cheek.
“Are you okay, honey? You seem strange,” he said.
“It’s just been a long week. I’m glad to be home.”
Callie started chanting, “Mommy’s strange! Mommy’s strange!” Caren joined in. They kept it going, giggling in between and it echoed around their large, open kitchen. This was their dream house and the kitchen had been built exactly how Kyra wanted it. The perfect home was just one more way her life seemed perfect on the outside.
Ethan wasn’t buying it. Even with the distance that had come between them, he could tell when something was bothering his wife. She’d always been an open book to him. Something major had been on her mind all week, but he wasn’t ready to drag it out of her yet. He was afraid that if he pushed, it would just lead to a fight and he did not have the energy for that. They rarely fought, but when they did it was terrible. He realized that sometimes he just avoided her because he did not know what to say.
It was strange what their marriage had turned into. It wasn’t like they fought all the time or disliked each other or did not like to spend time together. Ethan still thought his wife was very funny, just like when they met, and he loved spending time with her, but it was more like they were friends, or roommates. Kyra was a great mother and he still loved her, but the passion seemed to be gone. Sure, they still occasionally made love, but it was always the same thing.
It was usually a Friday or Saturday night after the kids were in bed and they were turning in for the night. At some point, Kyra had stopped wearing cute little negligees to bed and now slept in a baggy t-shirt and loose shorts. They would be cuddling, talking about what had gone on during the week and her proximity would make his cock stir. They would start kissing and she would turn out the bedside light and pull the t-shirt over her head. He knew that she was self-conscious about her body since the kids, but he still found her sexy. She still had those great breasts and he actually though her butt looked better with a little more meat on it. He liked seeing her body, but she always turned the light out and she never dressed to show it off anymore. He didn’t expect her to run around dressed like a hooker, but it would have been nice to see her curves now and then.
And besides, it wasn’t like Ethan was still the trim young man she’d married all those years ago. Ethan’s six-foot frame was still in generally good shape, but the weekly basketball games were long gone, and his waist had expanded to show it. His brown hair was still all there, thank God, but there was a bit of gray in his goatee to show he was in his late thirties. But the only time his wife ever showed off her chest anymore was when she occasionally wore a tight top to work. The dowdy clothes made it hard to think of Kyra as his sexy wife, not just the mother of his children.
On sex nights, once they were both naked—as expediently as possible—she would play with his cock for a couple minutes while he touched her, then he would roll on top and they would do it. He couldn’t remember the last time they did anything other than the missionary position. It still felt great and he came inside her, even though he suspected she was faking at least some of the time. And that was it.
Ethan missed the hot, fiery sex they used to have. It wasn’t like he wasn’t still horny. He knew Kyra was too. He knew about the vibrator at the back of her sweater drawer. He’d heard her using it one night when she thought he was still downstairs watching television. Knowing she was doing that turned him hard instantly, and he wanted to go into the bedroom, but he thought if she wanted him to know about her toy, she would have told him. That was the basic problem. There was too much unsaid. There were certain things he could never tell his wife, that was for sure.
After the kids were bathed, read to and put to bed, Ethan thought they would sit