Chapter 1

Stepping out of the warm driving shower onto a plush yellow towel, Betty Howard lifted her thick honey-colored hair from her long delicately arching neck and looked at her youthful reflection in the full length bathroom mirror with an involuntary self- satisfaction. It was hard not to be proud of the wide-spaced green eyes gazing back at her, slanted slightly above high cheekbones, blinking back at her with a growing amusement; it was exhilarating to be such a beautiful young woman and beneath her quiet and modest temperament she enjoyed it. Though she would celebrate her twenty-sixth birthday this very summer, her fully curving voluptuous body was every bit as firm and taut as a teenager's high-set round breasts curving down over a slender girlish waist to round luscious hips; a flat smooth stomach and full-swelling thighs; breathtakingly curved calves tapering down to small well-formed ankles.

But a look of pained bewilderment clouded the green eyes and she let the long slightly damp hair fall to her shoulders with an air of weary discouragement. She stepped closer to the mirror, gazing searchingly at the picture of perfection, and almost wished she were not so lovely; in that context she might be able to make more sense of Kent's peculiarly indifferent attitude towards her lately. It had been over a week now since they had made love and she was willing to accept that as natural after three years of marriage. But even when he did approach her nowadays, she sensed a certain lack of fire. It was almost as though he were performing a duty...

A high feminine squeal of laughter from the patio interrupted this depressing chain of thought. Betty wrapped a soft towel around her naked torso and lifted one of the slats in the venetian blinds with a long perfectly manicured fingernail, peeking out at her brother-in-law and his new bride who had arrived from out of town just that morning. Her eyes narrowed and focused more sharply on the strange picture confronting her: Bob's lean and muscular body was spread out on the chaise lounge in white swim trunks that contrasted with his deep tan and set off his silvery blonde hair while the petite dark-haired Shirley, in a snug black bikini that was at least two sizes too small for her, was trying to sit in Bob's lap. Her lushly curving buttocks slid down onto his pelvis and his arms swooped out to grab her by the elbows and cast her off. But she laughed and bounced right back onto the thickly bulging protuberance now fully apparent straining against his swim trunks. Betty blushed and stepped away from the window, exiting quickly for the adjoining master bedroom. This wouldn't do at all, her mind raced while she pulled on her slacks and shuffled her feet into sandals. Not in front of their new neighbors! Still zipping up her tight slacks, she hurried to the kitchen for the coffee she had left percolating on the counter.

Another squeal of laughter erupted from the backyard as Betty set the coffee pot onto the kitchen table. She turned and faced the window, running her fingers nervously through a stray strand of soft blonde hair. She didn't have the faintest idea how to handle the situation and in a moment she would have to say something! Although they lived in a secluded area on the North Shore of Long Island, their nearest neighbors might see the goings-on across the well-trimmed hedges that separated the long spacious back lawns from each other. She had nothing against a little innocent love-play God knows she and Kent had once done it but there was something flamboyant and very unsettling about the way Shirley and Bob were pawing each other right out in public. Kent's younger brother and his wife had come to stay with the Howards a few days ago and were planning to move into a place on the other side of Long Island as soon as the apartment was furnished and redecorated. Meanwhile, Betty was beginning to wonder what she would have to put up with, and she sighed to herself and leaned out the window.

"Hey, Beautiful," Bob's low voice echoed across the lawn before she could speak. "C'mon out and join the party!"

Betty filled her coffee cup, set it in the saucer, and quickly pushed open the screened kitchen door. The late afternoon light cast long cool shadows across the grey flagstone patio, but the sun was still bright enough to be dazzling as it reflected in the kidney-shaped swimming pool behind Bob and Shirley.

"Nothing stronger than coffee for you, Betty?" Bob remarked as she approached the couple.

"I think I'll wait 'til just before dinner, thanks," she smiled and relaxed her lithely curving back into a lounge chair in front of them.

Shirley smiled demurely at Betty and raised her Scotch to full sensuous lips. "It's really wonderful to be treated so warmly, Betty. I almost feel like I were part of the family."

"God, honey, you are," Bob said, and leaned over to his new wife and gave her a softly brushing kiss. "Mrs. Howard, this is Mrs. Howard. You have already been introduced, I presume?" he chortled, running his fingers under the straps of her bathing suit that cupped her large smoothly uptilting breasts in little more than a thin strip of black cloth.

