When I was younger, fifteen or so, I was present when my mom and dad had one hell of an argument which ended with my mom throwing an ashtray at dad and then stomping out of the room. That wasn't the first time that mom had gotten violent with dad and when she was out of the room I asked him why he put up with it. He thought for a minute and then he said:

"Life is full of ups and downs Rob. You have to learn to take the bad with the good and then hope that in the end the good outweighs the bad. Your momma can be a trial at times, but her good qualities outweigh her bad ones and that's the best I can hope for."

My life was indeed full of ups and downs, but I was forty-four before I got to where the good outweighed the bad.

I had gone to work for the XYZ Corporation right out of college and in fourteen years I had worked my way up the corporate ladder to become the Vice President of Production. Two months after starting at XYZ I met Lois at the company picnic. She was a secretary in the sales department and I took a shine to her and started pestering her for a date. She finally gave in, we clicked and six months later we were married.

The marriage was followed by two children, a boy and a girl, a three-bedroom house and two cars. In short, a typical middle class life. I had only been married to Lois a year before the truism that men tend to marry their mothers became apparent. Lois was insanely jealous and had a violent temper. If we were at the mall or in some store and some babe walked by and I even looked in her direction Lois would have a fit.

At company Christmas parties, where it was expected that you would do a courtesy dance with the other women at the table, Lois would rag on me because I danced too close with this one or seemed to chummy with that one. I would come back from the dance floor and sit down and she would kick my leg under the table and glare at me.

Once when I was dancing with the wife of the CEO she maneuvered me under the mistletoe and said:

"I told my husband I was going after a younger man tonight and he laughed at me" and then she kissed me.

I glanced over at our table and saw her husband grinning and Lois fuming. When I got back to the table Lois said she would like a breath of fresh air and so I walked her outside. As soon as the door closed behind us she turned and slapped my face and called me every name in the book for "What you did with that tramp."

At home an argument would usually end up with something thrown at me, usually not heavy, and she almost never hit me with the item. I never knew if it was because her aim was bad or if maybe it was exceptionally good.

The next to worst spot in our marriage was when she decided that I was having an affair with my secretary. Granted, Molly and I did spend a lot of time together, but it was because of the job. And yes, we did have lunch together a lot, but for the most part they were working lunches. Twice Molly went on overnight out of town business trips with me and both times we had separate rooms on different floors, but Lois was convinced I was bedding Molly.

I wouldn't have minded — Molly was a fox — but I just wasn't the type of guy who played around on his wife. Lois made snide remarks about Molly all the time and I got the third degree every time I came home from work late, which was a lot. Being a vice president was not a nine to five job. Many mornings I would be out of the house at six and a lot of evenings I didn't get home until eight or nine and I would be greeted with:

"You've been out with that bitch again, haven't you!"

She went through my pockets, I caught her going through my briefcase, and once I even saw her sniffing my clothes. It came to a head one day when I told Lois I would be working late that night.

"Yeah, and I bet I know just who you will be working on."

I just shook my head and said, "Grow up Lois, you need to get a grip on yourself."

At ten that morning one of the managers I know pretty well came into my office:

"Rob, you old dog you, where do you have your mistress stashed?"

"What the hell are you talking about John? That doesn't make any sense."

"Well it must be something like that. Why else would your wife be following you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Lois is sitting across the street in the department store parking lot and she's watching this building. Obviously she plans on following you to your lunch time tryst."

I got up and went across the seventh floor to John's office and looked out the window and sure enough, there was Lois sitting in her sister's car watching our building.

"What are you going to do?" John asked.

"What I ought to do is go down there, pull her out of that car and put her across my knee and spank her, but I think what I will do is tweak her nose a little."

At eleven forty-five a man in an apron and wearing a shirt that had Aaron's Deli embroidered over the pocket walked up to the car and knocked on the window of the car Lois was sitting in. She rolled the window down and he handed her the bagged lunch that I had ordered. She said something and he pointed up at the window where I and several of my coworkers were watching. When Lois looked up I waved at her and then I went back to my office and got back to work. What I didn't know until later was that John had clued in a bunch of people and they were all standing in front of the building watching. After Lois had looked up at me and I had waved she had thrown the lunch to the ground, started up the car and began to pull out of the lot. She saw the crowd of people standing there waving at her and laughing and she burned rubber tearing off down the street.

That night when I got home I was greeted by a wine bottle being thrown at me that missed and smashed into the wall followed by:

"You bastard! How could you do that to me? Do you have any idea how much you embarrassed me?"

