Chapter 6
When Evelyn came into the house with Keith, she was laughing and radiant. He smacked her fanny with a wet towel and sprayed sand all over the floor.
"Isn't that a great beach?" he asked. "Kids come here for miles to surf in it."
Evelyn adjusted her wet bikini bottom and made a face of pain. She was about to tease him for her when she saw the light on in Artemus' study. The laughter faded from her lips, and she straightened up, feeling suddenly guilty.
"He's home, Keith," she said softly. "I'll see you later." She went to the door, paused, then smiled grandly. "Darling, I didn't know you were home ready," she said, going over to him.
Artemus looked up from opening his mail. He sat behind the desk and let his eyes roam over her bikini-clad figure. "Why didn't you come with Woodard to get me?" he asked, his voice flat and cold.
"I ... I didn't know he was going, Artemus."
"Where were you?"
"Across the street--swimming. It's a lovely beach."
"What's the matter with the pool?"
"Nothing, Artemus," she said testily. "What conceivable difference could it make to you where I swim while you're away? I didn't think you cared that much about me any more."
He sat back and looked at her levelly. "I care, Evelyn."
She was prepared to retort flippantly, until she saw the expression on his face. She had to look twice to be certain, because it was always difficult to tell with him. But the expression was serious, the comment genuine. It unnerved her.
"How can you say that after the way you've treated me, Artemus?" she asked quietly.
A faint smile played at his lips, a calculating one. Then it was gone. "Were you alone?" he asked finally.
"No, I was with Keith."
"What did you do yesterday?" He cut open an envelope and began reading the letter inside.
"Captain Bates called and invited us to go treasure hunting with him and a friend of his."
Artemus glanced up from the letter. "You and Keith?"
"Yes." She began to feel nervous. "There was nothing else for me to do here alone. You didn't tell me you were leaving. Why shouldn't I have?"
"No reason, Evelyn," he said smoothly. "Why are you so defensive?"
"I'm not!"
He smiled coldly. "You seem, to like Keith very much. It wouldn't be too much, would it?"
She swallowed hard, thinking immediately that Valerie had already told him that Keith had spent the night in her room. "What do you mean by a vicious remark like that?" she demanded.
Artemus shrugged innocently. "It wasn't vicious, Evelyn. It was merely a question. But you needn't answer it."
They looked at each other for a long moment. "I want to shower and change," she said, turning away from him.
He scooted his chair back. "I'll go up with you."
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. "All right."
He paused at her door, coming inside finally, "How are you getting along with Valerie? I trust you've resolved the differences I left you with the other night."
She turned on him. "I told you what happened by the pool. She did it again that night. She did it again last night, only last night she had friends."
"Really?"
"They were in your study, Artemus. At two in the morning, they woke me with their noise. I went down to tell her to stop. They were smoking marijuana. They were having a sex orgy. They forced me to watch it, and then ... then she propositioned me again. Artemus, I'm not going to stand for it any longer. Either you clamp down on her, or ... "
"Or what?" he demanded. "I told you that she was your responsibility. Instead of attending to her, you've been keeping time with Keith!"
"Keith's a decent boy! Valerie's a little bitch, and I don't want anything to do with her! You've made it just backwards, Artemus--you have to be the one to attend to Valerie, only ... "
"Only what?" he queried sharply.
"You know what."
He spun her around roughly. "Only what?"
"You're obsessed with fucking her, that's what!" Evelyn cried. "I know what you did the other night--right before my eyes. I saw her rubbing her little ass all over your lap, and I saw the wet spot on her dress. God, I can't take any more of it, Artemus! Why in God's name did you marry me!"
Evelyn's voice was hysterical. She put her hands to her face and sobbed into them harshly. She winced, waiting for the stinging blow that would come again. His hand touched her shoulder gently.
"And what about the spot on your dress, Evelyn? What about the two days you've spent with Keith? Are you going to tell me you haven't been equally fixated with fucking my son? Are you going to tell me you haven't already done it while my back was turned?"
She stared at him and gasped. Her head rang with the pulse of blood through it. "That little bitch!" she cried.
