Chapter 13

To say things were strange at the Menconi house would be an understatement. Vince had one more night away to cement his affair with Lee Waters. Knowing how much he was struggling with his infidelity, she went all out to convince him that they needed each other. She did it all without words, and she was very, very persuasive. When they parted at the home airport, it was easy for Vince to agree to their next assignation.

Coming home to Theresa was one of the hardest things Vince ever had to do. He made a huge effort to act normally, but he was not at all sure he pulled it off. Fortunately, with relations between him and Theresa as strained and unusual as they had been over the summer, 'normal' was very hard to define.

He was so absorbed in his own new situation that it took most of a day before he noticed the change in her. When he took the time to watch her, he was surprised at the relative serenity she displayed. When he left, she had seemed constantly frightened and unsure of herself. Now, he saw just a little of the old Theresa confidence showing through. He wondered what had happened while he was gone.

For her part, Theresa watched Vince like a hawk from the time he walked in the door and gave her a perfunctory kiss. He was now just a subject in her master plan for the rest of her life. Because of her newfound awareness of her past misdeeds, she had learned very quickly how to watch and read people. She felt she was quite good at it.

Vince was not himself, of that she was certain. There was an edginess about him that simply did not fit his normal self-assured demeanor. At first, she wondered if he was finally coming around, realizing his own culpability in driving away their children. That would be a good thing. The best of all worlds would be for Vince to reform and enter willingly into raising the next phase of their family.

Then, she wondered if there was a crisis of some kind at work. 'Before', as she now mentally thought of the time before Terry's arrest, he had shared freely with her on every detail of work. She had no corporate background, but was intelligent enough to understand and discuss things with him. She was his biggest fan, and it had been a strong point in their relationship.

Looking back, she could not think of a single time when a work crisis had caused him visible distress, and there had been a few serious ones. No, she did not think his discomfort and disorientation were work-related.

She was into her period, so there would be no sex to measure his level of distraction. On several occasions, she did make affectionate moves, and his responses were strange. Before the trip, he had responded to any move on her part with a combination of relief and caution, as if wanting the intimacy, but afraid it might not evolve.

Now, he seemed to alternate between an almost desperate clinging and standoffish reluctance. For two days, she puzzled over it before experiencing another epiphany late at night. Vince was cheating on her! It took only microseconds for her to deduce who the woman was.

When the realization hit, she was glad they were in bed and he was sleeping, because she probably would have reacted visibly. It was not long, however, before she was able to think about the situation cooly and rationally.

First of all, she was not as distressed as she thought she should be. How could that be? Her husband was fucking another woman, a beautiful, sexy woman, a woman he saw frequently at work. The first answer she gave herself was that she had driven him to it. She knew she had been a lousy sex partner all summer, and he was used to a lot more. It was easy to picture him as easy prey for Lee, who Theresa knew instinctively was a very sexual person.

Theresa was also sure that Lee was into sex much more like she and Vince used to enjoy. Only her instincts told her that, but she was certain. They had sat at tables with Lee and her former husband Roland on several occasions at company functions, and had danced with each other's spouses numerous times. Theresa had always thought the easy-going, gentlemanly Roland was a mismatch for the hard-driving Lee. News of the divorce, though it had saddened her, had not surprised her.

Since she had decided to expand her family, some of the old scheming, conniving Theresa had reappeared. Not in dealing with her children, but in support of her new objectives. The idea that Vince was fucking Lee actually made her plans easier. Given that Vince would never change enough to be the kind of father she wanted for her future offspring, his affair would provide ammunition to make the divorce easier.

After gnashing on that line of thinking for a while, Theresa was brought up short in alarm. She had not changed at all! This is what the old Theresa would be doing! For a moment, she actually felt faint, but then started to think about it more carefully. This was for her children - present and future. It's what she had to do. Maybe she was using the tactics of the old Theresa, but this time, her motives were pure.

Convinced as she was about Vince and Lee, she wanted to be even more certain, and thought about how to accomplish that. It would be two more days before she really wanted to have sex, because of her period, but she could still tease him.

The next morning, Theresa made sure she was up first, and took a quick shower. Then, she waited until he was standing, and walked into the bedroom, naked.

"Vince, Honey," she said, "I know I..." and she stopped dead. He was looking at her bare crotch and he had gone absolutely white. In fact, he had to sit heavily on the bed.