"Probably not nearly as much as I was when the people I work with came to me and told me you were spying on me."

Things were a bit cold around the house for several days after that. The question could be asked:

"Why do you put up with that shit?"

It all goes back to what my dad had said to me about having to take the bad with the good. Lois was a great cook, she kept a clean house, she did a fantastic job raising our kids and she was marvelous — absolutely marvelous — in bed. So, hands down, the good far outweighed the bad.

The worse thing to happen to our marriage occurred about six months after the spying incident. XYZ became the target of a hostile takeover and when the dust settled we were owned by Titan, a large conglomerate. Everybody knows what happens after a hostile takeover and almost all of us at XYZ were sweating our jobs. The big question on everyone's mind was who would they keep and who would they let go. First to go of course was the president and CEO and he was replaced by a woman who quickly gained the nickname, "Harriet, the Hatchet Lady." Empty desks began to appear all over the place as one by one people were called into Harriet's office only to leave looking dejected.

My turn to be summoned came two weeks after Harriet arrived. I came into her office and she motioned me toward a chair while she continued reading from a folder that I assumed was my personnel file. She put the folder down, looked at me and said:

"You have been with the company fifteen years?"

I nodded a yes.

"There isn't a bad report in the file on you. Nothing but "excellent" and "superior" on your performance reviews, and you have worked almost all the positions in the production department. You know it inside and out. How much trouble would it be for someone else to come in here and take your place?"

"They would have a rough go of it for three or four months. I'm not irreplaceable if that is what you are getting at."

She looked at me for several seconds and then said, "I expected you to try and tell me that the production department would quickly go to hell without you to run it."

"Why would I say that? You don't get to be in the position that you are in if you are stupid. You know the place ran find before I was made VP and it would have run fine after I left. Assuming of course that I broke in my replacement the way I was broken in. But as I said, throw an experienced production man in the job and give him three or four months and he'll be okay. I won't lie to you; in those three or four months production will go to hell, but it will eventually straighten out."

"So you are saying the place would go to hell without you."

"No, not at all. Unless I had the time to train my replacement and teach him what I know there would be disruptions. He, or she for that matter, would have no idea of what special relationships exist between us and our suppliers and customers. They would have no idea of who needs to be stroked or how. Not knowing those things could cause you to lose customers or have a supplier cut out his discounts to you. Every new man comes in thinking he can change things for the better, and maybe he can, but not knowing the men, the machinery or the process can cause him to make major blunders. Eventually you would recover, but for a while things would not go right and when production is off sales are impacted and it just snow balls from there."

She studied me for a moment and then picked up the folder again. While she was looking at it I was looking at her. She was in her late thirties I guessed and had a very attractive face. In fact, I thought, it could be a very beautiful face if she wanted it to be. It looked to me like she went out of her way to make herself look severe. Was she afraid she wouldn't be taken seriously if she were seen as good looking? I wondered what kind of body her severely tailored business attire hid. She put the file down.

"Do you have any idea how hard it would be for you to ever get back up to the level where you are now if we were to let you go? Most companies wouldn't hire a man your age for a position like yours. They prefer young men with fresh ideas who can grow with the company. Oh I've no doubt you could get on somewhere as a supervisor or a manager, but by the time you worked your way back up to where you would be promotable to a VP slot you would be too old and they would be looking for someone younger. You do understand that, right?"

All I could do was nod a yes.

"Two kids in college and a mortgage take a pretty hefty chunk of your income, right?"

Again all I could do was nod a yes.

"I'll give it to you straight. My gut feeling is to let you go and I called you in here to do just that, but now I'm not sure that I want to. Doesn't mean that I won't, but I'm reconsidering. Want to know why?"

"Yes, I believe I would."

"I'm a pretty good judge of people and I read them well. You are a dedicated family man who loves his family and wants the best for them. But a minute ago while I was reading your file I saw you looking at me and wondering what I look like under this business suit. That is what is making me reconsider. I'm not married, but that doesn't mean that I don't like men or that I just haven't found the right one yet. Early on I decided that I wanted to be where I am right now and I knew that to get here I couldn't allow myself to be distracted by a husband or children. But I am a woman with a woman's needs. Can you understand that?"

I had no idea what she was getting at so all I could do was nod another yes and hope that was what she was looking for.