Artemus lifted his chin slightly. The spike of his nose angled straight into her skull, and the hard stare of his eyes followed it. He chuckled with a sneer playing at his lips, and a cold chill went down Evelyn's back.
"I knew it," he said in a low voice.
"You tricked me!" she gasped.
"Yes, Evelyn, I tricked you. It wasn't difficult. You're making progress, but it wasn't difficult enough yet. I haven't seen my daughter today. I don't even know where she is."
"What are you doing to me?" Evelyn whispered hoarsely, backing off from him. "What mad games are you playing, Artemus? Don't you care? Why don't you hit me? Why don't you divorce me? What do I have to do, scream it out loud? Yes, yes, I fucked your son! He stayed in this very bed all last night and brought me to raging climaxes again and again! There! There, damn you! Now, tell me to get out--tell me it's all over! Artemus ... please tell me it's all over," she sobbed. "I can't take any more of this. You're sick--all of you. You've made me sick, and I want out." She sobbed bitterly and let his arm come around her to hold her. She leaned against him and continued to cry, a feeling of exhaustion coming over her.
Artemus led her into the bathroom. He unhooked her bra and rolled her bikini down. He turned on the shower. She looked up at him with tear streaks washing the ocean salt from her cheeks.
"Quit being kind to me," she pleaded. "You're only making it worse."
"Come on. Get in. You'll feel better."
"Artemus, don't you care?"
"We'll talk about it when you're finished," he said firmly, urging her into the stall.
She heard him go through the connecting bathrooms to his room. She let the water beat down on her and hung her head in total confusion. The water swirled down the silvery drain, and she wished she could go with it. She wondered if he'd planned it all--the going away to leave her with Keith, driving her to him with his coldness. She wondered if he'd told Valerie to act the way she had to upset her further, to make her seek solace from Keith so that his own conscience would be assuaged for the desire for his daughter--the desire and the little games of masturbation they played together.
If any of it were true, she could begin to understand him. But it didn't explain Valerie's insistence on Lesbian contact. It didn't explain Artemus' aversion to it or why he forced his former wife to leave. It didn't explain his cruel treatment of Keith, which had gone on for years before he'd married her.
The door of the shower stall rolled open, startling her from her thoughts. Artemus stood outside in his silk robe. The expression on his face was pleasant--nearly paternal.
"Come out now, Evelyn," he said.
She looked at him with disbelief. The sneer was gone from his lips, and his eyes held a certain softness she'd thought him incapable of. She let him take her hand and lead her from the shower. The water rushed down, and droplets fell in silvery tears from the tips of her nipples.
"Artemus, what are you doing?" she asked, her voice small and shaky.
"I've been away, Evelyn," he said smoothly. "What does a man usually want to do when he's been away from his wife--particularly when she's so stunningly pretty, so totally naked and clean?"
"You can't mean it, Artemus--you, just can't. Not after what I've done."
"Come, sit on the bed with me," he said, guiding her.
His spread was pulled down, and the satin sheets were clean and slick. "But I'm all wet. I'll get everything wet."
"It'll dry. It all dries up in time." He turned her head toward him, and she realized that she'd been looking at the curtains over his bed.
"What, Artemus?"
"It doesn't matter." He smiled and ran his hand over her shoulder, down her wet arm, and back up to cup her slippery breast. "I'm going to Miami tomorrow," he said. "I'd invite you to go with me, but it's business, and you'd be bored."
She watched his face carefully, trying to understand what had changed him. "I could go shopping, Artemus. There are other things--Vizcaya, the Seaquarium. I wouldn't be bored."
"I don't know when I'll be through, Evelyn, I'm sorry. Next time, perhaps. It's nice to know that you want to go with me."
"It's nice that you told me this time."
He smiled oddly. "I told you that you were improving--that it would be getting better between us."
"Don't you care what I did, Artemus?" she asked again.
"Only if there's nothing left for me," he smiled, pulling her to him.
