I hadn't woken up with a raging hard-on so often as I had this week since I was a teenager, and it was giving me a new zest for life.

I had a shower and made my breakfast. I got myself organised for the day at work, but it was all done on autopilot. The whole time I was thinking about the dare I was about to send to Anne and desperately hoping she would do it.

I sat down with my morning coffee and glanced at the clock. I still had a quarter of an hour before I had to leave, so I typed out a good morning message to Anne. It's strange how quickly something can become a habit, and this was a habit I was really enjoying. Whether it was just to say good morning, wish her a pleasant day, tell her how much I enjoyed our last conversation, or issue her a new dare, it was rapidly becoming my favourite morning ritual.

“Good morning, sexy lady. I hope you have a fantastic day, and it's as good as yesterday. I know that it won't be possible to have a day like that every day, but I do want that for you. Every day should be filled with heart-pounding excitement, adventures, and, of course, at least one orgasm. Preferably supplied by me. Lol.

Now, I spent a lot of last night dreaming about possibilities for your next dare, and I came up with something that might be doable. I dare you to go to a home that you will be showing to a client. Get there a bit earlier than the appointment time so that you will be in the house alone. Strip completely naked and wait near a window so that you can see when the clients arrive. Only once they get there can you get dressed again. You will only have however long it takes for them to get from their car to the front door to get dressed. You must be completely naked. No standing with items draped over your shoulders or pooled around your feet, waiting to be pulled up those delicious, long legs. COMPLETELY, BARE-ASS, NAKED.

Do you accept this challenge?”

I hit send and sat there staring at the screen, willing an immediate response, but I knew it was just wishful thinking. I finished my coffee, rinsed my cup, and left for work.

It was a normal, busy day at work with one exception. About ten minutes after getting to work, I heard the familiar ping of the messenger app along with the buzz of vibration in my pocket. I can't use my phone while I am working, so I had to wait all morning before I could check it. It was driving me wild thinking about what she might be saying. Would she accept the dare? Would she tell me it was too much and that she didn't want to do it anymore? Was it not even a message from her? By the time my lunch break arrived, I was going wild with a mixture of lust and anxiety.

I almost ran out of work to get to my car. The moment I sat down, my phone was out of my pocket. My heart was pounding as I saw that the message was from Anne.

I opened it, read the message, and was filled with a curious mixture of excitement and disappointment.

“Well, talk about a close call this morning. I was driving Philip to school; I often drop him there on my way to the office. In the past, if I got a call or a message on my personal phone—I have a separate phone for work—I would get one of the kids to check it or answer it. This has been going on for years, so it's not unusual for them to do this. It's been so long since I received any messages of a “personal” nature that it has never been an issue before. Well, to cut a long story short, he was well on his way to opening your message before I thought about what it could be. I think I scared him when I practically yelled at him not to open it. Because of my reaction, he was immediately suspicious and asked me who you are. Is it weird that I said that you were an old friend and didn't mention that you are my cousin? I think maybe that says something about where my mind is at. Anyway, after he asked why I didn't want him to open it, all I could say was that I was entitled to a private life too, and could he please respect that? It didn't take him too long to put two and two together, and now he knows that his mother has got a little something on the side. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, I could see that his curiosity was piqued, and he kept grinning while he was looking at me. He didn't say anything more about it, but the silence was filled with a ton of questions that are going to be asked sooner or later.

In the end, he only asked one more question about it before he said goodbye and got out of the car. “Is Charlie anyone I know, Mum?” Thankfully, I could honestly say no to his inquiry. Whether he believed me or not is another matter because I swear I was so bright red I was practically burning up. I'm not sure how I am going to handle further questions, and there will be more, especially once Charlotte hears about this, which she probably has by now if I know those two.

I am going to have to have a very serious conversation with them about respecting my privacy in this, too, because if they decide to snoop, they may end up needing counselling because they will see a side of their mother that they never thought they would.

God, I don't know what to do, Charlie. How do I handle this? The only thing I do know is that I don't want to stop doing this. I don't want it to end, ever.

