Sin was not absent, but merely lying in wait when the three couples took their vacations together at the lonely mountain retreat. The steps were small that led from topless bathing suits to nude swimming to ... But the overall distance traveled by the couples was not small. It was so great as to defy any thought of return from degradation. The vacation was almost over when Daisy Crowell, Abel's voluptuous wife, found that her husband was no longer enough, and before the startled eyes of everyone she proved this with Ben and Chuck, drunk with whiskey and lust. Daisy could be satisfied with nothing less than multiple shames. Morton M. Hunt, author of Her Infinite Variety, wrote in his book; "In our society, adultery does not coexist with marriage but combats it; the affair rarely achieves balance and equilibrium, but nearly always is a cause of change and upheaval which ends in its own termination or in remarriage...." This was the lesson the licentious couple had to learn ... but for some it was much too late....
CHAPTER ONE
The evening started innocently enough. They all took off their clothes and made love. They often did.
Separately of course. Not in a group. They were all good friends, but not that good.
Able Crowell took off his only clothing, slacks and shirt, and stretched out on the bed to wait for his wife Daisy to come out of the attached bathroom. He was already getting aroused by the thought of what they'd probably do. Even after several years of marriage, the thought of making love to Daisy still never failed to stir him up and put him in the mood.
The evening was young. As usual, they'd had an early supper together and after putting the dishes into the washer, Edna Graham had given Chuck a sly look and said that she thought she'd lie down for a while and let her digestion work. Able and Daisy had decided to do the same thing. Fern Lancing had broken the customary pattern by saying that she felt like taking a walk and asking her husband Ben to accompany her During the last couple of weeks the three pairs had fallen into a habit of separating for a time after the evening meal.
A good custom, Able thought as he lay on the bed waiting They seldom made any direct references to what they did during these separations, but everybody had pretty much gotten the same idea. Able listened to see if he could hear Chuck and Edna, but the walls of this so-called cabin, which their boss had lent them, were virtually soundproof. He wondered if Chuck and Edna were making love yet, and he couldn't help visualizing them locked together in a naked embrace.
Daisy came out of the bathroom, and he no longer had any need for visions. She was a vision in herself, five feet six of the most voluptuous curves he'd ever seen, firm of breast and haunch, with an expanse of flat soft-surfaced stomach that was made for love. Though she had a small area of white about her hips and bottom, and her breasts were only lightly tanned, most of her body had become as brown as her hair. She stopped by the dressing table, picked up a brush, and gave her hair a few strokes while he watched the slight swaying of her round, brown buttocks with their narrow lines of white.
"Come on," he said. "Lie down. Relax."
She put down the brush and, smiling slightly, turned toward him. At twenty-eight, just four years younger than he, she was fully matured, her tan breasts high and wide and full, so well supported that she really had no need of a bra. And for the last couple of weeks she'd practically given bras up, as had Edna and Fern.
She climbed onto the bed beside him and sat there on one hip, propped up on one arm. The hang of her full breasts appealed to him and he reached up to finger one nipple. At once his excitement became complete.
She looked down at him, her smile widening slightly. Then she reached out and ran finger tips over his taut tender skin.
"Don't you ever get enough?" she asked.
"Of you? How could I?"
"You've given me more in the last couple of weeks than for months before."
"Well, this is sort of like a second honeymoon, isn't it?"
"Sort of."
Sort of-but not quite. This time they had to coordinate what they did with two other couples. On their honeymoon they'd been completely alone and they'd spent most of their time in their room, naked. They'd made love just as often as he was capable, which was quite often.
He pulled her down to him and kissed her, and they continued agitating each other as before. Then she shifted slightly and brought a nipple to his lips.
He released her other nipple and his finger tips stroked the underside of the orb, then drifted down her brown body to her legs.
"I wonder if the others enjoy doing this as much as we do," he said a little breathlessly.
"Why not?"
Something in her voice surprised him. "You're not bored, are you?"
"No, of course not. I'll admit it'll be kind of nice to get back to civilization, but I've enjoyed having nothing to do but swim, lie in the sun, and make love."
Reassured, he laughed. "And you think the others feel the same way?"
"I imagine so."
She settled down farther on her side, her head on one hand as she faced him, her eyes closed. She shifted her feet so that he could pet her more skillfully.
"What do you think the others are doing right now?" he asked, though the answer was pretty obvious.
She opened her eyes for an instant and closed them again. "Don't you know?"
"Do you think that Fern is playing with Ben the way you're playing with me? And that Chuck is petting Edna the way I'm petting you?"
Daisy sighed as if the subject didn't interest her much. "Why?" she asked. "Does the idea excite you?"
"No, I just think it's kind of nice, people enjoying themselves, having partners to undress with, pet, and make love."
"Have you ever wanted to make love to Fern or to Edna?"
Again she had surprised him. "No, of course not!"
She smiled at his discomfiture and her fingers tightened on him, making him ache with heightened desire.
"Oh, come on, now. You know what we girls always say: it's not when our husbands look that worries us, it's when they stop looking. And I guess Edna and Fern and I have given you plenty to look at lately. Don't tell me you haven't had at least a few thoughts about what a session with Edna or Fern would be like."
"I can't say I've pondered the question."
"I didn't say you'd pondered it. Just a random thought now and then."
"I've thought only of you," he said, giving her a little kiss. He wasn't being quite truthful. He had had a random thought about Edna and Fern from time to time. He told himself he wouldn't have been normal if he hadn't. But he wasn't going to admit the fact to Daisy.
"What about you?" he asked as he moved his fingers, making Daisy pant. "Have you had a random thought about Ben or Chuck?"
"Unfortunately, neither of them is my type."
He laughed. "Unfortunately, did you say?"
"I could never do this...."
Suddenly she sat up. She shifted on the bed and leaned over him, her brown hair flowing softly against him. Then her tongue fluttered and his desire soared as thrills ran through him...." with Ben or Chuck, for instance," she went on as she raised her head.
Then they were kissing, their tongues dashing together, and he rolled her onto her back. Breathing hard, she spread out, feet and hands flung wide. He rose slightly on his hands and knees, trying to find her.
He succeeded.
He moved until they were completely together. She dosed her eyes and smiled and purred.
"Oh, baby, baby," he murmured as he continued wkh loving thrusts.
Edna Graham lay on her side on the bed. She sighed with pleasure as she felt Chuck's fingers traveling lightly about her naked buttocks and legs She was facing his middle as he was facing hers, and she played with him, returning his caresses and kissing and nibbling at him from time to time. He'd been excited and taut for quite some time, and she had no difficulty in keeping him that way.
She loved doing this with Chuck. Twice, before she'd met Chuck, she'd made love with other men, and both experiences had proved to be a let-down. With Chuck, she had never been let down.
She was twenty-seven years old, two years younger than he. She was a blonde; she'd often been told that she was built for just one thing, and her svelte curves were a creamy tan, much lighter than Daisy's tan. If her full breasts weren't quite as seductively molded as Daisy's or, some might say, Fern's, she comforted herself that she had more than either of them and her nipples were much pinker.
She felt Chuck's fingers grip her buttocks and his tongue flutter against her sensitive flesh. She whimpered with delight. Then she kissed as much of him as she could.
"Oh, honey," he said, his voice shaking, "careful! You nearly finished me that time!"
"Want me to?"
"I want whatever you want."
She let him rest for a minute as she considered the possibilities. They seldom used the same position twice in a row. This morning she'd knelt over his lap facing his feet. Last night she'd straddled him while he sat in a chair. Earlier yesterday evening they'd performed standing up in front of the dressing table mirror. And yesterday morning they'd made love in the usual position on the stairs to the second floor while the others were out swimming.
She gave him a final caress, then drew away from him to get up on her knees, her head and shoulders still down on the bed.
She didn't have to tell him what to do. She closed her eyes and felt the mattress sag as he moved about on it to get into position.
His knees touched her legs. His hands took her buttocks and his thumbs pulled at her.
"Take me, take me," she whispered.
With careful movements he pressed forward until his thighs were hard against hers and her buttock flattened.
Then she felt his right hand sliding around her hip and over her stomach to touch her where she was most sensitive. His left hand went around her rib cage to cup a breast and draw at the nipple. She groaned and tightened her muscles. Then he was leaving her. And coming back. So good. So wonderful.
She seemed to be ballooning, enlarging, growing tauter, tenser.
She waved her hips but he stayed with her and kept on.
"Oh, lord!" She hardly knew that she'd cried out. She only knew that everything was falling apart, spinning through darkness, and she was there and Chuck was striking madly and twisting her nipple and letting go of everything, giving everything to her.
She slipped away from him, sank to the bed, and rolled over to look at him, still kneeling there, his excitement almost gone. She sighed from the strange burning contentment of the afterglow, and he flopped forward; they rolled into each other's arms.
"Okay?" he asked.
"Glorious."
"Nobody does that as well as we do." She laughed. "How would you know? Been cheating on me?"
"Oh, not very often."
She rubbed noses with him and patted him about the legs. "You'd better not."
They kissed, long and lingeringly.
"But what if I did cheat," he said. "Would you really be mad?"
"What do you think?"
She wasn't really worried that he might do something like that. She had Chuck well in hand, and she meant to keep him there. He was a young man on the way up and she knew what a catch she'd landed. If she had anything to say about it, Chuck was going to be the next manager of the engineering division of Tri-Compass, Inc. Chuck-not Able and not Ben. And after the managership, who knew what would come next? A vice-presidency?
"But suppose that the cheating didn't really mean anything?" Chuck persisted. "Suppose it was just one of those spur-of-the-minute affairs, no love, no sentiment, just fun and games and glands."
She rose up on an elbow. "Hey, are you trying to tell me that you have cheated on me?"
"Of course not," he laughed, "and I don't plan to. I just wondered if something that couldn't possibly mean anything to me could mean something to you."
She considered for a moment.
"I suppose it would mean something to me," she said slowly, "because making love is a symbolic kind of thing and I'd be the one left out" She shook her head and laughed. "Sorry! Permission not granted!"
"Who wants permission?" he asked, and he kissed her and caressed her breast.
"I can think of just one situation when I might not mind your making love to another woman," she said after a minute.
"When would that be?"
"I wouldn't mind if you let me watch."
He laughed. "If I let you watch!"
"Sure. I've sometimes wondered what it would be like to watch two other people doing it. And if I were right there, watching, I could be pretty sure that it was all in fun "
"Are you serious?"
"Certainly," she said gaily. "Wasn't your question serious? A serious question deserves a serious answer."
"You actually wouldn't mind if I did, as long as you could watch?"
"Why should I? I've talked about doing that with several girls at different times, and as far as I remember they all said they wouldn't mind their husbands or boy friends taking on another woman as long as they could watch. I suppose that most women feel the same way."
"Fern and Daisy?"
"Don't know. Never asked them."
He stared at her for a moment, then smiled.
"You're crazy," he said softly, and they kissed.
I'm smart enough to marry you, she thought. Smart enough to marry an engineering genius ... who loves me ... who'll leave older men like Able Crowell and Ben Lancing jar behind ... who'll be, at the very least, vice-president of Tri-Compass one day....
Still embracing, they sank into a light sleep....
Fern Lancing led the way through the woods, going slowly from one clearing to another. She kept Ben close to her, his right arm around her back and under her elbow so that she could hold his palm against her right breast. His fingers moved against the cloth from time to time, giving her a warm achy feeling and making her nipple swell.
She was a small girl, making Ben look even larger than he was, and he was already taller and broader and huskier than either Able or Chuck. When they made love, she was sometimes almost fearful that he'd crush her, though he was always gentle. Not too gentle, she thought with satisfaction, but gentle enough.
The hand drew at her breast and she smiled to herself. She had something in mind. Something that should be nice. Very, very nice, she thought with a warm glow of anticipation.
She was not only small but thin, almost fragile looking. But her tight black short-shorts revealed a well-rounded little behind that sometimes had a lustful wag, and the front of the thin red cotton blouse, tied between her breasts, was pulled taut by the high round globes. Hers weren't as big as Daisy's or Edna's but they stood out from her chest, perfectly rounded mounds. She was as thoroughly tanned as the other two women, her only white skin being around her loins and buttocks, but in her case the tan was more of a copper color, almost bronze. And that suited her because her long hair had been sun-bleached to various hues of copper which glinted metalically in the light of late day.
Once, as they walked, she stopped and turned to him.
"Kiss me," she whispered.
Then she pressed her whole length up against him, rubbing Mm slightly with the tender, sensitive parts of her body. She brought a leg up between his and pressed gently, loving the feel of him. His shirt was open and she moved a hand over his bare stomach and chest, enjoying his firmness, his strength. They kissed and his hands moved over her back.
She felt his strength growing.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, his voice revealing the beginning of strain.
She smiled.
Then they walked on, just as before, except that she unfastened the front of her blouse and brought his hand to her naked breast. She seemed to be floating on clouds of sensual enjoyment.
She thought herself the luckiest girl in the world to be married to Ben Lancing. He was fourteen years older than she and had been a confirmed bachelor when they'd met two-and-a-half years ago. They'd met quite by accident when he'd come to the state university campus where she was a senior. She'd gone for him at once, but he'd been afraid that they wouldn't work out because of the age differential. He'd visited the campus to recruit engineers for Tri-Compass and she set about the task of recruiting him. She'd had little experience in the ways of love; she'd been a virgin and hadn't even done much heavy petting, but she'd had little difficulty in seducing him. He'd married her, and she knew that he was glad that he had; she intended to keep it that way. She thought that she was pretty realistic about men, especially men who'd grown used to their freedom. Therefore she intended to be understanding, loving, and undemanding and not require of him more than he could give.
But of one thing, she was happy to discover, he could give plenty.
And she wanted some of that right now.
She found a nice clearing well out of sight of the house and there she stopped. She looked at him and smiled. Like her, he was wearing shorts with nothing under them and if she hadn't known before that she had a virile man, she did now.
She stepped up to him, spreading his shirt farther open, and gently moved her beautifully molded breasts against his brown chest. She ran her right hand between their shorts. He smiled and kissed her.
"Right out here?" he asked. "In the open?"
"I've been wanting to. In the open."
"You're lucky you enjoy loving. Since you don't go much for fishing, you wouldn't have had much fun these last two weeks. Sure you haven't gotten bored, just a little?"
"Oh, maybe just a little from time to time, but who can get very bored when they can do this?"
She tightened her fingers and they kissed again. Her hazy, blurry feeling intensified.
"You don't get bored with loving me, do you, darling?" she asked after a moment as they clung tightly together.
"Never."
"And I'll always be Number One with you?"
His fingers swept the tingling curves of her bare back under her loose blouse. "You'll be the only one."
"As long as I'm the only one you truly love."
She pushed his shirt back off of his shoulders and pressed her small white teeth into the flesh of his chest.
"Take off my shorts, Ben," she whispered. "Take them off!"
She felt fingers at her side, unfastening a button, pulling at a zipper. A palm slid smoothly over her bare buttock. The black fabric clung to her thighs.
Then finger tips swept her where she most liked to be touched and she mewed with pleasure. Their mouths met and she lightly bit his lower lip. The tip of her tongue teased about his teeth and was met by the tip of his.
She reached for his waist. He was wearing no belt and she unfastened the button. Taking care not to hurt him., she drew down his zipper and shoved his shorts to the same level as hers.
Now she had what she wanted and she fondled and stroked him, returning the caresses he was giving her. His chest heaved harder with his breathing, and her own breathing was more erratic all the time.
She let go of him, pushed his hands away from her body, and made him take off his shirt.
"Lie down," she said softly. "Lie down on the grass."
He did as she said, pulling her down with him. She sat beside him as he lay on his back. She wasn't usually this aggressive but right now she was in the mood to take the initiative.
His shorts had fallen to his calves and she took them the rest of the way off, along with his sandals. She took her sandals off, too, and then her shorts and last of all her shirt. Then she looked down at him, lying completely naked beside her, took a deep breath and sighed with pleasure.
To her, he was a god. A big naked god, obviously a god of virility who was showing her his magnificent power. Like her, his skin had been darkened by the sun, all but a small white area around the hips.
Again she caressed him, cupping, fondling, toying.
"You like me to do this?" she asked.
In answer, he used actions rather than words. He rose up on one elbow and took her farther bare shoulder, pulling her toward him. He moved his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her face closer and they kissed.
Then he moved his hand from her neck to her breast, drawing at the hard-cored soft-surfaced globe from base to bronzed swollen tip. He moved the tip, pressed it in and moved the whole globe.
His hand drifted down her body. His fingers skimmed about her navel, making her jerk and tremble. He reached around her hip to explore her firm, round little bottom, then stroked the fronts and surfaces of her long smooth thighs.
He rolled her onto her back and, as she continued to caress him, he sought and found rougher flesh. She whimpered at the pressure of his finger tips. They stroked her and moved.
The sensations were almost more than she could bear and the best was ahead. She panted and raised her knees, tilting her bottom so that he could do more.
His fingers flexed and that was the moment when she was sure that she couldn't wait any longer. She pushed his hand away from her. She pulled at him.
She told him what to do, bluntly.
He rose up over her middle and she held him with trembling fingers. At that moment she saw only his strength. She brought him to bear on her.
He thrust his way, a little at a time.
Then she had him and held him still.
She sighed.
And then she knew nothing but the rhythmic movement that was shoving her closer and ever closer to the moment of complete ecstasy.
CHAPTER TWO
They were nice people. Decent people. They were all friends; they were faithful and loyal to each other, and they enjoyed making love.
Their vacation together had begun as innocently as had that particular evening. During a coffee break one afternoon earlier in the summer Abe had made an offhanded remark to Chuck.
"You know, it's too bad that our vacations don't coincide instead of just over-lapping. We might be able to work up a good deal."
"How's that?"
"Daisy and I have been thinking about renting a cabin somewhere in Wisconsin, but to get anything really nice, you have to pay a mint. Now, if two or three couples were to pool their resources, they could probably get a lot more for their money. Start their own little Second-Honeymoon Hotel."
Chuck looked interested. "Say, that would be nice. I wonder if one of us could get his vacation-period shifted."
They agreed to see what could be done.
Able and Chuck got along well, and for that matter, they got along with Ben Lancing, too. Technically, they might be regarded as rivals, because they were all assistant managers of the engineering division of Tri-Compass, Inc., a firm involved in the highly important business of guidance systems, including a lot of hush-hush government work. Their boss, George West, was due to replace the retiring vice-president in charge of engineering, some said that that was largely because he'd married the daughter of the company's president, and either Able, Chuck, or Ben would almost certainly be promoted to the manager's position.
Yet Able felt no particular sense of rivalry with the other two men. Much as he would have liked to have had the position, he was fairly sure that Ben would get it. Even though Ben hadn't been with the company as long as Able, he was older and more experienced. What he lacked in brillinace he made up for in good solid reliability. All in all, he was a first-rate man in his field.
The brilliant one was Chuck. No one could deny that he had a certain genius in the field of electronics. But his genius was rather erratic and thus far he hadn't shown much sign of being an organizer, a leader. In a few years he might develop such qualities, but he hadn't yet.
At least that was the way Able saw the situation. Someone else, George West, for example, or the firm's president, Thompson Read, might see things differently. And if Able were to be chosen for the promotion, he certainly had no intention of turning it down. But he was on guard against disappointment, and he didn't intend to allow any rivalry to spoil his relations with the other two men.
They were all good friends. Not best friends, perhaps, but definitely good friends. They went out together, they ate in each other's homes, and their wives all knew and seemed to like one another. If there were any feeling of rivalry within the little group, it was surely among the wives, and they had tactfully managed to keep it suppressed and under control.
A couple of days after Able made his remark he was approached by Ben.
"Chuck told me about your idea. It's great."
"Want to be included in?"
Ben shrugged. "I'd have to ask Fern first. And I kind of doubt that George would go for the idea."
"He might if he was properly approached. If the girls go for the idea, I'm willing to ask George."
The girls, after a certain amount of thought, did go for the idea, so Able, without much hope, did put the question to his boss.
George West was in his middle thirties. He was a dark man with a furrowed face and he was as heavy-set as Ben though not nearly as tall. He was rumored to be a skirt-chaser, which, of course, didn't keep him from being a pretty good engineer and a fairly good boss. Not even the fact that he'd probably gotten where he was by marrying old man Read's daughter, Inez, could change that.
"If we all take our vacations at once," Able said, "you'll be left without any assistants, of course. But, on the other hand, all the usual disruption caused by our separate vacations will be gotten over at once instead of being strung out over a number of weeks."
"I'll have to think about it," George said.
A few days later he called Able into his office again.
"Do you and Ben and Chuck still want to take your vacations together?"
"If it's okay with you."
"Sure. And I've got a suggestion."
Ben took a picture out of his desk drawer and handed it to Able. It showed a two-story house in a clearing in some woods. Made of logs, the place was styled like a cabin, a rich man's cabin.
"My summer place," George said. "There are four bedrooms upstairs, each with its own bathroom. You'll only need three, of course. The downstairs is mostly living room, though there's a kitchen-and-dining area. Everything's modern: electric lights, refrigerator, television, record player, the works; so you needn't worry about that. The beach, pier, and boathouse are only a few yards away. Lots of sand, enough fish, plenty of privacy. I own most of one side of the lake and there's nothing much on the other side. If you fellows are looking for second honeymoons, you couldn't find a better place."
And he went on to tell more about the "cabin".
Able looked at the picture regretfully. "From what you say, George, I doubt that even the three of us together could afford to rent anything this good."
"Who said anything about rent? If you feel like going someplace else, don't hesitate to say so. Frankly, I get bored with the place because there's not enough nearby company. But if you fellows care to use it, you're entirely welcome. I wouldn't think of charging you anything."
That settled the matter. The three assistant managers weren't going to miss a deal like this. And so in late August they and their wives all gathered in George West's cabin in the woods.
They had a good time. They found that they were completely alone, and they could do as they pleased. And since one thing pleased them above all others, they spent a lot of time in their rooms.
When they were together, they were careful not to trod on any toes. Everybody's rights were respected. Each couple allowed the others to go off together whenever they pleased, and, as at any honeymoon resort, they all had a pretty good idea of what the others were up to.
Sure, they did get just a little bit bored at times but, on the surface at least, not desperately so. On the second Saturday night, at the end of their first full week together, they all piled into Ben's car and rode a number of miles to attend a country barn dance. They had an enjoyable time but were somehow'just as happy to get back to the big two-story cabin where they could do what they really wanted to do. Each pair in their own room, in their own bed.
They boated and fished a little, between lovings. They swam and lay in the sun on their own private beach, between lovings.
Naturally, they were extremely informal and they became even more so as the days and nights passed. They ran around in a minimum of clothes, and perhaps only habit kept them wearing what they did retain. Able became used to seeing Fern walk around with her shirt or even her peekaboo jacket unbuttoned clear down the front. He became accustomed to seeing Edna pull up her halter to scratch the underside of a boob or the bottom of an aureole. He didn't even think about the fact that the other men daily saw Daisy in the same state of semi-nudnty.
They were intelligent people, sophisticated, informed. They didn't bother with conventions that served no useful purpose, except insofar as they did so automatically.
Day by day they soaked up the sun and grew browner. While the men fished or swam the girls lay on the sand and chatted and dozed, taking off their bras and hardly bothering to cover up when one of the men came by. When one of them was caught bare-breasted in the cabin, she would pull on whatever was convenient with a minimum of haste.
They were friends: what did they have to hide from each other?
They were innocents, and they didn't know how innocent they were.
By sundown they were all dressed again, to some extent at least, and had gathered in the big main room of the house. Ben and Fern were wearing just what they'd had on before: walking shorts and shirts. In expectation of an evening swim, for the evening was hot, Able and Chuck had donned swimming trunk? and Daisy had on her blue bikini. Edna wore yellow bikini capris, that came up just to the bottom of her smooth tummy and down over her calves, and a brief yellow halter from which her breasts, the most fullblown there, threatened to emerge at any minute.
They blinked the last of sleep from their eyes, and laughed, and mixed gin and tonic. They weren't expecting trouble. They were too innocent for that, though if asked they would have called their innocence sophistication.