He kissed her lips, starting easily, making the intensity grow until his firmness was pressed against her tightly. She hesitated with her confusion a moment and then couldn't stop herself from going soft. His touch was gentle and tender, nothing like the way it had been before. His hand cupped her waist and breast and ran over her thigh, his fingers snarling in the glistening, shower-wet curls over her mound. She felt herself going backwards on the bed. Her skin slipped over the satin sheets, and his fingers separated the lips of her pussy and rubbed up and down, bringing slick moisture to her tissues.
Her arms went about his back, and a small whimper escaped her as he slid from his robe. His lips nuzzled her cheek, the side of her neck, and then wrapped softly around the tips of her breasts. He drew in, sucking her flesh, bringing heat to her body. She nestled in the circle of his arms, feeling how different he was from Keith.
Abruptly, she felt ashamed of what she'd done with Keith. She felt at home, now, and knew that this was where she belonged. A rush of emotion for Artemus swept through her, and she spread her thighs wider for his hand. The doubts and questions that had plagued her moments ago slipped away under the tide of rising passion as his lips kissed and sucked down the wet, clean expanse of her belly.
It was as if he were lapping the dew from her flesh. His tongue licked off the droplets and searched for more. It ran up the silken grooves of her groin and drew her pubes into his mouth, curling the auburn strands, sucking them dry; and moving on for more.
She clutched the back of his head and moaned, arching her back so that her breasts filled his palms. His tongue parted the satiny folds of her vulva, and his lips sucked the damp, tumescent tissues between them.
She rolled her head back and forth with happiness, knowing that he'd forgiven her. It didn't matter any more what he had done with his daughter, as long as he'd forgiven her. It was right, now--it was good. His touch was the way she'd dreamed of it being. She felt his lips part and cover her pussy completely. His tongue burrowed softly into her vagina and savored the molten passion seething inside her. There was a moment of warm oozing, of sliding on a velvet path, when she remembered that his way was the way Valerie had used. There was an instant of fright, a sense of things forbidden and illicit when she imagined that Valerie's soft, sensual mouth was covering her cunt and drawing her passion from her.
She pushed it away, remembering that it was Artemus, not his daughter--he, and not his son. It was her husband, and he was finished with being cruel to her.
"Artemus--oh, Darling, there's plenty left for you!" she cried.
He drew on her cunt with increasing fervor. His hands slid down her body and cupped the resilient globes of her buttocks. His thumb teased over her anus and sent sparks soaring through her. She felt them ignite and bring the volcanic fury inside her to a spewing eruption. She curled her fingers in his hair and pressed his face to her cunt and cried out with happiness.
Spasms of joy rocked through her, one following upon the other until purple dots swam before her eyes. It wasn't the same as it had been with Keith. Just as strong, but not as violent, as if a moderating hand were molding the shape and spread of her orgasm without diminishing its volume or strength. It was good. It was controlled while still being free. It didn't frighten her this time, and she allowed it more room. Her thighs spread willingly, and her pussy lifted up for more. She felt safe with him, and she gave her shuddering body over to his care until she needed rest.
"Darling," she cried, unable to halt the tears of happiness. "Oh, Artemus--why didn't you do it this way the first time? Why did you make me believe you were cruel? Please--please, let me love you now. Come up and put yourself into me and let me fuck you, Darling. Are you hard? Oh, Artemus, you are! So big and strong and--Darling, I love you. I love you!"
Her fingers wrapped around his straining stem, feeling its girth and stiffness. They tangled in his pubes and fondled the virile fullness of his balls. She tried to aim his penis toward her quaking middle, but he kept rising higher along her body until his buttocks settled at the tops of her breasts.
He looked down at her. She watched his face, then stared at the glistening tip, of his prick, pointed right toward her face. The hesitation was nearly too brief to notice, and then she was feeding his cock between her lips, pulling on it, rimming it with her tongue, puffing hot breaths of giving over his pubic mound.
She tasted the saltiness, felt the slipperiness of his seeping discharge, and she sucked hungrily. It didn't matter any more. She would do whatever he wanted--anything. She, felt safe for the first time in her life. She curled her lips over her teeth to be certain and then drew passionately on his cock, her mind pleading for the hot, seminal flow to hurry and be big.
