you know?”
She slipped her hand into the stack of magazines and withdrew the catalog.
Larry looked embarrassed. “I never imagined it would excite me so much to see you wear that outfit. God, you’re beautiful.”
Maggie knew she was not beautiful, but it didn’t matter. “I’m only sorry I didn’t buy an outfit like this sooner.” She held the catalog up and opened to the first page. “Would you help me pick out another one?”
Within a month, Maggie had a large wardrobe of sensual underthings that she wore frequently. Larry sometimes secretly bought special items, wrapped them, and presented them to his wife with great ceremony. Their lovemaking took on a whole new aspect.
They had a particularly enjoyable evening one Saturday. As they were dressing to go to dinner with friends, Maggie allowed Larry to touch her white lace half bra and matching tiny panties. Then she pushed him away and quickly pulled on her slacks and sweater. Larry could barely wait to get her home.
For Larry’s birthday, Maggie picked out a specially outrageous one-piece see-through jumpsuit. The night of his birthday, she put the jumpsuit on and tied a wide red ribbon around her waist. As he untied the ribbon, she said, “Since I am giving myself to you, let’s just call this outfit Gift Wrap.”
I learned early in my sexual life how difficult it was to discuss what I liked or what I wanted my partner to do. During sex, it was almost impossible for me to say something as simple as “Could you do that again?” much less “Could you do that differently?” I think back now and lament. My sex life as a young-married could have been so much richer and more rewarding for both myself and my husband had either of us been able to talk before, during, or after sex. In the later years of my marriage, I thought about trying to discuss how to attempt the kind of sex I read about in books, but old habits die hard.
Throughout my relationships, I have used body language to suggest different positions or activities and so has my partner. The suggestions that I have made this way have been properly interpreted about half the time and I’m sure that I’ve interpreted my partner’s actions with about the same success. You probably know the signals, subtle though they may be, that your partner sends during lovemaking when she wants a certain type of touching or a particular position.
When it comes to new adventures, physical reactions can be very instructive if you are tuned in. Dave discovered his wife Judy’s favorite sexual fantasy during an ordinary outing to a local movie. Fortunately for both of them, Dave was tuned in to Judy’s nonverbal clues and he was willing to take a big risk and try something creative.
DAVE AND JUDY’S STORY
Dave and Judy sat midway back in the darkened theater. After about an hour, Dave started to shift restlessly in his seat.
Why did I let Judy talk me into seeing this turkey? he wondered. She knows that I don’t like war movies.
The film was a recent remake of a 1942 World War II movie, updated with R-rated scenes filled with blood and sex. The plot was predictable. The beautiful Nazi spy, played by a voluptuous brunette, had been trying to get some top-secret plans from the hero. Now she had fallen in love with the handsome flier and was being taken to task by her superiors.
“We are holding your sister,” the actor said in a poor imitation of a German accent. The Nazi officer led the heroine down a set of old stone stairs to the basement of the château.
The picture changed to a shot of a small dungeon-type room, where the heroine was looking through a small barred window. Her sister was standing half-clothed on the far side of the room, with her back against the stones and her wrists spread over her head, tied to rings in the wall. A Nazi lieutenant with tall, shiny boots marched back and forth in front of her and taunted her with lewd accounts of what he would do with her if her sister, the spy,