Anyway, my personal crises aside, I want to talk to you about my dare. THAT IS SO FUCKING HOT! I swear it's like you can read my mind and see the kinkiest fantasies in there, and you know exactly how to turn me on. It's so risky and so damn sexy at the same time. I want to do it, Charlie. I mean, I really want to do this. But... I know, there's always a 'but.' But, unfortunately, it won't be happening this week. Not because I am chickening out or don't want to. I want to do it right now. It's just that I have two very good reasons why I can't at the moment. The first is that I will be stuck in meetings and the office all week. We have a merger going on between our business and another real estate agent at the moment, and it means an insane amount of paperwork. Secondly, I think being so incredibly turned on this week and having more orgasms than I have had for several years has somehow messed with my hormones. My period arrived this morning, which was a rude shock because I'm not due until next week. Normally, I'm like clockwork. I wish I didn't have to have them at all, to be honest, but unfortunately, that's not a choice. So, needless to say, I won't be getting naked anywhere other than the bathroom this week.

I am sorry if you are disappointed; I know I certainly am. I was wondering, though; I would love to see your reaction to me doing these dares. I would love to read about what you would do if you got to watch me doing these things. Perhaps you could write me another story about witnessing me doing this. Or, even better, I would love to see how you respond to it. Maybe that could be a dare for you, if you want. While you are thinking about me doing things and being naked in places I shouldn't be, perhaps you can record yourself stroking that delicious cock while you are in a place you shouldn't be doing that. Just a thought, but I hope you do. It would be so exciting to watch you.”

It was frustrating, for sure, but that's an entirely different thing from being disappointed. There was so much to unpack in this that I had to read through the message a couple of times before I replied. There was a lot of food for thought here.

“Good afternoon, my secret lover. Mmm, there's something very exciting about that, isn't there? First, I would like to address the so-called disappointment. No. I am not disappointed. Why would I be disappointed about your beautiful, healthy body doing what comes naturally to it? Even if we have messed with your hormonal status quo a little. Sure, it is something I am looking forward to, quite eagerly, but what's a week to wait in the grand scheme of things? We will still talk and tease each other between now and then. It just adds to the excitement of having to be a little patient. It gives us something to look forward to.

Now, as for the kids finding out. Well, that could have been both horrifying and hilarious at the same time. Surely a trauma that they may never recover from. Or they might just find out that their mum is a human being with all the same desires as everyone else. Not that I want them to be reading the details of what we discuss, but it will give them a dose of reality to know that you are a human being, too. The reality is that at some point, questions are going to be asked, and we need to think about what we are going to do and how we are going to handle it when the questions do start to roll in. I don't want this to end either.

Anne, I'm going to be completely transparent and more than a little vulnerable here. I know it's early days, but I have known you my whole life. I have been thinking about the future with this. About where this is going to go and what we want from this. I know this is about exploring who we are sexually, and I know it's about having a good time and being two people who trust each other to be free. There doesn't have to be an endgame to this; it can go for as long or short as you like. I don't want it to end, though. I have never met someone I feel this free with, and what I am trying to say, very awkwardly, is that I am happy, and I think I am making you happy too, and I want that happiness to continue. Does that make any sense, or am I just rambling incoherently?

Now, as for your dare to me. The thought of doing something for you like that has me so hard and excited it's not funny. I will definitely do something for you, but I'm not sure exactly what yet.

I hope this isn't too weird, and I hope I haven't spoilt things between us by telling you that I have developed feelings for you. I just feel that honesty is a super important thing for me at this point. I know it could make things awkward or difficult, but I need you to know.”

I hit send and suddenly felt more nerves and butterflies than I had for the entirety of this whole situation. Had I just set off a depth charge that was going to ruin the whole thing?