"I was going to say I haven't been a very good wife, lately, as far as sex. I want to change that, but we'll have to wait another day. I'm sorry." She had said this with a steady voice, although his extreme reaction surprised her.

"I see my bare pussy shocked you. I've never done that before, have I? - except when they did it for delivery. While you were gone, I treated myself to a spa, and on a whim, had them do this." She had carefully worked out that little lie.

"I had decided to just let it grow out again, but if you like it, I'll keep it shaved. What do you think?" It took an effort to ignore his reaction and go on normally, but she pulled it off quite well.

The sight of his wife's bare pussy immediately made Vince think that she had found out and was trying to compete. The thought was not rational, but with the stress his new affair was bringing on him, he was vulnerable to some highly irrational thinking. He was so taken aback that he was not able to steel himself to hide his reaction.

As he continued to stare at her crotch, even the fear could not hold off a full erection. He had just begun to soften from his morning hardon, and the view brought it right back. She certainly was a sexy sight! Listening to Theresa's explanation, he got a bit more control of himself and realized it had nothing to do with Lee. There was no way she could have found out.

"It... it's... God, it's sexy! You decide, Dear. I love it either way," he managed to get out in a fairly steady voice.

"The first week or two while it grows out, it may be a little scratchy," she explained. "It was fun to try it once, but I'm going to grow it back. Think I'll keep it a lot shorter than before, though. Do you want to feel it? I've got a tampon in, so there's no danger of getting anything on your hand."

Vince could sense that she had issued some kind of a test, or a challenge. He got up from the bed and walked toward her as steadily and purposefully as he could. Having regained almost all of his composure, he wrapped one arm around her to pull her in for a kiss, while the other hand went down between them to caress the lips with just the beginnings of stubble.

After a long kiss, which she thoroughly enjoyed, she broke free and dropped to her knees in front of him. As she brought the head of his cock between her lips, he stammered, "Why... why don't we wait until you can?... Ohhhh!" It had been months since she last blew him, and even after the strenuous trip with Lee, he lost track of anything else from the sensations.

As she worked him with all the skill she could muster, she thought 'Wonder if Lee will be pissed when he's one load short next time?' As she did everything she could with her mouth and both hands, she was able to think, and was amazed at how she could actually enjoy it, knowing what she knew.

His affair fell right into her hands. Still, she could not help a sense of competing with the other woman, and she did not like to lose. Lee must keep herself bald. Seeing her just now must have made him think she knew. No wonder he almost fainted!

Julia had told Theresa she could call any time if she needed to. The call that came later that morning was not at all what she expected. The voice message said "Vince is having an affair. I want to get proof to help with the divorce. Do you know a good detective I can call?"

It took Julia until the end of her day to get herself together enough to answer Theresa. When she called, she resisted the temptation to ask any questions, and just told her that the Plonske Agency was considered the best in town. Julia had learned that extending treatment activities or conversations outside of regular sessions was rarely a good idea.

Theresa was a little upset that she had to wait until the next morning to call the detectives, but she had no choice, given the late hour. When the assigned detective, a young woman, arrived, Theresa gave her the names, work addresses, and phone numbers, and whatever else she thought would help. With that much information to start, the detective thought it would be relatively easy to get incriminating evidence. She expressed a little skepticism that Theresa had enough information to be sure there truly was an affair. However, she had enough experience to understand wives' special sensitivities in that area.

When her period was completely over, Theresa went about seducing Vince into sex. She had carefully thought through her approach to getting pregnant by him. The critical time would be ten to sixteen days out, leaving room for error on her ovulation. Having been on the pills so long, she did not have a good feel for her cycle any more, except for her period arriving like clockwork. She bought a fancy thermocouple temperature device designed specifically to detect the optimum days.

From the outset, she knew there might be a problem getting enough sex from him. If he had regular and frequent sessions with Lee, he might be either unable or reluctant to service her those nights. She did not think there was any chance of him getting suspicious because of her increased interest. There was absolutely no reason for him to suspect her desire to get pregnant.

Even though she knew it might increase her chances at his attentions, she could not bring herself to return to the old fight-induced bouts of sex. However, she did decide that she had to be much more energetic than in the past few months. She had to at least give him a taste of what he considered the right kind of sex - the kind he was undoubtedly getting from Lee.