"What I am going to say next is between you and me and if you try to go public with it I will deny it and say it is just sour grapes from some one I let go. It will be a he said/she said situation and it would gain you nothing. In fact all it will do is make it harder for you to find another job. No one is going to want a whistle blower working for them. I'm going to make you an offer and I need a decision before you leave this office. I need someone discrete that I can have uncomplicated sex with. Sex with no emotional involvement. You would be ideal. Your position in the company is such that no one will think twice about the amount of time we spend together and because of your wife and family you would want to keep it quiet and well hidden. Here's the deal — you become my lover and you keep your job, you don't and you don't."

To say I was stunned would be a major understatement. Never in my wildest imagination could I have ever conceived of that. To keep my job I had to fuck my boss! My mind was in a whirl. In over twenty years of marriage to Lois I had never been unfaithful and I had always considered that I was not the kind of man who ever could or would. If I lost the job I wouldn't be able to keep the kids in school, I probably wouldn't be able to keep the house and I knew she was dead on about my job prospects at my age.

What the hell do you do? You have all those thoughts bouncing around in your head and you have to make a decision in just minutes. She sat across the desk from me and looked at me:

"Well? What is it going to be?"

Could I do it? If I did could I hide it from Lois? As jealous as she was she was always looking for signs that I was straying. Shit! I needed the job. I probably wasn't thinking all that clearly, but I couldn't any way to take care of my family if I didn't do what Harriet wanted. I didn't want to; I swear to God I didn't want to, but I guess my character wasn't as strong as I had always thought it was.

"Well? I need an answer. In or out?"

I took a deep breath and said, "In."

She got up from behind her desk and walked over and locked her office door. She walked back to the front of her desk, lifted her skirt to show me she had no panties covering her bald cunt and then she sat down on the edge of the desk and spread her legs wide.

"To seal our bargain why don't you come over here and show me how good you are at eating pussy."

I sat there in my chair and stared at her pussy and she said, "Come on baby, it won't bite. It just wants to meet you."

I got up from my chair and went over to her and got down on my knees, took a deep breath and leaned forward to save my job. She only kept me at it for a minute or so, just long enough to show me who was in charge and then she pushed me away:

"That's enough for now."

As she straightened her skirt she said, "We will be flying to Chicago next Tuesday to meet with McPhearson to discuss contract renewal. I'll arrange adjoining rooms. Save some energy, you will need it."

I felt guilty as hell when I went home that night and Lois sensed it and asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing I can do anything about. I'm worried about keeping my job now that we have been taken over and the new owners are reorganizing and eliminating duplication."

"Is there any chance you will be let go?"

"A pretty good one."

"Oh Jesus Rob, what will we do?"

"Start looking for ways to cut back on expenses for a start."

"Will we have to sell the house?"

"Let's not worry about that now. Let's wait and see what happens."

"When will you know?"

I'll never know until the day they cut me loose."

Tuesday we flew to Chicago, checked in at our hotel and went up to our rooms.

"Unlock the connecting door" Harriet said as we put our keys in the doors. Once inside I put my suitcase on the bed and unlocked the door. I started to unpack and five minutes later the door opened and a very naked Harriet walked into my room.

"I expected you to be undressed."

"I thought we had to go see McPhearson."

"Not for another two hours. Come on, you're wasting time."

Once I was undressed she said, "I don't need foreplay. What I do need right now is an energetic fuck."

She got on my bed, spread her legs and waited for me. She was a bitch, but she was a goddamned good-looking bitch. She was the first naked woman I'd seen since Lois and I got married and as much as I despised her my cock still reacted.

"Well come on" she said impatiently and I moved onto the bed with her. I moved between her legs and she took hold of my cock and lined it up with her pussy and I pushed hard. I had hoped that with no foreplay I could at least make her flinch and thereby get some satisfaction at fucking over her, but she was wet, extremely wet, and I slid right in.

"Oh yeah, oh shit yeah" she moaned as I started humping. "Fast baby, fast and hard, I need this one. Put my legs up on your shoulders baby, I want you in deep."

I did what she told me and then I fucked her as hard and as fast as I could. She was tight and she knew how to work her cunt muscles so it felt like her pussy was clutching at my cock and I knew that I wasn't going to last long. A chance to fuck over her I thought. I'll come and leave the bitch hanging, but even as I had that thought she screamed:

"I'm cumming, oh god oh god oh god, oh yes I'm cummingggggg..." and I felt her body tense up and a sudden warmth surround my cock as she came. Damn! The bitch was a squirter. I'd known one in college. If my cock hadn't acted like a plug her cum would have flooded out of her cunt like she was pissing. I felt her cunt squeeze my cock and I ejaculated into her. When I pulled out she looked at her watch:

"We have time" and she moved into position for sixty-nining. Her cunt was dripping on my face as she pushed her pussy down toward my mouth and as I felt her mouth surround my cock I wondered how in the hell I was ever going to keep Lois from finding out.