The few lights that were on gave the room a comfortable glow and the few drinks that they consumed made the glow even warmer. Fern put some records on the hi-fi and they danced.
"Friday night," Chuck said, somewhat dolefully. "There's tonight and tomorrow and tomorrow night. Then on Sunday we have to pack up and clear out. And then it's back to the old salt mines."
"Don't talk about it," Fern said.
"We ought to do something really memorable, something to top the vacation off."
"The whole thing's been memorable," Fern said snuggling up to Ben as they danced.
They traded partners and Able found himself with Edna. He'd danced with her before but never quite like this. They were both barefooted, and he was in his brief swimming trunks. And from the exposed round bottoms of her boobs to the bottom of her stomach she was as naked as he. His hand rested on the small of her back and each ripple of her muscles seemed to send messages through his finger tips up through his arm. Her soft flesh rubbed against his flat hard stomach.
He loved his wife but, in the classic phrase, he was only human. And the gin and tonic-had loosened his inhibitions.
Down boy! he thought, and he hoped that the way in which Edna affected him wouldn't be too evident to the others.
He was glad to get away from the blonde and dance with Daisy again. She was more nearly naked than Edna and, in the last analysis, more attractive to him. But he was also more used to her and therefore in better control.
Later he danced with Fern, who was a little bit more covered up around the middle than the other two women. That was just as well, because the small girl was attractive enough just as she was. And in spite of his session with Daisy much earlier in the evening, he found himself to be all too responsive to the opposite sex.
He assured himself that he was well able to keep himself under control.
The laughter and the dancing continued. For the most part they did fast dances which kept them out of body contact, but now and then they slowed down for a breather with a classic blues or a romantic old Miller record. And that was when thighs and torsos touched and Able found that he had to watch himself.
It was Chuck who came up with the suggestion.
"Hey, you know what we ought to do? Skinny-dip."
"What's that?" Edna asked.
Chuck looked at his wife in amazement. "You don't know what skinny-dipping is?"
"I've heard of it but that's all."
"Moonlight swimming," Ben said.
"Swimming in the raw," Chuck said, "moonlight or not. I haven't done any skinny-dipping since I got out of engineering school."
"Yes, you have," Edna contradicted him. "Just the other night. You and I-"
"I mean a skinny-dipping party. .When did you last skinny dip on a party, Edna?"
"Like you, not since college," his wife admitted.
"I never have," Fern said.
"Neither have I," Daisy said.
Chuck looked at Ben.
The big man shrugged. "Not since T came home from Germany in 'forty-seven! How about you, Able?"
"Not for five or six years. Not since before Daisy and I got married."
"How about it, then?" Chuck said. "Shall we all go for a skinny-dip?"
They looked at each other questioningly. Then Fern said, "Whee, we're going to skinny-dip!" and that seemed to settle the matter.
They freshened up their drinks, grabbed cigarettes and a couple of blankets and headed out into the night, moving in a group down to their small private beach. Ben and Chuck spread the blankets out and they all laughed with anticipation. The moonlight was bright and the air was warm.
There were a few seconds of hesitation, one of those Who goes first? moments. Then Fern yelled, "Last one in is a scardy cat!" and unfastened her red shirt.
That was the go signal. Chuck unhesitatingly shoved his trunks down and, slightly embarrassed, Able did the same. Fern ran for the water, kicking off her shorts as she went, and Chuck just managed to beat her.
Able looked around. Ben had his shirt off and Edna her halter and they were both dancing on a single leg while they finished stripping. Edna naked was a ravishing sight to say the least.
Able looked at Daisy, who was plucking at her halter.
"Coming, honey?"
She gave him a quick smile and pulled off her halter, then scooted out of her bottom.
"The water's so cold!" Edna shrieked as she and Ben went running in, sending splashes and sprays up around their thighs in the moonlight.
"Come on, scardy cats!" Chuck called, and Able and Daisy ran to the water.
The water was cold and the warm air made it seem all the more so. Nevertheless, they all swam and bobbed and splashed about for the next ten minutes, making the lake echo with gales of laughter. Chuck was the first to say, "I've had enough!" and to retreat to the beach. When he returned from the house with towels, Able and Ben followed him up onto dry land.
The three men pulled on their swimming trunks and shorts, then stretched out to smoke and finish their drinks and watch the women. Each in her own way was a sight to behold. Blonde Edna was the most full-blown of the three, every curve strong and aggressive. Daisy was more trim looking and solid-breasted. Copper-haired Fern was the smallest and thinnest, but she was pert and strong, with breasts that stood out like firm little melons.
"The Three Graces," Ben said.
"Three September Morns," Chuck suggested.
"Three August Nights," was Able's idea.
"Ah, those August nights!" Chuck said.
After five more minutes the women decided they'd had enough. At least they'd out-lasted the men. Fern came running up onto the beach and threw herself, naked and trembling, into Ben's arms. He rolled her onto her back and kissed her. gave her a couple of quick little strokes at the legs, and pulled a towel over her. Then Daisy and Edna came running up to grab towels.
They didn't linger to dress but hurried toward the house just as they were, Fern and Ben leading the way. By the time the others arrived, Fern had already slipped a few records onto the hi-fi and was pulling on her shorts.
The other two girls toweled themselves hastily, getting rid of the last of their shivers, while Able made stiff drinks for them. Daisy pulled on her bikini bottom and Edna struggled into her skin-tight pants. She was just about to pull on her halter when Chuck reached out to stop her.
"Hey, what you doing?"
She stared at him. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm dressing."
"Well, don't!"
"Why not?"
"You don't see me pulling on any silly halter, do you? Look at Ben and Able. They're bare chested. So are you girls half of the time when you're on the beach. You've just been skinny-dipping with us, so why bother to cover up now?"
She continued to stare at her husband, a slight smile on her face. "Chuck, are you drunk?"
He laughed. "A little. Aren't you? Come on, dance with me!"
The other four gazed at Chuck and Edna and they gazed at each other.
She let her halter slip from her fingers.
The hi-fi was playing an old Dinah Shore recording of Deep Purple, and Edna slid into Chuck's arms. Her lush, pink-tipped breasts flattened against his chest, and she seemed to melt against him.
Able turned to Daisy who was still staring at Chuck and Edna. Like the others, she had on only one piece of clothing, the ultra-brief bottom of her blue bikini. He took her right hand and slid his left around her waist. Then all of her smoothness and warmth was caressing the front of his body and their bare legs were moving against each other.
Immediately he wanted her.
As they danced one number after another, he became loggy with desire. Before long he wanted to stroke one of Daisy's nipples but when he tried, she whispered, "Able, don't." But he detected that they were hardening, and she pressed them against his chest as if to hide them.
Every record that Fern had put on was slow, sensuous, and romantic, with a heavy beat like the throbbing of love. Talk and laughter died, returning now and then in little bursts. Each couple seemed to be floating sensuously in a little private universe. And as Able moved his finger tips up and down Daisy's spine, and felt her tremble, and heard her breathing harder, he thought that soon, very soon, they must make a trip upstairs to their room.
Over Daisy's shoulder he caught a glimpse of Chuck and Edna. They were dancing as close as ever, but now he was undisguisedly stroking her right breast, his fingers playing over the expanded nipple. They'd reached the point where they didn't care who saw. And so had Able.
This time he met no resistance as he started fondling Daisy's right breast, drawing and pressing at the rosy-brown center. Her head tilted back; their mouths met, and their tongues clashed like bolts of lightning mating, sending electric thrills rippling through them.
Yes, they would have to go upstairs soon....
A record came to an end and, as if they were all of one mind, they took a break. Laughter and talk were resumed, and fresh drinks were mixed. Looking about, Able noted that all three girls had swollen nipples and lips, and the veins at the tops of their breasts were quite apparent. Their eyes were a little drugged looking, and they had the air of trying to blink themselves awake. Edna tried to demonstrate a belly dance, which Daisy almost equalled. Then Fern rolled her shorts down on her hips and showed that she could perform best of all.
Able and Daisy were just about to resume dancing when Able felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Trade off," Ben said.
Able didn't really want to, but he looked at Daisy who nodded reluctantly, so he turned to Fern. The small copper-headed girl smiled at him and he reached her. He and Fern slid into a tight embrace.
The sensation was odd. Not for years had he had his body up against that of a woman other than his wife, not like this. Fern's shorts were still rolled down on her hips. A strange stomach was pressing against his. A strange rib cage. Two strange naked breasts, the tips in full bloom. The feeling was so novel that for a moment he began to lose his sensual yearning.
Then Fern whispered, "Mm, you dance sexy! I'll bet you give Daisy a wonderful time in bed!"
That did something to him. Suddenly Fern was no longer just a strange sensation. She was a desirable female, and he was all male.
"I haven't heard any complaints," he said.
"I'll bet not. I'll bet she likes it as much as I do."
"And you like it?"
"Oh, do I!" she said on a sigh.
Yes, not even dancing earlier with Edna had been like this, for at that time she'd at least had her halter on. But from the abdomen up there was absolutely nothing between Able and Fern, nothing at all.
The warm flesh moved together.
He was relieved when once again he found himself dancing with Daisy.
"Well," she whispered, an odd light in her eyes, mischievous, teasing, almost challenging, "you seem to be kind of stirred up!"
"Only for you, baby."
And, actually, that was true. Another woman might arouse him. But, aroused, he really wanted only Daisy. If another woman got him going, and in this case Daisy and not another had really started him off, his wife stood to profit by the fact.
"You're the only woman I really desire," he said.
"Am I?" Her eyes and her smile continued to tease him.
"Let's go upstairs."
"Soon."
Not long after that he felt a hand on his shoulder again. Ben had returned but this time with Edna. Daisy smiled and turned to Ben. and the blonde flowed into Able's arms.
He didn't experience that moment of oddness which he'd had with Fern. Just as he'd responded quickly the first time he'd danced with Edna, he did so now, but even more powerfully. He'd already been keyed up for quite some time, and now Edna's skin seemed to burn him as she brushed against him. She was dancing differently from before, more suppely and sensuously. Her naked breasts and pointed tips moved against him more as she twisted in his arms, and he couldn't help stroking her bare back.
He felt her belly rounding out, expanding against his, and he pressed back; a million little sparks seemed to pass between them.
His body felt as if it wanted to rip its way out of the scant clothing to get at her. Daisy, he thought, we've got to go upstairs!
But they didn't.
The dancing went on. Partners were exchanged. Laughs became lower, and voices grew huskier. This was a party unlike any they'd had since they'd arrived here, and they all knew it. They all sensed that the situation was growing dangerous, but no one made a move to break it off. They all thought they could handle whatever might happen.
They were innocents.
"We know where you're going!" Chuck chanted. "We know where you're going!"
Able, dancing again with his wife, looked up to see Ben headed for the downstairs powder room. He was staggering slightly, perhaps a little higher than the others, though no one was really drunk. Able joined in on the chant, and then so did the others.
"We know where you're going! We know where you're going!"
"Sure you can find the way?" Able asked.
"Does anybody want to help me?"
"Oh, does Momma's little baby need help?" Edna asked.
"Please, Momma!"
"Poor little baby, let Momma help!"
Edna hurried after Ben, and the other four came up behind them, not quite believing in what was supposed to happen. Able wondered if he hadn't had more to drink than he'd realized.
"Okay, Momma," Ben said as he opened the powder room door. "I can take care of myself from here on.
"Chicken!" Daisy said, to Able's surprise.
He laughed and said, "Don't let her call you chicken, Ben."
"Chicken, chicken!" Daisy yelled louder.
Ben shrugged and grinned amiably. "Well, all right.
So she helped him. And they all stood there laughing and not quite believing what they were seeing.
Ben unfastened his own shorts and they fell to his ankles.
She held his hand as if he were a little boy. Then, quickly, she reached out with her other hand.
"We aim to please," she said. Ben gasped. She stroked him.
He responded, showing his full strength. For a moment they were all completely quiet. And Edna continued stroking, stroking. "Hey!"
Fein's little shriek and her sudden rush through the powder room door broke the spell. She grabbed Ben and dragged him away as they all burst out laughing. His shorts left behind on the floor, she pulled him across the main room, and they fell onto a couch in a tight embrace.
The next thing Able knew was that he was dancing with Edna again. They were joking and laughing, but soon the voices died.
Then he knew only the soft brushing of his body and Edna's, her large breasts against his chest, the sweep of her naked torso against him, the tangling of their legs. And the desire, the need, for loving grew so intense he could hardly stand it.
He caught a glimpse of Ben and Fern on the couch. Her shorts were at her knees now, and she was slowly kicking them away as Ben caressed her. They seemed to have forgotten entirely that they weren't alone. Kissing and fondling tenderly, they were in their own little world.
Party's getting rough! Able thought with a stifled sensation. Party's getting real rough!
Edna's eyes were closed. She was breathing through thickened lips. She writhed against him, openly teasing him with her breasts.
When Able realized what she was up to, he was shocked. She wanted him to play with her nipples, just as Ben was playing with Fern's. But Ben and Fern-that was different. They were man and wife.
He felt Edna's hand against the back of his head.
The next thing he knew they were kissing. They barely swayed to the music, and their tongues met.
He hardly resisted as she drew his right hand to her left breast, and his palm filled with warm softness The nipple tickled his palm then emerged from between his fingers. His finger tips found the hard core of the soft globe and drew toward the nipple, moving it.
Then he saw why Edna was coaxing him into giving her a treatment. She was just keeping things even.
For Chuck and Daisy, as he spotted them off to one side, appeared to be even farther along.
She, still in her blue bikini bottom, was standing arched back just slightly. Her head was back, her eyes were closed, and Chuck's mouth was on hers, their lips open in a passionate kiss.
He, in his minimal swimming trunks, stood against her and a little to one side, his right hand against the small of her arching back. His left hand was on her high right breast, his fingers working slowly and rhythmically.
Her left hand was on his shoulder. Her right arm hung limp at her side. Then she raised her right hand and brought it down over his chest and stomach just once.
Chuck's hand immediately began the trip down the front of Daisy's body. She took a deep breath as he touched her ribs. Able saw her stomach flutter as he stroked her.
Then his finger tips began to slip under the front of her bikini bottom and she trembled and bucked slightly.
All that happened in a matter of seconds, a very few seconds. But to Able the seconds seemed to freeze and to stretch out forever.
Then he found himself shoving Edna to send her careening off of Chuck while he grabbed Daisy and yanked her away.
"Wow, brother!" he said. "Time to switch partners!"
He'd tried to sound as good humored as possible, and everybody laughed. But the laughter was weak and strained.
He pulled Daisy into his arms and they danced. Seeing how sex-drugged she looked, his heart thumped all the harder. That had been-a narrow escape. Anything could have happened and probably would have if he hadn't acted in the nick of time. Now everything was a joke, but for a minute there....
There was no question that he was still aroused.
He wanted Daisy. He wanted her more than ever. The time had come to bring this little party to its climax.
"Darling," he whispered. "I'm going crazy for you!"
"I'm going crazy, too," she answered, her breath in his ears sending shakes through him. "For me?"
"Only for you. You know that."
"Let's go upstairs."
"Yes. Let's go to bed." She pressed her middle toward him so that cloth rubbed against cloth. "Let's take these off and then we'll get on the bed and you'll...."
He listened to her, his throat dry and his heart banging. He'd never felt so stirred up himself, and he'd never known her to sound so excited.
"Take me upstairs and I'll take my pants off, darling, and yours too," she whispered, "we'll kiss and play with everything, and I'll let you...."
"Hey, what're you two whispering about?" Ben said from the couch where he was still rolling about with Fern.
They didn't answer. Daisy left Able's arms, turned and started up the stairs, and Able followed.
"We know where you're going!" Fern said.
"We know what you're going to do-oo!" Edna chanted. "We know what you're going to do-oo!"
They kept going.
"Hey, you're chicken!" Ben called.
"By golly, that's right," Chuck said rushing to the foot of the stairs. "You're chicken! If you're not, you'll come right back down here!"
Able and Daisy stopped and looked around.
"What do you mean?" Able asked.
"Look at what Edna and Ben did. Look at Fern and Ben right now. Do they look ashamed? Why should they? They're among friends! Aren't you among friends?"
"Sure they are," Edna said. "Don't be party-poopers, you two! Come on back down!"
"If you want to do a little loving," Ben said, "nobody's going to stop you. Nobody's stopping Fern and me, are they? We all know the facts of life."
"Oh, Ben," Fern said, "if they want to be alone, let them go."
"Nothing doing! If they want to make love, they can do their loving right down here in front of all of us. Isn't that right, Chuck?"
"Absolutely! And they will, too. They're not chicken!"
Edna laughed. "Come on back down, you two!" To Able's surprise, Daisy smiled and started back down the stairs.
CHAPTER THREE
At about that same time, Inez Read West, daughter of Thompson Read and wife of George West, took off her bra and stepped up to a full-length mirror on a closet door and looked at herself.
Was she a woman whom a man would want to give a loving?
She didn't think she looked so bad, at least she wasn't quite the ugly duckling she'd been as a young girl. Men did look at her sometimes and even madf an occasional pass, though she figured that that was for the same reason that they'd done so when she was much younger.
She had been perfectly aware then that their interest was only passing and couldn't be deepened or extended. As she'd heard one boy say, "She'd be great if you could make love to her with her head in a paper bag.
She often felt that men still regarded her in the same way.
Rationally, she really didn't think that she was that bad any longer. She didn't claim to be any raving beauty, but her father was quite right in saying that her face showed character. It suggested personality, too, more personality than she actually had.
Her hair was jet-black, perfectly straight, and she generally wore it drawn straight back. She thought that emphasized her eyes which weren't really too bad, she hoped. True, they were narrow, dark, and piercing. A catty woman would have said they were beady but that wasn't really fair. Her eyebrows were a trifle short but high, emphatic and very pointed at the outer ends, rather exotic if you wanted to look at them that way. She had a bad habit of frowning, of course: she almost always carried a little frown that made her look both hurt and mean. But her cheek bones were high, her jawline was good, and she had a fine complexion.
No, she thought, she really didn't look so awful.
But in her heart she couldn't believe that she looked so wonderful either.
Her body was a different matter. As that boy had said, "She'd be great-if...." She wished that her body and only her body counted in matters of love.
She slipped out of her white silk panties and, completely naked, continued looking at herself. Yes, what she saw was good. Her white breasts, dark-rose tipped, were mounted high on her deep rib cage. Her ribs narrowed to a thin waist which flared to well-rounded hips. Twisting, as she looked at herself, she saw that her buttocks, as white as her breasts, were perfect bowls. And the swell and taper of her thighs and calves were just about perfect. She kept her body in good condition, and she could hardly wish for a more luscious figure. She'd been told that her name, Inez, which she hated, meant lovely maiden; and in her figure, at least, she lived up to her name.
Then why didn't her husband want to love her more often?
She knew the answer to that. Or rather she knew all the answers.
Right now he was in the bathroom, as naked as she, and if possible she intended to get him to give her a loving. A good hard loving. Tonight she needed him, she needed him badly, she needed him no matter how he felt about her or she about him.
But would he have anything to give her?
Every week end they went to either the country club or to the Tri-Compass club, and frequently they went to both. As far as she could tell, he did little or no fooling around at the Tri-Compass club: that would be dangerous for his position. But this evening they'd visited the country club and there, she was quite sure, he'd made contact with a number of women. Most of the people at the country club were quite respectable, but there were a number of others who were quite willing to sneak off for a little heavy petting or a fast loving.
And George, she was sure, got his share.
More than once when they'd arrived home she'd been badly in need, and he'd pretended to be too tired. She could prove nothing, but eventually she'd been forced to the conclusion that he was simply used up and played out on such occasions. He'd already given away all that he had to give.
That was one reason that he didn't love her more often.
Another was that he simply didn't care foe her.
He'd been very good to her at first. He had a rugged kind of handsomeness; he could turn on a very real charm, and she'd been pretty much swept off of her feet. He'd really seemed to care for her, and she'd cursed herself for her occasional suspicions that he was interested in her for reasons of job advancement. But such suspicions had been easy to ignore because she'd wanted to ignore them.
So she'd given up her virginity to him one night when he brought her home from the Tri-Compass club. They'd married, and he'd taught her to achieve sexual ecstasy. But her period of happiness had begun to fade long before the end of their first year together.
And before the end of the second year, ecstasy had become increasingly difficult to achieve.
The fact that he'd married her in order to advance his position at Tri-Compass had become more and more apparent to her, more and more difficult for her to deny to herself. His basic indifference had become an almost tangible thing to her.
The blow to her ego had been tremendous. When she'd thought that he was actually in love with her, she'd begun to feel more like an acceptable human being. She'd felt almost beautiful. But when she'd been forced to the conclusion that he didn't really care for her at all, she'd felt as if she were withering up. She'd felt like the most useless and unlovable human being on the face of the earth.
And that brought her to yet another reason why George didn't give her what she needed as often as she needed it.
Much as she needed and wanted loving, part of her was repelled by her husband. She didn't want to be loved by someone who didn't care for her. Many a night when she was aching for pleasure and relief from her tensions, she'd been unable to bring herself to make a demand or a request, to send up a signal, to make any kind of advance that might bring him to her arms and body.
So she'd laid silent, stifling tears, racked with need.
Why didn't she get a divorce?
There were a number of reasons for that, too.
For one thing, she knew quite well that George would fight a divorce. He would do all he could to avoid giving her grounds. A couple of times when they'd quarreled the subject of divorce had come up and George had said, a pretense, she was sure, that he didn't believe in it. Once she'd even hired a detective at considerable expense, but he'd been unable to come up with a shred of usable evidence.
George was very careful. He feared that his position at Tri-Compass depended upon his marriage to Inez, so a divorce was out of the question as far as he was concerned.
Another reason was that Inez did believe in marriage. Though she had hired that detective, she didn't believe in the easy come, easy go marriage philosophy. From the time she'd first thought that George was getting bored with her, she'd tried to keep them together as a pair, and for a long time she hadn't given up hope that their love-relationship could be revived.
Now hardly a ghost of that hope remained.
A third reason had to do with sex. Inez was not promiscuous. She had never been unfaithful to George. Sometimes in wish-dreams born of her frustration, she told herself that she was going to be unfaithful; sometimes she entertained fantasies of naked, potent studs taking off her clothes and seducing or raping her. But in her heart she knew perfectly well that she would never get beyond wish-dreams and fantasies.
Her only resource then, was George. He gave her very little and what he did give her was often unsatisfactory, lately, in fact, invariably unsatisfactory. But as long as he was with her, at least she could try.
There was an irritional but very real fear in her mind that if she were to succeed of ridding herself of her husband she'd be unable to find another male to replace him. She'd always looked with contempt on those people who had relations with a second partner before breaking off with their first, but she'd come to understand them. Cheats they were, and that was a terrible thing in her book, but some of them must have been like her in their insecurity, fearing to leave one partner until quite sure of having another.
And finally there was the fact of sheer inertia. She'd learned to live with George after a fashion. After a fashion she'd actually become used to her situation. And this led her to think, Not yet, not yet! Maybe things will change!
But she'd about accepted the fact that things were never going to change. Unless she changed them.
And meanwhile she needed a man, she needed to make love with a man.
"What's the matter? In love with yourself?"
George's bantering voice startled her. She looked around to see him emerging from the bathroom.
He was a solidly built man, only a little taller than she. Like her, he was quite tan except where his swimming trunks had covered him, and they didn't cover him there now.
She looked at him. She looked at all of him. She hardly saw him as an individual but more as a male body. She tried to keep it that way because thinking of George as a personality would repel her and make it harder for her to get the complete satifaction which she longed for.
So her eyes took in his deep chest, his muscle-ridged abdomen, his sturdy dark-haired thighs. Her gaze rested on him, and a sensual shiver went through her body. Whatever else might be said of George, he did have the hard buttocks and strong back to give him plenty of power.
He smiled a little, as if reading her thoughts.
"It's been a long day," he said. "Guess I'll hit the sack. I'm going to be asleep in about three seconds."
She'd been afraid he'd say something like that. He so often did. And she so often immediately gave up any thought of getting what she wanted.
