3 comments/ 48424 views/ 4 favorites Sampling Some Italian By: SEVERUSMAX "Mr. Lennox, your model is here," the successful artist's secretary notified him with a wink. John Colmes was known to be gay, but Thomas Lennox didn't worry about it. It was more flattering than threatening to him. He had even fucked John's ass now and then, whenever he was horny enough to overlook his usual preference for women. It wasn't as if Mrs. Lennox bothered to take it in the ass. She was a society woman from "old money". She would probably be horrified to know that her husband had occasional trysts with his extremely effeminate male assistant. A mistress would be perfectly fine, preferably one of a lower class who knew her place and did all of the "nasty things that nice girls don't do". A homosexual fling, however, was still verboten for a man of his class, at least in her family's perspective. Even a mistress, of course, was "hush-hush". Discretion was the unwritten rule in that social stratum. Neither husband nor wife would acknowledge that either of them had paramours. Divorce or scandal were best avoided. Marilyn Lennox could hardly admit to the world, after all, that her husband wasn't satisfied with a high-class beauty such as herself. Nor, for that matter, could Thomas admit that he was regularly cuckolded by his blue-blooded wife and her elderly lover. Such a thing would have an emasculating effect on his public persona as a maverick artist and millionaire in his own right (by now, he was as wealthy in practical terms as his wife had always been). Thomas didn't honestly know, after all, whether or not his wife's paramour could even have an erection. He might, courtesy of an ED pill, but he might also have a heart condition that precluded it. The circles in which he worked and socialized would laugh at him behind his back, if it became public knowledge that his wife cheated on him with a potentially impotent senior citizen. The truth, naturally, was more a matter of an emotional attachment that Marilyn had for a widower of whom her parents had disapproved as a possible husband. Emotional infidelity (even assuming that he didn't have some physical intimacy with her) was still cheating, however, since it was done without asking his permission. Both of them had betrayed their wedding vows, though none of his flings were long-term or passionate enough to qualify as "affairs" in the traditional sense. At the beginning of his marriage, Thomas had attempted to be a faithful husband, but then he learned of his wife's adultery by means of her paramour's disgusted daughter. He had to confirm it for himself, but he soon did, because the lady had photos of her father French-kissing Marilyn. It turned out that the daughter's motive was simply jealousy over attention her dad paid to Mrs. Lennox instead of herself. She wanted Thomas to stop the liaisons. He didn't. Instead, he seduced the man's daughter as a form of revenge. The man no doubt knew by now, but he didn't dare to confront the husband he had cuckolded for sleeping with his daughter. That fling was over, although Thomas still got along with the lady in question. She was special in a rather unorthodox way to him, as his first ever mistress. Thomas was sentimental about the most unlikely things at times, but that was part of the passion that made him a great painter. The door opened to his studio and a lovely Italian woman in her early 20s interrupted his nostalgia. She had the most enticing wavy hair, dirty blonde in color. Her eyes were blue-green and her skin had a somewhat tanned complexion, one that resembled amber instead of olives. She wore a silk maroon dress that stopped at the top third of her thighs and scarcely covered any of her shoulders. She had a lot of makeup, but not so much as to be grotesque. Her ass and breasts were both a decent size, while clearly natural. Nor was she rail-thin, like most of the models that he regularly vetoed for paintings. Thomas wanted his nudes to have a more classical figure, which was rare and difficult to find in an age of "heroin chic" and the "waif look". That was a major reason that he succeeded as an artist. Many people preferred more naturalistic figures on female nudes, instead of near-skeletons. His blend of the modern "tanned" look and the Rubenesque curves of a Renaissance lady were quite popular as a deliberate synthesis, which the art critics frequently praised in their reviews. Her most significant appeal, however, was a playful attitude that he immediately noted. She wasn't just there to model for him and pick up a check. She arrived with the clear intention of seducing him, as well as flirting with whomever viewed the art. She wanted to have fun. Her pleasant personality definitely altered his mood for the better, getting him out of his melancholy and disappointment over what was now completely a marriage of convenience. "Claudia, am I right?" he said, as she greeted him with kisses. This was not overtly sexual, since Europeans typically kissed each other on the mouth or cheek. Even so, to