The negotiations with McPhearson went well and he said he would have the contracts ready for signature the next day. In the cab on the way back to the hotel Harriet patted my knee and said:

"Steak tonight lover, you are going to need the energy. I'm planning on an all nighter. You can sleep on the airplane going home."

At seven she walked through the connecting door and I took one look at her and shook my head. She saw it and asked:

"What was that for?"

"It just boggles my mind that you are blackmailing me into having sex with you when you could obviously go downstairs to the cocktail lounge and have men fighting over you as soon as you walk in the door. Look at you. Little black dress, heels, single strand of pearls around your neck and you manage to look classy and incredibly sexy at the same time. You could have your pick."

"My pick of what? Lounge lizards haunting the bar hoping to get lucky? Who knows where they have been, what their sexual practices are, who they have been with and what marvelous presents they have been given by who they've been with. I don't want a bunch of one-night stands. I want what you have to offer. A continuing, but discrete, affair with a man I know is clean and who will keep his mouth shut about it because he has too much to lose if he doesn't. Come on lover, dinner, drinks, dancing and then a long and exhausting night."

She turned and headed for the door and I grabbed my suit coat and followed. We had dinner in the restaurant and then went into the lounge and had a few drinks. They had a fairly decent band and Harriet pulled me out onto the dance floor and then moved in close. I hated myself for it, but as she moved against me my cock sprang to life and she smiled when she felt it.

"Not all of you hates me I see."

"I don't hate you. I hate me for being so weak that I didn't say, "fuck you" and walk out of your office. I don't like you for what you are making me do to myself, but I don't hate you."

"I don't mind baby. A girl in my position learns to accept being hated or disliked. It comes with doing the job right. You think I don't know that I'm called "Harriet The Hatchet Lady"? That's my job baby, it guarantees that I'll be hated and disliked. I take no pleasure in disrupting or yes, even ruining lives, but that is what they pay me to do. I'm paid to put the company first and that is just what I do. Enough of that baby, just relax and enjoy the ride. You aren't losing a thing. I'm a great fuck and you are keeping a great job and the little woman will never know unless you tell her" and she pushed her body hard into my erection.

She knew what she was talking about — it was an exhausting night. Harriet was insatiable. I couldn't have stayed with her had there been two of me. She had her hand inside my fly as soon as we were on the elevator to go up to our rooms. Once in the door to my room she had my cock out and holding it she led me to the bed, sat down and then pulled me to her mouth. One hand cupped and caressed my balls as I stood there looking down on the head sliding back and forth on my rod I wondered if I could stand doing it until retirement.

Suddenly I realized two things: yes I could, but I wouldn't last until retirement. She had made her position clear up front — no man was going to tie her down as she tried to climb as high up the corporate ladder as she could. Not that I could tie her down what with already being married, but I would be baggage none the less. I was her current fuck toy and nothing more. The operative word there was 'current.' At that moment I knew that I was on my way out the door anyway and the only question was, "How long did I have?"

I felt her mouth leave my dick and she said, "Get naked lover, I need a cock in me."

The first one was urgent with her telling me to fuck harder, faster, deeper and to make her cum. I did my best, but there was no way to end it quick. I had already gone once that afternoon and I didn't have the recuperative powers of a teenager and each coupling was going to last longer and longer until I couldn't get it up any more. Harriet came three times before I did and then she immediately moved into a sixty-nine so I could keep her going while she worked on getting my cock hard again. Once again all the juices that my cock had held in flowed out of her coating my face. I actually began to look forward to eating Harriet's pussy sometime before we fucked just to see what it would be like to have a squirter cum in my mouth.

I hadn't eaten the pussy of the squirter that I had known in college because back then I thought I was some kind of macho dude and real men didn't eat pussy, right? That was one of the first things Lois had set me straight on and thinking of Lois just got me to feeling guilty again. I felt my cock start to lose some of its stiffness and Harriet felt it too and she redoubled her efforts and got it started back up again. Once she had me hard she climbed on top, eased herself down on me and began to ride.

"Like it lover? Like momma riding your pole? Get used to it lover, I like being on top, I like being in control."

She bounced up and down on me and I looked up at her face and saw that she had her eyes closed. Her head was leaning back and it looked like she was imagining something, like she was seeing something that only she could see. Whatever it was it drove her and she pounded down on me until she was on the edge and then she got off me and pulled me on top of her: