Chapter 3
The afternoon mail the following day brought Terri an intriguing invitation: The Continental featured private showings and fittings, but of most interest to her was a line on the engraved card. It stated that personal accounts were available and were held in strictest confidence. What did it mean? Would she be able to open an account there in her own name without George ever finding out about itl
It had been true. Her husband had cut off all of her charge accounts. In place of these, he had opened a personal checking account for her, depositing an initial thousand dollars with a promise to her that if she could manage it wisely, he would deposit a thousand each month. This money was intended to take care of all her wants. The needs of the household were to be handled separately. Needless to say, Terri had been more than overjoyed when he had agreed to the arrangement. Now, this invitation from a shop - although it was one she knew little about - seemed a godsend, especially if she could open her own account, pay it once a month from her own checking account. It would certainly simplify things for her; she had never had a head for figures and keeping a checkbook straight had always been a big bore for her.
The following day, Terri drove across town to visit the Continental. It was just to look, she assured herself... perhaps to buy, only if she were satisfied that quality and style were up to her own tasteful standards. Surprisingly, she found all to her satisfaction, and she bought a chic suit at what she considered a fair price.
Then there were the necessary arrangements to be made concerning payment. She was ushered into the office of the manager. Mrs. Pauline Riggs, a small plate on the door stated. Terri walked in confidently, but felt almost like running from the sumptuous office when the woman who came toward her around the desk, smiling a genuine welcome, said, "Please come in, Mrs. Marklin, and welcome to the Continental..."
Involuntarily, Terri drew back and stifled a gasp, "No!"
"Yes . . . I'm Pauline ... Pauline Riggs ... I'm the manager," she said, completely unruffled.
"But...y-you're.."
"A very lonely woman."
"I didn't call... I - I threw the number away ... " Terri breathed.
"I thought as much, but no matter ... come, now ... let us get down to business, the real reason you're here, isn't it?" Pauline placated, changing the subject.
"Yes ... I - I was thinking about opening an account..."
"Please, sit down, my dear... and let's let bygones be just that, bygones... shall we? I promise you that I'll not mix business ... and pleasure." Her smile was disarming.
Terri sat down shakily, not sure that she should remain, but the older woman soon had her confidence, making the arrangements for the open account in Terri's own name. Assured that there would be no further pursuit, Terri relaxed, finally accepting the woman's open friendliness at face value.
When Terri left, Pauline Riggs indulged herself in silent mirth. It was now just a matter of time, and she, Pauline, was a very patient woman. She could wait!
Young Peter Marklin, on the day following after being zonked out on pot, began to make a remarkable change in himself. Several months before, the senior Marklin had ordered him to leave; his rebellion against his father's autocratic ways had led him to the non-comformist community of long hair, love beads, sandals and dirty clothing, along with its attendant proclivity for drugs and open sex.
Now he was, ostensibly, setting out to mend these broken fences and relationships. His overtures to his father had been successful. He had agreed - if he were to remain a part of the Marklin household - to get a reasonable haircut, shave his beard, dress with some degree of conformity... and try to do something constructive with his time. His father's suggestion: enter the fall term at one of the nearby state colleges. To all of this Peter had agreed with some show of contriteness. He was respectful to his father, polite to Terri... and miserable as he tried, manfully to live the straight, uptight life. All of this he was willing to do; it was a price he had decided to pay in the interest of getting what he wanted. The compromise would last for only a little while. Patiently, he waited for his chance. It wouldn't be long in coming. This he knew for sure!
Meanwhile, he must work on gaining Terri's confidence. His guile, gift of conversational gambits, and his apparent change worked like a charm, and soon he seemed to fit into the family slot his father had decreed for him.
Terri was pleased at his change. In a short while she began to accept him, to talk with him... and to feel a certain warmth and affection for him, and never once did he give her cause for alarm as he had on other occasions when he had made lewd proposals to her. There was a time, not long before, when she had considered telling the boy's father about his attitude and his actions toward her, but she had considered the possible consequences: would her husband believe her or the boy, if there were a confrontation? Knowing her husband's jealous nature, the possibility that he might misinterpret the situation, think that she had led the boy on, provoked him to make the sexual overtures, she had decided against such a move.
