142 comments/  438060 views/  217 favorites

Sittin' Pretty

By: jack_straw



Author's note: I seem to be getting some really good ideas lately from recently posted stories. This one comes from DG Hear's story "Stay At Home Dad." I liked the concept of the threat to a heretofore-strong marriage between a rich girl and a poor boy, and decided to take that concept in a little different direction.

------

I was sitting in the dark, on my back deck, staring out into the black night. The moon hadn't come up yet, and the darkness of the night suited my mood.

Out there, I could hear the sounds of the crickets, the neighbors' dogs, the light breeze in the trees. It provided background noise for the troubling questions I had to face that night.

For the first time in my 13-year marriage, I had to seriously consider the possibility that my wife was having an affair. The very thought made my stomach turn, because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she was, we were through.

And I love my wife. I've loved her from the first time I saw her, and my love for her has only grown stronger. She's been my friend, my lover, my rock of support, a good wife and a great mother to our three children.

But I was not going to stay married to a cheater, especially if she was cheating with whom I suspected. Loyalty and trust mean too much to me, and once they are lost, they can never be regained. And a marriage without loyalty and trust is no marriage at all.

The thing was, I had no proof, nothing concrete to suggest that Dee Dee was cheating, just a lot of unsettling things, which by themselves didn't mean much, but added together ...

I guess I should start at the beginning, and explain how I came to the crossroads of my life.

To begin with, I'll admit it. I married into money.

I didn't intend to, but by the time I found out that the Dee Dee had a rich daddy and a socialite mother, we were madly in love.

Deirdre McGough – that's Dee Dee – is the youngest child, and only daughter, of the president and CEO of a large, nationally known publishing company.

Dee Dee went to a private high school, then to a private college and when she graduated with a business degree, she landed a job with a Fortune 500 company that is headquartered here in the city where I was born and raised, and where I'll probably live the rest of my life.

She was an excellent student and got the job on merit, but it probably didn't hurt that she was Malcolm McGough's baby girl.

At any rate, she had every opportunity to be a first-class snob, but she was blessed with a housekeeper in her youth, a salty black woman named Georgia who taught her down-to-earth values. That's the only reason I can think of for why Dee Dee gave me the time of day in the first place, then said yes when I asked her for a date.

My name is Doug Manning and I am about as far removed from Dee Dee's world as you can get. I'm the oldest child, and only son, of a long-haul trucker and my mom was – and still is – the dispatcher for the same company my dad worked for.

Just about the first thing my dad taught me was the working of an internal combustion engine and I soaked up everything he taught me.

Engines of every sort fascinated me, but especially car engines, and from the time I was 8 years old, my only ambition was to be the best auto mechanic on the planet and to own my own shop.

Daddy always tried to talk me out of that ambition, pointing to the fact that I was quite smart, made good grades, was an upstanding citizen and that I could have a future as an engineer. And by the time I got to my junior year of high school, he'd about talked me into going to college.

But that was before he was involved in an awful traffic accident that left a woman and her two children dead, and left him paralyzed from the chest down.

The investigators said there was nothing he could have done. It happened in the midst of a heavy rainstorm, the woman had lost control on a two-lane highway and had swerved into his path.

That didn't do anything to ease Daddy's guilt, however, nor did it do anything to ease the financial burden on our family.

At any rate, any plans I may have had for college flew out the window when Daddy became disabled. My grades and my ACT scores were good, but not good enough to interest colleges in scholarship money, and besides, I felt like I needed to go to work full-time to support Mom and my two sisters.

I wanted them to go to college, because I knew that's what they needed. I knew I could make a good living with my hands, but for them to get ahead in life, college was a must. 

We were able to get enough in grants to pay for their tuition and books, they were close enough to the state university that they could live at home and commute and I was more than happy to help them financially with spending money for gas, clothes and other extras.

When Daddy got hurt, I had been working part-time for Mr. Johnson, who owned what everyone said was the best auto repair shop in the city. Whatever Daddy didn't teach me about engines – which wasn't much – I learned from Mr. Johnson.

After I graduated from high school, I went to work full-time for Mr. Johnson, and stayed with him for the next three years. After that, though, I felt like I needed to make a little more in salary, needed some continuing training that he couldn't provide and needed more in benefits than he could offer.

By then, he was starting to get a little older, his business had stagnated a little and he just couldn't afford that for me. I understood, and didn't hold it against him, and he understood that I needed more than he could give me. So with his blessing, I went to work for a national chain.

I had been with that company for almost four years when I met Dee Dee. I like to think it was fate that brought us together, because the circumstances were quite unusual.

At this time, I was almost 25 and had never had a really serious girlfriend. Oh, I'd had relationships, many of them sexual, but none that had developed into "the one."

Daddy took to drinking heavily after his accident, and that just put an added burden on Mom. He drank because he had nothing to do and he drank because of the intense guilt he felt about the accident.

He wasn't a violent drunk, but he was a very morose drunk, and I'm ashamed to say that it was almost a blessing for my mom when he wheeled himself out of the house to go drinking.

By then I had moved into a place of my own, but I was still close enough that I could come at a moment's notice, and I was often called to gather up my father after he'd passed out drunk at the bar he frequented.

The house where I was raised was three blocks from a main drag, and there was a tavern on one corner and a liquor store on the other. That became his little world. It broke my heart, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

The upshot was that Mom needed some time to herself on occasion, some time when she could go out and enjoy herself without worrying about Daddy.

Believe it or not, one of Mom's great interests is classical music. Now I don't know Shostakovich from Sid Vicious, and I couldn't tell Beethoven from the Beatles, but Mom sure can, and she's passionate about it.

As a result, one of our few extravagances was a membership to the city's symphony orchestra, and I routinely accompanied Mom to concerts. She had her one cocktail gown that she always wore, I had my one good suit that I would wear, and for a few hours we would forget about our troubles and pretend we were part of the city's high society.

We picked our spots to attend, because there were times when Mom was just too tired to go out or it was a night when Daddy was in a bad way, but whenever a major guest artist performed with the symphony, we were there.

That was especially true when Itzhak Perlman came to town. Like I said, I don't know a lot about classical music, but I know a virtuoso performer when I hear one and if there is a better violinist than Perlman, I haven't heard him.

So we got all dressed up, went to a very nice restaurant for dinner, like we always did, then went to the symphony. We were loitering in the lobby before the performance, when I happened to turn my head and there she was.

I just stared at her for several seconds, and to this day I don't know what it was about her that arrested my attention. Dee Dee is very pretty, but she's not so gorgeous as to make an otherwise rational adult stop in his tracks the way I did.

I think it was her smile, her eyes, the way she carried herself. She's a little taller than average with straight blonde hair the color of flax. She's slim, with her breasts and butt perfectly proportioned.

I guess she felt me staring at her, because she turned toward me and our eyes locked. I think in that one moment something clicked, because she smiled at me and kind of blushed, then the guy she was with said something and she looked away.

But just before they disappeared up the stairs to their seats, she turned her head, looked back at me and smiled again.

It didn't take me long to locate where she was in the arena. They were in the section to our left and below us about three rows. I hardly remember the concert, because I just kept gazing at her – and studying the man she was with.

He was a tall, imperious-looking gent who appeared to be around 30. He was handsome, but he exuded a palpable air of privilege and arrogance, and it didn't appear that they were terribly intimate, didn't give off the appearance of being a couple.

At the intermission, I accompanied Mom back to the lobby, so she could use the restroom and we could get some refreshments. I picked up two flutes of champagne and had turned to wait for Mom when I saw her again.

She was just standing off by herself, frowning while her date chatted several feet away with someone else. A lack of confidence has never been a problem for me, so I casually walked over to speak.

"Hi," I said. "You don't look like you're having a very good time."

"Oh, I'm all right," she said, then she gave me her megawatt smile when she saw who I was. "I'm just waiting for the program to resume."

"You know, if I was out with a girl as pretty as you, I think I'd be paying her a little more attention," I said, nodding toward her date.

"You'd think," she said. "But you're one to talk. Looks to me like you're neglecting someone as well, or maybe you're just a double-fisted drinker."

"Oh, I'm here with my mother," I said. "I go to these concerts with her because my dad's disabled and can't get out."

"That's sweet," she said. "I like a man who honors his mother and father."

"So are you two a couple?" I asked.

"Henry? Good gracious, no," she said. "We work together and we've dated a few times, but this is probably the last time. He is SO self-absorbed."

"Well, then," I said as I drained my glass, set it down and held out my free hand. "I'm Doug, Doug Manning."

"Dee Dee McGough," she said and she held my hand just a fraction of a second longer than normal when we shook in greeting.

We just stood there, not quite knowing what to say, wondering where this was going. We both looked over at her date, and he was engaged in an animated conversation with several other men. He seemed to have forgotten Dee Dee.

"Well, I guess I'd better get this glass to my mom before it gets too warm," I said. "It was a pleasure meeting you."

"Look, here's my card," Dee Dee said, fishing one of her business cards from her clutch and handing it to me. "Call me sometime. I'm sure you can show me a better time than Henry."

"Thanks for the compliment," I said. "I hope I can live up to your expectations."

We shook hands again, and again we held the grip a trifle longer than normal before we went our separate ways. Mom had a bemused look on her face when I handed her the glass.