She felt she could hear it coming. It slipped along the coiled tubes and out his vesicle as if on nylon tracks. The cord pulled, and the curtain drew aside, and his semen vaulted along its path in lumps that bumped over her lip and rippled the length of her tongue before jetting from the pulsing tip of his prick.
Her eyes popped wide as she swallowed and readied herself for more. She saw his abdomen strain. She saw his hands reaching forward. She saw his mouth open and his eyes staring hungrily at whatever was behind the curtain.
Pain and betrayal hit her with the force of his next gush of sperm. She struggled with his founting prick, wanting to cry out in outraged protest but unable to utter a sound, for he was gripping the back of her head, stuffing his root into her mouth, gagging off any chance to voice her thoughts.
It was a sham. She saw it clearly, now. He was still using her, still wanting her to be Valerie, still needing whatever was behind that curtain to make his passion come alive. She was still a non-person to him--a mere receptacle for his overflow. Evelyn twisted and strained under him, wanting free, nearly hysterical over the way she'd allowed him to trick her into believing there was love between them now.
When he moved away from her and drew his curtains closed, she felt her stomach heave. She wanted to be sick, but not even that would come.
"Artemus, I want out," she sobbed. "I want out! I can't go on like this! I can't stand your cruelty any longer!"
"Evelyn, Darling!" he said. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I can't stand you!" she cried.
"You mean you want a divorce--already?"
"Yes! I don't want any money. I don't want anything but away from you and your curtain and the sickness that pervades this house."
"What sickness, Evelyn? The kind where a woman fucks her stepson? Divorcing me won't cure that. I'm sorry, Evelyn, but it's out of the question. You're coming along just the way I want to see you do, and I can't start over with someone else."
"I'll leave! You can't stop me!" she cried. "I don't know what you want of me, but you can't make me suffer it any longer. I'm not a toy to be manipulated and tortured according to your whim. I thought--you tricked me into believing there was something growing between us. But you were lying."
"Why do you say that?"
"The curtain--what's behind that curtain?" She made a lunge upward as if to tear the covering from the wall. He slapped her down.
"Don't you ever try to find out what's behind that curtain!" he shouted.
"What will you do? Will you divorce me then? Will you let me go?"
"No! Then you'll never get free! I couldn't afford to let you out of my sight. And, if you think I've been cruel, then you don't know what cruelty is. Don't try to see behind that curtain, Evelyn," he threatened.
They glared at each other for long moments, and then she rolled off the bed and ran into her room. She flung herself on her bed and sobbed bitterly, knowing she had to get free of him, free of Valerie's mesmerizing hold over her, free of her dirty affair with Keith.
All of it swirled in her mind. She couldn't believe it was real. It seemed that some other person had been inhabiting her body the past few days and making her do the things she'd done. Memories surged upward and told her what she'd become. She fought against acceptance until she was exhausted. Not even sleep would make them go away.
When she awoke, the house was dark and silent. She felt hungry, but she didn't want to eat. She kept breathing in short, shallow breaths, and she had a feeling of anticipation, of impending disaster.
She slipped into her robe and went downstairs, moving toward the light in the kitchen. She saw Mary just finishing up.
"Where is everybody, Mary?" she asked.
"My, that was a long sleep. You must be terribly hungry. Everything's put away, but I'll be glad to get you something."
"I don't want to eat," Evelyn nearly screamed. "Why is the house so empty? Where did they go?"
Mary remained unruffled, and Evelyn began to wonder if she were losing her mind. The feeling of dread was overwhelming.
"Why, Mr. Crenshaw had a client call him right after dinner, ma'am," she said calmly. "He drove himself. He didn't tell me where he was going. Mr. Keith--well, he and his father ... we could hear them clear out here. Not the words, you understand, but they were pretty loud. And Miss Valerie--only God would know where she is. It really wouldn't be any trouble, ma'am. You ought to eat something."
Evelyn shook her head. "Not now, Mary, thank you. I'll get something later. If ... if you're finished, you may go."
"Yes, ma'am," Mary said diffidently.
Evelyn went back into the living room. She stood silently, tasting the atmosphere of the big, empty house. The feeling of anticipation wouldn't go away, and she knew why. She went back into the kitchen. Mary was gone. She searched through drawers quietly until she saw a sharp knife.