Now, everything seemed to be stable. She hoped it would remain that way. She was happy as long as she could have what she had now - dothing, a few good parties on their estate, invitations to other good parties at other equally posh estates, a few night-clubbing evenings each month, attendance at some of the more important premieres, her own car, her own checking account, and a famous husband. What more could she want? Of course, had she stopped to consider carefully, she would have discovered the one important ingredient missing from her life. It was love! She had sex ... more than could be handled, at times. Her husband's sexual appetites seemed to be almost boundless ...but love? No! There was no real love in her marriage.
It came as a complete shock to Terri. She held the bill in her hand as though it were a deadly rattlesnake. Included in the envelope was a short, courteous note signed by Pauline. Dear Terri, it said, Please come in to see me personally about this, signed, Pauline.
Heavens! The bill was for an amount exceeding fifteen hundred dollars! Had she overspent that much? Was there a possibility of a mistake in billing? It couldn't be ... that much! How could she possibly pay it? Why, it amounted to more than a month and a half of her allowance!
The next day she found herself in Pauline's office - they were on a first name basis at Pauline's insistence - sitting opposite the older woman who was strangely calm about the whole matter.
"Actually, Terri," Pauline was saying, "you needn't worry too much about this ... but I knew you wouldn't want your husband to learn of it."
"Oh, heavens, no!" Teri blurted.
"I thought as much..." the manager said, "but maybe there's a way out of this ..." she looked thoughtful, "Yes, I think so!"
Terri grasped at straws, as it were. She really had no idea of how she could handle such a debt. It was totally beyond her. "What do you mean?" she asked eagerly.
"I need another model... and I think you just might be exactly right for the job!"
"Really?"
"Yes ... that way, you could work off this amount and you'd be free of any worry," Pauline offered.
With a huge sigh of relief, Terri felt as though a misty burden had been lifted from her shoulders. "Oooohhhhh! That's wonderful! You're so ... so understanding ... and kind."
"Of course there's the audition ..."
"Au-audition ... ?"
"Naturally!" Pauline returned, "I'll have to make sure that you can do the job ... properly."
"Y-Yes, I suppose you're right..." Terry conceded, then brightened, "what do you want me to do, for the audition?"
"Well, come along with me upstairs. I have some things up there you can show off for me."
Pauline rose, crossed to the opposite wall, pressed a half-concealed button and the paneling before them slid back to reveal a small elevator.
Motioning Terri to enter, the older woman followed her into the small cubicle, closed the door, pressed the up button and they were whisked to the second floor where they entered a lavishly furnished apartment. Terri glanced around with appreciation, noting the expensive decor.
"How beautiful! I just love it!" Terry gushed.
"I had it fixed up for when I have to stay over late," Pauline said by way of explanation.
"Oh, then you don't live here?"
"Hardly, my dear. I have my own home out in Brentwood."
"Oh ..." Terri was impressed.
Pauline opened a spacious closet and selected a cocktail dress, a simple sheath, "This should do nicely."
Terri took the dress from her and glanced around questioningly as she held the dress up to her.
"You can change in there," Pauline indicated a closed bedroom door.
For the next half-hour, Pauline put Terri through the paces, explaining patiently to her what she wanted from her models. Terri learned fast, mimicking the older woman's examples to the letter. Her experience in beauty contests and later in movie work stood her in good stead, and Terri of course was an apt pupil, especially when it came to wearing good clothing well.
Everything had been on a purely business-like basis, but suddenly, the mood was shattered. Terri had changed into three different outfits: she now wore a fluffy nothing of a mini-dress. Each time, she had changed in the privacy of the ultra-feminine bedroom, but now she was startled by Pauline's imperious command, "You can take it off now, my dear! Take it all off!"
"I - I don't understand. Wh-what do you .."
"You'll be modeling some swimsuits... I want to see your figure." Pauline said.