As she leaned over the bed, loudly urging Vince to pound her harder and harder, Theresa could not help but remember the sensations from their earlier couplings. She also felt some remorse over her impending loss of Vince, something she now considered certain. There was no question they had had something special, even if it was at best 'unusual'. And it was not just the sex, either. They had shared a lot of the same values and desires. That it had all come apart was definitely not a cause for rejoicing.

As she felt herself rising toward what promised to be a very big orgasm, Theresa had little trouble pushing nostalgic thoughts of Vince from her mind. This was all for the baby, and that was far more important than her badly-fractured marriage. Just the thought of the baby aroused her further, and within a couple of minutes, she crashed over. Even in the midst of her climax, when she felt him blast away, she felt a little triumph. That was another load Lee would not get.

Lee devised a very clever setup for her rendezvous with Vince. Space was admittedly short at the company because of staff expansion. In particularly short supply was meeting space. She contracted with a nearby hotel for permanent use of a small suite, one with a conference table, kitchenette, sleeper sofa and side chairs, and a full bathroom. It would be used for legitimate purposes, to be scheduled by her admin assistant.

The hotel had a very good restaurant, and within two weeks, the suite was in high demand. That still left plenty of open time, and Lee and Vince made use of those open periods. Since they had to return to work afterward, they made it a point to strip almost upon entry to keep from giving themselves away by soiled or rumpled clothes. Likewise, they always showered after.

Theresa caught what might or might not have been a break as she approached her most fertile period. Lee had to go out of town, without Vince, to return the day after what Theresa estimated as her peak. Theresa learned this from the PI, who was very adept at tracking both of the targets.

Lee's trip was a break in that Vince would not get any from Lee, and it would be easier for Theresa to seduce him. However, what if he wanted to 'save' himself the last day or two for Lee's return?

The PI took less than a week to learn about the suite and how Lee used it. She already had some dates and times when they had been there alone together. Since it was a work-related site, however, the fact that they were there together, alone, was not as meaningful as if it had been a motel. It looked like electronic wizardry would be needed for the final, damning evidence.

In this case, the way the suite was used made things easier. Hotel serving, housekeeping, and maintenance people were in and out of the suite quite often because of its level of use. The PI had a compatriot plant the camera, not wanting to take any chance of her own face being seen.

The best disguises for unauthorized entry into hotel rooms were as telephone, HVAC, plumbing, or electrical repair people. These were the outside services most often used. Typically, the fake repair person would enter the room while housekeeping was there, eliminating the need for a key, or for breaking in. Since English was a poor second language for much of the housekeeping staff, a tool box or belt, something that looked like a uniform, and some kind of badge to flash was usually all it took.

The most modern cameras were not true real-time. Instead, they were essentially digital cameras that sent the captured image through a transmitter instead of to a flash card. They took images as fast as they could be captured and sent. This produced much higher resolution than the typical surveillance monitor. A sequence of images every 1.5 to 3 seconds would usually produce very acceptable results. Real-time audio monitoring was typically installed, as well.

One drawback of the system was the need to have the receiving station nearby. In this case, an adjacent suite became available, and that's when the setup was done. The costs involved were all explained to Theresa, and she did not hesitate at all.

This particular case introduced a new issue for the Plonske Agency. Since the suite was used for business purposes, they were flirting at the edges of industrial espionage. They scrupulously avoided recording anyone but the target couple, and in fact had the monitoring technician leave the room when legitimate meetings were going on.

In the face of such expertise and technology, it was amazing that any cheating couple could think they would not be discovered if the offended spouses chose to spend the money. Since Theresa already knew who Lee was, it made it that much simpler.

Theresa carefully followed her strategy of initiating sex and giving Vince all he could take. Actually, she only did it four times before her estimated high fertility period arrived. She did not want to give him any signals that anything was amiss. Of course, when she started asking for it daily or more during the critical time, that could give it away. Hopefully, Lee being gone would leave him wanting enough so she could get his attention when it counted.

It was no sacrifice for Theresa to lure her husband into having sex. As low as her interest was during the awful summer, she now found herself eager. Just as the full realization of what she had done to her children brought about the destruction of her old personality, the new direction in her life had help her re-establish her identity. A lot of the best parts of the old Theresa comprised that identity, including her libido.