"I sure hope you got her number," Mom said.

"Oh I did," I said, distractedly.

"Good, because you've been staring at her all night," Mom said.

"I didn't realize it was that obvious," I said.

"Douglas Manning, you should know by now that I can read you like a book," Mom said. "I don't think I've ever seen you stare at a girl with that kind of intensity."

"Mom, she's beautiful," I said.

"Just be careful," Mom said. "Rich people have a little bit different value system than we do."

"How do you know she's rich?" I asked.

"I don't," she said. "But she looks rich, her date looks rich and she's here. I'll be very surprised if there isn't money in her background somewhere."

"Well, she seems like a nice girl," I said as we returned to our seats.

I knew I had made an impression, because when the performance resumed, I saw her looking around, and when she located me, she smiled quite broadly. Something in her look sent shivers through my body, and I knew instinctively that this was a woman I was going to try hard to win.

The only dark spot came when Henry saw her looking back at me and saw me looking back. In that second, I got such a look of intense loathing that it kind of set me back. I knew I'd made an enemy there, but I was beyond caring.

I called Dee Dee the next afternoon on my lunch break and asked her out that night. I told her my entertainment budget had about been depleted from the night before, but if she didn't mind we'd go for pizza and a movie.

She said that would be fine, then she gave me her address and that was my first clue that she was from a whole different socio-economic group from the one I'd been in all my life.

She lived in one of these high-rise apartments in the high-rent district, a place that has a liveried doorman. I felt real strange pulling into the loading drive at this place in my pickup truck. I could see the look of disdain on the doorman's face as I got out of my truck, but if Dee Dee was taken aback, she didn't show it.

She came right out the door, hugged me in greeting, and scooted right in the passenger's seat when I opened the door to let her in, like a gentleman should. She may have lived in the high-rent district, but she was dressed for pizza and a movie, in jeans, a plain white blouse and flats, nice but not dressy.

Now, when I take a date out for pizza, I don't go to Pizza Hut. No sir. I go to Angelo's, a true pizzeria located in a hole in the wall not far from my old neighborhood. Angelo's specializes in Chicago-style deep-dish pizza pies, along with lots of Italian music, laughter and camaraderie.

Apparently, Angelo's was a revelation to Dee Dee, because she kept going on about how delightful it was, and how warm the atmosphere was and how friendly the people were.

As usual, there were several people dining there that I'd gone to high school with – not counting Angelo Jr., who was always there – and we told lies, sang songs and laughed until we hurt.

In between the laughter, though, Dee Dee and I learned about each other. She told me about her job and about her college days.

She was a little vague about her family background, though, saying only that she was from Chicago and that she had two older brothers. But that was OK, because I was a little vague about my family as well. No sense scaring her off with horror stories about my father.

I was honest when she asked me what I did for a living. I figured that if she couldn't accept me for who and what I was, then I didn't need her. I was gratified, then, when she appeared to be sincerely impressed.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "All I know about cars is you put the key in the ignition, turn it on, put it in gear and hit the gas."

"Well, it's not the most glamorous job in the world, but I do all right," I said. "Certainly not like what you do."

"Doug, listen to me," Dee Dee said. "It's an honest living, you like what you do and I'm pretty sure you're good at it. As long as you're happy, then I'm happy."

As far as I was concerned, that cemented it. She may have been from the high-rent district, but she had her feet on the ground. She showed for the first time, but not the last, that she could see past a person's exterior and find the real person inside. I knew right then that I was in love.

We finally got out of Angelo's, but instead of going to a movie, we decided to go dancing, to an old rock-and-roll club I knew about. It was a little rough around the edges, but I was friends with the bouncer, so I knew we wouldn't have any hassle.

The band that night, as it was most nights, played a pretty raucous stew of classic and alt rock dance tunes, and we danced to most of them. I found myself captivated by the way she moved, and on the few slow numbers, I could feel the warmth of her body as she pressed herself to me.

I learned pretty quick that this girl could be raunchy when it suited her. We were dancing one number, late in the show, and she pulled me close and started grinding her crotch on my thigh.

Needless to say, I quickly got a hard-on that could cut steel, especially considering the smoky stare I was getting from her. I knew right then that we were going to be lovers, and soon.

We had our hands wrapped around each other's shoulders as I drove her home. I was hoping she'd invite me in, but I could wait if she didn't.

We pulled into the loading area, and when I put the truck in park, she reached over and shut off the ignition.

"I had a wonderful time tonight," she said. "I knew you could show me a better time than stuffy, old Henry."

"Did I live up to your expectations?" I said softly, as I brought my face close to hers.

"I'm not sure yet," she whispered.

Then she leaned into me, our mouths met and I kissed her hard, with more passion than I'd ever felt for a woman in my life. I wanted Dee Dee and I wanted her forever.

As we kissed, our hands roamed over each other's body. I could feel her hard nipples boring into her bra and she could feel my hard cock filling my pants.

Finally, we had to come up for air, and we just stared at each other, panting hard.

"Doug?" she whispered. "Do you have any plans for tomorrow night?"

"None that I'm aware of," I said.

"Good. Will you come up to see me tomorrow night?" she said. "You entertained me tonight. I think it's only fair that I entertain you tomorrow. We can have dinner, then ..."

"Dee Dee, I'll do anything you want," I said.

Then we kissed again, with as much ardor as before. Finally, Dee Dee broke the embrace.

"Jesus, I've got to go, or I'll fuck you right here," she said. "Tomorrow night. Let's say around 8-ish."

"It's a date," I said, then got out to escort her to the door.

The doorman – a different guy from earlier – had an ear-to-ear grin and he winked at me as he held the door for us. He discretely walked off while Dee Dee and I kissed again in the foyer of her building.

Then she pressed her index finger to my lips and sent me off.

"Tomorrow," she said.

To say I was knocked out by Dee Dee's appearance when she answered her door the next night would be a serious understatement. She was quite well made up, and she was wearing a strapless red dress with a halter-style top, black stockings and high heels.

Dee Dee's apartment suited her. It was tastefully decorated, and there were a few items that looked expensive, but there didn't appear to be anything ostentatious about it. I was beginning to get the idea that this was a girl who was used to having nice things, but she didn't appear to be too materialistic.

We sat together on her sofa, had a glass of wine, then Dee Dee set out the dinner. It was some sort of casserole, and it was delicious. Dee Dee laughed when I complimented her on the meal.

"Oh, I'm not much of a cook," she said. "I got this from the caterer, but I'm glad you liked it."

We were in a sort of spell as we ventured to the sofa. Cool jazz was playing softly in the background, and I was on fire with lust – with incipient love.

"Doug? Will you kiss me?" she asked in a soft voice as we relaxed on the sofa.


Sittin' Pretty



"Is that all?" I asked teasingly, then I pulled her to me and I kissed her, gently, but with a strong undercurrent of passion. My tongue languidly slid into her mouth and played with hers. My hands were massaging her bare shoulders and down her side.

"You keep kissing me like that, and I'll let you do anything you want with me," Dee Dee said when she momentarily broke the embrace and stood up.

She was swaying to the soft music as she reached up and unfastened the halter on her dress, then reached back and unzipped it and let it fall to the floor.

I drank deeply in the vision standing in front of me – the strapless bra, the bikini panties and the thigh-high stockings in high heels, all in matching black. My cock was like iron as I stared at her.

I stood up then, moved up against her, slowly unbuttoned my shirt and dropped it on the floor. My shoes and socks followed then my pants. Now it was her turn to stare as she swept her gaze over my body, especially at the hard bulge in my jockey shorts.

I'm only average in height, but the work I did required some strength, and I had some free weights at my apartment that I liked to use several times a week, a legacy of my days on the football team at my high school. And while my cock isn't a monster, it's bigger than most.

Now we really let ourselves go as we came together, our mouths working frantically now, as we got on the highway to supreme lust.

I deftly reached back and unclasped Dee Dee's bra and gazed in wonder at her perky tits. They were perfect, right at a handful, and firm too. We each sighed as we both worked our hands softly on each other's chests.

Dee Dee's head was thrown back as I bent my head down and captured her hard nipples in my mouth. I kissed and sucked her pink tips, and even lightly nibbled on them, getting a long growl of approval for my efforts.

As I sucked her tits, I slid a hand over her butt and wormed a couple of fingers between her legs from behind. She was hot and very wet, and she ground her crotch over my hand for emphasis. It was pretty clear to me by then that she wanted me every bit as much as I wanted her.

Right on cue, she pulled my head away from her breasts and looked me in the eye. To this day, I've never forgotten that look.

"Doug, please!" she panted. "Take me to bed and love me! I want you so bad I can't stand it. Please?"

We strolled into her bedroom, to her queen-sized bed, which was already half turned down. She had planned this down to every detail, and I would quickly learn that she was that way about everything.

She pulled the covers down on the bed and we sort of drifted onto our backs. Then I got up on my knees, pulled her heels off and proceeded to show Dee Dee McGough how a man makes love to a woman.

I lifted her left leg up and slowly ran my hands up and down her stocking-clad leg, and pressed my attack with my lips and tongue. Then I did the same thing to her other leg, touching and feeling her with my hands and mouth. 

"Oh my!" she blurted, and I could see her hips already working as her arousal began to mount.

