Chapter 3

"This could be it, honey... tonight could be it," Jack Hollister said nervously, clutching the wheel tightly with both hands. He and Pam were on their way to the annual company party.

"Why tonight?" Pam asked. Jack could barely make out her features as she stared bemusedly out the windshield into the lights of approaching cars. She was as far over on her own side of the seat as she could get.

"It's got to be tonight!" Jack said explosively. "Old Carstairs retires tomorrow and the vice-presidency will be open. J.B. hates to have any loose ends around the office. And besides," he added more thoughtfully, "he likes to drop bombshells at these parties. It'll either be me or Harry Steers. The old bastard would get a kick out of making the announcement and then watch the loser trying to keep a poker face in front of the whole staff."

"If you think your boss is such a horrible man, why do you work for him?" Pam asked quietly.

"They're all that way," Jack said bitterly. "Every financial company in town is run by some narrow bastard who clawed his way up over a pile of bodies and then likes to step on the fingers of anybody else who tries to make it over the top."

"And thinking that way, you still want to work in such a business?" Pam asked. "What makes you think you would turn cut any different than J.B.?"

Jack turned sharply, trying to make out the expression on Pam's face. Was there contempt there? What kind of questions were these, from a wife?

"Look, baby, I don't make the rules. It just happens to be the only game in town, and if we want to live a decent life, we have to play it!"

"Look out!" Pam said apprehensively.

Jack jerked the wheel to one side just in time to miss an oncoming car. The angry wail of a horn faded away behind them. Jack muttered a curse and stared bleakly out the windshield. Why, on a night as important as this one, did Pam have to start being difficult? She'd been a stranger ever since they moved into the new house. He supposed it had something to do with that miserable scene the other morning. They hadn't made love since then. On top of everything else, I'm as horny as hell, Jack thought with irritation. Cut off at home, he'd been trying to get Anna to go out to dinner with him, hinting broadly at a long evening together, but she'd kept putting him off. All day long he had to look hungrily at her fabulous body around the office without getting a chance to touch her.

"Okay, look, honey," he said wearily. "All I can say is that a lot hangs on tonight, so try and be nice to J.B. He likes you."

Pam repressed a slight shudder. She'd only met her husband's boss a couple of times before, and the way he stared at her body made her flesh crawl. He looks so mock like a dried-up monkey, she thought, hardly daring to imagine what he would look like naked. He quite obviously liked to imagine what she would look like naked!

The party was being held at the huge, rambling house that J.B. had inherited from a relative. There was a rumor that the old man had gotten the relative over a barrel in a financial deal and then squeezed the property out of him. It was in character, but no one knew for sure. The house was dark and gloomy, as if it had been designed to suit its present owner. But it had a huge drawing room, which could easily hold all the office staff. Jack pulled up into the broad driveway and parked. There were already several cars there.

When he and Pam went in, the first person he saw was Anna. He had known she was going to be there, but it was still a slight shock to suddenly have her in the same room as his wife. For the past few days he'd been thinking of her as part of a personal world, secret from Pam. He was still a little embarrassed to see Pam's face light up when she saw Anna. Did his wife know he intended to make love to her friend?

The three of them went the rest of the way in together, the two women talking animatedly while Jack plodded silently beside them, apparently all but forgotten. How come they like each other so much? he asked himself. They should be deadly enemies. They were still together when J.B. came into the room. The little man's eyes glittered with interest as he stared at the two lovely women with Jack. He actually licked his lips before walking, in his nervous jerky way, up to them.

"Well, Hollister," he said in his raspy voice, "I see you're enriching our party in the most delightful way." He was so short that he seemed to be staring straight into Pam's lush rounded breasts. In fact, for several seconds he didn't take his eyes from their enticing contours. Pam started to blush and in a moment her face was bright red.

"And who are you?" he asked Anna, switching his pop-eyed stare to her breasts which, if anything, were even slightly larger than Pam's

"I work for you," she said.

"Oh, indeed!" J.B. cast an inquiring glance at Jack. It was his turn to blush. For the past few days he had been careful to keep Anna out of the old man's way. He still wanted to get to her first.

"This is Anna Collins, J.B. She just started a couple of days ago."

"Well, well, a successful attempt to make the office a more beautiful place," the old man beamed, not aware of Anna's annoyed reaction.

