Chapter 1

"No, you're not taking any goddamned job and that's final!" Carl Harper snarled, glaring angrily at his wife, his tempter rising.

"But, honey," Lainie Harper protested, trying to stay calm and reasonable, "it'll only be temporary ... just until you can get another job. Besides, we need the money, all of our creditors are starting to dun us. I'm afraid to answer the telephone anymore."

"Fuck 'em! They can whistle for their goddamned bread! I'll have a job in a couple of weeks at most. Jimmy O'Brien was just telling me today that he's going to need somebody down at the gas station. You know what mechanics make, baby? Two or three hundred bucks a week, that's what!"

The pretty young wife didn't reply. It seemed useless to point out to her husband that Jimmy O'Brien was a first-class slave driver with his employees, paying them the bare minimum wage and then cheating them out of half that little amount. She sighed in resignation, knowing that it wouldn't do any good to argue with Carl when he was in this kind of mood.

He'd come home stinking of beer again today. It always surprised her that he could hustle money for drinking when they couldn't spare even a little bit of his unemployment check on back bills. And, more and more recently, he'd been spending most of his days down at the Four Aces Tavern, squandering their money and working himself into a rage of self-pity at being fired from his last job and not being able to find another one.

"What's for supper?" Carl asked, opening the refrigerator and looking for beer. Finding none, he grabbed a half-gallon bottle of cheap red wine and poured himself a tumbler full.

"I fixed us a nice tuna-fish casserole," Lainie replied, wishing desperately that Carl wouldn't drink so much. Their evenings were almost totally predictable nowadays. He would come home half-drunk, slop up his food, then fall asleep in front of the television. Worse yet, he always seemed to wake up horny, his meaty cock throbbing lewdly in his trousers as he massaged it and tried to talk Lainie into letting him make love to her.

The twenty-three year-old wife had never had a very highly developed sexual drive, but when things were going well for them she accepted his clumsy lovemaking without protest, never really enjoying the act. Lately, however, Carl's lovemaking had become unbelievably crude, almost as if he were taking out his rage and frustration at not being able to find a job. There was no pretense of tenderness or love for Lainie, only an obscene need to force her to share his misery.

"Tuna-fish casserole?" he asked, arching his eyebrows in mock surprise. "That's just fucking great, baby," he went on, sarcastic now. "That's just what I fucking wanted! Goddamned slop, it isn't fit for animals! Why can't we have a goddamned steak once in a fucking while?"

He was livid with anger now, his hands clenching and unclenching as he stared at his shocked wife. She had done the best she could, she told herself silently and bitterly. It wasn't her fault that her food budget had been reduced! And she had offered to get a job and help out until he found work! It seemed so terribly unfair of him to verbally abuse her like this!

"Because we don't have the money to buy steak!" she cried out in frustration, wanting to hurt him in return. "Maybe if you didn't drink so much at the Four Aces We'd be able to afford steak now and then!"

"So it's my fault, huh?" he asked quickly. "I lose my job because that asshole of a foreman has a hard-on for me, and you got to make me feel like a fucking failure!"

"I don't say anything of the sort!" Lainie replied hotly. "And, please, Carl, don't use that kind of language. You know how much I hate it!"

"Fuck it, I don't care what you hate! And screw that cat-food casserole! Come on, let's go to bed. At least I'm still man enough to fuck!"

Lainie reacted as if she had been struck across the face. This was the worst Carl had ever been. His face was contorted with lust and anger, spittle oozing out of the corners of his mouth, his hand running up and down the swollen lump of cock-flesh at his groin as he stared at her.

"That's all you ever think about anymore ... beer and sex!" she cried out, blushing furiously, hurt and embarrassed by his outburst. "Why didn't you pick up one of those sluts down at the Four Aces if you were so horny? I'm sure one of those pigs would be happy to spread their legs for you!"

"Don't think I haven't given it a lot of thought, baby," he laughed mirthlessly. "I'm about sick of that ice-box cunt of yours! A guy loses his job and his wife freezes up on him! What kind of shit is that?"

As he spoke he moved closer to her, taking in the exciting sweep of her swollen breast mounds, his eyes running down over her lushly flaring hips and the long, perfectly sculpted legs.

Then, while she shivered with apprehension at the thought of being once again brutalized by his irrational and disgusting lusts, he lifted his eyes to her beautiful face.

