Chapter 2

If there was one thing Gloria liked less that one hundred degree plus heat, it was hard physical work in one hundred degree plus heat. And Gloria was being worked horribly hard right now!

A naked Gloria, her bare feet burned on the hot flagstones with every step, was racing three other totally stripped girls around Alf's swimming pool. And when this race was over, more fun and games were planned!

To her right was Samantha, long legged and blonde with a body to die for and as much durability, hardihood, strength and capacity to withstand pain as Gloria herself. She was, indeed, more than a match for Gloria. Worse luck! These two were level and neither wanted to lose. Both their tender loving men friends had promised them the beating to end all beatings if they lost! And the vicious and ever more brutal Alfredo certainly meant it.

Sweating and panting Gloria guessed that Jack Barrett was equally serious concerning his brutal promise to mar Samantha's good looks if she lost! Irene and Bernice were the other two competitors and they were nowhere in the race. Not that it bothered them! Giggling and full of fun, these two were far behind the deadly serious duo. But these two happy young bimbos had relatively kind men friends. Bernice and Irene would suffer nothing if they lost. To them and their two boyfriends, Gerry and Frank, it was all a bit of good-natured fun.

Irene was dark-haired and slim, a good five inches shorter than the statuesque Samantha and the rugged Gloria. Bernice was another petite girl with rather nondescript hair colouring, who might be a blonde and might not. It seemed to vary from day to day.

When I say that these four were racing I should perhaps have mentioned that all were carrying their respective men folk on their shoulders and receiving the odd encouraging slap from time to time to spur them on. Later on they were to transfer the action to the pool where a sort of battle was to take place with the girls trying to unseat each other until only one remained on her man's brawny shoulders. They would be armed with quite hefty sticks and the unlucky losers looked likely to end up very bruised indeed. No blows to the head were permitted, but bodies were to be well and truly battered. All good clean fun!

Bernice was the first to collapse. Frank had been a slim and dapper little man twenty years ago, but that was before his penchant for sweet and fatty food had added considerably to his body weight. These days he was a tubby and extremely roly poly figure! Frank was a ponderous burden on any girl's back!

Irene's slim and perfectly waxed legs buckled next and the four losers accordingly dived into the pool to cool off and have a bit of not wholly innocent fun. But Gloria and Samantha remained in contention. These two were battling it out right down to the wire! Thirty circuits of the pool was the agreed distance and the exhausted duo still had ten to complete. And it was still neck and neck! Both girls were desperate to avoid the revenge of their men! The sweat rolled off them as they strove to come in first and avoid a sound and very painful, not to say crippling, thrashing.

By the time the end came, neither Gloria nor Sam knew too much about it, staggering and veering from left to right in their utter exhaustion. But at the finish Sam was a little bit in front of her rival and friend Gloria. The others applauded and said it should be called a draw, but Alf and Jack had other ideas. They had staked a lot on this race. As she gratefully reached out for the drink Frank offered her, Gloria wondered just how much more of this she could take!

"No drink for you!" shouted a furious Alfredo. And he seized it from her. "You fucking loser. No drinks for losers! Die, you fucking cow!"

Happily for Gloria, the others protested and she was allowed a glass of tap water, uncooled and very likely none too pure. But she drank it greedily all the same.

Alf sent her indoors to answer the telephone, which was ringing. Why the man didn't have a mobile extension she could never figure. Too mean, perhaps? She took the call, which turned out to be from a lawyer in London. Nothing concrete to report. Alf was still unable to return, but things were looking up. Gloria was glad to hear that. Too much more of this cursed heat and Alf's increasingly brutal assaults on her strong but increasingly sore body would kill her!

She remained in his study for a while, going through his bureau drawers. Why the idiot was so lax in his domestic security arrangements was a mystery to her. Some of this stuff was dynamite. Gloria suspected that Alfredo was an inveterate hoarder - one who would hang on to stuff even if common sense told him to destroy it. She found the paper she had been hunting down for weeks, took it into her room and hid it under a rug. Being totally nude at all times these days she could hardly hide it on her person without severe discomfort!

She returned to the poolside and walked straight into Alfredo's fist.

"You took your fucking time, you cow! Fucking loser. Bitch!" He hit her hard in the face and her mouth bled. If the idiot had only had eyes in his head he would have seen the look of sheer hatred at that moment. But Gloria spoke sweetly to the man she loathed most in all the world.

"It was only a game, Alf. You shouldn't take things so seriously. Where's your sense of humour, darling!" she replied. Alf looked about to explode. But he feared to upset his friends, Gerry and Frank. Jack was more than OK about his hitting women, but the others could be squeamish.