Hey, you old bastard! she thought. I'm not a piece of furniture. I'm a woman, a person! But on the surface she smiled. Play the game, she told herself. Play it all the way.

"Hollister," J.B. said, putting one arm around Jack's shoulder, and at the same time taking the liberty to do the same with Pam, he started to walk them toward a table loaded with a glittering array of bottles and glasses. Despite his tightness, the old man loved good liquor and never stinted in that department. "Hollister," he said again. "I like you. You have a great future with our company." Jack felt his heart begin to hammer. Was this going to lee it? he wondered. Was J.B. going to make the announcement now that he was to be the new vice- president?

But it wasn't going to be that easy. J.B. went on talking in the same general vein, but saying nothing definite. His arm around Pam's shoulder had slipped down to her waist, and his hand was comfortably near the base of her breast. She wiggled nervously. J.B. kept casting glances over toward Anna, as if he wished he had an extra arm for her, too. She stood, a few feet away, watching the clumsily joined trio, an enigmatic half-smile on her lovely face.

Pam had a chance to free herself from J.B.'s unwanted embrace when he offered to make them some drinks. She shuddered, feeling as if a toad had been crawling on her body where J.B. had touched her. Her dress was low in the back and his clammy, bony hand had trailed across her bare flesh. When J.B. came up to her again, she deftly moved away when he once again tried to touch her. His narrow sunken face clouded, but he quickly regained control. Stiffly, he turned around and began to talk to Anna.

"For God's sake!" Jack whispered to Pam, dragging her out of earshot of the boss. "Can't you be a little friendlier with J.B.? He's trying to be nice to you." Pam listened in open-mouthed wonder to her husband's words.

"You mean you want... ?" she spluttered, but Jack shushed her as J.B. came up to them.

"You certainly make a lovely couple," he said with one of his humorless smiles. "I haven't had much of a chance to get to know your wife, Hollister, but I think that's a situation that will soon be remedied. I have plans for you, my boy. Plans that will demand that we see a lot more of one another socially." He paused to see if his words had taken effect. They had. Jack's face was tense with strain, waiting for the magic words that would give him what he wanted most. He was quite willing at that moment to offer J.B. the use of his wife for the night, if the old man had asked.

He'd do anything to be vice-president!

Slowly J.B. began to insinuate himself around Pam again. The more he drank the bolder he became, until even Jack became a little embarrassed. The old man was no longer paying much attention to Anna. Apparently, realizing that she was an employee, he felt she would always be there for the asking. It was Pam who mattered to him now, and perhaps part of her attraction to him was that the winning of her would involve an exercise in pure naked power. He secretly disliked the tall, athletic, handsome Jack and delighted in using the promise of the vice-presidency as a lever to take the other man's beautiful, eminently desirable wife.

Pam eventually had to use the only excuse she could--a trip to the powder room--to escape J.B.'s ever-present grasp.

"Jack!" she said, gripping his arm tightly when she came back into the room, before J.B. could corner her again. "I can't stand any more of this! If you don't tell that horrible old man to leave me alone, then I will!"

Jack's handsome young face paled. "For Christ's sake, you can't do that!" he exclaimed in a strained whisper. "That would be the end for me!"

Tears started in Pam's eyes as she heard her husband's selfish unfeeling words. But she instantly calmed herself. "Very well," she said coldly. "But there's nothing to stop me from being sick. You know how weak we women are. I'm going home with a headache. Give me the keys to the car."

Jack wanted to argue with her--make her stay and butter up J.B. some more, but he detected the edges of hysteria in Pam's icy manner and was mortally afraid of a scene. Then, suddenly, he asked her to take a taxicab home, and went with her to the boss while she made her excuse. J.B. was obviously annoyed to be losing his prey, but not as much as Jack had feared. The old bastard must have about burnt out his libido by now, pawing over Pam, he thought bitterly. Why does life Agate to he so hard?

"I want to talk to you, my boy," J.B. said when Pam had left. He led Jack into the library. "I was going to make the announcement tonight that would make you vice-president," he said bluntly, "but I don't think the timing is quite right... yet." He looked at Jack suggestively. "I feel that a man's wife is an important adjunct to his career, and I realized tonight that I don't know yours very well." He paused. "That must be remedied."