I made my way back to work, but the whole afternoon I achieved very little because I was just so consumed by what was going through my head. I had the volume on my phone turned down because I didn't want to hear it if or when a message came through. I was nervous enough without knowing there was a potential time bomb in my pocket. I tried to focus on other things, but Anne kept creeping into my thoughts all day. Logically, I knew I was feeling a healthy dose of lust for her, but something within me felt it was more than just that. We had had a lot of conversations over the last few weeks, and although there was a lot of lust within those conversations, we had talked a lot about other things, too. Our fears, our desires for the future, our kids, our jobs, and just the everyday banality of life as an adult. I loved those conversations as much as the smutty ones. They may not have been as exciting, but they were just as meaningful.

I felt a connection to Anne that went deeper than lust. The conversations we had were deeper than any I had with my wife for the last ten years of our marriage. I felt freer when talking to her than I did alone. Ultimately, I had to accept that there was also a certain amount of fear that I would remain alone, and perhaps that was what compelled me to be so forthright.

By the time I got back out to my car at the end of the day, I was feeling almost sick. There was no way I could wait until I got home to check my phone. I was going home to an empty house again, but the kids would be back on Friday after work. I could react any way I wanted or needed to once I got home, and I again considered waiting until I got home to check my phone, but it was eating me up not knowing. I opened the phone as I sat there. I took a deep breath and opened the message from her. To be fair, it didn't make me feel any better.

“We need to talk, Charlie. I want to talk to you face-to-face. Are you free to talk on your camera tonight? Both my kids have events tonight, so they will be out for a couple of hours. Can I call you around six?”

“We need to talk.” The words every man dreads. The words my wife used when she was telling me she was leaving. Fuck! Somehow, I knew I had blown it, and it was tearing me up. I sent her a quick message telling her I could talk tonight. I wanted to say so much more, but it would have to wait until tonight. My heart felt like it weighed a ton, and I felt sick. I couldn't believe I had ruined such a good thing.

I drove home, and when I pulled up in the driveway, I just sat there in the car, staring at the garage door, feeling like the world's biggest fool. Eventually, I walked inside, but I still couldn't seem to function properly. I looked at the clock and realised it was a quarter to six. I turned on my computer, but I was just going through the motions. There was none of the enthusiasm and excitement that had previously been a part of this ritual. Tonight, I was filled with dread.

Normally, I would have made myself something to eat, or at least a cup of tea or coffee, before sitting down to chat with Anne because I could be there for hours, and I didn't want to waste our time together by trying to organise my dinner. Tonight, however, I wasn't feeling very hungry at all. In fact, I was feeling somewhat nauseous.

At six o'clock on the dot, I received the call notification. I sighed and pressed the accept call button. There were a few seconds of beeps, and then the image cleared up to show Anne looking absolutely gorgeous as always. She had a slightly nervous-looking smile, but it was a smile nonetheless, and it gave me a very faint glimmer of hope.

“Hi, Anne.”

“Hey, Charlie.”

There was a nervous pause in which we each sat there looking at each other. We then both tried speaking at the same time and laughed as we realised we were being a bit silly about the whole thing. Anne smiled warmly at me, and it sent a familiar thrill through my body.

“Charlie, you go first.”

I took a deep breath and then let it out in a long sigh.

“Okay, Anne. I wanted to say sorry if I overstepped the boundaries today. I kind of just let my thoughts out, and they ran away from me a bit.”

“Oh, so you didn't mean what you said?”

She looked hurt, and I jumped in quickly to try and save what had become an absolute mess.

“That's not what I meant. What I said today... I meant every word of it. It's just that when I read it back through, I was worried I had said too much or come across as too needy. Desperate and clingy. Maybe I had said too much or made a mess of the wonderful thing we have going. I just wanted you to know how I was feeling.”

There was another long pause as I hoped I wasn't just making things worse, but Anne was smiling at me in a way that made me feel warm all over, despite the fact that my guts felt like they had been tied in knots.

“Charlie... I, well, the thing is, I feel the same way. The problem is, I don't know how we are going to make this work. I want it too. I want you. In so many ways, I want you, but there are a lot of obstacles.”

Not the least of which is the fact that we are related. Our families and our kids are going to have a hard time accepting this, I thought.

“Any chance we can change our names and run away somewhere that nobody knows us?”

She laughed but looked as though she was seriously...