Rich, handsome and confident, James still thought he was lucky to have married Elsie. Five years on, she was still the hottest woman in the room for him and that pride had somehow evolved into something else, something thrilling and dark. Would his reserved and devoted wife fulfill James' request or would their marriage suffer an irreparable damage?

___

She closed her eyes and turned away again. "I just... I don't want to cheat on you."

That elicited a short laughter out of me. "Darling, it's me who's asking, it's not cheating."

Elsie didn't answer, her eyes still avoiding mine.
"Look, we don't have to hurry," I told her, pulling her closer to me. "We'll think of other probabilities and then you can choose."

She still wouldn't look at me but her voice was resigned when she said, "Of course."

I lied, of course, about not hurrying. And I already had a back up choice, having seen my wife's reluctance as the days grew.

I didn't know why I chose Mitchell, other than the fact that I knew he was Elsie's type. Tall and lean with dark hair and quiet, polite countenance, he was the guy who supervised the landscaping of our garden, even though he had always deprecatingly called himself just the gardener.

It was a bit disquieting actually when he showed no surprise, or emotion, really when I first approached him with the offer. He simply considered it and asked if my wife was aware of this proposition.

I had an unsettling thought then, of the number of rich husbands who had made this kind of offer to him before. How many were there? And yet such suspicion somehow put me at ease, especially when he warned me Elsie might not react well, no matter how much I thought she agreed to my request.

"She might not want to do it, or even if she wants to, she might not want to do it with me."

A bit flustered then, I had nodded and simply said, "Of course, of course."
Mitchell had then smiled and said, "Then again, I'm not bad at persuasion, even if I say so myself."