But not tonight.
She went to him and caught his shoulders just as he was turning away and their bodies brushed together. Her skin felt sensitive and feverish.
"George...."
"Yeah?"
He pick up his pajamas from the foot of the bed, aod she pushed them out of his hand. She made him face her.
She kissed him.
She brought her body lightly against his, twisting herself against him slightly, hoping to arouse him, hoping he had something left to give her.
"Well, that's nice," he said in that noncommital way of his that she'd learned to hate.
"Kiss me, George."
Smiling, he gave her a little kiss. His hands didn't reach for her.
"Is that a kiss?" she asked. "Honey, I'm pretty tired."
Always the same old story. Always the same old disappointment.
Tears came to her eyes. She felt as if her spirit were being completely broken. And still she needed him, she needed his manliness, she needed his strength.
"Don't you ever want to love me?" she asked still clinging to his shoulders.
"Of course I do, honey-"
She let go of his right shoulder and her fingers found what she wanted.
"Then love me I" she said.
His laugh was more like a bark, a sound that he couldn't hold back
"Don't tell me that you're begging!"
His words were like a lash across her face, but still her passion didn't diminish.
"Do I have to beg?"
"I didn't mean it like that, honey-now don't cry!"
Her fingers worked eagerly on him, but he failed to respond. And that meant that he was either indifferent to her, or even repelled or that some other woman had gotten to him first.
Right now she didn't care.
"I'll beg if you want me to!"
She stood before him, her feet apart, stroking and pulling at him. She shook her body and arched toward him, trying to make them meet.
"I'll beg, but take me, George," she said desperately. "Be strong and powerful for me, George! Take me!"
Now he had a worried look as if he'd finally realized that this could be a highly critical moment for both of them.
"Honey, I just can't! You can see that I can't!
I'm too tired, Inez, I'm too beat out!"
She gave a little wail and seized one of his hands. She brought it to her legs and forced him to caress her. She felt as if she were ready to receive him if she could only get him going.
"Inez, honey, don't! Can't you see that this is no use!"
But she knew only that she was wild, wild to be taken.
She shoved him toward the bed, turning his back to it, with a strength she hadn't known she had. She pushed him., and he fell back, bouncing on the mattress on his buttocks and elbows, his feet dangling to the floor. She gave no thought to what she was going to do, something she hadn't done in years.
She moved to him and bent on one knee.
Holding him carefully, her lips touched him, and he jerked as if to pull away.
Then she was moving her head everyway she could.
At once her kiss did what her hands couldn't. He was powerful. He was ready.
And she kissed him all the harder.
Then she felt hands under her armpits. She was lifted up from him. She was literally thrown onto the bed and rolled onto her back.
"You witch!" he rasped, and then hands were sliding over her naked body.
A mouth covered and drew at one of her nipples and fingers lapped at her thighs.
He knocked her knees farther apart, and she drew them up. She felt him pressing against her right where she wanted him. The moment she'd longed for had at last arrived.
The pressure bore harder and lessened, returned harder yet and lessened, came back harder yet ... And then she had him.
She gave herself up to her sensations, clutching at him at the end of each thrust, squeezing him as he drew back from her.
Her pleasure mounted higher.
Grew stronger.
Drove her mindless.
And then she knew the time had come for the ultimate ecstasy. All she had to do was wait and let the cataclysm happen.
"Harder!" she groaned, knowing he couldn't strike harder, knowing that no man could.
She waited.
"Love me! Make-it-happen!" He cried out and stiffened.
And then she knew that he'd arrived at the summit without her. His face was strained and distorted with the sensation of release as he slid at her a dozen times or more and then gradually subsided.
The lights out and with her back to him, she tried not to weep. She told herself that if he'd only kept going a half-minute more, only a few seconds more, she would have been all right, though she knew in her heart that that wasn't true. If he'd continued to love her all night long, she still wouldn't have achieved a peak.
She took refuge in fantasy. A stranger appeared at her door one day. The moment they saw one another, they couldn't resist. He took off her clothes in spite of her protests, and then disrobed. And he was so startling, so much in need of her, that she nearly fainted. So he laid her back on a sofa, and they looked at each other, and caressed each other, and then he was taking her, taking her....
And sliding and thrusting and she was going wild, wild....
But the fantasy was useless. She remained a semi-frigid woman, alone in her bed even when her husband lay with her on the other side.
She bit her pillow and let silent tears fall in the night....
George West waited for sleep to come. That had been a close call.
From now on he had to remember to keep Inez better satisfied. Maybe from now on he should make a firm policy of loving her once a week, say on Thursday nights. That way she'd learn not to expect anything on week ends, and he'd be free and ready when they went to the country club on Friday or Saturday.
The trouble tonight, of course, had been the blonde he'd sneaked off to the parking lot with. She'd been pretty loaded, and he was always willing to take advantage of such a situation. But the ironic thing, the disgusting thing to George, was that the blonde hadn't even given him complete satisfaction. Load-ed or not, she'd resisted all of his efforts to get her to go all the way, and they'd ended up just petting to a climax and nothing more.
So here he was later with Inez, already pretty much used up, and he hadn't even had the pleasure of actually taking the girl.
Well, as things had turned out, Inez had been pretty good tonight. He suspected that she hadn't received full pleasure, but that wasn't his fault. He'd certainly kept going long enough. She could accuse him of plenty of things but not premature release.
He wondered what he'd ever seen in her, anyway.
Oh, sure, he'd married her at least partly because she was Thompson Read's daughter. He'd known that he was a good engineer and a good organizer but hardly a great one. Marrying Inez was a step up the ladder. After he'd married her he'd had to work extra hard to get ahead in order to prove that he was earning his way, but at least the way was then open to him. He'd had possibilities of advancement which hadn't been open to him, at least not much, before.
But that hadn't been his only reason for marrying her. He supposed he'd figured that she was kind of cute in an off-beat way, and certainly she'd had a terrific body. Still did, for that matter. You couldn't take that away from Inez. Even if she did no longer appeal to him.
Almost repelled him as a matter-of-fact.
He supposed that he just wasn't cut out to be a one-woman man.
Not that he got all the women that he wanted.
He didn't get nearly all of them. The main reason was simply that he had to be so careful. His father-in-law had never been any too fond of him, and if he ever let Inez get evidence for a divorce, he'd be out of Tri-Compass in a minute. And he'd have very little chance of getting up to where he was or to where he was going: into Thompson Read's shoes.
So he had to be careful. Very careful. He had to pick the women who were least apt to talk. Married women were best. They knew how to take care of themselves and keep their mouths shut.
He had to avoid blackmailers. He had to avoid women who were apt to become emotional. He wanted only fun girls.
He avoided women who had anything to do with the company. He knew that some of the company wives and some of the women who worked for Tri-Compass could probably be had, but he generally left them alone. They were too risky.
Not that he didn't run into plenty of temptations. Every one of the wives of his assistants, for instance, looked like a juicy morsel to him, and he'd often been tempted to make a pass. But all three appeared to be completely absorbed with their husbands, and not in a way that would allow them to put out a little for the sake of their husband's advancement.
Still, you never knew. George was about to take over the position of the retiring vice-president in charge of engineering. And either Ben, Able, or Chuck would get George's job. It would be a big step in the career of the man who took over the manager's desk.
Wives had been known before....
But he couldn't take any chances. If he were to make a pass at that big lush blonde, Edna Graham, for instance, she might make a stink, thinking that would help Chuck, and then where would he, George, be?
Out on his fanny, in all likelihood.
But if he ever figured there was a chance....
He wondered how the boys and their wives were making out up at the cabin, and he smiled to himself in the dark.
If anything could loosen up that bunch and give them some new and interesting ideas, a couple of weeks alone together at the cabin should.
Yeah, they'd be alone. They'd get a little bit bored, and they'd get a little more casual and intimate day by day. He knew how spending a couple of weeks up at the cabin could affect people.
He thought he heard a sound in the darkness.
Was that Inez sniffling? If there was anything he couldn't stand, it was a bawling woman.
He groaned inwardly and drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER FOUR
Smiling serenely, moving gracefully, the all-but-naked Daisy came back down the stairs.
Able stared at her, his throat suddenly so dry he couldn't swallow. He wanted Daisy, he wanted her badly, but he wanted her alone. In their room and on their own bed. And he didn't want any more delay.
"Oh-ho!" Ben said as he got up from the sofa where he and Fern had been sprawling naked. "Daisy's not chicken!"
"Of course she's not," Edna said. "Come on, Daisy, take it off!"
She made a grab at Daisy's bit of blue cloth, but Daisy leaped nimbly aside. Then she put her left hand on her hip and put her right hand in her hair. Breasts held high she paced sexily about the room, and Chuck let out a wolf howl.
"Take it off, take it off!" Ben said, clapping his hands.
"I may and I may not," Daisy said, looking aloof but still smiling.
"Chicken! Chicken!" Fern called.
Able felt relieved. Daisy wasn't actually going to fall in with this nonsense about making love in front of the others. But somehow he had to break up this horse-play and get her up to the bedroom.
"That's right," Chuck said, "they're both chicken."
"I think that Ben and Fern are the only two who may have a right to say that," Daisy said, still strutting about. "They're the only two who've taken all their clothes off and have been loving each other."
"Then you and Able will maize love for us if Edna and I take the rest of our clothes off?"
Daisy smiled and gave an exaggerated shrug which made her naked breasts bob a good deal more than was necessary.
"We may," Daisy repeated, "and we may not."
"We'll just see!" Fern said.
Ben turned to Chuck. "All right, old buddy! Off with those swimming trunks!"
Chuck was already pulling them down. He was as aroused as Ben was, and neither of them tried to hide the fact
"Take 'em off, honey,': he said to Edna, grinning at her.
She hesitated, then, more slowly than her husband, slid her yellow pants down her legs, baring everything she had down to each last lovely curve. She was all blonde, Able observed.
He looked around. He and Daisy were the only people who had on any clothing at all. He saw four smiling, grinning people, two men and two women, completely stripped. Yet they looked as if they were wearing some strange kind of invisible swimming suits. Both Ben and Chuck, like Daisy and him, were quite brown except for the white skin about their hips. Edna was a creamy tan and Fern a kind of copper color, and they not only had small white areas below but lighter flesh on their breasts as well. And they looked just as excited as the men.
As excited as Able felt.
"Well?" Edna said.
"Don't you feel ridiculous with all those clothes on?" Ben asked.
"Take em off, take 'em off I" Fern and Chuck called out in unison.
Able thought that Daisy might laugh and make a fast dash up the stairs. He hoped that she would. He'd then make a dash after her, they'd lock the door, and then they'd have their pleasure all by themselves. He'd be the first to dash himself, dragging Daisy after him, but he had an awful feeling that she might insist on lingering behind. And then something really bad might happen.
Daisy grinned. She turned her back to the others, bent slightly, waving her bottom at them, and began pushing down the back of her blue bikini bottom. As her buttocks emerged, she turned with slithering movement to face the group again and let the bit of cloth fall to the floor.
The others applauded and whistled and yelled, "Bravo, bravo!" and even Able had to laugh.
Maybe, just maybe, they'd acutally go through with this silly idea.
After all, it was true that they were among friends. Nobody but the six of them would know. And if the others did the same thing....
"Take 'em off, Able!" Chuck yelled. But Able was already stepping out of his swimming trunks.
"Oo, isn't he nice!" Edna said. "Just look at him!"
"Just look at her!" Ben said.
"Hey!" Fern said with a laugh. "Somebody look at me!" Ben grinned and gave her a slap on the bottom.
"How about it now," Chuck said. "Are you two going to perform?"
"We may and we may not," Able answered, taking a leaf from Daisy's book. "It all depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Don't we get to watch too?"
"What do you want?" Ben asked. "Mirrors?"
"No, I want to watch you! You and Fern."
Daisy laughed at the sudden blank look on Ben's face.
Fern came to Ben's rescue. "After you, us. Then Chuck and Edna."
"This was your idea. You go first."
"You can't get out of it that way," Edna said. "You were challenged. Are you chicken or not?"
"Are you? How about you?"
"Don't argue with them, honey," he heard Daisy say close to his ear "We know who's chicken and who isn't."
"You two give us a show," Chuck said, "and then we'll do the same for you Of course if you don't want to take care of your own wife, Able, Edna tells me that she wouldn't mind my doing it as long as she could watch."
Fern laughed. "I feel the same way!"
Then the other four were whistling and applauding again as Daisy slid into Able's arms and fitted her warm mouth to his.
We're going to! Able thought, his heart thumping. We're actually going to do our loving right in front of these people!
In that instant the room fell completely silent. Able had never felt more excited in his entire life.
We're going to! he thought. We're going to!
They walked slowly toward the sofa, his arm around her back, she leaning against his side. On their way, they paused to kiss. His hand drifted over her buttocks, hers drifted over his front. They kissed again, their tongues touching, and he played with a rosy button on her breast.
He wondered just how drunk he and Daisy were, how drunk they all were. Like most men, he'd entertained some pretty crazy ideas in his time, but he'd never seriously considered doing anything like this, and he doubted that Daisy had either. We're going to! he thought again, but he kept a lingering thought, even a hope that at the last moment something would happen to stop them, that he or Daisy would back down or that the others would make them stop.
But glancing around, he saw that the others hardly looked in the mood to stop them. Their eyes flowed with anticipation. Ben and Chuck looked as strained with desire as ever, as strained as Able was. Fern was leaning against Ben's side and the two were quite openly fondling each other as they watched Able and Daisy. Chuck was standing behind Edna, his hands moving slowly over the front of her body from her breasts to her legs.
No, nobody was going to stop them. And Able didn't want to stop.
They reached the edge of the sofa. The silence seemed almost dense now. He could hear Daisy breathing. He seemed almost to hear the breathing and the beating hearts of the entire group.
Daisy, still against his side, turned toward him, her breasts coming against his chest. Her eyes, dimmed and narrowed, yet excited, were like those of a stranger. One of her hands found and stroked him while he caressed a globe and manipulated the taut nipple.
They kissed with lips that burned, lips that seemed twice their normal thickness. Her tongue came out and played openly over his mouth, and he slid his hand down her body to return her tantalizing strokes in kind.
She swayed her stomach up against him. They looked at their bodies and moved from side to side. Able felt as if he were in some kind of sensual trance.
He took Daisy's elbows and pushed gently. She moved back from him and her legs touched the sofa. He held onto her and lowered her slowly until she was sitting down, and then, just as slowly, she lay back.
He thought he could actually hear the four other naked people breath harder and try to swallow. The whole room seemed to be in the grip of a terrific tension.
He lifted one of Daisy's knees and put her bare foot on the sofa. He put his knee on the sofa beside her leg. She reached toward him and her fingers drifted over him like fire. He wanted to take her, he wanted her right away, but something made him hold back.
He leaned down over her and they kissed, their tongues playing. He caressed her breasts while her warm fingers curved on him and moved smoothly over him. He drifted his hand over her stomach. He stroked the inner surfaces of her legs, then petted her, making her completely ready.
Chuck groaned shudderingly as Able moved down over Daisy's body to press his mouth over one of her nipples. He worked the nipple with his tongue, kissed the other, then kissed the undersides of her breasts. He moved his mouth over her ribs and then down around her navel. As he moved on, she began to quake.
Then he was breathing against her, kissing her, touching her everywhere. He heard Fern make a sound something like a sob. He looked up at Daisy's face, and it was tense with desire.
"Take me," she whispered. "Take me!"
He rose up over her, moving into position.
Daisy's fingers found him again and she lifted herself toward him, presenting herself. She drew at him.
Still he held back.
"Take me!" Daisy whispered again.
"They're-they're not really-going to!" came Fern's shaky, amazed voice.
"Sure, they are!" Edna said.
"Come on, come on!" Daisy said, drawing at him.
And still he didn't move.
"Go ahead," Chuck said softly.
And suddenly Able was completely aware of what they were doing. A sobering coldness swept through his mind. He was here, about to take Daisy, and four people were standing about to watch them make love.
"Oh, give it to me!" Daisy gasped.
He tried to force himself toward her.
Then he realized that something was happening to him.
Panic surged through him. He told himself that he must have drunk too much. He thought that he must have been under the strain of arousal for too long. But most of all he felt the eyes that were on him, watching to see him perform.
His panic infected Daisy. She must have recognized the failing of his power, for her eyes widened and her hand worked to agitate him. "Take me, take me quick!"
He straightened his hips, thrusting toward her. She pulled him tightly to her "Take me!" Daisy said desperately. He tried.
"Sorry," Able said, panting. He was standing by the sofa near Daisy's head. He tried to sound light-hearted and joking. "I guess having all you people watching-or maybe the long strain-"
"Able isn't able!" Edna went on, prancing teasingly in front of him. She shook her breasts and, feet apart, bumped her naked loins toward him. "Able isn't able anymore!" she chanted. "Able isn't able anymore!"
Able's cheeks burned at the taunts. They seemed quite unfair. If Chuck or Ben had gone first, they might not have succeeded either. But he could hardly advance that little thought with any strength when both of the other men were still so obviously ready to give any woman the full strength of their manhood.
This little drama of innocence lost was still far from being played out.
"Leave him alone," Ben said. "The same thing could have happened to any of us."
"Not you!" Edna said. "Look at you!"
Automatically they all looked at Ben. He appeared so strained with need that he might have been in pain.
"And look at Chuck!" Edna said.
And all eyes turned to Chuck. Like Ben, his desire was still as strong as steel. Both men were burning with longing.
"Well, I never thought Able and Daisy would really go through with it," Fern said weakly.
"Chicken!" Edna laughed. "Just plain chicken!"
"Give me a little time," Able said. "Maybe I'll show you something yet."
"You?" the blonde said gleefully. "What have you got to show; Stand beside Ben and Chuck and show us!"
Able's cheeks burned still hotter.
He was at once glad that he hadn't been able to carry through, and he was humiliated. He was glad because he had an idea that if he and Daisy had actually performed before the others they'd never be able to forget the incident or to forgive themselves. He was humiliated because he felt as if he'd revealed some weakness, some lack of manhood, to the others.
And Edna seemed to be intent on grinding his nose into his failure.
He was still excited even though he was incapable. He wanted to make love. He wanted to show Daisy and the others that he could still be powerful. But at the moment he felt completely incapable.
He wanted the others to go away. He wanted to be alone with Daisy. He wanted to regain his strength and show her that he was still capable of satisfying her.
But the others showed no sign of leaving, and he couldn't very well drag Daisy off from them. He felt that if he did, and even if in the privacy of their room he managed to give her what they both wanted, the others would never believe that he had. They'd always think that he was weak, that he was inadequate.
The incident had delivered one of the greatest blows to his ego that he'd ever received.
The others had been under a strain for a long time, too. The men, like Able, had been excited, cooled off, and excited again a number of times during the evening. If only they would at last lose their strength for good, if the party would only cool off, if everybody would just return to normal, Able would feel a hundred times better than he did right now.
But such a thing showed no signs of happening.
After her last jibe at Able, Edna turned to Chuck and slithered up against him. She kissed him and drew his hand to her breast. She ran her palm down over his chest and stomach, then played lightly over him with her finger tips.
"You've got lots to give," she crooned lovingly, "you've got lots and lots for Momma, haven't you, baby?"
"So has my baby," Fern said, and she turned to Ben to cup and stroke and fondle him. "Lots and lots." The two pairs kissed. Bodies rubbed slowly.
Hands glided over breasts and between legs. They panted harder and strained toward each other.
If that had kept up everything might have turned out all right. The two remaining couples were clearly reaching the limits of restraint, and at any instant they might have sunk to the floor and, with no thought of others watching, completed their love-making.
If they had, the sight would probably have stimulated a revival of Able's powers. And then he, of course, would have immediately returned to the sofa and given Daisy the strongest loving of her life.
Then the incident would have been over. The memory might have proved either amusing or embarrassing, but in any case it would have been consigned to the past.
But events didn't turn out that way.
Daisy groaned. She groaned softly but throatily, as if she were crying out with need, and one by one the others looked at her.
She was lying just where Able had left her, her head and shoulders on a pillow, one foot up on the sofa. Her hands were at her lap, and her nipples were as erect as ever. She'd been watching what the others were doing and her face was a mask of naked desire.
Edna giggled. "Poor Daisy! She looks like she needs loving worse than any of us."
"Daisy, honey," Fern said worriedly, "are you all right?"
Daisy didn't answer. Her breasts rose and fell with her hard, shallow breathing and her fingers twitched at her legs. Her hips began twitching in simulated ecstasy, which was no more than her tortured emotions and starved desire toying with her.
She looked dully at Chuck's middle.
She looked at Ben's.
Two men who were blazing with need and ready to go.
Able caught the look and his throat closed down, his heart pausing, then slamming like a tympani.
Edna giggled again "Nothing wrong with her that a good man couldn't cure, isn't that right, Daisy?"
"Two or three men," came the answer on another soft groan. "Six men, the whole United States Marines."
"Oh, Daisy, honey," Fern said sympathetically.
"When a girl's in need that much," Edna giggled, "I'd think that at least one of you fellows would be gentleman enough to help her out."
Able tried to say something. His lips moved but no words came.
Fern stared at the naked blonde. She had a slight smile on her face. "You're not serious!"
"Sure, I'm serious. I told Chuck that I didn't mind his making love to another woman as long as he let me watch. And you said that you felt the same way."
She turned hard challenging eyes on Able. He felt completely hollow inside.
"I'm sure that Able feels that way, too, don't you, Able? And that's only fair, since you can't give Daisy what she needs."
"You're crazy."
The words came out weakly. He was amazed to find himself feeling that he was at a moral disadvantage in spite of the fact that what Edna was proposing was in itself completely immoral. After all, he had played along with the original insane idea, with the result that Daisy was in her present tortured situation.
"Maybe you think I'm crazy but Daisy doesn't. She's the one who's going crazy right now. How about that, Daisy? Would you like to have Chuck help you out?"
For once in his life Chuck looked shocked. He said, "Hey, now!" and took a step backwards.
Daisy looked blearily at Chuck. Then she closed her eyes.
"All I know is that you're right. Right now I'm the one who's crazy for loving."
Ben looked at Fern. "You honestly wouldn't care?"
"Not really."
He looked at Chuck. "Well, I don't hear Able objecting. Go ahead, boy."
Chuck, looking a little frightened, took another step backwards, and Able took a step forward.
"Now, wait a minute-"
Edna's arm slammed across his chest and her eyes blazed angrily at him.
"You're out of this!" she said harshly. "Everything's up to Daisy!"
And it seemed to him that under the circumstances everything really was up to Daisy. For him to interfere would prove nothing, nothing except that he was a jealous inept husband who couldn't hold onto his wife.
Everyone suddenly turned to statues. The atmosphere had changed in the last few seconds. The last element of lightheadedness and joking had died away. There were six people in a rage of desire, only five of whom could do anything. There was a naked woman on a sofa, a woman who seemed to be especially in need. There were two lust-strained males who might be able to help her. There were two naked women who were eager to watch anything that might happen.
"Well," Ben said, his voice husky, "if Daisy doesn't object, I guess the job is up to me."
Nobody said anything.
Ben walked slowly and almost reluctantly toward the sofa where Daisy lay stretched out as if ready to be taken. He put one knee on the sofa just as Able had.
Able felt as if he were in a dream and completely paralyzed.
Ben looked down at Daisy for a moment. Then he lifted one of her hands, bringing it to him.
Her fingers curled on him and Fern gasped.
She's not going to, she's not going to! Able thought Ben reached down to pet Daisy as she was petting him. He explored her, making sure that she was ready, and Daisy whimpered and shook as if a fresh wave of sensation were coursing through her body.
He bent down and touched one nipple lightly with his lips and she thrust her breast up against him. He moved his mouth to her other nipple, working it hard, and the hand that was stroking him shook, tightened, and pulled.
She's not going to! She won't! She can't!
He raised his head and lowered his hips. She stared between them and presented herself just as she had earlier to Able.
No! No! No!
With a shaking hand she brought him to her until they actually touched.