As I licked my way down her right thigh, I slid down to the bed, reached under her butt and pulled her panties away from her crotch, then rolled them off her legs. I stared again at the prize that awaited me, her well-trimmed blonde bush and the hot pink lips, open in desire.

But what really sent me soaring was the look of lust in Dee Dee's eyes and the enigmatic smile on her face. I winked at her, then turned my attention to her pussy. I put my lips right up to it and blew softly, right over her labia and up past her clit.

"Ai, God!" Dee Dee exclaimed, as she jerked in some passion. But I didn't give her any respite. I blew again, then followed it right up with my lips. I kissed her labia, then slid my tongue out and lapped at her hole, ending with a nice curling run over her clit.

Dee Dee groaned and writhed as I worked my mouth on her dripping cunt – sucking, licking, loving. I was ready to drive her out of her mind with lust, and she was halfway there.

I could feel her hands gripping my hair, holding me to her as she rolled and rocked on the bed. Her moans and cries of love became louder and more pronounced as she hurtled toward a huge climax. And when I vacuumed her pussy into my mouth and nibbled on her clit, she lost it.

With a loud cry, her body jerked and I could feel her flooding my face with a sudden flow of her juice. I've never seen anything like it, before or since. She shuddered as the powerful orgasm ripped her.

But instead of depleting her, it seemed to energize her. The moment her spasms subsided, she pulled my face away from her crotch and begged me to fuck her, and to fuck her hard.

I got back on my knees and rolled my underwear off. I let her get a good look at the cock that was going to be at her disposal from that moment on, and she smiled, reached out and lightly fondled it.

"It's beautiful," she whispered hoarsely. "Give it to me. Please?"

I wasn't going to make her beg for it any more, largely because I was in such desperate need myself. I got in position between Dee Dee's legs, put the head of my cock to her flooded pussy and drove it in.

We both groaned deeply at the magnificent feeling of that first union of my cock and her pussy. She was on fire, and we quickly got into a brisk fucking rhythm. I could feel the slickness of her stockings around the small of my back as she wrapped her legs around me, the better to hold me close.

As I churned my cock in Dee Dee's hot velvet cunt, I bent down and gathered her into my arms, and we kissed, hot and hard, our lust soaring with each thrust of my burning hot rod in her steamy pussy.

I could tell we were made for each other, simply by how well we fit. When I bottomed out in Dee Dee's pussy, my pubic bone was smack up against hers. Any more cock and it would have been too much; any less and it wouldn't have been enough.

We were pistoning ever faster, ever harder as I felt my climax starting to boil over. I eased back on the throttle a little bit to give Dee Dee a chance to get there with me, and she was close.

I could see the strain on her face as she climbed toward her reward, the loving laughter as she felt our bodies spurring us to new heights of ecstasy. I whispered soft words of endearment, urging her to come with me, that I could hold back long enough to get her there.

"Yeah, baby. Yeah, baby," she chanted, nodding her head as her climax came to a frothy head. "Give it to me, baby, give me your cum. I want to feel you deep in me. Oh! Oh! Oh! Bayyyyybeeeee!"

That was it. I lurched forward, and as Dee Dee shimmied and shook underneath me, I felt a shiver run through my body as my scrotum exploded, firing a rocket of semen out the end of my cock to baste her womb with my seed.

We jerked together as I fired off one hard shot after another, our arms clutching each other in a death grip. This was sex like I'd never experienced it, two lovers in absolute harmony, and we were laughing insanely as we slowly came down to earth.

We were both so excited, we couldn't stop giggling and praising each other for just how good that had been.

Finally, after we calmed down, and I had my new lover in the shelter of my embrace, Dee Dee did become thoughtful.

"I hope you don't think I'm some kind of slut," she said.

"Why would I think that?" I said.

"Well, you're not my first, although I wish you were," she said. "But I've never had sex with a guy this quickly. In the past, it's taken at least a half-dozen dates before I'd even consider it. I'm usually pretty picky about the men I take to bed."

"So what made me different?" I asked.

"I didn't want to wait that long for you, didn't need to," she said. "I knew before I ever left the theater the other night that I was going to have you. I wanted you the moment I saw you."

"Interesting, because I felt the same way about you," I said. "In fact, my mom noticed it. She said I stared at you all night."

"Doug, is it too early to tell you that I love you?" she said softly. "Because I've never had feeling like what you just did to me. Ne-VER."

"Not unless you think it's too early for me to tell you I love you," I said.

"Even if you're not the first man I've had?" she whispered.

"I don't care about that," I said. "I just want to be the last man you ever have."

And that was it. We were in love, we both knew it, and we both wanted it. We ended up making love twice more that night, then Dee Dee gave me a blowjob in the shower that was like no blowjob I'd ever had in my life.

The next day, I took her to the house to meet my family, and they took to her immediately. Even my dad brightened up when I introduced her to him, and my sisters were overjoyed to see that I'd finally met a college girl, someone they could relate to.

Dee Dee's family was a little less welcoming. She had finally come clean about her family background, that she came from wealth and prestige. Needless to say, her parents weren't overjoyed at the idea that their darling daughter was dating an auto mechanic, and her brothers were downright hostile.

I knew what it was, and I really couldn't blame them. They had become so conditioned over the years to having all these ne'er-do-wells sniffing around Dee Dee because she came from money, and they had seen too many men who were more interested in what she was than who she was.

And I imagine they figured that was especially true for me since I was a working-class kid from the wrong side of town. I'm sure they thought I saw Dee Dee as a shortcut to a life of luxury.

It wasn't until I had a long conversation with Georgia, the housekeeper, that they started to understand somewhat that I wasn't interested in Malcolm McGough's money, that I loved his daughter. Period.

I don't know if Malcolm would have ever given me the OK to marry his daughter without Georgia's support. Not that I needed his consent to marry Dee Dee, but I felt like it would look good if I did it by the book and asked him for Dee Dee's hand.

The wedding was a lavish society affair at the huge church where her family had long been prominent members. Dee Dee was slightly embarrassed by the excess, but her mother is a pretty strong-willed person, and she insisted on pulling out all the stops.

Jeannie, her mom, is a bit of a snob, and I think she wanted to highlight the difference between their social class and my family's.

I said I'd never take any of Malcolm's money, but I did accept the $20,000 he gave Dee Dee as a wedding present to put down for a house in the suburbs. I figured it was the least I could do for Dee Dee.

It wasn't an exclusive area, but it was in a nice, upper middle class neighborhood, and while it wasn't a mansion, it was big enough for a family, with a nice big backyard. We set about building a life together in that house, and we've never moved.

Not long after we married, I got a promotion to store manager for one of our locations, and quickly showed an ability for running an efficient, quality auto shop. I was 26 and I was sittin' pretty.

It didn't take us long to start a family. Less than a year after we married, Dee Dee came up pregnant, and we popped out three babies in a 30-month span. We had a son first, then a daughter, then another son.

Dee Dee's company is very progressive with its policy toward families. They offer six months maternity leave for mothers, then an on-site day care for children up to the start of kindergarten.

Nevertheless, the time Dee Dee was out on leave held her back a little bit as far as her career was concerned. She didn't move up quite as quickly as she might have otherwise, but we didn't see that as a problem until much later.

It was right around the time that our youngest child was born that I got the opportunity I'd been waiting for.

I got a call from Mr. Johnson, and he said his health was failing, that he needed to retire and asked if I would be interested in buying his shop. We had stayed friendly over the years, and he'd kept up with my career.

Dee Dee and I talked about it, and she urged me to go for it.

"This is what you've dreamed of doing," she said. "It's the perfect opportunity."

We talked about asking her father for a loan, but decided that we'd only do that as a last resort. I'd never shaken the feeling that I didn't quite measure up to his expectations, that he would have preferred for Dee Dee to marry someone from her own social class. I didn't want to owe him anything if I didn't have to.

So I drew up a business plan, updated my resume and went to the bank in search of a loan. As it turned out, I got the loan without any problem, and at age 30, I took over ownership of J&J Service.

I have to say it took some work to make the place profitable. The location isn't the best, as it's in a declining business district. The building was old and a little rundown, and the equipment was a little out of date. And the clientele had slowly declined over the years.

Part of the business plan I put together, and thus part of the loan, covered modernizing the equipment. The next step was to refurbish the building. I didn't want to move, because I liked the traditional location in the middle of the city and the old-timey feel of the place. But the building needed some work.

It took a lot of long hours and hard work, but five years after the purchase I was able to show a profit, and a year after that I finished paying off the loan.

It is a stone-cold fact of life that there is nothing more valuable than knowing a good, honest auto mechanic, and I quickly established a reputation as the best, most reliable auto repair shop in the city. The location actually works for us, because it's easily accessible to every part of the city.

I still do a lot of the work myself, when I can, and I've got three employees who've been there for years, two of whom I inherited from Mr. Johnson. If I can't fix your problem, I've got a network of trusted friends in the business – transmission specialists, for example – who can.

It's been nine years since I bought the shop, and life should have been grand. I had a successful business, my house was paid for, I had three wonderful kids and lots of friends in every social stratum in the city.

But I was a troubled man that warm Wednesday night in July, and it all started the day Henry Snodgrass came back to Dee Dee's company as her boss, the same Henry Snodgrass who'd been dating Dee Dee when I met her.

