Beautiful young Becky Finch finds herself on the horns of one of the modern world's most insistent and dangerous dilemmas ... to swing or not to swing! Pushing her into the suburban mate-swapping maelstrom is her own husband, both by his sexual neglect and inadequacy, and by his demand that she "be nice" to his prospective clients. Holding Becky back are her lifelong instinct toward decency and her desire to be a good and true wife. But the decision must be made ... and be made right now!
CHAPTER ONE
Becky Finch watched her husband, Rudy, flirting with Tina Walters and a cold hand seemed to grip her heart.
Of course Tina, young and blonde and curvey, liked male attention. That had been evident ever since the Finches had moved to Pender, Oregon, from Spokane. Gene, Tina's husband, with whom Becky was dancing at the moment, didn't seem to mind when his pretty wife displayed her legs as she was doing now for Rudy.
The Walters lived next door to the Finches in the new suburban development that Gene had helped construct. He was Pender's "go-gettingest" young builder, already doing well at the age of thirty.
It was Saturday night and Becky had invited some friends over for a little party. The third couple, Hal and Janet Collins, were at the Finch stereo, looking through the records.
Tina, relaxing in a chair that sat back in the shadows, her legs crossed, her short skirt halfway to her hips, smilingly basked in Rudy's nearness, giving him every opportunity to glance under her dress.
At the same time Becky became aware of Gene's arm tightening around her slender waist. She didn't mind too much. He was strong, tanned, rugged-looking. He was very successful. But then, Rudy had done well in the past years, too. From assistant manager of a Crest Store in Spokane he had been given a full managership at Pender. He was on the way up.
But he wasn't always so charming around the girls, Becky thought. In fact he was just a little shy and backward until he started wearing that hair piece!
Rudy, now thirty-five, had been balding when Becky had first met him two years earlier in the Crest office at Spokane. She hadn't minded. Some men lost their hair early in life. He had good basic qualities-a drive to succeed, a quick mind, steadiness. She had liked him the moment she spotted him and had gone after him!
He had been flattered that a girl ten years younger than he went out of her way to be friendly....
Then, while on a buying trip to San Francisco, he had been expertly fitted with a toupee. In the single year he had worn it she had noticed changes in his personality. He was more outgoing, more assertive. He appeared s more in public and generally performed better on his job.
But most noticeable, and to Becky most disturbing, was his new manner around women. He looked younger and acted younger. He was even trying to change the pattern of their behavior in bed. Other girls reacted to his dark handsomeness, to his younger appearance. He was more dashing.
Becky say him lean down to Tina and smile, saying words she couldn't catch. Tina giggled, slowly uncrossing her superlative legs, giving him ample opportunity to look far beneath her skirt....
Tina stood up finally and they began to dance. Becky experienced a sharp tug of jealousy.
II that blonde knew he was nearly bald, maybe she wouldn't be showing him her panties, Becky thought.
She realized, though, that she couldn't blame Tina too much. Tina was a born flirt, avid for male compliments. A year earlier Rudy would have politely ignored her and paid all his attention to his wife. Becky was reasonably pleased with her marriage. She had remained single a bit longer than most girls. She wanted to succeed as a mate and homemaker.
There had been talk BTH (before the hair piece!) of having children, but lately Rudy had dropped the subject. He claimed they should have more fun before starting a family. He wanted to move up to manage an even larger store. Pender was a comparatively small wheat-country city and he had his sights set on a brand-new store, with more departments, being built at Pasco, Washington.
Janet and Hal Collins already had one girl, age two. He owned a Western clothing establishment he had inherited from his father. They were well established in Pender and, like the Walters, intended to stay. They were natives.
Janet and Hal lived in an older home they had remodeled, and they seemed quite happy and adjusted. Janet was large, buxom, with slow indolent movements. She had big brown eyes and a very sensual mouth. Hal was wide-shouldered, narrow-hipped and looked handsome in the Western attire he wore most of the time. Janet and Tina, about the same age, had gone through Pender high school together.
Becky became more and more aware of Gene's nearness, of the pressure of his hand on hers, of the tightness of his arm about her waist. They had all been drinking-a serve yourself bar had been set up in the Finch kitchen.
"You're quite a girl," Gene whispered in her ear.
Becky's first impulse was to sidetrack him, to suggest another drink or a break in the dancing, but when she saw Tina cuddled tightly in Rudy's arms, her curvy hips flattened against his loins, their cheeks pressed together, her sharply-coned breasts poking into his sport shirt, she changed her mind.
"You're quite a man, Gene," she replied.
"Well, I've been wondering when I was going to make an impression." He swelled his broad chest against the pout of Becky's breasts, lightly encased in a very sheer bra. She felt a tingle of excitement.
"How do you mean?" she asked, a bit curious.
"You don't wolf around like most of the gals your age. Are you really such a home body?"
"I'm married," she said tartly.
He laughed. "So are Tina and Janet. Don't be so serious about it and you might have more fun." He squeezed her fingers. "You've got a terrific figure...."
In spite of her resentment of his boldness, she was flattered. She was proud of her slender shape, of her long straight legs, but she had never thought of herself as being anything like "terrific."
"You've had too many drinks," she answered.
"Just the right amount. Say, why don't we all go over to our pool and take a swim? I feel a real bash coming on!"
Becky had been in the Walters' enclosed pool a few times when only Tina was there. It was an extravagance she and Rudy couldn't afford.
Obviously Rudy made less money than either Gene or Hal. The weather was warm ... and the small air-conditioner Rudy had bought just barely kept their living room livable in August.
She overlooked the insinuation that her own party might fall flat for lack of anything more to do-besides dancing and drinking. But Gene was probably right.
"Ask the others," she said.
A moment later, at the end of the recorded tune, Gene made the proposal. Everyone agreed it was a wonderful suggestion. Becky noticed that Rudy was all smiles.
"Now I'll get to try on that new Bikini I just bought," Janet drawled, rolling her big brown eyes.
Gene chuckled. "I can hardly wait to see that!"
"By golly!" Hal mimicked. "This here girl has been a-keepin' things from me again!" More laughter....
* * *
Later Becky found herself in the shiny, tiled double-bathroom at Walters where the girls had gone to change into their swim suits. The men had already changed out near the pool and the sound of their voices drifted in through the open bathroom window. Evidently they were now enjoying the water.
"Don't be bashful, honey," Tina said to Becky. The blonde was down to panties and bra and they were so thin she might as well have been nude. Her full breasts rode forward jauntily, their strawberry nipples swollen.
I wonder if dancing with Rudy caused that? Becky thought illogically. She wasn't used to exposing her body to anyone, at least not since PE classes at high school. Lately Rudy had kidded her about shyness, even in their bedroom-something he hadn't done previously. Another subtle change in his outlook, his personality?
Janet stood in front of a full-length mirror as she removed her bra. The large brownette threw her shoulders back, surveying her almost-naked figure. She still wore a pair of smoky-colored lace-trimmed undies.
"Have to watch that sag," she remarked, weaving her generous hips. Her breasts were huge with prominent dark nipples, the aureolae banding them quite wide. Becky felt her cheeks turn hot. The easy familiarity between Tina and Janet she had noticed she attributed to their long friendship, but now it seemed a little more than that. Their suggestive remarks often jarred Becky's sensibilities.
Becky wasn't totally unaware of lesbianism. There had been plenty of whispers about certain girls at Stanton High, but she had considered it a mere phase some girls went through before marriage. When a gal was growing up there were always so many deterrents to normal sexual release with the boys....
She had been a virgin when she married Rudy and until the hair piece they had been, in her opinion, quite well adjusted. The last few "times," though, Rudy had seemed a little distant, and a month earlier he had mentioned that she didn't act "sexy" in their bedroom. He had even brought home some new, very sheer nighties which she hadn't yet worn. At the same time he was becoming more bold, hinting that it might be fun if they did it on the living room floor or in the shower.
All these changes disturbed her. Were they necessary if two people were really in love? She had to admit, though, that she didn't always climax when Rudy did. Also she hated to "act" in such an intimate and personal relationship.
"Does Hal really appreciate what you've got?" Tina giggled, glancing over at Janet.
"Oh, usually," Janet drawled. "But I get the idea once in a while he'd like a change of pace."
"How many drinks have you two had?" Becky asked dryly.
Tina laughed. "Don't break in on such an interesting conversation. I know Gene would go for a little variety!"
Becky blushed. Perhaps she and Rudy should change friends, she thought. She wasn't used to girlish discussions about what husbands liked and didn't like regarding sex. "Change of pace" and "variety" ... were these two attractive girls talking about "switching?"
Janet laughed her slow throaty laugh. "I see we're shocking Becky. Come on, honey-get into your suit. The boys are waiting."
CHAPTER TWO
Becky stood in the dim light at the tiled rim of the pool, feeling a little self-conscious. Even her modest two-piece suit seemed too revealing. She couldn't hide the thrusting points of her breasts, which, though rather small, had always been firm and somewhat elongated. One girl in PE class at school, catching a glimpse of Becky in the shower, had told her she should model for bra ads....
"Nice!" Tina murmured, staring at Becky. The blonde's green mischievous eyes seemed to bore right through her suit-top. Becky had waited in the bathroom until the other girls had left giggling.
"Stop it!" Becky said.
"Honest, honey-you ought to show yourself off more. Hubby might like you better...."
"We get along just fine!" Becky said, shading the truth. She remembered the way Rudy had ogled Tina's legs just before they danced. Of course men liked to look. She remembered an old saying-"When the men are through looking, they're through." But Tina had given him plenty of opportunity.
Gene swung out of the pool, using the chromed ladder supports, smiling, handsome, tanned. He flipped a handful of water on Becky, making her jump.
"He likes you, honey," Tina quipped. She glanced out over the shadowy pool. "Where are you, Rudy?"
Becky observed the blonde's mini-Bikini, the lush bulges of her breasts that jiggled whenever she moved, the tiny waist and the swell of her hips and loins, barely covered by triangular red patches at front and rear.
She's lovely and sexy and I hope Rudy doesn't get too many ideas, she thought. Beside her I feel almost gangly.
Gene touched her waist and pointed at the portable bar set up near the pool's edge. Becky nodded. Perhaps she did need another drink.
"You're a real willowy doll," Gene murmured, winking as he iced a couple of glasses. She noticed that Hal came out of the pool instead of Rudy. Her husband was cavorting in the water with Janet. In the shadows it was hard to tell exactly what they were doing....
She decided to relax a little. If Rudy could play around with Janet, why couldn't she be more friendly with Gene? While dancing with him she had experienced a mild thrill.
She felt the basic wrongness of the situation, the casual pairing off, the way Tina and Janet flirted with other girls' husbands-but it seemed to be the popular thing to do in this neighborhood. She had read about suburban swap clubs, and she didn't intend ever to become involved in one.
She was quite sure that she and Rudy wouldn't be where they were at all if he had remained as before, during their first year of marriage, BTH. She had read articles concerning personality changes following plastic surgery ... a girl had her nose straightened and suddenly she was popular ... a man with a harelip and a dreadful inferiority complex began mingling with a whole new crowd and turned into a wolf.
She began to hate her husband's patch of artificial hair. She could blame his new dashing self on little else but that. Nothing momentous had happened. His steadiness at his work had been commendable and he had confided his troubles to her.
Now he seemed more self-reliant, not that this was a bad quality, because it had helped him get a promotion. It was simply that he was no longer the same Rudy she had married.
Can I really adjust-or are we headed for the rocks? I won't be drawn into a cheap trademate arrangement. He doesn't owe these people anything.
Becky accepted the fresh drink Gene handed her and withdrew his hand from her waist.
"What's the matter?" he asked, his voice showing the effects of the liquor. "Rudy and Janet're having a ball out in the pool."
"I don't like to be rushed," she said, aware of his masculine appeal, yet still determined to do nothing she would regret later.
"Sure," he said, smiling. "I'll go in and turn up the outside speakers a little. We can dance anyway."
He's clever, she thought, as the liquor warmed her. I'll have to watch him-and myself.
Janet climbed out of the pool, Rudy immediately behind her. Becky noticed that he hadn't wet his head and for obvious reasons his hair piece might come unglued. She also noted that Janet's lipstick was smeared. Rudy made an ineffectual swipe at his mouth with his right hand.
Janet laughingly adjusted her mini-halter and excused herself, saying she would be right back. Rudy wandered to the bar, obviously excited by what had happened out in the water.
"Having fun, darling?" he asked Becky.
"Not especially."
He paused with a glass in his hand. "You going to be a spoilsport?"
Hot words leaped to her lips, but she held them back. They could discuss it later. She hated to see Rudy make a fool of himself. He was trying to act ten years younger than his age.
When she didn't answer, he wandered over to where Tina and Hal stood. Hal was telling a joke. Becky heard the volume from the outdoor speakers increase and decided she would go inside and help Gene pick out some good records. He wasn't a bad sort really. Maybe after putting him in his place he wouldn't get too fresh.
She walked through the open doorway, turned toward the living room. Janet's intimate giggle rose above the sound of the music. Becky paused. Gene's voice answered.
"You look special tonight, sugar."
"Oh? I thought you had plans for Becky."
"She's a cold tomato. I guess the four of us can have a little fun anyway!"
Janet giggled.
Becky felt her cheeks turn warm. She had never cared about eavesdropping. People who listened in sometimes got their ears burned. She didn't miss the suggestion about the "four of us."
Made brave by the drinks she moved to the living room entrance and peered into the large dimly illuminated space. Janet and Gene stood by the Walters' console stereo set. They were kissing and he had her suit-top unfastened. His right hand cupped her full jutting breasts.
The vision of infidelity or at least of its beginnings shook Becky's senses. The play of his fingers across Janet's erect nipples made her own breasts tingle! It occurred to her that Rudy hadn't asserted himself for almost a week and she realized that she was envious of the attentions Janet was so obviously enjoying.
Janet's hand dropped to his tight swim trunks, where the bulge of his maleness was very evident. She caressed him, shaped him ... Becky had never done that-not until they were about to do it. She trembled.
Their mouths finally pulled apart.
"You're special tonight, too, honey." Janet murmured.
"Great! When the Finches take off, we'll have a real party."
"They're pretty square!" Janet answered.
The mutual fondlings continued and Becky shivered, finally tearing her eyes from the sensual scene. She retreated, their remarks stabbing at her like vicious darts. "Square?" Because she and Rudy lived normally-or at least had at first. Were these people so jaded they had to trade around to find sexual gratification?
She rushed out to the pool area and Rudy looked over at her. She walked up to him, unable to conceal her anger. "I think we'd better leave, Rudy."
"What's the matter, honey?" Tina exclaimed.
She wanted to shout, your husband is in the house fondling a friend's wife! But she didn't. The idea of Gene dancing with her now, after playing around with Janet, repelled her.
"I've got a headache," Becky answered.
There were remarks of dismay, but she could tell that Tina and Hal weren't unduly disappointed. Becky realized that she hadn't joined in with the girls in the bathroom, when the trio had been donning their Bikinis. She was an outsider....
Half an hour later they were home, in their own living room. Becky and Rudy still wore their swim suits.
"You sure know how to break up a party," Rudy snapped.
She sank down on the sofa. "If you recall," she said dryly, "it was our party to begin with. Then it turned into an undress show."
He halted, standing in front of her. "You're a prude. Lots of girls wear Bikinis!"
"Lots of young wives play around with other men, too-is that what you really liked?"
He flushed. "I didn't do anything out of the way!"
"But where was it all leading? What'd you and Janet do out in the pool?"
She saw the muscles play in his face. His mouth set rigidly. "Nothing I'm ashamed of. You want to make a bunch of enemies around town? Gene and Hal carry a lot of weight in this burg. They could hurt my job...."
"I've heard about things like this!" she flared. "Rising young executive has to have a 'cooperative' wife ... You don't owe them anything. Do you really want to go around swapping me off?"
"Hell! At least you could play up to them a little ... They're solid citizens-they make more dough than I do!"
"Is that the mark of success, Rudy? Why can't we be like we were?" She hated to add the rest, but she knew she had to now. "You've changed!"
His right hand rose in an almost unconscious gesture to his hair. He smoothed down his wig. "Lots of people change, if that's what's bothering you. Hell, I think I'll have another drink."
He strode into the kitchen, where bottles and glasses remained, leftovers from their own party. Tears stung her eyes. They had had very few arguments. She had wanted this evening to end right, with Rudy possessing her, relieving her tensions, but she knew it was spoiled now. He was really angry.
Shoulders sagging, she walked into their bedroom, turned up the lights, closed the door and began to take her swim suit off. She had already put away the party dress and undies she had removed at the Walters' house.
I suppose Janet and Gene are having a high old time, by now, she thought. And Hal would be playing around with Tina....
She was startled when the bedroom door opened suddenly. She was completely naked. She held her halter over her breasts and covered her loins with her hand.
Rudy stood there, a drink in his hand. His smile was twisted.
"Look at you!" he said mockingly. "Afraid to show your nude body to your own husband! You say I've changed. Maybe so, but you haven't grown up yet. Why don't you wear those new nighties I brought home? Why can't I take a good look at you once in a while?"
"I-thought you loved me!" she said on the defensive.
"Well, can't love include a little change once in a while? Why does it always have to be in bed with the lights out?"
She bit her lip, tears starting. "We got along fine till you got that-hair piece!"
He took a quick gulp of his highball. "I knew it would come around to that. You'd rather have me meek and quiet again, a dumb assistant department manager back at Spokane, I suppose?"
"No, Rudy. I'm happy you've succeeded ... Am I supposed to turn into a kind of harlot?"
He shook his head. "You don't get it, do you? Ever hear about the description of the perfect wife? I'm glad you brought up that word. 'A good cook in the kitchen, a lady in the drawing room and a harlot in the bedroom.' Is that too awful to think about? We've been married over two years. You going to act like a little girl forever?"
"Get out!" she stormed. "Maybe you'd better get a divorce and find somebody like Janet or Tina!"
He retreated, growling, "Might not be a bad idea, at that. Go ahead, put on your prim proper pajamas and act hurt and wounded. If I thought the party was still going I think I'd go over there!"
"They're already paired off for the night, darling!" she said dryly. "You might be embarrassed!"
He backed out, slamming the door.
A lump formed in her throat. She wiped the tears angrily from her eyes. Where will our marriage go from here? she wondered. All those vicious words....
CHAPTER THREE
A light knock on Rudy's office door brought him out of his concentration over departmental losses and gains for July. The whole lower-floor level, including major appliances and furniture, was down from June. One of their best salesmen had gone over to a competition store....
"Come in," he said, expecting one of the department heads, although his private secretary, Ava Greene, generally buzzed him in advance of an employee entrance.
The pebbled glass door swung open and Tina Walters entered. She smiled breezily and closed the panel behind her. She looked ravishing in a summer print that displayed her fine soft shoulders, the sweet thrust of her breasts. Her skirt was short and flared attractively. Her grooming was perfection.
"Well-I'm flattered," he said, smoothing his hair.
The move to Pender had been gratifying in more ways than one. Here nobody was aware of his baldness. He could pass for thirty-two any day of the week and he didn't have any explaining to do, as at Spokane, where all the employees remembered him without a hair piece.
A glance in the small mirror on his desk assured him he looked his best.
"Have a chair, beautiful," he said, smiling at Tina.
"You have a way of making me feel frisky and very young," she said, gliding into a chair. He didn't miss her crossed legs, the frill of lace on her slip, framing the smoothness of her lower thighs....
"What brings you down here, Tina?"
She giggled. "Pleasure-and business, too ... Gene asked me to drop by. You know that big apartment he's remodeling-the Crescent Arms?"
"Hell yes," he said, moving out from behind his white-topped executive desk. He sniffed something good-and it wasn't all Tina's seductive perfume.
"He's been asked to re-carpet all the rooms and buy new electric stoves and refrigerators," Tina said, slyly. "You do have both for sale...."
"Naturally!"
"We like to be good neighbors, Rudy. Several dealers are turning in figures, but he said to tell you that if yours is anywhere close he can swing it for your store."
His chest swelled. The Crescent had at least twenty-five apartments ... This was the kind of deal he had been hoping for, that any store manager would leap at....
"Damn nice of Gene!" he exclaimed. "I'll have my carpet and appliance estimators on it right away."
She smiled winningly. She rose gracefully out of the chair and approached him. Her dainty wiggle made him remember the dance on Saturday night, the way she had cuddled herself against him, making his trousers bulge.
"Anybody liable to walk in on us?" she murmured, her green eyes mischievous.
He grinned, his heart pounding. "I'll lock the door...."
She waited. When he came back, she flicked her pink tongue invitingly between her pouting red lips. He took the hint. He slid his arm around her tiny waist and she held her mouth up. He came down on it, tentatively at first, and when she opened her lips, he pushed his tongue out to meet hers.
"Mmmmm!" she breathed, pressing herself in close.
He experienced a wave of exultation. He had thought she might be miffed at Becky's behavior on Saturday night, but evidently not. He enjoyed the heady flutter of her lips, the flick of her lively tongue. She wound it about his.
He couldn't resist reaching up to the jiggly pout of her breasts. She arched them into his palm. She certainly didn't have many clothes on. He felt the spire of her nipples!
Just when things were getting heated up, she inched her mouth away. "Honey, I can't stay long ... Wish I could. You make me goose-pimply ... We're having a party Wednesday night. You and Becky are invited." Her voice lowered into a seductive whisper. "I think we ought to get better acquainted."
"Hell yes!" he breathed. Her breasts were terrific. The Bikini she had worn Saturday night hadn't lied. And he was horny. Becky had been in a bad mood lately ... nothing had been settled between them.
"Gene likes Becky, too, honey...."
He nodded.
She retreated, smiling softly. "I'll go, now. Don't worry about lipstick smears. I've got on some of that new stuff-guaranteed not to rub off!"
"You're one hell of a nice girl, Tina." She winked. "Why don't you try to find out...?"
When she was gone, he sat in his chair, thinking the situation over. In spite of his elation, his feeling of impending conquest that made his loins ache, he realized she had laid it right on the line.
"Gene likes Becky, too, honey...."
If he and his wife didn't cooperate on their party, the store wouldn't get the Crescent apartment deal. Simple. Becky had said they didn't owe the Walters or the Collins anything and perhaps they didn't-but that one deal could change matters.
He stood up and paced back and forth. Out in the pool he had had a few feels from Janet, too. She had acted willing enough. He had tasted the hotness of her mouth, cuddled her generous breasts under water ... She had plenty to offer.
Damn it, if Becky weren't so old-fashioned ... Tina and Janet had a different outlook entirely. They were tempting, exciting. They didn't mind being forward, letting a man know where he stood. The idea of switching didn't scare him particularly. He realized that with a few belts in his belly, he'd probably go for it.
How could he soften Becky up ... get her used to the idea? A little change might do them both good. I need that apartment deal. I want to get on the inside track in this burg. I want that new Pasco store. And a good record here, a healthy increase, will get it for me.
Pasco was building. A number of new atomic energy projects were under way there. Already the Tri-Cities were ten times the size of Pender, which wouldn't ever grow very much larger. The land could produce only so much wheat and peas. A bad crop year would ruin sales....
He smiled to himself and drew out the telephone directory. He looked up the number of Pender's best florist....
* * *
"Honey, how very thoughtful of you to send me flowers!"
Ever since coming home he had received the red-carpet treatment. Dinner had been great and Becky wore a bit more make-up than usual.
Monday was always a stay-at-home evening for them and when he realized how long it had been since they had had a toss on the bed, he regretted his behavior.
They were in the living room on the sofa, watching the Monday Night Movie.
On his coming through the door after work she had welcomed him with a moist openmouthed kiss. The flowers he had sent were in a vase on the kitchen table. He had already changed into his robe and pajamas. Their airconditioner made the living room comfortable.
She still wore a short-skirted dress that she hadn't donned recently. He had kidded her about the way it displayed her legs when she had first bought it and this was only the second time she had donned it. Now, when he glanced at her bare thighs, she didn't try to tug the hem forward.
Maybe that argument Saturday night did some good, he thought. He had liked her leggy figure the first time he saw her in the Spokane Crest Store office. He had appreciated her fine, firm bottom-so many girls were flabby there and had to wear girdles. Becky seldom did.