"Oh," the flush that had begun on Tern's face receded, "Of course ... Pauline ... do you have a swimsuit for me to put on?"
Silently, Pauline handed her one of the new peek-a-boo models. Terri took it from her and went back into the bedroom. She had just removed the last of her underclothing, slipping her wispy nylon panties down over the swell of her smooth white thighs when Pauline entered quietly, standing at the half-open door, staring in frank appraisal at the vision of the feminine loveliness before her.
"Perfect, my dear ... just perfect!" In embarrassed confusion, Terri reached for a garment on the bed to sheild her nakedness, turning involuntarily and shrinking into herself. She emitted an audible gasp of surprise.
"There's no need for the coy, little girl act, Terri... after all, I'm a woman, too ..."
"Y-You startled m-me!" She could feel the warm blush of her face and neck as she experienced a strange feeling of being devoured alive by the older woman's eyes. She shuddered delicately.
Then, the dress was abruptly removed from her hands and she was swung about to face the dress shop manager. The woman's eyes burned hotly into her own.
"You're absolutely ravishing," Pauline breathed, her tongue coming through her lips to move in a slow circular motion of sensuous caress.
Instinctively, Terri drew back, using hands and arms to retain her innate modesty to shield herself, even from another woman's gaze. "P-Please ... Pauline ... I'd like to get dressed now ... if we're through with the audition ..."
"The audition is finished ... you'll be good as a model," Pauline affirmed. "But I'm not finished with you!"
"What do y-you want... with me ... ?"
"You! Your body ... your love!"
"I - I could never d-do that!"
"You could never do what, my dear? Make love with a woman?"
Terri turned her head, trying desperately to break the almost hypnotic eye contact with the older woman. "Y-Yes ..." she whispered, "I'm married ... and my husband ..."
"Husbands! Men!" Pauline hissed, "What do they know about love? What do they know about what really turns a woman on?"
"I-I just...c-couldn't..."
"How do you know, my dear? How will you ever know what real ecstasy is ... until you've tried it... in the arms of a real woman lover... a woman who knows all about you, because she's a woman herself?" Pauline reached out and placed a gentle, soft hand on Terri's breast, allowing her fingers to teasingly trace the swelling contour.
Unaccountably, Terri felt a sudden, surging warmth begin to pervade her body, seeming to have its epicenter in her abdomen, its tingling sensations signing a prelude to forbidden pleasures, but her brain, the seat of reason, censored the lubricious, sexually oriented signals, telling her: No! Get away! There is danger here."
She swept the tantalizing hand away. "No! It's getting late! I - I must go home ... m - my hus-"
"Screw your husband!" Pauline spat, her lips twisted with obvious hate.
Terri had never heard a woman use such an obscenity before. The shock of it sliced through her. She flushed even more crimson. Her lower jaw dropped. Her eyes widened.
Seeing her reaction, Pauline pursued, "I was married at one time... just as you are now ... and I see myself, all over again, in you ... And what does the beast do for you? I can guess! Not even caring that you might not want it... whether you're ready or not... and then he leaves you to worry about the possibility of pregnancy while the son-of-a-bitch goes to sleep ... and you lie there - not having gotten anything out of it... oh, I know! You call that love? I call it plain animal!"
Shocked truth stared Terri in the face. Oh, God! How did Pauline know all of this? It was almost as though the woman was clairvoyant... or had stood a silent observor at her bedside! The truth was too sharp pointed. It hurt!
Shakily, her knees relaxed, her legs could no longer support her weight and she sat down suddenly, heavily, on the bed, a wailing sob of despair wracking her body as quick, hot tears trickled down her cheeks. Soft, female arms were around her, and Pauline's voice came to her through the pounding in her head.
"It's all right, baby ... it's all right... it'll be good for you ... cry it all away ..." the older woman crooned, holding the girl in her arms and rocking back and forth.
Terri turned away, crawling off to be alone, curling herself into a fetal ball in the middle of the huge bed, her head cradled in her arms, as the huge sobs born of frustration, heartbreak and shame tore through her lust body.