Carl Harper had never believed he would ever marry anyone so stunningly gorgeous as Lainie. She had a classic beauty, with fine, creamy skin, deeply-set green eyes, a perfect little upturned nose, and full, ripe lips - all surrounded by billowing masses of rich, honey-colored hair. Her face and body were truly breath-taking. Everyone who met the lovely young woman told her she should have been a model or movie star.

Carl provided a stark contrast to her beauty. He was twenty-five, a muscular man just over six-feet tall. His features were irregular, from the battered nose which had broken several times, to the low forehead and slightly jutting chin. Many women, including Lainie, found him extremely attractive, but no one called him handsome in the traditional sense.

"Well, are you just going to stand there and say nothing?" Carl muttered darkly. "How come you've frozen up on me, baby? You never used to mind fucking."

"I-I-I ..." she stammered, not wanting to put into words the things she felt about sex. Lainie had always been insecure and defensive about her own lack of passion, and she felt even more so now. She could have told him, of course, that it wasn't true - that she had never felt good about sex, and never been comfortable allowing him to use her body for his raging lusts. But she didn't. Instead, she felt her face burning with shame.

"All the guys I know get all the fucking they want from their wives or girl friends," Carl continued, sensing his advantage. "Shit, baby, this is nineteen seventy-eight! Everybody's fucking and sucking like crazy! Shit, you won't even let me screw you a couple of times a week, let alone suck my prick for me!"

"Carl!" Lainie exploded, shocked horribly by his verbal outrage. "That's dirty ... dirty and disgusting! No decent woman would put her mouth down there! How could you even ask me to do something so awful?"

"Little Miss Better-Than-Everyone-Else, huh?" Carl sneered, his prick throbbing painfully now as he fantasized about all the exciting blow-jobs he'd been offered by the bar-flies down at the Four Aces. He'd always turned them down, just as he'd laughed off the offers of a quick fuck, preferring instead to try and inspire some passion in Lainie, to try and show her how great sex really was. He wished fervently now that he'd taken up the offers. "Listen, baby, I'm sick of your goddamned attitude. A guy's got a right to a blow-job! Shit, some of my friends even cornhole their broads! But not me, oh no, I've got to get stuck with a broad who isn't giving anything away ... not even to her husband!"

He swigged down another glass of cheap wine while Lainie stared at him with an expression of loathing on her pretty face. Suddenly she could take no more of the filthy language and his terrible accusations.

"I'm going to bed," she whispered, trying to control her temper. She knew that Carl would awaken with a hangover in the morning, and that he would be sorry for the things he had said to her. But she couldn't face any more at the moment. She spun around on her heel and started for the small bedroom of the apartment.

"You're damned right you are, bitch!" he scowled, setting his glass down on the coffee table. "And so am I! You're going to get fucked tonight, baby, whether you like it or not! Come on, let's go!"

Lainie raced into the bedroom and tried to push the door shut so that she could lock him out, but Carl was too aroused and angry now to be denied his conjugal rights. He shoved the door open, sending her sprawling down onto the bed, her legs flying open, her skirt hiking up around her hips. Before she could close them, she felt his lust-filled eyes hungrily devouring the crotch of her white nylon panties.

"No, please, I want to, be alone," she pleaded, shuddering as he came toward the bed, his hands already busy at his belt and fly. "Carl, don't do this to me ... I don't want to make love now!"

"Love?" he snarled, pulling off his shirt as he stared lewdly down at her. "This isn't love, you bitch, it's sex ... a good old piece of ass! I tried it the other way and it didn't do me any good! Okay, let's do it my way now!"

There was a horrifying look of raw, animal lust on his face as he let his trousers fall down around his ankles and then kicked them away. He was completely naked now except for his jockey shorts. The front of the thin cotton material looked as if it would burst from the heavy weight of his gigantic prick jerking and pulsating there. Then, still smiling obscenely at her, he hooked his thumbs in the tight elastic and drew the shorts down over his hips and legs, freeing the massive pole of heated meat, one hand going immediately to the turgid rod and milking back the thick foreskin to expose the glistening, purplish knob-end with the tiny slit already oozing out droplets of his pre-come.

Lainie looked around the bedroom wild-eyed, looking for some means of escape. Carl was standing between her and the doorway, and the only other way to avoid the horrible thing he had planned for her was to somehow get into the bathroom and lock the door.