Her walk was sexy, too, when she didn't try to minimize the natural wiggle by acting proper. The little dress delineated the jut of her breasts, too. That was something else he felt she could emphasize to more advantage. In the right get-up she was a real knockout. He had hinted several times that she didn't have to wear bras around the house-but she always did.
He slipped his left arm around her shoulders. He would show her a good time and, when she was in a relaxed mood, he would bring up the party Wednesday night....
* * *
Ever since the flowers had come Becky had been in a half-dreamy state of anticipation. He did love her! His coolness of Sunday had melted. Sometimes an argument could clear the air.
Some of his remarks had stung for quite a while, though. Perhaps she was too reserved. Perhaps living in a manless house with her mother so long had given her a narrow outlook on man-woman relations. Her father, Gus, had left home when she was quite young. He followed construction work crews and one day he just never came back.
Her mother's bitter words about men in general hadn't improved Becky's attitude. She had waited until she was twenty-three before deciding to risk marriage....
Rudy's partial baldness, his being ten years older, hadn't bothered her at all. She realized, of course, that a man his age must have known several women intimately. He had been married once before but never talked about it. Becky didn't even know what she looked like, what kind of person she was. She didn't want to.
Since this was a kind of reunion, she thought back to their honeymoon. Every detail of their first night together came rushing to her, vivid, almost in rainbow colors. Although she knew other single girls had visited motels, this was her very first experience. She was glad she had waited for marriage.
First he had taken her out to a lakeside supper club, where they had dined and danced and consumed several drinks apiece. It had been summertime, just like now.
And when they finally reached the motel at eleven, and despite all she had read in accepted marriage guides, she found herself very nervous. She was self-conscious about being still a virgin at twenty-three.
But Rudy's kisses, his hands on her breasts, had melted her unease. He suggested she go in the bedroom first. He would wait until she called....
She remembered the filmy nightie she had worn-she still had it. She remembered turning out the lights, slipping into bed, trembling and scared....
She recalled that as he came through the bedroom door, he had left it open, so light from the motel living room cast dim illumination about-enough for her to tell that he was practically naked. His silhouette in the doorway, his strong virile figure, made her shiver. She had expected him to wear pajamas. He had brought a pair from the bedroom earlier ... He stood by the bed and removed his shorts. She caught a glimpse of his maleness. Although diagrams in the books had given her knowledge of the male sex organs she hadn't expected him to be so-large....
All their previous petting had been confined to kisses and letting him fondle her breasts, sometimes her thighs. She had never touched him.
Of course, she had known what a feminine orgasm was though society imposed strict rules on single girls. She had discovered how to relieve her tensions at the age of fifteen. She had sneaked pictures into her room at home, photos loaned her by other high-school girls. The ones showing the girl on top had thrilled her more than the others and she never did know exactly why....
Immediately Rudy's hands were on her body, his mouth covering hers. The intensity of his desire communicated itself warmly. His move into bed had been swift and sure.
"We've waited a long time for this...." he breathed, his hand gliding along her figure, cuddling her close. He whispered more endearing words as he slid her nightie up and caressed her thighs, all along the sensitive inner areas, kicking the covers back.
"You have such nice long legs," he murmured, finding the tender lips of her femininity, gently rolling her little point of excitability.
"Ohhh-Rudy!" was all she could say.
He drew her hand downward. She trembled all over as she touched him for the first time, the sensual contact making her loins ache in a way they never had before-not even in her most abandoned moments alone, no matter how she prolonged her guilty pleasure....
This was so much more thrilling. She was breathless, her heart pounded furiously. She had waited and waited, dreaming of this moment, and now it was here.
He nuzzled her nightie down, kissing her throat, working lower. She knew what he wanted. With her free hand she helped him expose her breasts. They had never gone this far and she found she wanted her nipples kissed. They were already stimulated.
Gently he drew a rosebud into his lips. She shivered as curls of pleasure claimed her, running stingingly down to her thighs where his hand still wandered, seeking out the soft, secret places of her womanhood. Impulsively she opened her thighs....
A low moan came from his throat; his maleness seemed to enlarge even more. At last, when she was panting with anticipation, he swung above her. She had never wanted anything so strongly.
The newness of it, his hard body between her legs, her hand still holding him, stirred her deeply, thoroughly. She hadn't dreamed that she would be so dizzily aroused, so keenly aware of him.
He didn't mash her; he was braced carefully above, seeking her with his hips, his rigidity. She guided....
The hot flame of his manhood seemed to sear her tender membranes, spreading them, while she felt the warm glow of her desire. The sensation was wonderful. He didn't rush. She loved him for being so considerate.
Then he began to claim her. A physical examination she had had earlier that week had revealed that her actual maidenhood, her hymen, was practically non-existent. The doctor had assured her this was not unusual. She felt confident that she could receive him....
And a few seconds later-she did!
His sword aroused sweet little burnings along her thighs, deep within her. A long-awaited thrill of voluptuous delight, accompanied by little shiverings around him, brought a glad cry from her throat!
And suddenly, her passion climbed to a new, breath-taking height. She seized him, and the glory began-honeyed writhings commenced. She had the most furious orgasm of her entire life-and before the close, hot strokings could get well under way she experienced another climax. The rest was lost in a haze of gasping release....
CHAPTER FOUR
Rudy, I'm sorry about-Saturday. I'll try to be more what you want me to be."
She was surprised that she had said it-but the memory of how things had been their first year, sometimes even better than on their honeymoon, her wish to continue being his wife, had inspired it.
Other memories had helped her, too. The times later on, in the second year, when she had been unable to reach a crest of feeling when he did, when his pumpings had lost some of their "glamour...."
All the trouble had begun with his hair piece. He had come home one night from the Elks with a few drinks under his belt, waking her out of a sound sleep, to suggest that they do it with the lights on. She had given in and the strangeness of it, his efforts to try a new position, had left her disappointed. His manner had been almost brusque. He'd acted as though he were more worldly.
After that she had failed any number of times and it had bothered her, made her irritable. He spent more time at the office. He became more extroverted. He spent more time on his grooming and wore flashier clothes.
She realized the change had helped him win his promotion, but it hadn't helped their personal life at home. Sometimes he didn't touch her in bed for a whole week. She suspected he was having some kind of light affair, but she didn't try to pry into it-she kept hoping he would change back into his old considerate self again.
But he hadn't. The move to Pender hadn't improved their intimate relations either.
She realized now that she had come to a crossroads. She had to either bend to his new personality or be a complete failure as a wife. The rest, though, like indulging in switch parties, she considered beyond the pale.
I guess I can try things his way and see what happens, she thought. Maybe I'm too serious about it. Sex should be fun. He hasn't sent me flowers until today since we were first married....
"Well, hooray!" he answered. "I like that outfit."
"I remembered that you did," she murmured, cuddling nearer. She had showered in mid-afternoon, donning fresh undies, adding a bit more cologne than usual, and she felt quite feminine and dainty.
His mouth brushed hers teasingly and she pushed her tongue out. His arm tightened. He gave a little exclamation of pleasure and drew her wiggly tongue-tip far inside his mouth. His hand rose unerringly to her breasts.
She continued to writhe her tongue around, something she had hardly ever done before. If he wanted her bolder, she could do it. Little stings of excitement swept from one nipple to the other.
It's been over a week, she thought. I do need my ashes hauled....
The fact that they had argued and were now together again at last made her anticipation that much keener.
He nibbled at her lips and she reached into the folds of his robe, brazenly exploring. He was very rigid. She felt his tremor of desire and while he opened the top of her dress she found him, held him. They had never done this in the living room, with the lights on....
He lifted his mouth. Her bodice was wide open now. She had worn a front-opening bra, the halves held together with a little catch.
"Becky-you're a new girl tonight! What happened?"
"I told you-I want to please my husband...."
"Damn!" he breathed, undoing her bra. "I'll send flowers more often."
She knew, though, that Tina's and Janet's behavior had influenced her. She had never thought girls should be aggressive, but it appeared to be the new trend. Love, she was sure, could survive if two people really cared.
Well, I do care for Rudy! If he wants his wife to be harlotish, why not?
She remembered the manner in which Janet had arched her breasts forward into Gene's eager hands. Her breasts, with their scented cups removed, seemed especially taut and silky-hot. Rudy's fingers sent electric sparks from base to the tender nipple, first of one and then the other....
She had never watched him caress her this way. They had always been in the bedroom with the lights out or with very little illumination. Now, with the lamp right beside them revealing the contours of her charms, the vision of his hand gliding around and under and then out to the rosy tips gave her a thrill she hadn't expected.
She thrust them forward. "Man!" he breathed. A twinge of desire coiled through her loins. Watching could be fun-especially when she was being so skillfully caressed herself ... and not peeping. "Like me now?" she whispered, teasingly. "Becky, you're tremendous!" She laughed. She was sure Tina would do the same in such a situation. "Make me real hot tonight, honey!"
"Say, you been reading a racy novel or something?"
She didn't answer. She felt just a little silly. But if he liked it....
She squeezed him, trembling. His hand coasted down to her hiked-back skirt and she opened her legs invitingly. Watching his fingers slide beneath her dress gave her a naughty thrill. Things were different and provocative out here on the sofa.
He called me a prude. Well, I'll show him! He toyed with her warming thighs, finally reaching her panties. She was quite moist already. Pleased with her success, she spread herself wider and lifted her hips, finding the motion extremely stimulating. "Ohhh!' she breathed.
His lips were on her throat, heading lower. While he cupped her femininity he teased a taut nipple with his tongue. She was used to that in bed but the new locale added to her flaring need. He was huge now.
She looked down at him and had an impulse quite new to her experience. Was it because she had waited so long for his touches? Maybe later, she would try it ... kissing him, there....
What had the proper books said? Mutual kisses on any part of the loved one's body were perfectly natural. She didn't think she was really depraved. It was just a bit new and startling.
He was inside her panties now and she shivered with rising fervor. Her clitoris was very, very sensitive! His lips on her nipples spiraled her pleasure.
"Honey, let me get undressed," she whispered.
"Hell, yes!"
She left the sofa and stood in front of him, her breasts firm with desire, her nipples swollen. His dark eyes seemed to blaze with lust. She had never done this either-but obviously he liked it.
As she lifted her dress over her head, she saw him rise and take off his robe. He removed his pajama tops. Then the bottoms. He was naked and all she wore now was her panties.
He reached for her and she backed away teasingly. Of course, Janet would do that. She hooked her thumbs in the elastic band of her last garment and slipped it down over her hips.
"You're no spoilsport tonight, sugar."
Her panties dropped to the floor. For a moment she felt a wash of the old shyness but she overcame it. Nothing wrong with a naked human figure. Girls and boys were born without clothes....
She weaved her hips, throwing her shoulders back ... might as well go all out. She had crossed a bridge and burned it behind her. She was the new Becky Finch, stripping in front of her husband, blatantly showing him all she had.
He began tossing sofa cushions on the floor. She knew what he had planned and her knees grew weak with need.
"Honey, you be on the bottom!" she said boldly.
His expression was one of amazed excitement. He grinned, and swung down on the carpet. He stretched out, face upward, his hands behind his head.
"I didn't think you'd ever do it, Becky!"
She knew her cheeks were hot but she was determined to be aggressive. She recalled the photo of many years ago, with the girl on top, the one that had shaken her young inquisitive mind.
She straddled him, placing her knees on the cushions. Her heart thudded. They hadn't dimmed the lights. Every contour of his muscular figure was visible. She didn't know quite how to handle the rest-but he helped her....
Their heated voluptuous joining began. His hands molded her throbbing breasts. She sank down, her breathing jerky, as his bigness entered her, making her gasp. She remembered how the legs went from the old photo. Now, she was all the way.
I won't fail tonight, she thought dizzily. I'm on the edge right now!
Moving her hips, stroking, became a heady, exotic delight. Her nipples were on fire. She squirmed and panted, filling herself with him, finding a thrilling difference in her upright position. He seemed to go deeper, to touch new zones of erotic responsiveness. She felt the waves of her rapture begin, the delectable tightenings, and she couldn't help crying out, bouncing quickly until the little jerkings zoomed to a fierce pinnacle of explosive need.
The flow and give, the wild churnings, had never been sweeter. She sagged above him, trembling, her eyes closed, lost in her total release, as little waves of joy rolled along her thighs, through her loins and upward to her flinty nipples....
Much later they traded positions and she experienced two more glorious crests....
When they finally went to bed, after a shower, she was still aglow with love and gratitude. But something basic between them had changed. Despite her purely physical relief she felt a little cheap and somehow whorish. Their love was not what it had been that first year of marriage-it had turned into a kind of contest as to how long they could last between orgasms and how many times they could do it.
The words of endearment were almost gone.
A few honeys could not fill the gap. Yes she had pleased him and she had relieved her tensions. She knew she should be happy but she was sure now that he would never be the same person he was before ... as long as he remained unbald, extroverted, flashily successful.
How many more bridges would she have to burn? When were they going to answer the big question about starting a family?
A few tears rolled from her cheeks onto the pillow. Rudy was already snoring. He had mentioned about a party over at the Walters' place on Wednesday night? Yes, and in her spirit of cooperation, she had said she would go with him.
Every one of their parties didn't have to end up on a switching note, she hoped....
CHAPTER FIVE
Becky gazed admiringly around the Walters' living room. Tina and Gene had just bought new furniture-ordered through Rudy's store some time earlier, she was a bit surprised to learn. The styling was French Provincial, in very good taste.
A new portable bar bad been set up in an archway, and their new stereo oozed seductive music. Obviously, Gene was doing quite well with his contracting business.
Becky stood near the bar, letting Gene mix her a highball. Tina had called Tuesday to tell her that since the weather had cooled they would have their party indoors, and to wear something dressy. Becky had bought a new gown, a little cocktail dress that plunged lower than any she had ever worn. It also had a very high hemline....
Seeing her in it for the first time before they left home Rudy had raved about her "good thinking." The frock was quite in keeping with her "new" outlook because, after trying several of her bras with scanty decolletage and finding them unsuitable, she had decided to go without.
As Rudy had hinted a number of times she didn't really need one ... she was sufficiently firm-breasted to give the bodice the proper lines and she supposed the outline of her nipples against the clinging gold-colored fabric would increase her appeal.
At least Gene had been ogling her ever since she and Rudy arrived and even Tina and Janet had given her compliments.
Becky was a little surprised to find an extra girl at the party, a lushly constructed redhead who had the mannerisms of a chorus girl or entertainer. She wasn't really startled to hear later that Irene was a professional stripper whom Hal had invited to "liven things up." In fact, the party was being held in the middle of the week so Irene could be present. Her gown was of shimmery green material, cut to emphasize the thrust of her large breasts and longish legs. Close up, she had a rather hard, polished look and her laugh seemed stilted.
Hal and Janet had met her in Portland. She was staying at their home, on vacation between assignments.
"You act like a different girl," Gene said, breaking in on her thoughts. "And that dress is terrific!"
She thanked him and smiled and accepted the drink he handed her. She noticed their dining room, with its hardwood floor, had been cleared for dancing-and hardly any light penetrated there. Very convenient for a little fondling and smooching.
What bothered her most was what Rudy had told her just before arriving at the Walters' home. A big deal, meaning a lot of profit for the store, depended on their continuing friendship with Gene and Tina.
She had said, during their argument, that she and Rudy owed none of them anything but small-town business didn't operate that way. A manager of a large department store, in order to succeed, had to go along or go under. At least Rudy had explained it that way.
She hadn't asked him just how far their "friendship" had to go but she had a fair idea. Gene had been coming on strong ever since she and Rudy arrived. As before, Janet had been staying close to Rudy. Becky had a notion that Rudy would just as soon be with Tina-but the pairing off wouldn't work out so well. That would throw Hal with Janet, and at a party who wanted to be stuck with a husband?
II things continue I suppose the next step will be a date with Hal, she thought.
Could she really be unfaithful? The word didn't seem quite so offensive as it had a few days before. In modern society there was a certain amount of infidelity-Kinsey had uncovered what everyone had known or suspected all along. Nor was playing around confined to the men alone. Up-to-date contraceptives had freed young women from fear of unwanted pregnancy. Girls like Tina and Janet considered it smart to trade around a little. And Becky suspected their extra-marital activities weren't altogether confined to the male species....
"Don't be so serious, Becky," Gene murmured, leaning close, glancing down her cleavage.
"Sorry."
The highball was strong. She decided she needed something to still the little voices that ran through her mind, saying, don't lose your faith in yourself, Becky. Don't let these people change you too much....
Janet and Rudy were already dancing. The large girl wore a high-necked red frock but the bodice was a peek-a-boo arrangement with a slit down the middle, offering flashes of her scantily-covered bulging breasts. Her nylons were dark and webbed, her skirt extremely brief. The fullness of her legs made Becky a little envious.
Tina stood near the stereo, flirting with Hal. The upper half of her cocktail dress was almost like a negligee. Two tiny shoulder bands kept the split bodice from falling and the jiggle of her breasts indicated she, too, had spurned a bra. Becky had to admit the young blonde looked ravishing, seductive ... petite. Her tiny waist made her breasts seem even larger than they really were.
I'm not so well endowed there, Becky thought. But I do have longer legs-and Rudy loves them....
As an afterthought, she added, Apparently Gene does, too ... or am I just something new?
Remembering her resolve to be more bold, as she had with Rudy on Monday night, she took a deep breath and gave Gene a real good look at her bosom.
"Am I really different, Gene?" she murmured.
"You sure as hell are! Come on, let's dance a little."
She had never been flirty by nature but already she had learned that it wasn't hard to please men. They were still little boys with lecherous egotistical minds. They all imagined themselves perfect Casanovas ... and their pride was so fragile. They kept wanting to prove over and over again how manly they were, how hairy-chested. Yet the new trend toward female aggressiveness seemed to take something away from them.
Even her image of Rudy was becoming blurred. By top-riding she had, she imagined, made him less of a man. A bit of her respect for him had died ... and when that happened, where was love?
Am I growing up, finally? Am I seeing things as they really are? Even the movies nowadays are sexier ... Am I a part of a sick society or are my eyes just opening?
She gave it up. Why moralize? Why not be her new self? What could she expect at a party where she wore no bra? Surely she hadn't thought that Rudy would be the only man to want to slide his hand in there on her jutting breasts!
"I'd love it, Gene," she said, giving him a high-voltage glance.
He grinned. He finished his drink and took her hand. His strength was immediately communicated. His hands were a little rough from outdoor work. He was, as far as she could tell, thoroughly masculine. Playing up to him wouldn't be difficult at all. In fact she began to enjoy his nearness. Let Rudy fondle big-breasted Janet. She, Becky, could have a few thrills herself.
As soon as she began to dance with Gene she realized he had big plans for her. His lips were below her ear, his arm very tightly about her waist. Perhaps she could get him so drunk she wouldn't have to go all the way with him ... or maybe she could steer him toward the redheaded showgirl. Meanwhile it might be fun to tantalize him.
She responded by squirming her hips against his loins, quite aware already of his arousal. If Rudy wanted her to be a part-time party girl, she might as well enjoy it.
He muttered his appreciation, aiming his mouth for hers. She turned her head away teasingly. His hand wandered over her bottom and she widened the spread of her thighs, pressing herself nearer. Quirty little tremors raced through her body.
Maybe a change would do me good, she thought. Mix business with pleasure. Gene certainly wasn't repulsive. She would try not to become too emotional. All she had to do was separate thrills from love....
They were barely moving with the music. His right hand now slipped upward as she had known it would. She lightly caressed the nape of his neck. He reached into the deep slash of her bodice, onto her already firming breasts.
She felt his tremor of interest as provocative tingles chased from one nipple to the other.
"Great!" he breathed. "No bra...."
"I wanted to make things easy for you, honey," she managed.
"You've really got 'em, baby!"
She laughed softly, hoping Rudy, over in a dark corner with Janet, was listening. The stirrings of her desire grew keener. She felt her nipples spire forward, turn achy. She was a little surprised at her swift reaction to him.
Her eyes, grown accustomed to the darkness, let her see what Rudy and Janet were doing. Their mouths were locked together and his hand was in the crevice of her bodice, shaping her generous charms....
Things were moving very swiftly indeed.
"Show time!" Tina called, from the living room.
Becky finally let Gene kiss her. He did it smoothly, easing her lips apart, shooting his tongue inward. Zestful thrills accompanied his searchings. She flattened her hips against him for just a moment, increasing her excitement.
Then she backed away, drawing his hand from her tender young breasts. He didn't fight it. Tina had evidently trained him to quit when she gave the signal. It seemed to her another indication of male weakness....
She found she wasn't as jealous of Janet as she could have been. What was good for the gander was good for the goose ... It wasn't as though he were hiding his extracurricular activities, sneaking out behind her back. At least, not tonight. She wasn't at all sure that he hadn't since he began wearing his hair piece.
Becky's participation in the festivities somehow made Rudy's behavior acceptable.
But I think I do need another drink or two!
She straightened her dress and walked with Gene out into the living room. She was aware that the nipples against the thin fabric of her bodice were more prominent than ever.
Might be an interesting party, after all. She had never seen a strip show. She had always thought them a little vulgar and for men only-but of course girls did enjoy them. Many strippers worked in front of mixed audiences.
She wondered why entertainers who undressed for a living were always girls. Could there be a little lesbian streak in women who watched another woman disrobe? She had never heard of a male stripper. Or did girls have different motives in watching such a performance? Were they simply curious?
Drink in hand, she went with Gene to a small sofa that faced the center of the living room. Rudy and Janet sat directly across from them while Hal and Tina were on Becky's right. The lights had already been dimmed. Redheaded Irene put a special record on the stereo turntable. A small spotlight resting on the floor was now aimed at the place where she would perform.
Wisecracks from Hal seemed to signal the start of the performance.
"Are those for real, Red?"
Irene smiled and weaved her shoulders. Her full breasts jiggled. The men applauded. She moved into the spotlight and Becky experienced a subtle excitement. She was sure the men had witnessed strip shows but she hadn't. Would she learn anything?
The first part of the recorded background had no special rhythm-it came softly from the stereo as Irene lifted her arms and rippled her hands across the abundance of her bosom, daintily cupping her still-covered charms.
"I think every girl should learn a few routines," she said, wetting her lips with her tongue. "Men like a show. Give 'em a little variety once in a while."
"Great!" Gene exclaimed.
"And don't feel jealous girls!" Irene continued. "You're all good lookers. Bring out your best points!" Her eyes swung to Becky. "Now this chick is nice and leggy-men love the long-stemmed girlies...."
The men shouted approval.
"... not that she hasn't got it up here!" Irene went on, her hands still moving near her breasts, focussing attention to the low cut of her bodice, the white slopes of her bulging mounds.
Becky blushed, she hadn't realized Irene had observed her so closely.
The redhead went to Janet next, extolling her virtues, and so on to Tina.
"When I get through maybe one of you girls would like to try it," Irene said, loosening her tiny belt. Becky could see now that the entertainer's frock was really a uniform designed to be taken off.
"I might if I had enough to drink!" Tina exclaimed.
"Hooray!" Hal burst out.
Becky shivered. She didn't think she could do it, even two-thirds drunk. She watched closely, though, as Irene commenced to draw her skirt up slowly while her wide hips began a delicate undulation.
CHAPTER SIX
The music now had a pulsing beat. The tempo picked up. Irene's skirt drifted higher, to the tops of her nylons. They were the newer clinging type, needing no garter-belt for support. Becky had used them for some time when she dressed up and wore them now.
"You gals should leave on your nylons and high-heeled slippers," Irene said. "Sometimes it gives the boys a little added lift."
More applause. Gene squeezed Becky's waist, whispering in her ear. "Sexy, huh?"
She nodded, her eyes on the performance. Irene's dress opened down the front, revealing a flash of white thighs. She wore no slip. Shiny green tights were her "panties." Her hips weaved with more abandon as she circled in the soft glow of the spotlight.
"Take it off!" Rudy cried.
Irene smiled, her undulations becoming more suggestive, and finally her gown drifted to the floor. The men shouted with glee. The redhead's bra was very sheer, pale green, revealing the pink of her nipples, the wide aureolae of lighter rose. Her breasts jutted forward alluringly, swaying with every dramatic move of her lushly proportioned figure.
Becky had to admit that she was physically stirred but she didn't take time to wonder about the cause. Irene was good. She had a flowing grace, a beauty of form that couldn't be denied.
