Chapter 11

She stood up and walked quietly from the living room, toward the patio. If Gene came out too soon she could say she needed another drink! Let him search for her ... be a little hard-to-get.

She spotted the lawn swing where Rudy and Tina had gone and sneaked up behind it. Nakedness didn't bother her too much now. This was a real swinging party. Enjoy it....

"Aw, come on!" Rudy wheedled, his voice blurred by liquor.

"Tease me some more, honey," Tina gurgled. More giggling. "You're pretty drunky."

Becky smiled to herself. Rudy didn't sound so sure of himself now. Obviously Tina was playing with his desire.

"C'mon-get in my lap," Rudy urged.

The lawn swing jiggled. "You haven't kissed me enough, honey!" Tina murmured, flirt in her voice. "Make me really hot!"

Becky pictured her husband's hands on the cuddly blonde and she experienced no special jealousy. Her old values about right and wrong were shot. A party like this was for vicarious pleasures, drunken sex.

She turned and left the area, returning to the bar. She had to keep an edge on or her conscience would start screaming. She saw her discarded bikini-top on the pool rim where she had dropped it and passed it by.

She mixed a strong highball. The music still droned from the stereo. Little waves lapped at the edge of the pool. A faint hum of traffic drifted up from the city center to the south.

Gene appeared in the doorway that opened from the living room onto the pool patio. A towel was draped around his loins.

Becky knew it was time to continue her performance. She laughed, gazing at him.

"You bashful, all of a sudden?"

He walked forward, grinning. "You can have fun taking it off, baby!"

The "baby" irritated her; it sounded common, but she overlooked the expression. Somehow a part of his masculine appeal faded. Tina had said she had him housebroken. She was the real boss.

Gene reached for her and she sidled away, laughing. "Let's play a game or something, honey!"

"You been hearing any more 'sounds'?" he asked, dryly.

"No. I hope you're not mad-about that...."

He shrugged. "I think you're a teaser."

"Oh, now-I'm not, really!" She came up close to him. "I just like to flirt around a little."

"What kind of game did you have in mind, sugar?"

She lowered her voice. "Let's go over to that lawn swing and see what Rudy and Tina are doing!"

His grin came back. He built a drink and when he had it ready they walked over into the shadows toward the lawn swing. His hand slid around her naked waist. She weaved her hips as his fingers inched down her tummy, exploring....

A little cry of excitement from Tina aroused her interest. Becky drew Gene up behind the swing, where she had stood before. The sway of the dark canvas-canopied lawn furniture indicated a certain amount of action from within.

"Ohhh-that's better!" Tina exclaimed.

No answer. Gene's hands roamed over Becky's body. He stood behind her now, his towel gone. She felt his arousal. She cuddled her bottom against him....

"Ohhhh-oh-honey!" Tina cried.

The swing began to squeak. Was Tina in his lap, as Rudy had requested earlier? The fact that Becky couldn't see piqued her interest. The sway and squeak of the swing grew more pronounced. Gene clasped Becky's breasts, and she felt her nipples poke outward, accenting her excitement. He was pressing himself nearer, seeking with his maleness ... He was very rigid.

She gripped the frame of the swing, leaning forward. She spread her legs, curving toward him....

She almost cried out as the searing contact commenced. She trembled. The sweet spread of her tender femininity became a hectic reality she hadn't expected to be so snugly wonderful.

Gene seized her hips. His lunge reached a place of shivery intoxication. His weight carried her further than she intended. She nearly lost her balance as flurries of her responses to his invasion rocked her pelvic regions.

The creak and wiggle of the lawn swing, accompanied by little gaspy cries from Tina, escalated her passion even higher! Her legs wobbled, she reached for a firmer hold on the swing frame and missed. The sensations within her were so exquisite she wasn't quite aware of what happened next-until she felt herself falling forward, into the swing.

The contraption tipped over. Becky tumbled onto the canvas and heard a sharp cry of surprise from beneath her. Rudy's curse was echoed by a loud exclamation from Gene.

Tina yelped and Becky was aware of a wild scramble as she fought to extricate herself from the threshing bodies under the canvas-and-metal framework of the swing.

She tumbled onto the grass beyond the wreckage. Rudy's bellow of rage as he fought the enveloping canvas gave Becky a moment of extreme hilarity. She picked herself up, laughing almost hysterically.

Tina's touseled head appeared from under the end of the tipped-over swing.

"Help!" she cried. "Get me out of this thing!"

Becky doubled over, gasping for breath, the comedy of the situation leaving her unable to move.

Gene cursed and leaped forward, catching Tina's hand, drawing her out of the still-turbulent tangle of cloth. Rudy's curses punctuated the pulsing music, making the scene even more ridiculous.

At last he crawled free, shaking his head, lurching to his feet.

"What the hell's going on?" he shouted, rigid with anger if nothing else. Becky noticed that his desire had obviously fled, at least for the moment....

"Take it easy!" Gene said. "We had a little accident!"