The first big change at her company had come a little over three years earlier, when Lane Burgess took over as president and CEO. Dee Dee and I both liked Lane, but he's a no-nonsense businessman from the old school.

Lane restructured the company and about a year before all this occurred, the company announced that it was closing one of the company's branches in another state.

About six weeks later, Dee Dee came home from work with a troubled look on her face. I knew instantly that something was wrong.

"We got the word on the staff reorganization today," she said quietly. "Henry Snodgrass is back as senior vice president for my division, and I'm to be his senior assistant."

"But I thought you were up for that position?" I said.

"I was, but they needed some place to put Henry when the other plant closed," Dee Dee said. "And he's got a little more seniority than I do. Lane was very apologetic, but he's very big on seniority, and since our qualifications were about the same, he used that as the deciding factor. I did get a nice raise, however."

"How do you feel about it?" I said.

"I don't know," she said. "Henry was pretty upset when I threw him over for you. He thought there was more going on between us than there was. But, gosh, that was such a long time ago, and I hear he's married, so I don't think there will be any trouble. You know, I've got 17 years in with the company, and I'm not sure if I want to get out and try to find something else. I doubt if I can find a situation with the kind of pay I'm making now, plus the kind of benefits I'm getting now."

So it was settled. Dee Dee would accept her new position as Henry's assistant like the professional that she is.

I had to wonder then if that was the biggest mistake of our lives.

I kept going back to loyalty and trust, and I looked at how my mother dealt with my father.

Not long after our second child was born, Daddy was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, the inevitable result of his relentless drinking.

At that point, Mom had to put him in a nursing home and he died a year later. He never did forgive himself for killing that poor family in the accident and it finally killed him too.

Even though the stress and heartache of caring for Daddy took its toll, Mom was still an attractive woman and I don't think anyone would have blamed her if she had sought out companionship outside her marriage, or if she had finally washed her hands of Daddy.

But she didn't. She stayed loyal and faithful to him right to the bitter end, and she was able to hold her head high at his funeral.

So I had to figure that if my mother could stay with my father, through all the trials that they went through, then I certainly felt Dee Dee could stay faithful to me through whatever it was that she was going through.

But I wasn't sure if that was the case.

The first unsettling thing came about a month after Henry returned, when Dee Dee informed me that his wife had decided not to make the move with him. I seems she was from the area where he'd been, and wasn't interested in leaving.

Soon, Dee Dee was coming home looking and acting extremely stressed. She complained that Henry was really piling the work on her, and, to be fair, he was apparently quite aggressive in increasing her department's productivity.

Right around Thanksgiving the previous year, about three months after Henry's arrival, Dee Dee called me at work and told me that I needed to pick up the kids at the after-school program they went to because she had to work late.

Then there was the encounter with Henry at the company's Christmas party.

It was a dinner-dance, and our seats for dinner were assigned by department. So we were seated with Henry, who came without a date, and two of Dee Dee's subordinates, Norma Crimson and Don Williams, and their spouses.

Now, I've known Norma and Don for a long time, and we had a pleasant time with them, but Henry made it a point to belittle me at every turn, referring to me as the "The Mechanic," rather than calling me by name.

I was doing a slow burn, and everyone else was embarrassed, but I kept my cool, even when he tried to get Dee Dee onto the dance floor. She did dance a couple of numbers with him, but she just seemed uncomfortable.

That's what made it all so puzzling. On that occasion, I did not see Dee Dee act like she was at all interested in having a relationship with Henry outside the office.

But after the first of the year, the late nights at the office started to become more and more frequent, Dee Dee's demeanor worsened noticeably and our sex life took a nosedive.

Until this episode began, we had sex three or four nights a week, sometimes more, and there were still times when we were absolutely insatiable.

Suddenly, it dropped to once a week and then once every two or three weeks. Dee Dee was always too tired, too stressed, too whatever to make love.

Then, in late April, Dee Dee came home and informed me that she had to accompany Henry to New York for consultations with a company they were involved with. She would be gone four days and four nights.

That really raised a red flag, even when she said that Norma and Don would be going with them and that she would be rooming with Norma.

Dee Dee called every night, but I thought I could detect the slightest hesitation in her voice, like she wasn't sure how much to tell me about what she was doing.




Sittin' Pretty



When she returned, though, she was all over me, like before. She was unusually aggressive in bed, suggesting things we hadn't done in a long time, like anal sex. Anal isn't something Dee Dee particularly likes, and I can take it or leave it.

But one night she asked me for it, and that made me wonder.

And the late nights at the office continued at about the same pace, two or three nights a week, and occasionally she had to work Saturdays. When Dee Dee came home from those late nights she had a look in her eyes like she was hiding something from me.

Soon, the aggressive behavior evaporated and our sex life declined again. We were arguing far more than we ever did before, largely around the amount of time she was spending at the office, and how much time she was spending in the company of her boss.

Dee Dee got real emotional about it, far more than was warranted, and I just had this gut feeling that there was something deeply, profoundly wrong.

At the company's Fourth of July picnic, I managed to avoid Henry, but I still caught him looking at me funny. He looked at me with this smirk on his face, like he was saying, "I'm fucking your wife and there's not a thing you can do about it."

I told Dee Dee about it, and she said I was just paranoid, that I was reading way too much into facial expressions.

"Well, all I can say, sweetheart, is that he's just about gotten on my last nerve," I said through clenched teeth. "If he gives me a reason, any reason at all, I'll wipe that shit-eating grin off his face, and if he tries to put his dick where it doesn't belong, I'll cut it off and feed it to him."

I was staring right at Dee Dee when I said that, because I wanted her to get the message too. She just looked away without meeting my gaze.

That was a little over three weeks before the Wednesday when it all hit the fan. It was high summer, but there was some frost in the air at our house.

Dee Dee was telling me that this would pass and things would go back to normal soon, but I didn't see any change. She was still working a lot of late nights, and then things took a turn for the worse.

We had planned to take some vacation, just the two of us, to be together and to talk out some things, mostly concerning our increasingly rocky marriage.

We were going to leave on Saturday, just take the week and drive, no set agenda, no itinerary, just the two of us alone.

But she called Friday afternoon with bad news. Henry was going back to New York on Monday and wanted her to go with him again. This time, I blew up.

"Dee Dee, what's more important, this fucking job or our marriage?" I yelled into the phone. "Henry wants you to hold his hand in New York, and you immediately drop our plans to go with him. This has gotten out of hand."

Dee Dee burst into tears then and told me I didn't understand, that she had to go, but she didn't explain exactly why she had to go. I just threw up my hands then. If she was bound and determined to be with Henry, then there wasn't much I could do. At least not right then.

We argued about it all weekend, and she finally said it would be just like the last time, which I assumed meant Norma and Don would also be going.

Monday morning, Dee Dee caught a taxi to the airport to meet her flight. Just before she left, she turned to me and looked at me intensely.

"Doug, I want you to know something," she said. "No matter what, always understand that I love you. That has never changed."

Then she hugged me close and kissed me with a passion that left me unsettled. As the taxi took off down the street, I stared at it, wondering if I had just seen the last of Dee Dee as my loving wife.

I became more certain than ever about that after the phone conversation I had earlier that Wednesday, after Dee Dee had been gone two days. She'd called Monday night, but hadn't called Tuesday.

I'm not sure why I called her office, but I was very surprised to hear Norma Crimson answer the phone.

"Norma?" I said. "Aren't you supposed to be in New York?"

"N-no," she said, a little uncertainly.

"Dee Dee said you and Don were going with her and Henry to New York, that you and her were going to room together, just like last time," I said.

"What are you talking about?" Norma said. "I've never been to New York."

"You didn't go to New York in April?" I said, my blood pressure rising.

"Oh, that," Norma said, apparently thinking fast. "My trip got cancelled at the last minute. But Don went."

"You're lying," I said. "You're covering for her and that asshole Henry."

"Doug, please listen to me carefully," Norma said. "There are some things going on here between Dee Dee and Henry, but it's not what you think. I can't say any more than that. Please, don't jump to conclusions and do something you'll regret."

"Who are you to tell me what to do about my wife?" I yelled. "Norma, I want you to give my wife a message, I want you to give it to her today and I want you to make sure she understands it with crystal clarity. If I find out she's having an affair with Henry Snodgrass – and I will find out – I'll kill him and I'll throw her ass out on the street. I'll let her daddy come take care of her, and he can pick her shit up off the front lawn when he does. If she's slutting around on me, it'll be the worst mistake she ever made. That's a promise."

"Doug, ple ..." she started and I just hung up the phone.

I just sat there at my desk in my little office alcove, holding my head in my hands. I couldn't believe it. Dee Dee had lied to me, bald-faced lied. She'd told me Norma and Don had been with her in New York in April and had implied that they'd be with her this week.

All of which meant that she had spent four days alone in April with Henry Snodgrass without my knowing it, and was with him now, under false pretexts.

Up to that moment, I hadn't really given any real credence to the idea that Dee Dee might actually be sleeping with Henry. It had all just been a scattering of vaguely disturbing things, suspicions and innuendoes. But now?

All the signs were there. The late nights when they were supposedly at work, the furtive – sometimes guilty – looks on her face, the wildly fluctuating emotions, the inconsistent sex, and, more than anything else, the two trips to New York alone together, and the lies that accompanied them.