Taking it quickly, half hiding it in the folds of her robe, she hurried back up the stairs. Her head pounded with the daring of what she was going to do. She crept into Artemus' room and turned on the light. The drawn, locked curtains loomed before her. Her hand began, to sweat and make the handle slippery. The blade glinted in the light and made her remember his threat.
She tried to think rationally and convince herself that he'd been bluffing. He couldn't keep her prisoner. There was no way he could stop her from leaving for looking behind the curtains--not really, not physically. A call to the police ... to her friends in St. Louis ... even to Captain Bates. He couldn't control them all.
She ran forward and made the knife slice through the material. She slashed and ripped, hearing strange noises come from her throat and then she stared at what she'd known all along would be there.
It was Valerie. All of them were of Valerie. The pictures swam before her eyes with their perversity. Evelyn recognized the blond head between Valerie's thighs. The long, pink tongue could be seen embedded in the succulent folds of cunt. There was another--a blow--up of Valerie's sultry, pouting mouth, wrapped tightly around the dusky, gold-hued prick that could only be Peter's. A prick imbedded in her anus while her mouth covered Gloria's cunt in the way Evelyn remembered. A close-up of Valerie's cunt, fingers spreading the lips wide to show clearly the way the rubber penis stretched her orifice. A picture of another woman--one who looked like Valerie but was older, Valerie's mouth glued to her pussy, her mouth full of Gloria's juices.
Evelyn gagged when she saw the ones of Artemus. She looked at the one where he was sitting on Valerie's chest, feeding his cock between her swollen lips in the same posture he'd used on Evelyn.
The other pictures bluffed before her eyes. She didn't even want to look. The knife slipped from her fingers and fell silently onto the thick rug. She turned from the technicolor spectacle before her and walked woodenly toward her room. The sound of laughter came to, her, and she thought it was inside her head--a welling up of madness. But then the sultry, throaty overtones came to her, and she knew it wasn't hers.
She stood in front of her doorway, hesitating. There was one way to end it, one way to make him let her go. She had been defeated anyway, so there was no harm in using the defeat to be free.
Pulling in a deep breath for courage, she opened the door and walked to the end of the stairs. The laughter rippled up in cloying waves again, surrounding her, making her decision less one of will than one of magical enchantment. She felt a little as she had on the first day, when Valerie had been getting out of the pool and Evelyn had recognized her adversary and had gone to do battle. The battle had been lost. Now, it was time for the final surrender.
She went down the stairs, through the big rooms to the hallway. The sound of laughter and talking was plainer. A light shone from under the girl's door. Evelyn didn't knock. There was no need for that. Valerie stopped talking and looked up, surprised at first, then knowing. She slouched back along the bed and smiled in that sultry, victorious way, her eyes running up and down Evelyn's figure, outlined by the robe.
"Gloria, look who's come to see me," she said smoothly. "Hello, Momsy. What's the matter?"
"You know what the matter is, Valerie," she said. She glanced at Gloria. Both girls were in bikinis, ready to swim in the pool. Gloria tossed her hair out of her eyes and smiled.
"Are you going swimming with us, Momsy?" Valerie asked.
Evelyn said nothing. She closed the door behind her and came into the room. She couldn't take her eyes from the alluring figure before her, appearing the way the sticky, sweet honey of an insectivorous plant must appear to the fly circling around it. She saw the trim, firm, smooth lines of her thighs, the tight, white triangle of transluscent material covering the puffy flares of her vaginal lips. She took several shallow breaths and then reached for the belt of her robe, parting the garment, slipping it from her shoulders, standing nude before them.
"You've won, Valerie," she said softly. "Get your camera ready. Take your pictures. You've won."
Valerie's eyes flared brightly with victory. Her thighs squirmed on the bed with anticipation. She chuckled softly, making an erotic, throaty sound. "Come here, Eve," she said. "Tell me why you've given in so soon."
"Just do it, Valerie. Let's get it over with."
"Gloria, she's in a hurry now. I told her she wouldn't be able to resist me, but she fought so hard. Now she's in a hurry to be good friends with me."