Would I ever have the nerve to writhe around in front of Rudy? she wondered. I think it would stimulate me, too!
"Go, go!" Tina exclaimed.
Becky noticed that the blonde's skirt was halfway to her hips. She leaned forward with obvious appreciation. Rudy was also quite obviously interested.
Her hips bouncing with the rhythm of the music, Irene now drew attention to her bulging breasts, her fingers winding over them daintily, moving underneath and lifting them outward, her nipples now almost revealed in the nude by the slow lowering of the frilly bra....
Becky finished her highball, her eyes glued to the sensual vision, aware that her own breasts were hot and tingling. She didn't object when Gene's hand slyly entered the deep V of her frock because she saw that Rudy was cradling Janet's charms inside her bodice and his hand was on her knees ... Hal's hand was out of sight under Tina's hiked-back skirt.
Becky shivered as Gene cupped her already firming breasts.
Irene's bra came away. Gasps of appreciation followed. Her mounds were snowy white, huge and tapered into peaks of sensual attraction, her pointy nipples erect, perching on minor crests of the light pink of her aureolae. They bobbed as her hips now began a seductive series of twists and grinds while her full thighs spread a little, revealing the contour of her femininity.
There was a break in the background music and then a slower tempo started. The redhead's hips swung forward, then back. She closed her eyes, her tongue fluttering between her lips, as though she were being kissed, her hand movements creating the illusion that a lover stood in front of her, zooming Becky's excitement.
Now her hand and body gyrations indicated that her companion was kissing her nipples. She rotated her bottom with simulated coital thrusts that made Becky's head spin. Her own nipples, in Gene's palm, were furiously peaked. Her thighs were warm. She had an impulse to imitate the performer's actions.
I'm getting hot! Becky thought dizzily.
Now Irene began removing her shiny green tights.
Hal emitted a loud hoot of encouragement. His hand was still between Tina's legs. The blonde's bodice had slipped lower. Becky didn't think she could stand to have Gene's hand under her skirt. She was shivery with need already.
The music slowed even more ... Irene took her time inching the tights from her sculptured loins. She appeared to be resting a moment. Becky's heart pounded. She found herself waiting with her nerves keyed to a dramatic pitch.
The green tights dropped. Sighs rose from the watching group.
"A real redhead!" Hal cried.
Irene smiled, again weaving her hips suggestively, turning slowly so that everyone could appreciate her beauty. The nylons and highheeled slippers seemed to make her more appealing than if she had been completely nude.
Then, slowly, she sank to the floor, on her back ... Her arms lifted and against the backdrop of the music she commenced to again create the suggestion that she was receiving a lover. Her thighs spread and her hips rose. She writhed, arching her taut breasts upward.
Becky's cheeks burned. She had never seen such an erotic display. The spectators stared, the men with lust on their faces, Tina and Janet transfixed with fascination.
Irene's movements became more abandoned, the toss of her hips increasing in tempo as the rhythm of the music quickened. She rolled her head from side to side, as if in a thrall of voluptuous enjoyment. Then the music stopped, as did Irene's hips. Little muscles in her thighs, raised high, rippled suggestively.
The music commenced again more slowly. Every rise of her loins, every rotating lift, appeared to increase her joy.
Becky heard Gene's harsh breathing. His hand on her breast quieted. He was completely absorbed in the drama on the living room floor.
Becky shook her head, feeling a wave of sensual arousal. She found she wanted to take Gene's hand and guide it beneath her skirt, onto her heated loins....
Finally, after several more musical beats, as Irene's rump swung about violently, a roll of a drum started. It grew louder and the build-up in the background was obviously meant to convey a soaring of the performer's passion.
She flung herself into her act with wild enthusiasm and after several bursts of frantic movements spread herself very wide. Her mouth opened and the music reached a peak of rhythmic, pounding noise. Irene shuddered, curling her arms and legs as though receiving her lover in the final moments of ecstasy.
She shouted and the roll of the music faded away....
For long seconds she lay flat on the carpet, her hips quieting as if she were floating down from her acme of sensation.
Then, swiftly rising, picking up her discarded clothes, she ducked out of the living room.
"Man, oh man!" Rudy gasped.
"Hooray for Irene!" Hal shouted.
Gene's hand slid out of Becky's decolletage, and he applauded loudly. "After that I need a drink," he exclaimed.
Becky sank back on the sofa, shivering with her personal need. Perhaps the others were used to such a performance, but she wasn't.
She ached for release. She was just plain hot....
She touched Gene's arm. He turned quickly. She leaned close and whispered in his ear.
"Dance with me, please...."
"Hell, yes!" he breathed. He left the sofa quickly and put more records on the stereo. The other four were now at the portable bar, talking about the show, laughing, making wisecracks....
With the music going again, Gene returned and caught Becky's hand, lifting her from the sofa. They walked into the shadowy dining room. Every time her thighs touched together her desire climbed higher. She was trembling all over. She drew Gene into a very dark corner and plastered herself against him. Her loins were on fire!
I can be as bold as the next, she thought hazily.
Gene kissed her and she opened her mouth wide, working her hips against him. His tongue shot into her eager orifice. His hand lifted to open her bodice and claim her taut aching breasts. Her nipples were tightly spiked and throbby little tingles raced from her breasts down to her squirming bottom. She spread her thighs, feeling the bulge of his maleness.
She tore her mouth from his, gasping for breath. She couldn't help imitating some of the grinds Irene had executed. The sweet burning in her loins ignited to a searing flame. She gripped Gene and shuddered, then suddenly felt the quick beat of her climax.
It came in wrenching little waves, turning her into a sexy spin. Her head whirled, she moaned, still thrusting, wanting more and more-but the real deep spasming she craved escaped her....
She went limp in his arms.
She felt Gene moving her. She saw a couch and they dropped down on it.
"You little cheat," Gene breathed, palming her breasts.
"I-couldn't help it," she whispered. She was aware of a moistness, and she knew she had to go to the bathroom.
"I wanted that one!" he said, heatedly.
His words jerked her out of her fog of enjoyment. He was mad. She pushed his hands away, covering her breasts. She stood up.
"I'll-be back," she said crisply.
He muttered something under his breath. She left the dancing area, her legs still shaky, and fled to the hallway, where the lighting was better. She rounded a corner and found the bathroom. She went in and locked the door. She leaned against it, still breathing unevenly.
A little cheat, am I? I never saw anything so stimulating in my life! I'm not sure, now, that I want Gene to go any further.
She didn't want Rudy to miss his big business deal, though. It meant a great deal to him, to his future. Perhaps she could go out and smooth down the host's ruffled feathers.
She sighed, straightened and moved in front of the wide glistening mirror. Her cheeks were still flushed, her lipstick smeared. She hadn't brought her handbag, but she could repair the damage....
When she returned to the living room, she found the bar deserted. Gene was dancing with Irene, who now had her clothes back on. Rudy had Janet, of course-and Hal and Tina were locked together in the shadows, barely moving.
Relieved for the moment, Becky made herself a highball. She felt dainty again, her emotions temporarily calmed by her experience with Gene....
Another first, she thought. I'm not very proud of myself. But I'll play the part of a party wife-that's what my husband wants.
Hal and Tina emerged from the darkened room. Both looked a little rumpled, rather pleased. Tina saw Becky and giggled.
"You'd better watch Gene, honey. Irene's moving in on you."
"Let her!" Becky snapped. "I can always go home."
Tina's smile faded. "Are you still a spoilsport? I was just kiddin'...."
"Draw in the claws, gals," Hal said. "Hell, I might like to dance with Irene myself." He rolled his eyes, grinning. "What movements!"
Becky left them, drifting over to the stereo. She sipped her drink, darting a glance into the shadowed dining room, where she could see Rudy holding Janet close. They were kissing....
She turned her eyes away quickly. She fought the pangs of jealously that swept through her. Where would all this end? She realized she could probably mollify Gene only by going to bed with him. She began to hope that he would pick Irene for his partner. Surely the performance had been stimulating to the glossy redhead.
She was surprised by a touch on her arm. Tina stood there, smiling.
"I'm sorry, honey. Why don't you come along with me while I freshen up?"
Becky didn't want just to stand there so she nodded. She found her handbag and followed Tina to the bathroom. When they were inside the blonde locked the door.
"I needed a breather," Tina sighed, smiling cozily at Becky. "The way Hal teases around with me is almost too much."
Becky, still carrying her highball, feeling the liquor eddy through her body, quite aware of Tina's nearness, of her seductive jasmine perfume, creamy shoulders and nearly-exposed breasts, decided to be outspoken herself. Tina and Janet were young and modern, Becky's own age; they were out for fun and thrills....
"That dance really warmed me up," Becky said boldly.
Tina giggled. "Me, too." She put her arm around Becky's waist, her green eyes seeming to bore into Becky's bodice. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be!"
Sober, Becky would have been alarmed by the other's manner, by the touch of Tina's hand now slipping up to the cleavage of her frock....
Irene's frenzied writhings, still sharp in Becky's memory, the atmosphere of switching mates, her curiosity about what Tina would really do now that they were alone, both half tight and sexually stimulated, dulled her sense of wrongness.
I could unlock the door and leave, right now, Becky thought. Why don't I?
A sense of daring possessed her. Rudy wanted her to be neighborly. She knew instinctively that Tina was the boss, that she wore the pants in the Walters' family. Would it be any worse to accept the blonde's attentions than to go to bed with her husband? Rudy wanted that deal.
She had made Gene mad by cheating him, by having a climax before he was ready....
Of course the evening wasn't over yet. She still resented the idea of just going to bed with him because he expected it. Maybe he was already in some dark corner with Irene....
Tina's hand eased into the V of Becky's frock, gently cupping, fondling, sending naughty tingles through her body.
Oh, I'm still hot! she thought hazily....
CHAPTER SEVEN
Oh, you're so sweet and firm!" Tina whispered. "Feel me, honey! I'm burning!"
A little voice in Becky's mind said, No, no-this is all wrong! I don't want to be queer....
The blonde made several quick moves, the tiny straps that held her bodice in place slipped from her shoulders. She wore no bra. Her full white breasts sloped forward and her little pink nipples were gorged, erect....
Becky's legs turned watery. She found herself sinking onto a small vanity bench. Her abbreviated skirt hiked halfway to her hips and she felt Tina's hand slide excitingly along her heated thighs. She heard the blonde's quick breathing and suddenly soft lips flamed against her mouth. She reached out, found Tina's breasts, velvety mounds of delight, hard-tipped-and strange wonderful sensations gripped her.
Tina sat snugly beside her, skirt drawn away back, revealing her soft white thighs and now, rocked with spiraling emotions, Becky reached for Tina, feeling the dainty woman warmth, caressing as she was being caressed....
Tina wore no panties....
Now Becky felt soft lips stingingly on her nipples, as little nuances of pleasure swirled through her being. She remembered an expression of Tina's, "drunky hot," and sank into a glut of surrender, her thoughts spinning....
Teasing caresses, willfully exchanged ... her passion rising swiftly ... her breasts taut and achy, engulfed in a tide of lusty need. She felt Tina shiver, saw the widening of her soft velvety thighs and suddenly remembering the finale of Irene's show, the wild toss of her hips, she found the wet point of the blonde's desire and spread her own thighs, gasping, waiting ... waiting....
Tina cried out sharply. Her dainty shudders sent Becky's delight soaring. She strained and hurled herself into the act-and suddenly a flood of rampaging thrills burned along her legs, around her loins, upward to her pointy nipples. She gasped out her climax, shivering, her hips still weaving as Irene's had weaved ... until the last voluptuous twinges faded, leaving her limp, shamed....
"Ohhhh-honey!" Tina breathed at last. "You're fanstastic! That was the best I've had for months! Just think what we've been missing...!"
"Don't!" Becky cried. "Please-I've got to go home!"
"What? You still a square? Relax. You had your fun, too. And I know you sneaked another one with Gene ... Live a little-enjoy yourself. That's what parties are for...."
Becky trembled. She couldn't look Tina in the eye. Her guilt was still too sharp.
"Just in case you have forgotten," Tina said, rising. "I can queer that apartment-house contract for all the carpeting and appliances your hubby is dying to sell. Come on, now ... be a good sport. I'm not so hard to take, am I? Do I look like a les? You haven't been damaged. A little girlish fun once in a while never hurt anybody."
Becky knew she was trapped. All she needed to do was rearrange her thinking.
"All right," she answered.
"Good! I need a drink. Now, let's get all prettied up and see how the boys are making out." She sighed, caressing Becky's still-exposed breasts. "But I don't think even Hal can top you, honey...."
A few moments later the girls left the bathroom. Tina had persuaded Becky to leave her panties behind. The blonde had gigglingly whispered that they would just "be in the way...."
I think I need several drinks, Becky decided. I'm now the "new" Mrs. Rudy Finch. I can't sink much lower. A roll with Gene won't make much difference....
"About time you two chicks showed up," Hal said, his words thick. The others were gathered at the bar, making fresh highballs.
"I'll fade out now, kiddies," Irene said, putting down her glass.
Wails of protest came from the men.
The redhead laughed. Becky felt her nerves go taut as Gene and Tina escorted the entertainer to the door. It was arranged that she would drive the Collins' car to their home, where she was staying the night. Irene's parting shot rang in Becky's ears.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
As the host and hostess rejoined the four at the bar Becky finished her drink and busied herself making another. Already Gene was breathing on her neck, his arms around her waist.
"Sorry I got mad a while ago, sugar," he whispered.
"Did you like dancing with Irene?" she asked, coyly.
He laughed, squeezing. "She sure knows how to tantalize a man!"
She succeeded in arousing me to a fever pitch, Becky thought guiltily. I was a bitch in heat ... I've even enjoyed myself with another girl!
A loud crash came from outside the Walters' house. Becky had heard such a noise before, when she had witnessed a head-on collision of two cars at Spokane....
Hal cursed. He and Gene ran toward the front door. Becky followed as exclamations of disappointment arose from Janet and Tina and Rudy.
Becky raced through the open door and out into the cool darkness. One car headlight pointed crazily upward, and she saw that the Collins' Buick had rammed into some obstruction where the driveway met the street. She heard the pound of feet as Gene and Hal rushed to the scene of the accident.
A figure emerged from the Buick. It was Irene, and she staggered. Gene caught her before she fell....
Becky shivered, the fresh air dispelling some of the cobwebs in her brain. She hoped Irene wasn't badly hurt-but she was secretly glad of the interruption.
Now I can stall Gene. Tina was real pleased with me, so Rudy won't lose that big sale. How long, though, before Gene will get me in bed...?
* * *
Becky was very glad to be home again.
She sat on the living room sofa in a nightie and light robe, knowing Rudy was in the bedroom putting on his pajamas. The hands on her wrist watch said one-thirty.
Irene's misadventure had broken up the party. The redhead appeared unhurt, but Gene had called an ambulance and a doctor and Irene had been taken to the Pender General Hospital for observation and care. She had run into a concrete abutment at the edge of the Walters' driveway. The Collins' car was insured, of course.
"Hell of a thing to happen!" Rudy said, walking into the room, his pajama-tops unevenly buttoned. He weaved slightly-he was carrying quite a load. He stood in front of Becky. She noticed instantly that he was partially aroused....
"Have fun?" he asked.
"Of course! Didn't you?"
He sat down beside her. Although she knew what he wanted she felt no special thrill. Something between them had faded, lost its meaning. She was determined, however, to be the hep wife with the space-age outlook. Traces of Janet's lipstick were still on his mouth-but she could say nothing, now. They had traded, and she had even gone lesbian.
What could the future hold for them? More parties, more switching? In one way she felt guiltier than he. Men were polygamous by nature. They followed the pattern set by the women.
Had Rudy's deal really been enough of a motive to drag her into a neighborhood exchange club? Well, she couldn't change the past. She felt suddenly more lonely than when she had been single, believing in real love and affection, in right and wrong, in having a family....
She was now simply a girl Rudy lived with. Tears moistened her eyes and she turned her head so he wouldn't see them.
"What's the matter?" he asked, sliding his arm around her shoulders. He reached for the V of her robe, opening it.
"Didn't Janet give you a good time, honey?" she asked, just a bit cattily.
"You know what happened. That damned accident...." He found her nightie-clad breasts. "That was some show, though ... I really got charged up!"
"Aren't I a little small there after Janet?"
"Hell, honey-cut it out! You've got better legs than any of them."
Oh yes, she thought. I'm leggy and limber, but my husband likes variety. Maybe, away underneath, I do, too.
She sighed. "Rudy, let's leave Pender. You can get a good job somewhere else. The Crest stores demand a lot-I've heard you say it. I don't want to do any more of this switching. It's wrong. And-"
"Hell's bells! You want me to toss away a good career? I'm thirty-five. Sure, I can pass for younger...." His left hand rose to his hair piece. His right continued to shape her breasts. "You crazy or something?"
"Please, honey!" she cried, tears in her eyes again. "Where are we going-I mean, us? Sooner or later some husband or wife'll get jealous ... How can you still love me when you know I've been in bed with somebody like Gene or Hal?"
His hand left her. "What the hell? You want to spoil everything? You want to argue? I'm hot to trot. Let's have a little fun. We can talk about all that soul-stuff in the morning!"
Her hands clenched. Tonight he didn't want to try to understand. The accident had broken up his fun with Janet. Now he wanted to assuage his lust with her ... because she was available.
All right, I'll be his whore! I don't deserve the name of wife. I've already had my "fun," twice.
His hand returned to her breasts. This time he slipped his fingers in on her bare flesh. Surprisingly, she felt her nipples swell....
* * *
She woke late Thursday morning with a dull headache. She remembered vaguely of hearing Rudy get up when the alarm clock sounded. He would be at the store by now.
She felt used, depleted. After a shorter than usual period of dalliance Rudy had asked her to top-ride again and she had missed her climax. She had simulated passion, as on other occasions, hating it more than ever. His own peak had come swiftly and she was fully aware of the reason. Playing around with Janet, watching Irene writhe about on the carpet, had charged him. The whole act had seemed a little mechanical-but at least she had received the spasming burst of his passion. Janet hadn't....
She wondered, though, if the big girl had enjoyed a "quickie." Perhaps Rudy had fondled her to a peak just as Gene had with herself.
She trembled, hating this trend of thought. Should she continue her role of switch-happy mate? Should she pull out and leave Rudy?
She knew she could easily find a job in Spokane. She had friends there....
I need a drink, she thought. Maybe that will calm my nerves!
CHAPTER EIGHT
Friday morning, when Becky walked out to get the mail in the ornate little black box at the end of the driveway, she found a plain manila envelope with no return address. It was addressed to Mrs. Becky Finch, Hillside Drive, Pender, Oregon. The street number had been left out.
Once in the house she tossed the other mail on the end table near the phone, where Rudy liked to find it, and quickly opened the rectangular envelope.
Wrapped in plain white paper were several glossy large black-and-white prints-and she gasped when she saw the people who had been photographed.
The first showed a balding middle-aged man with a cute young blonde in his lap, facing him. Both were naked. They were-connected
-and the man's mouth was fastened on a perky nipple. She felt her cheeks turn warm.
The shot was taken in such a way that the viewer could see down between the blonde's outspread thighs, where his manhood penetrated....
She remembered the pictures she had seen as a girl, with the woman on top of her lover. She found herself physically stimulated.
The rest were all of girls, either scantily clad or naked, in various lesbian poses, all beautifully proportioned, generally with the slender ones being the aggressors.
Her fingers trembling, she returned the photos to the manila envelope. No note, no indication of who had sent them, or why. What is somebody trying to prove? she wondered.
She went quickly to the master bedroom, determined to find a place to hide them. Or should she burn them?
She sank down on the edge of the bed, trembling. The envelope had been mailed in Pender the evening or afternoon before, in time to go through the post office before closing hours. She even sniffed the parcel, hoping for a clue, but she could detect nothing.
Was this some new variety of poison-pen communication? Why just the one shot of an older balding man making love to a young blonde? Why were the remaining photos all of girls sprawled in erotic closeness, in poses that made her face turn hot?
She thought immediately of Tina. Was her neighbor trying to prepare her for more girlish fun-sessions? It was possible that Tina knew Rudy's secret, about his hair piece, but why take such a roundabout way of bringing it out?
Then she realized that she was being just a little unfair. She didn't think the young blonde was quite that clever or underhanded.
However, someone had sent the erotic pictures'-but whether as a joke or to make her feel uncomfortable she didn't know. Her name and address were printed in plain blue ballpoint ink. Millions of them around.
Already she was upset enough about Rudy's behavior and her own transgressions. Why this added aggravation?
It's a sneaky evil thing to do, she thought, angrily.
Obsessed with nervous curiosity she took a second look at the girlie pictures. She experienced a naughty twinge in her loins as the remarkable clarity of the poses struck her senses. She had never seen anything so completely abandoned and she realized there would be a horrible scandal if the post-office department ever found out such things had come through the mail....
What twisted mind had dreamed up this sort of communication?
She hid the photos again swiftly. She shook her head, still undecided about the fate of the envelope's contents. She knew a small nudge of fear.
I'm going to find out who did this, she decided. Someone here in Pender wants to give me a bad time.
The telephone rang and she thrust the envelope in a vanity drawer, more upset than she cared to admit.
When she went out into the living room to answer the ringing instrument, she wasn't too surprised to find Gene on the line.
"What're you doing, tall and beautiful?" he said intimately.
Ever since the last party she had been sure he would get in touch with her-and, since Rudy expected her to be modern in her outlook, she decided to let the chips fall where they might. She was afraid now Rudy would never change back to his previous stable self. If she were to continue to share his bed and board, she would have to play along.
Every time she felt her resolve slipping she went out in the kitchen and had a little hooker of vodka and orange juice. It helped chase the guilty twinges that shook her. She hated to give up her marriage, to run out on him. It would be a defeat, an admission of failure. Perhaps her conscience would quit hurting after a while, and when he got the store at Pasco they could change their ways ... start a family, live decently again.
She had even considered ways of getting rid of his hair piece-but he would simply spend money on a new one.
"I'm just fine!" she answered, at last.
"You've got a private line, haven't you?"
"Yes...."
"So is this one, at the office. Listen, sugar, I can't wait to get my hands on you again...." Play up to him? Why not? She laughed, softly. "I can't imagine why, honey!" Then she added, with more verve. "My car's here. Are you alone?"
"I wish the hell I was-too many people around ... Listen-why don't you and Rudy drop over tonight? Hal and Janet are tied up with this Irene-she's at their place now. Didn't get more than shook up, I guess. Tina likes Rudy. I think the four of us could have a swinging ball."
Her heart pounded. Gene wanted the deal clinched. Maybe he can really thrill me! I didn't do so well with Rudy the last time....
"Sounds interesting," she said, flirtily. "Do we wear swim-things?"
"Sure-plenty hot today. Put on your Bikini."
"I don't have a real one, but I'll go down and buy one."
"Great!" His voice lowered. "I was really primed for you Wednesday night."
She laughed. "Maybe tonight's the night!"
"You're sure different, Becky. And I like it...."
She flirted with him a while longer, promising to bring Rudy over, and then she cut it off.
Could he have sent those pictures? she wondered.
She left the phone and picked up her handbag. A drive downtown would do her good. And she would get a Bikini. Tina and Janet wore them. She wasn't going to be outdone. She would be just as zippy and hep as the young blonde. She would show them just how appealing a long-legged sexy brownette could be....
Since downtown parking was at a premium.
Becky pulled into the Crest lot behind the big three-tiered store. They all knew her light Ford. The parking attendant wouldn't give her a warning note. She waved at him and he smiled broadly, his eyes holding on her legs....
The day was hot. She had worn as little as possible. She realized she looked her best in a full-skirted dress that swirled about her bare knees and just a little above. As she crossed the street two teen-age boys in a hot rod tooted a horn and whistled. Feeling a lift she smiled at them.
A week ago I wouldn't have done that, she thought. And I would have put on a more conservative frock, worn a girdle. I'm changing, too.
She didn't enter the Crest store, though. Earlier in the month she had seen swim suits in one of the women's shops further up the street.
As she was leaving the shop a rather tall man who looked vaguely familiar approached and smiled. He was slim, handsome, bareheaded, deeply tanned. Flattered, she paused and smiled back uncertainly.
"You must be Becky Finch," he said, his gray eyes full of admiration.
"I am...."