Jack swallowed painfully. So near and yet so far, he thought sadly. It only Pam had been a little more... accommodating! "Anything you say," he said aloud.

"Wives often... hide their real natures in front of their husbands," J.B. went on. "I feel it would be... a valuable experience if... Mrs. Hollister and I could have a... private meeting. Could you arrange that?"

You rotten shit! Jack's mind screamed. You want to fuck my wife in exchange for the vice-presidency but don't have the guts to come out and say it! Jack felt a rush of loathing come over him and for a moment he was afraid he was going to pass out. I should tell him to shove the company and everything else up his ass! he thought wildly. But he knew J.B. would never ruffle a feather. He would just simply give him his notice and it would have all vanished like smoke--the vice-presidency, the job, security, the good life--all out the window because of his wife's goddamned sacrosanct pussy!

"I'll see what I can set up, J.B.," he said, his face expressionless.

"You do that, my boy, and then perhaps I'll have some good news for you."

There it was, clear as crystal... the vice-presidency for his wife's body. And he knew he'd make the trade... if he could find some way to make Pam see the light.

The rest of the evening was a haze for Jack. Perhaps to torment him, J.B. spent most of his time talking to Harry Steers. Trying to rub it in, Jack thought bitterly. But there was no real danger from that direction now that he knew what the old lecher was after. Harry's wife was as ugly as a mud fence. Left to himself, Jack began to get very drunk. He was propping up the mantelpiece with one shoulder, a large drink gripped tightly in one fist, staring moodily out a window into the black night, when he sensed someone at his elbow.

"I thought you'd forgotten all about me," a soft voice said into his ear.

It was Anna!

She had watched the whole scenario between Pam, Jack and J.B. Anna was far too experienced in the grubby ways of the world to be horrified by the little drama, but she couldn't help feeling a sharp pang of sympathy for Pam. Her encounter with the younger woman tonight had intensified her liking for her. There goes me five or six years ago, she thought bitterly, remembering her own confusing marriage. And now, what am I going to do but stick another knife in her by seducing her husband! Actually, she should thank me. Turning on her most seductive manner, she determined to make a good job of it.

"Sorry," Jack said, his voice thick from the alcohol. "Got a lot on my mind tonight."

"At a party? Let me see if I can do something about that." She was standing close, and Jack slowly became aware that one of her large lush breasts was pressing against his arm. He could feel the warm, billowy softness of it through her dress. Jack's body stiffened as he remembered how he had wanted to fuck Anna for days now, and had been frustrated in his intentions time after time. What about tonight? Pam had gone home. He was on his own, not expected home for hours, and Anna was sounding very friendly.

Experimenting, he moved his arm, dragging it a few inches across Anna's tantalizingly soft tit, wondering if it was an accident it was so near, giving her every chance to pull away.

She didn't. If anything, she moved closer, so that now both her large cushiony mounds were in contact with his benumbed arm.

By God! she wants to get fucked! Jack realized instantly. Anna's face was only inches from his own, and her large brown eyes burned into his in unmistakable invitation.

"This party bores me," she murmured into his ear. "Let's go someplace where we can be alone." There it was, out in the open! It was now or never!

"Where's your coat?" he asked, having trouble with his words. While she went to get it, Jack made his excuses to the boss, telling him he had promised to get Miss Collins home early. The little man looked at him strangely, but said nothing, apparently content to await the day when Jack would deliver his wife to him on a platter.

Once out into the cool night air, Jack's head began to clear a little. "Where to?" he asked.

"Let's go to my place... where we can listen to a little music and... get more comfortable." My God, there's nothing shy about this woman! Jack thought excitedly, sensing that in another little while he would probably be making love to the fabulous body he sensed under her revealing clothes.

"But what about your uncle... Max?" he asked.

"Max is away for the weekend," she said with a little laugh. "It'll just be you and me." Better and better, Jack thought excitedly. He escorted Anna to her car, and then followed her in his as she led the way back to their part of town. Jack kept swallowing nervously as he drove, certain that he was going to fuck Anna tonight, but realizing from bitter experience how often things like this miscarried. God, what if she's just teasing me? he jittered. He was grateful when she took the alley to her place and he was able to park behind her house. It would have been clumsy, to say the least, if he had to park in front, directly across from his own houses where Pam could spot the car if she looked out the window. He wondered if she was already in bed. This was the first time he had ever determined to be unfaithful to her, and he was nervous, wondering how she would react if she found out.

