Chapter 4

Arlene was dressed in a crisp cotton dress that she considered perfect for the early morning, and even though it was still cool, she felt quite warm as she busied herself about the large house. She had already spoken to the housekeeper, Margaret, and established the fact that she and not Sylvie, would henceforth be giving the orders. The older woman seemed to be relieved and Arlene was pleased to note that several of her suggestions had already been carried out.

The dining room was filled with flowers from the garden, as were the other rooms of the big house. It had seemed a little solemn before, and now there was a cheery sunny atmosphere throughout all the rooms that made a noticeable difference.

When Tim Cassidy came down for breakfast at 6:15 A.M. the dining room had already received Arlene's "touch", and he drank his black coffee and ate his specially flown in French croissants while reading the early morning editions of 6 newspapers. The croissants were a luxury that Tim hoped to keep secret from any prying newspaper columnists, since he knew that the general public would consider such an expense as having the delicious crisp pastries flown over daily from Paris an outrageous waste of money. But, Tim often said, "It is my money and I'll do what I want with it, even if I have to do it secretly!"

Arlene was surprised that Sylvie was still in bed as Tim sped away for town driving his own Buick sportswagon. She waved goodbye to the handsome young politician, thinking that if she were his wife, she would be up every morning, no matter how early, to see her husband off! By the time she went back into the dining room, the other brothers were having breakfast, and Arlene said a pleasant good morning to Ron and Erick, and then let the two blonde men go back to reading their newspapers. She went into the kitchen where the cook gave her a cup of coffee, and then she carried it to the living room, where she sat down on a comfortable leather sofa to drink it. Looking around her at the quiet luxury of the room, Arlene could not get over the fact that this big house was not only to be her home for the next few months, but that she herself was completely in charge of running it.

She felt very, very capable as she sat beneath Jenson Cassidy's oil portrait. And she felt that the old man who had been the Cassidy brothers' father, was looking down at her with approval. She could not help thinking how much more suited she was to the job of taking charge of things and making them run smoothly than her younger cousin, Sylvie, even though Arlene had only started that very morning on her new job.

Ron and Erick's voice drifted in from the dining room, but the attractive brunette could not hear what they were saying. She visualized Sylvie upstairs sleeping soundly, no doubt feeling delicious traces of sensuality from her previous night's love- making with her husband, Tim. Resentfully, Arlene was aware of a slight tingling in her sleekly tapered thighs, there toward the high inner center where they touched together. But, feeling suddenly ashamed, she brushed her thoughts and feelings out of her mind. After all, Sylvie had sent for her to help out, and that was just what she would do. Sylvie had other, more important things to do and no doubt needed the sleep she was getting!

The "snooze alarm" went off at 9:30 and Sylvie heard rustling noises coming from her dressing room. The tub water was being turned on, and groggily, Sylvie realized that her maid, Ella, was in there preparing her morning tub. Once more, Sylvie regretted her own cowardice. Why she had not fired the girl several days ago she could not even explain to herself. She knew that Ella herself was probably not responsible for her lewd seduction on the beach by young Erick Cassidy, that she was in fact as much a victim of the fatal Cassidy charm as she herself was. These thoughts plus the fact that she feared betraying still more weakness to the youngest brother of the family had caused her to keep Ella on as her maid, although the mere sight of the girl was enough to set Sylvie's teeth on edge. Now, though as the disappointing events of the night before rushed in on her waking brain, Sylvie sat up with a start.

"GET OUT!" she cried, "GET OUT OF HERE!"

She was satisfied to hear the noises of the teen-aged girl's flight from the bathroom, and she fell back to the bed with a sigh. She reached her hand out for the printed sheet of paper which detailed her day's activities, conscious all the while of the now cold indentation beside her on the outsized double bed, where her husband had slept on his back all night long. There had been a time, Sylvie remembered, when the two of them had slept curled close to each other at night, but now Tim slept as a complete entity unto himself, and Sylvie kept to her own side of the bed, mindful nonetheless of the warmth she was missing.