Shirley swatted him away, but Betty felt herself blush as she had earlier when watching the couple's sex play through the window, and forced a laugh to conceal her embarrassment. "I thought we'd put some steaks on the grill tonight. How does that sound?"

Bob stared into his drink for a moment, then lifted his eyes and studied the snug apple-curve of Betty's full firm breasts that protruded tightly against her blouse. "I think that sounds as delicious as you look. What do you think about that, baby?" he said, turning to Shirley, who had raised a hand to her mouth, suppressing laughter.

Betty Howard stiffened in her chair, unable to cope with the suggestive conversation. This new salacious side of Bob's personality was unfamiliar to her, and she wondered if his new wife, Shirley, didn't have some influence on his actions. Kent's younger brother had always been known as the shy one and at times Betty had thought that the two of them might have been better matched than she and her husband. But now she questioned her earlier feelings. She stood up from her chair and, looking down at the two of them, smoothed her blouse into the waistline of her tight-fitting slacks.

She excused herself and returned to the house. Lord, they had unsettled her so that she did need a drink, she thought, picking the newspaper off the front porch. She fixed herself a Scotch and soda and sat in the living room, sipping on it and scanning headlines. Later, she noticed that it was getting dark, and she set the steaks out on the backyard grill and rejoined Bob and Shirley on the patio.

"I guess it's time for that drink we were talking about," she smiled, having regained her composure.

"Now that sounds more like it," Bob grinned back, and poured a tumbler of Scotch into an ice filled glass. "And while you're enjoying yourself with it, I'll keep an eye on the steaks."

Bob shifted off the chair and strode to the sizzling grill at the edge of the patio. Betty couldn't help admiring the sight of her brother-in-law's long sinuous legs and the boyish roundness of his buttocks as he turned his back to Shirley and Betty seated in lounge chairs across from each other. Yes, she probably had been jumping to wild conclusions about changes in Bob's character when he had made those playful comments to her an hour earlier. She and Bob had always been like brother and sister. She was just nervous because of Kent not being home and his odd detached behavior over the past few weeks. As she sipped from her Scotch, she felt more warmly disposed towards Shirley; even though the girl was something of a sex-kitten, she had a rambunctious liveliness to her that she would find quite charming in less tense moments.

"Worried about Kent?" Shirley asked in a sure sounding voice.

Betty laughed and sipped from her drink again. "Was that a statement of fact or a question?"

Shirley lifted one delicately curving ankle onto the low- setting cast iron table that separated the two women. Despite herself, Betty felt slightly astounded at the girl's brazenness; her tightly fitting bikini panties just covered the sensuous vee of her crotch and the gentle curve of her genital area was clearly evident from beneath the tight press of the cotton material.

"Probably both," Shirley laughed at herself.

"I know how it is when I miss Bob... when he's been off on a business trip, for example."

"You kids have been married for less than six months," Betty said, her voice rising somewhat. "But I'll confess that I never get used to it either."

Shirley gave Betty a warm-eyed smile, and drew her chair up closer to her and leaned across the coffee table. She ran one of her fingers in an almost conscious gesture across the large smoothly uplifting rise of her breasts, finally settling her hand on the tanned flatness of her belly.

"Speaking woman to woman," Shirley said with a candid look. "There are ways of satisfying yourself without hurting yourself or your husband."

"I I don't know what you mean," Betty blurted out, feeling herself blush openly for the third time that day. "Kent is a very attentive husband when he's home and I really am quite satisfied with our relationship."

The conversation was taking an intimate turn that made Betty uncomfortable again. She took a large gulp from her Scotch and discovered to her surprise that she had finished all of it. Shirley must be trying to appear liberal and modern, she concluded, and it rather irritated her to be lectured about sex by a woman five years younger than she was. Still, she thought she knew what Shirley was talking about, and was frankly quite interested in hearing more. Before she had been married, she had given way to her sensual urges by massaging her nipples and touching herself down between her legs, but she had always felt terribly guilty afterwards. She had never heard any other woman openly admit that she had done it either before or after marriage, and her own problems with Kent and the needs of her body that she had been made acutely aware of during the last few weeks were too great for her to deny Shirley the opportunity to talk more about it.

"Doesn't it bother Bob, that you, uh, try to satisfy yourself that way?" she asked obliquely, surprised to find her gaze cast at the tight fit of Bob's swim suit and the muscular stretch of his thighs as he bent over the grill behind Shirley.

