Chapter 3

Susan slumped, defeated, at the table. She ran her fingers through her hair and cradled her head in her hands. She had a splitting headache. She'd spent a good deal of the afternoon alternating between crying and raging at the unfairness. One transgression. One lapse in judgement and now she was screwed.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, determined not to cry again, and looked up at Casey. She hadn't had the nerve to look at him the whole time she was telling him what had happened after he left her classroom, and now she was cautiously seeking out his reaction.

To her amazement, he was looking intently at his steak, sawing away at it as if she hadn't just revealed a potentially devastating consequence to their actions. "Are you going to say something?" she asked, sniffling.

"Good steak," he answered, through a mouthful of beef.

"Casey," she hissed. "I just finished telling you that bitch saw us screwing today. She has it on video, and is going to blackmail me with it. I think this is a pretty major situation. And all you can say is 'good steak'?"

"Mmm," he nodded, stuffing another chunk into his mouth.

"You're a piece of work," she spat.

Casey stopped chewing and grinned at her. "No. I'll tell you who's a piece of work."

"Please do."

He took a drink of water, and dabbed at the corners of his mouth with his napkin. "Lacey Collins."

Susan was beginning to regret meeting with him again tonight. She had thought that maybe he would have some answers, and maybe together they could figure out what to do. She poured out the story, searching for a solution that she might have missed before.

Lacey had only played the first few minutes of Susan and Casey's encounter, but it was enough for Susan to realize that Lacey did indeed have the upper hand. Then she spelled out her demands. Her marriage was on the rocks, but it was nothing a high-priced marriage counselor and a bit of imagination in the bedroom couldn't take care of. The perfect solution seemed to have presented itself, and Lacey admitted that the prospect was somewhat intriguing to her, though she was slightly more conservative than her husband when it came to sexual tastes.

"If he wants you to take his cock in the ass, you will do it," Lacey purred. "If he wants you to swallow his rock hard monster, you will do it. If he wants to fuck every orifice in your body until you think you've been ripped apart, you will let him. And," she paused, with a reflective smirk, writhing in satisfaction. "If he wants to watch while you lick my tight little pussy, you will do it."

Amazingly, Susan regained enough composure to meet Lacey's eyes directly. "And if I don't?"

"If you don't, I will make sure every member of the school board receives a copy of this video. You will be fired. And I will personally see to it that the best job you can ever again hope for involves a polyester uniform and a name tag," Lacey snarled, curling her lips in disgust.

Now Casey was calmly devouring his dinner, and didn't appear to be the least bit concerned. He might've at least shown some compassion. He might've attempted to comfort her, seeing her in distress. He might've offered to have a little chat with Lacey himself. But he did none of that. Chivalry was dead after all.

"Susan, I don't feel sorry at all about what happened today. So I won't pretend that I am."

Dumbfounded, Susan gasped, and reaching for her purse, began to slide out of the booth. This really was a mistake. She'd be better off dealing with Lacey on her own. Or maybe she'd just quietly slip out of town, and try to start over somewhere else. But for the first time since they sat down in this restaurant, Casey showed some emotion. He actually looked surprised that she was leaving, and looked like he might try to stop her. That was enough to make her pause.

"Wait. I am sorry. I know you're upset, and I've been an ass for not being a little more understanding. But I have been listening, and I think you might be interested in what I have to say, if you'll just stop for a minute and listen."

Less than confident that what he was about to say was going to be helpful to her, Susan scooted back to the center of the booth, yet kept the grip on her purse, and remained tensely upright. Lips in a grim line, she nodded at him.

Casey laughed and shook his head disbelievingly. "That self-righteous little bitch."

He drained the last of his water. Susan had had just about enough drama for the day and was in no mood to be strung along any further. "Just cut to the chase," she pleaded tersely.

The grin slid off his face, and he suddenly seemed to understand. As he spoke, the stress of the day began to release its hold on Susan, she was finally able to relax.

"Lacey Collins is in no position to be demanding anything from anyone. Her marriage is in more than just a little bit of trouble. Her husband is ready to leave her, take the kids with him, and leave her high and dry without so much as a penny in alimony."

"And you know this because... ?" questioned Susan.

"Bruce Collins is a real estate developer, is he not? Probably more successful at what he does than anyone else in the state. I am a contractor. Modestly successful in my own right, and well enough respected that Bruce knows who I am.

"A while back, after we had finished a job, Bruce and I went out for a drink. Some hottie at the bar came on to him, but he turned her down flat. After she left, he said he couldn't afford any mistakes.

