“Newland,” she said in a curious tone, entering their private quarters. “I’ve been out today, shopping a bit. I hope you don’t mind.”

He lifted the bed covers for her. “Show me what you have in your case.”

She held the box to him, and then slipped into the bed, beside his naked body. “They really are quite pretty. Purple is my favorite color.”

He opened the box, and then grinned at his lovely wife.

“I can’t imagine how to wear these beads . . . pearls,” she said. “The clerk said they were French pearls. But they’re much too large to actually be pearls. Don’t you think?”

Newland laughed. “Oh, May. They’re not meant to be worn. Not in the way you are thinking.”

She looked at him perplexed.

“No dearest,” he said. “They’re meant to be, well, inserted.”

She looked at him with bemusement, but then her eyes widened. “You don’t actually mean you put them . . .” She brought a delicate hand to her mouth.

“That is exactly what I mean, dearest.”

She slapped the bed with her hands and began to giggle rather wildly. “Which?”

“Your forbidden—”

“My forbidden door! Truly?” Her voice trilled with excitement.

He nodded suggestively, feeling his manhood becoming aroused at her excitement.

“I love that,” she said, her voice deepening with lust. “Please, Newland. Show me. Make haste.”

“By all means.”

She watched intently as he rolled the strand of graduated French pearls in his hands, studying them.

“I was wondering about the weight of them, how they felt,” she said. “It’s almost like there’s something else inside them.”

“Indeed. There are. Weights.”

“You intrigue me, Newland.”

“All for pleasure, my dear. There’s a heavier ball inside each pearl that keeps these pearls of yours rolling and moving. You’ll understand soon enough.”

May quickly removed her nightgown, tossed it to the chair, and threw herself back onto the mattress, parting her legs. “I’m completely tantalized just thinking about it, Newland.”

He opened the side-table drawer and found a tube of lubricant, and then readied the strand of French pearls. Each bead along the strand was a grade larger in size, and the last one might have been mistaken for a small plum.

“Roll over onto your stomach,” he said.

May quickly turned onto her stomach. Newland slid his hands to her waist and pulled her up so that she balanced on her forearms, and then he urged her naked bottom into the air, so that she was fully exposed. She immediately began to grind her hips with anticipation, although he took his time. He massaged her cheeks first, and then touched her feminine folds, only to discover that she was completely deluged with desire.

She purred as he slid his fingers through her passion, slipping one, then two inside of her sheath. Then he hastened the pace, sliding his fingers inside and out of her.

She began to move urgently, demanding more. “Oh, Newland. I’m ready. Put the pearls in my . . .”