Chapter 8

Claire had been ready to talk about a lot of issues she was associated with at the bank. It had never occurred to her that the subject of Chuck might come up.

"Yes." she said shortly.

"I believe you're dating coach Bondurant. Is that correct?" he asked.

Claire felt heat beginning to build in her chest. "Yes sir, though I can't imagine why that would be any of your concern." she said. She immediately wished the heat in her chest hadn't been so obvious in her voice.

"You're aware that Paul Stevenson is a member of the board of directors for this bank." said Phinneas flatly. "He's concerned that there may be some public perception that your ... association with the coach ... may reflect poorly on the bank." He sat back and watched to see what Claire would do.

"That's ridiculous" said Claire. "And you know it."

Phinneas smiled a tight little smile. "Mister Stevenson has suggested that, if you should see fit to identify the children whose behavior ruined the chances for our school to have a state championship, he would be assured of your loyalty, and would have no guilty feelings about recommending that we retain you in your current ... sensitive position."

Claire wanted to rage at the man. But she took a breath. "Mister Phinneas, I have been with this bank for ten years. No one has ever had any complaints about my performance. You, yourself, have given me the highest marks during annual evaluations. Mister Stevenson is just mad because he couldn't bully Chuck into divulging the names of those kids. And now he's trying to bully you too, mister Phinneas. Well, he won't bully me. You have my promise on that."

"And, if it comes to loggerheads - I'm not saying it will, you understand - but if it does, what would you choose to do?" he asked.

Claire was a little confused. It was almost like the man was giving her a choice. It might only be the choice of being fired or being allowed to resign, but why would he care?

"As I said, sir, I know my job, and I do it well. My percentage of loans in default is two percent, mister Phinneas. You know that. Any bank in the state would be happy to have me." She started to stand up. She was prepared to walk out and never look back. That was a result of her anger, though, and not rational thought.

"Claire, please ... sit down." said Phinneas.

Claire would never be able to tell anyone just why she decided to stay. She wanted to wag her ass at the man on her way out, sort of a "wave goodbye to this, you prick, because you'll never get your hands on it for SURE!" kind of body language. But, she sank back down in the chair and waited.

Phinneas sat up straight, businesslike, and shuffled some papers on his desk. "You are entirely correct, of course. You are one of the best loan officers I've seen in my life. You're wasted here in this one-horse town. You need to be at our corporate headquarters. I believe you are aware of where headquarters is?"

Claire knew exactly where headquarters was. It was in Carrolton ... a hundred and fifty miles away.

Phinneas went on. "I've had a phone call from Rod Brown. As you know he oversees all the loan officers for headquarters. He tells me he could use a right hand man ... or woman, to take charge of training loan officers across the state how to achieve loan default rates below ten percent. Are you interested?"

Claire stared at the man, who suddenly had what looked suspiciously like a twinkle in his eye.

"You'd have to move your family to Carrolton, of course, but the move would be covered by your benefits. And your salary will be roughly doubled. Aren't your children about ready to start college? I hadn't thought of that. That would be convenient, wouldn't it? And I believe they have a good sports program at the college there ... for your son ... of course."

He was smiling now.

Claire felt weak. She sat up anyway, though, and nailed Phinneas with her stare. "You know about the job offer, don't you?" she said.

He grinned. "Of course, my dear, I just gave it to you."

Claire shook her head. "The OTHER job offer. You knew about that before I came in here!"

"Rod is an old buddy of mine." confided Clyde. "And a football fanatic. When he heard rumors that Southeast State had offered the coaching job to some young buck from our town he called me to get the skinny on what kind of coach he was. We just got to talking and ... well, you know the rest."

Claire was as astounded as if she'd seen a flying saucer. Up to this point in time, Clyde Phinneas was the coldest man she'd ever met. He rarely smiled, never chit-chatted and didn't appear to have a heart at all, much less a heart of gold.

"What about mister Stevenson?" she asked.

"He's an asshole." said Clyde, as if he talked that way every day. "All he's going to see is your house being packed up and you leaving town. I'll tell him that's what putting pressure on people results in. He'll owe me big time. By the way, I want you to choose your replacement, and I want you to train him or her first when you get to the big time. That's part of the deal, OK?"

Claire stood up. She felt shaky. She walked around his desk and pulled him to his feet by his hands.

"I need a hug, mister Phinneas." she said. His eyes looked shocked. She pressed her lush body against his and whispered in his ear. "Mister Phinneas ... once ... just this once ... I'd like you to squeeze my buttocks."

She felt his hands slide very tentatively to her round bottom, whereupon they gave a convulsive, tiny, little squeeze. She pushed him away and smiled. "Thank you sir ... for everything. I misjudged you, and I'm sorry. I'll try not to make that mistake again."

He looked back with slightly glazed eyes. "Could I have one more little squeeze?" he whispered.

