picking up Shama's night dress, after getting rid of her t-shirt.

She was wearing only her bra and her jeans. I put my hands on her sides, sliding it to the front, to her belly, and drawing her to me.

I already had erection, and it felt good to squeeze her ass tightly against the front of my jeans.

I put my head on her shoulder. She turned around, our lips meeting in a kiss.

My hands were on her back, and I took the chance to unhook the bra.

We collapsed onto the bed, and about 15 minutes later, were lying on it side by side, exhausted (at least I was). The bed sheet will have to be changed, I thought.

"Do you really love me, or..?" Sara asked.

It was sort of unexpected. I didn't really expect Sara to care that much, always thinking of her as the practical woman, who was a bit like guys.

The question was a tough one to answer verbally. So I jumped on top of her and answered her with a kiss, tender, lingering and long. Most of our kisses, if not all, have been sort of hurried and 'deep'. There was no hurry now. I was spent, and there was chance of anyone disturbing us.

Almost as if to spook me, I heard the door bell ring.

"Oh, no.. Who could it be at this time on a Sunday?" I complained aloud.

I got off, slipped on my underwear and my jeans, and went to the living room window to see who it was.

It was the dish TV people. They had to come now, I thought. We had requested for a second connection, and instead of going with Tata Sky, we had decided to try Dish this time.

I slipped on a shirt, went back to the bedroom to convey the news, and then let the technicians in.

I knocked on the bedroom door, and went in. Sara was almost back in her clothes.

I pointed to the messy bed and said: "They will be installing it in this room. Better tidy it up a bit."

Both of us tidied up the bed the best we could, covering the wet patch we'd just created with the blanket. Thankfully, the underwears and t-shirts were gone from under the blanket by now.

Sara then went to the living room, where one of the kids was placed in the circular 'walking assist' and the other was on the mat on the floor. The technicians had already gone to the terrace to fix the dish.

It was a very odd feeling - a mix of fear and excitement plus a strange satisfaction that comes from doing something very naughty.

"What if they come back some other day and find me with Shama? What would they think?" I wondered.

Anyway, Sara managed everything skillfully, even making tea for the two technicians when they finished installing the box in the bedroom.

For their part, they seemed not to have noticed anything amiss. They must have wondered how we managed to have two kids that were both in the 1-year range. Perhaps they didn't even notice.

When they finally left, we collapsed on the sofa, with her under me.

It is my habit to wear as little as possible when at home, and I like to keep Shama also like that.

Nowadays, we hardly made out, so this custom was not being followed. But early on in our marriage, we would watch TV in nothing but underwear, or even less. I just liked being in skin-to-skin full-body contact with my partner.

So we both lay there, with only our groins covered by underwear, watching TV.

It was almost dark, perhaps around 7.

At about 7:30, Appu called to say that they were having dinner from the mall itself, and will catch an auto to come back.

Sara went to work making dinner for us and the kids.

It was about 10 when they came. Both seemed flushed and tired.

"This Appuvettan has no manners," Shama said as soon as we'd closed the main door.

"What happened," I said.

Shama turned to Appu, who started grinning sheepishly.

"Must have done something scandalous," Sara said, showing mock anger.

I noticed that Shama was positively overflowing with happiness. It had been a long time since I saw her that happy. In fact, with a pang of jealousy, I doubted if she'd ever been that happy with me.

Perhaps Appu was a better companion than I am, I thought. Well, actually, he probably was. As a matter of fact, he cared more about his partner (partners?) than I did. I was a supremely practical, semi-nerd who was more interested in technology and gadgets than women.

Though I did care for Shama, and had a strong sex drive, women were not the most important things in my life by far. They were there - along with friends and work. But for many men, women (and family) are more important than friends. Of course, Appu did not belong to this class, but still he was less fussy in giving up his needs and egos to make his partner happy, I knew that. He was, in other words, more willing to 'adjust' to keep his partner happy.

Shama too was a simple girl. She would be happy with a husband, she tells me, who earned only a fraction of what I did, but loved her more.

But Appu, for all his charm and love, could also be very slippery, whereas I was very straight.

For now, however, Shama was very happy. God seems to have answered her prayers for a loving 'husband' by sending Appu into her life. And Appu seemed to be happy too, after all he is getting to have sex with, and the company of, a very desirable woman at almost no cost.

While conversation-wise, Sara was more interesting, in terms of looks, Shama was more feminine and sexy. Of course, the ideal wife would be good in both ways, but since such women are perhaps only as many as the royal Bengal tigers, that left you with either one or the other.

In a way, that can be said for men too. Men are either money-and-career oriented emotionless assholes or they are super-romantic, Shah Rukh Khan types who shower their partners with affection and make them feel special, but may not be that rich and ambitious. Of course, people with both qualities exist, but that is rare. Nature seems to be stingy when it comes to endowing men and women with qualities, and only gives barely enough for either to ensure a survival.

From the outside, I can easily be classified as the first type. Appu was more towards the middle, and has the warmer side. But as is the case with everything, familiarity breeds contempt, at least boredom. Too much of a good thing is boring too. The human mind always seeks change.

In a sense, Shama fitted well with Appu, but I didn't think Sara missed Appu too much either. I mean, I may not be as smooth-talking as Appu, but if you looked under the bonnet, I was a better model :-) In many ways, I was actually more romantic than him, but to realize that you need to be of the same 'wavelength' as me.

While normally, someone like Shama - a conservative girl who said 'as my parents say' when I asked her if she wanted to marry me - could only 'adjust' with whatever she got in life, this experience gave her a choice.

Shama always said she regretted not having a love affair before getting married. I knew she was not kidding. In her heart of hearts, she wanted to have a love affair like they showed in films. But she was too scared to try. Kerala, where she grew up, is a very conservative place, and she did not want to bring 'bad name' upon her family.

That, however, didn't prevent her from wanting all that. In a way, she wanted to realize her dreams through me. She wanted me to buy her flowers, say 'I love you' three times a day, give her a kiss now and then, and have sex all the time :-)

At the same time, her parents wanted someone who was well settled, who did not have any 'bad habits', who was level headed and practical etc..

Not surprisingly, she was disappointed. And many of our small fights had this as the underlying reason - her feeling that she had missed her chance in life to enjoy love. (I, of course, had my fair share of crushes and even the odd dates and stuff before marriage, though I was pretty clumsy in that aspect.)

The new set up, and Appu, was like a new life for her. All her dreams that she had said good bye to were suddenly right in front of her. Here was someone who was romantic, and who did not mind showing it. Somebody who took her out, dined her, made her laugh, and took every chance to touch her, even in front of the others.

I was pretty sure that Appu's behaviour was not permanent. I mean, men get into the 'impress her' mode in the first few months of any relationship. After that, it slows down, or disappears. But it was still fine. After all, Appu was only the second man that Shama was getting to know closely as a romantic partner.

If she had been born in Delhi or Bombay, she would have had at least 10 boyfriends by now, thanks to her looks and her huge thirst for love and attention.

In a way, though I was in no way responsible for it, I felt a little guilty for her having missed out the 'fun' part of life - the secret meetings, the love letters, the heart breaks, the feeling of being on cloud nine, the eloquent looks etc.. And I was glad she was able to get some of that fun back in her life, instead of living a full life without knowing any of these.

In that way, I was like a friend to her, and not just a husband. I always encouraged her to try new things - clothes for example. And Appu is perhaps one of those new things I wanted her to try.

In a way, it was the same for me, for Appu and for Sara.

For us, though, it was more of boredom than reliving lost experiences. 3-4 years of the same partner had made us curious, perhaps even desperate, for new experiences. I had had enough of love affairs in my teens and 20s.

As I was nursing these thoughts, Shama had moved off into the bedroom, to change her clothes presumably. Appu was sitting in the living room. The bedroom door was not closed fully.

"Sara, can you come?" Shama called from inside.

We heard some conversations, giggles and squeals. About ten minutes later, Shama stepped out, and I let out a gasp - she looked like a bombshell. She was dressed in a white floral skirt that ended above her knees, and above it was a tight yellow t-shirt. Both were new.

She was blushing like anything, and Sara was practically pushing her to keep her from going back to the bedroom.

As I have said before, she has a very pale, golden complexion, and almost no hair on her body. Her legs were extremely shapely and right now, the first thing that came to you mind when you saw her knees and legs was simply to eat it - they looked like pineapple pastry and good enough to eat.

"This won't work, I am changing," she said, trying to turn back. Sara covered the entrance with her hands.

"C'mon Shama, you look so good," it was Appu who said it.

I realized then what set me apart from Appu. I would never say something like that to Shama. Or perhaps, Appu's saying that because it's not HIS wife, but someone else's. Anyway, the words seemed to have some effect.

Shama turned back, looked at both of us by turn, and asked: 'Are you sure?', again looking at the two of us.

"Yeah, why not? You look good," I said matter of factly - as if there was nothing strange about seeing a fully grown woman in a child's costume :-) Frankly, even I was feeling horny simply looking at her.

If she walked into any mall in those clothes, I can assure that 99% of the men would be looking at her (and the remaining 1% would be blind.)

"Anyway, I can't work in the kitchen in these nice clothes," she said, again turning.

"It's ok, we've also had our dinner," Sara said, again blocking her way.

"So what is the plan," Appu asked, looking at me. He seemed to be impatient to lick her legs and thighs, now that he had a glimpse of them again.

"Don't you have to go home today? You have work tomorrow, right?" I asked.

Appu was clearly torn. He looked at Sara, seeking guidance, and a way out of the dilemma.

"Ok, we can go early tomorrow, say 7:30?" Sara said, perhaps taking pity on her drooling husband. Appu's face immediately lit up.

"Yeah, that would be a great idea.. It's already so late today," he added. "I am sleepy too," he added.

"Ok, I'm going to bed," Sara said, going to our spare bedroom.

For a minute, the three of us looked at each other. Then Shama went to the kitchen, while me and Appu sat on the sofa. I heard Shama tinkering with the glass as she drank some water.

Then, without looking at either of us, she went straight to the main bedroom, lightly closing the door.

They left early next morning, and I got caught in work for the next three days. It was Thursday afternoon when I finally got time to catch up with Appu online.