Angrily, Sylvie read the schedule for the day. Her hairdresser was due in half an hour, and then at 11:00 she had to tape an interview with Jay Starker of NBC News. The television cameras were probably already being set up downstairs, and Sylvie hoped that Arlene would be able to cope with everything. In the afternoon she was due to visit a Foundling Home in Grandville where it was known that conditions were under par due to lack of Federal and State funds. Her visit was supposed to point up these facts and Tim's speech that night at the fund raising dinner would no doubt contain a reference to it.

After the dinner which she had to attend with her husband, Tim had a private meeting with some of the state big wigs who were supporting him, and Sylvie was on her own. At the bottom of the page the word FREE was written, and Sylvie read it thinking bitterly of how exhausted and bored she would be by that time, and more than that, of her husband, who would probably not return home until the wee hours of the morning after what she knew was an important meeting in town. There would be no love-making that night, she knew, as she climbed out of bed, no lovemaking and no comfort for hours, days... perhaps years!

The prospect was grim indeed as the stunning 24-year-old blonde surveyed her face in the bathroom mirror, she thought with desperation that she must do something to control the horrible trap that her life was becoming. Something had to be done!

"You'd better stick around to make sure that she can handle the television people," Ron had told his younger brother, Erick, as he climbed into the back of the limousine.

"Sure thing!" Erick replied, "she's a pretty thing, isn't she?"

"Watch your step, Erick! She and Sylvie are like sisters... Don't make any unnecessary complications!" he commanded, disappearing into the depths of the back seat.

"I always watch my step!" Erick replied as the car headed down the driveway toward the town. "Or at least I try to," he said to himself as he turned to go back into the house.

The TV people were making a racket in the living room when he went in, but Erick noticed that Arlene had everything pretty well in hand.

"You're going to work out fine, aren't you?" he told her as she whizzed by him on her way to speak with the special advisor the family had always used for television appearances. A former director himself, he brought along the best make-up man in the business and made certain that there were no unflattering angles or lighting during the taping. Arlene was going to talk with him about the color of the flowers that would be behind Sylvie while she was talking to the interviewer.

Erick was pleased to see the newcomer blush under his frank gaze.

"I certainly plan to," she replied, firmly, with a brisk smile that she intended to mean that she was friendly, but busy.

Erick watched her go by, and followed her moving hips with interest and amusement. "Built like a brick shit house," he murmured to himself as he took in the firm but full shapes of Arlene's buttocks as she hurriedly walked across the room. "Wonder what those babies would feel like in my hands?" he mused to himself as he walked out onto the terrace to survey the morning.

He decided that he would hang around until Sylvie came downstairs. He wouldn't miss his morning greeting to his nervous sister-in-law for anything, not after he'd caught her spying on him at the beach that day. He still felt a gleeful exhilaration every time he thought about seeing her up there on the dune, her fingers wriggling in her own pussy. His own brother's wife! He'd always suspected that she was a hot number, and it had always been a source of pleasure to him to see her turn red with embarrassment and anger when he whispered those suggestive things to her about his girl friends. But now, things were much more serious! There was no real rush about it, but Erick know that shortly he was going to feel those long silky legs of Sylvie's wrapped around his neck. His own hard cock, and not his big brother Tim's was going to be filling that little blonde cunt of hers, and she was going to love it! Of that much he was sure!

Sylvie came slowly down the winding staircase. She looked almost surrealistically beautiful, having just been made up and coiffeured by the experts. Her white dress was simple but expensive, her well turned calves and ankles led down to a white medium heeled pump of soft Italian leather. On her wrist she wore the gold bracelet her husband had given her the night before. There was a hush among the waiting cameramen and the others that were crowded into the living room of the Cassidy Family Meeting Place as Sylvie appeared among them. Arlene tried to stifle the jealousy that the sight of Sylvie provoked in her. She watched as Erick walked up to her cousin and whispered something into her ear. Arlene wondered what he was saying.

"Did my brother give you a good hard fucking last night?" Erick whispered into his sister-in-law's ear, knowing that she would not flinch or push him away from her with all those people watching curiously.

"Because if not, you know where you can always get a good taste of cock. Say the word and I'll stick it up in your cunt so high it will choke you!"

Sylvie smiled her most radiant smile, but her heart was beating fearfully and it cost her a lot in terms of nerves to control the tone of her voice as well as the violence with which she wanted to respond to her brother-in-law's lewd words.