"No." she said sternly. But, before she left, she stepped closer and pecked him solidly on his lips.

As she left he called out "I'll have the movers get in touch with you."

It was a testament to her feelings as a mother that she talked with her children first. There was the initial resistance to moving from the only place they'd ever called home. She'd expected that, and she let them vent. Then she mentioned that, since they wanted to stay to finish the school year, and since who knew how long it would take to sell the house, perhaps they could be trusted to live there with a little minimal supervision, such as occasional visits from Chuck, while she went on ahead and found a place in Carrolton for them all to live in.

"Of course, with you two about ready to go off to college and leave me all alone I might look for something with only two bedrooms. I know that means you'd have to share a room until Bobby moves out. And then, when you go to college, Lori, I could turn it into a home office or something." She watched as what that meant sunk into their teenaged brains.

"We'd have to ... share?" asked Lori, looking sideways at her brother.

"Yes, I know how that must disappoint you." said Claire. "And what with beds being so expensive and all, I might just buy one big one, instead of two little ones. And it would only be until you both go off to college. I know you could just live there and go to Southwest State, but I'm sure you wouldn't want to live together in that little room all through college or anything. But remember, I can always turn the job down. If staying here another year means that much to you..."

Claire almost laughed as Lorie squeaked "NO! Mom ... really ... this is important for you! I mean this is a big promotion, isn't it?"

"Twice the money." said Claire.

"You've sacrificed so much for us over the years." noted Lori. "It's only right that we sacrifice a little for you. Don't you agree Bobby?"

Bobby just grinned and hugged his sister, kissing her soundly. Then he let her go and hugged his mother tightly.

"Thanks mom." he whispered in her neck. She shivered as she felt his hard body pressed hard against hers. On impulse she kissed him on the lips ... not too long ... but warmly.

"You're welcome sweetheart." she said when she pulled back.

"Hey!" barked Lori. "Hands off! You have your own man." She giggled. "Unless you want to share. I might be convinced to share some more." She laughed gaily and pulled Bobby away from his mother. "Come on" she yipped. "Let's go plan."

As they disappeared toward the bedrooms, Claire wondered how much planning they'd do and how much ... other they'd do. She decided to go find Chuck and talk to him next.

"THAT meeting went well!" Claire sighed to herself as she lay, sweaty and sperm soaked in Chuck's bed.

He had worked himself up to a fever pitch at the idea that they would be together. He'd proposed to her with his prick jammed almost into her womb and she'd accepted as his semen rushed into her unprotected belly. She told him about the conversation with the kids, laughing and squirming as he suckled at her engorged nipples and then, when she told him that Lori had suggested sharing men he rolled back on top of her and deposited another load of baby batter in her welcoming uterus.

As they lay there resting after that second wild ride, he turned his head to her. "You can't let me supervise them while you're gone. If Lori comes on to me I might not be able to resist."

Claire lay there staring at the ceiling. So much had changed in her life. The changes made it seem like she'd been asleep, dreaming a drab and boring existence, and had finally wakened to a world full of color and passion and love. She never wanted to dream again. Her own real life was so much better.

Part of those massive changes had to do with her children. She hadn't know who they really were until that fateful weekend at the football tournament. And she'd resisted letting them BE who they were, because it was strange and different. She thought about Clyde Phinneas, and how wrong she'd been about him. Somewhere along the way she'd decided, somehow, that what her children shared was something precious and, while it couldn't be honored publicly, because the public just wouldn't understand, she could honor it herself.

That sharing was based on lust, as much as it was love, in Claire's opinion, and they might grow apart as the years went by and find more conventional partners. That would probably be better in the long run, but she couldn't deny them the love they now shared.

And, she felt completely unafraid of losing her lover and future husband to her daughter. She felt more secure with Chuck than she ever had with Denny, and she'd known him far less time. If anything happened between them it would be lust alone, more than likely.

That led her to the obvious progression of thought that, if Chuck were to climb on top of Lori as they sated that lust, she and Bobby would probably end up naked and sweaty together in bed too.

She looked at that thought from several different places in her mind, trying to find one that screamed against it. There had been a scream in her mind at one time ... but now she couldn't seem to find it. If she coupled with her son it would be simple lust too, even though they loved each other. But she was surprised to find that her mind didn't recoil at all any more at the prospect of feeling her son climb between her thighs.

"Claire?" prompted Chuck. She had been silent a long time.

She turned her head. "Think about you ... with Lori ... and me ... with Bobby." She let that sink in. "How does that make you feel?"

To his credit he did think about it for a moment. "I don't know." he finally said.

"Does anything in your mind scream that it shouldn't be?" she asked.

"No ... there are some doubts, but nothing screaming. Does that make me a pervert?" he asked.