"I'm Zane Finch-Rudy's brother. I hope you don't think I'm too forward. I saw you walk up the street a while ago and thought I'd make myself known."
She noted instantly that he wasn't bald, that he had the Finch aura of masculine appeal ... then she remembered that the brothers were bitter enemies. She had seen him before only in one photograph which Rudy had destroyed on sight. His action had seemed to her extremely petty and childish.
The glimpse of the photo and the family resemblance reassured her. There was a quiet strength about him that Rudy had possessed in some measure and now seemed to have lost.
"I'm very glad to know you," she said, smiling again.
"I don't want to intrude, Becky ... Like a coke or something?"
"Yes. It is awfully hot!"
They entered a nearby fountain, and he led her to a booth. A waitress in a crisp white uniform took their order. She experienced a liking for him and her memory became active again. Zane had been in construction a while and now owned several large motels at Spokane. He was quite well fixed. She had found this out from friends of Rudy's at Spokane-she wondered if Zane's success was part of her husband's reasons for never mentioning his name.
"Years ago I teased Rudy about losing his hair and he never got over it," Zane said, a wry smile on his lips. "Shouldn't have done it...."
"Sometimes brothers don't hit it off," she put in. "Did you know Rudy wears a hair piece?"
"Really?"
And I hate it, she wanted to add.
He seemed to sense her thought. His eyes seemed to be probing inside hers and she felt a little shiver of excitement. She remembered that Zane was two years older than Rudy, but he didn't look it. There was a strong assurance about him-powerfully masculine appeal-and she experienced a tightening of her throat, a tiny twinge of desire in her loins. This was crazy....
He would be married, of course. All the really good-looking virile men were. "Where's your wife?" she asked, boldly. "She left me. We're divorced."
"Oh, I'm sorry!"
He sipped his cola. His eyes caught hers again and a stab of remorse hit her. He actually seemed to be lonely.
"I envy my brother," he said quietly.
She blushed, but she wasn't ashamed of it. His eyes coursed over her in thoroughly flattering manner and she was aware of a tingle in her breasts, where her thin bra and bodice shaped her charms....
"I wish you could come to our house and visit," she said.
The wry smile returned. "I may drop by to see him. I'm on my way to Portland ... I had it in mind, but we'd be at each other's throats again. How is he doing, really?"
She told him about the possible advancement to the new Pasco store-if he succeeded in Pender. He appeared genuinely interested. When she finished talking he looked at her again in his penetrating manner.
"Aren't you two getting along?"
She shrugged. "Married couples fight once in a while, I guess...."
He looked down at his empty cola glass. Muscles played in his lean face. "If he ever mistreated a fine girl like you I think I'd tear him apart!"
She trembled. How "fine" am I, really? I just bought an almost-nothing Bikini so a man named Gene Walters and his wife Tina can see every inch of my figure-I've let them both play with my body. I may be part lesbian....
"Don't, Zane." She liked the sound of his name on her lips, in her thoughts.
"Sorry, Becky-I shouldn't trouble you with family feuds. I had an idea you and Rudy were planning a family."
She bit her lip. He had a way of striking her right in the middle. "He wants to wait a while."
He rattled the ice in his glass. "I have to go. Rudy would flip if he knew we were talking like this. I know some people. Don't ever tell him, but maybe I can help him get that store in Pasco."
"That would be wonderful of you."
He smiled. "I shouldn't say this, Becky, but I wish I could run into a girl exactly like you."
Her heart pounded. "That's the nicest compliment I've had in ages!" Impulsively she reached out and squeezed his hand. An electric charge seemed to shoot up her arm to her heart. She trembled. His tanned masculine appeal seemed to envelop her. She imagined his mouth on hers, his strong fingers on her breasts ... and it wasn't the kind of emotion she felt around Gene or Hal either. Mainly because he was so much more real man than anyone she had ever met.
"I'd better go, too," she said, regretfully.
"I hope to see you again, Becky."
She smiled. Oh, so do I! Or maybe I shouldn't. I'm really mixed up now. Why couldn't I have met him before I fell for Rudy? But he was married then....
All the way home, long after she got there, she kept thinking about Zane. She remembered the pressure of his hand on hers when they parted in front of the soda fountain, seeing his athletic stride as he walked to his car and her disappointment in Rudy with his new flashy manner, his sporty attitude, hit her more acutely than they ever had.
Zane was so much more mature. He didn't brag. He was successful and it showed in his every gesture, every move. Where Rudy seemed at times insecure and flighty under pressure, Zane packed assurance and quiet drive.
She was quite sure that if his hair ever thinned or came out he wouldn't cover his head with a ridicuolus patch of thatch.
She tossed the little package containing her Bikini on the bed. Time to resume her role of a giddy party wife again ... time to start worrying again about dirty pictures, anonymously sent, and deals that included going the route with a girlfriend's husband....
She was sure she would never see Zane again. He would find another girl soon enough. Perhaps he preferred someone older....
I need a drink, she thought. I have quite a few things I would like to forget....
CHAPTER NINE
Becky, wearing her new Bikini beneath her light beach robe, waited for Rudy to finish getting ready for the party. He was in the bathroom, she knew, applying fresh glue to his scalp so his hair piece would stay in place.
Since he got it he spends more time in there than I do, she thought. He's as fastidious as some women I know. I wish he'd lose it in the pool ... maybe Tina wouldn't find him so appealing.
He came out of the bathroom at last. He, too, wore a beach robe over his swim-trunks. She thought he acted a little tense. She herself was quite relaxed. She had sneaked a jolt of vodka after dinner....
"That big-shot brother of mine came by the office today," he said, flatly. He smoothed his hair again.
Her heart gave a little jump. "Oh? Why are you such enemies, anyway?"
He looked at her sharply. "I don't recall that I ever mentioned his name around you."
"Honey, I lived in Spokane for years, just like you. I've heard about the Finch Motels-one of my friends mentioned it...."
He muttered under his breath. Ordinarily, she would have dropped the subject. His scowl indicated that he would like to talk about something else. But, after all, he had brought it up.
"I just can't understand why you hate him!" she said, boldly. "Did you-always?"
He flushed. "You never had an older sister who always did better than you, did you?" His voice turned sour. "Zane was always the top dog. I was always 'little brother.' I don't know why the hell he ever came through Pender, anyway!"
"I wouldn't mind meeting him sometime, at least," she went on, some of her accumulated anger leaking into her tones. "Are you ashamed of him?"
"Drop it, will you?" he snapped. "We don't get along, that's all!"
She had a sudden idea. She had made her own assessment of Zane. He liked Rudy in spite of the younger brother's resentment. He was actually going to help him. And she wanted to get in one parting shot. Like most men Rudy had an oversupply of vanity.
"Did he notice your hair piece?" she asked, lightly.
He went rigid. His face turned white. She saw his hands knot and for one wild moment she thought he was going to strike her. She had never seen him so enraged.
"What we talked about is my own damn business!" he shouted.
"All right!" she flared back. "I guess we'd better go to the party if we're going."
He mouthed a curse and snatched up the towels she had laid across the back of the sofa. "You're getting awfully damned wise all of a sudden!"
"I'm the new Mrs. Rudy Finch-didn't you know? Switchable, available Becky. Your party wife. Isn't that what you want me to be?"
"Come on," he growled.
She rose slowly. She realized she had bested him in another argument. And this seemed to peel another layer from his essential manhood. Ever since her mention of the invitation he had been eager to go over to the Walters. Obviously he wanted very much to be with Tina-and he was willing to sacrifice his pride as a husband to do it. He had to have that carpeting-and-appliance deal. That made it somehow almost respectable.
Rudy knew I talked to Zane, admired him, he would probably blow a gasket. I truly hope Zane kidded him about his silly wig. But I doubt it. Zane isn't that kind of man. He probably wanted simply to see him. What could be more natural...?
* * *
The lights about the Walters' pool were very dim and the far reaches of the enclosure lay in complete darkness. All four sat in deck chairs near the rim of the pool, drinks in hand. The portable bar was handily nearby.
Becky was pleased to have the additional vodka. She felt she would need quite a bit of it in view of what lay ahead. She hadn't yet removed her beach robe, but she sat with her legs crossed, the robe hem carelessly apart in front. Gene, sitting beside her, had been ogling her ever since she and Rudy arrived.
"Heard you got a new Bikini, Becky," Gene said slyly. "When do we see it?"
"I was thinking about a strip tease with my robe first," she answered. Be bright and gay and suggestive.
Tina giggled. She still wore her robe, too. "Why don't we give the boys a little show?"
"Hear, hear!" Rudy exclaimed. The men wore only their swim-trunks.
"Irene should have given you two a few ideas," Gene added.
Becky stood up immediately. She tried to think of something real daring to say. She glanced over at a smiling Tina, who was already leaving her deck chair. "Come on, honey! Let's give the boys a real battery-charging!"
Tina laughed. "The way you talk!"
Gene bellowed. "This girl is really getting the swing of things!"
Becky posed in front of him. She wriggled her hips and fluttered her tongue between her lips. He gulped the rest of his highball and leaned forward. Rudy appeared just a little puzzled at her words and actions.
I'll show him! she thought, the liquor fizzing in her veins. I can be just as sexy as the next girl. I'm no raving beauty but I do have a good figure!
Earlier, in the bedroom at home, she had put the Bikini on for the first time and surveyed herself in the full-length mirror that stood near her vanity. She was slim and leggy, firm-fleshed. Her bottom had a smooth roundness and the mini-halter shaped her breasts into pointed peaks of allure. She had picked a bright-red ensemble, and had worn lipstick that matched.
I'll tease Gene till he's frantic, she thought. And while I do it I hope I have some fun myself. Who around here cares about love? Maybe I can swing another big deal for good old Crest Stores ... bring around another handsome customer, Rudy! Bring on the vodka, too. What is sacred any more?
While you're about it, why not send a few needy girls my way? Maybe I can thrill them, too! What's a little lesbianism between friends ... between a husband and wife?
Tina glided over in front of Rudy. The stage was set. Becky wasn't sure just how she would proceed, but she let her imagination work. Everyone had seen Irene perform; perhaps the boys would appreciate something a little different!
She decided also to try to find out before the evening was over whether Tina or Gene had sent those combustible pictures. Someone who knew her had a mean purpose in mind.
She unbelted her beach robe, took one fold in each hand and, while she rolled her hips around, gave the boys flashes of her nearly nude figure. Tina watched her, giggling, and did the same for Rudy.
"I can't see enough!" Gene protested.
"You will before long, honey!" she answered, arching her breasts forward, opening the halves of the robe and then closing them again. The sway of her hips seemed to come easily, naturally. She began to feel mildly stimulated.
Even in the subdued light she saw Gene's manhood enlarging itself inside his swim trunks.
She moved a little closer, curving her loins inward as though she were receiving a lover....
"Great-great!" Gene exploded.
"Take it off!" Rudy said to Tina.
Becky noticed that the blonde's robe was wide open now and she was churning her hips at Rudy in a wildly suggestive series of gyrations. Her full breasts bobbed up and down, barely remaining inside the restraining band of yellow cloth.
Finally Becky dropped her robe.
Gene whistled.
"Rest time!" Becky cried, a little breathless from the stimulative squirmings. "I need a drink!"
Tina laughed, shedding her robe, too. "Good idea, honey. Make the boys wait a while!"
Gene reached for Becky, but she retreated, smiling, toward the bar. Tina followed.
"Isn't this fun?" the blonde asked, standing close to Becky. She whispered. "You're very lovely tonight, sweet!"
Becky remembered their hectic few moments in the bathroom. Tina's jasmine perfume reminded her of what they had done.
With the liquor giving wings to her thoughts she admitted now that she had enjoyed it-that she would even welcome it again. Why not? What did anything matter? She would be cheating on Rudy in a different way....
She had heard somewhere that slender leggy girls were more inclined toward lesbianism than the more rounded plump types, but she didn't really believe it-she thought perhaps there might be latent tendencies in nearly all girls. Who thought anything about two girls chumming intimately? Light kisses, touching hands ... and no danger of getting preg?
The way I feel now I don't want Rudy's child....
And where was Zane? Miles away now, and she would never see him again ... I know he could give me a wonderful thrill! Why were things always so mixed up?
"I like your Bikini," Becky whispered.
Tina giggled, swaying against Becky. The touch of her soft hip was naughtily exciting.
"After a while let's give the boys a real show," Becky suggested.
Tina's green eyes sparkled. "I'm for it. What'll we do?"
"I'll clue you in."
Tina's velvety hip pressed Becky's again. "I want to go in and freshen up pretty soon in the bathroom. Okay?"
Becky knew what she meant. "All right."
"Shhhh! Here come the boys...."
Becky winked at the blonde. She realized that the last time with Rudy had left her disappointed, frustrated ... Perhaps her experience with Tina had caused part of that, but right now she didn't care. The wiggling and weaving had warmed her body, her thoughts. All systems were go. Be a space-age girl! Have fun, fun!
Gene came up behind Becky, his arms sliding around her waist. She weaved herself in a flirty manner.
"Mix me a drink, honey," she said.
"That little Bikini of yours is driving me crazy," he murmured in her ear.
"Never rush a good thing," she said boldly so that Rudy could hear. He stood beside Tina, his hand on her curvy bottom. She giggled as usual....
After two more drinks apiece, and more horseplay, Becky announced that the girls were ready for another show. She placed the men in chairs facing the tiled edge of the pool and drew Tina with her to their impromptu stage. Slow, draggy music drifted from the Walters' stereo, a portable set up outside for the occasion.
The air was still warm. A few stars spotted the evening sky. The faint roar of an invisible jet came from far away.
The fresh supply of vodka made Becky feel extremely reckless. She was used to wearing her mini-Bikini, now. A relaxed party atmosphere added to her feeling of elation.
"Now, we'll show you boys how two girls can dance!" Becky said, laughing.
Gene whooped and applauded. Rudy's grin was very wide. She could tell that he was getting potted. Tina had been mixing his drinks, making them very heavy. Gene was more conservative with his consumption of alcohol.
Becky faced Tina and began to rotate her hips in time to the music. The blonde laughed and caught on right away.
Becky moved closer. She swung her body freely, eyes fastened on the bounce and sway of Tina's breasts, on her soft, parted lips, on the curve of her femininity so clearly outlined by the patch of yellow cloth.
Tina spread her thighs just a little, her hips arching forward-and Becky experienced a sharp wave of longing. Her breasts firmed and her nipples tingled.
I'm getting hot, Becky thought.
"Man, oh man!" Gene exclaimed. "You gals ought to hire out for stag shows!"
"We're just starting," Becky cried, imitating Tina's suggestive hip-thrusts. The girls were only about a foot apart now.
A memory of those glossy photos ran through her, and she felt a stab of naked lust. She began to wonder if perhaps she might not enjoy Tina more than she would her husband!
CHAPTER TEN
Becky lifted her hands to the pout of her breasts. She touched them, watching Tina do the same. The blonde's sweet curves seemed to have a special appeal tonight, she wanted to see Tina's breasts exposed, see the swell of her ripe pink nipples....
A sensual mounting warmth spread along Becky's thighs. She curved her hips in ever-increasing abandon. She could tell that Tina was becoming aroused, too. They were almost touching....
"Take something off!" Gene hooted.
"Naturally!" Rudy added, his voice thick.
Becky commenced to lift the snug red cups away from her bobbing breasts. Watching Becky's slowly churning hips created a mood of reckless daring. The blonde's hands moved over her sloping charms, inching the yellow band upward. Her tongue shot out from between her fleshy red lips, fluttering there in mute invitation. Becky felt a dizzy, liquorish heightening of desire.
At last Tina's Bikini-top fell away-and just at that precise instant Becky exposed her own breasts.
The men shouted encouragement.
Tina arched her mounds forward, drawing her shoulders back, accenting the fullness of her creamy cherry-tipped bosom. Becky did the same and since she was taller than the blonde, leaned down a little so her pointed cones were almost touching Tina's larger, swaying breasts.
"Swing it!" Gene cried.
Becky heard Tina's whisper above the pound of the music. "I can't stand much more-of this!"
Becky smiled and weaved her shoulders, bringing her tender peaked nipples stingingly into contact with Tina's.
Tina gasped. Playfully Becky continued the stimulating contact, churning her hips against the blonde's silky loins.
I'm drunk and hot and I don't care, she thought. Provocative tingles swept from her thighs up to her spiring points of need.
"I'm burning," she whispered to Tina.
Becky felt the blonde tremble. She backed away. Tina sighed, her thrusting movements fading in intensity. Becky executed a few more reckless grinds and, as the men applauded and shouted, kept her eyes on Tina. The blonde's lips were parted, she was breathing unevenly, her breasts appearing more firm, less jiggly. Her cheeks were flushed....
"I'm a little faint," Tina gasped. "I need a--rest." Her eyes caught and held Becky's. "And I have to go to the pottie, too."
"I'll go along," Becky answered.
"Well, hurry back!" Gene exclaimed. His gaze was fastened on Becky's breasts.
The girls left the patio and entered the house. As soon as they turned the first corner so the men couldn't see Tina flung herself at Becky. v
"Ohhh-honey!" Tina gasped, shuddering. "I'm-almost ready to go!"
"Me, too!" Becky breathed. "Hurry-in the bathroom!"
A moment later they were behind the locked door. Tina unfastened the lower section of her Bikini, her green eyes glazed with passion. Becky, still breathless from the dancing and mounting fervor, loosened her own triangular patches.
Tina plastered her soft heated body against Becky's. Their mouths met, fusing in a writhing tongue-stabbing display of passion. Becky hated standing. Her legs were weak, but her eagerness gave her added strength. Tina was cushiony!
She ground her hips against Becky's, and Becky felt her own loins respond. Their girl mounds met, and trickles of fizzy delight spread through Becky's figure. Pointed breasts sank into yielding softer mounds, they writhed wildly, and when their mouths came apart at last, Becky shivered, thrusting, weaving, her breath hot in her throat.
A low moan rose from Tina's mouth, she gripped Becky tightly. Becky felt the blonde shudder, felt the driving ferment of Tina's passion-and suddenly her own rapture sharpened. There was no thought of delay now. They had reached the gasping point of no return....
Honeyed stabs of joy rocketed along her thighs. She gripped Tina and assumed the aggressive role, backing the blonde to the wall, pushing, fondling....
Tina cried out. Little spasms communicated to Becky and she plunged into her own well of shivery throbbing completion. Waves of voluptuous release seemed to last and last, slaking the hunger that had mounted during the sexy show at the pool-rim.
They fell apart. Tina slumped onto the covered toilet seat, her thighs spread, her restless body quieting, at last. Becky gripped the double sink for support. Her legs were wobbly as little twinges of aftermath raced along them.
"Ohhh-honey!" Tina breathed.
Shamed now, Becky turned her eyes away from the cute blonde and commenced to make herself dainty again.
"That was good, wasn't it?" Becky answered.
"I-wish we had more time," Tina whispered.
"I think we'd better get back to the boys...."
When they returned to the pool area, Becky felt much better physically. She wouldn't let herself think too much about what she had done with Tina. After all it wasn't the first time....
I'm turning into a real slut, she thought. Bare-breasted, she walked up to Gene, who stood near the portable bar, drink in hand.
Sober I couldn't do this.
"I need one," she said.
"One what?" he cackled.
"Right now a drink, silly!"
His eyes drank in the beauty of her breasts.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tina wriggle up to Rudy, smiling and weaving her hips as though nothing at all had happened just a few moments before.
Rudy's hands reached out to claim Tina's breasts. The blonde giggled, arching her mounds nearer.
Becky felt Gene's palms on her own breasts and she wasn't surprised to find that the sensation was exciting. She laughed, backing away.
"A drink first, big man!"
He shrugged, turning to the bar. "When you let go you're terrific, Becky!"
"I think I've been the blushing housewife long enough," she answered so Rudy could hear. He and Tina were heading for a lawn swing back in the shadows. Tina's soft laugh rang in Becky's ears.
Time to start closing that deal now, she thought. But I'll still give Gene a rough time before I go the route.
Gene handed her a highball and she took it, brazenly arching her breasts right at him.
"Great!" he exclaimed. "Hey, I see we're alone...."
"Drink your drink and let's dance!"
She looked down at the bulge in his swim trunks. He snorted and emptied his glass in two gulps. She did the same. Already she was unsteady on her feet. The earlier drinks and the experience in the bathroom had left her slightly dizzy.
She melted into Gene's arms. She was surprised at his strength, at the muscular firmness of his body. The poke of her nipples against his chest sent little tracers of delight along her spine. His arm about her waist tightened and she hugged her loins close, feeling the pressure of his manly bulge on her femininity . .
His hands roamed over the firmness of her bottom. He began lowering her Bikini patches.
She backed away, teasingly, and then his fingers located her nude girl-mound. She trembled, aware of a keen reawakening of her desire. He touched the wet point of her dilated sensitivity.
"Ohhh!" she gasped. "Let's go somewhere!"
"I know just the place, baby."
Now she hated to have him stop. She curved her loins forward, her knees watery again. Darts of excitement coiled through her body. She realized now that Tina had barely touched her real passion. This was much more to her taste!
She drew Gene's hand away, shivering. "Hurry!" she whispered.
He caught her hand and led her away from the pool into the living room. One lamp burned near the end of a long sofa. They sat down and he swept the last red patch away from her loins....
Again he clasped her femininity and she squirmed.
"Play with me a long time, honey," she murmured.
"Great, great!" he said, his voice thick with emotion. "Those long legs of yours are almost too much!"
"I like you, too, Gene...."
He muttered, his mouth settling on hers and she opened her lips wide. His tongue jolted into the heat of her yielding lips, his hand now rising to the firm jut of her breasts. Her nipples turned flinty. They were extra-tender.
Trading isn't so bad, after all! she thought hazily. First the wife and then the husband....
When his tongue finally retreated from her mouth, she slid her hand over his legs and whispered.
"Slow and easy, honey ... remember?"
"Uhh-sure...."
His hands left her and he tugged at his swim-trunks. She watched as he slid out of them, still unwet. They hadn't gone near the water. The vision of his maleness made her shiver. She touched him, held him....
Now, his hand coasted along her slender thighs, and she parted them. He kissed her throat. She caught her free hand in his sandy hair and urged him lower, toward her jutting breasts. The tinglings grew more voluptuous as he fastened his wet lips over a taut nipple. He was really good ... She felt his eagerness, his virility. She fondled him slowly.
He moaned, bringing her nipple out even more sharply, until little stings of joy made her gasp.
It was time to start teasing him.
"Oh-I heard something outside, Gene!"
"W-what?" His head lifted. "I didn't...."
"Sounded right near that big window," she said, acting afraid.
He muttered darkly. "Probably a damn dog. What a time to bring that up!"
Her hand moved on him again. He trembled. She had spoiled his timing, his mood. His mouth returned to her nipples.
"I-wish you'd go and check, honey," she whispered. "Maybe somebody's trying to peep at us!"
"Hell! Relax, baby-how can I ... f She moved her hand swiftly. "Well-all right!"
He shuddered, starting to swing above her, then suddenly stiffened, moaning. She knew the signs only too well. He was caught in the throes of orgasm....
He fell back on the sofa, his virility spurting out on the carpet....
The strip tease with her beach robe, the sexy act with Tina, the long wait and finally his fondling of her body, had been too much.
When he opened his eyes, she was able to still her own excitement even when he cuddled her close and ran his hands along her thighs, up to her breasts....
"Ohhh-I'm so sorry, honey!" she lied. "Pretty soon you'll be all right, and...."
"I've been wondering about you," he muttered. He stood up, weaving a little. "I'll be back...."
He walked away toward the bathroom.
She smiled to herself. She knew he would try again ... and before too long she would let him-but in the meantime why not have a gay old session of it?
A burst of giggling from outside drew her attention. She wondered how Rudy was making out with the little blonde.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
She stood up and walked quietly from the living room, toward the patio. If Gene came out too soon she could say she needed another drink! Let him search for her ... be a little hard-to-get.
She spotted the lawn swing where Rudy and Tina had gone and sneaked up behind it. Nakedness didn't bother her too much now. This was a real swinging party. Enjoy it....
"Aw, come on!" Rudy wheedled, his voice blurred by liquor.
"Tease me some more, honey," Tina gurgled. More giggling. "You're pretty drunky."