By the time he parked, Anna was already out of her car and opening the back door. She performed a miniature charade of carefully peeking inside the house, using exaggerated caution, and then turned to him with a conspiratorial wink.

"Okay, the coast is clear," she whispered loudly. Jack found her little game an uncomfortable reminder that he was performing a clandestine act... he, a married man, sneaking into a darkened house after a woman he intended to fuck, with his wife less than a hundred yards away. And on top of that, the house belonged to another man, apparently the girl's lover, who might be very irate if he came home unexpectedly. Jack swallowed nervously, and for one long moment almost backed out, but Anna's seductive allure was too great. He went in.

She led him through the kitchen into a large, well-furnished living room. "Okay, first some music," she said gaily, and going to a large stereo on one side of the room, turned it on. She found an FM station that played soft background music. "The radio's better than records," she said. "We don't have to get up and change them... if we're busy at the moment." She was standing only a few feet away from Jack, and unable to stand the strain of her nearness any longer, he suddenly seized her in his arms and mashed his lips down on hers in a long passionate kiss. She responded expertly, insinuating into his madly working mouth the most stimulating tongue he had ever encountered. One of his hands slid up her body and began to claw at her breasts right through the material of her dress.

"Hey, take it easy, tiger," she said, breaking free of his kiss and moving back a short distance. "There's no point in leaping in feet first. We have plenty of time, and the more time, the nicer it can be."

Panting heavily, Jack forced himself back under control. She was right! He was acting like a high-school kid on his first date!

"I know just what you need," she said. A nice relaxing drink." So Jack had to stand and wait while she unconcernedly made him a drink, working efficiently in a small, well-appointed bar that swung out from the wall, and all the time the blood was roaring in his ears as he watched her slightest movement. Never in his life had he desired a woman so much! He longed to take her in his arms and rip the clothes from her, but he was a little afraid of her obvious self-control. Something warned him that he would have to take her on her own terms. After all, coming here had been her idea, and no doubt she had others as well.

"Okay, drink up," she said as she handed him the drink.

"Where's yours?" he asked, pouring half the glassful down his throat in one long gulp. The alcohol hit the bottom of his stomach, bounced once, and then began to spread a soothing warmth throughout his body.

"Later," she answered. "Right now I want to get into something more comfortable." She started to walk away but then stepped closer and suddenly ground her body against his. He felt her breasts against him, and her thighs opened to press her soft hidden pubic mound against his leg while she passionately kissed him on the mouth. Jack tried to put his drink down so that he could get his hands on her suddenly offered body, but she just as suddenly moved away, leaving him standing, gasping by himself. "Got to get out of these clothes," she whispered, her own voice a little husky now.

She went out of the room into a hall, and Jack was content to wait now. There was no doubt now that the passionate promise he had felt in her suddenly abandoned body would soon enough be his. The liquor was calming him, and he determined to enjoy her game of delayed seduction for all it was worth. He strolled about the living room, studying this and that memento on the shelves and mantle, trying to see if they would tell him anything about the people who lived here. It only took him a short time to decide that everything he saw must belong to Max. Nothing here reminded him of Anna.

He had just mixed himself another drink when he saw a flicker of movement in the hallway. He thought it was Anna returning, but then saw that it was a mirror.

And the mirror reflected the inside of Anna's bedroom!

Jack couldn't see all of the bedroom, just a narrow swath through the doorway. He saw another movement reflected, and his breath sucked in as he realized that it was Anna, moving across the interior of her bedroom.

And she was undressing.

Already she was wearing nothing but a bra and panties, and while he watched, she reached behind her back and began to fumble with the catch to her brassiere. Jack stood staring, transfixed, tempted to move away, feeling for a moment like a peeping tom. But then he realized that Anna must have intended him to see--she would have closed the door otherwise. After all, she had to know the mirror was there.