boldly kiss an American stranger of the opposite sex on the lips wasn't very traditional at all. After all, most Europeans were aware that kissing was associated with love and sex in the States. "Si, Claudia. You are Signor Lennox, si?" she asked, in a manner that made it apparent that she knew very well to whom she spoke. "Call me Thomas. I understand that you wish to model as a nude for my newest painting. Is that correct?" he tried to seem professional, at least for now. This didn't change the fact that every hormone in his body demanded that he fuck this lady. He just pretended otherwise for the moment. Business had to come first. There was plenty of time for pleasure afterward. "Si, I want to model in the nude for you," she confirmed, obviously phrasing her words in a way that had a possible second meaning, before mumbling something in her native Italian. Thomas knew that language, although her volume made it difficult to grasp more than a word or two that suggested work was not the only context in which she would like him to see her naked. Such an embarrassed confession of her lust for him was unusual, but it didn't bother him. He was known to be married and the nature of his union with his wife was not public knowledge. Not everyone, outside of his social network, knew of his reputation as a lecher. Hell, some strangers probably thought that he was gay and used his wife as a beard. Even the most arrogant women, if they heard such gossip, would be plagued by doubts as to their sex appeal. No matter how coquettish she was, this young lady had a distinctly charming lack of hauteur. "I believe that we can arrange this for you, Signorina. Did I ever tell you how much I enjoy visiting your country? You Italian ladies are rather delightful, I'll say," Thomas smiled rather lustfully at his new model. If she didn't get the message, he would be rather stunned. "Thank you. I think that you are flirting with me, Thomas. Are you?" she blushed a bit, mainly because he was the most important and sophisticated man to take an interest in her. "Well, yes, I am, Signorina. Don't worry, if you're interested, we'll take care of that when we're done working for the day. My wife isn't worried about my whereabouts right now. Hell, she doesn't really give a damn what the fuck I do," Lennox observed dryly. "Please call me Claudia. You're the boss, after all, and I'm calling you Thomas. Not to sound lazy, but can we go ahead and take care of that first? The idea of fucking you has me rather excited already. That's not too easy for you, is it? I know that some of you American men look down on 'easy' or 'loose' women, even when you fuck them. By the way, I don't care that you're married. In Italy, married men and women are fair game as much as single ones. Most men have mistresses as well as wives in my country," Claudia pleaded, making it very obvious that she didn't want to delay things more than necessary. Time was of the essence, after all. "Very well, my dear Claudia. I suppose that no one will be the wiser or get harmed by it. This is on my dollar, as it were, and I have no shortage of those. You don't mind a quickie for the first time then, do you?" he proposed with a salacious smile. "Of course not, my sweet Thomas. I said 'fuck', not 'make love'. I'm sure that I shocked you a little. You probably thought that all Italian girls used flowery language for sex. Well, we've changed a bit over the past centuries. We're not all naïve ladies and peasant girls anymore. Some of us are rather wild, in fact. So, how about that quickie?" she encouraged him. Thomas had no objection to that, of course. In fact, he was very hard from the idea of screwing this gorgeous model. He grabbed Claudia, lifted her dress up far enough to see the absence of panties, and began kissing her on the mouth. She didn't simply kiss him back. She added her hungry tongue and proceeded to lower his pants down to his ankles. The blonde was ecstatically pleased to see that she wasn't the only one in the room going commando. That was more convenient for her plan, not to mention that it proved that her new lover/boss was as free-spirited as herself. Instead of getting on her knees, Claudia took her dress off and put herself on all fours to excite him, as she began her idea of foreplay by sucking his dick and balls. She apparently wanted him to know exactly what she had in mind for him. Thomas rapidly noticed that the Italian lady didn't have any compunctions about deep-throating him. She clearly had a gag reflex, but just as obviously refused to let that stop her from taking his cock as far inside her as possible. As Thomas enjoyed Claudia's mouth, he found himself actively fucking her in that orifice. This not only didn't upset her, it caused her to become wetter every second of the act. In a few moments, she pleaded with him to take her from behind, screwing her slippery cunt. This begging was entirely non-verbal, but it was still undeniable. When she did speak, it was to reinforce what she wanted, as he mounted her in the studio. "I