Becky smiled to herself. Rudy didn't sound so sure of himself now. Obviously Tina was playing with his desire.
"C'mon-get in my lap," Rudy urged.
The lawn swing jiggled. "You haven't kissed me enough, honey!" Tina murmured, flirt in her voice. "Make me really hot!"
Becky pictured her husband's hands on the cuddly blonde and she experienced no special jealousy. Her old values about right and wrong were shot. A party like this was for vicarious pleasures, drunken sex.
She turned and left the area, returning to the bar. She had to keep an edge on or her conscience would start screaming. She saw her discarded bikini-top on the pool rim where she had dropped it and passed it by.
She mixed a strong highball. The music still droned from the stereo. Little waves lapped at the edge of the pool. A faint hum of traffic drifted up from the city center to the south.
Gene appeared in the doorway that opened from the living room onto the pool patio. A towel was draped around his loins.
Becky knew it was time to continue her performance. She laughed, gazing at him.
"You bashful, all of a sudden?"
He walked forward, grinning. "You can have fun taking it off, baby!"
The "baby" irritated her; it sounded common, but she overlooked the expression. Somehow a part of his masculine appeal faded. Tina had said she had him housebroken. She was the real boss.
Gene reached for her and she sidled away, laughing. "Let's play a game or something, honey!"
"You been hearing any more 'sounds'?" he asked, dryly.
"No. I hope you're not mad-about that...."
He shrugged. "I think you're a teaser."
"Oh, now-I'm not, really!" She came up close to him. "I just like to flirt around a little."
"What kind of game did you have in mind, sugar?"
She lowered her voice. "Let's go over to that lawn swing and see what Rudy and Tina are doing!"
His grin came back. He built a drink and when he had it ready they walked over into the shadows toward the lawn swing. His hand slid around her naked waist. She weaved her hips as his fingers inched down her tummy, exploring....
A little cry of excitement from Tina aroused her interest. Becky drew Gene up behind the swing, where she had stood before. The sway of the dark canvas-canopied lawn furniture indicated a certain amount of action from within.
"Ohhh-that's better!" Tina exclaimed.
No answer. Gene's hands roamed over Becky's body. He stood behind her now, his towel gone. She felt his arousal. She cuddled her bottom against him....
"Ohhhh-oh-honey!" Tina cried.
The swing began to squeak. Was Tina in his lap, as Rudy had requested earlier? The fact that Becky couldn't see piqued her interest. The sway and squeak of the swing grew more pronounced. Gene clasped Becky's breasts, and she felt her nipples poke outward, accenting her excitement. He was pressing himself nearer, seeking with his maleness ... He was very rigid.
She gripped the frame of the swing, leaning forward. She spread her legs, curving toward him....
She almost cried out as the searing contact commenced. She trembled. The sweet spread of her tender femininity became a hectic reality she hadn't expected to be so snugly wonderful.
Gene seized her hips. His lunge reached a place of shivery intoxication. His weight carried her further than she intended. She nearly lost her balance as flurries of her responses to his invasion rocked her pelvic regions.
The creak and wiggle of the lawn swing, accompanied by little gaspy cries from Tina, escalated her passion even higher! Her legs wobbled, she reached for a firmer hold on the swing frame and missed. The sensations within her were so exquisite she wasn't quite aware of what happened next-until she felt herself falling forward, into the swing.
The contraption tipped over. Becky tumbled onto the canvas and heard a sharp cry of surprise from beneath her. Rudy's curse was echoed by a loud exclamation from Gene.
Tina yelped and Becky was aware of a wild scramble as she fought to extricate herself from the threshing bodies under the canvas-and-metal framework of the swing.
She tumbled onto the grass beyond the wreckage. Rudy's bellow of rage as he fought the enveloping canvas gave Becky a moment of extreme hilarity. She picked herself up, laughing almost hysterically.
Tina's touseled head appeared from under the end of the tipped-over swing.
"Help!" she cried. "Get me out of this thing!"
Becky doubled over, gasping for breath, the comedy of the situation leaving her unable to move.
Gene cursed and leaped forward, catching Tina's hand, drawing her out of the still-turbulent tangle of cloth. Rudy's curses punctuated the pulsing music, making the scene even more ridiculous.
At last he crawled free, shaking his head, lurching to his feet.
"What the hell's going on?" he shouted, rigid with anger if nothing else. Becky noticed that his desire had obviously fled, at least for the moment....
"Take it easy!" Gene said. "We had a little accident!"
Rudy growled, seeing Becky, who still couldn't contain her merriment.
"This somebody's idea of 'fun'?" he snapped.
"Why of course, darling!" she answered. "Surprised?"
He growled and muttered, falling into a lawn chair.
"I think it was a dirty mean trick!" Tina said, glaring at Gene. "What were you two doing? Standing there, listening to us?"
"Cool it," Gene said. "Nobody's hurt. I think we all need a blast of booze."
Becky looked at Rudy and started to giggle. Tina stared at her, then suddenly, finding her good humor, she laughed, joining Becky. The girls stood side by side in the shadows, still quaking with amusement.
As they walked toward the bar, following the men, who were still discussing the situation in drunken voices, Tina whispered to Becky.
"I didn't quite make it with Rudy, honey. You were mean!"
Becky whispered back. "Gene didn't get what he wanted either!"
Tina giggled. "After we have a drink I think I'll take Rudy in the bedroom...." She squeezed Becky's waist. "But I don't think I'll like it as well as when we did it ...!"
* * *
Half an hour later Becky found herself in the guest bedroom with Gene. Another drink had put her in the mood for almost anything....
Rudy and Tina were across the hall. The games were over; it was time to fish or cut bait.
She stretched out across the counterpane, watching him turn the lights down until only one lamp burned. She looked at her breasts, rising like small mountains on her torso, wine-peaked, tumescent.
She lifted one slender leg, examining its fine contours, the way it tapered down to her compact hips and she wondered what Zane would say if he saw her here, half-drunk, ready to cohabit with a neighbor, offering her prize to one of Rudy's friends....
The thought took something away from her moment of surrender. A coldness passed through her being.
When Gene crawled on the bed, making it quiver, she closed her eyes, reaching for him, knowing already how he would feel....
He stretched out beside her, sweeping his hand over her charms, from her knees to her femininity, to her breasts. She held him, aware of no keen sensations. The alchemy of all the dalliance that had gone before seemed empty now.
She responded to his caresses and acted out her part.
I'm a real whore now, she thought dully.
She lifted and encouraged him, and when the moment came it was as though a hot dagger of guilt went clear to her heart. She took him and played with his passion as she knew a willing girl should. She panted when he panted. Finally, when the burst of his virility drained into her, she clasped him with her legs and heaved upward-feeling nothing except a few little twinges that only made her all the more miserable....
When he went to sleep, at last, she turned away from him with tears in her eyes.
I sobered up too fast, she thought. Rudy will get his big order, though. He can't miss now....
* * *
Zane Finch zipped his briefcase shut, stood up and paced uneasily about his motel room. He had delayed going on to Portland. He had decided to stay in Pender at least for the night. The business on the Coast could wait a few days.
Earlier in the evening he had called Rudy's number, hoping to catch Becky. But no one had answered.
What a hell of a wonderful girl!
Every line of her face, the fullness of her lips, the soft sheen of her brown hair, the fine delicate contours of her figure, all were etched in his memory. What bothered him most, though, was the hurt that lay behind her warm brown eyes....
After his visit with Rudy he was sure he knew part of the reason for her unease, her uncertainty. Rudy was a little pompous now, he acted more extroverted, important. The hair piece made him appear younger, of course-and it had changed him. He talked more, even bragging about his move upward. Several large selling feats recently he laid to his new sharpness.
I can put in a good word for him at Pasco, Zane thought. But should I? He needs a few pins knocked out from under him.
He shook the plan away. He knew he would help Rudy, as he had in the past. He didn't want to feel that his attraction toward Becky, actually giving him hard pangs of jealousy, would interfere with his mental balance.
Even the tone of Becky's voice haunted him. And her walk, free and extremely feminine, the naive sway of slim hips unfettered by a girdle, knifed sharply into his recollections. Damn!
I think I could steal her away from Rudy-but what kind of a heel would I be? Taking candy from little brother?
His hands knotted. The whole thing would be wrong, dead wrong. They were married. If they were having problems, it was no concern of his.
I've got to stop thinking about those long, sweet legs of hers, the high pout of her breasts. I should have driven on, toward Portland....
He stopped his pacing. He realized he hadn't eaten. The heat always took away some of his appetite. He would go out and have a couple of drinks and a good dinner. He would leave early in the morning. Rudy sure as hell didn't want to see him again. The meeting had been a big mistake. And it would be another mistake to look Becky up again. She and Rudy would, have to work out their own destiny.
When he left Rudy's office after their cool farewell he had noticed the high percentage of good-looking girls in the bookkeeping and accounting departments. Rudy had never been too girl-conscious in earlier years at Spokane. In fact he had married later in life than most men.
His early baldness, Zane had felt had bothered Rudy more than it should have. Evidently the hair piece had given him a changed outlook. He even dressed "sharper." Of course, a store manager had to look dressed up and proper, but Rudy was overdoing it.
I hope to hell he doesn't trip up his career on a patch of artificial paste-on hair!
Something else, too. If I ever hear he's abusing Becky, I'll break him in two!
CHAPTER TWELVE
Saturday afternoon, when Becky went out to get the mail, she found another large manila envelope in the box. The printed address was the same, its appearance exactly like the first.
This, combined with a nervous hangover, made her furious. She was almost ready to throw it in the garbage bucket but her curiosity was too strong. She opened the envelope.
More glossy black-and-white prints-this time all women. The poses were even more wildly suggestive than the first batch.
She was glad Rudy was still at the store. Later on Saturdays he sometimes went up to the Elks to have a drink or two with some of the "boys."
He had called earlier, rather exuberantly, to tell her the appliance-and-carpeting deal had gone through. Gene had swung it to Crest Stores.
I gave him a good show last night, Becky thought. He was too drunk to realize I was faking my pleasure.
At first, out near the lawn swing, she had been excited. Because Tina had been so near? Because things had been different?
She sank into a chair, trembling. The photos reminded her all too vividly of the real reason why she hadn't been able to respond to Gene. Tina and I had our fun, first.
All day she had resisted taking a drink for her hangover. She wanted to stop nipping. She didn't want to acquire the hard brittle look of a girl who drank too much and too often. She hated to admit it, but the talk with Zane had given her a lift, had made her realize that there were kind decent men in the world.
She was tempted again with the batch of awful photos in her hand. Who could be upsetting her this way? For what reason?
The pictures hurt her in another way. She was very sorry now that she had ever let Tina touch her. No matter how thrilling it had been the act was unnatural, abnormal. If something like that ever got out, Rudy would lose everything. They would have to leave town. The act gave Tina a hold over her, a lever.
How did I ever get into such a mess? I've always considered myself a man's girl. I don't want to be queer.
With tears in her eyes, she crumpled the lewd photos into a ball. She took them with her to the bedroom, found the other envelope, wadded its contents up, too. She took both parcels out to the garbage bucket and threw them in, clanging the lid down hard.
When she returned to the house she heard the phone ringing. Probably Rudy, feeling big-chested about the contracts. Would he want to go out and celebrate?
A woman's voice answered.
"Who is this?" Becky asked, still shaky from her act of getting the photos out of the house.
"Irene, honey. Remember me?"
"Oh...." Several images danced through her head. The lush redhead sprawled on the Walters' living-room floor, her body writhing ... the way the men had looked at her.
"I'm all recovered now," Irene said, brightly. "I'm getting ready to leave town-staying at the Manor Motel. Didn't want to impose any more on Hal and Janet...." Her voice lowered intimately. "I'd like to see you before I take off. Why don't you drive out here? Number eleven...."
"Oh-I couldn't!" Becky protested. She found herself trembling. She was glad that she and Rudy had a private line. After her experiences with Tina she was sure she knew what the redhead wanted....
"Honey," Irene said. "I know something about your hubby that you wouldn't want to have exposed-in a little burg like this...."
"What're you doing?" Becky said, angrily. "Trying to-blackmail me?"
"Don't put it so crudely! You've got it, Becky-and don't act so innocent. I've been around, honey. You and Tina are more than just neighbors. She's got quite a case on you.
Drive by here and I'll show you more than Tina ever could...."
"You're horrible!" Becky cried. She banged down the receiver.
She dropped into a chair, shivering. Of all the cold-blooded propositions! I'll bet she sent those pictures, too! What kind of a slut does she think I am?
The truth was hard to face. She had played around with Tina and she realized that no amount of liquor could be blamed. Perhaps Rudy's coolness over the past year had contributed, perhaps his changing personality and her own efforts to be swinging and modern had helped too-but obviously she did have lesbian tendencies. She hated the whole idea more and more, with each passing moment.
Tears of shame gathered in her eyes.
What did Irene know about Rudy that was so damaging? Would the redhead really expose it-or were her threats merely an attempt to draw Becky into a messy situation?
Oh, I hate her! she thought. Let her do her dirty work! Maybe Rudy needs taking down, anyway. Our marriage is about shot.
A knock on the back door sent her dark thoughts flying. She wiped at her eyes, stood up and walked into the kitchen. Tina was already entering. She wore revealing pink shorts and halter. If the cute blonde had any kind of hangover, it didn't show.
Tina's smile faded. "Honey, what's the matter? You've been crying!"
Becky fought down an impulse to run to Tina and blurt out her troubles-but that might lead to more complications!
"Morning-after blues, I suppose," Becky lied. She turned to the electric range. "I can heat up some coffee...." Her hands trembled.
Tina came nearer and Becky was acutely aware of the blonde's seductive perfume. She wouldn't look directly at Tina.
"What you need is a drink," Tina said. She touched Becky's arm and even that bothered her more than she cared to admit.
"No! I had enough last night...."
"Well, let's go in and sit down. I hate to see you all upset...."
Tina's voice and manner commenced to soothe her ragged nerves. She walked with her guest into the living room. They sat down on the sofa.
"Didn't you have a good time last night, honey?"
Becky sighed. She realized she shouldn't vent her anger on Tina. She had already decided to be a venturesome party wife, and now she was reaping the pangs of conscience she had known would come as surely as day followed night.
"Yes...." Becky admitted.
"Okay-why all the tears?"
"All this is-too new, I guess." Tina's nearness was comforting. Perhaps Irene wouldn't cause any trouble ... and maybe the dirty picture-sending would stop.
"I think I know how you feel," Tina said, smiling. "I was shook the first time Gene and I traded with Hal and Janet-I'm sure you guessed that. We didn't really plan it-just kind of happened...." She giggled. "But I got over it. Lots of couples around town do a little trading once in a while. Adds a little spice to living."
"I guess you're right," Becky said. But the emptiness within her wouldn't go away.
Tina pressed her bare thigh against Becky's knees. She wore a light housedress and very little underneath. She had had the room airconditioner turned on since nine o'clock. It would be another hot day in Pender.
Becky felt a little nudge of excitement and she eased away from the smiling blonde. Not again, she thought. Not today!
"Honey, you're very special!" Tina murmured. "Don't be coy now. We did have a wonderful time!"
Becky flushed. "I don't want to make it a habit, Tina...."
Tina laughed. "You're so serious about everything. Relax. I don't go rushing every girl I meet. And I do prefer men. But as you know, they get moody and hard to manage sometimes. Girls understand what other girls like. Is there any big harm in that?"
"It's-wrong," Becky protested.
"Maybe. Lots of things are wrong with the world. Who knows when we're going to get blown to bits or die of atomic radiation? You can't save up the days, Becky. If you don't live them as they come, they're gone anyway. And please don't be mad at me. Sure, I'm a dizzy blonde, full of laughs-so called. Gene and I figured on a family, at first. But I'm sterile. Isn't that a kick?" Her voice trembled.
"Oh! I'm sorry, Tina."
"Maybe we'll adopt one later ... Gene doesn't like the idea."
Tina began to emerge in Becky's mind as more of a person. She had her problems, too. She squeezed Tina's arm. "Maybe the doctors made a mistake."
"No ... Say, what is this? Gloomy Saturday? We're both young and healthy. I don't like moping. Do you have a little drink handy, honey? I could use one, even if you don't."
"Of course!" Becky said. She went to the kitchen, took out her bottle of vodka and soon had two glasses brimming with liquor and orange juice. Her fingers were a little unsteady.
I'm still glad I told Irene off, she thought. And I guess Tina's right. One can't save up the days.
When she returned to the living room she found the blonde's pose on the sofa very provocative. Her arms were stretched out along the top and one soft leg angled away from the other, so that the outline of her femininity was clearly limned by the tightness of her shorts. The pink halter barely contained her generous breasts....
Becky felt a fluttering in her tummy, a little tightening in her loins!
What's the matter with me? She wondered. But I know, really. I want to touch her again....
A little breathless she sat down again and gave Tina one of the glasses. Their eyes crossed and held and Becky knew her cheeks were warming. She knew her short skirt was back along her legs and she didn't adjust it....
"Was Rudy pretty drunk?" Becky asked, her heart thudding.
"A little too, honey...." She winked. "Things were sort of interrupted when the lawn swing tipped over!"
Becky laughed and Tina joined her. They sipped their drinks and Becky realized her nerves were unwinding. Tina's lips on the rim of the highball glass seemed unusually active and when her pink tongue touched a piece of ice in the orange-hued liquid, Becky felt a familiar tingle of excitement. Her nipples turned itchy!
"You still look tense, honey," Tina said, presently. "I learned some good relaxing methods from a woman who worked in one of those massage parlors in Portland. Let me show you. It really helps...."
Becky's heart beat faster. The vodka had a soothing effect. Tina's green eyes seemed to grow larger. She was leaning closer....
When I poured that drink for myself I knew this was coming, she thought. And I could chill her with a hard look. But somehow I can't.
Tina held out her glass. Becky extended her own and the rims clinked together. Their eyes met again and Becky realized that already she had said yes without uttering a word.
"Cheers!" Tina exclaimed. They emptied their glasses. The blonde giggled. "Come on in the bedroom and I'll show you how this massaging helps...."
I'm glad we're using that for an excuse, Becky thought. I was disappointed with Gene....
Becky stood up, her thighs already warming-and suddenly the sound of the Finch car broke into her fizzy mood. Rudy was home already. The motor sound died and a door slammed.
Becky flushed. "I-didn't think he'd be here so early, Tina. I'm sorry!"
Tina giggled. She stood up and squeezed Becky's waist. "We'll do it some other time, sweet," she whispered.
Becky nodded. She took the glasses into the kitchen, and Tina followed. Rudy came through the back door, a wide smile on his face.
"Well, look who's here!"
"We just had a drink apiece, Rudy," Tina laughed. "I'm a little hung over."
"Had a couple downtown myself," Rudy commented.
Tina excused herself and slipped out the back door. Becky took the glasses to the sink, fighting for her composure. I was ready to tumble into bed with Tina-just like that! I'm awful....
She was surprised when Rudy came up behind her and slid his arms around her.
"Well, aren't you proud of me-getting that big apartment-house contract from Gene's company?"
"Of course," she said. And then she added slyly. "I was of some small help, though...."
He laughed. She could tell he'd had more than a couple. He reached upward to cup the thrust of her breasts. She was pleasantly surprised. But she was glad she had had that belt of vodka. She softened against him.
Well, if I can't have Tina, why not Rudy?
He kissed the nape of her neck and she started to turn around when the phone rang.
Her heart leaped into her throat. Irene again? Oh, damn her! Why doesn't she leave town and stay out of my life!
Rudy's hands left her breasts. He backed away. Another interruption....
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hello," Becky said, hoping her voice sounded right. Her hand was wet on the receiver.
"This is Janet," came pleasantly over the wire. Becky felt a sharp wave of relief. It was short-lived, though. The redhead had sounded pretty sure of herself ... What would she really do? What did she have on Rudy?
"That Irene finally took off," Janet said, apparently relieved. "You kids like to come down to a barbecue, out in our back yard?"
"Sounds like fun," Becky answered. "Let me go and ask Rudy."
"Tell him Gene and Tina are coming, too."
Becky took a deep breath. "Be right back, Janet." She knew already that Rudy would go, hangover or not. And she did want to see Tina again....
* * *
The Collins' lot at the rear was surrounded by a high thick hedge. Large maple and sycamore trees dotted the lawn. An elaborate barbecue pit had been built at one corner of the expensive lawn and Hal, appropriately garbed in tall chef's hat and white apron, presided over the pit of glowing hickory coals.
Two strings of dim-colored lights furnished the only illumination.
Janet had asked everyone to dress informally, and Becky wore a snug jersey and clinging tights-the latter showing off her long legs to good advantage. The evening air was still warm.
Although Rudy's brief caress when he had come home had been encouraging, he hadn't touched her since. She remembered how his eyes had fastened and held on Tina's pink snorts and halter....
Tina excited him and I was handy, she thought, watching Rudy sidle over beside the cuddly blonde.
Ever since Janet's call she had been wondering what the switching order would be-and on arriving at the party she soon found out. Gene would be with Janet and Hal would be Becky's date. Well, she was moving around. It was her turn with the slender clever-talking store owner....
Becky, highball in hand, started to leave her chair to join Hal at the grill when Janet sank into a lawn chair beside her. The hostess, too, wore snug jersey and shorts. Her lush appeal, the fullness of her breasts and hips, could not be ignored. Her thighs were smoothly tanned.
"Glad you kids could come," she murmured. "Are you upset about something, Becky?"
"Nooo. Sorry to be a drag. This drink will perk me up."
"Good!" Her voice lowered. "Hal has his talents, honey," she drawled. Becky smiled. She asked a question.
"When did Irene leave?"
"This morning. Just between you and me I was glad to have her gone."
The way she said it gave Becky the idea that the redhead might have made a few passes at Janet. She didn't ask, though. She didn't have the feeling of closeness with Janet that she experienced around Tina. At the same time she was sure the blonde and the lush brownette had been intimate. Well, that was their business.
"I heard that Irene hasn't left town, though," Becky said.
"Really?" Janet drawled. "I liked her show, but not her personality."
"Maybe I shouldn't ask," Becky went on, "but did she carry a folder or two of dirty pictures around with her?"
Janet frowned. "Not that I saw!"
Her answer appeared spontaneous enough. Becky realized she wasn't much of a detective. Those photos bothered her. It was a sneaky worrisome thing. She was glad she had shoved the prints in the garbage can. She wondered now whether or not she should have burned them....
When Janet left, giving Becky a rather odd sidelong glance, she wandered over toward Hal.
He looked up, grinning. "Well fan my brow, if it isn't Miss high-pockets, all duded out! With boots and hat on you could win Mrs. Rodeo of America contest hands down."
She smiled, looking at the steaks on the grill. She realized she hadn't eaten much lunch and no dinner. She was famished. She liked the relaxed atmosphere at the Collins' place. They seemed more normal than Tina and Gene. Was it because they had a child? Did Tina really want offspring or was it just a pose?
Janet had mentioned that she and Hal farmed out their daughter when they had a party.
She watched Tina near a table loaded with bottles and mixers, flirting with Rudy. He had taken a nap before the party and appeared refreshed by it. Becky had rested, but hadn't been able to sleep. Irene's threat seemed to hang in the air, clouding her mind ... and she was still troubled by her strange affair with Tina.
Whenever I get near her I start thinking about all the fun we had ... I failed with Gene. Will I have to pretend with Hal? Has Tina warped my desire for men...?
An hour later, after a delicious feast of sirloin and brandy after-dinner drinks, the six retired to the Collins' rec room. It was a long cozy place, done in a Western motif, scantily lighted by soft red-shaded lamps. Janet said she had a new game she thought would interest all those present.
Becky was glad to be inside. The evening air had finally cooled. So far Hal had been quite the gentleman, but then he had been busy with the serving.
They all stood at the bar Hal had built at one end of the oblong room. The liquor was in old-fashioned decanters Becky thought attractive. On the mirror were a number of girlie pictures cut from a well-known men's magazine. Rudy and Gene were busy admiring them.
"What's the game, honey?" Tina asked Janet.
"I'll tell you soon," the hostess said. "But first, everybody has to put on a costume." She laughed. "All you girls follow me...."
"What about us?" Gene complained.
"Hal has the men's outfits ready."
Becky finished her highball and trailed along after Janet. She went through a door that opened off the rec room, and found herself with the other girls in a spare bedroom. Lights were already on.