"Naturally, I asked what he meant, and got an earful about the cheating whore he's married to. He can't prove anything, but he has some pretty strong suspicions.

"Obviously, to a guy with his net worth, getting divorced purely on the basis of suspicion would cost him more than he's willing to part with, the same as it would if she caught him with his pants down. Now he's just waiting for verification so he can divorce her without getting shafted in the settlement." Casey paused and looked pointedly at Susan.

"I don't understand. What does this mean for us?"

"I can prove the infidelity." Casey picked up the steak bone off his plate and pointed it at her. Then, with a wink, he added, "And I just got an erection harder than this T-bone when I thought about what I have that will prove it to Bruce and solve all our problems at the same time."

Mouth gaping, Susan sat speechless. She wanted to kiss him. Hell, she wanted to fuck him senseless right there in the middle of the restaurant. Turn the tables on Lacey Collins? Hot damn! She motioned for the waiter to bring their check, and reached for his hand across the table. "Tell me more, quick."

Their eyes locked, and he leaned forward, unraveling the story in a conspiratorial tone, taking care that the other patrons would not hear. "Not too long after our conversation, I was contracted to replace some duct work at a chain of health clubs. So I went in to do some preliminary work -- you know, draw some sketches, and figure out what kind of materials I would need.

"I always take my digital camera along when I go to a job site. It allows me to do two things. First, I can take before and after pictures to add to a kind of photo resume I have. Second, it helps me assess and remember what needs to be done so I don't have to physically go back until I'm ready to start.

"I was in between the walls of the administrative offices, trying to get pictures of the vents. I was holding my tape measure up and snapping the picture at the same time, which wasn't an easy thing, since they were mounted fairly high up on the wall. This one vent was giving me some trouble. I guess I must've pressed too hard with the hand I was holding the tape measure with, and the vent started to pop out the other side of the wall. As I was trying to get it tightened again, the office door opened, and in walked Lacey. She was all sweaty from her workout, and was drying off with a towel. Then she started getting undressed! Keep in mind, Susan, this was an office, not the locker room.

"I'll admit, I enjoyed watching her undress. She does have a great body," he smiled.

"When she was completely naked, she sat on the edge of the desk. I didn't know what she was doing or whose office it was, but she sure acted like she was expecting somebody. Then, the door opened and one of the trainers walked in; this huge, muscle-bound black guy.

"He got this grin on his face like the cat who's just caught a mouse. In about ten seconds, he'd stripped naked and crossed the space between the door and the desk. He planted himself between her legs, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He covered her mouth with his, and I knew this was not their first rendezvous.

"It was incredible, Susan. Lacey's creamy skin next to his chocolate skin, both of them slick with sweat. She was begging -- pleading -- for him to shove that long black cock into her, and when he did, she screamed. They were fucking like animals. It was better than any porno I've ever seen." He leaned closer. "And I'm so damn hard right now, I swear I'll shoot if I so much as touch it."

"Oh, my God," Susan said, squeezing Casey's hand. She was squirming in her seat, hanging on his every word, and getting wetter by the second.

"Bruce has been good to me. He's thrown work at me when quite honestly, there are guys who could probably do it cheaper and faster. But he knows that I do quality work, and the customer is never going to come back on anything I've done. I appreciate that. And I'd help him out any way I could. So when they started getting after it, so did I. I got quite a few pictures before I realized the flash was still on. That was right about when the trainer realized it too. He looked up and asked if she'd noticed that flash of light. She made some cute comment like she always saw flashing lights when he was fucking her, but he knew something wasn't right. So I boogied out of there before he found me."

Casey stopped as the waiter arrived. "Shall we finish this conversation in the truck?"

"Oh yes, let's."

They made a hasty exit from the restaurant, with Susan in front to spare Casey the embarrassment of anyone catching sight of the massive hard-on that threatened to jump right out of his pants.

In the parking lot, Susan took Casey's arm and asked, "Why didn't you go to Bruce right away?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. I thought about it. A lot, actually. There are a lot of good reasons to show him the pictures, and nobody would even have to know that I was the one who had taken them. Bruce would get what he wants, Lacey would get what she deserves, and I could count on as much work as I can handle, at whatever price I set."

"But... ?"

"I didn't want to hurt Bruce. He's a buddy. We respect each other and have a good business relationship. After the way he opened up to me, I didn't want to do anything he could possibly misconstrue. I really had no urgent reason to get involved any more than I was. But that was before Lacey decided to fuck with my woman." They had arrived at Casey's truck and he opened the door for her. She slid across the cab and opened his door, remaining at the center, so their thighs touched when he got in the driver's seat.