What still puzzled me was why. I mean, Henry Snodgrass is a fairly handsome man, in an aristocratic way, and he's tall and well built, with the look of a man who works out. But he just had such a repellant way about him, although I wondered if perhaps that feeling was colored by the personal animus between us.

So if Dee Dee was having an affair with Henry, I had to wonder what she was seeing in him. He didn't seem to be at all her type, or least not to the Dee Dee I knew, especially considering that she knew my feelings toward the man. It didn't make sense.

Just then I heard a soft voice next to me. It was Yancey, one of the workers who came with the shop when I bought it. He's a wise old black man that I've known since I was 16 and first started working there.

"Boss, are you OK?" Yancey said.

"No, Yancey, I'm not OK," I said. "I think my wife's cheating on me, and I don't know what to do."

"Miss Dee? Oh, I ain't believin' that," he said. All the guys at the shop knew Dee Dee and thought the world of her. "You got any proof?"

"No, not yet, just a lot of suspicions and lies," I said. "It's got something to do with her boss. They're spending an awful lot of time together, working late, going off on business trips together, stuff like that. They're creating an awful lot of smoke for there not to be a fire in there somewhere. Yancey, I don't know what I'm going to do if she's screwing around on me."

"Well, Douglas, lemme tell ya what ya don't do," he said. "You don't do nuthin' tonight. You don't wanna do nuthin' stupid, nuthin' you cain't undo. Go home and be with yo' kids, sit out on the deck, get in the pool, do somethin' at home. But don't do nuthin' 'til you've had a chance to sleep on it. Then, tomorrow, you can start findin' out if it's true. Promise me you won't do nuthin' stupid."

"OK, Yancey, I won't," I said. "But I am going to get to the bottom of this, soon."

"Tha's fine, bossman, but you keep yo' head on straight," he said, finally. "I like this place, I need this job and I'm way too old to be goin' out lookin' for another one."

It was still fairly early in the afternoon, a little after 3 o'clock, but I needed to get away for awhile, so I drove to Angelo's, walked in, sat down and ordered a pitcher of beer.

By now, Angelo's sons are running the place, but Big Angelo still hangs around during the day, so when he saw me come in at 3 in the afternoon and order a pitcher, he knew something was wrong. He grabbed a glass, came over and sat down with me.

He was like Yancey, he refused to believe that Dee Dee would screw around on me. He'd been one of the few people from the neighborhood who had made it up to Chicago for our wedding, he'd seen the love we had, and he had grown very fond of Dee Dee over the years.

"I'd have to see it to believe it," he said.

He also gave me the same advice Yancey had: Don't jump to conclusions and don't act rashly. After we finished the pitcher, he sent me off with a pizza to take home for the kids' dinner, I went back to the shop, closed up and headed home.

On the way, I stopped at a smoke shop, bought a good Dominican cigar and a six-pack of Red Stripe. I don't drink all that often or all that much, but when I do, I go for the good stuff.

The kids sensed my mood when I got home and gave me a wide berth. We had tried to keep our troubles away from them, but they're pretty perceptive and they knew that things weren't right between Mom and Dad.

So there I sat on my back deck, drinking strong beer and puffing on a potent cigar in silence, brooding about my life.

You know, I look back on that night and realize that it was the lowest point I'd ever reached. Even when my father was wasting away, I always kept a positive outlook, always saw the bright side of things.

But I wasn't sure I could live without Dee Dee. She was my life, my rock, and I was convinced that I'd be lost without her. I actually cried that night for one of the few times in my life. I love her so much, but I knew that love would not survive the knowledge that she was cheating.

I think Dee Dee called one time when I was out on the deck, but I'd told the kids I was not to be disturbed for any reason short of a major medical emergency, and that I especially didn't want to talk to their mother right then.

She called again later, I think, but by then I'd gone to bed and was sleeping in a semi-drunken stupor.

I was moving a little slow that Thursday morning, and I was still drinking coffee when the phone rang and this time I picked it up. It was my wife.

"Doug?" she said, a little breathlessly.

"I take it you got my message yesterday?" I said, rather curtly.

"Doug, listen, I don't have much time," she said hurriedly. "I'm at JFK, and I'm about to board a plane for Chicago."

"Chicago?" I asked, confused. "I thought you weren't coming home until tomorrow afternoon. What happened to your meetings?"

"Change of plans," she said. "I'm meeting Daddy for lunch to talk about some important business, then I'm flying home later this afternoon. Honey, it all came together last night, and I can finally level with you. I know I've been less than honest with you these past few months, but there's a reason for it. I'll explain everything when I get home. My flight from Chicago should get in at about 6:15. Can you meet me at the airport?"

"Well, uh, yeah, sure," I said.

She gave me her flight number, then she went silent for a second.

"Doug?" she said. "I love you more than you will ever know."

"I love you too," I said as she rang off.

When I got to the shop, I called Norma at Dee Dee's office to find out what the heck was going on.

"I still can't tell you, but trust me, it's nothing bad," Norma said. "Your wife is the most wonderful person, and what she's been doing took an awful lot of guts. I couldn't have done it."

Well, now I was really confused. Was Dee Dee cheating, or was it something else entirely?

I got my answer when Dee Dee arrived at the gate in the company of a portly older fellow. When she saw me, she dropped her briefcase and ran to me. We hugged hard, and she kissed me deeply.

"My God, are you a sight for sore eyes," she said, when we finally pried our lips apart. "You don't know how badly I've missed you, not only this week, but over the past few months. This has been hell, but it's over now."

I was starting to feel a lot better, because this was the old Dee Dee. She had the sparkle back in her eyes, the jump was back in her step and she was damn glad to see me. Then she remembered her companion, who had thoughtfully picked up her briefcase.

"Doug, this is Harlan Shaw," she said. "He's been Daddy's attorney for about as long as I can remember."

"Pleased to meet you, son," Harlan said. "Actually, we did meet at your wedding, but you probably don't remember me."

I confessed that I didn't, and he laughed jovially.

"So why are you here?" I asked as we headed for the baggage claim.

"I'm here to assist Deirdre in a legal matter involving her employer," he said.

"A legal matter?" I said.

"Well, actually, her supervisor," he said. "But let's wait until we can sit down and spread everything out. It's been an enlightening day, and you're going to want to see and hear everything. Let's find a nice, quiet restaurant."

"Doug?" Dee Dee said with a puckish look on her face. "I have a confession to make. Harlan's seen me naked."

They both laughed at the confused look on my face.

"I used to change this girl's diapers," Harlan said. "That's how long I've know her. She's become a fine woman, and you should be proud of her."

Once we had sat down at the restaurant and ordered our meals, I turned to Dee Dee, who was sitting next to me at a large booth.

"OK, enough with the mystery," I said. "I've come from the depths of despair, thinking you might be cheating on me, and I need answers."

"Doug, I am so sorry I've kept you in the dark, but I had to," Dee Dee said. "I knew how you would react if you found out what Henry was doing, and I couldn't have you rushing in like a bull in a china shop. Norma and Don are the only ones who know, and I needed to keep it a secret to keep Henry from getting wind of what I was doing."

"Doug, Henry Snodgrass has been engaged in a relentless campaign of sexual harassment against Deirdre almost from the first day he became senior vice president," Harlan said. "And since the first of the year, she's been gathering evidence against him."

Dee Dee pulled a spiral notebook out of her briefcase and handed it to me. It was a log of every inappropriate gesture, suggestion, touch, joke, anything from Henry Snodgrass over the previous seven months that Dee Dee felt constituted a hostile work environment, as spelled out under the law.

"And I finally got him on tape last night threatening my job if I didn't sleep with him," Dee Dee said. "Here, you need to hear this."

Dee Dee produced a pocket tape recorder, one of the new voice-activated kind. She cued it up then let me listen. It was a conversation from the previous evening at the hotel bar where they had been staying in New York.

Over the course of our dinner, I listened to Henry Snodgrass hang himself professionally.

"Dee Dee, it's time to cut the innocent little wife routine, time to cut to the chase," Henry said on tape.

"What do you mean, Henry?" Dee Dee said.

"I mean that it's time for you to start being nicer to me, if you catch my drift," Henry said. "You've been teasing me with that hot little body for months now, and I'm getting tired of the chase. It's time for you to have a real man from the better classes, rather than some redneck mechanic. I can do so much better for you, if only you'd open your eyes and see it."

"Better how?" Dee Dee said.

"Oh, I think you know," Henry said. "I can make your life a lot easier, make your job go a lot better, if you start being a little nicer to me."

"What exactly do you mean by 'nicer?'" Dee Dee said.

"It means letting me have what I want," Henry said. "What I've wanted for years, before that stupid mechanic blinded you with his bad-boy charm."

"Doug is not a stupid mechanic, Henry," Dee Dee said. "And he's not a bad boy at all."

"Come now, is he really one of us?" Henry said. "Are you really happy being married to a fucking mechanic from the slums? Do you like being the one bringing home the bacon in your house? Do you like your nice, comfortable house? Do your kids like their school?"

"What are you getting at, Henry?" Dee Dee said.

"I'm getting at this," Henry said. "I control your future at this company. You have an annual evaluation coming up in a month or so, and I can give you a good recommendation or a bad one. You stay employed solely at my discretion. There are any number of ways I can fuck with your career. Without your job, you lose your nice house, the mechanic loses his business and your kids lose their place at the best schools. You'll be forced to go back to the streets, where the mechanic came from. Is that a prospect you really want to see happen?"

