So, where to start....
Peak - no I don't think it was a mercy-fuck from Sue, we actually talked a lot over this past weekend as she is taking a break from Paul on the weekends until we have ourselves sorted out a bit more - well, that and the weather was such that Paul told her he would be golfing all weekend.
I think I understand a lot more of what she's been thinking and going through and maybe even wanting, now that I think I understand. I guess it goes back to a few different things, mainly when I came to her with my beta-desires. To hear her, she had just gotten past her desire for this big affair where she'd let herself go emotionally and physically - as I understood her, after her time with Robert, she'd figured out that she wanted the physical and not necessarily all of the other stuff. And when I said what I did about wanting my beta wishes to be fulfilled - that I told her that if she wanted anything sexual that she should look to Paul - I now see that it had the effect of putting her in reverse yet again. The way she said it and it was part of what she'd told me earlier, that it was some effort on her part to go along with my wishes and to direct her desires to Paul and not me, especially after how she'd come to feel she'd grown from her time with Robert. In fact she even told me that part of what she liked about Paul at the beginning was that she felt that it could maybe just be physical between them and that it could be what she wanted. But that when I told her that I wanted her to ramp up denying me - she said she wasn't sure what she felt other than being mad and annoyed with me - but at the same time - she also said she knew it WAS something I did want and that she said that was how she got herself to let herself go with Paul, to convince herself that it was what I wanted.
She said to me that she could feel my desires were changing and that even before New Years Eve, that she knew that I was reaching my limits and that she decided that she wanted to, as I tried to say and she confirmed, really push my limits. She said she was annoyed that I seemed to discount and diminish how she felt with Paul and how much it took of her as a woman and as my wife for her to truly redirect her sexual desires to Paul. She was brutally honest with me when she said again that right now, Paul makes her cum so much more and so much better than I do that she needs to somewhat push herself to let me have my time with her and to hopefully regain my position with her.
It led us to a deeper discussion that sort of culminated yesterday when we both came to realize that I seem to truly need her to deny me something at a deeper sexual level in order to somehow satisfy these feelings that I still have. She didn't play down my feelings or this need that I seem to have. It was actually something quite the opposite. I actually told her at one point that I wished I didn't feel this way sometimes - and that seemed to make her understand that this wasn't something I could necessarily control, or at least not on an infinite basis. She told me that she had understood this turned me on for a long time - and we all know all the stuff we've talked about and discovered about each other over time and she told me that she loved me even more because she knew it wasn't easy to share this type of intimate stuff with her. We shared a few tears at times too as she told me that she too had discovered things that she too felt wasn't easy to share or accept. For as deep and heavy as that was to say to each other, it also felt good to say it and to finally put it where it was something that we can just accept and build forward from.
When I told her that I thought at times that I was crazy for what I felt, she looked at me and said that she felt the same. And I know that we've said it more than once in the past, but I don't know if it was more startling than as we talked and thought that we are both really enjoying a lot of the same things once again, just from different perspectives - or as I'd said it and she laughed - as 2 sides of the same coin.
I can't recall exactly how we got there but at one point she turned to me and asked me if using condoms with her was something I truly found pleasurable, or whether it was something that gave me a different type of satisfaction? She knew the answer but I told her anyway that it surely wasn't directly pleasurable, but that it "felt right" and afterwards that it seemed to leave me feeling how I wanted to. And she confirmed "so it feels right to not cum in me?". I looked at her and I said, "no, it doesn't feel right" and I explained that of course it would feel far better and more 'correct' for me to cum in her and I admitted that physically it would likeley feel far better. It wasn't easy to try to find the words and I still can't - but I told her that despite that, that it just feels better to not do so.
I told her immediately that this is what I was concerned about regarding the other discussion where she said she cums so much better and more easily with Paul and that I was perpetuating that. She looked at me and was speechless for a few moments until she said, very hesitatingly, "is that so bad?" and with a very questioning tone? I looked at her and didn't answer and she paused and then again said "is that so bad if it's how we both feel?". Which made me ask her "is it?" and when she didn't answer I added "is that how you feel, that it's maybe not so bad?".
Now I know it will sound crazy but we spent the better part of yesterday afternoon discussing this. I can share some of the to/fro that went on, but it slowly came to both of us that we are both feeling apprehensive in the same ways and also are both continuing to be curious in other ways. One thing though, Sue agrees that more sexual involvement with me will be better for her and temper anything that would be happening between her and Paul. She continued to explain that she'd told Paul all about my "decisions" that I'd come to and she said he'd laughed and "had wondered how he (I) could take not having sex with you (her)" - and he laughed about what she'd wanted for the second ski-weekend and he agreed to follow her lead. So, as she explained, what I saw between them that weekend was a bit extreme - not so much what they did, but more how-much and how-explicitly - so in the end, Paul is a willing participant to however Sue decides to handle my needs. As others here have concluded, he knows he's lucky to be enjoying her and isn't making waves at any time.
Before I break for lunch I'll conclude by sharing that we have come to some new agreements and reinforced older ones. Regarding condoms, she admits that if it doesn't matter to me or that it seems to fulfill me in some way, then she is okay with me using them with her and when I pushed, she admitted to having to come to learn to enjoy this. It was her that looked at me and said "that means... you know... it'll only probably happen with him when it does, that crazy way I cum sometimes at the end". I wasn't sure what to say as she added "it'll still happen with you baby, you know, when we're really into it sometimes". I told her that I knew what it meant and I asked her if it hurt her if I told her that I thought it was perhaps what I needed to feel? I saw her eyes tear up as she took my hand and held it and told me how she knew it was something very deep in me to be able to say that to her and that she loved me for being able to tell her. With the same tear in her eye she sniffed and said that she felt weird in the same way by being aroused by it too and that she had struggled with these feelings too. She was almost crying when she said that she wanted us to be able to make it work out for both of us but that she needed me to "know that I don't love him and that he'll never come between us....". She babbled on for a moment until I kissed her and I just said "I know baby".
I know it sounds like nothing new, and perhaps it's not, but I think we have turned a bit of a corner because of the rest of our discussion that I'll hopefully share after lunch.