For an instant the pair was completely still. Only Edna, Chuck, and Fern moved, staring as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Ben pressed forward. The white areas of their tanned bodies came a little closer.
With a series of three or four little strokes he went all the way.
Able stared at them, his mind reeling, as they lay perfectly still again, white flesh pressed tightly against white flesh.
They began.
He drew back and thrust, drew back and thrust, and the fourth time, she suddenly shook and stiffened and cried out, "Oh, I'm there!"
They were still for several long seconds.
Then they began again.
Everybody else was motionless and quiet. Able continued to feel that he was in a dream of paralysis. Chuck stared unbelievingly.
Fern stood with her mouth open and slowly stroked herself about the legs.
Ever so slightly, Edna thrust her body forward in rhythm with the pair on the sofa.
Daisy uttered another pained cry, and her body wrenched and froze.
She seemed to relax after a few seconds.
"Keep going!" she said hoarsely. "Keep going!"
But Ben was obviously stimulated beyond control. He released a little cry and she said, "On, no, not yet!"
But then he groaned again, lifting his buttocks and lashing back with all his strength, releasing every bit of his pent-up tension.
With a final shudder, he rolled to the floor, wearily trying to regain his feet.
Daisy wailed the cry of a woman still in need and raised her hips.
Chuck hardly hesitated. He took three steps to the sofa and filled the position that Ben had left. Daisy reached for him and tugged.
No, no, no, Able's mind screamed.
She brought him into position, and he lanced forward, taking her with a single stroke.
They started almost at once.
Ben climbed to his feet and stared at the pair with the same amazement that others seemed to share, as if he could hardly believe that he'd just been where Chuck now was.
Daisy made the summit.
And made the summit again.
And then Chuck snarled and let go, sliding, striking, pistoning, as fully released as Ben had been.
This time Daisy didn't cry for more.
The night degenerated rather curiously after that.
For a few minutes everybody was very quiet. Chuck and Ben didn't look at anybody. They had the air of men who didn't want to admit that they were embarrassed. The room had an atmosphere of profound let-down.
Daisy stirred and got up. I need a drink of water or something," she said groggily. And she went to the bar and poured herself a drink.
Able was still having difficulty in ridding himself of his feeling of paralysis, a feeling of profound shock.
Nobody thought anything about their nakedness now. They neither covered themselves nor exhibited themselves. Their nakedness simply didn't seem to matter any longer.
Finally Chuck forced a small laugh. He looked at Ben.
"Not bad, eh?"
Ben shrugged. "Naw, not bad."
Chuck shook his head. "Crazy! Crazy!"
That seemed to bring Edna to life. She looked around the room, searching each face, and her eyes blazed. Her laugh was erratic.
"Everything's just jolly for you three, isn't it?" she said. "But what about Fern and me? Who's going to help us out?"
"We'll help you out, honey," Chuck said soothingly. "Just give us a little time."
"Both of you?" Edna asked pointedly.
Chuck paled. He still hadn't looked squarely at Able for more than a second at a time.
"Can you wait, baby?" Ben asked Fern softly.
"Oh, sure," she said, giving him a little smile.
Edna's voice rose. She sounded as angry as Able had ever heard her.
She took several quick steps toward Able. Feet apart, she arched toward him and, before he realized what she was going to do, reached out to agitate him.
"Come on, chicken, come on!" she virtually shouted. "Get going, give me a loving."
"Edna, for Pete's sake," Chuck said.
But Edna wasn't to be stopped.
"What's the matter, chicken? You scared? You don't like girls? You don't like to love?" she asked. "Come on, chicken."
Able felt more chilled than ever. He'd never felt more incapable.
He glanced around the room. Daisy was apparently paying no attention at all to what was happening. The other three looked embarrassed. Chuck dragged Edna away from Able.
"Come on, Edna," he said softly, "leave the guy alone."
"All right, all right! He's no use to anybody! Hey, let's all have a drink! Let's all get good and stinking!"
She and Chuck headed toward the bar. Ben started to follow them but stopped as he saw Fern staring at Able.
The small copper-headed girl wasn't smiling. She was looking at Able as if trying to read his mind. She took a step toward him, hesitated, then moved closer.
Ben gazed at her as if he didn't quite know what to do.
Able felt nothing as he saw the wealth of sun-burnished curves and the white areas coming closer. Any other man would have reacted but he was completely numb. She stopped a few inches from him and they looked at each other's naked bodies.
Then she raised her arms and slid up against him.
Her eyes probed his.
She made him kiss her. Her soft curves slid lightly against his hard muscles. Her hands moved on his back.
"It's all right," she whispered.
Her hand moved between them, trying to get him going.
He looked over her shoulder. Only Ben was observing them.
"You can have me if you want me," she went on.
"You know that, don't you? Anytime you want me. Wouldn't you like to love with me? I'd like to have you, Able. Won't you give to me, Able? Won't you please love me?"
He would have if he could. But he couldn't.
Ben's hand fell on Fern's shoulder and, not too gently, pulled her away. She gave Able one last look of regret, a look almost of hurt pleading, and went with her husband to the bar.
Able felt completely alone, completely isolated from the rest of the group. Even when he walked over to join them he felt alone, and no one spoke to him.
Very soon Edna said, "I'm going up to bed," and Chuck followed her up the stairs.
Ben and Fern looked at each other, exchanged some unseen signal, and followed immediately after Chuck and Edna.
Able and Daisy were alone at last.
And silent.
Without a word she started toward the stairs. When he followed her she ran, dashing on ahead of him. as if to put as much distance between them as possible.
CHAPTER SIX
Innocence was gone. The snake had invaded Eden.
The cabin and its surroundings had become Satan's Lust Paradise.
Able, naked, waited in bed for Daisy to come out of the bathroom, just as he had done during the early evening, not so many hours ago.
But this time when she came through the door she was wearing a pair of green pajamas. This was the first time she'd worn pajamas since they'd arrived at the cabin. She climbed into bed and turned her back to him.
"Turn out the light," she said.
He put his hand on her shoulder. "Daisy...."
"I want to get some sleep."
"Daisy ... turn over. Look at me." He hardly knew what he wanted to say.
She flopped over onto her back and looked up at him with indifferent eyes.
"Now what?" she said, a touch of sarcasm in her voice. "Are you worried about something?"
"Yes, I am."
"Are you going to tell me that you still love me or that you don't love me or what?"
"I'm going to ask you why...."
"Oh, for cryin' out loud." She tried to pull away from him. "Because we were all a little bit high, isn't that obvious? Because we all got excited together. Because you didn't try to stop me-"
"Are you trying to put the blame on me?"
She looked exasperated. "Able, I'm not blaming anybody. And don't try to make a big thing out of what happened."
"Wasn't what happened a big thing?"
She laughed, suddenly and shortly. "Yeah! Four times! Real big every time! I really detonated like atom bombs!"
Her words were like knives, and she saw his face drain.
"But just the same," she went on, "all that happened was a lot of drunken nonsense. What we did didn't mean anything."
He hesitated to object. "You could have waited for me, Daisy."
"Waited for you! Waited all night! A fine stud you turned out to be!"
Everything she said diminished his ego more.
"You've always said I was good. Are you telling me now that comparison proves a lack?"
She groaned. "They didn't do any better than you do. Does that set your mind at ease?"
"I'm sorry I let you down. I think that having all those people watch-"
"They watched Chuck and Ben, too. Their own wives."
"Yes, but I tried first."
"Able, listen." She took on an air of infinite patience. "Maybe what happened wasn't your fault. It was nobody's fault. Just don't blame me when you didn't even try to stop me, knowing how wrought up I was. Maybe I should have been able to stop myself, but I couldn't. I doubt that we'll ever do anything like this again. Now, the party is over and everybody has gone to bed, so let's get a good night's sleep."
She rolled away from him.
If she would just be a little patient, a little gentle, he thought, he'd be able to make love to her right now. If he blamed her, he did so only to the extent that he blamed himself. And to make love now, as soon as possible after what had happened, might seal the breach between them.
He put his hand on her shoulder again. She didn't move.
He slid his hand up her spine under her pajama jacket.
"No," she said flatly.
"I can, Daisy. Let me show you that I can."
"Tomorrow."
He moved his hand down her back and under her pajama pants to touch her buttocks.
"I love you, darling. Let me show you how much I-
"Able!" She shoved his hand away. "I said no! I know you're good, you don't have to prove anything. All I want right now is some sleep! Do you mind?"
He gave up.
He rolled away from her, turned off the lamp at the side of the bed, and settled down in the darkness, reflecting on the fact that he and Daisy hadn't even kissed good night.
His mind was still in turmoil, still refusing to function properly. He couldn't quite absorb the shock of what had happened. He pictured Daisy lying naked on the couch, first Ben loving her and then Chuck, but the vision didn't seem quite real. He felt as if he'd dreamed what had happened.
What would tomorrow be like?
He didn't know. Would he make love to Daisy? Somehow he couldn't imagine himself doing such a thing. The idea that he'd ever make love to any woman again seemed strangely remote.
A vast sickness grew in his guts.
What would Daisy think of him from now on? What would Ben and Chuck, with whom he had to work everyday, think of him? If Ben first made love to Daisy and then beat Able out of the promotion.
Daisy, Ben, all of them would look down on him....
He realized that his self-esteem was shot. Perhaps if he could get the promotion for himself, he could win back his ego and show Daisy that he was a real man after all.
Until now he'd more or less taken for granted that Ben would get the promotion. But now he knew that he had to win it for himself. He absolutely had to....
Chuck left the bathroom, pulled down the covers on the bed, and threw himself onto it. He lit a cigarette and stared at Edna.
She thumped around, pounding her feet, slamming drawers with unnecessary force. Finally she found a lightweight nightgown and started pulling it on.
Chuck knew the signs.
"Are you sore, honey?"
"Sore? Why should I be sore?"
"I haven't the slightest idea." He tried to sound bland and more innocent than he was.
"Well, if you don't know, I can't tell you!"
"If you're feeling frustrated, just give me a little time, honey."
"Oh, don't be a fool!"
Her vehemence shook him. He let a few seconds pass.
"Honey, you told me that you wouldn't care as long as you could watch."
"Yes," she said bitterly, "but I didn't think you'd be such a fool as to actually do it!"
He shook his head. "You did tell me that, Edna.
And you were the one who started it all."
In the act of climbing into bed, she paused to glare at him. "I started it all! I certainly did not! You and Ben-"
"Well, you certainly kept the ball rolling."
"You and Ben were the ones who actually jumped that witch! Nobody forced you, you know!"
"Nobody stopped us, either. And you did say that you wouldn't care-"
"I don't care what I said," Edna declared as she scrambled the rest of the way into bed. "Maybe I meant what I said. But I certainly didn't think you'd be such a fool as to try anything with either of those two witches!"
That brought Chuck up short. "Why not with either of those two?"
Edna rolled over onto her side to face him. "Look! You want the job of manager of the engineering division, don't you?"
"Of course I do. Though I don't think I have much chance."
"And what chance you had you may have thrown down the drain, do you know that?"
"No, I don't know that."
"Both of those men are going to be out to cut your throat from now on. Able, because of what you did to Daisy. Ben, because you saw what he did. Neither one is going to trust you from now on, not the way they used to. Either one of them will take the first possible opportunity to cut your throat and get rid of you!"
"Oh, I don't think so."
"I know so! I know how people act, I know how they react, and from now on they'll be waiting for any and every chance to push you down the ladder!"
Chuck gulped. He was a genius at engineering, but where human relationships were concerned he'd always felt that Edna had a cunning that was beyond him.
"What do you think I ought to do?" he asked weakly.
Edna turned her back. "I don't know. Maybe there's nothing you can do. I'll have to think. All I really know is that I intended for you to get that promotion. I have no intention of being the wife of a nobody all the rest of my life. And if you don't become the new division manager...."
Her words drifted off, and Chuck was left in suspense. For the first time he realized just how ambitious Edna was. And at the same time he realized that her ambition, perhaps to be frustrated, wasn't the only reason for her anger. And neither was her sexual frustration. The fact was that, though she'd told him she wouldn't mind his loving another woman while she watched, his doing so had made her intensely jealous.
And he knew how dangerous a jealous woman could be.
If he didn't get that promotion, Edna might never forgive him. Never. And then she might prove capable of doing anything.
I've got to get that job, he thought. I've got to!
Holy smoke!
Lying in the dark, Fern's bare buttocks pressed against Ben's hip; he could hardly believe what had happened had been real.
Had he actually given Daisy Crowell a loving? Right there in front of her own husband? In front of Chuck and Edna?
In front of Fern?
It was unbelievable! He must have been crazy, he must have been drunk, he must have been so aroused that he didn't know what he was doing!
How was he going to face all those people in the morning? How was he going to face Able and Chuck at work? Especially Able, since Chuck had done the same thing to Daisy right in front of them all.
And Fern. How would she feel about all this tomorrow?
As if sensing his thoughts, Fern shifted and groaned.
"Are you awake, honey?" he asked.
She turned toward him and said, "Yes."
"Baby, are you ... mad at me?"
She laughed quietly and settled her head on his shoulder. "Silly. No. I can't sleep because I'm...." She swept the sheet down off the front of his bare body and her delicate fingers settled upon him. "Because I'm frustrated," she finished.
"I wish I could help you."
Her fingers moved. "Maybe later."
"Maybe." He reached for her legs. "Shall I pet you?"
"No. Let's wait."
"Sure you're not mad at me?"
She shifted closer to him in the darkness and raised up, sweeping the side of his chest with her breasts. For a moment she merely looked down at him and he could see her but dimly. Then she spoke.
"Maybe I should explain something. I don't want you to have any woman but me. But I know how some men are, especially if they're older than me and used to having their freedom. So I tried to prepare myself psychologically. I told myself that I wouldn't care what you might do as long as you didn't become emotionally involved with another woman."
"I'm not emotionally involved. Believe me, darling, I'm not!"
She shushed him. "I'm sure you're not. I think that what happened tonight was pretty silly and pretty awful in a way, especially for Able. But I'm not going to blame you. After all, I kind of egged things on myself, even if I didn't really think anything would happen."
"You didn't think so? Neither did I, until the very last."
"I thought we were all just a little high and all feeling kind of sexy and daring. That we were just going to be a little more bold and honest, in a way, than we had been before. But then .. "
She whisked her fingers over his stomach and his muscles jumped.
"How did it look, watching Chuck?"
"And you, darling? Wild! I never wanted loving more in my life!"
Her fingers dipped and cradled. "And then you had to be disappointed, poor kid." Her head bobbed down and she kissed him. "Only for a while," she said. "For a minute there, I thought that you and Able...."
"I felt sorry for him."
"So did I," Ben said quite truthfully. "I might have been the same way if you and I had gone first. I don't really think so, but who knows?"
"I consider that a compliment, darling, do you know that?"
"But Able really got a blow to his ego tonight."
Fern continued stroking him gently about the legs, and he felt little sensations and a kind of tightening.
"Daisy didn't help much afterwards. Did you see how she ignored him?" Fern asked.
"Well, you can't blame her much."
"I can! If I'd been in her place and you'd been in Able's, you'd have seen me doing all I could to restore your confidence. I'd make sure that everybody knew that there was no man like you for the real thing. And that's true."
She shifted in the darkness, and he felt her warm breath about his legs. Then for a few delightful seconds her kiss moved over him.
She shifted back again and looked down at his face as she went on caressing him, and he stroked one of her breasts, bending the thickened tip. After a moment he touched her stomach and felt her jump. Then they kissed, and she let him alone as he petted her.
"Ben," she said after a few minutes, "Edna was pretty awful to Able, too."
"She sure was."
Fern was quiet again and, knowing her so well, he could almost hear the wheels of her thoughts going around.
"Ben, do you think I should help Able out?" For an instant his heart seemed to stop. 'What do you mean?"
"You know. What we were saying about his ego. If I were to get him to give me a loving-"
"Now, wait a minute!"
"You'd understand, wouldn't you?"
"Honey, the party is over!"
"I know that, but-"
"Tonight was wrong. I know that. I admit that." He found that he was breathless. "I don't want to make the whole screwy deal any more important than it is, but I do want to get back to normal. I want you and only you."
"And I do think you're jealous!" Fern laughed with pleasure. "I was a little afraid that if I wasn't jealous you wouldn't be either!"
"Maybe I am. Anyway, let's let Able take care of his problems, and we'll take care of ours."
Her hand swept over his sensitive nerves again. "What problems do we have?"
"Well, for one thing, I've been counting on that promotion. When a guy gets to be my age, he doesn't get many chances to go up. And if he misses one, that's apt to be the end. And one way or another, this affair tonight could conceivably have repercussions in that department."
She pressed closer to him. "More," she said, her voice shaking, and he moved his fingers more.
"I don't care what happens," she whispered. "I hope you get the new job, but this is the only kind of promotion I'm really interested in!"
At that instant, his full power returned.
Her fingers moved.
"Oh, you're ready again, aren't you!" she said. "You're going to love me, aren't you, aren't you!"
"Yes! Yes!" he said, rolling her onto her back. "I'm going to love you! I'm going to make you go!"
She became a wildcat. The frustration which must have been torturing her was no longer kept hidden.
"Love me! Take me!" She panted and growled explicit commands as he advanced to her.
Then she moaned as he moved to the limit.
She whispered, "Rape me, let loose everything. I'm going to make you skyrocket, I'm going to make you go to the stars, I want to go with you, oh let's go."
They traveled.
Bucking, thrusting, sliding together in the dark, making the trip on and on together.
Until suddenly she slammed at him and gripped his buttocks and cried, "Oh, God!"
And he was quivering, again and again, burning and blazing, lighting up their dark night of love.
"Oh, sweet!" she said, sinking back again.
He sank down upon her softness, and they clung together in the afterglow of their loving....
Daisy couldn't sleep.
With great care not to disturb Able, she sat up in bed and lit a cigarette. She couldn't tell whether her husband was really asleep or not.
Well, tonight had been quite a night!
She wondered if she should feel guilty. She supposed that she should, conventionally speaking, but she didn't feel very conventional.
Able had been silly to act so worked up over what had happened. He was silly to give the matter any importance at all. They'd all had some fun. So what? Lots of people did the same thing. Nobody had really been hurt and nobody would ever say anything outside of their little group. They probably wouldn't even discuss the night among themselves.
Not unless the same thing happened again.
She wondered if it ever would.
She was surprised at herself. She would never have imagined that she could do such a thing. She would never have thought herself capable of loving another man, let alone taking on two of them and, to top things off, taking them right there in front of Able!
Well, that was his fault. She'd been feeling steamy, and he'd gotten her all ready to have him. And then he'd let her down. And she'd felt more in need than at any other time in her life, and he hadn't done a thing to stop her or the two men. How could he have expected her to stop?
She wondered if this would have, in some devious way, any effect on his promotion. That was a thought that chilled her. If Ben got the promotion or, worse yet, Chuck, Able would have to wait for years before he went any higher. Either that or go to a new company, and even there he'd have to wait, in all likelihood. And she didn't want to wait. She wanted status, prestige, and, of course, money.
If Able didn't get the manager's position, she'd never forgive him. Especially after tonight. After tonight, Ben and Fern would look down on them, and she wanted things to be the other way around; she wanted to do the looking down.
How did she really feel about tonight? She tried to be honest with herself.
She felt let down by Able, naturally.
And she had to admit to herself that tonight was one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to her.
Did she feel guilty?
Yes, she did. And somehow that was half the fun. That was partly why doing what she'd done had been so exciting.
Receiving Ben and Chuck in front of everyone had really been more exciting than if she'd done the same thing with her husband.
She had to admit to herself that, good as Able was and skillful as he'd become during the years of their marriage, making love to the same man all the time had become rather routine to her. Because they'd been so excited, perhaps, neither Ben nor Chuck had been very skillful. In fact, they'd been rather crude in their performances. But that very thing had seemed to excite her more, and she'd actually had two big moments with each of them, altogether four of the wildest moments she'd experienced in years.
Yes, she decided, the thing that had been missing from her relationship with Able had been a sense of sin, a sense of doing something daring and outlandish, a sense of doing something delightfully sinful!
She used to think that she'd be jealous if Able cheated on her, but now she could understand why some men cheated and said they couldn't understand why their wives minded. Not that she thought that either her husband or she should turn completely promiscuous or anything like that! But why should he be jealous just because she had a little fun that didn't mean anything?
She sighed and put out her cigarette. She slid down under the sheet.
Of course she'd probably never do anything like this again....
Drifting off to sleep at last, she wondered if she'd ever have the chance....
CHAPTER SEVEN
The next day was rotten.
Each of them secretly wished that last night had been their last at the cabin and that today was the day for their return home. Yet they felt compelled to ignore the events of the night before and to play out this act of their little drama to the very end. To have done otherwise would have been to admit openly the importance of their escapade.
They all tried to be cheerful, but a pall had been cast over them, particularly over Able, who seemed to be drained of life even when he smiled. For the most part they made no reference to what had happened, as if discussion weren't worth while. But even that seemed artificial, and Ben and Chuck traded a few feeble jests and then lapsed into embarrassed silence.
Fern seemed the least affected by the minor orgy in which Daisy, Ben, and Chuck had indulged; Able seemed the most affected. But the affair haunted the minds of all of them.
Another factor of which they didn't speak was "the job", the promotion to manager of Tri-Compass's engineering division. All of them had a feeling that the public loving in which Daisy, Ben, and Chuck had indulged might in some way affect the selection of the successor of George West, but none had any idea of how that would come about. The possibility simply hovered like a cloud, helping to darken their last full day at the cabin.
In the morning they all went swimming, not all together as they'd been inclined to do before, but one, or two, or three at a time. They were all inclined to stay apart from each other, with the exception of Ben and Fern, who still favored each other's company, and Able found himself retiring periodically to the loneliness of his and Daisy's bedroom.
He brooded. His thoughts were scattered and incoherent. Few times in his life had he ever felt so utterly depressed, was deprived of his manhood.
In the early afternoon Daisy came to the room, where he was lying on the bed, one arm thrown over his face. When he removed his arm to look at her, her eyes were flat, and her manner was distant.
"Chuck and Fern and I are going to town. We have some things to get and he wants to have his car checked."
"All right."
"Shall I get you anything?" Clearly he wasn't being invited along on the trip. "No. When will you be back?"
"Chuck says probably not before six. Supper will be late tonight."
"See you then."
Without saying goodbye, Daisy left, shutting the door behind her. Able covered his face with his arm again.
How long he lay there he didn't know. Chuck would be alone with Daisy and Fern. Would he take Daisy on again? Would he give Fern a loving too? Probably not. But last night had put ideas into Able's head.
And perhaps into a number of other heads as well.
Edna and Ben were downstairs somewhere. What were they doing?
He sighed. Ben had said something about workinp on an outboard motor. Edna was probably reading a magazine. Nothing was happening at all. He decided that, rather then waste the entire afternoon lying here, he would go for a swim.
He stripped off the few clothes he was wearing and pulled on a pair of brief, black swimming trunks, the same trunks he'd been wearing the night before. He left the bedroom and padded silently along the hall.
As he started down the stairs, he saw Erna.
She was just stepping into the house, and evidently she'd been swimming. She was holding a woolly white towel in her left hand and her white halter in her right. The only things she had on were a white bathing eap and the bottom of her bikini, and her luxurious naked curves glistened with droplets of water.
She tossed the halter aside, pulled her cap off, and tossed it away too. Then she brought the towel to her breasts and began drying herself.
Able didn't even think of speaking or of moving. He watched the shifting of Edna's large breasts as she drew the towel back and forth over her back. He watched the sensuous movement of the woman's curves as she slowly dried her arms and then her legs.
A motor sputtered in the boat house. That was where Ben was.
Able and Edna were alone.
Last night she'd challenged him. She'd derided him. But he'd known that she'd wanted somebody. And after what Chuck had done she still might want....
He saw her as a chance to regain some portion of what he'd lost, some portion of his manhood.
She looked up and froze as she saw him standing on the stairs.
He continued on down, slowly, as if being careful not to frighten her away. His hands and knees felt shaky. Edna kept her eyes on him for a few seconds and then, more slowly than before, went on drying herself off.