gotta have you, Thomas! I can't help it! I must have you! Ah, fuck, yes! Take me!" Claudia urged him, as she didn't mind sounding a little corny or desperate. Nothing confirmed what the lovely model said as much as the soaked pussy that Thomas penetrated at that point. As he plunged into her sex, she sighed repeatedly and swore in Italian. Claudia's body met him halfway every time, especially in the case of her hips, which ensured that he went even deeper into her cunt as he had in her throat. "Yes, I need you, Thomas! I need you to fuck me! I must have you!" she insisted, which naturally appealed to the artist pounding her pussy in the doggie-style position. "Uh, boss, I...uh...," John briefly interrupted the pair, before realizing that Thomas was in the act of fucking Claudia from behind. "Join us, John! I know that you don't like women, but you can always fuck me in the ass while I screw her. I don't think that she would mind. Would you, Claudia?" Thomas encouraged his assistant. "No problem at all, if that's what you want, Thomas. I like watching men fuck each other. It's a treat that I rarely see in Italy, sadly enough. Most men frown upon it there," she agreed with him. "She looks like she wants you as much as I do, boss. Hell, I think that she's in love with you already. I can't blame her. I have those feelings for you myself. Too bad that you prefer women, but I doubt that she agrees with me," John stated, as he put some lube on his dick for the rare occasion of sodomizing Thomas. It was almost always the other way around. He was sure that his boss wanted to reward him for his discretion about everything. Thomas grunted a bit when John entered him, but he soon returned his focus to fucking Claudia. She deserved more of his attention anyway. This foreigner was precisely the sort of woman that he loved best: unabashed in her devotion to sexual hedonism. She didn't believe in self-restraint when it came to enjoying a man's body. She was more than enough to distract him from the pain of taking a cock up his ass. The abnormal nature of the threesome made it very problematic for anyone wishing to hold out from cumming. All three of the people involved in the group act approached their climaxes in just minutes. The stimulus to Mr. Lennox's prostate also aggravated things. He felt his cock move abruptly, as he shot out an impressive load of seed into Claudia's cunt. Claudia didn't overlook the fact that Thomas's dick didn't go soft immediately, as most men's did in her experience. Instead, he continued banging her, until she moaned through the rest of her orgasm. Since he was very lubricated from her pussy, she pushed her ass closer to him, making a very obvious suggestion. "Damn, you want it in the ass, too? You're insatiable!" he groaned, right before John released himself into his butt. "Is that a complaint?" she grinned, knowing otherwise. "Of course not! You're the best lay I've had in a decade!" Thomas exclaimed, quite happy to oblige the sultry blonde. "You're not exactly a mediocre lover yourself, dear. And you're in no position to worry about my being insatiable. Your sex drive is at least as high as mine!" Claudia spoke, in the breath that she took before he rammed his cock back into her asshole. What he found strangely most seductive about her was the continuing playfulness of her sexual attitude. She teased, sassed, flirted, laughed, pouted, and even purred like an actual pussycat. She didn't apologize for an undiluted love of sex. She didn't show any iota of guilt. She simply thrust toward him as he fucked her. While John washed his dick and viewed the bizarre act of heterosexual intercourse, a type of encounter that was always alien to him (he was still a virgin in terms of screwing women, and had no desire to change that), he fantasized that it was his ass taking Thomas's cock inside it. When he didn't daydream about being his boss's sex partner, he observed how much Claudia craved Mr. Lennox. No, he wasn't wrong at all. She was in love with Thomas, and had probably been so from the first few minutes of conversation. The sex just added a motive for her passion. Despite having just cum in Claudia's pussy, Thomas didn't have the self-control at this moment to prevent himself from shooting his load inside her bottom. The way that she behaved about anal sex made her too sexy to avoid emptying his balls into her. His usual willpower vanished in a couple of minutes, so he withdrew, leaving his jism to leak from both holes. "Shit, that was twice in a row I came too quickly!" he worried aloud. "Not too soon for now, honey! It's a quickie, remember? I made sure to get you off as soon as possible! I had to have your cum in me for the first time, after all. The sooner that I got that done, the sooner I could relax and dream about our next copulation. Besides, now you can think straight when you paint me in the nude. There's a method to my madness, or didn't you expect that?" the model informed him, winking with a kind of shameless, but friendly mischief. "Well, you're not stupid, but that's no surprise! You obviously understand men. Now, how about we get to work? Then we can order some food and discuss our fling while we eat supper. I'm not ready to dine at home tonight, but that's for the best. I rarely go home early on Friday nights anyway. There's too much danger of catching my wife and her lover together, which could lead to some awkward table discussions, particularly since she hasn't admitted to her affairs any more than I have confessed to mine. "As for you, John, finish your work and take this. It's a bonus. Go out and pick up a hot guy to fuck you. I imagine that there are plenty of gay bars nearby. Claudia and I need some time alone together, not that I have a problem with orgies, as you have seen for yourself. I just think that she and I should be alone for a few hours. "For what's it worth, I'm sorry that I don't return your feelings. I don't want to hurt you, John. I hope that you keep working for me and even having sex with me now and then. I just want you to understand that I'm not gay. I'm hardly even bi, since you're the only man that I've ever fucked. I can't give you the love that you want from me. I'm no fool. I could tell that you felt that way about me for a while. I hope that you can forgive me, if I have in any way sent you mixed signals," Thomas declared. "Don't sweat it, boss. I know that you prefer girls to guys. That's just the cruel hand I've been handed. I am not much of a fighter, you know. I tend to lie down and accept my fate. That's got nothing to do with being gay, of course. I've seen many guys in my community who are much stronger in that sense. That's just not my nature. I am a weakling by temperament. I embrace my effeminate personality. I also understand that you find it sexy in a fascinating way. It's my best chance to get laid now and then. I don't fuck with that. "Maybe I need to find a man that I can love, who will love me back, but I'm addicted to you instead. The weird thing is that I am faithful as well. I can only screw one person at a time, because I don't have the desire for variety or quantity that you have, sir. If this is the closest that I will come to a lover in my lifetime, so be it. I'm just happy to let you have me. Hell, most of the time I'm too passive to do more than receive it and play with myself. I know that I sound like a wimp. That's because I guess that I am a wimp. I'm basically your bitch, and you know it. It's too late to undo that. It's not as if you set out to make me that. I didn't set out to become that, either. It just occurred, so I'll live with it. You might as well live with it too. You have your women and a boy toy to fuck whenever the urge strikes you. There's no sense in worrying about it. It's just my karma. I was probably a son of a bitch in my last life, that's all. "Don't worry about playing with my feelings. It would be more cruel at this point to stop fucking me, since I would be stuck with my left hand as a sex partner for life in that case. I don't think that I would ever get laid again if you dropped me. This is just my life, that's all. By the way, thanks for the money, but I think that you understand now why I can't use it how you suggested just a second ago. It's just not me. I don't hold it against you. You didn't know that. I didn't tell you before tonight. You have clean hands. I won't resent you. I can't do that, or else I'd be resenting someone for his sexuality, and that's something that I wouldn't want from other people. That's just you. Claudia, you're a lucky girl. Don't forget it," John announced tearfully, as he closed the door to the studio and went back to work. "Wow, that was rather intense! It just proves that either life isn't fair, or it is more fair than people think, as in reincarnation. To be honest, I also have very strong feelings about you. I know that it's early, so it would be no more reasonable for me to expect anything serious from you than it would be for John in his case. I know that you're married. I know that adultery is considered more serious in the States than in my country, although as I have said, it makes no sense to me as an Italian. I also know that your wife is no more faithful to you than you are to her. I'm not blind. I can tell that you are reacting to her infidelity by getting some of your own on the side. Perhaps it is also her indifference to you? I can sense that too. "Anyway, I want you to know that I would be happy to simply enjoy you and love you, with no need for a wedding ring. If you wish to marry me at any point, that would be fine. If not, whether you stay married to your wife or not, I'll accept that. There's no rush. It's not like our marriage would be recognized by my religion in the first place, since your first wife is still alive. Divorce might be common enough in my country, but it's never valid in the eyes of the Church. Either way, I'll be an adulteress simply by fucking you. Sampling Some Italian Ch. 02 Thomas made sure to ram Claudia once again after he painted, and she did her best to take as much as his cum as possible this time around. He partly did it because he enjoyed her, but also partly because he didn't want to rush home and catch Marilyn in flagrante delicto with her own lover. That was not a confrontation that he wished to expedite by any means. On the contrary, he preferred to delay it as much as possible. Despite his best efforts, however, he still found them in bed together, which meant that he had to take note of it. He had even eaten supper with Claudia, as planned, but it didn't prevent him from seeing them in the act. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that Marilyn had deliberately prolonged the tryst to ensure that she was caught this time. Then again, she might just have gotten off on the risk. Thomas cleared his throat, so that they would see him and not think that they were alone. Marilyn had the good grace to be embarrassed, of course. She was a lady of high station, after all. Jacob just coolly smoked a cigarette while waiting for an altercation to occur between his lover and her husband. "Thomas, I will not insult you by saying that it's not what it looks like. You deserve that much, at least," she finally spoke up. "Thanks for small favors, I suppose. I've suspected this for a while, which is why I went out of my way not to catch the two of you. I didn't want this moment to happen. I don't like the ugliness of such things. My parents had plenty of such fights over infidelity, particularly my father's," he replied rather dryly. "How long have you known?" she inquired. "For most of our marriage by now. Thank your lover's daughter for that. She told me and proved it to me. I'll be honest about my own affairs, however. I started them soon after I learned the truth about you. At first, it was revenge, back when I still loved you. That was replaced by indifference toward you, and consequently, it became simply a biological function of satisfying my natural lusts. I won't state specifics beyond the fact that Jacob has known for a while: I screwed his daughter, the one who told me the cold, hard facts about you," Thomas declared rather brusquely. "Well, that was clearly revenge, at least. Jacob, you've known about this all of this time and didn't tell me?" she turned on her lover. "If I had, then I would have had to confront him, and I was on no moral high ground to do that. Every paternal instinct in my body wanted to crush his head, but I knew that I was in no position to judge him. Neither were you, for that matter," Jacob interjected. "True, I guess. So, I take it that you're going to continue your liaisons, and I certainly have no plans to end my affair with Jacob. I'm in love with him, not you, but I gather that you were aware of this for quite a while. I'm sorry if I misled you about my feelings, but I had no such intent. I thought that this was as much a marriage of convenience for you as it was for me. Evidently, that wasn't so. "That leaves us two choices: we can go back to our old routines and look the other way, or we can get divorced. Personally, I think that it's time for a divorce. I enjoy fucking you, Thomas, but that's all we have: sex and a business partnership. I'm getting older, and so is Jacob. He needs someone to care for him in his old age. "I worry that the demands of being my only lover might be much for him, however. There is a reason that he hasn't taken me up on my offer to share him. He can barely keep up with me in a physical sense, though he is a great partner in bed as much as he does. "What I suggest, therefore, is that the two of you swap roles. I will divorce you, marry Jacob, and take you as a lover. Since you will be my paramour, there will certainly be no demand that you be faithful to me. I hope that the two of you consider this proposition seriously, without prejudice. There is no double standard here. If Jacob wants to screw another woman some time, for whatever reason, he can do so. I just doubt that he will do that often, if ever. In your case, I tend to assume that you will keep screwing around, but it would be as a single guy again," Marilyn offered the two men in her life. "That works for me. It's apparent that your real romance is with Jacob. There's no sense in being silly or angry about it. That's the reality of our marriage. You love another man and have always done so. I need the chance to do my own thing, and so do you. I guess that now neither of us should fear your parents. We're adults ourselves. We can make our own decisions about marriage, and even adultery I daresay. What about you, Jacob?" The older man finished his cigarette and grinned. "Well, I knew that it was bound to happen, but I'm not about to complain. I love Marilyn, and she loves me. I've always wanted to marry her, so I will. I'll just have to accept that she's sexually out of my league, so you'll fill in the gaps. I don't care to watch, however. Don't take me for a cuckold or a voyeur. I'm just a tired old man. Besides, I've gotten to be the other man. I guess it's your turn. I'd fool around myself, if I had the energy," Jacob concurred. "So be it, guys. I see that you have some sense. Don't worry about where to live, Thomas. I'm moving in with Jacob. It's too much to ask him to move. I'm very nurturing and protective of him in many ways, especially since he was that way about me when I was younger. Now, if you don't mind, my fiancé and I are going to his place to finish our tryst. Call whomever you wish to visit you. We'll work out the kinks in the settlement, but as I said, the house is yours. I don't need it and neither does Jacob," Marilyn announced, urging her bewitched paramour to take her home with him. "Okay, but I wouldn't come here for a while. Certainly not tonight, unless you don't mind watching me screw a sultry Italian who happens to be my mistress. She might be ready for more of me, from what she said earlier today," Thomas warned his estranged wife. "Good for her! If I didn't already love Jacob, I would fall for you myself. Enjoy your Italian lady friend. I've got a dirty old man to fuck," Mrs. Lennox winked at him as Jacob and she headed to his house. Alone now, Thomas called up Claudia, who was very curious about what had happened, but even more interested in his suggestion of a third encounter. She made a point of telling him that she planned to drain him of every last drip of cum that night. He couldn't wait for her to arrive, so he naturally offered to pick her up, and she was quite thrilled to accept his proposal. Sampling Some Italian Ch. 03 Thomas fucked Claudia repeatedly that night, lasting well into the wee hours of morning. He rammed her in every hole and every position. She cursed and swore in Italian several times, as she came in multiple orgasms. Her blonde hair was soaked with the sweat of their romp. His seed covered her buttocks, her breasts, her belly, and even her face. Whenever his dick was out of commission, Thomas licked all over Claudia's body. He especially loved the flavors of her ass, pussy, and taint. Her juices drenched his face as well. Their bodily fluids stained and smothered the bed sheets. He also kissed her mouth voraciously whenever they faced each other, ignoring the fact that she tasted like his cum. Finally, however, they were exhausted and quite bow-legged from their relentless sexual congress with each other. They also stank of sweat and both needed to piss. It was time to freshen up. "I think that we need a shower," Thomas admitted at last. "Agreed. You have really made me exercise tonight. At least we probably burned some calories. Do you mind if I pissed in the shower? In fact, if you prefer, we both could do so. We could clean up immediately," Claudia proposed. "Sure, why not? Let's kill two birds with one stone," he said, using an American expression that puzzled his Italian mistress for a moment, before she realized that it was a figure of speech. The shower naturally took a while, especially since Claudia got very horny from Thomas's touch and wanted him to fuck her one more time they went to sleep. He was quite willing to do so, and the model found herself bucking her hips back and forth against the painter as they screwed. Inevitably, they had to rinse off again and only then did they dry off and head to bed to dream of whatever came to their subconscious minds. When the couple awoke, it was at 3:13 am and due to a knock at the door. Two plainclothes deputy sheriffs stood there, waving their badges. The time of day and their grim faces made it clear that something was very wrong indeed. "Are you Thomas Lennox?" the older deputy inquired. "That's me, yes," Thomas assured him. "I'm Sergeant Hugh Mansfield of the Sheriff's Department. This is my partner, Detective Esther Feldman. I regret to inform you that your wife, Marilyn Lennox, is dead. We found her body at the residence of a Mr. Jacob Rosenberg, who is also deceased. The evidence so far strongly indicates a homicide. We will need to come with us to the County Morgue and identify your wife's body, as well as make a statement to the Homicide Division," the senior deputy informed him. "Alright, give me a moment to get properly dressed. I'll be right along. Make yourselves comfortable," Mr. Lennox agreed, both Claudia and he rushing to put on some clothes for the trip. "So, what is your name and relationship to Mr. Lennox here?" Detective Feldman stopped Claudia when the Italian model emerged, seeking a possible connection to the case. "My name is Claudia Bellini. I am Thomas's mistress," Claudia answered readily, not at all ashamed of what she viewed as a sensible arrangement. "I see. So, the plot thickens. That further illuminates me on the nature of your marriage. Tell me, Mr. Lennox, where were you last night at about 1:47 am?" Sergeant Mansfield probed with a few key questions, wanting to gain a clearer understanding of where the painter stood on the list of suspects. "I was in bed with Claudia. Ask her," Thomas spoke candidly, not wishing to deny the affair. He wanted the authorities to eliminate him and move on to the real culprit. "Is that true? Were you and Thomas in bed