"You're not good enough to lick my shoes!" she said softly to him as though they were discussing the weather. She would deny it all to the end. She must pretend, even to herself that it had not been she out there on the dunes, obscenely masturbating, watching like some depraved voyeur, the sexual antics of her play-boy brother-in-law.

She moved swiftly away from him toward the waiting crowd. People moved in to greet her as Erick fell back. In spite of what he knew was his upper hand in the little cat and mouse game that he was playing with Sylvie, he felt a burning anger at her words. That she would dare talk to him like that after what he'd seen her doing!!

"Well, we'll see who licks whose shoes!" he thought to himself as he left the house. "THAT BITCH!

Tim Cassidy was in top form. The speech had gone well and they had raised several thousand dollars in one night with a standard dinner of peas and chicken. He was very pleased. He turned to his smiling docile wife who was seated next to his youngest brother, leaning over he spoke, "Erick why don't you take Sylvie home. Maybe you should take her to the club first. You look like you could use a drink!" he added to Sylvie, noting her ashen expression, "I'll be home late tonight... have a little fun!" He kissed her tenderly upon the cheek and was already disappearing with his brother Ron and several familiar faces of his entourage. They were headed for the meeting that Sylvie knew would take place immediately after the banquet dinner. With horror, she realized that her husband was sending her off with Erick, when all she asked was to be as far away from the youngest member of the clan as she could possibly get.

But Erick was already eagerly propelling her beyond the smoke-filled room and out into the night air where a chauffeur waited patiently. Although Sylvie realized that she could easily be firm with her spoiled brother-in-law, telling him that she intended to go home and nowhere else, she decided that she must not show her weakness by letting him know just how afraid of him she was. Now would be the time that she would have to meet with him and prove herself the stronger of the two.

As Erick installed himself in the limousine beside her, she spoke to the chauffeur, not waiting for Erick's instructions.

"Take us to the club, Ben, will you?" she said in her pleasantest voice. Then settling back she turned to Erick noting with approval his surprised expression. She knew that he had expected her to protest.

"I do feel the need of a drink after that dreadful dinner. Don't you?" she asked, arching her finely drawn eyebrows.

The doorman at the club bowed and scraped as they swept in the door, and after the usual number of heads had turned the famous brother and sister-in-law were seated in the private booth reserved for members of the family. It was a very pleasant spot, giving a perfect view of everything that went on in the small room, but screened off in such a way that little could be seen of them. They sat in comfortable chairs that were molded together to give the appearance of an ordinary bar booth. That was their charm. But they were far removed from the hard wood and plastic of their distant cousins.

Although Sylvie did not otherwise betray just how nervous she was, she did consume three frozen daiquiris, one right after the other, while Erick was still working on his second Jack Daniels and water.

Erick was waiting for her to show some sign of inebriation, having decided to go along with her for a while at least. He too could pretend that they were the best of relatives... Tim Cassidy's wife and Tim Cassidy's brother having a friendly drink at the most elite club within a 500 mile radius. Certainly nothing wrong with that.

"Well, I think I'd like to be getting back now... rigid schedule tomorrow, you know!" Sylvie said. She had downed that last daiquiri a little too fast, and she could feel her head whirling. Mentally she cursed herself for having had so many so fast, she knew that she could take quite a few daiquiris in a night, but only if she spaced them carefully. Her nervous state had not allowed her to do so, and now she was paying for it.

She was not very surprised when Erick drawled, "Oh I think I'll have another, dear sister-in-law, and I'll order one more for you too!"

Sylvie remained silent. She didn't feel that she should say too much, she was afraid she might blurt out something unwise. When the drinks came she began to sip hers silently, while Erick began to speak.

"You know, I'm glad that we have this little time together," he began easily. "You're a reasonable woman... one who really knows the facts of life!" he said, winking unpleasantly at her.

Sylvie was silent. Desperately she tried to keep taking deep breaths, hoping the intake of air would sober her up.

"I mean you know the kind of things that happen on the road!"

What was he getting at? Sylvie wondered angrily. Why had she been foolish enough to believe she could get through an hour or so alone with this odious man? She was thankful though that at least thus far she had somehow set the tone of the evening so that he used no lewd profanities with her. In fact he was very polite... much too polite.