He walked across the room toward her, stopping five feet away. Edna looked at him for a few seconds. Neither of them spoke, neither of them smiled.
Her movements became more sensuous, more alluring, than ever. Looking at the swing of her breasts, he saw that the nipples appeared to be enlarging. He viewed the round curves of her belly and her smooth long legs, frankly seeking stimulation, and a flood of desire invaded him.
Without looking at him., she slipped off her last piece of clothing. She carefully dried her legs.
Then, her feet apart, she turned to face him directly. Her finger tips slid over her abdomen, pointing, and she arched slightly toward him. Her eyes were hazy, her red lips full and soft.
"This is what you want, isn't it?" she asked quietly.
"Yes."
An abrupt change came over her. Her face twisted with rage, and she whipped the towel around her waist.
"You stupid mutt!" she snarled. "You just try to get it! Don't you know when the party's over, chicken? Don't you know you couldn't take what you wanted if I put it on a platter for you? Go ahead, show me, show me what you've got! Don't you come around spying and making passes at me like a dirty little boy!"
She kept on, but he hardly heard what she said. He was so set back on his heels that he was stunned. Then there was an instant when he had an impulse to do just what she said, to show her what he had. To take her, to rape her if need be.
But he knew that he couldn't do that. He knew at once that he'd failed again, that he'd never be able to make love to Edna, that what had happened last night not only wasn't in the past but might never be.
He turned and rushed back up the stairs, rushed back toward the bedroom, wishing he could bury himself in loneliness forever.
Edna stood there naked, panting, a predatory grin on her lace as she watched Able disappear up the stairs. She felt vicious and victorious, filled with sensual well-being.
So Able Crowell had thought he could get even with Chuck for Chuck's having put the works to Daisy!
Well, she had news for Mr. Able Crowell! She wasn't going to fall into that trap! Certain battle lines had been drawn, and she knew that simply giving Able a loving wasn't going to wipe them out. If she had her way, Able would be so psychologically beaten down that everyone would see that something was wrong with him. He wouldn't be worth two cents at the office, and any slight chance that he might have of being promoted over Chuck's head would go up in smoke.
Standing there, she jiggled her breasts with her hands and she laughed aloud.
She had to admit that she'd gotten a kick out of having Able look at her naked like this, even more of a kick in a way than last night. Because last night she'd been pretty high; now she was sober and could feel and enjoy every last little subtle tingling that went through her.
And Able was an attractive man, even if he'd goofed last night. Too bad, in a way, that he was off-limits.
Now, Ben....
Ben, it occurred to her, was a different matter. She hadn't thought of that before.
Ben was out in the boat house, tinkering around with something or other.
What would Ben be like?
She hadn't cheated on Chuck, not once since they were married. But after what he'd done with Daisy, she really owed him something. Maybe she owed it to herself to get even.
She'd taken on only two men before marrying Chuck, and both of them had been dismal let-downs. But maybe now that she was more experienced....
Such an adventure would be far more thrilling than anything that happened last night, because last night she hadn't gotten anything, not even from Chuck.
Suppose she were to take a little walk down to the boat house just as she was, stark naked, and saw what happened?
She stood there in the doorway for two minutes more. Then she went through the door and out onto the porch. She hesitated, then went down the steps, and over the grass and sand toward the boat house....
Sitting in the stern of the little boat, Ben adjusted the position of the outboard motor, preparatory to fastening it into place. Something had been wrong with the carburetor, and his engineer's instinct had made him want to fix the thing up. Though he was wearing only his walking shorts, his body was lightly filmed with sweat from his exertions.
He heard someone approaching, not the sound of feet but of someone whistling. Each time I look at you
I get that old feeling ... Fern? No, she'd gone to town Able, probably. He didn't look around.
The boat rocked as someone stepped off of the bare wooden planks with one foot. "Hi," that someone said. He twisted around.
In the dim light of the boat house, his gaze fell on a sleek, smooth calf. That led up to a trim knee. He raised his head some more and saw a long firm thigh, and then he saw that he was staring at a blonde, completely naked, and only a few inches from his face.
He looked farther up, seeing the soft subtle contours of the naked stomach that rolled a little as he stared. He looked beyond the deep navel to the rib cage and then to the undersides of large globes, pink-tipped.
He looked into Edna's smiling face framed with golden hair.
His voice was tight in his throat as he turned away. "Have we given up clothes altogether around here?" he asked as casually as possible.
"Why not?" he heard her say. "I thought you might like to go skinny-dipping with me."
He didn't know what to say, and he concentrated on fastening the motor. The boat shifted slightly as she stepped the rest of the way into it. Hands fell on his bare shoulders, and he felt her naked body sliding against him as she sat down close to him. Her hands slid over his back and one of his thighs.
"How about it, Ben? Want to skinny-dip with me?"
"Are you sure that's what you've got in mind?"
She laughed softly and her hands moved on him.
"Can you think of anything better?"
His mind was racing. He knew, they both knew what she was here for. He'd had a number of women before marrying Fern, but he'd honestly not wanted any other since then. Even last night he hadn't really wanted Daisy. He'd simply wanted to love, she'd been waiting and Fern had seemed willing to play along with the crazy gag.
But that didn't mean he couldn't get excited if a female like Edna set out to get him that way. And never before in his life had a woman other than Fern tried to excite him simply by walking up naked to him and commencing to paw him. Every touch she gave him made him shake and set off sparks of desire.
The only trouble was that he really didn't want to be unfaithful to Fern.
"How about it," she asked again as she leaned against him, "can you think of anything better?"
"Aren't you coming to the wrong guy?"
"I don't think so. Why do you say that?"
"You're trying to get even with Chuck for last night, aren't you?"
"No, not really. But since he had his fun, I do feel that I'm entitled to mine."
"Why don't you try Able?"
"Him!" She laughed. "Don't be silly. Are you done fussing with that outboard motor?"
"Yes, I think so."
He turned from the motor toward Edna, sliding against her hands and one of her breasts. Somehow she seemed even more naked now than she had last night
"Br-r-r!" she said. "It's cool in here. See my goose-flesh? See what the cool does to my nipples?"
She looked at a nipple as she brought his fingers to the swollen nub.
"Maybe we'd better get out of here," he said. "We'd better get out into the sunlight where you'll be warm."
"Not yet." Her voice was almost a whisper as she unfastened his waistband. "First take off your shorts. Then we'll skinny-dip." She laughed again. "Honestly, Ben. That's all I have in mind."
From the way she said that, he almost believed her. Or maybe he was kidding himself. All he really knew was that he was having trouble keeping calm.
And that he wanted to be naked with her.
He pushed her hand away and started taking off his shorts. Edna at once backed away from him. She found several pillows in the boat and arranged them so that she could lie back in some comfort, one leg pulled up over the other and her arms above her head. As he looked at her she smiled, scissored her legs, and shook her breasts from side to side. Sober now, he found her attraction even greater than it had been last night.
He pushed his shorts down his legs and off. "All right, if you want to swim naked," he said, "let's go."
"Not yet. First, let's talk."
He nodded. "That's what I figured."
"You really believe that I came out here just to seduce you? Is that what's going through your mind?" Even her smile was a come-on.
"What do you want to talk about, Edna?"
"Oh, about you and me. Do you like me, Ben?"
Did he like her? Not particularly. Did he like what she had, what she was teasing him with? Of course. What man wouldn't?
If Fern knew how Edna was tempting him, surely she'd understand why he yielded. She'd understood about last night, and surely this wasn't so very different. She'd implied that she'd understand if he got a little on the side now and then. So why was he hesitating? Why was he struggling to keep calm? Why did his conscience already bother him a little?
"What man wouldn't like you?" he heard himself say.
"And I like you. Much more than Able. You're taller, and stronger, and," she laughed, "you're so much man!"
As she spoke, she slid closer to him on the bottom of the boat. Then she raised one foot. She advanced the foot slowly toward him, moving it between his knees. The foot came closer still.
Her bare toes touched Mm and wiggled.
He lost his last vestige of calm. At the touch of her moving toes all of Ms force made itself known.
Her toes went on moving against him.
"Do you like that?" she asked.
He didn't answer. He extended his own leg until his toes were moving against her.
Her eyes narrowed and she purred.
The next thing he knew, he was over her and they were exploring with their hands. She smiled, panting, and rolled beneath him, an alluring mass of writhing female flesh; he bent down to kiss her about the neck and breasts.
He pulled away from her, kissed his way to her thighs, hearing her squeal and groan. He was no longer thinking about Fern. He only knew that he was over a naked female who yearned to be taken.
She commanded him bluntly, twice.
He moved over her again, and again her fingers found him.
Then he was seeking his way, little by little.
The white flesh of their tanned bodies met, and they paused, locked tightly together.
"Oh, you're good, you're good," she moaned, "and I'm going to be so good to you! We have all afternoon! We'll do this again and again!"
He tensed his muscles and showed her his strength without moving her hips. The breath went out of her in a long hot sigh.
"Do that!" she said. "Do that some more!"
He repeated his action several times and she strained to get away from him, then shoved back.
He could wait no longer. His hips raised. He moved hard, swinging into a gallop.
Then they were on their way together, traveling harder, always harder as they raced toward the moment of complete ecstasy.
If the day was rotten, the evening was even worse. After a late supper, none of them followed their usual custom of retiring to their rooms. Only Fern and Edna showed any vestige of gaiety, and that was soon subdued by the moodiness of the other four.
They read, watched television, played solitaire.
"I'm going to hit the sack," Able said at ten o'clock. "I want to get away from here early tomorrow."
"That's not a bad idea," Ben said dully.
One by one and two by two they went to their individual rooms.
As soon as they were alone, Daisy fell on Able with a fury.
"You're really smart, aren't you! You really know how to make a fool of yourself, don't you! If you aren't the biggest jackass that ever roamed the face of this green earth!"
"What's the matter now?" Able asked wearily.
"You know perfectly well what's the matter! Of all the fool things to do: to make a pass at Edna Graham!"
So Edna had told Daisy. And probably Fern too. Of course. He should have known she would. She'd make sure that everyone knew that, after last night, he'd made an even bigger fool of himself.
"Is what I did any worse than what you did?" he asked dispiritedly.
"Are you trying to blame me?"
A sudden insight hit him. He looked at Daisy as if he were seeing her fox the first time.
"Actually, you're angrier with me for failing to seduce Edna than you would have been if I'd succeeded, aren't you?"
For a moment he thought that she was going to hit him.
"Yes!" she said. "If you'd succeeded, at least you'd have been a man! But instead you had to make me look more like a fool than ever for marrying you!"
Her words seemed to backlash at her. She paled and brought a hand to her cheek as if she knew that she could expect murder from him for such a remark, even though his expression didn't change.
"I'm sorry, Abe," she said softly. "That was a terrible thing for me to say. But, Able, I just hope you show them all who you are by getting that job!"
His whole world, he thought bleakly, seemed to depend on his getting the promotion. And right now he felt as if he hardly had the strength to go on Mving.
In another room Fern Lancing sat on the bed in a flimsy baby-doll nightie, without pants, and wished that her husband would take it off her. She looked down at Ben, the moonlight from the window streaming over his broad deep chest. His eyes were closed, but she sensed that he was still awake. For the first time since their arrival at the cabin he was wearing pajama pants, and he'd pointedly ignored every signal she'd sent up.
Still she wanted him. She wanted him badly. Ordinarily her fuse wasn't lit with any particular speed, nor was she especially slow about cooling off when things didn't work out. But during the last couple of weeks she'd become attuned to regular and frequent loving, such as few people get except on a honeymoon or during a vacation. She realized sadly that tomorrow this second honeymoon would come to an end and that their loving would once again be curtailed by the frustrating time-table of civilized existence.
She hadn't had any loving from Ben since the small hours of last night, and she thought that this final night should be the best of all. But it wasn't. The whole house was cast in gloom, a gloom which she realized wasn't generated simply by the fact that sadness was caused by Edna's contemptuous tattling to her of Able's feeble and abortive attempt at seduction. She didn't think that Able was right in what he'd done, but she could understand why he'd made the pass. She thought that Edna might at least have let the poor guy down gently.
"Ben, darling?"
"Hm?"
She drifted her hand over the front of his pa-jama pants.
"If you're having trouble sleeping, I can help you."
"I could sleep," he mumbled, "if you'd lie down and go to sleep yourself." She tried to entice him.
"Wouldn't you like to ... our last night here?" She kept trying, but he didn't respond.
"Honey, a guy is like a girl in that there are certain times he just doesn't feel like moving. And when he feels that way, usually he can't."
She withdrew her hand. She understood that there was some truth in what he'd said, but somehow she didn't believe that he'd told her the real reason for his coolness. While he was no insatiable adolescent, she'd seldom if ever found him completely unresponsive before.
She remembered what Edna had told her about being naked in front of Able.
She remembered that Edna had said something about spending the afternoon swimming and doing a little skinny-dipping. With Ben? Fern had asked casually, jokingly. Edna had looked startled, then grinned. Sure! Who else?
Edna and Ben.
Fern had honestly meant what she'd said when she'd told Ben that she'd try to be understanding if he ever cheated on her. But, still, the idea that he might have done so hurt her, and she wondered if the party would trigger a series of infidelities on his part. Maybe he would find that he was tired of her.
She was hurt further by the idea that he would suddenly go behind her back. That he would have his fun with a woman who obviously had hurt poor Able very badly. That he would spoil their second honeymoon by secretly taking on Edna, not even doing so as part of a joke, admittedly a very bad joke, like his loving of Daisy.
But maybe nothing had happened between him and Edna.
She had to know. She felt a rift of suspicion between them, a rift which could only be healed by the truth. If he would tell her the truth, they would somehow find a way to turn what had happened into inconsequential nonsense. They would joke about him and Edna. And he'd know all the more how much sho loved him, he'd love her all the more, and he'd be all the less apt to turn to another woman in the future.
"Ben?"
"Yes?"
"Is there something you want to tell me?"
"About what?"
"I won't be angry. Honestly."
"About what, for Pete's sake!"
"About you and Edna this after-"
"Nothing happened!" he said too quickly, too sharp ly. "We skinny-dipped two or three times, that was all, just like the whole gang of us did yesterday evening!"
And look at what that led to, she thought sadly. "Ben, if you told me, I wouldn't be mad."
"Honey, we've got a long drive ahead of us tomorrow! "
She gave up. She lay down and rolled away from him. And for the first time since her marriage she found herself on the verge of tears.
Able would help me, she thought miserably in the darkness, and I would help Able....
In yet another room Edna Graham looked gleefully at the surprise on Chuck's face as she played with him more lustily and wantonly than ever. Lying on her back as he kneeled and arched over her, she pulled and twisted and stroked him.
"Where shall I put you, baby?"
"Edna, honey!"
"Come on! That's right! Oh, you're a bull!" They settled down, locked close together. He was great, she thought, great! And after tonight he'd never guess that she and Ben....
She laughed to herself. Four times!
She doubted that Ben would be much use to Fern tonight. But Chuck was certainly of use to her, and she was enjoying herself as much as ever.
Of course, she was crazy to have done what she did with Ben. She admitted that to herself. And she would certainly never do such a crazy thing again! She'd make things up to Chuck without his ever realizing what had happened.
But, just the same, she'd gotten a special kind of thrill out of taking Ben on. He was the only man besides her husband with whom she'd made the grade.
And now, even before she and Chuck had started to move, she felt herself approaching another.
"Oh, Chuck-swing me!"
He drew away and came thundering back.
Thundering-everything seemed to come tumbling in on her as she achieved complete glory.
And then they were striking, bucking as she made he way toward the ultimate moment with him once more.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nothing could remain as it was.
A machine had been wound, a fuse had been lit, a bomb had been triggered.
For exactly three weeks four couples lived as if they were teetering on the brink of a great change in their lives, without ever knowning it. And when the change did come, some hardly realized it at first.
The place: the Tri-Compass Club. A company-run country club for the staff and its guests. A big club house centered on broad green lawns. Two bars, three dining rooms, a large dance floor, guest rooms. A swimming pool, a wading pool, game courts, a golf course, the works.
The time: the annual End-of-Summer Dance, a hot evening in late September.
Swimmers splash about in the brightly lit pool. Drinkers crowd about the table and into the booths. Dancers circle about the dance floor.
And George West holds Fern Lancing in his arms.
At that particular moment, still comparatively early in the evening, George was the only one who had any idea of what was to come. He was already a little high and more than a little excited.
As they danced, he held the copper-headed girl close and yet managed to look down into her low-cut black dress, thinking that soon he might very well have his hands on those high, round boobs. He'd never before dared to approach certain women; he'd kept his chasing away from the company and the club. But having learned what had happened at the cabin, he saw this as too good a chance to be missed.
Any or all of the three women involved might be his.
Fern looked up at him with shocked eyes. "Chuck told you what?"
"He told me about the whole party. You know what I mean."
"No! No, I don't!"
George chuckled with good humor. "Oh, come off of it, Fern. We're both adults, I'm not shocked. So you all had a little fun, especially Daisy and Ben and Chuck. So what? It was all between friends, wasn't it?"
From Fern's look, George thought for a minute that he was wrong. Chuck, who had been drinking heavily, had told the story, seemingly because he needed to get it off of his chest. But maybe the guy was putting him on, maybe the guy had an overly active imagination.
But then Fern said, panic in her voice, "What exactly did Chuck tell you?"
"Oh, all about your naked moonlight swim, about everybody getting pretty high and pretty excited, about how Daisy finally took on Ben and Chuck while the rest of you stood around and watched."
Fern's eyes were wild. She looked as if she were about to bolt away from him, and he held her tightly.
"Hey, take it easy, kid," he said gently. "I'm not about to tell the story all around, you ought to know that. Why, I think the world of you and Ben. And he's one of the main candidates to take over the managership of my department when I step up. You don't think I'd tell anything that would hurt old Ben, do you?"
She didn't answer, and he hung onto her and kept her dancing. After a couple of minutes he could feel her sweet young body relaxing aganst him. That meant the first stage was passed successfully.
His logic was simple. Perhaps too simple. He figured that any woman who watched her husband take another woman, or who took another man in front of her husband, could be had. Especially if her husband's career was in the balance. And he figured that a woman like Fern who knew that her husband had had a thrill on the side would want to even the balance.
"You know," he said softly, "if Ben gets the promotion, we'll be working together, closer than ever."
"That's nice," Fern said weakly.
"We should all be much closer friends."
"We're already friends, aren't we, George?"
"Certainly we are. That's why I think I can talk frankly to you, Fran. You don't mind if I ask a question, do you?"
"What's that?"
"After you saw Ben and Daisy make love, what did you do to even the score?"
"Why-nothing."
"Nothing? An intelligent, spirited girl like you?"
"I don't feel there's any score to even, George. Chuck sort of exaggerated things!"
George laughed. "Tell me the truth. You have thought about evening the score, haven't you."
"No!" Fern's voice was small and frightened, and he saw that she had trouble swallowing.
"But if you did, you could even things up and-ah-shall we say, improve Ben's chances of advancement at the same time. Have you thought about that?"
Fern stared at him.
"Yes, that's right, Fern," he said softly.
"George, are you propositioning me?"
"Let's just say that Ben and Daisy enjoyed themselves. And I, for one, see no reason why you shouldn't do the same thing."
"With you."
He laughed again and threw her words back at her: "Fern, are you propositioning me?"
They danced for a minute in silence, and he thought he had the deal made.
"You're putting me on the spot," she said.
"Now, don't look at it that way."
"I do look at it that way. You're saying I should get even with Ben and help him get his promotion at the same time by sleeping with you."
"I'm merely suggesting we should get to be better friends. It's done all the time."
"But not by me." Her voice was rising and he hoped she'd hold it down. "I'm not pretending to be lily-pure, George, and I do want Ben to get that promotion. But I'm married to Ben and not to his career. And even if I were willing to give some things away, I still wouldn't sell them. In other words, no, George. I will not accommodate you."
His face stung. "Fern," he began dangerously.
"And please don't ask me again. Let's forget all about this little conversation, shall we?"
He burned. He'd been so sure of his game. And who was she, a woman who'd done what she'd done, to take a high-hat tone with him?
He might have said something he'd later regret, but at that moment Chuck lurched up, Edna at his elbow.
"Cuttin' in, ol' man," he said with a thick tongue. "Your turn with lil ol' Edna."
Fern turned eagely to Chuck, and they moved away while George stared after them.
"Hey, have you forgotten me?" he heard Edna say.
He turned to her. He held out his arms, and she glided into them, smiling at him. He smiled back. "No, I haven't forgotten you," he said.
Inez West sat with Able Crowell at a table-for-two in one of the bars. She was drunk, and she knew she was drunk, yet she didn't feel drunk. And to her that was miserable.
She liked Able. She could sit quietly with him; he didn't feel the need to keep up a running conversation. Neither was he discomfited by her own lapses into silence. She suspected that he had his own burden of problems and somehow, sitting together, they shared their troubles without ever speaking of them openly or directly.
But Inez was feeling an increasing need to tell someone what bothered her.
She looked out from their little circle of light by the wall, trying to locate George. He was nowhere in sight, which was hardly unusual. Whenever they went to a dance or a party she generally saw very little of him from beginning to end. She'd almost reached the point where she liked it that way.
But tonight she wanted to see George. She wanted to keep him in sight. She didn't want to believe that he was extending his territory for skirt-chasing to the Tri-Compass Club. That would be the limit: too much for her to take. People already gave her that humiliating poor-thing look, and far more would do so if he started playing around this close to home.
Unfortunately she saw the signs. She knew George better than anyone, and when he got a certain hungry look in his eyes and his gaze began to linger on to the women in a certain way, she knew what he was after.
And she'd noticed him looking like that earlier in the evening.
Hence she was drunk and getting drunker. She was glad that Able was nearby because he was sympathetic and because, she admitted the truth to herself, she needed a man.
George had given her no loving at all since that frustrating night three weeks ago, and now she sat here and simmered, her legs all but aching with want. She wondered about Able and Daisy. Did he ever leave his wife in the condition that she was in? She doubted that he did. She had a feeling that Able satisfied Daisy's longings at least a couple of times a week. Probably tonight when the two got home and were ready for bed they would touch each other and get excited.
Inez shut her eyes tightly, trying to keep her fantasies from getting started.
"Something the matter?" Able asked.
"No. Nothing." She knew that a perceptive person might guess what was bothering her, and she tried to divert Able's attention from her. "I imagine you're pretty much in suspense about the promotion, aren't you?"
He shrugged and smiled. "I don't suppose you can give me some inside dope?"
"I honestly don't know, Able; George doesn't tell me an awful lot about what goes on at the office."
"So making time with my boss's wife doesn't do me any good."
"I'm afraid not."
Nothing did Able any good these days as far as he was concerned. At the office everything was going to pot, and he figured that if he'd ever had any chance of getting the promotion, he'd pretty well blown it. The ironic thing was that his relationship with Daisy had made getting the promotion imperative at the same time that it had made getting it virtually impossible.
He didn't know when he'd ever been more depressed, and his depression naturally affected his work. He had a feeling that everybody at the office knew that he was on the skids. And Daisy urged him to work for the promotion at the same time that she broke down his ego. Sometimes he thought that unconsciously she actually wanted him to fail.
They hadn't made love since the night that she'd taken on Ben and Chuck.
Not that he hadn't tried. He'd tried time and time again, but she'd consistently refused to receive him.
At first she'd made excuses: she wasn't in the mood; she was too tired. But finally, a few nights ago, when he'd been so frustrated that he'd practically tried to rape her, the truth had come out, or at least a part of the truth.
"Go ahead!" she'd said angrily as he'd held her naked body pinned to the bed. "Go ahead and force me if that'll make you feel more like a man. But it won't make you a real man!"
"Like Ben, you mean? Like Chuck?"
"You said it, I didn't!"
Wearily he relaxed his grip on her. His excitement was already fading away. "So that's what you think of me. Because of what happened that night, I'm no longer enough of a male for you."
She looked at him worriedly. "Not just that night, Able. I thought you understood. The worst thing you did was too make a fool of yourself by making a pass at Edna. All I want you to do is to prove that you're as good as Ben and Chuck."