"What do I have to do to keep my job?" Dee Dee said.

"Be nice to me, real nice," Henry said.

"In other words, you want me to have sex with you." Dee Dee said. "Is that it?"

"You said it, not me," Henry said.

"And if I say no?" Dee Dee said.

"The choice is yours, put out or get out," Henry said. "I get what I want tonight, in your bed, or come Monday you'll be out of a job."

"Henry, does the term sexual harassment mean anything to you?" Dee Dee said.

"It means my word against yours," Henry said. "Who is Lane going to believe, me or you? The senior vice president with 23 years with the company, his golf buddy? Or the assistant with 18 years – minus all the maternity leaves – who doesn't have the inside track to the top."

"I think I'm willing to take that chance," Dee Dee said. "Because there is no way in hell that I'll ever let you have me. And let me tell you something, mister. Doug Manning cleared $125,000 last year after taxes, our house is paid for, so is the loan on his business, and our kids go to public schools. And Doug has more class, more integrity than you'll ever have in 50 lifetimes, not to mention the fact that he's got a lot more cock than you do. He's the best man I've ever known, and I'm sure as hell not going to cheat on him, especially not with scum like you."

"So, I take it the answer is no," Henry said.

"Not no, but hell no!" Dee Dee said.

"It doesn't matter," Henry said. "I'll just say you came onto me, tried to persuade me to have sex with you in return for job favors, and I'll nail you that way. Face it, Dee Dee, I've got you either way. You might as well let me fuck you, because you lose either way it goes."

"I don't think so," Dee Dee said.

Then there was the sound of chairs scraping and jostling on the tape.

"Where do you think you're going?" Henry said.

"I'm going up to pack my bags, I'm going to find me another hotel to spend the night then I'm flying out of here first thing in the morning," Dee Dee said. "You don't need me here. The only reason you wanted me to come on this trip is so you could try to seduce me. You can handle the meeting tomorrow without me. Goodbye, Henry."

"Dee Dee!" Henry could be heard yelling in the background. "If you're not in that meeting with me in the morning, you might as well clean out your office when you get back home, because you are so fired."

"We'll see about that," Dee Dee said.

"Now, do you see why I couldn't tell you what I was doing?" Dee Dee said as she shut off the tape player. "You'd have killed him."




Sittin' Pretty



"You're right, I would have," I said. "And I may yet. So what was that about me having more cock?"

"Oh God, that's the worst part," Dee Dee said. "When we got there, the hotel 'conveniently' messed up our reservations, so we had to share a room with two double beds. I'm telling you, Doug, I slept in my heavy pajamas, and wore my bra both nights I was there. And the first night, he came out of the shower naked with a hard-on. Poor guy's only got about a 4-inch dick, if that. It's all on the tape."

"So what's the plan?" I asked as we finished our meal.

"Well, my office is transcribing a copy of this tape even as we speak and I should have the completed transcript faxed to me first thing tomorrow," Harlan said. "We've already set up a meeting with Lane Burgess and his legal department for 10 o'clock, and I want you there, Doug, or rather Deirdre wants you there, and I agree. She needs all the moral support she can muster. Snodgrass is due back in the office around noon, and it should all be over by 1 o'clock."

We left Harlan then, as he grabbed a taxi to his hotel, then I wrapped my arms around Dee Dee and we headed for our car.

It was almost dark when we got up on the expressway headed toward home, and as soon as we were up to speed, Dee Dee slid over next to me and ran her hands over my jean-covered cock. It responded immediately.

"I have missed this, big fella," she said as she unbuttoned my jeans, reached in my pants and fished out my semi-hard cock.

She softly stroked it a few times and it got right up to full strength.

"Dee Dee, don't you think we should wait?" I said.

"Why?" she purred. "I want to play with him now. You just keep two hands on the wheel, keep your eyes on the road, and you let me take care of this. You deserve it."

She eased my jeans halfway down my thighs, leaned over on the seat, put her head in my lap and slid my cock past her pretty pink lips. She quickly got up to speed, sucking almost all of me into her mouth, in that way she always has.

I happened to glance over at her, and I realized that she was letting a lot of her own sexual frustrations out as well.

She was holding my cock at the base with her left hand while she sucked me, but her right hand was busy between her own legs. She had her skirt pulled up to her waist, her panties pulled to one side, and she was strumming her clit and fingering her pussy like a woman possessed.

She sucked me hard for several minutes, lapping her tongue around my shaft, then she pulled her mouth off and slid her lips and tongue up and down over the shaft, before stuffing my cock back into her mouth.

She was humming and moaning softly as she worked us both. I kept my attention focused on the highway as much as possible, but it was tough as I felt the wonderful sensations of Dee Dee's talented mouth on my throbbing hard cock.

I was thrusting up subtly, trying to give her just a little more cock than she could take, pushing it just a little bit, the way I always do. Dee Dee's never quite been able to deep throat me, but she never stops trying, and that's part of what make sex fun for us.

I could feel a rusty cumload building up steam, and I looked over at my wife to she that was attacking her pussy with her hand, furiously rubbing her clit with her thumb while she worked three fingers into her cunt.

I think in that moment I began to realize just how traumatic this whole ordeal had been for her, and I felt a little ashamed that I'd ever suspected her of cheating.

Then my attention was jerked back to my cock, to the outrageous feeling of my cock pumping into Dee Dee's mouth. I was right there, and with a gasp and a choking cry, I cut loose with a huge load of cum.

Dee Dee tried to swallow all of it, but there was too much, plus she was in the throes of her own orgasm, and some dribbled out from around her lips. As I squeezed out several secondary bursts of cum, I watched as the exit off the highway to our house passed us, and we had to double back.

We laughed about that, a truly cathartic laugh, and I especially got a kick at the way my cum was smeared on Dee Dee's chin. She cleaned herself up a little bit, got my cock back in my pants and we were semi-presentable when we arrived home.

Needless to say, the kids were glad to see their mother coming home early, plus I think they sensed that whatever had been bothering us over the past few months had been resolved. After Dee Dee showered, we all sat down at the kitchen table and enjoyed some serious family time, playing a rowdy game of Risk. Coming as it did the night after my lowest point, it was a joyous moment.

Later, after we climbed in bed, I held my wife and we talked.

"Dee Dee?" I said. "I'm sorry I doubted you. I should have trusted you more, should have known you'd never cheat on me. Can you forgive me?"

"Forgive you for what?" she answered. "You were a concerned husband who saw some things he didn't like, and I wasn't being honest with you. You had every right to be suspicious. I think, looking back on it now, that I should have trusted you more, and brought you into the loop from the start. It would have saved us an awful lot of grief. Now, let's get some sleep. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

We were up pretty early that morning, and I decided to wear a suit and tie. I felt like this was important enough for me to look my best. We swung by the shop and I told my assistant that I was taking the day off, and to close up, then we went to breakfast and were in the lobby of Dee Dee's building by 9:30.

Harlan was waiting for us, and together we went up to Dee Dee's office, then at five minutes until 10, we were in the outer foyer of Lane Burgess' office. We were immediately ushered in, and I got my first look at the inner sanctum of a corporate CEO.

Lane's office was spacious and very nicely decorated, with four comfortable chairs arranged for visitors. We were greeted by Lane himself, and he introduced us to David Shapiro, who was the head of the company's legal division.

I began to get the distinct impression that Harlan Shaw was a figure of some renown in corporate legal circles, because he and Lane greeted each other like it wasn't the first time they had met, and David Shapiro was extremely deferential, saying he was, "honored," to meet Harlan for the first time.

Lane Burgess himself is the picture of the corporate CEO. He is a fairly imposing figure physically, taller than average and well built, with a commanding air. He can be charming when it suits him, but Dee Dee has told war stories of his treatment of those who have incurred his wrath. I was about to see that first hand.

To me, however, he's just another white-collar customer who doesn't know a carburetor from a crankshaft. I've been servicing his vehicles since he came to town, and we are on good terms. We greeted each other warmly and I asked him about his Caddy.

"Running smooth, Doug," he said. "Probably got another 50,000 miles in her, if I choose to keep it that long."

After his secretary served us coffee and Danish, we got down to business.

"Harlan, I'm a little surprised to see a heavyweight like you get involved in a matter like this," Lane said. "I gather, then, that it's pretty serious business."

"Actually, Lane, I'm working this one pro bono," Harlan said. "Deirdre here is an old family friend. I've been her father's attorney for many, many years."

"Her father?" Lane said, and it dawned on me then that he didn't know who Dee Dee's dad was.

"Malcolm McGough," Harlan said.

"Are you serious?" Lane said. "Dee Dee, I had no idea that you were Malcolm McGough's daughter. "

"You weren't supposed to know," Dee Dee said. "I love my father and I respect him tremendously, but I never wanted to use him as a crutch. I wanted to succeed in business on my own merits, on my own talent. Up until Henry Snodgrass came along, I believe I did that. He's made me question a lot of assumptions I had about myself."

"I take it this has to do with him?" Lane said.