together last night?" Detective Feldman took Lennox's suggestion and asked Claudia. "Si, though at that point, we were asleep. I am confident that he was there with me, because he was as drained as I was by that point. We had a rather long day yesterday, you see," Ms. Bellini clarified. "So, not an airtight alibi, but a decent one. Well, come with us and identify your wife's body. I would say to leave your mistress behind when we get to the morgue, Mr. Lennox, but clearly she had a secret love life of her own, or didn't you know?" Mansfield interjected, not wanting to let his partner delay them here. The four of them rushed into the unmarked car and headed to the morgue, where it took a few minutes of Thomas looking at Marilyn's blue-blood corpse to recognize her. Her killer had savagely raped, sodomized, disemboweled her, and then slit her throat and wrists. There was blood splattered all over her body. Feldman turned pale and Mansfield went to the men's room to vomit when they actually saw the mortal remains of Marilyn Whittaker Lennox. "As the husband, you're officially next of kin here and can decide what to do with her body. What do you prefer?" the coroner asked Thomas. "Cremate her. The Whittakers shouldn't have to see her in this condition. There will be children at her funeral and wake, after all. Ashes are more sanitary and easier to transport, anyway," Mr. Lennox told him, feeling sick at the very idea that someone would do this. Marilyn was no prize, but she didn't deserve to have someone gut her like a fish. "What about Mr. Rosenberg? Have his relatives identified him?" Thomas asked, by now sensing his own vindication. There was no way that he would have had the time and energy to perform this grisly double murder, even if he were so inclined. "Well, he was Jewish, so they have already gone to work preparing his body for burial. The rabbi is on his way, in fact. I can't imagine that you want to give your condolences, though I plan to attend if I get the chance. It's my faith, too, and I feel that it will reinforce my determination to catch his murderer," Detective Feldman explained. "In that case, please give them my condolences. It's a lot less awkward that way instead of my doing so in person. Whatever personal issues might have happened between us, he was a neighbor and I know his family rather well," Thomas said as he braced himself to head to the Sheriff's Department for questioning. They hadn't officially cleared him yet, after all. Feldman and Mansfield were a bit surprised, but Thomas's statement made a certain degree of sense. It was a neighborhood where people still knew each other's names. It was also one where many of the residents went to the same country club, the same church or synagogue, etc. The interview didn't take long, however. Claudia had just made her statement when a commotion caught everyone's attention. Nathan Whittaker III, Marilyn's elder brother, had turned himself into the Sheriff's Department and announced that he wished to confess to the crime. "Nathan did it? This is really going to be rough on her family! They hate even the slightest suggestion of a scandal," Thomas reacted with shock. He had known his brother for a long time now, and wouldn't have thought the preppy fellow capable of a gruesome massacre like this. "Yeah, well, he clearly had some demons that none of you knew about," Sergeant Mansfield agreed, trying hard to retch again at the idea of a man raping and killing his own sister. "Well, it seems that you're free to go. I can imagine that you have some messy business to sort out at home and there is no reason to keep you here," Feldman told Thomas, after he made his own statement for the record. A year later..... "Push, push...that's good. Don't worry, girl. You're a brave one. There she is," the nurse told Claudia Lennox, as she delivered a healthy baby girl. Thomas was naturally eager to cut the cord for his new daughter, just as he had moments before for her brother. He now had fraternal twins. A few minutes afterward, the nurse presented the freshly washed babies to their parents, both of them quite proud to have such handsome and healthy children, even if said infants shrieked like banshees. These little, squealing creatures were part of both of their parents. "So, what names do you want to give them?" the obstetrician asked the couple at last. "John Colmes Lennox and Giulia Maria Lennox," the pair answered in unison. They had talked this over for quite a while. Naming the children after Thomas's assistant/gay lover and Claudia's late, lamented sister made perfect sense to them. Waiting in the lobby were their new paramours, Sergeant Mansfield and Detective Feldman. Both of them had succumbed rather easily to the couple's charm during the prosecution of Nathan Whittaker III, who pled guilty to all counts and thus evaded the death penalty for his horrific crimes. He instead received life in prison, plus 75 years, the stiffest sentence the judge could issue under the circumstances. Neither Thomas nor Claudia was the jealous