"I don't think so." she said. "I think that makes you human. Society created all these rules about this kind of thing, but before the rules we were just ... human." Her hand strayed to his arm and she stroked it. "Nothing screams at me either." she said.

"Wow." said Chuck.

"Yeah ... wow." repeated Claire.

"Why don't we just play that by ear." suggested Chuck.

"I don't think it's her ear you want to play with." said Claire, slapping his arm lightly.

He rolled over. "I love YOU." he said. "And it's YOU I want to be with." He kissed her and she knew he meant it.

"I believe you." she said simply. "One more time?"

"You wrung me out good and proper, lady." he said, smiling wanly. "I think I'm done."

"We'll just see about that." said Claire. She sat up and dove down onto his flaccid penis, sucking it into her mouth and humming.

It took a while, but she got her third pussyful before she stopped.

If Claire had thought the kids would be surprised and amazed that Chuck had asked her to marry him, or that she had agreed, she was sadly mistaken. They were elated.

They met together as a family, including Chuck in the plans, giving his opinions full weight. Not that there were any arguments about what should be done, really. Lori flirted with Chuck outrageously, and got called on it time and again, by Bobby or her mother.

Chuck never said a word. But he didn't flirt back. It was like her teasing comments bounced off a solid brick wall.

Claire, on the other hand, was much closer to Bobby than she had been in the past. She'd left off hugging him and kissing his cheek when he entered puberty, thinking that he wouldn't want that kind of attention from his mother now that he was "a man".

But she found touching him made her heart melt, so she did that a lot these days. They weren't sexual touches. Gripping his forearm while talking to him, or rubbing his shoulders while he sat and studied, leaning against him, shoulder to shoulder as they did dishes together ... little touches. And she gave both him and Lori pecks on the lips as they left the house, or returned. There were fewer arguments, even though Claire's rules as a mother didn't change, with the exception that Claire didn't pay much attention to whether Lori and Bobby slept in their own rooms.

She did, however, get Lori a prescription for the pill. Lori hadn't had a period since Claire had found out she and Bobby were having unprotected sex, but wasn't due for another week, so they wouldn't know for sure until then. It might be much too late to close that particular barn door. On the other hand, if it wasn't already too late, there was no sense taking further chances.

Lori's teasing came to a head the night before Claire was due to drive off to Carrolton to begin her new job. She'd only be gone a week this first time, since the Holidays were close upon them, and she'd have time to come back home, or look for a new one, whichever she needed to do.

Dinner was finished, and a movie had been rented. Chuck was sitting on the couch while Bobby put the tape in the player. Claire and Lori were finishing up the dishes; Lori washing and Claire drying. It was for that reason that Lori got finished first, dried her hands and went directly to sit on her future step-father's lap. She giggled as she plopped down.

"I don't remember sitting on my daddy's lap. This is kind of nice." she giggled, squirming.

Chuck had had all he could take. He lifted his right hand and cupped her braless breast through her T shirt, squeezing her nipple.

"I bet you don't remember him doing that either." he said seriously.

Claire walked in to see Lori's shocked surprise at being groped. Leaving them alone to work it out she went up behind Bobby and slipped her hands around his waist to rest on his hard stomach. He was too tall to put her chin on his shoulder, so she leaned around his arm, dragging her breasts across his back.

"What are we watching?" she asked.

"The Summer of '41" he said, leaning into her. "Or my sister trying to seduce your fiancé'." he added.

They both turned to see Chuck, still fondling Lori's breasts, only this time with his hand under her shirt, while she kissed him.

"Should they be doing that?" asked Bobby, a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

"Should we be doing this?" asked Claire, and she lifted her lips to her son's.

Bobby's response was almost animal. He kissed her back hungrily, his tongue flashing out of his mouth and his hands dropping to the same buttocks that she had let Clyde Phinneas squeeze only a few weeks ago. He pulled her against his obviously hard penis.

Then he broke away and leaned back as far as he could with his mother holding him tightly.

"Don't start something you can't finish Mom." he warned.

There was a squeal from Lori as Chuck pulled her down and rolled on top of her on the couch. Her T shirt had somehow gotten in a pile on the floor. She let him settle between her legs. Even though she was wearing jeans and he was fully clothed, they looked completely sexual about what they were doing. Chuck's mouth sought out the cheerleader's nipples as she squealed some more.

"They're using the couch. That only leaves the bed for us." said Claire, her voice deep with feeling.

Bobby picked her up, carrying her like she was a little girl. She leaned against his chest as he took her and laid her gently on the bed in her room. She didn't know if that was a claim by him that he was taking her in her own bed, or if something deep inside him didn't want to use the bed he fucked his sister on. And she didn't much care at the moment. She felt release, and shame, and excitement and fear all at once as her son began disrobing. When his penis was exposed, long and straight, it was like she'd never seen it before.