"By getting the promotion."
"Yes."
"And then we'll be lovers again."
She smiled slightly and stroked his arm. "We'll make love like we never have before in our lives."
"This is your idea of giving me some extra incentive?"
"If you really want me, this should be a pretty good incentive."
He thought about that. What if she were right? Was it possible that his love was crumbling away as a result of what had happened at the cabin and of her recent coolness toward him?
He didn't try to answer the question.
"Baby, I hate to tell you," he said softly, "but I see very little chance of my getting that promotion. I never did see much chance."
Her face hardened. "Well, what am I supposed to do? Love you for yourself?"
"You might try. I once thought you did love me for myself."
She didn't answer She stared at him for a long moment, then rolled away, mumbling four words: "You get that promotion."
And so things stood. Actually he didn't blame Daisy as much as he might have. He considered himself to be something of a fool for having fallen apart simply because of the way a couple of women had behaved. He would never have guessed that his ego was so vulnerable.
He looked at Inez West. He liked the way her Mack hair was pulled back tightly from her high, wide forehead. He thought her eyes were exceptionally striking, and he liked her high cheekbones and her strong jaw. And of course her complexion and figure could hardly be faulted.
The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them: "You know, you're really an extraordinarily lovely woman."
He felt as startled by his words as she looked. She stared at him and flushed.
"What in the world made you say that?"
"I don't know. I guess I didn't have any right, but somehow the words just came out of my mouth."
"Well, I'm glad that they did."
For a few seconds he could have sworn that she was going to cry. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, they both laughed.
"Would you like to dance?" he asked.
"I'd love to."
They didn't notice Edna and George sitting side by side in a round corner booth, and Edna held her breath until the pair had passed.
So Able was trying to score points with the boss's wife, she thought. Well, a fat lot of good that was going to do him in advancing his career. Edna knew a better way. For Chuck's sake, she would score points with the boss himself.
George hadn't noticed Able and Inez either, she was relieved to see. His attention was altogether on her, which was exactly what she wanted. She'd never expected to have an opportunity like this, and she certainly wasn't going to pass it up.
Under the table, George's left hand rested warmly on her right thigh, and she could discern each of the four fingers that pressed through her skirt to indent her sensitive flesh. Now and then the hand moved up and down her leg slightly, sending ripples of desire through her.
For some time she pretended not to notice the hand. She'd heard rumors that George was a chaser Who hadn't heard them? But she'd never noticed any real evidence of the fact, and he'd never touched her the way he was touching her tonight. Neither had she touched him or even thought of doing so.
Now she did both.
As casually as she could, she let her hand drift over under the table and settle upon George's hard-muscled leg just above the knee. She felt a tremor go through him.
"I'm glad we're getting better acquainted, Edna," he said. "After all, Chuck may be stepping into my shoes within a few days, and I feel that we should be much closer friends, don't you?"
His words excited her as much as his touch. "Has a final decision been made?" she asked, trying to sound interested but not eager.
"No, not yet. I'll have the major say in the selection of the man, of course, and I've got to be very sure I pick the right person. And in modern industry the right person for a managerial position should have the right kind of wife, as I'm sure you can understand."
She moved her fingers against his thigh. "Certainly," she said, "but what do you think the right kind of wife should be like?"
"Understanding ... personable ... sociable. He returned her caresses. "Cooperative, naturally. And she should look on the people for whom her husband works as her friends. Even have a certain affection for them, if that's possible. Life at the executive level is a pretty intimate thing. I mean, people get to know each other very well, and they should behave like one big family, if that doesn't sound too trite."
"I don't think that's trite at all. I think that's quite reasonable."
"I'm glad we see eye to eye on that. Frankly, I don't think I'd feel quite right about pushing Chuck for the job unless, to some extent, you and I shared a common philosophy. I feel that executives and their wives should share a lot of things, not only their work. They should share their pleasures as well. What do you think?"
"Oh, I quite agree. If you and I couldn't sit here like this and share a few drinks and some conversation and generally feel good about being together, Chuck would certainly be the wrong person for you to choose."
His fingers worked against her, and she moved her hand farther up on his leg. They were rapidly dropping any pretense, and she had a longing for him to touch her more intimately, and to do the same to him.
"I think we understand each other," he said calmly, though she was sure that he was no more calm than she was.
How far did he intend to go, she wondered.
And, just as much to the point, how far did she intend to go? But for the moment she avoided answering that question.
The important thing was that, quite unexpectedly, she'd been given an opportunity to make sure that Chuck was promoted. She must be careful not to alienate George. If he wanted to feel her leg, that was all right. That was a small price to pay for what she wanted. She was even quite wililng to feel George's leg if that would make him favor Chuck.
She might even be willing to go a little farther, for instance, to do a little heavy petting. Chuck would never know. Other people, she knew, did such things, and Chuck would only be helped.
And if she were to do such a thing for George, would that be any worse than what Chuck had done to Daisy Crowell? The memory of that little episode still rankled Edna. Maybe this was a chance for her to undo the damage she'd accused her husband of doing.
She took a deep breath. "I shouldn't admit it," she said, "but I think I've drunk a little too much. I think I could use a little fresh air."
"Why certainly, Edna," George said solicitously. "Why don't we got for a little walk outside?"
"I'd like that."
They slid out of the booth, and she led the way from the bar, he at her elbow. As they went through the brightly lighted main lobby, she managed to look into the ballroom, but she didn't see Chuck. She hoped that he wouldn't see her either. They walked out the front door, trying to look more casual than Edna felt.
Nothing's going to happen, she thought as they walked into the darkness of outdoors. If he tries to kiss me, that's nothing. I'll let him. What's a kiss? If he starts petting, that's fine. If he wants me to pet him to the limit, why not?
But, she thought, maybe she shouldn't go beyond that.
Still, that afternoon with Ben had been such fun.
And if she'd gotten even with Chuck once, why shouldn't she have some fun just one more time? Especially since doing so would help Chuck's career? And since Chuck hadn't been the first man to take her, what did it matter, really, if she now had just one more?
She walked close to George in the darkness, paying little attention to where they were heading. She missed the feel of his hand on her thigh.
Then he stopped, turned toward her, and pulled her close to him. From knee to shoulder they met, and her head automatically tilted back. A hard mouth came down upon her soft lips.
For an instant . pretended to struggle, not too hard. Then she melted against him. She could feel ; excitement pounding at her through their clothing, and that aroused her all the more.
"Oh, George!" she said breathlessly.
He still held her close. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that," he said.
"Oh, I think I understand. Sometimes two people meet, and they have a special kind of attraction for each other. They seem to shame a-special kind of...."
"Of need for each other?"
"Yes. And what good are friends that can't express their needs?"
She had hardly said the words when she realized that she'd practically told him that she was willing to go all the way. If that was what he wanted to do, she hardly dared to back out now.
His arms tightened around her again, and again their mouths met, this time their tongues touching. Passion flared in her.
And now she hoped that he would want to go all the way.
"Where can we go," she said, "to sit down?"
"Come on."
Then she realized that they were quite near the club parking lot. They were standing on a lawn by some shrubbery that blocked the widely separated lights of the lot An arm around her shoulder, George led her through ranks of cars until he came to a big black Caddy.
He opened a back door and said, "Get in."
"In the back?"
"There's more room."
She climbed into the back of the car, thinking, He's going to love me! He's going to open my clothes and his and....
George climbed in beside her and closed the door as quietly as possible. The moment he turned to her, they slipped into each other's arms.
She hoped he wouldn't make her wait too long; she was already keyed up and had been for quite some time now. If she was going to have him, she wanted to do so as soon as possible.
He didn't disappoint her. As they kissed, he pushed her skirt up on her legs and his fingers were on her bare flesh for the first time. They slid about, making her flames roar higher. The next thing she knew, he was pulling at the buttons on the front of her dress.
She put up a token resistance.
"George, you shouldn't!"
"I only want to see you, to touch you."
"I know, and I want you to, George, but just the same-"
His lips pressed on hers again, and she allowed his fingers to go farther. SeveraJ buttons came undone, and then his fingers were sliding over her bare ribs, making her tingle and smolder. He raised his hand and pushed three fingers into the top of her cleavage, then slid them from' side to side over the smooth bowls.
Not long after that, she allowed him to pull the bra up and both globes emerged into the open. Rough male lips traveled over their smoothness. She felt a tongue and then teeth against one stiff, pink nipple. Fingers delicately plucked at the other nipple, drawing and twisting, and then a hand was sliding about her bare legs again, making her pant with want.
This was so exciting, she thought. A number of times after her afternoon with Ben she'd told herself that she would never again cheat; she'd never again take on a man other than Chuck. Now she was glad that she was wrong. George was thrilling her as much as Ben had.
After Chuck got his promotion, George might want further payments. He might want her to meet him periodically in the future. Right now Edna didn't care. She was so aflame that she hoped he would want her again in the days to come. She might have to pay for the promotion on the installment plan, but she couldn't think of a more delightful way of doing so.
"Oh, George!"
"Yes, lovely?"
"You're making me so excited!"
"Don't you like to be excited?"
"Oh, yes! Yes."
She wiggled her hips, and his fingers slid against silk. He knew what to do next, and she gave him no trouble at all as he slid the material over her hips and then down her legs. His hand wandered over her delightfully contracting stomach and around her thighs.
For a moment she kept them pressed tightly together. Then she relaxed and let him go where he wanted and do as he pleased.
And what pleased him pleased her as well, until she was gasping with a hunger for him that was maddening.
"Oh, George!" she moaned, and she reached for his belt buckle.
A minute later he was as available to her. She stroked, cupped, cradled, and twisted, crazing herself as much as she was crazing him.
"Darling," she said softly and longingly, "you're so strong!"
"And you're so sweet."
"You're strong, so male!"
"You're so desirable."
"Do you desire me, George?"
"More than anything else in the world."
"Am I making you feel good?"
"Wonderful. And you?"
"You're driving me mad, George. Oh, darling!"
They wrestled in the darkness of the back seat, holding and stroking each other until Edna knew that she couldn't wait any longer. She tightened the fingers that held him.
"Darling, shall I make you finish?"
"No."
He pulled, her hand away from his body, pushed her farther onto her back, and got over her. She shifted one leg out of his way.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, knowing perfectly well.
"I'm going to take you," he said huskily. "We shouldn't, we shouldn't!"
"We should!" He brought her hand to his hard body again. "Don't you want me?"
"Oh, yes!"
"Take me, darling! Take me!"
She raised her hips slightly and drew him to where she wanted him. There was a moment of burning, tingling contact, and he started moving closer. He pulled away, then slid closer yet, and then she had him.
"Oh, darling, darling!" she whispered, gripping him with all her strength.
But she wasn't gripping George West only. She was also gripping the promotion which she intended Chuck to have. That, in the last analysis, was the important thing: Chuck's advancement in his career and her advancement right along with him as his wife. This pleasure which she was experiencing was wonderful, but it was transitory. The job was something permanent.
For the moment, however, Edna thought no more about the promotion. She thought no more about her long-range reason for giving in to George West. She gave herself up to the experience of rising to meet his rapid thrusts as they traveled toward the moment of climactic joy.
This was too much, Inez Read West thought.
While dancing with Able Crowell she'd thought she'd seen George leaving the building with some woman; she hadn't gotten enough of a look to see who.
She'd tried to kid herself that the departure meant nothing, though her experience told her otherwise. She'd danced with Able until another man had cut in; she'd had a couple of drinks; she'd danced some more. And waited.
She hadn't been able to keep from waiting, however hard she'd tried to divert her mind to other matters. And now she saw George coming back into the building, George and Edna Graham.
The moment she laid eyes on them she knew what had happened. She would have known even if she hadn't seen them depart and return again. Almost anyone would have known, or so Inez thought, by a glance at the slack, exhausted faces and the very way that the pair walked. She knew George well enough to be able to tell that he had given Edna two lovings. No more or less.
She knew.
Yes, this was too much. When she'd hired a detective before, she'd failed to obtain the evidence she needed, but this time she wouldn't hire a detective. She would talk to her father, Thompson Read, tonight. He would know what to do. He would act quickly and surely, and in a day or a month George would be through. Done. Washed up. With her, with the company, with her father. She could be almost sorry for her ex-husband-to-be when she thought of just how washed up he would be.
Poor skirt-chasing George.
Her father never had really liked the man.
CHAPTER NINE
Inez West wasn't the only person who saw George West leave the building with a woman. Fern Lancing was standing alone in the shadow outside. She was troubled. The whole past three weeks had been troublesome for her. At first she'd thought that the final incidents of the vacation at the cabin would gradually fade from memory, becoming increasingly unreal and leaving everything more or less as it had been before.
She'd been wrong.
Changes bad been wrought which couldn't be reversed. Seeing Daisy from time to time, Fern had noticed a new hardness and a new sullenness about her. When Daisy spoke of her husband Able, there was always a hint of scorn in her voice, a note of contempt which had never been there before. Fern wondered how Daisy was treating her husband these days-and nights. Badly, was her guess. Very badly. And Fern felt in some measure responsible because of her and Ben's participation in the events of that wild night.
Edna had changed too. Or perhaps it would be more truthful to say that her real nature had at last emerged. She never failed to treat Fern with a kind of condescension which was grating, to say the least. And Fern was sensitive and perceptive enough to be further convinced that the blonde had made love with Ben. If Ben had admitted the truth, Fern would have been able to put Edna down. She might have said something like, "Honey, don't get such a big head. I know all about your fun and games and couldn't care less!" But as things stood, Edna could act as if she were the one who was one up on a rival, and Fern could only fume.
She was angered enough to tell herself that if Edna gave her the high hat, she'd get back at her by seducing Chuck one of these days. But she knew she wouldn't actually do such a thing. She didn't need Chuck, and he didn't need her; somehow that made such a seduction impossible for her.
When she saw George and Edna leaving the building and walking slowly away into the night, she knew, with a woman's intuition, what was happening. Or perhaps, she told herself, her intuition wasn't responsible at all: she knew the kind of man George was rumored to be, and she knew the kind of woman Edna was turning out to be.
She didn't want to follow the pair. Voyeurism was against her nature, even if she had been one of the watchers during Daisy's love-making with the two men. In that instance, at least she hadn't watched secretly. Now she was watching secretly, to her disgust, and her feet following silently after George and Edna seemed to have a life of their own.
When she saw them kissing, she managed to break away. She turned in the darkness and walked back toward the building.
She knew what Edna was up to. The blonde wasn't merely out after an illicit thrill, much as she might enjoy one. George was the boss, the division manager who was stepping up to a vice-presidency. And Edna was bound and determined that her husband should get ahead.
What was more, she'd probably succeed, much to Fern's disgust. In her view, either Ben or Able would make a better candidate, however brilliant Chuck might be, but Edna would very likely get just what she wanted. Remembering that George had given her a chance to be in Edna's place, she regretted for a minute that she hadn't given him what he wanted. But only for a minute. She didn't really believe that she could have sold herself in that particular manner.
Poor Able, she thought as she went back into the club. He was losing everything, it would seem: the promotion, his self-respect, the respect of his wife.
Even Ben, who was usually most understanding, seemed to have become rather surly in his attitude toward Able lately.
She wished she could do something for him, something that would help Able to become himself again.
Like a good many other people at the Tri-Compass Club that night, Able Crowell took a dip in the brightly lit swimming pool. The water was warm but so was the air, so he felt no shock when he climbed back up the ladder. His skin dried quickly, almost before he'd pulled on his white terry cloth robe and settled into a deck chair to watch the crowd.
He looked about to see if Daisy were nearby, but he didn't spot her anywhere. He seldom saw her when they went out to any kind of party these days. He never knew whom she was with or what she was doing, and at times he was almost relieved that that was so.
We can't go on like this, he thought. Something has to give, something has to break. If only I could get that promotion ... But what were the chances? He tried to forget about his trouble by concentrating on the near-naked bodies and the cheerful voices about the pool.
"Able, I want to talk to you."
At first he hardly heard the voice. Then a hand fell lightly upon his shoulder and the words penetrated. He turned in his chair and looked up, meeting the gaze of the copper-haired girl in the low-cut black dress. Even sitting down as he was he could see the way her firm breasts emerged from her neckline, and he couldn't help remembering how she'd looked on that occasion, just twenty-two nights ago, when six people had been naked and drunk, "inspired by the devil."
"Sure, Fern. Sit down."
He got up to give her his chair, but instead of accepting it she took his hand.
"No," she said. "Somewhere else."
He noticed an odd glint in her eyes, an excited, almost frightened look.
"Wherever you say, Fern."
She led him away from the pool slowly and, to all appearances, casually. But he sensed that she felt anything but casual, and her tension communicated itself to him. She wanted to talk to him for some reason of importance, of that he was more certain by the second.
The bright lights of the pool fell behind them and the sky, which had seemed black, brightened. Away from the flood lights, the stars appeared, glittering by the millions in the dark sky. They passed groups and couples less frequently, and voices faded into the distance. He had no idea of where she meant to take him, but his clogs passed from flagstones to soft grass, and after a few minutes she took off her high-heeled shoes to walk barefooted on the grass.
For some time she didn't speak. He looked for something to say and found nothing. Then, as they moved on in the dark, still hand in hand and apparently headed for the golf course, she said awkwardly, "Ben tells me you haven't been doing very well at the office."
He tasted resentment like a bitterness in his mouth. Naturally people like Ben and Chuck would bring word of his deep depression to their wives. And no doubt Edna, if not Fern, would speak of the matter with pretended solicitude to Daisy, and Daisy's contempt for him would be increased.
He kept his voice light and dry. "I suppose that Ben is vastly concerned with my well-being. I'm happy to know that."
"I'm concerned with your well-being," she said.
He could think of nothing to say other than, "That's nice of you."
They walked on in silence. He wondered what would happen if he were to make a pass at her. She would probably be resentful, and if he was insistent she might cry. And if she yielded he might, in his present state of mind, fail, which would depress him more than ever.
Yet he couldn't help but feel an attraction toward her. He was starved for a woman, and he had a natural desire to prove to himself that he was still a man. And Fern was undeniably a luscious female. Walking along in the darkness beside her, he looked down at the pale globes and deep cleavage that came out of the top of her black dress, and again he wondered what would happen if he were to take her into his arms.
"This way," she said, and she veered off in a new direction. The club was far from them now, its lights hardly discernible in the distance, and they hadn't seen anyone for several minutes.
That realization brought Able a fresh sense of suspense. Why was Fern taking him so far from the club? He didn't dare attempt to answer the question.
"Here," she said at last. "This is fine."
They were on a very gentle slope of soft grass, and a nearby stand of shrubbery blocked any last light from the club which they might otherwise have seen. Fern had ended their walk with a circle which had revealed that they were quite alone. Lovers were known to visit the golf course from time to time, but they seemed to be far from any who might be out here tonight.
"Why don't you take off your robe?" she said softly. "Spread it out on the grass and we can sit on it."
He did as she suggested. The robe covered only a small area so they had to sit close together. As she sat down, one of her shoulder straps slipped off, and her skirt slid high up on her slender legs; under starlight her curves looked more attractive than ever.
He kicked off his clogs. A gentle breeze caressed his bare skin like a woman's hands, reminding him of his frustration of recent weeks. It had been a long time since he'd been alone with a girl in circumstances like this.
"Why have you been so depressed recently?" Fern asked
"Me? Depressed? Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Don't joke, Able. You were depressed before we left the cabin, and from all I've seen of you and heard about you since, you're still that way, only more so."
"If that's really true, you ought to be able to answer your own question."
She nodded. "I can. I only asked because I couldn't think of a better way of bringing the subject up."
Now he was pretty sure he knew why she'd brought him here. Soul-searching, amateur analysis, inspiration, all that jazz. He'd seen the routine a hundred times: a girl getting vicarious kicks by talking sex rather than actually doing anything. Still, he was inclined to think that Fern meant well.
"Why bring the subject up at all?" he asked listlessly.
"Because I think you got a pretty rotten deal all the way around. Especially the way Edna behaved toward you afterward, both that night and the next day."
He shrugged. "She was drunk and frustrated that night. And she was sober the next day. I guess she just doesn't play around when she's sober."
"I think she does," Fern said, something mournful in her voice.
"Anyway, the whole incident is over, isn't it?"
"No, I don't think so. And neither do you. I don't mean to intrude on your private life, Able, but Daisy's been giving you a hard time, too, hasn't she?"
He hesitated to answer. "I guess she does what she thinks is best."
"You must feel like you're the most worthless, least desirable man in the world."
He didn't know what to answer to that. He'd never considered Fern a fool, but he'd never thought of her as being as perceptive as she now seemed. She was cutting awfully close to the truth.
They sat in silence for more than a minute, and his awareness of her physical presense grew stronger. Her shoulder strap had slipped lower, and one breast was almost out of her dress. Her skirt had slid up a couple more inches on her long thighs, so that he could almost see the limit. The breeze continued to sweep his skin and liven his nerves, and he felt the edge at excitement grow keener.
"That breeze feels wonderful, doesn't it?" she said
"Wonderful."
"The night is so warm." She paused and looked at him. "You're almost naked-would you mind if I took my dress off?"
"Certainly not."
She reached behind her and pulled down her zipper. Then she rolled away from him, leaning on one arm, and pulled her dress from under her hips. He helped her to raise it up. Starlight fell on a naked hip, showing the band of white where her swimming suit ordinarily covered her.
He was startled. He'd been expecting her to have on some kind of underwear, panties at the very least. But as he helped her draw the dress over her head, he saw that she was completely naked.
She tossed the dress aside on the grass, stretched out her legs in a, narrow V, and leaned back on her arms. She took a deep breath that lifted her high, jutting breasts and said, "That's better I"
He stared at her. She was infinitely lovely, infinitely desirable, and his body was charged with excitement. She seemed to be offering herself to him, but he'd had the feeling, however unarticulated, that no woman would ever really want him again. He couldn't quite believe that this was happening.
"What's the matter?" she asked smiling slightly.
"Nothing. You're beautiful, Fern."
"Beautiful? Is that all?"
"Tempting."
She tossed her head and smiled a little more. "I don't know why you say that. You must be used to seeing me this way by now. After all, we've gone swimming naked. And I remember that once you even held me naked in your arms."
He didn't want to be reminded of that, and he started to turn away. But she caught his arm with one hand, and her fingers were like flames on his skin.
"Able?" she said. "Don't you like me?"
He knew the land of answer she wanted. He slid an arm around her shoulders and back and another around her front and side and drew her to him. A breast flattened against his bare chest, and he pressed his mouth down on hers. Then, as their mouths worked hungrily together, he found her free breast and caught at the nipple, feeling it harden between his finger tips.
For several minutes that was all that they did: they kissed, she moved her breast against him, and he caressed her.
"Then you do like me,' she whispered.
"So much!"
"You should have come to me instead of to Edna that day."
"You'd have let me?"
"I think so. Yes. It would only have been fair."
For an instant he felt chilled. "Is that why you're here? Just to be fair?"
"Honey, what do you think?"
With that she drew closer to him, bringing their mouths together again and squeezing his hand against her breast. And at that point he found that he could hardly think at all.
The hand on. her breast drifted down to her stomach, and her muscles quivered and flickered. She sighed in his ear, and he felt the touch of her tongue. He moved his strokes to her thigh, and she trembled.
"Pet me," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Pet me, do everything to me."
He did what she wished, and every caress, stroke, pressure he gave her served to drive his own desire higher. Their tongues slid together, and her hand moved over his legs to his damp swimming trunks.
"You want me, don't you?" she said, her palm cradling him. "You're all ready to give me what I want, aren't you? Show me, darling."
He removed his hand from her and started working his way out of his trunks. She helped him. The moment he was exposed, her fingers were curling upon him, and she sighed with pleasure. He continued working his clothing down his legs, kicking them off.
"Now we're both naked," she said, "and you like to be naked with me, don't you, darling?"
"You know I do."
"I make you passionate. I make you want to give me everything."