Pauline hesitated but a moment. She knew that now was the time, the time to offer the heartbroken girl the something else that only she could provide at that moment. She smiled sardonically to herself. It had been easier even than she had anticipated. The poor girl had been more ready, more receptive than any she had seduced before! God! She was hot! It had been all she could do to control herself, allow herself to keep on talking when she had wanted direct action ... but words - she told herself - had paid off... again. Without undue haste, she began to remove her own clothing, standing at last to remove the black panties over the svelte contours of her hips and thighs.
Her hands roamed over her own body, assuring herself of her own desirability. She shuddered delicately with the slashing, wildfire sensations that were being generated within her. "Oh, lovely ..." she breathed to herself as her nerve-ends sang, zinging for joy, the anticipation of coming pleasures almost more than she could bear. Again, she whispered to herself, making an unconscious alliteration, "Oh, the lovely loveliness of lesbian love!" At that moment, she considered herself to be a very happy woman, a woman in love with love ... and another woman.
At first, Terri couldn't believe what was happening to her. She was aware that Pauline was on the bed with her, next to her; then, she felt the cool hands on her, running down her back to the waist and down over her hips, repeatedly, soothing her. The extreme gentleness felt so good, so restful... so tingly and nice ... so different from the harsh grapplings of her bestial husband!
Now, she felt the electric contact as the older woman curled her body tight against her, the small, pointed bosoms pressing against her back. Terri lay still, her sobbing decreasing, until finally it stopped and she was fully aware of what was happening to her. Perhaps not fully aware, but conscious that what was happening was good - that is, it made her body feel good - but her mind was stepping in again, with its reason, reasoning with her on a rational basis. Don't! This is wrong! Don't do it!
Her cry was muffled, strangled in her throat, "N-no ... please ... don't! I - I can't... I just c-can'tdoit!"
"Hush, darling," Pauline chided huskily in her ear, "let me show you how."
The older, more experienced woman turned the girl to face her, clamping her slender body to Terri's, her mouth seeking and finding the tear-salted and lipstick smeared lips, pressing them in a passionate kiss, her tongue working out, slowly, gradually, to run in sensuous circles, rimming her lips with sensation-producing lubricity; meanwhile, her hands busily tantalizing her body, swarming over the luscious contours like a swarm of hungry insects, transmitting her own great need, the while setting up uncontrollable fires that began to leap and dance in the loins of the love-starved young love goddess of the silver screen. ... And, Terri began to respond. Unaccountably, to herself, she began to feel a certain thrill of her own generated by the femaleness of the other woman's body. Tentatively, she put forth a timid hand to feel the smooth, velvet flesh of the other. She felt a shudder pass through Pauline's body and she realized that she had been the cause of it. The other's sigh of pleasure confirmed it.
Their mouths were welded together, now, tongues moving in and out, hungrily, hands busy on each other's bodies; Pauline with sure knowledge, Terri experimenting, exploring here and there and the fires in their bodies raged higher and higher. Now, Terri moaned with a desire she could not control. It was a moan of helplessness, of utter despair, and she tried once more to fight against this sin. She broke the moist contact of their lips, muttering across the short intervening space.
"I've ... I've never been ... untrue to - to m-my husband ..."
"What's that... ? Untrue to your husband? He's a man! Do you think he's worrying about that when he climbs on some other woman? And, you don't think, even for an instant, that he hasn't been doing just that, ... do you?"
Terri could not be sure. On reflection, she realized she knew very little of what her husband did. "I - I don't know."
"Anyway," Pauline went on, "it's not the same ... it's not as if another man was making love to you!"
"But... the principle ..."
" - principle!" Pauline shot out. "This is female to female love! There's a difference!"
Almost savagely, the older woman then recaptured Terri's mouth, her upper leg moving between the white tapering thighs.
Reaching over, Pauline pulled the rounded fullness of Teri's hips in tight, then moved her hand down to stroke the soft, yielding secret places ...