"Yes, that's it," Evelyn said. "Good friends, Valerie--close. As a mother and daughter should be."
Valerie cocked her head oddly. "Daddy won't like this, Eve. You know that, don't you? He kicked Mother out without a cent."
"Does he have to know, Valerie?"
She laughed with a wicked sound. "Of course not, Momsy--not unless you tell him." Her brow wrinkled. "But how did you know about the pictures? Did Keith tell you? He has a big mouth. He's a weak, stupid brother who can't fuck me."
"No--I saw them. Do you know where they are?"
"Yes," she laughed. "Isn't that cute of Daddy to keep me so close to him? Poor Daddy. He's really very strong inside. But he has one weakness, and that's me. You've found me impossible to resist, too, haven't you? Gloria, let's get ready. We can't keep Momsy waiting like this. Her pussy juice will start running down her thigh and get all over my bed if we leave her standing here too long."
"Why are you doing this, Valerie?" Evelyn asked. "Before we start, just tell me why?"
Valerie laughed throatily and slipped her halter from her breasts. The firm, tipped cones rose up and bobbed softly. "Why are you, Eve?"
Evelyn watched the white triangle reveal black, glossy pubes, swollen labia, slick, firm inner thighs and rounded buttocks. "So that I will never have to see you again," she said.
"Awww, that isn't a very nice thing to say when you're about to make love to someone. But, you know what? My reason is just the same as yours. Isn't it nice that we can agree on something? It's too bad we couldn't have known each other under different circumstances. We might have gotten along quite well."
"Why don't you want me here? You haven't from the first day."
"It's very simple, Love," Valerie oozed, pulling Evelyn onto the bed. Her arms came around Evelyn's shoulders, and her dark eyes became still brighter. Her breasts pressed into Evelyn's arm, and her hands cupped Evelyn's tits warmly. "I don't want you here for the same reason I didn't want Mother here. I like having Daddy to myself. He needs me, too. He can't stay away from me. Then too, if something should ever happen to poor Daddy while you're his wife, then you'll inherit everything. I couldn't take a thing like that. You're so young--why, you might outlive me, and that wouldn't be fair, because I want it all. Don't you understand?"
"Yes. It's very clear, Valerie."
"Mother was rotten to him, Eve, you don't know. She made him very unhappy. She didn't deserve to have all this--not the way I deserve it. I've made him happy, you see."
"Is that why he married me--because he was happy with you?"
"Oh, you know how it is. He can't go around to his business meetings with me all the time. People would talk, and that wouldn't be good."
Evelyn felt Gloria's hand slide warmly up her thigh. She felt Valerie's move from her suddenly reddened nipple down her abdomen toward her cunt. There was gentle pressure against her to lie back. She choked back a sob of depravity and went down, letting them have her body.
Her mind swam with the horrid truth of what Valerie said. It all fit together. Artemus had told her as much when he'd married her--that she was for show. But she didn't understand why he'd given her over to Valerie--or to Keith. Keith ... God, how she wanted him now. He wasn't stupid and weak, but just the opposite. He was the only sane member of the family.
She stopped feeling guilty for the love she'd felt for Keith and the time they'd spent together. Keith ... perhaps when it was over with Artemus...
"Oh, don't," she whimpered suddenly.
Evelyn arched her back without volition, pressing her open pussy toward the long, pointed tongue licking through her folds and teasing at the entrance to her body. She reached down to push Gloria's head away in sudden revitalization of her spirit. If she wanted Keith, then she couldn't go through with this.
She fell back and let it happen. If she wanted Keith, then she had to go through with this. Artemus would never let her go otherwise.
"Isn't Gloria's tongue lovely, Eve?" Valerie whispered softly. "Doesn't it make you want to lick out with your own? Oh, lick out, Eve, and suck my pussy for me. Make it look good. Strain upward for the camera so that Daddy will know we didn't force you. Here it is--it's all open and ready and waiting for your pretty mouth, Eve. Stretch--reach ... ah, that's a lovely tongue, lovely."