Rudy growled, seeing Becky, who still couldn't contain her merriment.

"This somebody's idea of 'fun'?" he snapped.

"Why of course, darling!" she answered. "Surprised?"

He growled and muttered, falling into a lawn chair.

"I think it was a dirty mean trick!" Tina said, glaring at Gene. "What were you two doing? Standing there, listening to us?"

"Cool it," Gene said. "Nobody's hurt. I think we all need a blast of booze."

Becky looked at Rudy and started to giggle. Tina stared at her, then suddenly, finding her good humor, she laughed, joining Becky. The girls stood side by side in the shadows, still quaking with amusement.

As they walked toward the bar, following the men, who were still discussing the situation in drunken voices, Tina whispered to Becky.

"I didn't quite make it with Rudy, honey. You were mean!"

Becky whispered back. "Gene didn't get what he wanted either!"

Tina giggled. "After we have a drink I think I'll take Rudy in the bedroom...." She squeezed Becky's waist. "But I don't think I'll like it as well as when we did it ...!"

Half an hour later Becky found herself in the guest bedroom with Gene. Another drink had put her in the mood for almost anything....

Rudy and Tina were across the hall. The games were over; it was time to fish or cut bait.

She stretched out across the counterpane, watching him turn the lights down until only one lamp burned. She looked at her breasts, rising like small mountains on her torso, wine-peaked, tumescent.

She lifted one slender leg, examining its fine contours, the way it tapered down to her compact hips and she wondered what Zane would say if he saw her here, half-drunk, ready to cohabit with a neighbor, offering her prize to one of Rudy's friends....

The thought took something away from her moment of surrender. A coldness passed through her being.

When Gene crawled on the bed, making it quiver, she closed her eyes, reaching for him, knowing already how he would feel....

He stretched out beside her, sweeping his hand over her charms, from her knees to her femininity, to her breasts. She held him, aware of no keen sensations. The alchemy of all the dalliance that had gone before seemed empty now.

She responded to his caresses and acted out her part.

I'm a real whore now, she thought dully.

She lifted and encouraged him, and when the moment came it was as though a hot dagger of guilt went clear to her heart. She took him and played with his passion as she knew a willing girl should. She panted when he panted. Finally, when the burst of his virility drained into her, she clasped him with her legs and heaved upward-feeling nothing except a few little twinges that only made her all the more miserable....

When he went to sleep, at last, she turned away from him with tears in her eyes.

I sobered up too fast, she thought. Rudy will get his big order, though. He can't miss now....

Zane Finch zipped his briefcase shut, stood up and paced uneasily about his motel room. He had delayed going on to Portland. He had decided to stay in Pender at least for the night. The business on the Coast could wait a few days.

Earlier in the evening he had called Rudy's number, hoping to catch Becky. But no one had answered.

What a hell of a wonderful girl!

Every line of her face, the fullness of her lips, the soft sheen of her brown hair, the fine delicate contours of her figure, all were etched in his memory. What bothered him most, though, was the hurt that lay behind her warm brown eyes....

After his visit with Rudy he was sure he knew part of the reason for her unease, her uncertainty. Rudy was a little pompous now, he acted more extroverted, important. The hair piece made him appear younger, of course-and it had changed him. He talked more, even bragging about his move upward. Several large selling feats recently he laid to his new sharpness.

I can put in a good word for him at Pasco, Zane thought. But should I? He needs a few pins knocked out from under him.

He shook the plan away. He knew he would help Rudy, as he had in the past. He didn't want to feel that his attraction toward Becky, actually giving him hard pangs of jealousy, would interfere with his mental balance.

Even the tone of Becky's voice haunted him. And her walk, free and extremely feminine, the naive sway of slim hips unfettered by a girdle, knifed sharply into his recollections. Damn!

I think I could steal her away from Rudy-but what kind of a heel would I be? Taking candy from little brother?

His hands knotted. The whole thing would be wrong, dead wrong. They were married. If they were having problems, it was no concern of his.

I've got to stop thinking about those long, sweet legs of hers, the high pout of her breasts. I should have driven on, toward Portland....

He stopped his pacing. He realized he hadn't eaten. The heat always took away some of his appetite. He would go out and have a couple of drinks and a good dinner. He would leave early in the morning. Rudy sure as hell didn't want to see him again. The meeting had been a big mistake. And it would be another mistake to look Becky up again. She and Rudy would, have to work out their own destiny.

When he left Rudy's office after their cool farewell he had noticed the high percentage of good-looking girls in the bookkeeping and accounting departments. Rudy had never been too girl-conscious in earlier years at Spokane. In fact he had married later in life than most men.

His early baldness, Zane had felt had bothered Rudy more than it should have. Evidently the hair piece had given him a changed outlook. He even dressed "sharper." Of course, a store manager had to look dressed up and proper, but Rudy was overdoing it.

I hope to hell he doesn't trip up his career on a patch of artificial paste-on hair!

Something else, too. If I ever hear he's abusing Becky, I'll break him in two!