"Maybe I'll make you give me a blow-job tonight," he said in a hoarse voice, more turned on than ever now from the sensations his fingers brought him. "Yeh, that's it ... I'll make you suck my cock! You know how many of them gook broads sucked my cock in Vietnam, baby?"

Horrified now, Lainie was edging off of the bed on the far side, prepared to jump up and run for the bathroom. Carl stood on the other side, his eyes devouring her luscious young body, his hand still lewdly massaging his massive prick, his face contorted with memories of all the oriental girls he had paid to wrap their eager lips around his throbbing rod.

Suddenly Lainie jumped up and hurried across the room, praying that she would get to the bathroom before her husband stopped her. He was startled by the sudden movement, but he recovered quickly, racing after her, throwing one arm around her waist and stopping her cold. She screamed for him to let her go, her long legs dangling in the air as he literally hoisted her off the floor.

"Oh no you don't, baby," he giggled, carrying her struggling body back toward the bed. "No more of your shit! Tonight I'm getting the emit I paid for with that marriage license!"

His beery breath was blowing in her face as she tried to turn and rake her razor-sharp fingernails down over his leering face. As soon as he felt the stinging pain of his flesh being lacerated, Carl growled in anger and threw her down onto the bed again, quickly coming down beside her.

"Bitch, dirty bitch!" he cried out, holding her heaving body with one hand as he staunched the flow of blood with the other. "You wanna play rough, huh? Okay, baby, we'll do it your way!"

"No ... oh God, leave me alone!" she shrieked, feeling her succulent body thrown back and forth as his hands seemed to be all over her at once. There was a sudden ripping sound, then a wash of cool air as her blouse was torn from her upper body. "NOOOO!"

He ignored her please, wrenching off her skirt, baring her naked thighs and legs, drinking in the sight of her panty-covered hips with the plump mound of her luscious cunt and the dimpled indentation of her slit clearly visible to his delighted eyes.

"Oh, Jesus, baby," he whispered lewdly, "that's the best damned pussy in this fucking town! Man, oh, man, I'm going to fuck you right into the bed, kid! I'll show you how a real man screws!"

A sharp pain filled Lainie as Carl tore off her bra and rammed his hungry lips down over one cringing nipple, his teeth biting and nibbling, his tongue lashing out at her naked flesh as if he were a starving man about to feast at last. And all the time he was chewing on her swollen mounds, his hands were busily working at the thin material of her panties, trying desperately to get them down over her madly writhing hips so that he could get at the moist crevice between her thighs.

She struggled as hard as she could, frightened and disgusted by the change in Carl. He had never been this way before, even though he hadn't been exactly gentle, either. Now he was like a rapist about to viciously attack his victim. His eyes were half-closed as he continued to massage her rubbery breast with his wet, heated tongue, but she could see the lust there. After a few moments of trying to get her panties off, he gave up in disgust, grabbing a handful of the sheer material and ripping it savagely, pulling the panties completely off her shivering bottom.

"AAAGGGHHH!" she wailed, half out of her mind with revulsion and horror.

But her yelps of protest only seemed to make him more determined than ever to ravage her body. To her shock he suddenly slid his saliva-drenched tongue further down on her helpless body, licking and sucking at the flesh of her stomach, inching obscenely closer to the wriggling, twisting mound of her cunt, moaning and wheezing hoarsely.

Realizing what he was about to do, Lainie tried to pull her thighs tightly shut, pushing at his body with her hands at the same time, begging him to leave her alone, praying that he would respond to some inherent sense of decency.

"Keep that up and I'll smack you," he warned ominously, raising his head from her stomach for a moment and glaring at her. "You just lay back and let me get you warmed up, baby. I know how to turn a broad on with my tongue, you'll see."

"Oh God, no ... nooo," she pleaded, blushing furiously with shame and embarrassment at the thought of his mouth touching her genitals. It was monstrous, horrible, too much for her to bear.

Laughing insanely now, Carl slipped his hands up under her thighs and gripped her smooth buttocks, lifting her off the bed, forcing her cunt up against his face. His nose and mouth were nuzzling her golden-fringed pubic triangle now, drinking in the pungent aromas of her womanhood, obscenely probing the ruffled lips of her pussy, thrusting aside the thin lips and sliding quickly to the clenching, velvety flesh of her writhing orifice.