During the most intense moments of their unions, it was impossible for her not to feel a sense of loss that she was nearing the end of her times with Vince. It had been the dominant factor in her life for over twenty years, and that can never be discarded easily.

The rational part of her knew that she and her husband were now too different in their outlooks to have any chance of raising a successful second family. If it were not for the additional children, she was sure she and Vince could have worked out a good life together. But for Theresa, the children, the failures with Terry and Julie, and the promise of redemption with those to come, were the only things that truly mattered any more.

By keeping thoughts of the child she would soon be carrying foremost in her mind, Theresa was able to stave off nostalgia and regret, and enter wholeheartedly into what she now considered the best sex she ever had with Vince.

For his part, Vince was caught between several competing emotions. In the short time he and Lee had been together, he had become totally hooked. When he was with Theresa, he could not help the comparisons. Over the nearly sex-free summer, he had developed strong negative feelings toward sex with his wife - it just was not the real thing, as far as he was concerned. Coupled with the infrequency of occurrence, the feelings were understandable.

Now, with the seemingly revived Theresa entering wholeheartedly into their love-making, he was left disoriented. It was still not like the old days, but it was intense and it was good. He started to feel even more guilt about being with Lee than he had the first time. The reasons that drove him to Lee did not seem to exist any longer, at least not the way things were in the summer.

For about a week and a half, Vince was a two-woman man, connecting with Lee four times in the suite, and being bedded by Theresa four times at home. Though they were both expert at driving him out of the realm of conscious thought, he still had time to compare and contrast their bodies and their techniques. If forced to choose, his history with Theresa would certainly have tilted things in her favor. He refused to think about making a choice.

With great difficulty, Theresa restrained herself from increasing the frequency of sex until Lee had left town. She knew from the PI that Vince and Lee had engaged in a send-off fuck before she had to go to the airport. That meant there was another fairly high-probability day lost.

Unable to restrain herself any longer, Theresa woke Vince with a blow job the next morning, stopping before he unloaded. She let him take a piss, then practically dragged him on top of herself. Given the warm-up, the convincing was not that hard, and she got her first possible scoring shot.

Uncharacteristically, she told him to get his own breakfast afterward. She wanted to stay prone to maximize the swimmers' chances of connecting. When he left, she even elevated her bottom with a pillow. She suspected that tactic was an old wives' tale, but she was taking no chances. She took getting pregnant on her first month off the pills as a given. It had happened with both Julie and Terry, and she refused to consider that age would have reduced her fecundity.

That evening, she could hardly restrain herself from seducing him again, but she had decided that only on the three most probable days should she try for doubles. Unfortunately, on one of those days, Lee returned. She feared he would beg off that morning.

The whole time Lee was gone, Theresa did everything in her power to arouse Vince. It was not always with the intention of getting a load right then, just to keep him primed and break down his resistance. She went so far as buying some racy lingerie that was beyond anything she had worn before. She hardly wore regular clothes during that time, and spent a highly unusual amount of time naked. Whenever possible, her hands were on him, as often as possible on his crotch. By sheer determination, she was able to get five injections from him while Lee was gone. Her biggest victory was scoring on the morning of Lee's return. She could not resist a little private gloating over her competitor's probable frustration at Vince's exhaustion.

"What kind of welcome home is that, anyway?" Lee demanded late the afternoon of her return. "One puny little squirt is not what I was looking forward to. That's not why I signed you on, Stud. Has Theresa gotten back in the game?"

"Yeah, she's been like a maniac the last few days. I couldn't keep her off of me."

"And I'll bet you really tried, didn't you?" Lee asked sarcastically.

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" he pled. "If I turned her down, she might get suspicious."

"I guess," she admitted. "Well, I'm getting that thing back up whether it wants to or not. Even if you're empty, you're going to pound me with it for a while. Any objections?"

When Vince practically oozed through the doorway at home later, totally wasted, it was all Theresa could do keep a straight face and make some sympathetic comment. Her amusement was tempered by fear that she might not get another shot of sperm from him in that month's ovulation period.

Women often claim they know when they have 'taken', and after that very morning's session, Theresa had that feeling. Her longed-for conception was too important to take any chances with, so she wanted another chance or two. If she didn't get them, though, she was pretty sure the deed was done.