"Not at all," Shirley said brightly. "As a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite."

"Well, I'm glad," Betty laughed, almost giddily. "I think I'll make myself another drink. It looks like Bob will be working over those steaks for a few minutes."

The sun had set below the gentle rise of hills behind the house by the time the steaks and green salad and potatoes that had been cooked in aluminum foil over the charcoal coals sat before the three in-laws at the dinner table. After her three drinks, Betty felt considerably more relaxed. It seemed that she had been needlessly uneasy with Bob and Shirley earlier, and now that Bob had shown himself quite helpful as chef and Shirley had demonstrated a genuine interest in her relationship with Kent, she felt a tingle of warmth for the young couple. They were happily married, and perhaps their open show of sensual appetite that afternoon merely demonstrated this. It was dark by the time they had finished eating and the plates had been cleared from the patio. The sky was lit with a sparkling of stars that vaguely illuminated the three faces that were occasionally brightened by the ember of a cigarette.

"Bob," Shirley's soft voice interrupted a long silence. "I think we've got an absolutely gorgeous sister-in-law. You two would make a beautiful couple with your matching blonde hair."

Through the shadows Betty could make out Bob pushing forward in his chair. His hand darted to the plane of his wife's knee, then his darkened face turned toward Betty. "No need to break us up, honey. I could handle the both of you," he chuckled dreamily and sank back in his chair. "A blonde and a brunette. One on each side!"

Then he was silent again. This is so odd, Betty shivered with fear as she had done earlier. I have been with these people for six hours and my feelings have already changed towards them twice. She tried to force the next thought out of her mind, fearing that she had let her confidence in Shirley go too far; had she put too much trust in the woman, and had she been wise to express her true feelings about her loneliness honestly? In her preoccupation she hadn't noticed Shirley's hand move from the upper part of his thigh and play over the again slightly rising bulge of his bathing trunks. Had she seen correctly?

Then she saw the hand move again. Shirley shifted her leg slightly and the man's hand slid across the girl's hip that was barely visible lying outstretched to the side of the lounge chair. At first, Betty had thought the hand on Bob's loins might have been a casual slip, but it remained there, and as her eyes became accustomed to the darkness she could see the fingers squeezing lightly at the bulge as though to provoke him into further hardness.

Betty lit a cigarette and pulled back in her chair. She could see a repeat of the afternoon's lewdly playful performance coming on, only this time it looked like the couple were far more serious in their intentions. If she got up now and went into the living room it would be only too obvious why she had left, so she decided to stay for a moment and finish her cigarette. If she could only keep her eyes off the couple who sat just a few feet away from her! Their bodies were like magnets, drawing themselves closer and closer and pulling her eyes to the movement of their thighs and hands as they touched each other. Despite her resolve, she discovered her own nipples hardening beneath the tightly stretching nylon of the bra that pressed down on her full smoothly rounded breasts. She shifted in her seat, hoping the warming sensation would stop, but a softly tingling quiver of lust rippled lightly through her groin, and she sensed a dampness there that made her increasingly uncomfortable. God, it had to stop! The couple was completely oblivious to anything but themselves, and in a moment, she knew they would be engaged in something far more serious than petting in front of her.

"I think I'll go inside and make some coffee," she said lightly and stood up, fluffing back her honey-blonde hair that had fallen loosely across her breasts. "I'll let you love-birds stay out here until it gets too chilly. The coffee will be perking on the stove when you come in."

She looked down at Bob and Shirley still embraced, their hands continuing to wander in sensuous little circles across one another's bodies. Their indifference to her seemed total, and she experienced the odd feeling of being a complete stranger in her own backyard. As she turned to leave, she glimpsed Bob press his face against Shirley's cheek. The moon had risen over the trees that rose up behind the swimming pool and a bright arc of light flowed across the gleaming flagstone patio. Bob's mouth moved closer to Shirley's moist full lips, and suddenly he kissed her. The wetly sucking sound of the girl receiving his tongue seemed to reverberate across the yard. A kiss, innocent enough between two newlyweds, Betty thought to herself as she reentered the kitchen, but somehow it had a deeper significance. What was happening to her? Why did such trivial things make such an impression on her consciousness?