Jack stood, his glass in one hand, halfway to his lips, but he didn't drink. His eyes took in the lithe perfection of Anna's scantily clad body. Her figure shimmered slightly from the distortion of viewing her through one corner of a hall mirror, but if anything, it enhanced her undeniable beauty. She was not as slender as Pam--lush, full, a mother goddess of rich, perfectly proportioned curves and dark earthy shadows; her legs were long but softly rounded, and her broad hips tapered up into a smoothly muscular torso that promised to be able to perform every trick in the sexual repertoire.

And her breasts! Just at that moment they were leaping free of the confining brassiere, quivering and bouncing as Anna threw the whisky garment on the bed, but standing out proud and high, not drooping at all, in spite of their obvious heaviness. Her nipples are so much trigger and darker than Pam's, lascivious thoughts randomly floated through Jack's brain.

Then she was bending over to slip her panties down over her ankles, facing away from him. Jack was presented with the sight of the twin half-moons of Anna's fully rounded buttocks, just for an instant, and then she stood up, facing into the mirror, giving him a momentary view of a perfect triangle of dark brown pubic hair. She moved, her full thighs flexing, squeezing past her darkly furred pubic mound, and to Jack's disappointment, she was gone, disappearing into a part of the room that the mirror couldn't reflect.

Jack hastily turned away, not wanting to be caught spying, even if Anna had engineered it that way. She came breezing into the room, wearing a short robe. Having seen her undress, Jack knew she had nothing under it, and if he had any doubts they were quickly removed by the exciting way her large full breasts moved uninhibitedly under the thin material. The robe was carelessly tied at the waist, and the movement of her legs caused it to open slightly at the bottom, giving the watching young husband brief flashes of nakedly exposed brown pussy hair. He swallowed nervously, and then became painfully aware that he had an erection. The stimulation of the last few minutes had done its work, and his cock was hardening rapidly, pushing firmly against the restraining material of his tight trousers.

"Well, well, well, always eager to get going, aren't you?" Anna said, looking good-naturedly at the obscene bulge in his pants.

Jack colored. "You've got sharp eyes. I'd hoped you wouldn't notice."

"Why?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "I think it's flattering."

Jack couldn't help but compare Anna's forthright behavior with his wife's usual semi-prudery. Hell! he thought bitterly, Pam hates to admit I even have a cock! An image of her took temporary possession of his mind, lying naked on the bed, waiting to be made love to, her eyes closed, seemingly presenting she had no part in it, that it was just happening to her without her being in any way an instigator. How different Anna was, with her forthright approach. Hell, she wanted to get laid and she was doing something about it!

"You want me to mix you a drink?" Jack asked, wanting another himself.

"No, thanks," she answered. "I have a little something else in mind." Going over to a side cabinet, she opened a drawer and took out a cigar box.

"What you got there?" Jack asked curiously.

"Dope," she replied simply. Jack suddenly became very nervous. With his position at the company to think of, the very word frightened him. If anything could ruin him forever, it was what Anna had in her hands. J.B. drank; J.B. used other men's wives; he lied; he stole; he cheated people and ruined decent families; but he was death on drugs! The slightest intimation that Jack had even been in their presence, and it would be all over for him at the office!

"D-Do you think it's wise to keep that stuff right here in your home?" he asked nervously. Anna looked up sharply, and seeing his strained white face, laughed delightedly.

"My heavens," she gurgled. "The poor man is scared half out of his wits!" She suddenly thrust the box at Jack. "Boo!" she said. He jumped.

"N-No," he said, ashamed of being thought a coward, "not scared, really, but that stuff is illegal!"

"So is cheating on your taxes, but I'll bet you do." Jack flushed.

"Come on, stop worrying. You'd think there was a narc hiding in the bedroom. This stuff is so common now that if the police tried to catch everybody smoking it, they wouldn't have time for anything else--like stopping gambling, and necking in cars, for instance." She had opened the box and laid it on the table. It was half-full of brownish-green, crushed leaves and blossoms. Despite his nervousness, Jack moved closer, curious. A rich, slightly acrid odor assailed his nostrils.

Anna reached into another drawer and pulled out a little flat machine made of silk and two steel bars. "What's that?" Jack asked.

"A cigarette roller," she answered. "I'm going to roll us a joint." Even as she spoke, her fingers were moving deftly. She placed a cigarette paper in the little machine and filled it with several pinches of the course powdery mixture. She closed the machine around the paper, and turning a crank, quickly shaped a perfect little white cylinder. Out popped a long narrow cigarette, a few tufts of marijuana leaf sticking out of each end.