"No, for God's sake, no don't do this ..." she wailed, beating him about the head and shoulders with her fists, trying to pull her arched cunt away from his face, jerking her legs in a vain attempt to dislodge them from his strong grip. She was burning with shame and humiliation, revolted by the feel of his wetly slobbering tongue on her genitals, hating him for what he was doing.

A violent shudder ran the whole length of her twisting body as his hot oral spear touched the tiny nub of her clitoris, making her even more ashamed. That was the only spot she had ever felt any pleasure in her pussy, and then only when she accidentally touched it while bathing. All of her life she had been taught that touching one's self down there was dirty. And Carl was too self-centered a lover to have ever made any attempt to bring her to arousal with gentle manipulations of her breasts and cunt.

For a few moments she even enjoyed the way he was greedily sucking and licking at the suddenly straining bundle of nerves. Then, feeling his fingers moving up into the crevice between her buttocks, sensing that he was about to touch her anal opening, she reacted with horror.

"NOOO!" she screamed, fighting for her life now as first one finger, then another, touched her puckered and ruffled little hairless opening, teasing it obscenely, circling the tightly clenched orifice lewdly while his tongue continued to beat a disgusting tattoo on her defenseless clitoris and pussy lips.

She could hear him chuckling through the mass of cuntal-flesh against his mouth. And his hand became bolder, a stubby little finger-tip sinking a fraction of an inch up inside her rubbery rectum, pausing there for a moment before he shoved it in to the first knuckle.

The horrified young wife screamed at the sudden intrusion of the finger inside her asshole. There was no real pain yet, only a sensation of fullness. But her mind was reeling with apprehension. What if he tried to shove his prick up there? she thought in agony. He had drunkenly told her about men and women who did things like that ... sick, disgusting things that were too awful to even contemplate. And she was feeling some pain now as he sunk the finger even deeper inside her cringing bottom. The ragged fingernail ripped mercilessly at the vulnerable flesh there, sending electric shocks of agony surging through her, making her scream out and try to kick at him.

Carl held on desperately, his mouth and lips glued to the succulent pussy, his finger sunk all the way in to the palm now. He crooked the end of the invading digit, sending new torrents of excruciating pain through his struggling young wife, wondering if he should try and cornhole her tonight.

His wetly heated tongue was like a snake gone wild, digging and probing at the strangely delicious pussy-flesh, devouring the ripeness of her cunt, wanting more, desperately trying to slide all the way up inside her and touch the tender nub of her cervix with the tip.

His cock was pounding furiously against his thigh, screaming for relief, pulsating wildly as he became more and more aroused. Through his alcoholic haze he tried to imagine himself finally breaking through his beautiful wife's inhibitions, finally making her groan and cry out for his huge cock as she had never done before.

It seemed that his whole being was centered in his tongue and his prick now. The past few weeks had been awful ones for him. Out of work, unable to find a new job, with little money and fewer prospects, he had become terribly depressed and filled with self-pity. The drunken hours he spent at the Four Aces with his unemployed friends, the arguments with Lainie over money and her desire to get a job, all these combined to turn the normally good-natured youth into a raging morass of hostility. And he was going to relieve that hostility through sex - relieve it temporarily, at least.

Reluctantly, he pulled his face away from her saliva-soaked cunt, sliding his body back up until she was trapped underneath him. His finger was still far up inside her burning, pain-ravaged asshole, his gigantic throbbing cock now jerking against her trembling thighs.

"Here it comes, bitch," he snarled, suddenly thrusting his hips forward and sending the spongy head of his massive cock painfully banging against her slickened pussy-flesh. "Oh, baby, I'm going to fuck you right into the goddamned mattress!"

The beautiful young wife's pussy lips and outer canal were soaked by his warm spittle, but her insides were dry and unlubricated, making the sudden entry of his huge prick even more excruciatingly painful. He thrust his hips again, lodging three inches of the hardened rod between her legs.

"AAAIIIEEE!" she wailed, her cunt on fire from the vicious pole of male meat impaling her. "OH GOD, IT HURTS ... IT HURTS MEEEE!"

Laughing at the anguish he was causing, Carl thrust again, this time burying his prick all the way inside her bruised and battered pussy, his wiry pubic hair grinding down against hers, his finger wriggling inside her stuffed rectum.

"Feel it, bitch?" he sneered. "How does it feel to have both your holes plugged at the same time?"

