cious about being dressed or about dressing. Now it was not uncommon for them to be to- gether while he dressed or un- dressed. Mostly this came as she was leaving or returning, but the result was that she saw him dress- ed at least once a day.

His undressing had reached the point where he only had the beige satin panties with their co- pious layers of lace remaining. These he would probably wear to bed with a nightgown. That much of his cross dressing they shared. Instead of the nightgown though he dug into the closet and came out with a robe. Wrap- ping the robe about him he leaned against the wall opposite her.

"Is it really that hard for you?” he asked.

"You're blowing this all out of proportion.'

"Perhaps I am," he said softly, trying to keep his voice calm and not slip into the stirrings of anger warming inside him. "I know that don't want to be a part you of it, and I am not asking you to but what is so big a deal about pulling a zipper?"

She slumped down, resting her buttocks on the edge of the dresser, her hands falling to her lap. "No, you're right. I guess my feelings are that I don't really want any part of your dressing. You know that. I know that it is part of you, but that doesn't mean that its a part of me.' He thought about this for a minute and then asked. “But what is a part of me, is part of you. Isn't that part of what marriage is all about?"

""

"What are you getting at?" she asked cautiously.

He looked at the ceiling col- lecting his thought around that random observation. "It is like

we pretend that I don't really dress, when we know fully that I do. Dressing is a very strong part of me. That much you re- cognize, but we cope with it by shunting it off. Surely you must realize that just because I don't have on layers of lingerie doesn't mean that part of me is not there I mean our lovemaking should make that clear.”

She nodded and smiled at this for he loved to dress her in the sexiest items and to feel her through the layers of lace, tassels and nylon. If anything she had found that it stimulated his passion and brought new energy and creativity to their love- making.

In their early marriage he had bought her all sorts of lingerie in the most exotic and even bizarre fashions. She had seldom worn any of these as she felt it was the lingerie he liked and not her. Be- sides they embarrassed her. Since she never wore them, he stopped buying them. Then last year at Christmas he had bought her a black lace garter belt and a set of hose. After a month in which they remained folded away in the back of a drawer, he had ask- ed her to wear them to bed. The results had been astounding as he had lavished all his affections and attentions on her. When they had finished a most satis- fying and exhausting session of sex and they lay quietly together he had told her why he had ask- ed her to wear them.

It had taken him several years to gain the understanding of what motivated him to want her so adorned. He had discovered that his dressing was wired into his sexuality, that frankly it was to a degree, a fetish. Left alone to his dressing it easily became a substitute for sex with her. The - 32.

more he dressed, the more he wanted to dress, and the more his dressing became a satisfaction for his sexual energies. He ad- mitted that he had come to real- ize that dressed, he could in fan- tasy become his own perfect partner.

By this time she had rolled over to face him, studying his face. It was not a remarkable occurance for them to communi- cate in such a way, as they had a close relationship. But dressing and sex were things that they did not talk about, and if they did, it was more often than not, fighting instead of communicat- ing. She cherished the moment and the opening of himself to her that his sharing represented. "And the more you dressed, the more it turned me off," she said softly.

"Right, and the more turned off you were, the more I dress- ed." There was a sadness to his face as he said this, which a- bruptly changed as his hand slid along her stockinged leg. "That's the reason for the garter belt. Clothing turns me on. So when you dress for me, it is a tremen- dous turn on."

Before he had said all of this her feelings were that the garter belt was a pain to wear. After this sharing she saw to it that a special drawer in the dresser was set aside for the things that he bought for her to wear. It had not only revived their sex life, but it was fun. It also gave her a sure way of signalling her desire for sex.

At times she would awaken in the morning to find him wearing one of the articles of hers dis- carded in their passionate frenzy.

His voice brought her back to the present.

"I feel like I have to live in