Erick had thought about what he was going to say to her when he got a chance to do so. He had thought about it all day in fact. Now, it was a pleasure to him to see the young blonde woman jump in her seat as he casually mentioned, "You know how those little girls are always aching to take down their panties for a famous cock. A man can't always refuse!"

Sylvie felt something like a knife turning inside her, but she tried to keep her voice steady as she replied...

"Of course not," she said uneasily. She wanted to jump up and run from the room, but she knew that she and Erick must leave the place together, besides, she was hoping that she could sober up some before she had to stand up. Her vision had started to blur a little at the sides and the funny whirring sensation in her head had not let up.

"I don't really blame my brother," Erick continued.

Which brother was he talking about? But Sylvie knew full well that her unpleasant brother-in-law was trying to taunt her... trying to get her all upset by telling her some story about her husband, his oldest brother, Tim. Probably lies... he was probably making it all up just to upset her!

But, she thought with sudden clarity, "WHY ELSE WOULD HE SHOW SO LITTLE INTEREST IN ME?" The previous explanation that her husband's exceedingly rough schedule both mentally and physically gave him little time to think of such things, seemed a vague pipe dream that Sylvie had made up for herself in order to avoid the true facts. He was unfaithful to her with other women!

Erick's voice droned on and on, and Sylvie could easily visualize her handsome husband... too handsome for his own good, and certainly for hers... sleeping with those girls... all those horrid little creatures who adored him and his brothers... putting his hands up their skirts... letting them fondle him... Making love with them! After all, she reasoned, forgetting and taking another sip of the drink in front of her, she had once been one of those girls herself. She'd been working in the young district attorney's office, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as the saying went. She knew just how Tim Cassidy operated. Hadn't he come up behind her one day and kissed her gently on the ear, letting his hands brush casually across her breasts? Just enough to enflame her, to make her want him more than she had ever wanted anything in the world! In spite of herself she emitted a groan, and Erick sitting nearby moved a little closer to her and smiled.

He knew that his words were having the effect that he wanted. With keen interest he let his eyes rove over Sylvie's partially exposed breasts. Her dress was not cut very low in front, but he could still see the full ripeness of her large creamy breasts, especially if he leaned over a bit. He moved over just a bit more, so that his thigh pressed close against hers beneath the table and launched into his story.

"I'll tell you a story about one politician I know... who shall of course remain anonymous. It didn't happen so very long ago really..."

Sylvie started to put her hands up to her ears, but she realized that nothing would stop Erick from telling his story. She could feel the words piercing her with their horrid meaning, and despite the efforts to block it all out, she could clearly visualize the events that Erick outlined.

"Well, you see, he asked to have this special girl sent up to the hotel room. She was just a secretary, new at that, but there was something fresh and innocent about her... not like the others who are always throwing themselves at you! This man told us... (there were two other men in the room) that he wanted to see just how dedicated she was, this new girl, and she came up trembling like a leaf, but obviously anxious to please. Couldn't have been more than 17 or 18, maybe younger and lying about her age. She was blonde... actually looked a bit like you, Sylvie, only younger. In any case, this man brought the young girl over behind the desk where he was sitting and brought out a package of pictures for her to look at. Well, Sylvie, each one was dirtier than the next. Every position in creation was happening in those pictures, and there were those nasty full close-ups of genitals... you know the ones that really get to you!

Well, In tell you they really got to that little girl. She blushed and then she blanched, and then she tried not to look at them, but this man he kept forcing her to look. By this time his arm was around her waist and he was holding her fast up against his chair, mailing her look at those dirty pics. Well, it wasn't long before the girl realized that something was expected of her and she seemed stunned by the knowledge, slumping in a semi-swoon against this famous politician, and looking at each picture that was presented to her with a slack open mouthed expression. Then we noticed that her expression was gradually changing to one of excitement. We didn't know exactly why from where we were sitting but her face began to show unmistakable traces of passion and she began to breathe hard. Then the man beckoned us closer and moving around the side of the desk, much to the young blonde girl's consternation, we were able to see that he had pulled her short skirt up slightly and had inserted his finger under the leg band of her pink nylon panties. He was softly stroking the little narrow moist slit of her hair-covered vagina. You could see it, Sylvie, glistening with wet between her spread legs as the man suddenly shoved his finger upward worming it into the tight little pussy as high as he could go!"