"Lane, Snodgrass has been engaged in one of the most egregious campaigns of sexual harassment I've ever seen in 40 years of practicing law," Harlan said, handing over a file with the transcript of Dee Dee's tape and the summary of her documentation of Henry's abuses. "Everything is on this tape that Deirdre made."

He handed the tape over to David Shapiro, who took an evidentiary bag out of his briefcase, put the tape in the bag and sealed it.

"My God," Lane said softly as he perused the file. "That son of a bitch. I assume this file is our copy of Dee Dee's evidence."

"It is," Harlan said. "That's the short version. She's got a notebook full of documented cases of improper advances on the part of Henry Snodgrass."

"Dee Dee, can you tell me about it," Lane said.

Dee Dee nodded her head and told her story.

It was hard, and she broke down several times, but she managed to get through it. I don't think she had ever really let herself react to what was going on until that very moment. She had had to suppress a lot of her emotions just to get through it, and now that it was over, she had a chance to let those emotions out.

I held her hand all through it, and when she was finished, Lane gave her a sympathetic look.

"Dee Dee, I'm so sorry," Lane said. "Why didn't you come to me sooner?"

"At first, I tried to ignore it, then I tried to laugh it off," Dee Dee said. "But when he started having me stay late with him, and he started touching me, I worried that you wouldn't believe me. Then, when I started gathering evidence, I wanted to make sure I had enough. Finally, toward the end, I just wanted to get so much dirt on the bastard that when I finally made my move I'd be able to just crush him."

The way she said, "crush him," sort of took me aback a little bit, and I noticed Lane was having a hard time suppressing an evil grin. Dee Dee was showing a side I'd never seen before, and it occurred to me that perhaps her father's personality was starting to show just a little bit.

"So, Dee Dee, what do you want out of this?" Lane said. "Is there a way we can avoid litigation here?"

"Lane, my terms are simple," Dee Dee said. "I want Henry Snodgrass terminated, with prejudice. He's made my life a living hell this past year and I want him to pay. I don't want him to be able to pussy out with a forced resignation. I want him fired for cause, and I want that cause spelled out in writing."

"I gather you don't like the bastard," David interjected.

"Not in any way, shape or form," Dee Dee said. "But it goes beyond me. I don't want him to be able to pull this somewhere else, with some other woman. Lane, Mr. Shapiro, I'm a pretty strong-willed woman with a reasonable amount of intelligence and I've been around the corporate culture all of my life. So I know how the system works. And it still nearly broke me, and put a serious strain on my family, especially my marriage, which is like oxygen to me. I need Doug like I need to breathe, and Henry's actions began to drive a wedge between us. So what's going to happen if he tries this with someone who doesn't have the assets I have, whose marriage isn't as strong as ours? How is she going to react? I'll tell you. She'll cave in, and he'll ruin her life."

"Is that all?" Lane said.

"That's it," Dee Dee said. "Lane, until Henry came here I considered this the perfect place to work. This is a good company that has treated me well. I have no wish to bring harm to the company. For the most part, I like it here and I'd just as soon stay here."

"Well then," Lane said. "I don't think that will be a problem. In fact, I not only intend to fire Snodgrass, but I intend to promote you into his position. If you're willing to take it."

"I'm inclined to accept, but I want to hear what you're prepared to offer me for it," Dee Dee said.

"First, let's get the ball rolling on Snodgrass," Lane said, as he stood up and walked to his office door. "David, I want you to pull his contract and go over it word for word to see what provisions there are in terms of severance pay. I don't want to pay him a dime more than I have to, but I don't want him coming back in six months, a year, with a lawsuit claiming we violated the terms of his contract."

"I'm all over it, Mr. Burgess," David said, then he scooted toward the door. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Shaw."

Harlan shook the man's hand, while Lane stuck his head out of his office and addressed his secretary.

"Patty, I need you to draft a letter of termination for Henry Snodgrass," he continued. "For cause, let's say for gross misconduct and sexual harassment of subordinates. You know how to dress it up. And David will be back to give you the clauses for his severance settlement. Now, Harlan, could I ask you and Doug to excuse us for a little while? It seems that Mrs. Manning here wants to dicker, and I'd like to chat with her privately."

"No problem," I said. "I could use a bathroom break anyway and maybe a soda."

I kissed Dee Dee, then we left for the canteen on that floor. After I had a soda in hand, Harlan gave me with a serious look and asked me to walk with him for a bit.

"Doug, I've known Malcolm McGough for over 40 years, and I consider him to be one of my best friends," Harlan said. "He's always been pretty crusty, always been a man who doesn't give away a lot of his inner feelings. And he sometimes has a hard time telling people how he feels about them, especially people he's close to."

"That's true," I said. "I've never quite been able to get past that outer shell. We get along OK, but there's just ... I don't know, a barrier."

"Well, Doug, I had a very candid conversation with him yesterday before we left Chicago, a conversation about you," Harlan said.

"Me?" I said. "I didn't think he thought much about me at all."

"Oh, that's where you're wrong, my friend," he said. "I'm sure you know that Malcolm is not particularly close to his sons, but Deirdre? She's his angel, always has been, always will be. I remember when she was a teenager and in college, he used to fret endlessly about what kind of a man she'd end up with. I guarantee he didn't dream it would be anyone like you."

"Harlan, he's never fully accepted me, because of my background," I said. "I've never been good enough for Dee Dee, but that's all right. I've learned to live with it."

"Well, it's not all right to Malcolm," Harlan said. "You know he'll be 70 in a couple of months, and he told me yesterday that one of the great regrets in his life is that he doesn't have a close relationship with you. You have no idea how big an impression you've made on that man. He has a tremendous amount of respect for you, and he is awfully proud of you and what you've made of yourself."

"I don't understand," I said, and I didn't. "I'm just a mechanic without a lot of education. I'm a poor kid from the poor side of town who happened to fall in love with his daughter."

"Oh, Doug, you're much more than that," Harlan said. "You're a smart man who didn't let adversity stop him. You're a man who knew what he wanted out of life, a man who had a goal, who achieved that goal and became a successful businessman in the process. And you did it the right way, through hard work, decent moral values and integrity. That's the kind of man Malcolm McGough respects. And he sees how much Deirdre loves you, and he sees how you've loved her and supported her."

"I didn't know," I said softly.

"That's because you've kept him at arm's length," Harlan said. "You've assumed all these years that Malcolm – and Jeannie – still see you as the grimy kid from the mean streets, and you've never really given them a chance to show you how their attitudes have changed. Doug, I know about your father, how you cared for him and supported your family, and I know about the void he left in your life. Malcolm wants to help fill that void, and be a father figure to you, if you'll let him. But he's a stubborn old Scotsman, and he's not going to make the first move."

"What do I have to do?" I said, my head spinning.

"Doug, I think if you just reach out to him, you'll be amazed at the response," Harlan said. "Call him this afternoon after all of this is over. He's on pins and needles worrying about where this is going to end up. He'll be touched if you call and give him the update."

By then, we had finished our sodas and were back in the foyer of Lane's office. When we were escorted in, Dee Dee had a big grin on her face, and Lane was on the phone.

"Russ?" he said into the phone. "You know Henry Snodgrass, don't you? Good. I want you to monitor the front entrance and I want to be informed the minute he enters the building. (Pause) No, no, don't do anything, just follow him. I've already instructed his secretary to send him up here as soon as he arrives, before he has a chance to get into his office. Good. I want you to handle this personally. OK, thanks."

Then he hung up and looked over at us.

"Security," he said. "I want to know what that S.O.B. is doing every step of the way from the moment he enters the building until the minute he's escorted out."

"Honey, I took the job," Dee Dee said. "David is going to draw up the contract next week, while we're gone on vacation, but I've already agreed in principle. I take over the department a week from Monday."

"Outstanding!" I said, and I hugged Dee Dee and gave her a big sloppy kiss. "Now, does that mean you're going to be working like you have the past few months, or are you going to have a little saner schedule?"

"Douglas Manning, after all that we've been through, you know damn good and well, that I'm NOT going to jeopardize my family life," she said forcefully. "When it's time to work, I'll work and work hard, but when it's time to play ..."

And she flashed me a quick look of lust that made my groin stir in my slacks.

Just then, the phone on Lane's desk rang, he picked it up, listened for a second, then said, "OK," and hung up.

"He's on his way," Lane said.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again, and again Lane picked it up and answered.

"Have him sit in the foyer until I call for him," Lane said. "Make him sweat."

Ten minutes later, after some casual conversation about Dee Dee's job, David Shapiro walked into the office with several documents. Lane looked them over, then picked up the phone and had Henry ushered into the office.

"Lane, I really need ..." he started, then he stopped short when he saw Dee Dee and me sitting in front of Lane's desk. "What the hell are they doing here? That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. She has no business here, and this cretin she's married to certainly has no business here. I fired her yesterday, and she should be cleaning out her office."

I swear if Dee Dee hadn't put a firm grip on my arm, I'd have jumped out of the chair and cold-cocked the bastard.

"Oh, she'll be cleaning out her office, all right," Lane said, "And moving her stuff into your old office."

"What are you talking about?" Henry said.

"Snodgrass, do the words sexual harassment mean anything to you?" Lane said, repeating the line Dee Dee had used two nights earlier.

"Now, wait a minute, Lane, she's ..." Henry started, only to be interrupted by Lane.