He didn't answer. He held her close and went on kissing and petting her. Even after that night at the cabin he hadn't realized that Fern could become so highly aroused, so wanton, so lusty. And he'd certainly never thought that he, Able Crowell, was capable to inspiring such great longing on her part.
He laid her back on the terry cloth robe and kissed her breasts, moving them with his face. Rising up on his knees, he brought his face to her stomach and kissed her, then moved his kisses about her thighs. He felt her hands sliding over his legs and her fingers curling on him everywhere, and then, suddenly, he found himself thrown onto his side and rolled onto his back on the grass. Fingernails cut into his hips, soft hair brushed his legs, and then he felt a kiss that made him wild with excitement.
That lasted only a few seconds. Then he heard Fern's voice.
"There, now you're as ready as I am," she said drunkenly. "Take me, Able, love me, I've got to get loved!"
He rolled back to his knees and moved over her as she stretched. She lifted her buttocks and reached for him.
With no trouble, with infinite pleasure, he found the way and rushed forward. He took her, they froze for a few seconds, then sank back down on the robe.
They lay quietly, communicating only by the pulsations of their bodies.
"You're so good," she said softly. "You're so much!"
They whispered love phrases to each other in the darkness.
"The night's still young," she said. "When you've finished, you'll be able to take me again, won't you?"
"And again and still again, if that's what you want."
"Oh, I do, I do!"
He laughed. "We'll see."
He had never felt better in his life. Even the disintegration of his marriage seemed far away from him, and he supposed that it had been bound to happen sooner or later. He had no idea why Fern had turned to him, but he did know that she was restoring his confidence completely. His despression during the past weeks seemed completely unreal.
But this was no time for analysis. The most important thing right now was that he was loving the beautiful girl who lay with him, her legs pressing against his hips. Hardly knowing what he was doing, he raised his hips and sank back again, burning. Then, as he continued, she began to swing to meet him, and stroke by stroke they made their way toward the flaming, flaring, mind-shattering finale.
It was nearly dawn when Fern at last found Ben, and they left the party. Her passion was used up by then, and everything looked cold and clear to her.
"Where have you been all night?" he asked, looking at her curiously as they walked through the parking lot.
"Around."
"Have a good time?"
"Oh ... yes."
He laughed. "Don't sound so enthusiastic."
They had little to say to each other on the way home. Why had she done what she'd done, she asked herself. Why had she really done it?
What should she tell Ben? Should she tell him anything at all? After all, he hadn't told her about his afternoon with Edna. But did she really know that anything had occurred between them? Maybe her imagination had been working overtime.
We're drifting, she thought. Drifting apart.
She'd wanted nothing ever to separate them in any way or to any degree. For that reason she'd been willing to put up with any loving Ben did on the side as long as he didn't try to fool her about it. She'd been willing to let him give Daisy a loving right there in front of her, though she hadn't really thought that he would.
But her very permissiveness had led to the drift If he hadn't given service to Daisy, he would probably' never have done the same to Edna, or she wouldn't have thought that he'd done the same to Edna.
And she would never have turned to Able, as she'd done tonight.
Yes, she and Ben were drifting apart, and she asked herself how she could possibly stop the drift. For she still loved him. There was no question about that in her mind.
They arrived home and undressed in silence. Ben looked at her with approval as she kicked off her shoes and lifted her dress over her head, for the second time that night. She didn't meet his gaze.
When she lay down, she could still feel Able moving, making love to her. She wondered how long it would be before she lost and forgot the feeling of his body.
Ben finished stripping, visited the bathroom, and turned out the light. He lay down beside her and attempted to take her into his arms.
"Not tonight, darling," she said.
He hesitated, then rolled away, turning his back to her.
For some time they lay in silence. Fern stared at the dark ceiling.
"Ben? Are you still awake?"
"Yes."
"I've got something to tell you."
"What's that?"
"I was unfaithful to you tonight." She felt him stiffen ever so slightly. Aside from that, he didn't move.
"With whom?" he asked after a moment. "Able."
Seconds ticked by.
"Enjoy yourself?" he asked, his voice a rasp. She couldn't tell if he was being ironic or really wanted to know.
"I guess I did," she said slowly.
"How many times?"
"Him or me?"
"Both of you."
"He took me four times. I made the limit about six times and he did three times." She remembered how ferociously she'd worked to stimulate him that last time. He hadn't been able to finish, but she'd managed to finish once before he gave out on her.
"You enjoyed yourself all right," Ben said, and she winced.
Another minute went by, and in the darkness neither of them moved.
"Why?" he asked. "Why did you do it?"
"Why did you make love to Edna?"
"Who told you I did?"
"Didn't you?"
"Yes." His laugh was mirthless. "Oddly enough, I took her four times. Only the last time I managed to finish. Or maybe I should say, she managed to finish me." He laughed again, but he sounded as if he were strangling. "You know, we really should compare notes!"
"Shouldn't we!"
The darkness of the room was as oppressive as the interior of a coffin. She could feel Ben's pain beside her.
"Fern," he said after a minute.
"Yes?"
"Don't, please don't, ever again."
"All right, Ben. Never again." Then she knew the real reason she'd turned to Able. Not merely because she felt that Able had suffered a bad deal, true though that might be. She'd turned to him for revenge on Ben. She'd even told Ben what she'd done, not to clear the air, but to hurt him.
Her good intentions, her permissive attitude toward Ben, her "forgiveness" for his episode with Daisy, they were useless. They meant nothing. At heart she was jealous, vengeful, possessive, probably far more so than either Daisy or Edna. She loved Ben and wanted him for herself only. The understanding which she'd claimed to have was a sham, a delusion.
And having admitted that to herself, she suddenly felt vastly relieved. Somehow, she knew, she and Ben would outlive what they'd done and manage to be even better for themselves and each other as a result.
She murmured, "Thank you, darling," and drifted off to steep.
CHAPTER TEN
Monday morning.
George West arrived at work early and in excellent spirits. He immediately tackled the work on his desk, working at two to three times his normal rate of speed. He didn't intend to spend much time in the office today; one of the advantages of his position was that he could come and go pretty much as he pleased, and he deemed it wise to accomplish as much as he could during the time he was there.
Edna! he thought with satisfaction.
She had been great. And he had no doubt that he could have her again if he did so soon enough. After the promotion she might be a little more difficult; though, come to think of it, once a girl had obliged a guy, sooner or later she could generally be persuaded to do so again.
Yes, he and Edna might very well look forward to a pleasant future.
But Edna wasn't the woman he had on his mind this morning. Why stick to one woman when you could have two or three?
That was another advantage of his position. He held the key to the futures of certain men and therefore to the futures of their wives. And wives would often go to considerable lengths to assure those futures or at least to attempt to assure them. He wondered why he'd been so chicken about playing around with women who had company connections. He felt perfectly safe, and such women often presented the very best possibilities.
Who should he visit this morning?
He'd mainly been considering Daisy. She should be the easiest pigeon of them all, since she was the one who'd taken on Ben and Chuck. But Fern's rejection still irritated him. He was sure that the little cooper-headed doll could be had; he'd made his mistake in mentioning the party at the cabin. That had embarrassed her and put her off. He hadn't made that mistake with Edna, and look how easily everything had gone. He'd tackle Fern again, and the next time he'd score with her. But this morning might be just a little bit too soon.
That left just one candidate.
Daisy.
Whistling softly, he attacked his work again. People were arriving, and his secretary put a fresh pile of folders into his "in" box. Not too many, he was glad to see.
He kept an eye on the outer office. Ben arrived, looking a little weary, no doubt from a hard weekend. George was willing to bet that the little copper-haired girl gave the guy quite a workout during his off-hours. If things didn't work out with Daisy, maybe he should pay a call on Fern after all.
Chuck arrived, making jokes, his usual extroverted self. If he knew what his wife had been up to, he certainly didn't show it. Or maybe he was one of those guys who approved of his wife playing around in order to aid in his advancement. There were such people, George knew.
The surprise of the morning was Able. He'd lost the hangdog look he'd been wearing for the last three weeks or so. He was quiet, as usual, but he was cheerful, his old self, and he wasn't putting on an act. Whatever had been bugging him, no doubt the affair up at the cabin, though George hadn't known that until last Saturday night, had ceased to do so. Maybe Able and Daisy had reached some kind of new understanding.
Well, that was fine with George as long as he and Daisy weren't prevented from reaching an understanding too.
He laughed to himself. He hadn't actually promised Edna anything, and he had no intention of making a definite promise to Daisy or Fern either. All they could do was give him some fun and hone for the best. And if he took on the wives of all three men, why should he favor one man over the other in backing a candidate for the manager's position?
Let the girls take their chances.
He kept glancing at the clock and fidgeting. He hadn't intended to leave until after ten o'clock, but what if Daisy were to get tied up in a coffee session at a neighbor's house? What if she went out shopping for the day? Originally he'd thought that he'd just wait until the next day, but he didn't feel like waiting. And what if old Thompson Read insisted that they make a final selection of the candidate this afternoon and notify the man at once? That would spoil his chances with both Daisy and Fern. He had to work while the women still didn't know which husband would get the job.
At nine-twenty he hastily notified his secretary that he was going out and didn't know just when he'd be back. He talked and moved fast so as to give her no time to register any objection, and then he scuttled out of the office as quickly and quietly as he could.
When he was out on the street, he reviewed his plans. Should he call first or just drop in? Just dropping in had its merits, but it could conceivably lead to complications, say if a nosy neighbor was in the house. He decided to phone.
He called from a booth in a corner cigar store, and Daisy answered on the third ring.
"This is George, Daisy. George West."
"Oh. George...."
"Daisy, I'm calling you on a very confidential matter. You know that we're selecting a man to take my place as division manager, don't you?"
"Of course."
"And you know that Able is a leading candidate. I might almost say, the leading candidate."
"Well, I'm-I'm happy to hear that."
"Naturally, and naturally you'll do everything in your power to help him get the job and do well in it."
"Certainly," Daisy said, sounding anything but certain, and George wondered if she were beginning to catch on.
"At the executive level a man's family is very important, as you know," he went on. "Now, I know you very well, Daisy, but I do feel that you and I should have a little private talk and be sure that we understand each other. Do you see what I'm driving at?"
"I think I do, George."
"Good. It's imperative that I see you right away. Do you mind if I drive over this morning?"
"Well, the house is a mess and I'm not even dressed."
He laughed. "Daisy, don't even bother to get out of your nightie. You know you don't have to get dolled up for me. I'll be right over."
"George," she cut in quickly, "this may sound funny, but you know how neighbors are. Would you mind . ,,. well...."
George's heart thumped. Now he was fairly sure that Daisy was getting the right idea.
"Not parking too close if I'm going to be very long? Coming in the back way? Of course not, Daisy, and I'm glad that you're so circumspect. It's a good quality in an executive's wife."
"Thank you. I'll be expecting you."
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
He left the booth and found his car. This was going to be easy. Easy.
Daisy hung up the phone slowly. George had taken her completely by surprise and she needed a moment to gather her wits. She was standing in the kitchen, clad only in a bathrobe, and she wondered if George had meant to imply what she had inferred.
Why, really, should George want to talk to her?
Why alone?
Granting that even though they'd met and talked any number of other times, he still might want to talk to her with the promotion in mind, but weren't such little meetings held with both the husband and wife in attendance?
Surely they were, and for obvious reasons. The boss might want to apply a little persuasion, the wife a little charm.
Daisy grinned.
Maybe that wasn't what George had in mind, and the new possibility now occurred to Daisy. Would she dare?
Well, she'd certainly dared to do something that night at the cabin. Of course she'd been slightly stoned at the time, and excited, and so had everyone else. But there was no reason why she and George shouldn't get together and, for that matter, get liquored up as well, if that should prove necessary.
And George would surely be favorable to a candidate whose wife had been kind to him.
She'd be doing Able a favor, really, whether he knew it or not. The fact of the matter was that she'd grown pretty sick of Able during the last few weeks. Actually she'd been bored with him for a long time before that, though, she'd hardly admitted as much to herself. The episode at the cabin had simply helped to bring matters to a head. If she hadn't, unconsciously, at least, been bored to tears, she would never have done what she did.
But having done it, new horizons had opened to her.
She'd been brought up in a quite conventional way, and she'd always been a conventional girl, but she'd never really had any positive moral training. Now, if she had the courage, she had found that she could have all kinds of fun on the side.
Not that she wouldn't be willing to stay with Able. He was a good fellow in many ways. And if he got this promotion and all the money and status that went with it, she'd have even more reason for sticking with him. Maybe he'd even stop acting so beaten down, the way he'd been doing lately.
Who would have thought that he'd react so strongly just because she'd had a little fun and because she'd cut him off? She'd done the latter in order to give him something as a prize it he got the promotion, but also, she had to admit, because she was tired of him; because his behavior at the cabin had made her feel sick. Oh she'd stick with him all right, but nothing would be quite the same between them again. She'd see to that.
Now, what about George? It wouldn't take him very long to get here and she wanted to be ready.
The kitchen was already pretty well cleaned up. Good. The house as a whole was in pretty good shape, despite what she'd told George. She pulled down a few shades. She didn't want any neighbors who might see her guest arrive to observe her pulling them down later.
She went upstairs to the bedroom. The bed was rumpled, and she quickly whisked off the old sheets and put on fresh ones, leaving the top one turned down. The bed was ready.
For what?
She laughed at herself. Did she actually think that she and George might occupy this bed together? Naked? Playing? Kissing? Stimulating each other? Making love in full daylight?
Yes, she did.
The very idea excited her. In a way, she'd cut her own throat by cutting Able off. She hadn't wanted him to touch her, but she had wanted to be touched; she'd been getting hungrier every day. Last Saturday night at the club she'd spent the whole time avoiding Able and trying to get up nerve to have some kind of adventure. She hadn't succeeded.
Now adventure was coming to her.
She pulled down the shades and turned to a chest of drawers. She had to decide what to wear. George had said that she didn't have to get all dolled up, that she didn't even have to get out of her nightie, and that was one reason she'd thought of this adventure. Well, she would get dolled up, in a baby-doll nightie, since she didn't have a nightie on already.
She took off her bathrobe and hung it up in the closet. Then she took the panties of a pink nightie from a drawer and raised one foot to put them on. She hesitated. Why bother? She put the panties back in the drawer and took out the top, pulling it over her head and shoulders. The garment barely came down to the bottoms of her buttocks, and her nipples showed clearly through the white lace at the top.
She decided that she'd better have just a little more on There was always the possibility that George's visit was legitimate and that he really wasn't interested in having any fun, though from what she'd seen of the man that last point seemed dubious. She found a diaphanous pink negligee and slipped it on over the nightie, not bothering to tie it closed. Her nipples still showed, if far less distinctly, and her bare legs tended to slide out of the opening in the front. Her figure wasn't disguised in the slightest.
She stepped into a pair of pink slippers, and that completed her ensemble. All she had to do now was to wait.
She wondered if she was crazy. She wondered if she'd actually do anything. She wondered if-
She heard the back doorbell ring.
Hatless, sweating slightly, George West stood on the back porch. Thus far he hadn't seen any neighbors, and he hoped that they hadn't seen him. He'd parked around the corner from the house and come through the alley, and he was carrying an attache case as a prop, as if he had legitimate business here. His whole body humming slightly with anticipation, he waited.
He was about to ring the bell again when Daisy appeared behind the screen door. He took a deep breath, and he couldn't prevent his eyes from widening. She'd certainly taken him at his word about not bothering to get out of her nightie. He suspected that she'd received his real message loud and clear.
She smiled and said, "Come on in, George," and he stepped through the kitchen door.
Now he could see her more clearly. A long, slim leg appeared out of the front of the pink neglige, and the seductive configuration of the other was hardly hidden by the thin material. Her breasts lifted her nightie and the open front of the negligee far out from her body, and the darkness of her nipples was just discernible. George felt a new flush of sweat as he stared at her.
She smiled, and he thought he saw excitement in her eyes. "I really didn't have time to get dressed," she said, "so I took you at your word. I mean, about staying in my nightie." The tip of her tongue played on her red lips.
"You're smart," he said, trying to appear more casual than he felt. "Who wants to get dressed on a day like this?"
"Yes, it is hot, isn't it? Even for the end of summer."
"Oh, we have some of the hottest days of the year around here in September."
Their words set the tone of the game they would play. They smiled at one another, and their eyes suggested more than their mouths actually said.
"Why don't you put down that case, George? Loosen your tie, and take off your coat if you want to. I'm sure you'll be much more comfortable."
"Thanks. I think I'll just do that."
"Here-let me help you." As he reached for his tie, her hands went to his neck and loosened the knot. Taking more time than was necessary, she unfastened the tie, her hands warm against his chest. She unfastened his collar button, pulled the tie clear off, and stuffed it into one of his jacket pockets.
"Let's get some air in there," she said, and she unfastened the next two buttons on his shirt. She shook his shirt front for ventilation, pulling it open and blowing against his bare chest. Then she inserted the fingers of her right hand under the material and circled his left nipple
"My goodness," she said softly, "you are warm, aren't you!"
"Yes-too bad we don't have a swimming pool nearby. I'll bet we could both use something to cool off."
Her smile widened. "I'm afraid that the best I can offer you is the use of our shower. Take off your jacket, George, and let's have a cup of coffee."
She stepped behind him and helped him to shed his suit jacket, hanging over the back of a kitchen chair. He sat down at the table.
"Some people like cold drinks in the summer," she said as she poured, "but I find there's nothing like a cup of hot black coffee to make me feel better."
"I agree. Makes me sweat more, but still I feel cooler."
She served the coffee and sat down at the table with him. She sat, not across from him, but around one corner, her legs out to one side, so that he still got a good view of her. In fact, a better view than ever. Her gown fell to her sides and her long, tan legs, crossed at the knees, were on full display. She demurely tucked the bottom of her baby-doll nightie between her thighs, but that just exposed more of her rich, round breasts, and he could see a strip of white left by her bathing suit along one exposed hip.
He stared at her and took a deep, shuddering breath.
"Now, about the promotion, George," she said, "I suppose you want to know if I'm the kind of woman you'd Eke to have ... as the wife of the next divisional manager."
"That's right, Daisy, though actually I'm already convinced that you'll be fine, you'll be wonderful. Still, I did think we should get together."
"I'm sure you're right. To tell the truth, I've been quite excited about the idea of your coming to see me ever since you called a little while ago.""
She dangled her bare, crossed leg, and her pink slipper hung loosely from her toes. He could hardly keep his eyes off of the inviting thigh and calf, and he didn't try to hide his interest.
They continued to chat, their tone always light and casual, their voices lower and softer than was necessary. Daisy went on bobbing her foot, and she ran the pink tip of her tongue over her full lips from time to time, looking up at him through long, dark lashes.
And increasingly he was convinced that she wasn't just leading him on, she wasn't just teasing him. She had a good idea of what he wanted from her and she was willing to give it to him. More than that, she was eager. She wanted the excitement, the thrill, the pleasure, just as much as he did.
He found himself growing tense with anticipated excitement, and he forced himself to remain calm. He didn't want to become completely aroused until the right moment came, meanwhile he'd do best to conserve his strength. But Daisy made that hard. He was an experienced man, an older man, quite mature; but she made him tend to react to her like an adolescent.
She wiggled in her chair, and one breast all but sprang out of the top of her nightie. He even saw a quarter-moon of rosy brown aureole.
"By the way, George, you never have seen all of my house, have you?"
He sensed that the words marked a step forward toward the goal they both wanted. "Why no, Daisy, I never have."
"Would you like to?"
"I'd be delighted."
"I hope you will be." Her voice was more sultry than ever. And as they stood up from the table, he felt his pulse quicken.
First she opened the door to the basement game room. "But of course you've seen that before." Then she led the way through the dining room to the living room and the front hall, and he made appropriate sounds of approval, as if he'd never seen any of this before.
"I have fixed things up a little more since you were last here," she said, "but Able's workshop is just the same. Shall we go upsatirs?"
They should indeed.
She led the way, the tan bottoms of her fanny waving in his face through the thin pink of her negligee. He could see almost everything. He'd never before had such a desire to reach out for a woman and bite her. He seemed to be looking through pink silk at twin bowls of coffee-and-vanilla ice cream, but nobody had ever made ice cream like this.
Here's the hall bathroom," she said when they were on the landing.
"Well that hasn't changed since I last used it," he said, and they both laughed.
She pointed out the two guest bedrooms-"We don't really need them both"-and led the way through a door.
"This is my room, and my own shower room is right over there."
He noted that she generally avoided mentioning Able. This was her room, not their room. He also noted that the bed was ready for occupancy.
She faced him, standing very close, smiling like a little girl who expects something pleasing to happen. He could smell the heady perfume of her warm flesh.
"Do you like my room?" she asked.
"Yes, I do. And if that air conditioner in the window were on, I think I could stay here all day."
Her smile widened, and she went by him to close the door. Then she went to the air conditioner and twisted its switch. Within seconds he felt its cool zephyr sliding under the front of his shirt.
She looked at him and smiled again. "Still feel like going some place for a swim?"
"I think I'd appreciate that shower you mentioned even more"
She waved a hand at the shower room door. "All right, be my guest."
He swallowed hard and his cheeks burned. The moment of truth was arriving, and arriving fast. He felt as if she were issuing a dare, a challenge.
"I think I'll just do that," he said, and he reached for his fourth shirt button.
His nervous fingers fumbled, and she stepped up to assist him.
"Let me help you."
"Do you really think you should?" he asked jocularly, though his voice was strained.
"I'm a big girl. Do you think I don't know how to help you?"
He didn't answer. Her fingers burned his bare skin as she touched him, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling the tails out. Then she shoved him toward the bed.
"Sit down," she said.
He sat, and she knelt to take off his shoes and socks while he looked at the way her breasts balloned and swung forward.
"Great service," he commented.
She grinned up at him. "I think I'm pretty good at giving service."
As he started pulling off his shirt, she stood up. "You'd be surprised at how warm a flimsy negligee like this is," she said. "Would you mind if I took it off?"
"Make yourself comfortable."
"I intend to."
She slipped out of the negligee and whirled around so that the short little nightie stood out from her body. From the view he got, she might almost as well have been naked. Now the flux, gathering, and stretching of every smooth, velvet-covered muscle about her navel was apparent. Her buttocks showed completely.
Staring at her as she hung up her negligee, he unfastened his buckle, waist clasp, and zipper. He raised his hips an inch and slid his trousers down. At that point she returned to him. She said, "I'll do that," and drew his trousers down and off. His stare never faltered as she hung the trousers over the back of a chair.
His excitement was barely controlled now. Wearing only his white, very brief briefs, the kind he'd found handy for quick clandestine loving, he sat with his legs close together, his eyes intense. Her long, tan legs were certainly not together, and she stood with her hands on her hips, her tongue moving around the left corner of her mouth.
"You might as well be naked," he said, his voice close to breaking. This little visit was turning out even more interesting than he'd hoped.
She looked at herself, her breasts lifting as she inhaled.
"I suppose I might as well, at that. Would you be embarrassed?"
"Why should I be? Aren't we friends?"
She gave him an impish look and started drawing up her nightie.
She turned slightly as she did so, twisting, standing on one foot then the other, swaying her back and her hips. She was very much on display, and he'd seldom seen a display so provocative. Her hips were unveiled and then her navel. He saw her bare back, then the bow-like bottom of a breast, and then her long, naked side. The nightie was drawn up farther, and her breasts came completely into view, lifting high, the plump, rosy-brown tips pointing at the ceiling.
The nightie was swept aside completely, and she stood before him naked.
But only for an instant. He'd hardly glimpsed her standing there, as nature had made her, when she rushed by his side and threw herself onto the bed. As he twisted to look at her, she flounced down on her stomach in the middle on the bed, then rolled over onto her back on the far side, her head on a pillow.
Her smile was languorous, her eyes sultry. She rubbed her bare legs slowly together and he saw a slight movement of her stomach muscles, a quivering of her soft breasts. And he could no longer keep his excitement from breaking out in full force. Feverish blood pounded in his veins with mounting force.
"You go take your shower if you want to," she said, her voice husky, almost a growl. "I'll wait for you here."
He didn't move.