How handy, Becky thought, glancing at the bed. Is this where I'll end up with Hal?
"Strip, girls," Janet said, laughing. She opened a drawer in the mirrored vanity that sat near the bed and drew out three sheer colored pieces of nylon that Becky couldn't identify, at first glance. "We're going to play harem!"
Tina giggled. "How'll we do that?"
"Wait and see," Janet replied, her dark eyes flashing. She held up one of the garments. It was bright red, a diaphanous pair of pantaloons with an elastic top.
"No bras?" Tina asked.
Janet unfolded a matching red band about four inches wide and just as sheer as the bottoms. She handed the wisps to Becky. "I think this color suits you, honey."
Becky trembled. She swallowed her momentary unease. She wasn't going to be a square and spoil the party. Already Tina was down to her panties and bra, giggling and squirming. She really loves to show off her curves, Becky thought.
"Come on, honey," Janet said to Becky, peeling her jersey over her head....
Ten minutes later the girls were "dressed." Becky had never seen Janet nude and she noticed the prominence of her dark red nipples, the wide aureolae, the fullness of her gorgeous breasts. They were huge! Janet wore pale blue, Tina yellow. The pantaloons, with elastic at the ankles as well as at the waist, added to their allure, no question about it.
In tying the red band about her breasts Becky had tried to make the bow cover her nipples, but Tina had nixed that plan. The blonde fastened Becky's bra in back.
Becky had paraded naked in front of Gene the night before, but somehow this was different. The clinging nylon accentuated charms Janet and Tina already had admired. Her cheeks were hot as she stepped out into the rec room.
Whoops of appreciation came from the men. They, too, wore costumes of astonishing brevity. Only a small patch of brown cloth covered their loins. Otherwise they were naked.
An overstuffed chair with wide arms sat in the middle of the room-a sign on it said THRONE.
"The boys will take turns being king," Janet said, laughing. "That is, as soon as we have enough drinks to set the mood right."
"Hell, I'm ready to go it right now!" Gene exclaimed.
"Cool down, honey," Janet answered, drawing him toward the bar. Her large breasts swayed and she twitched her hips provocatively.
"You mean all three of us girls have to make over the men, one at a time?" Becky whispered to Tina.
"Sure. I think it's a swingy idea."
Hal came up to stand beside Becky, and Tina joined Rudy. Becky decided her husband still looked a little hungover. Why should I care? she thought. All he can see tonight is Tina or Janet. They're new. Isn't that the real idea of all these games? Everybody can have fresh stuff for an evening. They get tired of the same old lay.
It was still wrong, though. It violated basic ideas of society-no matter how momentarily thrilling....
Hal's voice brought her quickly up to date. "Would you-all like a drink, Miss Rodeo?"
"Yes," she answered and meant it. I think I need several.
He led her to the bar. He whispered. "Honey baby, you've got one hell of a lovely figure." His eyes lingered on her almost-bare breasts, then swung down to her slender hips, her long legs.
"I'm not as big as Janet," she murmured. "Sweetie, size isn't everything. I'm going to hire you to come down to the store and model my new Western duds for girls." His arm were around her naked waist.
Play their games, she thought. Maybe Hal does have his talents!
She had already noticed Hal's compact build, his narrow hips and wide shoulders. Not an ounce of fat anywhere. Obviously he kept himself in fine physical condition. Lately she had noticed a slight puffiness in Rudy's belly, a softness in his grip. Or was she already tired of him? Where was the man she had married? Surely he was nothing like this new Rudy with his changing personality, his swaggering extroversion, his conviction that he was God's gift to women.
She took the drink Hal gave her and gulped it down as swiftly as she could.
"Hey, honey, you'll knock yourself out that way!" Hal said. He went around the bar and mixed her another.
"I'm all right now," she answered, beginning to lose her qualms about what lay ahead.
Hal grinned, returning to her side. She would be lint-headed and frolicksome, like Tina and Janet. Anything for a change....
Hal isn't too unlike Zane in appearance, she thought. I'll try to imagine Rudy's brother is my date.
She leaned closer to Hal and laughed. "Do you really like slim girls, Western man?"
"Nothing like a change of pace to stir a person up, is there?"
His hand circled her. She drew her shoulders back, accenting the line of her bosom. Out of the corner of an eye she saw Rudy fondling Tina and she didn't want to be outdone. The liquor was hitting her now.
Hal's fingers reached her breasts. He cupped and squeezed, creating a wave of tinglings in her nipples. They perked forward.
"Ter-iffic!" he breathed. The thin nylon was no hindrance to his caresses. "You've got 'em, Becky."
She trembled. He did have a wonderful touch.
"You're not so bad yourself, Hal. Play with me some more."
His dark eyes burned into hers. Zane's hand is there, she thought, making my breasts hot. I need a man's touch. I've got to stop this business with Tina.
Hal's mouth aimed at hers and she opened her lips.
"Time for games!" Janet announced, breaking in on Becky's little fantasy. Hal's hand left her.
"Just wait!" he whispered.
"I hardly can," she whispered back.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"You've all heard about the boys in the old days having a harem," Janet said, standing near the throne. "We've all enjoyed movies with harem girls dancing around in almost nothing...." She swayed her generous hips and the men applauded. Her large breasts jiggled.
"Well, we'll do the next best thing. The boys can take turns being Sultan. And girls-treat 'em good. We want to let 'em know they're real he-men."
"We drew lots while you gals were getting decked out," Hal said. "Gene's first, Rudy's second and I'm third. Okay? Let's swing!"
Just an excuse for fondling each other, Becky thought. But it is different....
The last drink and Hal's caresses gave her courage. She followed a giggling Tina to the throne and Gene took his place in the chair. Janet immediately sat on the arm at his right, leaning forward so the Sultan could touch her breasts or thighs if he so desired. A wave of excited cries rose above the throb of the music coming from the stereo. Becky decided to take the other arm. She tried to keep her legs together so her dark triangle wouldn't show, but the pose kept it exposed.
Tina stood in front of Gene, weaving her body, giggling. She appeared more emotionally stirred than Janet-this kind of stuff was right down her alley. She loved to display her charms.
Becky riffled Gene's hair and squirmed as close to him as she could.
"Just relax, honey," Janet said to Gene. "Let the girls give you a lot of attention!"
Janet slipped her hand along the Sultan's legs, and the other two men whooped when her fingers stole beneath his brief "pants." Becky knew right away the men wore nothing underneath their costumes. Gene was aroused-already.
Becky leaned closer, and Gene's hand came up to her breasts. His caresses made her shiver. She felt her nipples turn pointy. Sensuous thrills added to her rising need. Tina weaved her hips in provocative invitation....
The show continued. Gene transferred his hands to Janet. She laughed when he fondled her lush wide-open thighs. Becky ran her fingers along Gene's shoulders, down across his muscular chest. She found herself looking down at his bared masculinity and felt a sudden wave of liquorish desire.
"Those old boys really lived!" Gene cried.
Becky experienced another kind of excitement when she transferred her attention to Tina. Her hips rolled in quickening bursts of wildly abandoned thrusts; her soft breasts were nearly ready to fall out of their thin yellow covering.
The rest of the show became a kind of hazy dream. When Rudy's turn came he barely touched her, but she was already zestfully stimulated. The wisecracks rang in her ears.
Finally it was Hal's turn and Becky grew bolder. This time she touched his loins, held his manhood and felt the wonderful size of him, and she was gratified that he gave her plenty of tantalizing caresses ... She loosened her bra and when his lips captured a tender nipple she felt the thrills clear to her toes.
When it ended at last, the pairing followed right away. Rudy and Tina wandered into the bedroom where the girls had disrobed. Janet took Gene upstairs....
"Now, I've got you!" Hal whispered, leading her to a sofa.
Already her knees were weak. She sank down gratefully, rather dizzy, extremely excited.
Hal immediately untied his "loin cloth," tossing it aside. He cuddled Becky close, fondling her nude breasts, kissing her shoulder. Her thrall of need was sharp, a goad in her loins. All the touchings, the nakedness, the abandoned tossing of hips, especially Tina's, had made her shivery for the rest, for totality.
As Hal's lips reached hers, for the first time, she had no trouble at all in imagining he was Zane. She closed her eyes....
The searching tongue in her mouth, testing her heat, her desire, belonged to someone else. The hand spiring her nipples she had seen holding a coke glass, and she realized that she had wanted Zane right then. Vodka loosened the inhibitions and the subconscious trends of her thought.
Oh, Zane, why didn't you take me to a motel and wash away all this uncertainty? Rudy doesn't need me any more the way I want to be loved. He's off on some crazy tangent-he and his precious hair piece-and I have to have total love and affection to be really happy. This is a game. I'm not much better than a common whore. Maybe worse!
She yielded to Hal's gentle fondlings. He eased her back on the sofa and she opened her thighs. He took her surely, gently, and at first she thought she was going to really sail. He was all man. He knew how to hold her, how to tease her nipples with his tongue and lips, but she lost the image of Zane.
He was far away now-there was no more magic. She was being invaded and sounded and filled by someone else. She admired Hal's efficiency. He was what hip girls called a great "bedroom mechanic." He brought her passion as far along as he could with manly teasings and delays and simmering kisses.
She knew she wasn't going to reach heaven-but at last she felt a wrenching kind of spasm that tightened her thighs about him and answered some of her need to be held and fondled and adored. Her little jerks of release were not the deep true kind she craved....
When Hal had his peak of feeling she gave him what was left of her rapture-and then a great emptiness followed.
His body above her was damp with perspiration. She turned her head and felt tears of disappointment trickle down her cheeks.
I'm not even a real hot party girl, she thought, remembering her earlier failure with Gene.
Hal slipped away from her, saying he would be back soon. She rested, relaxed. She was depleted from pure physical exertion.
I suppose he'll want to again soon, she thought. He's got this idea that slender, long-legged girls are great stuff. I had more fun with Tina....
A sound from the nearby bedroom made her lift her head. Rudy was in there with Tina. Weren't they through yet?
Curious, she used Hal's handkerchief, found her pantaloons and slipped them on. She walked quietly over by the bedroom door and listened. Hal had gone upstairs. She would hear him when he came back.
"Try again, honey!" Tina begged. There was an odd note of desperation in her voice. She wasn't giggling now.
Is something the matter with her? Becky wondered. Is she too drunk?
Rudy said something she couldn't hear.
"I know I can make it this time, honey!" Tina said. An edge of uncertainly was nakedly evident in his pleading voice.
This was really rich! Giggly, flirty, hip-swinging Tina wasn't having her fun. She certainly did with me, though....
A coldness gripped Becky. She backed away from the door, heading for the bar. Strange ideas were crawling around in her head. She had heard about girls who were outwardly sexy in appearance but were cold in bed. Had she and Gene cooked up this switch club-since they were obviously the leaders-because both of them were frustrated at home?
It seemed a logical answer. Perhaps even Hal hadn't found the blonde very exciting.
Maybe Tina has her real pleasure with Janet!
Oh, I wish I had never got into this awful mess!
She longed to leave for home-but her clothes were in the bedroom where Rudy had Tina. Besides, she couldn't just run home, across lots.
She was beginning to have an emotional and physical hangover. She went to the sofa and curled up, waiting for Hal. She would tell him she was too drunk to play games for the rest of the night-maybe he could go in and help Rudy with Tina.
Her hands clenched. She had to make a drastic change in her life; she couldn't go on and on, like this....
* * *
Zane Finch sat at the bar of Pender's most extravagant night club, the Silver Nugget, and nursed a highball. He was restless. He had tried reading at his motel and had given it up.
He had called Rudy's number again about eight o'clock, hoping to catch Becky-but again no one had answered. They probably were out for the evening and he had cruised the better cocktail lounges hoping to see them, wanting another look at Rudy's lovely young wife.
He couldn't shake her out of his mind. She was so real, so genuine. She had Class-she was Triple-A, plus. Before dark he had driven by their house on Hillside Drive after getting their address from the telephone directory. A good part of town-Rudy was at least in a prosperous-appearing neighborhood.
On several of his stops around the joints he had noticed a showy redhead and he was about to leave the Nugget when the girl came through the front door alone as before.
She gave him a come-on smile and wriggled onto a bar stool at his left. He was used to interested girlish glances. Women nowadays were bolder. But she wasn't local, he could see that. She had the mannerisms of a big-city number. He pegged her for either a model on vacation or a high-priced call girl. In his travels he had seen plenty of both.
He hadn't had a twist in bed for over a week. He wondered if she might be diverting-at least for one evening. Becky was out of his reach, unavailable, married. He had had enough of Rudy's venom in past years. Any hint that he liked his brother's wife would send Rudy into a rage.
"These little burgs are dull," the redhead said, giving him a calculative smile.
He smiled. Why not? "May I buy you a drink?"
She accepted, and it began very smoothly Her pale green frock was slashed deeply at the throat and she had plenty of smooth flesh showing. As they became acquainted he could sense the envy of other stags at the bar.
She was from Portland and was about ready to return. She had been visiting friends in Pender. An auto accident had held her up for a few days. Her name was Irene.
As was the unspoken custom he gave her only his first name.
"You look a little familiar," she said, on the second highball. "Have I met you somewhere before?"
"Don't recall it," he said. "I'm sure I would have remembered." She laughed.
A few moments later they were at a table for two in a shadowy corner near the dance floor. The same old routine. When he got her on the floor she pressed her lush body close and the subtle swaying of her hips, the pressure of her breasts on his chest, told him she was ready for action.
Some of them were almost too easy. It took the spice out of it. Still, she was the best unattached female he had seen all evening. She would do for a one-night stand.
Of course, she could be a teaser and she might want a couple of twenties for a lay. He wasn't going to pay her, though. He hadn't dished out any money for a broad since his last trip through Vegas. And he hadn't been very pleased with that. She had merely performed a necessary function.
Why in hell do I keep thinking about Becky? Why is she married to my own brother...?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was after one o'clock when Becky and Rudy came home. The moment she stepped into the bedroom she had the feeling that someone had been there. A faint trace of perfume lingered and one of her vanity drawers, which she always kept closed, was pulled out about an inch.
Strange....
Apparently Rudy noticed nothing awry. He staggered as he sank on the edge of the bed and began to undress. His sport shirt, awkwardly donned at the Collins' house, was half unbuttoned, his mouth smeared with lipstick.
Becky found a nightie and retreated to the bathroom. She was still half-tight, but she knew she needed a shower before she could sleep. She was disgusted with her behavior. When Hal returned to the rec room she had played drunker than she really was and had prevented him from displaying his bedroom talents a second time....
When Rudy had lurched out of the bedroom for a drink, she had pleaded a fit of sickness and he had driven her home. Apparently he had had enough of Tina for one night.
She wondered again if someone had been in the house during their absence. She remembered that they hadn't locked the front door. Many people in Pender didn't. Rudy always claimed they were fully insured and if some person wanted to rob them he could easily find a way inside.
Becky undressed quickly. She was sick of Hal, sick of the whole bawdy business. Her host had given her no real satisfaction. Her nerves were on edge and she was afraid that despite all the liquor she had taken she wouldn't be sleepy for a while.
I'm glad now Hal couldn't stir me deeply, she thought.
She surveyed her image in the long mirror fastened to the inside of the bedroom door. Her own lipstick was messy and she took a washcloth and cleaned her mouth. Oddly her breasts were still a bit swollen, her nipples distended. Hal's touches and his fondlings had not reached the real core of her need....
I'm still hot, she thought. Is it because I dreamed of Zane and then had my dream exploded?
Cheating with Hal had backfired. She hadn't felt much of anything in spite of all his technique.
She surveyed the slimness of her waist, the trim lines of her hips, the sculptured beauty of her long legs. The V of her femininity drew her attention. She touched herself there and realized that she was still aching with unrequited desire.
Her hands then lifted to the thrusty pout of her breasts, rosy-tipped, still pointy ... They seemed silky-hot to her touch.
No! she thought, turning to the shower.
She adjusted the flow of the water, making it a bit warmer than usual. She had to wash away all traces of Hal; she wanted to feel clean again.
But how can I cleanse my thinking?
Her thoughts were erratic. That would be from the drinks, from the games and from her feelings of shame about the whole performance.
She soaped her body thoroughly, glorying in the cascading water, and the mere touch of her hands on her body caused her to think again of Zane. What if he were with her under the spray of the shower? Where would his hands be? She trembled.
Why visualize the impossible?
She stepped out of the shower at last and found a large towel. She felt much better. Some of the liquor fumes were evaporating. Once thoroughly dry, she slipped into one of her new nighties and made herself as dainty as possible. She even brushed her hair. She liked to do that before going to bed anyway.
She stepped out of the moist air of the bathroom and opened the bedroom door. A light burned at the head of the bed, but Rudy was out cold. His snores rang in her ears, underlining her suspicions about what he had done with Tina. Damn him, she thought.
She backed away and walked into the living room. One lamp still was on. She stretched out on their best sofa. The hem of the little nightie hiked clear to her hips but she didn't care. No one could see her.
No more switching, she thought. No more cheapening of my emotions. If Rudy doesn't like it, I guess I'll have to leave him.
She wasn't so sure about Tina. Tonight she wouldn't consider that. She wanted to think some more about Zane. She was in just the right mood. She had been teased up and fondled, she had watched the other girls playing harem, she had looked at naked male loins, at nude girls, and she was still drunk enough to let her thoughts run wild!
I need it tonight and Rudy's in there snoring, all worn out from trying to please Tina. Well, I'll dream about Zane and pretend he's here and maybe I'll have a wonderful orgasm all by myself....
She adjusted the pillows under her head and spread her thighs wide. She lifted her tender breasts out of her nightie. Her hand stole under the lacy hem of her single garment. She closed her eyes, and touched the sensitive point of her clitoris.
Zane was there, kneeling beside the sofa, his hands gently shaping her breasts, urging her nipples into peaks of trembly responsiveness. He was caressing her slender thighs, whispering words of love, of adoration....
Without the liquor and what had happened that evening she knew she wouldn't be having such a provocative fantasy ... but now she could be completely abandoned. She could sway and twist her body any way she liked, in ways she never had even for Hal-or Rudy-or Tina-or Gene. She would be utterly wanton!
Oh, I do need it! she thought dizzily.
Now Zane was kissing her lips, sliding his tongue in deep, as shooting little sparks of passion enveloped her being. He was carefully preparing her for the ultimate in sexual gratification.
His lips touched her breasts, next. He seemed to be possessing them. Her nipples turned flinty and darts of sensual anticipation made her shudder. She flung her legs about, lifting them, imagining that he was now palming her most sensitive place, escalating her seething passion. She swung her hips in a flurry of joyful seeking drives. She panted and her breasts heaved.
Now he was arching slowly above her. He was braced so she could move her hips wildly, around and around, up and down....
The phantom union seemed almost a reality. Furious little shiverings possessed her. She strained and lifted and raised her legs high as if enclosing him....
I know he'd want me to have one as soon as I could, she thought. A girl needs several ... especially a girl like me.
He's so big-and strong! He's all the man any girl could ever wish for!
Suddenly a ferment of quakings seized her. She felt the long-delayed beginnings of her rapture, the twinges along her thighs, the quickening of the red-hot searings that brought an uncontrollable cry from her throat.
Oh, it's coming, now! Oh-Oh-he's driving right to the core of my passion....
Gusts of throbbing release tore at her loins. She cried out again. The honeyed nuances were fierce and gratifying. But somehow, she couldn't attain the ultimate-the long hard heavings she knew to be totality.
Her vision flew apart. She was alone again, panting out her lust, tossing her hips in an effort to gain more than she had, she now knew could never be attained without the cooperation of a real lover.
Tears sprang into her eyes. She turned her head, hiding the view of her sprawled body from her eyes. She was doubly ashamed-because she had been so abandoned, because she had tried to cheat again-and she had failed.
She caught a hint of movement at the foot of the sofa. Her eyes opened wide!
Rudy stood there, a twisted expression on his face, glaring. I shouldn't have kept my eyes closed! she thought, cringing under his gaze.
"This the way you get your real kicks?" he grated.
"Ohhh-God!" she cried, hiding her face, consumed with humiliation.
Then, suddenly, her anger burst out. She sat up. "Why weren't you out here? You're all used up on Tina!"
He leered, his face white with rage. His hands balled into fists. He trembled.
Suddenly he turned and weaved back into the bedroom. The door slammed shut.
She hugged herself, her face hot with shame. How would she ever live that down? He had probably watched the whole performance....
The tears came again. She huddled on the sofa and let them slide down her cheeks.
I won't have to leave him now, I suppose, she thought bleakly. He'll take care of that. But wouldn't he be furious if he knew whom I was thinking of when I had my climax? He'd flip his silly wig!
She calmed at last. All her pleasure pangs were gone, drowned in a murky sea of remorse. Where had all this switching and wild parties led?-to hatred! She resented Rudy, she hadn't wanted him touching Janet or being in the bedroom with Tina.
Yes, she had joined in reluctantly and now she had gone the route with the men in the crowd and one girl! She was a slut or she would have resisted. She didn't deserve any self-respecting man.
Her own husband had even caught her playing with herself!
How bad could a scene get?
On top of everything she had dirtied the image of Zane! Half-drunk and still on edge she had squirmed out her pleasure alone, thinking of Rudy's brother, and somehow she felt she was going to pay for it, pay dearly in the long days to come....
How can I ever be normal again...?
* * *
Zane sat in the Manor Motel, Unit Number 11, waiting for Irene to change. He always noticed the competition, and decided the Manor chain had cheapened their furniture. The sofa he rested on was hard and uncomfortable.
Irene had wanted him to come to her motel so he had followed in his own car. Irene had a new Ford, so she wasn't doing too badly. He felt sure now she was an entertainer, probably in night clubs or on the strip route.
Her large bag sat conspicuously on the end of the sofa. It was half-open. She was still fussing around in the motel bedroom and, knowing women, he realized she wouldn't be out for a while.
He stood up and quickly spread the jaws of the handbag apart. The usual collection of stuff girls carried around. He was curious about her last name, her address. Her car had an Oregon license plate.
Unable to find her billfold, which she had probably carried into the bedroom, he was about to give up his quest. Then he noticed a rather unusual item-a hair piece! It certainly wasn't a woman's. It appeared the thing had been dropped in there and covered with facial tissue. Looked expensive, too. Maybe it belonged to her steady boyfriend.
Well, one never knew what dames carried around with them.
He thought of Rudy's patch.
Resuming his former position on the sofa he had a cigarette. Somehow he didn't feel too carried away with his latest conquest. Irene had all the correct female equipment-large firm breasts, ample hips and good legs. Her features were better than average and her mouth, already sampled, had a greedy heat. What did he expect-a movie starlet?
Then he realized he was comparing her in his mind with Becky. She was so young and fresh and vital-and hell, she had a better figure than any he had seen recently. High virginal breasts, a lovely wide mouth that looked soft and clingy....
Damn! The drinks he had taken seemed to liven her image in his mind. Her soft brown eyes had warmed to him. She was so easy to talk to. She had a bright mind, an imagination. She was sensitive-and she had been hurt. Probably not physically but emotionally.
He supposed that brothers might be drawn toward the same kind of girl-and that it was possible such a girl would feel close to her husband's brother....
Had he assumed too much from just one brief visit? Had he seen desire naked in her eyes?
The whole concept of infidelity didn't appeal to him. He still believed, rather naively, in real love. There had been something of that in his first marriage-but not enough. He had been disappointed in Helen ... and when he had discovered she was stepping out on him he had cut out for good. Luckily she hadn't been smart enough to take very much money in the divorce settlement. She hadn't even been present in court.
He knew he had been looking ever since and damned if he hadn't found the ideal girl hitched up to his brother. He rolled it around bitterly in his mind. That was life.
At that moment the bedroom door opened and Irene came out. She wore a thin green negligee that stirred the brute inside him. Her red hair almost reached her shoulders. Her ripe lips looked even more promising than before. Her large sloping breasts swayed as she paraded toward him in a rather studied manner.
She sank down beside him and he was engulfed in a wave of seductive perfume.
"Honey, I thought you'd have some clothes off," she whispered.
"That won't take long."
She laughed. "I haven't been out with a real man like you for a long, long time. Make me really want it! I'm very happy tonight."
"Any special reason, luscious?"