Evelyn heard a small click. She nearly sobbed. The taste of Valerie's juice burst along her buds and filled her senses. She felt herself wanting more--shamelessly wanting it. The tongue and lips at her sex drove her on and sent her over the edge into an area she'd never believed she could enter. She moaned and tossed her hips, trying to imagine that it was Keith's mouth on her pussy. His image wouldn't come. The knowledge stayed with her that the mouth was the small woman's mouth she'd watched the other night.
The tongue drilled into her. It rippled up and down her pussy walls and trembled over her clit. She moaned again and reached for the smooth, satiny hips at her head. She whimpered slightly when she heard Valerie's sigh of pleasure. Evelyn felt her tongue running in and out of her mouth, making her lips sensitive and tingling as it sought more of the illicit slipperiness and the tickling hairs.
She ate ravenously at Valerie's cunt and heard the camera click and click until the sound ceased registering in her mind. Waves of sensation rolled through her body and came to claim her mind. She whimpered shakily and then exploded, allowing herself to go wild, giving vent to all the frustration and tension inside her. Fingers curled in her hair, and then Valerie came, filling her mouth with juice, making her wanton cunt writhe under her lips and tongue.
Evelyn felt a sense of power just then, as if by making her come again, she could somehow dominate the girl. She worked harder, licking all around, rimming her anus, bringing her fingers into play, attempting to subdue the girl and win the battle after all.
She covered Valerie, dominating her. At the same time, Evelyn opened her cunt wide to whatever Gloria would do to it. She felt her hand drawn toward warm thighs, and her fingers slipped into juicy, fragrant meat. Gloria moaned and beat her tongue against Evelyn's clit, and the warmth gripped her fingers tightly with a spasmodic pulse. She gathered herself for a fresh attack against the fascinating witch beneath her and felt another battle be won. Valerie cried out harshly and shuddered, and then Evelyn came again.
The pictures weren't necessary. She knew that the instant she heard his tread outside. The door swung wide: Evelyn knew she should whip her head around and stare with bulging eyes at being discovered. That would have been the normal reaction. Instead, she let the climax teasing at her slip forward and push her over the brink, making her quiver with release. Then she looked around at him.
Artemus said nothing. He simply stared at the display of naked, Lesbian flesh. A certain sadness seemed to come across his face, but it was soon gone. He turned from the doorway, and they could hear him walking heavily down the hall.
Evelyn sighed and untangled herself from the girls. She sat on the edge of the bed feeling drained of all emotion. Valerie's taste was full in her mouth. She wanted to brush her teeth. She waited for the hard realization of actions and discovery to come and hit her, but it wouldn't.
"I'm insensitive," she said aloud. "I feel nothing, and I should. What have I become that I can feel nothing?"
She didn't know if the girls answered. She got off the bed and put her robe on. She didn't look back at them. It was all over, and there was no desire to look back. She went down the hall, still wanting to brush her teeth. It seemed impossible to her that she could think of nothing else at a time like this.
She heard Artemus' voice as she passed his study. She went back and paused in the doorway to look at him. He didn't look very upset--a bit sad, perhaps, as if he'd expected it to happen all along. He glanced up when he saw her watching him, spoke quietly into the telephone, then hung it up.
"Come in, Evelyn," he said.
She walked stiffly toward him. "Will you forgive me this time, Artemus?" she asked. "You said you wouldn't tolerate it, remember?"
He looked into her eyes, and the sadness was still there. "No, Evelyn," he said. "Not for this." He sighed heavily. "Why did you do it?"
"Why did you want me to? I know you did. You pushed me to her. You wanted her to make me do it. You pushed me to Keith. We could have made it, Artemus, if you'd wanted to try. Why didn't you want to try?"
"You shouldn't have done it, Evelyn," he said ruefully. "You were doing so well. It would all have worked, if you'd given it more time."
"What would? That's all you've implied, all along--that there's a reason, a master plan. I begged you to tell me, and you wouldn't. Now, I don't care. All I want is to go."
He sighed again and passed his hand over his face. He closed the heavy door and came back. "Sit down, Evelyn. You might as well know, now that it's all over."
"If it's over, Artemus, then what does it matter?"