Then Terri felt her woman lover move, slithering down her body, rolling her gently to her back, her mouth busy as she kissed her breasts. The forbidden sensations raced through the younger woman, flashing through her nerve ends with lightning speed to stab into her with lightning speed. Uncontrollably, her hips began to twist into the bed in steady rhythm, and she knew that she was lost.
"Oh, God!" she moaned, helplessly. Now, she felt the hungrily teasing lips moving down, down over her ribs, her belly, the agile tongue swirling... she was aware that Pauline had placed herself between her legs and that hands moved on the smooth, softly velvet skin of her inner thighs, and those same hands caressed and tantalized at the same time as they worked in that secret place.
She had a disquieting thought. Somehow, she knew in that instant she would be changed, transformed, that the act she wanted ... even though she knew in her rational mind that it was wrong ...would be a turning point in her life. Would she become the kind of woman Pauline was? Lesbianism was supposed to be shameful, degrading ... dirty!
That probing, licking, tantalizing tongue was sending the most wonderful sensations to her brain, and Terri knew that there was never in this world, or the next, for that matter, a more rhapsodic ecstasy, but her puritan mind interfered again. She cried out, "No! NOOOoo! Oh, God, no!"
The mouth paused for an instant, words came to her. She heard, yet did not hear. Her senses reeled. It was Pauline's voice that spoke, "Relax, baby doll... and enjoy it!"
"Oh, God! It's wrong! Wrong!" Terri screamed.
"But you like it, don't you?" Pauline countered and dropped her mouth again to the pulsing flesh. Terri could stand it no longer. Oh, God! She had to have it! She must have it! If she didn't, she would go mad with frustration and wanting!
Throwing all reason to the winds, conscious only of the crashing heat lightning that grounded her naked loins, Terri cried out in anguish of unfulfilled sex.
"Oh, God! Yesss! Please ... !"
The mouth paused. "What do you want, baby? You want me to keep this up ... until you climax?" Pauline queried.
"Yes! OOooh, yes!"
"I've got a better idea, honey... let's do it together!"
"H-how?" Terri was desperate.
"You've actually never done anything like this before?"
"No ... n-never!"
"Now's the time to learn! You just do to me what I've been doing to you! That's what real love is all about!"
Swiftly, expertly then, Pauline shifted her position. Never, in her entire life, would Terri have believed that she would ever find herself in this situation. Oh, God ... how had she gotten into this? Her first impulse was to scream, she felt suffocated, trapped ... but the contact of the older woman's burning tongue elicited a long moan of sexual surrender from deep in her chest.
Together, they began to mount higher and higher toward the heights of orgasmic release, as tongues slashed and licked, hands grasped and caressed, hips thrashed and mouths gasped and little mewls and groans of mutual joy.
Terri found herself mouthing lewd words. "OOooh! It's so good! Don't stop! Don't ever stop! Oh, Pauline..."
Dimly, she heard the muffled counterpart groan and moan with lust. Thus, intertwined, mutually giving and receiving, the two women came to the apogee of sexual climax. Terri felt it begin in the long, shuddering convulsions of her body, the long-awaited release causing her body to jerk spasmodically as wave after breaking wave of welcome release spread through her body-mind, a symphonic rhapsody of sensations seeping over her, leaving her satiated and relaxed. She did recognize that it was her own voice screaming, "AAAaagghhh! Oh, God! It's happening... !" While above her, Pauline's voice came to her as from a great distance, announcing the arrival of her own ecstatic moment. "Oh! Oh! Ooooohhh! It's almost here! Ooooohhh!"
Pauline collapsed, rolling over to stretch out beside Terri, clasping her desperately to her and clamping her mouth to Terri's in a long drawn-out passionate kiss as the last of the tiny convulsive waves of orgasm was drained from them.
"Oh, God! That was lovely ... lovely!" Pauline gasped.
Terri could only moan in half-conscious agreement.
Then the older woman's voice, emotion-laden, came to her, "I love, Terri! Oh, God! How I love you!"