She smiled, cuddling nearer. The froth of filmy nylon drifted away from the enticing upper slopes of her breasts. "Before I ran into you tonight, I accomplished something. I won't tell you any more...."
Dames! So maybe she had got a stock dividend check or something. He didn't care she was in a good mood. He had to forget Becky. What better way than in a sex-bout with a buxom showgirl? He reached his hand inside the gaping negligee and claimed a velvety mound. Her large nipple swelled against his palm....
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sunday morning Becky sat alone at the kitchen table, drinking coffee.
Outside the sun was shining and the day promised to be not so hot as usual-but her thoughts were black. On many Sundays in Spokane, before Rudy's rise to managership, they had driven over into Idaho to Lake Ponderosa. In weather like this they had gone swimming or boating.
They had been close and in love, and the future had seemed very bright. She had ignored the glances of other men, who apparently thought it a little odd that she was with a balding man at least ten years her senior. They had been happy.
There had been no hesitancy in her complete surrender when they were alone in bed. She hadn't minded his shyness, his reserve. Doing it at night with lights out had been fun enough. Most of her basic needs to be held and kissed had been fulfilled, and when she hadn't been able to climax with him she had been pleased that he could find his joy in her, that he wanted her....
The memories seemed to hurt more keenly this morning. She knew a hiatus was developing.
When Rudy appeared, looking glum, his robe awry, his eyes bloodshot, she steeled herself for the words she had to say.
"I'm not doing any more switching, Rudy...." Her voice trembled. "I just can't."
He fell limply into a chair. He shook his head. He touched his hair piece in the old unconscious gesture.
"You're just hung over," he answered sourly.
"I mean it!"
"Hell! I thought you were having fun. Why didn't you say so before?"
She knew he had a point. "All right, I thought I'd go along-I tried. It's just no good...."
His face went white. She realized he wouldn't want a divorce. The Crest Stores liked to have their rising stars married, established ... She could get one herself, but it would injure his career, maybe they could still paste together some kind of association that would pass for a happy home life.
"We'll talk about it later," he said grumpily. He left the kitchen and walked into the living room.
The old pattern. So many words left unsaid. She was sure he felt some kind of guilt about his recent behavior with Tina and Janet-and maybe others. Obviously he didn't want to change. He liked his new role of dashing young man about town.
They were no longer close. They couldn't talk things over reasonably, as they had the first years. The wall between them seemed to widen.
Then she had her own guilt. She wasn't at all sure she could resist Tina in the right circumstances. And Rudy had caught her in a very embarrassing situation. Not that married girls didn't ever relieve their own tensions-Kinsey and others had found the practice existed. It was simply that he had found her out.
Then there was the ugly mystery of who had sent her the pictures. She wouldn't tell anyone about that. But she wanted to know-if possible. She wanted to stop it before someone else saw them.
I've already sunk into a girl-and-girl association and those photographs make me feel even worse about it. Who knows my secret? Who suspects I have lesbian leanings?
She followed Rudy into the living room. He was sunk in the morning paper. She wanted to say, Why can't we start all over, Rudy? Why can't we be like we were?
He looked up, scowling. "What were you going to say?"
His coolness knifed her deeply. "Nothing, Rudy. Nothing at all! I hope you had fun with Tina!"
He flushed. "Hell, she was too drunk...."
"I was too drunk for Hal, too," she answered, bitingly.
He rattled the paper and went back to it, hiding his face behind the front page. "Is that why you came home and got your jollies out in the living room-alone?"
She wanted to strike him. A new flood of shame and humiliation washed through her. She turned and left the room. He would use that as a goad now.
Fine people we are-discussing a drunken switch party!
She sat down at the kitchen table and poured fresh coffee. It tasted like sour mud-sharp and bitter in her mouth. Outside the sun still shone and a few birds sang. She was barely conscious of them. Her thoughts had never been darker. She felt used and tired and degraded....
* * *
Monday morning at eleven o'clock Rudy's secretary called on the intercom and said a young woman wanted to see him. He shoved papers aside and stood up. He told the girl to have his visitor come in. Could it be Tina, with some new business? He smoothed his hair piece, checked his appearance and watched the office door open.
He had to admit that things hadn't gone too well Saturday night. He had had one hell of a time getting Tina even halfway satisfied. She did a lot of pretending. She knew all the little arts of displaying her body and how to act passionate, but he hadn't been in his best form.
One of these days he would catch her sober and give her a good roll.
Becky would be all right in a few days. She and Hal hadn't hit it off. She seemed to get along better with Gene. Well, if she wanted to hold back and miss all the fun, he could get out a few nights a week and hunt up something. Plenty of it around....
He felt a jolt of surprise when the young woman entered his office. She closed the door firmly.
"How are you, tall and handsome?"
"Irene!" he said. "I thought you'd left town...."
"No-not yet. Still convalescing, you might say. And I'm bored...."
Her bright red hair was waved to perfection. She wore a modest summer dress that couldn't hide her abundance of curvy charms. She looked sleek and ripe and desirable. She drifted up near his desk. Her perfume hit him right in the middle.
"I wanted to see you before I took off," she murmured, moistening her rich fleshy lips.
His chest tightened. He had danced with her at the party and he remembered the restless roll of her hips, the way she had swiveled her bottom there on the carpet....
"I'm flattered, Irene!"
"You're special, Rudy," she whispered, coming closer. "Can you slip out on your little wife tonight?"
"Hell, yes!"
He slipped his arm around her pliant waist. She made a little cooing sound, raising her mouth. He leaned down to take it-and suddenly she made a cat-like move that was so unexpected he could only stand there, frozen.
She reached up and snatched away his hair piece!
She walked quickly to the door, shoving her stolen merchandise into her handbag.
His anger rose and burst in a stream of vindictive epithets. His fists clenched. He had not felt so naked in years.
"Damn you, come back here-with that!" he bellowed.
She laughed coldly. "You tell your little wife I'm getting even. She'll understand. I spotted your imitation mop the first time I saw you."
She went swiftly through the door. He plunged after her-then just as he found the doorknob he realized she had him. He couldn't chase her through the cluster of girls out there who had probably already heard him yelling!
He stood there, rigid, cursing. The dirty bitch! Getting even for what?
He ran his hands across his naked scalp, still sticky from the goop he put there to keep his patch in position.
He trembled. He hadn't been so worked up in years. He tramped back to his desk. Then, changing his mind, he returned to the office door, locked it and returned to the desk again. Well, the bitch didn't know everything. He had a spare at home. It had cost him plenty to buy two hair pieces but the salesman had told him it was a good idea. How true!
Sweating, he dialed his home number. His left hand kept passing over his bald spot. The whore ...!
* * *
Becky sat in the Finch living room talking to Tina.
Despite what she knew about the lovely blonde and what she had done with Rudy-and herself-Becky was glad to have company. There was a kind of naked honesty about Tina that was utterly disarming. She seemed less tricky and underhanded than most girls, all of whom learned deception at an early age. After all wasn't it the very essence of a woman to be a little mysterious?
Tina, like herself, wanted children. But Tina would never have any of her own. Perhaps she was more involved with "fun" because of this inadequacy in her physical being. She was denied the normal function of a wife-motherhood. From what Becky had overheard, perhaps Tina had difficulties in other areas of marriage....
Did she, too, have trouble finding everything she needed in her hubby's embrace? Was this why she had veered away from the norm toward other girls? Becky still could find no excuse for lesbian activities but every person was different. Maybe Tina couldn't help being partly that way. She looked so extremely and totally feminine....
Today Tina wore a simple white housedress, but she filled it out very attractively-and of course her skirt was very short. Sitting in a chair directly across from Becky with her legs apart, Becky could see the frilly border of her slip and the soft roundness of her thighs....
If she's wearing panties at all, they're very thin, Becky thought guiltily.
The phone rang, interrupting her disturbing observation. She slid along the sofa and took the extension on the end table. Her own skirt worked back along her legs, and she didn't bother to push it forward. It was a warm day, and after all Tina had looked at her thighs before....
"Yes?" Becky said.
"This is Rudy," came startlingly in her ear. He was angry, his voice tight with emotion! "What's the matter?"
"I lost my hair piece. I'm here in the office. You know where my spare is ... Get it and bring it down to the store-fast!"
Her first impulse was to burst out laughing. The fool! Was it that important? His ego had been shaken ... She savored the irony of the situation a few seconds before answering. People around Pender would probably discover his secret sooner or later, anyway. Why couldn't he go without his wig for part of a day?
"You can wear a hat home," she said, dryly.
He fumed. "You know damn well I never wear a hat, especially in August. Will you kindly do what I tell you?"
I hate that thing he wears, she thought. I didn't at first, but I do now!
He sounded as though his very life depended on restoring his precious patch, on covering his natural baldness.
"Okay," she said.
"Well, make it snappy!"
She hung up the receiver.
"What was that all about?" Tina asked.
Becky burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. The whole thing was so funny. She was glad he had been disarmed, so to speak-glad he had been jerked down to reality!
"This is too much!" Tina said, giggling. "Tell me."
Becky realized she couldn't keep Tina in the dark any longer. Perhaps the cute blonde had guessed, anyway....
"Rudy lost his hair piece," Becky exploded, still quaking with amusement.
"His what?"
Becky took a deep breath. "His toupee, honey. Didn't you know?"
Tina shook her head. She giggled. "Well, he didn't want me running my fingers through his hair. But what's so funny?"
"He worries about it so much!" Becky said. "He didn't want anybody in town to know. He's locked in his office, afraid to come out, so he wants me to bring down his spare. Isn't that ridiculous?"
Tina smiled. She couldn't grasp the whole picture, of course. She couldn't understand that Rudy had changed so much since he had started wearing artificial hair.
Becky left the sofa and went into the master bedroom. She opened the lower right-hand corner drawer of the vanity, where he kept his other wig. She looked at the parcel Rudy felt was so important. She opened it.
The hair piece was gone....
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"Rudy," she said, into the phone, "The spare-it isn't here...."
"What?"
"I looked-in the drawer, where you keep it...."
Profanity rolled thickly from the receiver. She had never heard him so viciously vindictive. He was in a crazy rage.
"I won't listen to any more of that!" she shouted and hung up. She was trembling. Why did he have to vent his spleen on her? She hadn't taken it....
Immediately the phone rang again. Tina was watching, wide-eyed. Becky lifted the receiver, tiredly. The whole thing was no longer laughable.
"Look, Becky!" he said. "It must be there, in the drawer...."
"No. I looked through all of them. The package is where it always is, but the hair piece isn't in it."
"This is a lousy trick of yours!" he bellowed. "You don't like my wig, so you got rid of that one!"
"No, Rudy. You can come home and look for yourself. Calm down a little. You can put on a hat and get by just fine...." A memory was crawling around in her mind. "How did you lose your hair piece, the one you wear?"
She was trying to be reasonable.
"None of your damned business!" he growled. Then, abruptly he went on. "What'd you do to this Irene? She said she was getting even for something?"
The picture in her mind was clearing, now. Irene calling that day, wanting Becky to come to her motel-and her refusal ... Evidently Irene had come to the store, to Rudy's office and had ripped his toupee away-or something like that....
She remembered something else. Saturday night ... the feeling that someone had been in the house, one vanity drawer partly open. An odor of perfume in the air ... Irene's threat....
The redhead had struck at her through Rudy. Being in showbiz she had spotted Rudy's imitation mop. It was a dirty underhanded trick, but he wasn't permanently injured. He could get another hair piece.
"I'll tell you some other time," she answered at last. She was ashamed of the whole business-that Irene had even singled her out for attentions.
"Well, you got me in one hell of a predicament," Rudy snapped. Then he added, darkly, "You haven't heard the last of this!"
"Rudy, be sensible. You can order a new hair piece. The world hasn't ended!"
He muttered a vivid curse and the line went into the buzz of the dial tone.
She sank back on the sofa. Her nerves were in rags. It was a cruel thing to do to Rudy. It had struck him where he was most sensitive. Still, she couldn't feel too sorry for him. Maybe some of the swagger would leak out of him ... maybe for a while he wouldn't be such a woman killer....
Since Tina knew part of it she explained the whole affair or as much of it as she was able. She deleted Irene's call, her invitation. She left Tina with the impression that Irene had it in for Rudy because of something he'd done at the party....
"Rudy shouldn't get you so upset," Tina protested. "You look like you're ready to fly apart!"
Becky inhaled deeply. "Of course I can't prove Irene came in the house and stole his extra toupee ... But it is gone. His vanity's been hurt, Tina. I guess you can understand that."
"Of course, honey," Tina said, sympathetically. She left her chair and came over to the sofa, gliding down beside Becky. "I hate to see you so upset. You're trembling!"
All this fuss because I wouldn't "play along" with Irene. She's a vicious slut. I'll bet she sent those filthy pictures, too ... trying to get me into the notion.
Tina's nearness was comforting. Rudy never held her or made over her any more-not unless he wanted her physically, sexually.
Becky trembled, closing her eyes, as Tina's hands pressed and squeezed.
"Relax, honey," Tina cooed. "You're so tense!"
"I've been on edge for days," Becky said, knowing the blonde's hands shouldn't be where they were but liking the sensations, needing comfort of some kind.
Tina patted her and kissed her. Becky found her lips eager, opening for the wiggly tip of Tina's inquisitive tongue ... She groped for the blonde and they hugged tightly. Tina's mouth was so soft, soothing. Tiny twinges of desire made her thighs burn.
"Come over to my place, honey," Tina urged, breathing into Becky's mouth. "Gene won't be home for hours. If Rudy comes now he'll just make you miserable! You're all tied up in knots. You need this-and so do I...."
"Yes," Becky answered. "You're right, honey."
Ten minutes later they were in the Walters' master bedroom. The air conditioning there was much superior to that of the Finches. The walk over had cooled some of Becky's desire, though. This was no real answer to any of her problems.
"Tina-what if Gene did come home?"
"Stop worrying, will you? He's real busy today ... and isn't it a little more fun if a person takes a chance?"
"You're awful!" I must be getting used to the idea. Not one drink since Saturday night.
And not one kiss or touch from Rudy, either. All we do now is argue and fight.
Tina drew Becky toward the bed. The blinds were drawn to keep out as much heat as possible. The room lay in a soft yellow twilight.
Becky sighed and sank down on the edge of the bed. It was very resilient, the pink tufted counterpane a wide expanse of subtle invitation.
"We've never had enough time to really enjoy this, honey," Tina whispered, wiggling down beside Becky.
Becky didn't feel like analyzing it in words-the wrongness of what they were doing was still a hindrance. Talking only seemed to make it worse.
She looked down at the swell of Tina's breasts, at the plumpness of her thighs-her skirt was recklessly hiked back to her hips-and a fit of telltale trembling shook her. The memory of their other times came back with startling clarity.
She reached for the blonde. Their mouths met heatedly. This time Becky initiated the tongue-play as ripples of tingling passion eddied through her body. Tina softened, yielded. Becky felt her nipples sharpen inside her bra-cups. Touching Tina's silken thighs filled an aching need within her....
The kiss went on and on until Tina fell backward on the bed, gasping.
"Ohhh-honey! Undress me-quick! I'm burning up!"
Becky had never felt exactly as she did then. She was in a kind of reckless haze. The idea that she was to be the aggressor filled her with zestful excitement.
She pushed Tina's skirt back all the way. Her panties were almost nothing. Oddly some of the poses of the models in those photographs came to her mind, firing her passion.
With teasing deliberation she inched Tina's panties down, the vision of satiny allure making her shiver. Tina writhed with voluptuous abandon ... her thighs spread.
Becky caressed her the way she liked to be caressed.
A loud knocking on the Walters' front door, followed by the musical chiming of the doorbell, shattered Becky's mood.
"Ohhh-damn!" Tina gasped.
Becky retreated, swimming up out of her mist of desire. She backed away, watching the blonde struggle off the bed, pulling her undies back in place.
"Don't-go away," Tina breathed, straightening her frock.
Becky covered her face with her hands. She trembled, too aware of an evil attraction about the cuddly blonde. She stood uncertainly as Tina left the bedroom, while the knocking continued.
I won't stay here! Becky thought. She followed Tina, her knees wobbly.
The front door opened and she heard Rudy's voice.
"Is my wife over here?" he demanded, loudly.
"Yes," Becky answered, walking up behind Tina. The blonde gave her a wilting glance.
Becky could see Rudy now. He wore a summer straw hat, looking rather small for his head.
She knew it was over-this time. She had barely escaped.
"Come on home," Rudy said curtly, glaring at Becky. Then he looked at Tina and a strange expression came over his face. Becky could see that Tina's cheeks were flushed, that two buttons on her bodice hadn't been fastened ... Muscles in his jaw ridged, his mouth drew into a tight line.
He knows! Becky thought, her own half-awakened desire fading swiftly. She seemed to shrivel inside....
Moments later she entered their house by the back door, Rudy following. He slammed the screen hard. Then the door.
"What the hell goes with you and Tina?" he burst out.
"Just a friendly little visit between us girls, darling!" she answered. "You want me to be real modern, don't you?"
"That little bitch!" he stormed.
"You thought she was all right the other night!" Why deny it? He had already guessed....
"I ought to knock you down!" he shouted.
She faced him, her anger a dark ugly cloud in her brain. "This is it, Rudy! I'm leaving. At least, Tina has some understanding. You don't-not any more. You and that silly wig!"
He was rigid with fury. His face went chalky. "I heard something else today! I heard you were talking to that big-shot brother of mine!"
"Yes! I met him. We had soft drinks and talked. Is that so terrible?" She couldn't stop there. She had to say more. He had hurt her-how many times? "He's a real gentleman, too."
Rudy staggered, as though she had struck him. He shook his head. The straw hat made him look ridiculous. He seemed to shrink before her eyes. He turned away and strode into the living room. He seemed less a man than at any time in their life together.
Her nerves gave way. She dropped into a kitchen chair and tears flooded from her eyes. Too many emotional strains lately-too many cutting words that couldn't be taken back.
II he would only come in and say he was sorry-if he'd only be what he was before ... Maybe we could overcome all the badness....
She heard him return to the kitchen doorway.
"You know what a divorce will do to me," he said dully. "You know how the management feels about it...." He came nearer and her heart pounded. Was he really going to try to make up? Could she forget-enough?
She raised her head, glancing at him. The hat was gone. For a moment he looked like himself....
"Well, we can't go on like this," she said, her voice shaky. "All this switching, and...."
"And going over to see Tina," he finished, accusingly.
She jerked to her feet. "Yes, I've done some things I'm ashamed of. You hardly ever even touch me-unless you want something. I didn't care about your hair piece at first. But it's changed you-can't you see that? Why do we have to mix it up with our so-called friends? Is this your idea of success? Can't we live normally?"
He ran his hand over his spot of baldness.
"I don't know," he muttered, his eyes dropping.
Suddenly she felt sorry for him. She couldn't explain the emotion, except that he seemed to be partially unmanned. He swung away, returning to the living room. She stood up and followed. He dropped on the sofa, his shoulders slumped.
"I'll try to stay-one more time, Rudy...."
Leaving him would rock the town. She knew that. He might not get the store at Pasco....
"Thanks," he muttered.
No conciliatory kiss, no hug. They seemed to be strangers making some kind of necessary bargain. Nothing had been solved, really. A coldness crept through her body. She was very glad now the thing with Tina hadn't reached finality. She had been very upset, needing attention. Tina had caught her in a weak moment....
"But I didn't take your hair piece, Rudy."
"I know. I've got an idea that bitchy Irene came in here and stole it...." He looked up. "She tried to proposition you?"
Becky flushed. "I told her no."
"I'd like to wring her damned neck," he growled. "Came in the store and...." Again his hand went to his baldness.
She didn't feel like laughing at him now. The comedy of the situation was gone.
"I'll try to do better," he said, weakly.
The cold, empty sensation inside her remained. She wondered how long their truce would last. How could they surmount all that had happened, the ugly words, the hatreds?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Wednesday morning Becky received another manila envelope in the mail. It was addressed as the others had been with no return name in evidence. It, too, had been mailed in Pender.
Once in the house with the envelope open she found more lewd photographs-again mostly of girls in various lesbian poses.
Since Monday she had regained some of her composure but this put her immediately on edge again. Was that hateful Irene still hanging around town? Becky had had no more phone calls from the redhead.
Tuesday morning Tina had invited her over for coffee but Becky hadn't gone. She had pleaded a headache. Gene had another party planned for Saturday night-and of course the Finches were expected to attend. Hal and Janet would be there....
Rudy had been wearing a bandage on his head, claiming he had injured his scalp in a bathroom accident! He was ashamed to reveal his bald spot. He had ordered a new hair piece from the dealer in San Francisco by long distance telephone, but the toupee hadn't arrived.
She had noted a few changes in his behavior patterns. He now came home right after work, giving up his cocktail hour drinks with the boys. The loss of his precious hair piece had brought him down, all right-but she was afraid he would slip right back into the old groove again when he had puffed up his ego with a new patch....
They had gone nowhere, not even to a movie. At times he even acted like his old self, more concerned about his job, drinking hardly any at all. She had stopped her sneaky habit of nipping vodka in the middle of the day.
However they had not been intimate. He slept on his side of the bed, she on hers. She hadn't worn any of her sheer nighties. For the time being they seemed to be living in a vacuum, going through the motions of living together in the same house.
Now ... another upsetting sheaf of suggestive photographs!
She glanced through them quickly, her cheeks turning warm. Someone was bombarding her with lesbian propaganda, and the more she considered the situation, the more she began to suspect a certain person. Surely no man would be sending her such filth!
But how can I give the pictures such bad names when I'm guilty myself?
She stuffed the photos back in the envelope, aware that the viewing of them had begun to arouse her-and that was wrong, too! She had buried her emotions ever since Saturday; she had been hoping that Rudy would show some kind of healthy interest in her, but he hadn't. She had kept herself well dressed and dainty; she had busied herself about the house, doing extra cleaning and floor-polishing.
She had even gone to the library and taken out some books-but so far she hadn't read them. Occasionally she let herself think about Rudy's handsome brother, Zane. He was probably back in Spokane now, busy with the management of his various motel enterprises. She was sure that he had kept his word about going by Pasco and talking to some of the Crest Stores people about Rudy....
He knew influential people. He moved in moneyed circles. She was sorry now that she had thought of him in a base, physical way when she had panted out her lonely climax ... and the wrongness of it had been underlined by the fact that Rudy had caught her in the act!
Still, life had to go on. Divorcing Rudy would be a cruel blow he probably couldn't survive in his career.
Returning to the house after dumping the new photos in the garbage can she heard the phone ringing. Probably Tina again, with another invitation to have coffee or a drink, Becky thought.
She's very clever about it and I'm afraid I'll give in if I go over there alone. I want to be normal. Maybe Rudy will get over this funk he's in ... and we can be close again!
"Yes?" she said, into the receiver.
"Mrs. Rudy Finch?" The cold remoteness of the voice set her nerves on edge.
"Yes...."
"This is the chief of police. I hate to tell you this, Mrs. Finch...." The man cleared his throat, and Becky's heart seemed to contract until it hurt. She had a moment of dizziness. " ... but your husband is dead. I'm at the Manor Motel, number eleven, and we're holding an Irene Manning for murder."
"Oh-my God!" she gasped. The room tilted. She felt herself going down. She grabbed at a chair, and staggered. A bomb seemed to explode in her head....
* * *
Becky sat on the beach, alone. Labor Day had come and gone, she had driven from Spokane to Lake Ponderosa to escape the heat of the city and the four close walls of her apartment living room.
She drew her beach robe more tightly about her figure and watched a few children at play along the rim of the beach. A killdeer, unafraid of the small fry, bobbed at the water's edge, making its lonely kildee sound.
Over two weeks now since the tragedy. The publicity, the headlines, had been awful. Store Manager Shot in Motel Love-Nest....
But it hadn't really been like that, she knew. Rudy had gone there to get some kind of revenge. The redhead had goaded him into violence-she had admitted that much. She had a gun. She had threatened him with it and in the melee that followed Rudy had been shot through the neck. He had died almost instantly.
There would be a trial in November in District Court. Irene had been charged with second-degree murder. Her attorneys had delayed proceedings. Becky hated the thought of going back to Pender, but she knew she had to ... whenever her lawyer gave her a call. That would be nearly two months away, though. Maybe more....