type, so this extramarital arrangement hardly upset either of them. After all, as Winston Churchill quipped, when a man marries his mistress, he creates a job vacancy. Of course, with newborn infants, they would have considerably less time for such affairs for a while. The deputies would have to be content with each other's favors for some time, as long as they were discreet about their fraternization. Still, the next time they saw each other, a few days later, Claudia winked at both of them. John Colmes was present as well, grinning from ear to ear. It was clear that any suspension of the adultery would be temporary. Even so, it was evident that Thomas Lennox had not only sampled an Italian girl: he had decided to take her home with him. She also continued to be his favorite model and his future paintings reflected his love for his new bride. Overall, things had turned out well for the pair. He just wished that others could have found the same happiness in time. They deserved it, too, even if they were flawed. After all, who didn't have issues? Sampling Some Italian "Whatever the case, I'll not the jealous type, as you can see. You're going to have other lovers, as am I. That's just how it is. I wouldn't dream of asking you to give up your other lovers and if you ever tried to make me give up mine, I'll tell you to 'kiss my ass', as you Americans say. That doesn't mean that I would stop fucking you. It just means that I wouldn't do your bidding on that one issue. I'm not totally submissive, after all, though that is a major part of my personality. "Even so, you're my boss and I would love to work for you for a long time yet, not to mention being your favorite. I am your favorite, right? You're definitely mine. I'm happy to be your paramour, your mistress in the old sense of the word," Claudia spoke her mind rather earnestly, indicating that there was more to her psyche than her playful mindset. "Well, you're certainly my favorite now, after what you've said and done. You're rather strong in your own way, which seems to be as much a part of you as your friendliness and polyamory. In other words, you're very much like me. The only big difference is that I am more reserved with people at first. Anyway, I like your thoughts. I think that we can work together and fuck each other rather successfully. I have no compunctions about 'dipping my pen in the company ink', as you can see. So, if you want to be my European mistress, that works for me. It will be a nice offset to my American girlfriends. "Just so you understand, I once loved Marilyn, my wife. I loved her very much, as a matter of fact. That ended when I realized that I was just the ambitious artist that she wished to marry, while having a long-term love affair with her elderly beau. While I wasn't perfectly acceptable to her parents, I was more socially tolerable than some senior citizen whom she adored but couldn't wed. I have nothing against old people, but his age was the reason she couldn't marry him, in her parents' eyes. Well, it was that and the fact that he was a widower with grown 'kids' of his own. The point is that she never loved me. She just wanted to ride my coattails to fame and fortune, while screwing her aging lover. "That's when I determined to take lovers of my own, if you can call any of my partners prior to you lovers. To be perfectly frank, none of them before you qualified as more than flings, even when I took them out on dates and spent a few months with them. I didn't fall in love with them, though I liked most of them. I have to admit that it's impossible for me not to reciprocate your feelings, especially seeing how loving and playful you are, my dear. As a matter of fact, you're the polar opposite of Marilyn, who is an ice queen, at least when she's not with Jacob. Well, I guess we need to get working, so we can then start our first date," Thomas informed her. "Sounds like a plan to me. I love my work, so don't get me wrong on that account. You'll see that soon enough for yourself. It's the nature of the work. It's fun and not laborious. I don't think that I would enjoy what some people call a 'real job'. It sounds too dull for me. I don't have much of a work ethic, I'm afraid. However, I make up for it in seeking out work that is fun for me and doing it. I also make sure to be easygoing and friendly in my private life, as you can tell. This is not unusual for Italians, by the way. We aren't exactly workaholics. We work for a living, but don't live for our work. So, where should I stand for my nude portrait?" Claudia assured him, as she began posing for him. Thomas gestured for her to take up the right position in his studio, grinning as he picked up his easel and canvas. This would certainly be a day to record in a journal, if he were foolish enough to write in such a thing. Something told him that would be a poor choice of confidant. Anyway, he would never forget today, written down or not. For the first time in his life, a woman loved him. The days of one-sided passion for an ice queen were over.