"It's Mr. Burgess to you, asshole," he said. 

"La- Mr. Burgess, this woman has filled your head with a bunch of lies," Henry said. "She's using those feminine wiles on you the same way she tried to use them on me. And she's brought her redneck husband in here to support her little sob story. But the truth is, I fired her yesterday for insubordination, dereliction of duty and poor performance. Then she tried to offer me sex if I would give her a good performance review. It's all here in my report."

He handed a manila envelope over to Lane, and we all got a grim sense of satisfaction when Lane simply tore the thing in half and tossed it in the trash can.




Sittin' Pretty



"Are you finished?" Lane said coldly.

"But ..." Henry sputtered.

Lane simply took out the tape recorder we'd provided, hit the play button and we listened to Henry Snodgrass at his finest. Lane had cued it up to just the right moment so that there was no question what he'd been doing.

"I get what I want from you tonight, in your bed, or come Monday, you'll be out of a job," the voice from the recorder came out loud and clear.

I swear, I have never seen a human deflate so completely in such a short period of time. His whole body just sagged, and he got this shocked look on his face, like he never dreamed Dee Dee would be smart enough to record his words for posterity.

"Snodgrass, I'm actually going to be generous," Lane said. "I'm simply going to fire you, for cause. It'll be spelled out on the letter of termination. If I were to give you what you really deserve, I'd simply let Doug Manning have his way with you. And I'm going to tell you this. He's a better man than me, because if you had been doing to my wife what you've been trying to do with his, they'd be scraping little pieces of you off that wall over there."

I'll give the man backhanded credit. Henry managed to summon up some starch, but it was venomous starch. He looked over at Dee Dee with a look of utter loathing.

"You bitch," he said softly.

I was up in a flash and only quick work by Harlan Shaw prevented me from throwing him out the window.

"What did you say?" I said right in his face.

"You heard me," he said with a sneer.

"You are lucky there were people here to stop me," I said evenly. "But if I ever see you again, if I ever hear of you contacting my wife in any way shape or form, I will hunt you down and I will tear you apart limb by limb."

"Snodgrass, I believe you have an access card that allows you entrance into the building, and a key to your old office," Lane said. "I want the card turned over to personnel and key turned over to Dee Dee. Now!"

He handed over his key ring, but he wasn't about to give Dee Dee the satisfaction of taking it off himself. But that was OK, she gladly picked up the key ring and took it off herself.

"Snodgrass, you will be escorted to your old office, provided with one box for your personal effects and you will be given 30 minutes to pack up your things," Lane said. "Russ here will keep an eye on you to make sure you don't do anything to company equipment and take only things that belong to you. When your 30 minutes are up, you will be escorted from the building and if you ever try to return, you will be arrested for trespassing. Russ, take this ... this thing, and get him out of my sight."

Once Snodgrass was gone, Lane leaned back in his chair and allowed himself a big smile.

"That was almost fun," he said. "But seriously, Dee Dee, I'm very sorry you had to go through that. It's interesting. The day after I announced that he was going to be the senior VP in that department, I got a real sense that I'd made a mistake, that I should have put you in there. Anyway, enjoy your vacation, and I'll see you a week from Monday."

We all shook hands, then left the building. Dee Dee and I said our good-byes to Harlan, who was headed for the airport to fly back to Chicago. Then it was just the two of us.

"Let's go home," I said, as Dee Dee lowered her head onto my shoulder. "We have unfinished business from last night."

The kids had gone with their friends to the country club, as they did most days during the summer, to go swimming, so we had the house to ourselves. As soon as the door was shut, I pulled Dee Dee to me and we kissed, long and hard.

We had gotten some relief the night before, but that had only been an appetizer. We hadn't really made love in several weeks, and we desperately needed this. It wasn't just the physical closeness we needed, but the emotional intimacy.

We strolled upstairs to our bedroom, closed and locked the door. We leisurely stripped, hanging up our clothes as we did. I know, old habits die hard.

When we were naked we stood in the middle of the room together. My cock was bursting hard, and Dee Dee's nipples were hard as pencil erasers. We swept our hands over each other as we kissed, staring into each other's eyes.

It felt so good to be together with this woman again, to express my love for her, the way I had for so long.

Everything that had happened over the previous 24 hours had been a total reinforcement of our love, the things Dee Dee had said to Snodgrass, the way she had referred to me in Lane's office and the things Harlan had told me about Malcolm.

Coming as they did after I was in the grips of such despair, wondering if I still had the woman I loved, was a huge boost to my pride and a salve for my emotions.

Then my attention was brought abruptly back to the present when I felt Dee Dee's hand encircle my cock. She began to stroke me lightly, and I responded by sliding a hand between her legs to feel her wetness.

"Come on, lover boy, I've waited long enough," she purred. "I want you in me, and I want it now."

"Yes ma'am," I said.

I had gained a new healthy respect for Dee Dee's ability to command. I mean, she's always had confidence, she's always been decisive and she's always been a leader.

But she showed on that day that she had what it takes to make it to the top in the corporate world. She had proven that she had just that little bit of ruthlessness that all good CEOs need.

She had completely outsmarted and outmaneuvered her enemy, and when she'd gotten him where she wanted him, she had utterly destroyed him. I couldn't have been more proud of her.

Nevertheless, I felt it incumbent on myself to reassert myself just a little bit. This wasn't the boardroom; this was the bedroom, my domain. So when Dee Dee lay down on her back, I shook my head.

"I want you on your knees," I said as I positioned myself in front of her. "You may be the lady boss at work, but here in this house I'm still the boss, and I want you to be my slut. Aren't you my slut?"

"Yes sir!" she answered.

"Yes sir, what," I said, and I playfully slapped her across the face a couple of times with my cock.

"Yes sir, I'm your slut," she said with an ear-to-ear grin.

"That's better," I said, as I pushed my cock into her mouth.

I let her suck on it for a minute or so, then I pulled it out and slid around the bed on my knees until I was behind her. I pushed two fingers into her swampy slit, then used my thumb to rim her anus. Dee Dee growled in abject lust, but she knew I was running the show, so she didn't say anything.

My cock was like an iron rod, and while I was enjoying the tease, I needed to move things along. I pulled my hand away and gripped my cock at the base. I put one hand on Dee Dee's butt to steady myself, then I eased the head of my cock to her dripping pink hole and pushed my way in.

"Ohhhhhhhhh, yeeeeeaaaaaaah!" Dee Dee moaned as I filled her with my cock. "Soooooo gooooood!"

I quickly got into a hard, steady rhythm, gripping Dee Dee's hips with my hands. She was shaking her blonde tresses around in a circular motion as her arousal began to shoot through the roof.

I happened to look up and was riveted by what I saw. In the position we were in, I could look right into the big mirror over our dresser, and I could see the rictus of lust that was etched on my wife's face. It was a look of such ecstasy and passion that it sent chills through my body.

I just looked up to heaven and for at least the millionth time thanked God for putting us on each other's path. My cock was like a piston engine working, working, working to produce the kind of lust that only two extremely committed lovers can find.

As I fucked my wife with long, steady strokes, I leaned over slightly and captured her dangling breasts in each hand. I squeezed her flesh and rolled her nipples between my fingers and was rewarded with a long, low moan.

I could feel Dee Dee's body starting to shake and shimmy as she quickly climbed to a monster orgasm, and my cock was moving faster and harder as I felt the crackle of my climax approaching critical mass.

We were groaning, panting and urging each other on with words of love. Grunts and gasps were ripped from our mouths as we worked together for our mutual pleasure, and just at the moment when I didn't think I could stand any more, Dee Dee went completely rigid for about a second, then she convulsed in orgasm.

Seconds later, I felt the sensation sweep through my body, so I drove my cock as far in Dee Dee's twitching pussy as I could and released a fountain of cum, deep in her womb. I slumped onto her back as I let it all out, all the weeks and months of questions, suspicions and innuendoes flowing out in one long burst of catharsis.

When it was over and the afterglow of lust enveloped us, I held my woman – MY woman – in the circle of my arms and nuzzled her ear.

"You're one hell of a woman," I whispered in her ear.

"And you're a hell of a man," she whispered back.

Later, after a long nap and a shower, I picked up the phone and called Malcolm. I told him what had happened in Lane's office, then I paused for a second.

"Malcolm," I said. "Thanks for your help in all this. Harlan was just what we needed to put us over the top."

"Well, I wasn't going to send my baby in there without the heavy artillery," Malcolm said with a chuckle.

"Malcolm, I realize that I wasn't what you would have wanted for Dee Dee in a husband," I said. "I was a poor kid from a tough neighborhood with a menial job. But I've done the best that I can do for her, and I love her more than anything in this world."

"Son, you've done more than your best," Malcolm said. "Deirdre worships the ground you walk on, and rightly so. Doug, I've never told you this, but I could not have picked a better man for my daughter, and I want you to know that."

After I hung up the phone, I walked outside, out to the deck where I had sat two nights earlier staring at the black night, wondering if my marriage was over.

I thought about how life takes some mighty funny twists, how it sometimes gives you exactly what you need just when you think things couldn't be any worse.

Dee Dee and I had been through the biggest threat we'd faced in our relationship, and we'd been tested mightily. But we had stayed true, and had come out stronger than ever.

Yeah, I'd say I'm sittin' pretty.