Terri didn't know how to answer; she loved her husband. How could she respond? How tell another woman she loved her? Terri didn't know ... couldn't know. Mutely, she offered her lips to this strange woman, again, clasping, clinging ... confused ... but sexually satiated. Her ideas of sexual satisfaction, as it turned out were as nothing compared to the greed that was the only word for it, she decided - of her lover, Pauline. After a very few minutes, her employer had risen from the bed, delved into a drawer and returned with a vibrator which she plugged into an outlet. The device itself, she strapped to the back of her hand. Smiling down at Terri, she said, "... and now, my dear, I'm going to give you a massage."
"Mmmm, that'll be nice," Terri murmured. "Nicer than you think!" It was nice! It was not until the vibrator began to work over her stomach that she began to have any inkling of how the vibrator worked ... of the effect it would have on her. Then, Pauline moved it skillfully downward, expertly manipulating the mechanical aid to love.
"Oh, my God!" Terri moaned as she came to another soaring climax within minutes, and she felt herself completely helpless to stop the action ... or her reaction.
Now Pauline showed Terri how to hold the vibrator so that she could do the same thing for her employer. Depravedly, Terry did as she was bidden. She could never have explained it to herself, but for the first time in her life she had tasted, experienced ... become a sexual woman, a woman who knew that she could come to orgasm easily and often.
It was only after utter exhaustion had forbidden further activity that they stopped, by mutual consent. Terri dressed, repaired her makeup and hair and drove directly home. She had no idea how many times she had to orgasm. Was it thirty? Forty? She had lost count as the time passed... as she floated - it seemed - from one rhapsodic peak to another ... and yet another, even more exquisite, more beautiful. Now, all she wanted was a bath ... and heavenly sleep, a sleep that she knew would be dreamless and restful.
Time had flown. It was after five in the afternoon when she parked her car in the garage and walked languidly into the house, heading directly for the stairs. Her foot was on the second tread when the telephone rang. She was about to ignore the imperious ringing, but decided against it. It might be George. They were to dine out this evening... perhaps she would have to meet him, if he had been delayed, at the studio.
She picked up the telephone. It barked at her. "Where in hell have you been?" It was George, "I've been trying to raise you for over twenty minutes!"
"Sorry, darling..." she said, perturbed because of his obvious anger, "I was out... and j-just came in ... "
"I know! I tried earlier, also!" he gruffed.
Again she murmured, "Sorry ... darling."
"I'm at the airport... L A. International. My flight will be leaving in ten minutes. I decided to call you to let you know. I'll return on Monday, in the afternoon ..."
Her heart soared. She wouldn't have George around the house for the weekend. Almost three whole days without him! The perverse thought startled her. Why should she be glad that her husband would be gone from her? With her new found knowledge of herself, she knew that now she would be able to respond to him ... be a real wife ... a loving wife ... even a sexy one!
"I'm sorry you have to leave on s-such short notice ..." she lied, then, woman-like, "Do you have everything you need? Handkerchiefs? Socks...?"
"Yes!" he answered, irritated by the mothering, "You know I keep a packed bag at the studio ... for this kind of emergency!"
"Where?"
"On location... there's some kind of difficulty ... picture they're shooting in Colorado. The director has walked out. They want me to look at it, perhaps take over the rest of the picture. I hear them calling my flight, darling, I must go ... " The line went dead as he hung up abruptly.
"Have a good trip," she said absently into the dead phone, her mind working, trying to decide what she would do with her time. Pauline had told her that she would not have to come in to begin her modeling job until Monday. It was now late Friday afternoon! Wonderful! It was just wonderful!
Close behind her, Peter Marklin's voice was loud in her ear, "What gives ... the old man off on a trip, or something?"
She turned, startled, "Y-Yes... he just called. He's off to Colorado, he said ..."
"Groovy!" the teen-ager remarked to no one in particular, "Groovy ..." he repeated.
Terri agreed. Yes! Groovy! She said it to herself; With a light heart she mounted the stairs to her room, heading for that refreshing bath and a beautiful nap before dinner.
