Trouble in paradise?

I the next morning I woke up beside my wife. Since it was a holiday, we of course didn't have anything to do. Seeing she was still asleep, I went down to make us breakfast.

Charlie came down a bit later, looking perturbed. I asked what was wrong

"So we got back from the party and we went right to sleep," she began. "The I woke up and you were gone this morning. Tom, is something wrong?"

"What do you mean? I asked, concerned.

She paused for a bit, long enough for me to bring the food to the table and and have a seat. "Tom, you know I've never cared much about sex..." and she paused again awkwardly. "But I know you do. and I've been thinking and last night is the kind of time you would usually ask for it. Or maybe this morning. And it occurs to me thinking back that you haven't asked for it much at all for months now. I know you have needs. So is everything ok?"

Of course, I had been getting my fill of sex, but not with her. I couldn't really tell her that, though. "Well, I do, but I guess maybe not as much as before." I shrugged. "Maybe I'm just getting older." It was all I could come up with.

"Do you have a mistress?" She spoke in a rush, forcing out something she didn't want to say.

I manged not to spit take my coffee, and I don't think she saw anything beyond normal shock at the question. "No," I answered. I had a sex friend (who you regularly have lunch with), and a secretary I sleep with, and I go around fucking anyone I feel like anywhere I want to, and I have been jerking off to porn a lot, but not a mistress (I decided not to give Beth this title, which might be splitting hairs).

"Your new assistant seems very nice," she said, in that same tone of voice. "And very pretty." I never said I married an idiot; she was hitting close to home, especially after last night.

"Are you jealous of Sharon?" I asked, trying to make my voice sound teasing.

"I guess not," she answered after an overly long pause. She shook herself. "I'm just imaging things. I could have sworn she was looking at you at the party."

"Maybe she thinks I'm sexy," I said, laughing and sweating a little. She was hitting really close and I really didn't want to use my powers on her; aside from a few simple commands to not to notice things like the pool appearing or my chores somehow doing themselves, I hadn't done anything to her, and I didn't want to.

"Boy, you really are full of yourself these days," Charlie replied, laughing and starting to eat her breakfast.

After breakfast, we did end up making love back in our room. Suffice to say that what it was dreadful. Sex with Charlie, was never very good, but now that I was getting all the great sex any man could want, the comparison was more stark. What seemed like hours of sucking, stroking, tickling, probing, tweaking, massaging, licking, caressing, and everything else I tried on her did nothing more than raise her to the most minimal level of interest, barely sufficient to complete the act.

I still occasionally played with the idea of doing something to make Charlie a better sexual partner, but I always held off, worried that in the process I might change something about her I didn't mean to. I really did love her as she was, and I would have been happy living out my life with her without Power, bad sex and all. But now that I could have both, I was going to. For the moment I had forestalled things and deflect her suspicions, but that had been too close. I would have to deal with the situation in a more thorough way. I just had to find some way to do it without hurting her, because that was the last thing I wanted to do.

Based on "My Reward" by Azil