She set the electric coffee percolator on the counter and lit another cigarette. Then she went to the pantry and lifted a cup and saucer from a cupboard. She paused, her mind abstracted again, and set the crockery back on the closet shelf. What she needed now was another drink. Her nerves were on edge, and maybe another glass of Scotch would be helpful. Kent wouldn't be home until quite late if at all and she had to have something to dampen that insatiable burning that seemed to erupt inside her belly from time to time. During the first two years of their marriage Kent had been a tender and attentive lover despite the fact that she had been far from the responsive woman in bed she knew she should have been. But during the last few months he had grown increasingly distracted with his job. At least, she thought it had been his growing responsibilities with the corporation that had forced him to stay up nights in his office or their den mulling over contracts. But there had been other signs that indicated that his preoccupation was caused by more than business problems. About a year ago, he began returning from work quite late in the evenings and a few times, without previous warning, he didn't return until morning. They'd had some heated discussions about his prolonged absences, but she'd always tried to avoid turning those slight arguments into full-blown fights. The question in the back of her mind that she scarcely was able to ask herself was whether he was involved in something she couldn't really admit to herself that Kent just might be having an affair with another woman.

"Oh, stop it, Bob, not out here," she heard Shirley's voice ring out from the backyard. "Don't touch me like that! It drives me crazy."

She rose from the table again, this time not merely irritated with Bob and Shirley, but plainly angry. She could hear the faint creak of lounge chairs as their bodies must have been shifting onto one another. The sound came floating through the thick shrubbery and echoed with astounding clarity in the kitchen. What was he doing to her that she should make such an obviously half- hearted protest?"

"Oh, not again, ooooh, that tickles," she heard Shirley's voice cry out, deep panting groans accompanying her low guttural cries of pleasure. "Don't be such an anxious boy... Oh, oh, no, not again!"

Betty stood up at the window and pulled open the blinds. The oblong light from the kitchen shone out across a line of low trimmed bushes backing the patio and reflected off the coffee table in front of the couple. She could see Shirley seated on Bob's lap and in the half-darkness it looked as though the girl had her bikini top pulled partially down. Yes, there was no doubt about the fact that two white melon shaped mounds of her breasts were exposed, and she could see Bob's hands running across them, his fingers circling the wide pink aureoles and the stiffly pointing nipples. She pulled away from the window and her shadow cut across the rectangle of light. They were still now. They certainly had seen her and would stop this disgusting exhibition.

"Ohhhhh, God, Bob," the low groan of pleasure coming from a soft feminine voice continued louder than ever, interrupted by a scraping of the lounge chair against the stones of the patio. "There you go again. Oh, now stop it! We can't do anything about it 'til after dinner!"

And then the girl broke out into a peal of teasing laughter that sent shivers of repulsion at their brazen actions and, strangely enough, quivers of sympathetic pleasure racing through Betty's abdomen and into the soft-downed "V" of her vaginal area. She thought for a moment about how Shirley had spoken of the way she satisfied herself when she got into a state similar to the one Betty was in now. But her anger at the couple for making such a demonstration of themselves squelched any desire to indulge herself in such a way her guilt would be too great. God, even now she felt ashamed of herself for getting excited over the young couple's love-play. She heard the clink of glasses and the splash of liquor being carelessly poured; then Bob's voice rang out: "Betty, baby, we need a real woman to liven things up. Shirley here doesn't want to put out for me!"

"That's your problem," Betty called out gaily through the back windows but inside she was shuddering. Thank God it was too dark now for the neighbors to see anything, and she doubted if the voice would carry that far.

She pulled down the blinds, shut off the kitchen light and went into the living room. Her uneasiness with the young in-laws had returned, and her fear of them gave her a strength in resisting their overly-familiar teasing of her that she didn't have before. She flicked on the lamp next to the couch and sat down. At least, she had the benefits of Kent's job which brought in a considerable sum of money, and even though she knew she was being a bit selfish, she felt a sense of pride in the belongings they had acquired through the last few years. The stereo-color TV ensemble facing her from the dark walnut paneling across the room testified to this, as did the gaily-designed Persian rug, and precious Steuben glass ornaments that adorned their imposing mantle-piece. Some of these things were symbols of their prosperity, such as the swimming pool and the collection of paintings they were beginning to collect she especially like some of the modern ones and yet they were comforts, not really to be thought of as luxuries when you came down to it.