She couldn't respond, couldn't do anything except to lie there and let him savagely assault her. He was showing her a side to his personality that she didn't know existed - a dark, brutal aspect of him that frightened her horribly. And she knew that her pain and degradation were only just beginning. Normally Carl would come fairly quickly, spewing out his heated seed and grunting with relief. But when he was drinking, she knew, the obscene fucking could go on for what seemed like hours.

Her pussy lips were squashed tightly against him now, her buttocks immobilized by the vise-like grip of one hand. Suddenly he began to withdraw his massive prick, painfully wrenching at her pussy again as the lust-hardened rod slid out until just the huge knob was inside her. Then, without warning, he slammed forward, driving the breath from her body as his swollen prick banged against her cervix, sending new agony and pain through her.

"AAAGGHHH! NO ... NOOO!" she squealed, praying for a sudden end to this horrible attack, but knowing in her heart that she wasn't to be spared the tortures of the damned.

He was driving into her without mercy now, humping his hips powerfully back and forth, gouging at her bowels with his finger, trying to feel his cock through the thin membrane that separated the two passageways in her stomach. And then his face came downward to slam against her chest again, his lips hungrily sucking at her naked breasts, his tongue working obscenely at the two swollen mounds.

On and on went the brutal fucking until she thought she would go out of her mind with pain and mental anguish. Her eyes were closed, her face contorted with agony, her arms lying stiff and rigid at her sides helplessly. Every new brutal thrust brought her new pain, every probing twist of his finger in her asshole sent her mind reeling with misery.

Carl was like a wild beast, his powerful cock splitting her apart with each savage thrust, his hips pumping furiously, his tongue slurping disgustingly all over her flattened mounds.

Never in her young life had Lainie felt such brutal anguish and shame. She wasn't a person to him, she was just a warm and wet hole for his pleasure! She had wanted love and understanding - he had given her pain and misery! She had only wanted to help him, to be a good wife, to share his unhappiness at not being able to find another job. And how had he rewarded her? He was turning her love into hatred for him, her sympathy into revulsion!

Get it over with! her mind screamed silently at him. Do what you're going to do and then leave me alone! He was sweating profusely now, his stinking moisture making her own body glisten. And she could smell the disgusting aromas of his manhood and the beer he had drunk. Could she ever cleanse her body and soul of this sordid rape? Was there anything in the world he could do to make her forgive him now?

Her pain-wracked body was being jolted and pummelled, battered down against the soft mattress as he tried to stuff more and more of his massive prick up inside her fiery cunt. How could anyone find pleasure in this disgusting act? she wondered. And, as if in answer to her silent question, Carl slammed his hard pelvic-bone against hers, making her scream with new pain.

His glistening cock pistoned into her without mercy. He was grunting and panting like an animal now, his lips oozing saliva, his eyes wild with desire. On and on went the savage rape, each new thrust bringing the helpless young wife closer to the abyss of madness.

Suddenly, just when she thought she couldn't take another moment of his vicious rape of her cunt and asshole, Carl gave a low growl of triumph. His body tensed momentarily, his ever-expanding prick seemed to grow bigger and bigger with each second. Then, yelping with rapture, he plunged forward again as a torrent of sticky male juice exploded out of the end of his cock and filled her moistly stuffed cunt with the seeds from his swollen balls.

"I'm COMING ... I'm COMING!" he groaned, shivering with pleasure as more and more of his fluids filled her belly and made her feel like a vile repository for all the evil in the world.

His finger mercifully pulled out of her ass. Both hands were on her buttocks now, clenching her to him, driving his gigantic cock in and out while he held her helplessly against his body.

After a long time his movements slowed and he sighed as he felt his cock beginning to soften. Reluctantly he pulled the deflating prick out from her belly and rolled off her heaving body, coming to rest beside Lainie on the sweat-and-come soaked bed.

"Want to suck me now, bitch?" he chuckled, his words sounding like cannon shots to the horrified young wife. "Want to" suck me back up so I can fuck you again?"

"Haven't you done enough to me already?" she screamed, rolling off the bed and racing toward the bathroom. She reached it quickly this time, even before he had a chance to get up and follow. She locked the door tightly behind her, resting her weight against it, bitter tears of terrible agony welled up in her eyes and spilling hotly down over her cheeks. She could see the bruises on her body now from where he had held her, see the reddening welts on her swollen breasts where he had sucked so obscenely; she could smell and feel his disgusting male seed as it oozed out of her quivering cunt.

"Hey, baby," he called out from the other side of the door, "come out of there!"