He held her face in his hands and looked at her. His eyes seemed softer than she'd ever seen them. The appearance passed quickly, and his voice was cold and hollow.
"I want to tell you because I love you, Evelyn. You can't believe that, I know. Perhaps my love is too alien an emotion to be called love. But I can't have you leave here feeling guilty. The guilt is mine."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Artemus. Right now, I have no guilt. I did what you made it necessary for me to do."
"I'm talking about me. You've seen the pictures. I saw what you did upstairs, and that was why I came down. I knew you had given in, that my plan hadn't worked, and that you would have to leave, now that you know about me. I have ... a sickness, Evelyn. It is for my daughter. I've tried to fight it--to fight her--but I can't."
"And that's why you married me, I know--so that I would replace her in your mind, because I'm young."
"Yes, I suppose that's true. That's part of it. But there was another reason. She destroyed my wife--her own mother. I didn't realize that until it was far too late to make amends. Her motive is my money. Valerie wants it. I try to be strong and cold. That's a bluff. It's overcompensation. It's addressed to everyone around me but the right one. She's an evil child, but I can't send her away. I came to realize that she would leave only by her own will, not mine. I married you so that she would give up hope of inheriting everything, because you're so young. If you had been strong enough to resist her, if you had won the battle I forced you to fight, then she would have given up and left me, and the sickness would have gone with her. We could have been ... but it's too late. I've already called the Swede to draw up papers. An annulment, a technicality of some kind. You won't even have to go to court tomorrow, because Judge Herrick owes me some favors. Just sign the papers when Swede brings them out, and you're free. I'm still going to Miami early. I don't want you to be here when I get back. I'm sorry, Evelyn--sorry I did this to you and involved you in my own weakness. It was selfish, and it didn't work. "
She watched him lift his chin slightly. The heavy brows, the cold eyes, the unbending line of his nose all seemed to belie the real man behind them. His words made her feel strange, as if it were all happening too swiftly now.
"Artemus, I... why can't we put it back together?"
"It's no good," he said firmly. "Not now. We couldn't live with each other or with her after this. I might be able to forgive you, but I can't forgive myself. And you won't forget what you've learned about me. That, and what you did just now. She would always be there between us, somewhere."
Evelyn pressed his hand to her cheek and kissed it suddenly. "Darling, let me try again," she pleaded. "I didn't know before. We can work it out now. God, I don't even understand myself. I couldn't wait to get away from you, and now I want to stay to help you. I can handle her now, I know I can."
"No," he said curtly. "Because I can't. No matter what you do to try to handle her, you can't do more than I'll let you do. I told you, you can't force her to leave. She has to leave on her own. Her and Keith."
"Keith?"
"He's just the same," he said darkly, "Why does he hang around? I've made life as miserable for him as I could, and he's still here. They're a pair of vultures. They can't wait for me to die."
"No, Artemus--that isn't true about Keith...
Evelyn's voice trailed off as she suddenly remembered the trend of his discussion on the beach, the other small comments he'd made. She shook her head as if to clear the fuzziness from it.
"You see?" he said. "He can't hide it, even from you.
"Artemus, I can't believe that about him."
His eyes grew cold again. "Then take him. After tomorrow, you're free. Take him and find out. If you want to do me a favor, get rid of him for me."
She lowered her face into her hands. "God," she whispered. "Why didn't you tell me sooner, Artemus?"
"You would have left the first night." He paused for a long, silent moment. "Go to bed, Evelyn," he said gently. "I still have to get ready for the meeting tomorrow."
She looked up at him. "Is this really good-bye, Artemus?"
"Yes."
She stood and put her head against his chest, feeling small and weak inside and full of sorrow. "I can't believe this week, Artemus. It's been like a dream--disjointed, unreal, nearly a nightmare. My vacation is nearly over. No one back home would believe me if I told them. I suppose I belong there, behind a desk, typing, instead of living in a place like this, surrounded by wealth." She laughed weakly, a small sound. "They just wouldn't believe me, would they?"
He lifted her chin and kissed her lightly, tenderly. "Good night, Evelyn."
She turned quickly to hide her crying and hurried up the stairs for the last time.