She undressed, feeling the exquisite tiredness engendered by the multiple orgasms she had experienced. The memory of the scene in Pauline's bedroom, fresh with new knowledge of self, loaded with implications of more to come, caused her to feel a flush of rising desire. Putting on a thin wrapper, she strolled to the French windows that looked out on the large expanse of front lawn and garden. There below, on his knees, Jack Chavez labored to remove the stubborn stump of a small tree that Marklin had ordered him to destroy and then replace with a more attractive evergreen, a Japanese black pine. The play of sunlight on the brown, sweat-glistening skin, the supple muscles rippling as he worked held her attention. There was a certain beauty, an animalistic magnetism in the flowing movements of the man ... almost, she thought, there was an aura of animal masculinity, of a sexuality exuding from him, a sexuality that she knew would be at the same time savage and sublime. She didn't know how it was she knew it, but it was there in her mind, the knowledge waiting to be tapped.
Turning away, she went into the bathroom to draw her bath. She wondered what kind of lovers they were, Chicanos. The thought intrigued her, but she quickly rejected it. She just couldn't imagine herself in the arms of another man but her husband. A horrible thought... but of course she had never dreamed that she would ever find herself in the arms of another woman, either!
What was the gardener's name? Chavez, Jack Chavez, she remembered. She had not paid much attention to him, before. He was just there. He had been merely an adjunct of the estate. Suddenly, he had become visible to her. He was a man! He was a beautiful, sexy man! She blushed. She had better banish such thoughts from her mind. Not that she was prejudiced against Mexican-Americans, but he was, after all, their gardener. It was just impossible. That sort of thing was for somebody else ... but not for Terri Marklin. Anyway, she had no intention of being unfaithful to George: at least, she told herself, it would never be with a man. Somehow, in her own mind, it was different with Pauline. What they had done that afternoon together had been ... well, a sort of mutual masturbation. It was not the same as if she had lain with another man in bed. That would have been marital infidelity of the most flagrant sort. She would never do that! George's jealous nature ... and his threat to her was enough to give her pause.
Jack Chavez had gotten a fleeting glimpse of Terri as she turned away from the window. He had noted her late arrival and wondered about it. Of course, it was really none of his business. There was something about her serene countenance that attracted his attention, though. It was the face of a sexually satisfied woman. He was sure that's what it was!
"Damn!" he had muttered to himself, "She's gone and got herself laid ... sure as hell!"
And it couldn't have been her husband. Of that he was sure, also. There was a glimmer of hope in the back of his mind. Maybe, if she's playing around ... getting it somewhere in the middle of the day, he reasoned ... maybe ... just maybe ... the thought was half formed.
"Hell! How does a "Mex" like me get a woman like her into bed ... unless she's dragged there? There's no way, man. No way!"
His silent soliloquy was interrupted by Peter Marklin who walked up to where he was working.
"Chavez," he said, "my father just called from the airport... he's going to be out of town for the weekend. He left a message ... said for you to take tomorrow off."
Jack was confused. "Your dad said for me to grub out this stump ..."
"Like forget it! It'll still be there Monday!"
"Is that going to be a day off without pay, or with pay?" Jack asked worriedly.
"You'll get paid, don't worry."
"All right, then ... I'll wait til Monday to finish," the dark gardener assured him.
"Groovy," young Marklin told him, "Groovy." He turned and sauntered back into the house with careless ease.
The gardener watched him go, wiped the sweat from his glistening forehead and said under his breath, "Little bastard! Trying to be the big boss while his old man's gone!"
Inside the house, another such scene was enacted; this time with the part-time housekeeper, a large raw-boned woman of Scandinavian extraction and indeterminate age.
"Yah... O. K.," she told Peter, "I don't come in on Saturday, anyway ..."
"Hey, that's groovy, too!" Peter said, "Everything's just real groovy."
A confused Greta watched him go. "Young people," she groused, "Who can understand them, these days?"
Peter Marklin went into his own room. He had a few more preparations to make. God! This was it. Now was the time! He couldn't waste any of it! A whole weekend alone in the house with