"Got a match?" she asked.

Reluctantly Jack fished through his pockets and offered her some. He knew a gentleman lights a ladle's cigarette, but he couldn't bring himself to help bring that dangerous little cylinder to life. Anna didn't seem to mind. She struck a match, and putting the cigarette into her mouth held the flame to it. As she puffed, thick clouds of blue smoke rose from the tip of the cigarette and the room was filled with the sharp heavy scent of burning rope.

"Mmmmnnnnn, good stuff," Anna said dreamily. She held the glowing cigarette out to Jack. "Want a hit?" she asked.

"No, thanks," Jack said, shaking his head vigorously. Anna shrugged her shoulders.

"Suit yourself, but this grass is a real sense turn-on-- makes your body come alive. I call it Old Thunder Fuck--real dynamite stuff."

Jack watched in fascination as she sat in a large armchair and took another drag on the cigarette. She seemed to breathe in forever, and then held the smoke down in her lungs until her face purpled with the effort. When she finally breathed out, little smoke remained, and Jack wondered what had happened to the rest. It had probably been absorbed in her bloodstream, he thought in astonishment.

A slow contented smile came over Anna's face, and she visibly relaxed in the chair. With a shock Jack noticed that her legs had fallen open a little, parting the lower part of her robe, and he was looking right up between her thighs to her nakedly bared pussy. He swallowed nervously, unable to keep from staring at her hair-covered cuntal lips. As his eyes adjusted to the dark shadows of her loins, he was clearly able to make out the thin line of her half-hidden inner slit. He knew that she had seen him looking, but she did nothing to cover herself. Jack's cock began to throb uncontrollably at the sight of Anna's shamelessly naked loins, only a few feet away from his own. He once again felt he was losing the initiative. It was clear that the marijuana was putting Anna in a very different place from where he was, and he began to wonder how it would be to make love to a thoroughly stoned woman when he himself was so tight and nervous.

"You say that stuff turns you on?" he asked.

She looked surprised. "Sure thing," she said. "Why? You want to try some?"

"Well, I don't know..." he said hesitantly.

"Oh, for God's sake, come on," she said disgustedly. "You act like you expect your mother to come into the room and tell you whether it's all right or not."

Stung by her tone, Jack grabbed the cigarette from her. He put it to his lips and took a long drag, but immediately began to choke as the harsh smoke seared his lungs.

"Hey, take it a little slower," Anna said, and showed him how to breathe in slowly and hold the acrid fumes down. After a couple of more tries, he was successful. He didn't experience much reaction at first, but suddenly the lights in the room seemed to dim and then his body felt strange all at once.

"Wow!" he said, feeling as if he were floating a foot off the ground. It was very different from being drunk. For one thing, he still seemed to have good control of his balance. But in some strange way, the whole room had changed. The lights glowed a deep yellow-gold, and he realized that he had been staring at a painting on the wall for a long time.

"Good stuff, isn't it?" Anna said. "Here, let me show you how the physical part works." She reached forward and lightly traced a fingernail over his forearm. It felt natural at first, but then his whole arm seemed to vibrate, sending pounding waves of sensation through his muscles and nerves until his whole body was resonating like a tuning fork. She calls it Old Thunder Fuck, he thought in amazement. God, what will it be like when we... ? Once again he stared down at Anna's nakedly bared vaginal lips, and saw for the first time the evidence of her own sexual arousal. A thin line of liquid beads glistened in the light, lining the softly bearded edge of her pussy-slit, welling up from her tantalizingly hidden vagina. A white-hot wave of lust washed over Jack, making his body resonate again. Sitting on the arm of the chair, he lightly traced his fingertips over Anna's enticingly bared lower belly, where it rounded off into her soft curly pubic hair. She shivered at his touch and her eyes half-glazed over. I guess she isn't as self-controlled as she likes to mate out, he thought in triumph, and standing up, he reached down and jerked her to her feet. She came into his arms willingly, and opened her nakedly exposed thighs as he roughly thrust one leg in between them, rubbing the harsh material of his pants leg against her quivering cunt.