"How goes?" I asked.

"Good... What plans this week?"

"Nothing. Shama will be having her periods I think," I said.

"Oh.. Sara's probably next week sometime," he said. "So, no plans?" he asked.

"We can still.. I mean, if you don't mind," I said.

"Oh, yeah.. After all, it's just one way.. :-) " he said.

"Hm.. I don't think, with Shama, there's any other way," I said.

"Why? She doesn't let you.."

"Nopes."

"Oh.. That's probably because you're her hubby :-) "

"What? She lets you?"

"Why should I tell?" he said.

After a while, I had an idea. So I pinged Appu again.

"Why don't you come to my home today?" I asked.

"Your home?"

"Yeah. Will be a nice change. You go to Gagandeep everyday," I said, referring to his Apartment.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah.. Tomorrow's Friday.. Let's try this today."

"And you'll go to Gagandeep?"

"Yeah... It will be a nice surprise for Shama and Sara no?" I said.

"What about clothes?"

"We'll buy a pair.. Or you can always wear mine :-)" I said.

We were both size 36 for pants and more or less similar in build.

However, it was not an idea I had thought through fully, and was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing.

"Are you sure?" Appu asked.

"Yeah.. You come over to my office by about 6?"

"I'll come over.. Let's see," he said.

I suspected he already had an erection.

"I'm here," he messaged me, just as I was finishing off work at 6.

I went out to the road, instead of going down to the basement parking. He was waiting in his car.

I felt a sort of nervousness that I had felt for a long time. But tried to look like I had all the answers.

"What's the plan?" he asked, smiling.

"Nothing.. You go to my home today, give Shama a surprise. I'll surprise Sara.. Or have you told her already?"

"No, no. I haven't. But I am not sure this is practical," he said.

"Why not? This is how we have fun in life, right?" I said.

"Hm.. You won't be able to get inside without a Gagandeep sticker though," he said, pointing to the parking sticker on his car.

"I'll take your car then," I said.

He looked at me without saying anything, perhaps trying to see how serious I was. Then he looked out of the window a while.

"Ok, let's see how this goes, but we'll have to go home in autos today. Otherwise your flat's security guard will think why I am arriving in your car," he said, getting out. "I'll go back, park the car in my office and take an auto to yours."

I too decided to get an auto. On the way, I realized I should buy something as a present. Flowers? I wondered. But decided that would be too predictable.

Finally, I decided to buy some sweets.

It was past seven when I reached Gagandeep. The security guard was indeed at the gate. Good thing I took the auto, I thought. Nice thinking by Appu, I thought.

I grabbed my laptop and got into the lift. Got off on the second floor, rang the bell next to door no 207.

I hoped Sara would not be having some neighbours over or anything. I mean, what I am supposed to say? "Hi, I'm her stand-in husband for the day?"

Presently, the door cracked open slightly, and Sara peered from behind. Seeing me, she opened the door fully and laughed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, still laughing, as if she didn't take me seriously, and I would disappear if she kept laughing.

"Can I come in?" I asked.

She suddenly stood aside, realizing that I was standing outside instead of being asked in.

"What in the world are you doing here? Appu will be here soon, you know that, no?" Sara said, as she locked the door behind her.

She still thought it was all a prank.

I threw the laptop bag on the sofa.

"Say hi to your husband for the night," I said, smiling.

"What?" she said, still not figuring out what was going on.

"Yeah, we decided we should swap ourselves today.. I'll be Appu for a day," I said.

"Are you kidding, or is Appu going to come in five minutes?" she asked, tying the cord of her maroon cotton nightie around her waist. "I was just making dinner," she added.

"Good. I am hungry," I said, grabbing her and taking her upper lip between my lips.

"hm.. Leave.. Or the curry will get burnt," she said, struggling.

I relented, and she rushed back to the stove.

"Are you serious? Appu's really not coming today?" she asked from the kitchen.

"Yeah.. He's probably naked and in bed with Shama right now," I said. "Shall we make a video call and see?" I said.

"Are you mad?" she said, blushing.

It was a really weird feeling. A normal, boring Thursday evening had been turned into an exciting one. Hopefully, it won't turn into an embarrassing one with any unexpected guests or anything, I hoped.

It was fun to be with Sara, step into Appu's shoes, as it were.

"I'm going for a shower.. Any idea what I should wear?" I asked.

"If you don't have anything.. Don't wear anything," she said from the kitchen.

That's true, I thought. I mean, we'd soon hit the sack, and what's the need for clothes then. But the evening was slightly chilly. "I'd still need something as a back-up," I said.

"What do you want?" Sara said, coming into the bedroom.

"Anything.. A lungi and a t-shirt?" I said.

"Take your pick," she said, opening the wardrobe.

On the one side was t-shirts and shirts, and on the other, trackpants and a couple of pajamas.

I picked up a white t-shirt with 'Goa' written on it (probably bought on our recent trip) and a lungi.

I'll have to be without underwear, I decided.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked, as I checked the 'hot' tap.

"No.. I have a lot of work in the kitchen," she said, "so, please, my master, you'll have to bathe alone today."