The funeral in Spokane had been ghastly. Zane had been a pillar of strength, giving her the courage she needed to go through with it....
All over now ... she still felt empty and cold inside. She had had many long nights to remember all the things she had done in Pender; the disappointments, the frustrations.
She wondered again, as she had so many times, if she and Rudy could ever have regained their former trust and love for one another.
At least the calamity had done one thing-it had taken her away from the switchy debased crowd she and Rudy had fallen in with.
She had learned something else, too. A chance remark of Tina's over the phone had given the blonde away. She had sent those awful photos.
Her thoughts kept swinging away from the central ugliness-and she supposed that was a kind of natural defense the mind possessed so that people were able to bear up under extreme grief and tension.
Now she was sorry she had come over to Lake City and the expanse of water called Ponderosa-because she and Rudy in their early years had had fun here swimming and boating. They had been very much in love....
"A penny for your thoughts," a familiar voice said, and she jerked out of her well of remorse, a touch of gladness invading her loneliness....
"Zane!" she exclaimed.
He looked tall and lean and a bit tense and he hadn't come to swim. He wore slacks and an open-throated sport shirt.
"Mind if I sit down, Becky?"
"Of course not."
It was the first time she had seen him since the funeral. She noticed lines in his handsome face that hadn't been there before. Rudy's death had hit him hard. Despite Rudy's resentment of his brother Zane had cared a great deal. He had tried to help his younger brother and had received nothing but hatred in return.
Zane had called her apartment twice about business matters in connection with Rudy's insurance. Under the circumstances he had been quite friendly and sympathetic.
"You and Rudy used to come here together, didn't you?" he said, lighting a cigarette.
"Yes...."
"Don't hurt yourself any more, Becky."
She bit her lips. She traced her fingers through the warm sand. "We got along well at first, Zane. Things started going bad in Pender...."
I can talk about it to Zane, she thought, her spirits lifting.
"I knew something was wrong the day I talked to you," he said, quietly. "But I didn't think it would end the way it did."
She remembered, much too vividly, what had triggered Irene's fury. I wouldn't go to her motel! Then she snatched Rudy's wig, and he struck back....
Her throat tightened. She had to tell someone....
"I might have started it all," she began. And then she rushed on, explaining as much as she could, hating the part she had played.
A look of intense concern passed over his lean face. "Becky-you did a natural thing, refusing a bitch like that. How could you know she'd try to get even-at Rudy?"
His words were wonderful to hear. The lump in her throat melted.
"Zane, you're very generous-and understanding."
He smiled. "You know, I followed you here with the idea of cheering you up. It's over, Becky. You're a wonderful girl. Would you consider letting me take you out to dinner?"
"Why not?"
She found herself answering his smile and realized with a little lurch of her heart that this was the first time she had actually relaxed since that awful day of the phone call from the chief of police....
As she changed from her swim suit into her undies and frock, in the ladies' dressing room near the beach, knowing he was waiting for her outside, she let her thoughts move along bright new channels....
Surely he did care a little. He had come all the way here from Spokane. He had looked around for her and found her.
She had spent enough time dwelling on the past. The sun was shining and a very handsome man was going to be nice to her. A very special man....
When she left the dressing room, seeing him at the concrete rail that overlooked the beach, silhouetted against the far green forest across the lake, seeing the wind riffle his dark wavy hair, her heart thumped swiftly.
I lost Rudy here, really, she thought. The last time we came and he wore his hair piece, he seemed different, more impressed with his looks, a little remote, self-centered ... He wouldn't even go in the water for fear of spoiling his appearance.
Of course a wig hadn't made that much change in his basic personality-but it had led him into strange byways....
Zane's smile warmed her, all over!
"It's over, Becky," he had said. And he was right.
He was taking her at face value, though. He couldn't know what she had done in Pender, the wild parties, the stimulative displays, going to bed with other men, letting Tina fondle her....
Could she ever feel true, strong emotion for another man? Was she tainted?
She walked quickly toward Zane, noting the way his gray eyes surveyed her, warmly, admiringly. She did need somebody strong and comforting.
"You don't know how glad I am you found me, Zane." She smiled impulsively.
"Becky, I've been lonely for a long, long time."
His hand caught hers, and a sweet thrill shot up her arm, circling around her heart. Slowly they walked away from the beach, their hands clasped tightly....
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A week later Becky felt much better-about everything.
There would be no trial, at least for a long time. Irene Manning had had a nervous breakdown. She was in a sanitarium in Portland. Becky's attorney had come by her apartment to tell her there was evidence of drug addiction in Irene's past....
Experiencing a freedom she hadn't known for many long weeks Becky had found a job in an insurance company office and had taken a new apartment closer to her work.
Best of all, Zane continued to court her. She couldn't have wished for anyone more attentive and thoughtful.
Today was Saturday and he had asked to take her out. She had gladly consented. He would be at her apartment in just one hour.
Since her return to Spokane she had bought new clothes and as Zane had hinted that they might go dancing she selected a simple dark blue party frock that a clerk had told her flattered her slender leggy figure. As a matter-of-fact the same salesperson had told Becky she ought to apply for part-time work in the store as a model.
She hadn't made a decision about that. She didn't need the money. The mere idea of modeling reminded her of Hal and Pender and she wanted to forget that whole sequence. She knew, of course, that it would take time, that her subconscious would keep reminding her of the past.
She had been able to sleep better, though. Keeping busy had helped. When she was tired she didn't dream as much.
Now, tonight, she and Zane were going out on their first real date. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror doing her mouth, she had trouble keeping her hand steady. She had been in a kind of emotional deepfreeze and she realized that she needed male company. She was still young and attractive. She had been in mourning long enough.
Yet nagging doubts lingered in her mind.
Sooner or later Zane would want to possess her-it was in his eyes, in the tone of his voice. And she wanted so very much to be able to respond, to let herself go completely, when the time came.
He expects a real woman. He deserves one. He could almost have his pick of girls around town. But am I really the one? I wandered down a side-road, into lesbianism.
Had she been unduly influenced by Tina and those awful photos? Was the streak still latent within her? Would she have trouble as with Rudy on so many occasions?
She was encouraged by the memory of the earlier days with Rudy, BTH. She had been truly in love and she had known real wonder and enchantment in his arms....
Although she admired other attractive girls she felt she had no desire to go to bed with any of them.
And what about her infidelity-with Gene and Hal? Would this rise up and swamp her at the crucial moment of surrender?
Many single girls had affairs, she knew that. They usually married, sooner or later, and generally lived normal happy lives.
She had thrown out the suggestion that she had been a party wife because Rudy had wanted her to or that she had been drunk. She could have resisted, put her foot down. Had she been so starved for love that she had gone along a bit too willingly?
I'm not perfect-and I'm sure Zane isn't either. He's been in bed with other women. But I wouldn't want a man who hadn't!
Her lips finished, she rechecked her image again. Her hair shone, her eyes, although a trifle shadowed, seemed brighter. The bodice of the dress shaped her breasts forward quite adequately. She had regained the pounds lost during the worst of her nightmarish experience. Her waist still was slim, her legs shapely....
Now, if I can relax and keep on feeling as feminine as I do now, maybe Zane will want me-tonight....
She trembled, remembering her fantasy of him, the feverish joy she had experienced with his image in her mind. She felt a stirring of dormant desire. Whole weeks had passed since she had known any kind of emotional uplift, because the shock of Rudy's murder had left her numb.
Was it wrong to dream of Zane again? Hardly. She and Rudy had reached an impasse. Only her wifely obligation to him as a career man in the Crest chain had kept her in the same house ... along with a vague hope that somehow they could find togetherness again. She realized now that her love had died. Whether it could ever have been rekindled she would never know.
She tried not to think harshly of Tina. Unable to have children of her own, Tina spent her time seeking pleasure. Even in that she had not entirely succeeded. Sending out suggestive photos had evidently been a desperation attempt to woo Becky further into a morass of unnatural relations....
I can't tell Zane about that, she thought. I just hope what I did won't keep me from being totally all-girl when Zane wants me. And he does ... I can tell.
She left the bathroom quickly, realizing she might be assuming too much. At least she knew she could act naturally. He was so easy to talk to. He was a true gentleman in the finest sense of the word.
I don't deserve a man like that, I really don't, she thought. But I'm not going to fight him off....
* * *
"How do you like it here, Becky?"
"It's wonderful," she answered, smiling.
He had driven out on the eastern rim of the city to a long low night club called the Log Cabin. The appointments were rustic but the music was very modern, supplied by an electric organ, drums and clarinet. They had dined earlier downtown and Becky's nervousness was leaving.
A drink before and after dinner had helped her frame of mind. Zane's nearness already was filling the void of her recent loneliness. It was good to be out of the apartment at last. The long evenings alone, when she had had too much time to think, had eroded her self-confidence.
Tonight I feel like living!
They sat in a booth near the dance floor, which was conveniently shadowy and tempting. The first highball had barely arrived when he asked her to dance.
Other couples were already on the floor and she didn't feel conspicuous. His arm about her waist seemed manfully possessive and comforting. This was their first dance together.
She squeezed her fingers in his and nestled tremblingly closer in his embrace.
"Damn, you're lovely!" he breathed in her ear.
"I'm glad you think so Zane."
She didn't feel she was being too bold. She had gained something from experience. A man liked to know where he stood. She was twenty-five and a widow. No need to be little-girlish and naive. She didn't want to put on any kind of an act for his benefit.
"Am I rushing things, Becky?" he said, his arm tightening. "Is it too soon after all that happened?"
"No. I've been lonely-and afraid...."
"I know. You've been hurt."
His strength communicated to her warmly. The tremulous responses within her, hinted at before his arrival at the apartment, grew and expanded throughout her being.
She remembered vividly the first time she had seen him and her telltale reactions then were as nothing compared to now. She began to tingle all over. She was lightheaded with mounting admiration. She had dared to hope something like this would happen-and it was happening....
But this emotion was so different from anything she had known since those first months with Rudy-she didn't have to tell herself that she cared for Zane. She knew it! Pressing herself even closer was the most natural thing in the world. I seem to belong here, in his arms!
"Becky, I'm crazy about you," he whispered, dancing her into the darkest section of the floor. "That day there in Pender, when we first got acquainted, I thought Rudy was the luckiest man alive. I had to tell you. I feel even more so-now."
A tide of reawakening need possessed her. The quick urgency almost took her breath away. Her breasts swelled inside her bra and her thighs began to burn with a fierce fire.
It was as though a dam had broken within her-releasing all her pent-up need to be held and loved and comforted. It was more than mere physical attraction. She had known that at the switching parties. She had become used to shallow expressions of her basic urges.
She had even flung herself at Rudy, trying to recapture something they had known before, and she had begun to think that this was the lot of a girl who had been married a while and who had to put up with a changing sense of values. If she couldn't have a whole cake, she at least had tasted a few sweet slices....
She had loved truly once before-and had been deeply cut by Rudy's altered attitudes, his flashy manners, his obsession to succeed at any cost, even to letting his wife "please" a few neighbors and friends....
She knew now she could love truly and sincerely again-if only her past, her memories, wouldn't rise up to haunt her and destroy this most profound of human emotions.
"Oh, Zane!" she cried softly. "Help me wipe away all the badness...."
He clasped her gently, yet with intensity. They stopped dancing. His lips burned a pathway along her cheek and she opened her mouth for his even before he reached it. She felt him quake as his mouth claimed hers and could not check the answering tremor that shook her from her heels to the top of her head.
Her whole being ached for him ... she had never been so overcome with love in all her life!
Tempestuous excitement, head whirling and fizzy with promise, seized her. A fierce tide of longing gripped her. His tongue was a wand, testing her need and finding it burning brightly.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave generously of her mouth, her own tongue now sliding out to meet his searing drives, sparking new thrills....
His lips lifted, at last. She was weak-kneed with the wonder of her sensual intoxication.
"I need you, darling," he whispered.
"Ohhh-I need you, too."
His arms loosened and he smiled. "The music stopped. People are staring at us...."
"I don't care."
He laughed, guiding her back to their table. She heard chuckles of appreciation from other patrons. She didn't mind them at all. She was proud of Zane. He could kiss her right out in the middle of any street at high noon if he wanted to.
She felt suffused with love.
They finished their drinks and she couldn't keep her eyes off him. She hung onto his arm when they went to the check booth to get her coat.
The girl attendant smiled at Becky and winked. "I don't blame you one bit, honey."
Zane gave her a large tip.
They went out into the crisp night air, smelling of the fall season, now. She kept her hands on his arm and she walked so close to him their hips touched. Cars whipped by on the freeway.
He opened his car door for her and held her tight for a long wonderful moment. He breathed into her hair.
"My place, darling?" he murmured.
"Yes, Zane. Yes!"
CHAPTER TWENTY
His apartment wasn't as large as she expected, but it contained fine furnishings. It was a model of more motel apartments he expected to build in the near future. Everything was new and extremely modern, but she didn't pause to examine it closely. She was too exhilarated, too happy.
As soon as he had the door closed and her coat off, he took her snugly again in his arms. She tilted her head back and waited for his kiss, her heart thumping wildly, still rather dizzy from their first one, out on the dance floor!
"You're a lovely, wonderful creature!" he whispered, nipping her swollen lower lip gently, his hands becoming bolder.
She remembered things she had to say and a bit of the glory trickled away. He assumed she was a true-blue young widow who had lived an upright life with his brother. She couldn't bear the thought of sailing up here under false colors. She had asked him to wipe away the badness and he believed she meant the strain of all she'd been through before and after the funeral....
"Zane, I have to tell you something!"
"Not now, darling," he breathed, into her eager lips.
"But-I did some bad things-there in Pender," she said, her voice choked with emotion.
"I'm afraid I did, too, Becky...."
His hand came up to cradle her breasts and she shivered, feeling her nipples spire inside her bra. Flurries of quickening desire made her gasp. It was so difficult to talk!
"How could you have done anything?" she asked.
"I ran into this Irene," he said, dully. His hand dropped. There was agony in his voice as he continued. "I realized she was unstable ... I didn't leave Pender the day I saw you there, in the soda fountain. I really wanted to see you again-but I knew I shouldn't because of the way Rudy felt....
"Irene talked about getting even with somebody, and then I saw this hair piece in her handbag and I knew she hated someone for some reason ... It didn't jell in my mind then. I passed over it-and when I heard what happened later, I knew I might have been able to stop it."
She was stunned. Her mind worked swiftly. "No, Zane! No! How could you have known? How could you dream she would go up to his office and grab his wig-and make him that furious?"
He shook his head. "I keep thinking about it, Becky. I was disgusted with her and left town the next day ... Why didn't I stay?"
She understood now one reason for the haunted look in his eyes at the funeral and later, and her heart went out to him. I really started the whole thing when I wouldn't go to Irene's motel.
She had told Zane about that, there on the beach at Lake City. But he hadn't mentioned the fact then that he had known Irene before the tragedy-and she could understand his reluctance. He had found her to cheer her up, to take her mind away from the recent upsetting experience. He had been carrying this around with him, letting it gnaw on him....
He needs help and assurance, too!
"Zane!" she cried. "Don't torture yourself. Rudy was-unstable, too. He told me he'd like to wring her neck. I didn't think he'd go out there to her motel-and ... She's an evil, corrupt woman-she had a breakdown...."
Becky ran her hands across Zane's rigid face. "Darling, you told me once it's all over. We can't go back and change it. Well, it's over. Before I even knew you I went along with Rudy to some wild parties. I'm ashamed of what I did...."
"Damn!" he breathed, taking her hands, placing them on his shoulders. "Don't say any more! You're here, with me-we'll have to forget, not keep bringing it up."
"Yes."
He guided her to the sofa. She sank down gratefully, reaching out to him as he angled down beside her.
In spite of all the old wounds they had opened, she felt closer to him than ever before. She pressed herself nearer, and when his mouth came down on hers, hard and sure, she softened, letting her lips flower open, keenly aware of the intensity of his need. The heat and passion of their first kiss returned with tingling sharpness.
We're both human-we both erred, she thought. And he loves me. We can lick all the badness-I know we can!
His tongue seemed to be drawing away her fears and uncertainties. Each stroke into her lips and mouth lifted her confidence, soothed her emotions like a healing elixir. They had so much to share....
I have to be sure I'm really not a girl's girl, that I belong to Zane.
His hands again found the eager points of her breasts, and tremors of mounting delight possessed her whole body. There was a rich depth in her responses that filled her with hope. She wanted to please him, to give and give and give.
She lanced her fingers through his dark, wavy hair, and caressed the nape of his neck. She wound her tongue-tip about his while little flutters of joy spread from her mouth and her breasts down to her thighs, already warming, already opening....
The kiss ended finally and his whispered words of love and adoration made her giddy. Her long weeks of being in an emotional vacuum, of being alone and untouched, made her pleasure all the keener.
"Oh, I need you so much, darling!" she gasped.
His hands trembled. He kissed her throat, his breathing uneven.
"You're adorable," he murmured.
She didn't care when he found the zipper at the back and ran it down. She even helped him slip the whole top of her gown from her shoulders. Her little pink bra of sheer nylon drew his hand. She could see the dark red peaks of her nipples, furiously spiked, riding high on their swollen aureolae-and wave after wave of intoxicating thrills began as he toyed with them, gently bringing them out even further.
When he loosened her bra at last, she gave a little cry of joy. Her mounds had never been so sensitive, so firmly peaked. Achy nuances of pure delight raced from one nipple to the other. She squirmed, her short skirt-hem riding back along her thighs nearly to the tops of her sheer, smoky nylons.
His lips wandered lower while his hand now swept to the lure of her opening thighs. His fingers, exploring gently, seemed to burn against her flesh. Nylons passed, now-onto the silky areas above ... further, still further, along the tender inner planes while tiny tremors of breath-taking intensity made her swing her breasts forward inviting his lips.
He moaned, kissing the vale between her rigid mounds, then working gently outward, until she could hardly bear the suspense. At last his lips enclosed a throbbing nipple and at the same instant his hand reached her panties, shaping the mound of her desire....
"Ohh-darling!" she breathed.
Dreaming of his hands on her was nothing compared to the sweet vivid reality. She was shaken to the roots of her being. She spread her legs, swimming in a thrall of pure enchantment.
She wasn't ashamed that she was already wet with the effusion of her love-flow. It was mute testimony to the fierceness of her need. But she had never been so swiftly aroused, so thoroughly aware of her feminine hungers, in all her life!
I wanted Zane the moment I laid eyes on him, but I was too naive or too dumb to realize it. We were made for each other....
She knew now why she hadn't been able to function with Hal-her subconscious had been involved with another man. After meeting Zane there had been a wonderful change in her and she hadn't realized the reason until now.
Then, when she had reached home and Rudy had gone to sleep, she had let her emotions go, and in spite of the wrongness of it she had squirmed out her lust with a picture of Zane in her mind's eye. Her pantings and strivings had even awakened her husband....
I'm glad I did it, now. I'm glad I resisted Tina's last advances....
Suddenly she was being lifted and carried. His strength was breath-taking! She closed her eyes, momentarily, lost in a floaty haze of anticipation.
When they entered another room her eyes popped open. A light went on. He swung her down on a wide soft bed. A delicious languor possessed her. She stretched and flexed her long legs, not caring a whit that her skirt was clear to her hips, her breasts bared for his delectation.
His hands passed along her body, and she helped him remove her dress, then her slip, her wispy pink panties ... The soft glow from a single lamp slanted across the counterpane, limning her figure, the tapered length of her thighs, the upward jut of her rose-tipped breasts....
"Beautiful!" he cried, standing beside the bed, staring down at her, his eyes seeming to drink in the sculptured planes of her body-and she was entirely unashamed of her nakedness. This was a new freedom for her. True, with several drinks under her belt she had paraded around at Gene and Tina's house, but here, now, there was no onus of playing a role. She wasn't acting out the part of a party wife. She gloried in his inspection of her charms. She wanted him to see every inch of her body.
He removed his jacket, then his sport shirt. He was wonderfully tanned. His belly was flat, his waist trim. She had never been so eager to see any man nude, including her former husband....
Forget Rudy, now!
His trousers dropped. Swiftly he took off his shoes and socks. She saw the mark of his maleness, as his shorts came away, and a spasm of delirious yearning made her tremble. He was truly all man as she had sensed that he would be.
He didn't hide himself. He was proud of his proportions, of his physique, and she could hardly blame him. But he didn't strut either. Always before there had been a kind of shame about looking at naked male loins. No more! Not with Zane....
He moved forward lithely, sinking down on the bed at her side. Her throat was so tight she knew she couldn't say a word. None were necessary. She was shiveringly ready for his advances. She felt that with him she could be completely and wonderfully abandoned. Wasn't a good wife supposed to be a harlot in the bedroom?
She turned toward him eagerly. They kissed and her lips were afire, clinging, spreading sensually under his pressure. His hand on her naked breasts, her nipple in his palm, created a sweet burning. Her heart was a drum and with each beat ripples of delight curled through her being....
The drum vibrated more swiftly. Now his hand sought new areas of responsiveness along her waist, down the curve of her hips, along her thighs, circling about until she opened wide for the final caress of more intimate places.
They came. She moaned out her pleasure as he found the bower of her need, the soft curve of her femininity, the super-sensitive swollen tip, love-wet, distended for their mutual enjoyment....
The drumbeats quickened. She urged him with her hands. She reached down and clasped him, tremulous with wonder. Her throat turned dry. Her breasts heaved.
Now ...!
He swung above her. She had never wanted it so keenly. Whatever doubts she had entertained about her complete femininity were cast to the winds. She was dying for him. She could hardly wait.
Ohhhh-now ...!
The heated touch of her slender thighs against his lean strong body sent her senses reeling. But the next contact, simultaneous with the capture of a nipple in his lips, hurled her into a new realm of erotic sensation.
The voluptuous flex and give of her tender labia as she strained and spread to receive him, made the drum-beats come swiftly! Shivery nuances of rapture, accompanying the sure drive of his maleness into the slick snug depths of her love-cove, were something so totally new she cried out with joy!
Each pound of the drum sent her confidence soaring.
She had read about involuntary little intimate-sweet claspings that a real woman experienced in the arms of a capable lover. She had believed herself incapable of such passion, that it was something a woman doctor had dreamed up to sell copies of her book....
But, how wrong I teas! Oh, oh, oh ...!
She hadn't dreamed she could become so quiveringly alive within. She hadn't dreamed that each little tightening about him could bring such rapture!
Their honeyed writhings became even sweeter. He was filling her with his maleness, reaching now a deeper, even more vibrantly sensitive area-far, far, far....
Oh-oh-oh ... Oh-Oh-OHHHHHHH!
She reached a pinnacle of sensation she had never known before. A last tremulous hanging before the plunge and then, suddenly, all of her cares and worries and heartaches exploded in a torrent of release.
The drum-beats sounded through her wildly, fiercely. Throb after quick swift throb, like sensuous darts, like honeyed barbs, like the pound of the surf, like fire being drawn from her spine, like needles in her thighs, burst within her.
The sweet wrenchings of her pelvic area as his drives continued lofted her into a rosy haze. She sailed and floated, the sigh of the bed so far away she might have been in another room....
Then another pound, pound, pound began, even more tempestuous than the last! A frenzied heaving heavenly tingling brought her back to earth. Then she was going again!
He was holding above her so she could do the last little bounces.
With gusty recklessness she responded-reaching, weaving, swinging-pausing, then reaching, giving, straining, panting, rising, rising-until she felt the swelling of his maleness, the moan of his pleasure-and with the quick hard beats of the climax that followed she sank into a well of complete and total womanhood....
* * *
"Oh, darling," she said, at last. "I didn't know-I didn't dream love-could be like this!" He kissed her throat, still above her, still possessing her, but now relaxed, his sighs of gratitude telling her only too clearly that she had pleased him!
"With us it will be even better, darling," he murmured.
We did lick it, she thought. I could spit on Tina right now. No-I feel sorry for her. If she's never known a heaven like this, I truly hope that someday she does. What we shared was shallow and wrong and empty....
She wound her thighs about Zane, so happy to have his broad chest on her yielding breasts, so grateful that he was still big and firm within her, that tears came into her eyes.
The ugly past was done. And she knew that with Zane at her side she could look the future in the eye, unafraid. Her tensions were gone, at last. She was vibrantly and wholly feminine-and she would never doubt that again!