"What's the matter?" she asked. Then she frowned slightly. "Why, you don't have all your clothes off yet!"
He moved up onto the bed beside her, leaning on one arm.
"I thought you were helping me," he said, his voice as husky as hers.
"So I was."
She shifted slightly on the bed and reached for his briefs, rolling them down. The instant he was free of them her fingers were on him, soothingly cool yet maddening, and her eyes widened.
"Why, George, honey!" And she told him what he had, her voice mildly shocked.
"I'm sorry, baby," he said, playing along, and he kicked off his briefs while her hand worked slowly on him.
"Did I make you like this, honey?"
"I'm afraid you did."
"I'll have to do something about that, won't I?"
"Got any ideas?"
"Lots of them. Do you know that I'm in something of the same condition, George?"
"Are you, now!"
"Yes." She took his hand and brought it to her. "Here."
Then suddenly they were grappling.
Legs locked and slid. Arms encircled, and hands swept. Fingers pulled and probed. Taut nipples were bit, breasts were flattened. Sensual whispers were passed back and forth.
Until he said, "Baby, I'm going to take you!"
And she giggled and said, "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer a cold shower?"
"We'll have a shower together later. We'll have lots of showers, but we're going to have a lot of this too!"
"I only want to do what's best for you."
"What's best is you, baby."
"Are you sure I'm best, George? she said as she raised her knees. "I'm on fire, baby, I'm burning up!"
He lowered his chest and stomach against her body, and her legs hugged his ribs. He nuzzled and kissed the solid sweat-salted weights of her breasts, and his lips followed a lighter area over a globe to a tumid nipple. He moved the peak with his lips and pressed it in with his tongue.
She tried to lift her hips, pressing herself against him. "Fireman, what's keeping yow!"
"Fireman's on his way!"
He lifted his body a few inches and advanced over her, kissed the tops of her breasts, a shoulder, her neck. She reached and found him.
"Love me!" she said in a tight, strained voice as she panted. "Love me, take me."
He threw his strength against her.
She surrendered.
"Oh, lover!" she groaned as her flames embraced the fireman.
Then the fireman was racing through the flames and the flames leaped higher and still higher.
The fireman sizzled and burned and raced faster, faster.
Then George knew that the end of the conflagration was approaching for both him and Daisy.
Lights began to explode, not the lights of their loving but other lights. Hazily he realized that he and Daisy were no longer alone in the bedroom.
But he couldn't stop, and neither could she.
The big moment arrived for him.
Explosively, he flared and Daisy wailed and joined him.
Straining, throbbing, they rode out the ecstatic moment.
When at last they settled down on the bed again, still tightly joined together, the lights were still flashing, and neither did a thing to stop them.
George knew, they both knew, that their game of business mixed with the thrills of pleasure was over.
For good.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Able Crowell had just returned from lunch at one-thirty that Monday afternoon when a pert-boobed secretary informed him that the old man himself, Thompson Read, president and chairman of the board of Tri-Compass, wanted to see him in the office immediately.
"He looks mad," the toothsome young wench said, and she blushed when Able winked at her. She'd often issued subtle invitations to him before his foul mood of the last weeks had come on, but he'd never responded. Now she was no doubt surprised, especially since she'd just suggested that Able might well be on the carpet in a matter of minutes.
The summons did give Able a moment of tension, you were always tense when you were called up before the seldom-seen Thompson Read. But if you were Able at the present moment, you quickly relaxed. Read probably intended to lower the boom because of Able's recent depression and general incompetence, and the young engineer took it as a high compliment that the old man was going to do the dirty work rather than leaving it to George West. For that matter, he might even intend to issue only a stern warning.
In any case, Able felt quite capable of coping with the situation. He felt capable of coping with any situation. As far as he was concerned, the incident with Fern Lancing on Saturday night had been morally wrong, but it had done him a world of good. Since good intentions frequently led to the most disastrous results, the human race was fortunate that good occasionally resulted from evil. Somehow or other, despite the weakness and the malice of man, humanity kept right on winning in the long run. At least that was the way Able Crowell felt today.
As he took the elevator up to the executive suite, he wondered if Daisy realized that he was once again his old self. Well, not quite his old self but perhaps someone a little bit better and stronger, more of a man. He doubted that she did, though she'd given him a couple of speculative looks last night. But they'd spent most of Sunday sleeping, and had had little to say to each other during the evening. He'd pretended to be reading while actually trying to absorb his experience with Fern.
He wondered if his marriage could be saved. He doubted that it could, though he was willing to try, if Daisy was willing to accept him in good faith for what he was, temper her ambitions, and try to live a decent life with him. But with the wisdom of hindsight he could now see that their marrige had been increasingly frayed for a long time, and he could honestly say that the fault hadn't been his. He'd done his best. Even the trip to George West's luxurious "cabin" had been an attempt to regain the genuine togetherness which, he'd thought, they'd once shared.
And the second honeymoon had failed. In the most definitive kind of way.
Thompson's Read's private secretary, a buxom, sloe-eyed, leggy lass, announced Able on the interoffice phone and told him to go right in. He had to say one thing for the old man, he did keep a batch of good-looking women around the establishment.
He took a deep breath and readied himself for battle. He'd have to convince Read that his doldrums were over, that he was at the height of his competence, that "it would never happen again" and all that jazz.
He stepped through the doorway. The door swung closed behind him.
Thompson Read looked angry.
He was a tall, athletic man of sixty, gray haired and bushy mustached, dark browed. Now, as he sat behind his one-acre polished mahogany desk, his cheeks were flushed, his blue eyes stormy.
Able was surprised to see two men he'd never met standing at one side of Read's desk.
"Crowell, come here," the old man growled, and Able advanced to the front of the desk.
"I ought to fire you, Crowell, and maybe I will."
"What seemes to be the trouble sir?" Able asked. He found that he actually felt good, keyed for battle and confident of winning but not particularly concerned if he lost.
"Perhaps you'd be interested to know that my daughter is suing George West for divorce."
That did come as a surprise but he kept his face straight and blank. Read searched for a reaction but didn't get any.
"As of now," Read went on, "West is out of here. Out, gone, finished. If I have anything to do with it, from now on out he'll be lucky to get a job as a draftsman's assistant pencil-sharpener. And I'm not sure that I shouldn't give you the same trouble I'm going to give him."
Able had never seen Read this deeply angered, but that only contributed to his own fine edge.
"I asked you, sir, what the trouble seems to be. If you'll tell me, maybe I can be of help."
Clearly something unexpected was going on. He had no idea what it could be.
Read glared at him. Then he looked down at a file folder on his desk. He picked up the folder and extended it toward Able, and for the first time in Able's memory the man's hand shook.
"I don't know if I'm giving you a shock or not," he said. "Quite possibly I am. But you might as well see the facts and understand the situation immediately."
That was exactly what Able wanted. He took the file and opened it.
"Those were taken this morning in your home," Read said. "They're enlargements, of course, and they'll serve their purpose in court if need be."
Able hardly heard the man's last words.
Stunned, he looked at the glossy prints.
There was Daisy, stretched out on the bed he knew so well, her legs raised high, completely naked. And there, just as naked, was George West, stretched out over her, up on his hands, every detail clear. Their eyes were nearly closed, their faces distorted by passion.
He turned to the next picture and the next. He found that there were half a dozen or more, and they all showed the same thing. Only the positions of Daisy and George varied somewhat as they raced through the act of love, apparently approaching, or right at, its summit.
He didn't know what to think. After what had happened three-and-a-half weeks ago, he'd known that Daisy was capable of being unfaithful to him again, but he certainly hadn't expected this.
"You look somewhat surprised," Read said drily.
"I am, somewhat," Able said, still looking at the pictures.
"If, like my daughter, you should want a divorce, there's the evidence."
"I shall make use of it."
As he said the words, Able knew that he would. There was no point in his staying with Daisy. He knew now that there wasn't a chance in the world of their making a real marriage. From now on she would betray him again and again, he would betray her, and all they would do was torture one another.
"Yes," he said softly, "I shall make use of it."
He put the file down on the desk and stared at it until he felt Read's eyes on him.
"What's the matter with you, Crowell? Can't you control your own wife?"
"Can you control your son-in-law? Can you control the manager of your engineering division? Is either one of us some kind of omnipotent god?" Able wasn't surly or defensive, but at this point in his life he was unwilling to take any guff.
Read's glare never wavered, and the seconds ticked by.
"I understand that your efficiency has gone way down during the last few weeks. Has your wife had something to do with that?"
"Everything."
"Then I suppose you'll be even worse from now on."
Able found that he could actually grin. "No, sir. I should say that from now on everything is coming up roses."
That made Read sit back in his chair, and for a moment he looked puzzled. Then his expression cleared, and he appeared to relax. Some of the flush left his cheeks.
"I think we understand each other," he said. "You can take those filthy pictures if you wish, and I'll give you the names of the witnesses. Neither you nor my daughter should have any trouble, but if you do, let me know, and I'll do whatever I can to be of help."
"Thank you, sir."
Read leaned forward, an elbow on his desk. "You may be curious about one other thing. I'm sure you are, and that has to do with the promotion in the engineering division." i
"Yes, sir." That promotion had been such an intimate part of his difficulties.
"Benjamin Lancing is getting it."
"Yes, sir. That was what I always expected."
"You're a good man, Crowell, in spite of your recent slump. I keep tabs on things around here far more closely than most people realize, if not closely enough." He glanced at the folder of pictures. "Lancing's getting the job only because he's older than you and more experienced. Your hour will come, and you'll go far."
"Thank you, Mr. Read."
"I suppose you'd like to take the rest of the day off, perhaps several days, to get your affairs in order and make arrangements with your wife."
"That would help."
"You're off duty as of now. And if you should need a good lawyer...."
Soon thereafter he left Read's office. He felt utterly clear-minded and yet still in a daze at what he'd learned. But he wasn't too dazed to cast appreciative looks at Read's buxom secretary or at the pert-boobed girl who'd given him the original summons to the big boss's office. The latter's eyes met his, and she blushed.
Well, he thought, gazing down at her trim calves and noting the way her skirt clung to her thighs, why not? Already he felt free, perfectly free, and one of these evenings....
He cleared off his desk and notified a few people that he was leaving and wouldn't be back for a day or two. Personal reasons. Then he left the office, went to his car, and headed for home. The sooner he saw Daisy, the better. No doubt she was waiting for him to appear, and if she gave him any trouble he would-
Laugh in her face.
He was halfway home, mentally reviewing the events of the last few weeks, when he suddenly remembered that he had some unfinished business.
He grinned to himself.
He shouldn't, he thought. No, he really shouldn't.
He should keep right on going and see Daisy as soon as possible.
Nevertheless he turned the car.
Then minutes later he parked in front of Edna Graham's house. He got out of his car and walked casually up to the front porch. The door was open but the screen was latched, and he rang the bell.
Thirty seconds later Edna appeared at the door, startled to see him. She was wearing a white off-the-shoulder peasant blouse and a brown and green dirndl skirt and sandals, and she looked good. Very good.
Her hefty boobs had a great way of filling out a blouse.
"Why, Able ... hello. Her tone was tentative, uncertain.
"Are you alone, Edna? I've got to see you about something important."
Her eyes widened. "Has something happened? Has something happened to Chuck?"
"You might say so. May I come in?"
Still looking worried, she unhooked the screen, fastening it again after he had entered the hallway.
"Where can we talk? The game room?"
"Why, yes-I guess...."
Without waiting for her answer, he had already headed for the game room, which he knew from previous visits and which would do quite well for his present purpose. He heard Edna following him.
"What's happened to Chuck?" she asked worriedly as they entered the room.
He turned to face her. "You might say it's not what's happened to him but what's going to happen."
"What do you mean?"
He grinned at her. She looked puzzled. She also looked great. He took in her smooth, bare shoulders and the way her blouse stood out in front. Whatever else he might say about the blonde, she was a first-class package of female.
"Edna," he said, "don't you figure you owe me something?"
"Owe you?"
"You and I were at a little party a few weeks ago. You were perfectly willing for Chuck to make love with Daisy, as I recall. Anyway, neither of us did anything to stop them. Now your turn and mine has come, hasn't it?"
Her eyes hardened. "Is that what you're here for?"
"That's what I'm here for."
He took a step toward her, but she took a quick step back. She clenched her fists and bared her teeth. "Why, you stupid jerk!"
"Now, Edna-"
Her fingers turned into claws. "You try it! You just try it!"
"Edna, honey, please cooperate!"
They circled, and he managed to block the way to the door. He was already becoming excited. If he succeeded in this, Edna should be very nice. Very nice indeed.
Suddenly she stopped backing away. She put her hands on her hips and laughed harshly.
"You can't!" she said. "You couldn't the last time you tried, and you can't now! You're not man enough!"
He grinned at her. "Shall we test that theory?"
Her hands fell from her hips, and she looked considerably less certain of herself.
"Able, you'd better get out of here."
He grabbed her, pulling her lush body tightly against him, and they struggled. She turned her face away, but he forced kisses on her cheek, her ear, her neck. She cursed him in a low, vicious voice and tried to thump and claw him.
"Relax, honey," he said, "you know you want your share."
"You bum! You jerk! What do you think you're doing!"
"We both know what I'm doing."
She tried to knee him, but he blocked her leg. He threw her onto a couch and pulled one side of her blouse down off a breast, exposing a strapless bra.
"I'll scream!" she threatened. "I'll yell my lungs out!"
"What's the matter? Afraid you can't handle me any more?"
"You louse."
He tugged at the back of the strapless bra, and it came loose. He pulled it away from her and hurled it across the room; one large, pink-buttoned breast was exposed. They were practically lying on the couch; he held her arms and pressed his mouth over the nipple. She wiggled under him, cursed him, and tried to claw his back.
The tip grew plump against his tongue.
He laughed and raised his head. "You want to, don't you, Edna baby? Actually, you'd love to!"
Whether he was right or not, she was almost speechless with rage. Her skirt had worked up to her hips, and her bare legs kicked and flayed.
He pulled her blouse off the other breast and went to work there with his mouth; the nipple grew as taut as the first.
"Give in, Edna!" he crooned. "Give in and put out!"
"You'll have to rape me!" she swore.
"And you'd love that, wouldn't you! A new thrill!"
As the struggle continued, Able was encouraged. The fact of the matter was that Edna wasn't fighting him off nearly as hard as she might have, though she certainly wasn't giving him an easy time. She hadn't screamed, she'd kept her voice down for the most part, and she did show certain signs of passion. Her nipples were stiff, the blue veins at the tops of her breasts had become more prominent, and her lips looked fuller.
As for Able, he felt more eager and ready by the second.
The time had come, he decided, to take her panties off.
He rose up over her and reached under her skirt. She tried to push her skirt down and his hands away, but he was too fast for her. His fingers clutched silken material. He pulled.
The panties ripped completely away.
For a moment she froze, staring aghast at her nakedness from the navel down as if she'd never seen herself before. Able, on one knee above her, quickly unfastened his trousers and shoved his briefs and shirt tails out of the way.
Then she stared at him.
He was obviously as ready to go as he'd been that night several weeks ago, and now he showed no signs of cooling.
"No!" she said as he hovered over her again.
He forced his way, trying to get closer to her, trying to get close enough. Her eyes widened.
"Able, don't! Don't, you fool!" She sounded as if she'd realized for the first time that he might actually take her.
"By the way, Edna, about Chuck," he said, panting. "! think you should be the first to know. He didn't get the promotion."
Again she froze, staring.
"What are you talking about?"
"I talked to Thompson Read just before I came over here. Ben Lancing is the new manager of the engineering division."
"You're lying."
"No, Edna, Ben is the man. Not Chuck, not me. Ben."
She slowly closed her eyes and relaxed. Carefully he reached and stroked her, and she didn't even seem to notice. But he found that she was ready, and he moved still closer until they touched.
"That fool," she murmured. "That bloody fool."
"Who? Me? Chuck? Ben? Read?"
"All of you. Every bloody one of you."
He tried to adjust his position. The waiting had become unbearable.
"Chuck never gets home before six," she said softly as she raised her hips to assist him. "We have the rest of the afternoon."
He was home free.
At five-thirty he left her brooding on the hard time she was going to give Chuck when he arrived. She wasn't sure whether she'd stay with him or not. And after she got done with him this evening, she doubted that he'd want to stay with her.
Able returned to his car and once again set off for home. If Edna's doubts about his manhood had been genuine, they were certainly dispelled now. He'd performed, this afternoon, with a competence which he hadn't displayed since they'd all first gone up to the cabin. And he had to admit that Edna had done her bit. She'd shown that she had a competence of her own.
Now all he had to do was to get things squared away with Daisy, and he didn't foresee any great difficulty there. He had the pictures of her and George, and there were witnesses, as she knew well.
He wasn't altogether surprised to find that she wasn't at home when he got there. In their bedroom he found a few empty drawers still pulled open, and a couple of suitcases were missing from a closet.
On the dressing table he found a note:
Able-
I'm going to a hotel. If you'd rather leave the house, I'll come back. I'll call.
D.
That was all.
And really, there wasn't any need for anything more.
CHAPTER TWELVE
An epilogue of sorts did occur some two months later.
The occasion was the annual Thanksgiving party at Tri-Compass's private club Able heard that Inez West was back from Reno, and they'd always gotten along well, so he phoned her. Why, yes, she said, mildly surprised at his call, she'd be glad to go with him.
She was even more attractive to him than he'd remembered. She wore a simple black cocktail dress that clung to every line of her body and had a neckline that left no doubt about her superb mammary endowment; one look was enough to take any man's breath away.
She seemed shy, even a little frightened at the party, tending to cling to him, and he attributed that to her split with George. For his part, he felt fine. The break with Daisy had been clean and neat, and he already felt almost as if she'd never existed.
Everything was going perfectly at the office. There had been a coolness between him and Ben, for a time, until the latter made a single remark.
"I guess we're even, huh?"
After that the coolness had gradually faded away.
As for Chuck and Edna, he had quit Tri-Compass, and nobody seemed to know where they had gone.
On the night of the party Able danced with Inez, had a couple of drinks with her, and gave her the sense of protection which she seemed to need. She seemed frightened, shaken, and after less than two hours she asked Able to take her home. Somewhat puzzled and sorry that she wasn't enjoying herself, he got her coat and took her to his car.
When they reached her door, she said, "You'll come in, won't you? Come in and have a drink."
He was surprised. He'd hardly gotten two words out of her on the way home, but he accepted her invitation.
The situation was classic: a fire in the fireplace and a soft rug at the hearth. After taking off his coat, he warmed his hands before the fire while he waited for Inez to return with Scotch and soda. She came back with two glasses, handed him one, and sank down on the rug to stare at the flames.
He sat down with her, facing her. He liked everything he saw, her jet-black hair, her high brows and dark eyes, the swell of her breasts above her low neckline. He even liked the faint frown she was wearing.
"Yes," he said, as if continuing a conversation begun long ago, "you really are a beautiful woman."
She bit her lower lip and frowned harder. "You don't have to say that."
"But it's true. You have a hard time believing you're beautiful, don't you, Inez?"
She nodded.
"Try trusting me."
They sat in silence, sipping their drinks. She downed hers rapidly and set her glass aside. She looked at the fire, and he looked at her.
"Able, tell me something," she said, avoiding his eyes. "What does a man do when he doesn't have a woman?"
"The same thing a woman does when she doesn't have a man, I guess."
"How sad."
He knew then what was troubling her. He finished his drink while he decided if he should ask a particular question.
"How long has it been since you last made love, Inez?"
She didn't even blink. She just kept on looking at the fire.
"About three months," she said. "And that was unsuccessful. Successfully? It must be a year ... no, longer. Centuries."
He honestly hadn't intended to make love to her.
This was just to be a date, perhaps the first of many, and he'd had no idea of where it might lead. But now he knew what he had to do.
He set his glass aside. He reached out and caught her chin with his forefinger and turned her head to face him.
He leaned foward and touched his lips to hers.
They kissed, small kisses, light kisses, and he felt her tremble. She was nervous. He knew she wanted to be taken, but she was afraid.
He moved closer to her and put his hands on her bare arms and pressed his mouth harder against hers. Their heads turned and rolled from side to side, and he slid his arms around her. She leaned against him and tilted her head farther back.
He was careful not to frighten her any more than she was already. He tried not to startle her. For a time he did nothing more than kiss her and stroke her shoulder and her bare arm.
Then, when he thought it safe to do so, he began to caress her thighs as well, and then the tops of her breasts.
Her mouth opened wider and their tongues met. Her hand moved on his leg.
Her eyes were hazy when he looked into them, and her voice was husky. "Are you going to...."
"Yes."
They kissed again, and she reached for the zipper at the back of her dress. He pulled it down for her and helped her to lift the dress over her head. The firelight danced on her newly bared flesh. She took off her shoes, then pulled up her half-slip to unfasten her stockings. He did that tor her, caressing the warm, sensitive areas of her legs as he rolled her stockings down.
He reached for her bra but she stopped him.
"No," she said, "take your clothes off first."
He kissed her and did as she asked. He undressed to his briefs quickly but without apparent haste, tossing his clothes aside. Then she slid into his arms again and, as he kissed her, he unfastened and removed her bra, and she worked her way out of her half-slip and her garter belt.
That left them both all but naked. Bits of thin doth about the hips were all that covered them.
He held her close and sent a hand roving over her breasts. He stroked them, moved them, and enfolded the taut nipples in the surrounding soft flesh. He caressed her legs and drifted his finger tips over her stomach, and her breath came harsher and faster. Her nails caught at his ribs, her strong fingers gripped his hard thighs, and her tongue met his eagerly.
Gradually he worked her last piece of clothing down on her hips. His finger tips made her stomach quiver. Then, at last, her panties were at her thighs, and she let him set her sensitive nerves to singing.
She whimpered and reached to his briefs.
He got them off and helped her to rid herself of hers. Then, completely naked, they clung together, soaking up the heat of the fire and building their own flames higher. They held, stroked and played with whatever they wished, toying and caressing, enlivening each other's senses to the utmost, getting increasingly drunk on the sensual pleasure that flowed through their bodies.
"Not yet," she whispered.
He worked to arouse her farther, pushing his hands, making her pant and churn. Then he tried to lay her back again.
"Not yet."
He shifted his position so that he could kiss her nipples and stomach and he made her moan with longing.
Then, at last, she lay back on the rug.
He got above her and started to position himself.
"Oh, no!"
The next thing he knew she was scrambling away from him and climbing to her feet as fast as she could go. In a daze, he looked up at her, lovely as she stood there naked in the firelight, and she covered her face with her hands.
"I can't! I just can't!"
He reached toward her. "Darling-"
"I'm sorry, Able, I'm sorry, please forgive me!"
He sprang to his feet and tried to take her into his arms, but she evaded him and ran across the room.
"Able, go home! Just go! I know you'll hate me, but I can't help it!"
He went after her, caught her, and swung her around to face him. She tried to get away, but he pushed her back against a small desk and held her firmly with his hands and his body while she strained back from him.
"Inez, listen-"
"You don't love me. Nobody loves me! You don't even really want to make love to me!"
"Then why am I trying?"
"Because I'm your boss's daughter, maybe. Or because I lured you on!"
He couldn't keep from laughing at that. "Darling, you're crazy. And if I don't love you, I'm going to have a hard time to keep from falling in love."
At that, she went limp, weeping against his chest.
"I'm sorry, Able, I just can't go through with it!"
"You don't have to, darling. You don't have to do a thing that you don't want to do. Now come on back to the fire with me."
His arms around her, he led her back to the fire, and they sat down again. He held her close, stroking her shoulder, her arm, and finally her breasts as her weeping slowly subsided.
He felt happy. He'd lost his excitement, but he was happy to be here with this woman, and he didn't want to leave her. Ever.
Little by little the caresses he-gave her grew bolder. She lay against him as if she were asleep, but when his excitement returned, her fingers closed on him, and she gave back his caresses.
She offered no objection when he at last laid her back on the rug and spread her feet. She didn't say a single word until after he'd taken her.
"Love me, darling," she whispered. "Teach me again what loving is like. Give me everything."