"No! Go away! Please, Carl, go away!"

He beat on the door for a few minutes and then moved away. In a few moments he was back, anger in his voice now. "Hey, bitch, I'm going down and have a few beers with the guys!" he called out arrogantly. "I took that twenty bucks from your purse!"

"No, Carl, that's all the money we've got left until you get your next unemployment check!" she wailed helplessly, knowing that he wouldn't stop drinking until all the money was gone. "Don't take it ... Carl?"

But he was gone.

Lainie slumped to the tiled floor of the bathroom and sat there for a long time. The situation seemed hopeless. And what other horrors did Carl have in store for her when he stumbled back to the small apartment after the bars closed? For a moment she was tempted to pack her suitcase and leave before he returned. But there was nowhere to go. She had no money other than a ten dollar bill she had hidden for emergencies. Her parents were a thousand miles away. Besides, she thought, dejectedly, they warned me about Carl - they're not going to see me coming home with my tail between my legs now!

More depressed than she had ever been in her life, the brutalized young wife took a steaming shower, letting the stinging spray try and wash away her shame and humiliation and hurt. Then she went into the bedroom and changed the sheets on the bed, unable to bear the thought of sleeping on the stained sheets.

It was a long, long time before she finally slept. Her dreams were more like nightmares, with awful, lurid images of Carl beating and abusing her. Then there was a particularly horrifying one with Carl trying to beat down the apartment's door, screaming for her to let him in so that he could ram his huge prick into her mouth.

She awoke with a scream, clutching her night clothes as she heard a pounding from the front room, then a voice, just like in her dream. Shivering with fear, she jumped out of bed and raced toward the door, intending to shove some piece of furniture against it so that he couldn't break it down and get in.

She stopped suddenly in her tracks as she recognized another voice - not that of Carl! A gruff, no-nonsense voice that was ordering her to open the door. Startled and shocked, she crept toward the door.

"Open up in there, this is the police!"

It was all that she could do to keep from fainting. Her mind reeled with awful images of Carl lying dead somewhere, the victim of an auto accident. She forced her hand to unlock the door, then pulled it open, suddenly face-to-face with an unsmiling, older policeman.

"You Mrs. Harper?" the officer asked impatiently.

"Y-y-yes, what's happened to Carl?"

"He's in jail, lady," the cop answered, pushing her aside and coming into the apartment. He left the door open behind him.

"In jail? Why? What did he do?"

"The bas ..." the policeman began, suddenly stopping as he saw the look of horror on the pretty young woman's face. "He was in an accident, but he's okay. The hospital patched him up and we locked him up. He was drunk out of his mind ... he ran into four other cars and tried to beat the shit out of me when I tried to arrest him. I just came over here to try and talk you out of bailing him out tonight. He's mean and ugly, lady, and he ain't in no shape to be out on the street again. I figured, maybe he'd already telephoned you ... we give them one telephone call."

Suddenly Lainie began laughing hysterically, her whole body trembling violently as she fought to control her jerky movements.

"What in the hell's so funny?" the policeman asked, a sour expression on his face.

"W-w-what you said," Lainie stammered, her great sobs echoing around the small room.

"Huh?"

"About getting him out," she cried out, trying to regain control. "I don't want him back! You can keep him as long as you like!"

The policeman looked puzzled for a moment, then shrugged.

"Yeh, maybe we'll just do that," he said coldly. "What happened, did that bastard work you over?"

"It's not important," she whispered, wishing the man would leave so she could go back to bed. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her soul, and she looked forward to long hours of restful sleep now that she knew Carl couldn't return and hurt her again.

"Okay, I'll split," the policeman said, tempted to try and seduce the gorgeous young wife. No, he thought to himself, I don't want no trouble this close to retirement. "He'll be in court at ten o'clock tomorrow if you change your mind. Personally, I think you're better off without that bastard, lady!"

When he was gone, Lainie went back into the bedroom and got into bed, pulling the covers up over her head, her shoulders still jerking as she thought about Carl. And about what the policeman had said. Maybe I would be better off, she thought, her depression returning. She could go away, get a job and a new start in some other city, make a new life for herself.

The awful memories of her husband's naked lust came back, sweeping over her like a sudden cloud. He had brought it all upon himself, she thought, losing his job, not being able to get another with his rotten attitude toward bosses. It would serve him right if she left him and never returned.

But she knew she wouldn't!