And then his wife would do or say something that would eradicate that guilt and make him wish he was done with her already.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a level of civility when talking to the bitch.
“Thank you, Mary Ellen. I appreciate that.”
Mary Ellen nodded, and turned her attention once more to her dinner. Apparently, she didn’t see the need to converse any further. Neil should have felt relieved, but he just felt hemmed in.
With his own dinner done, Brown retired to the living room long enough to peruse the evening paper. Then, as he often did, he left the house. He would head first for the refinery, and then to a small house on the outskirts of town where he could be assured of warmer and much more amenable company.
He parked his car in its usual spot, and made quick work of getting into his office. Here and Bonnie’s were the only places he felt completely at ease anymore.
He usually didn’t spend much time thinking about his homelife. But he wondered what it would be like to go home at the end of the day to a woman who loved him, and whom he loved in return. One who made him feel like a man, instead of one who sought to diminish him at every opportunity.
He grinned, recalling the evening about a month back when his wife came by unexpectedly, and actually looked surprised to find him really at the refinery, at his desk, and working. He knew she suspected he had a lover. Maybe her actually going to the trouble to try and catch him in a lie was a sign, one that until now he’d pretty much ignored.
Brown shook his head and pulled out his ledgers. Maybe he didn’t have to wait until this damned war was over. Maybe he could make his move sooner, rather than later. It all depended on how much money he could get set aside in the next few months.
He’d already had a few inquiries from some of the major oil companies, expressing interest in buying his refinery.
The more he thought about it, the more he knew that he really wanted out of his sham of a marriage, and out of this business. Mary Ellen was sucking the life from his body and the spirit from his soul. He was nearly fifty years old, for God’s sake. He and Mary Ellen had never had any children, so there really was no reason to hold back, or wait.
Except, of course, for the fact that he needed a lot of cash in order to make such a move.
She’d probably get herself a good lawyer and end up with more money out of him than she deserved. But she couldn’t touch his special fund, because she didn’t know it even existed.
He pulled the second ledger out of his wall safe, sat down, and took a good long look at how what he thought of as his side business was doing. The dollars were rolling in, no question of that. But they weren’t rolling in quite fast enough if he wanted to end his marriage sooner, rather than later.
He sat and thought. There’d been not the slightest hint that the fuel he was shipping to Goodfellow was causing any problems at all. Perhaps he’d been more cautious in his substitutions than he really needed to be.
He pulled a pad of paper close and began to make calculations. He could alter the formula he was using, and increase the ratio of the cheaper materials a bit more.
After an hour’s ciphering, he realized he could damn near double the amount of money he was making if he made these few additional substitutions.
Tomorrow’s shipment was ready to go. He’d alter the next one, and every one after that. He knew it wouldn’t take long until he was in a position where he could make the changes in his life that he needed to make.
Brown sat back and sighed. A quick check of the wall clock told him he’d been hard at work for nearly two hours. What he needed now was some hot, sweet loving.
He smiled as he set his ledgers away and then headed out to his car. Bonnie would take care of him, and before too long, he’d be able to take care of her, too.
* * * *
Kate finally understood why such an enormous bathtub would be installed, taking up so much room in the master bathroom. It had never occurred to her when she’d used the convenience earlier in the week that it was, in fact, a hedonistic delight in disguise, intended to be shared by lovers. Even knowing that so many of the marriages in this little town were made up of three people or more, she’d never once considered that they might like to bathe together.
She’d never spent any time considering such things before she’d come to Lusty, but if she had, she would have felt certain that her father had never even seen her mother naked, let alone shared a bath with her.
Not only did these men seem completely comfortable in that natural state, they didn’t waste any time, once they’d arrived back at the Convalescent Home and gotten her inside her bedroom, to strip the clothes from her so that she was naked, too.
She’d never bathed where anyone could see her before, but the men didn’t give her a chance to demur on that score, either.
That was not to say they weren’t aware of her discomfort. Once they were all in the bathtub, Gerald had scooped her onto him, and the combination of the heated water and the men’s gentle caresses soon relaxed her.
So far, they had kept their touches and caresses more comforting than sexual, and for that she was grateful. There was an element of caring and cherishing to their actions, a kind of snuggling she hadn’t realized she’d missed all her life.
“I can still remember the first wooden tub that our grandparents had at the Big House.” Patrick reached over and lifted Kate’s foot. He’d lathered a sponge, and then proceeded to stroke it up and down her leg.
Gerald had lathered his hands, and used them to spread bubbles and arousal across her breasts. Kate sighed. She really had no choice but to lie back and enjoy whatever these men decided to do to her.
Well, that and make some mental plans of my own as to what I can do to them in return.
She turned her attention back to the conversation. “So you get your penchant for playing in the water from your grandparents.” Kate tilted her head to the side. “I’ll take this opportunity to tell you, this is infinitely a much better venue than the stream.”
“Well, it’s warmer, at any rate,” Patrick said. “But I’d wager on a hot summer day, we could change your mind about that stream.”
Kate grinned. “I bet you could, too.”
“We never understood about the tubs when we were younger,” Gerald said. “Especially when our parents had a one built that was almost identical to the one at the Big House.”
Kate grinned. “That must have been quite a revelation for your later years—when you discovered the reason it was so large was that so your parents could share it.”
Patrick snickered. “Mmm, and then we decided to test out the premise ourselves. Should we spare your sensibilities, love, or should we tell you about the first time we coaxed pretty Pamela Prescott into the bath when our parents were away?”
“Who is Pamela Prescott?”
“Her family moved to Lusty for a few years back when we were teens. Her father worked on one of the area ranches, and he brought his family with him as he’d actually migrated down from up north. Most ranches don’t have room for the families of the ranch hands, but they rented space above the apothecary here in town. Mrs. Prescott took a job in the store.”
Kate covered her mouth with her hand but couldn’t prevent her laughter. “And you lured their poor, innocent daughter into the bath with you? Did your mother ever find out about that?”
“The jury is still out on that one,” Gerald said. “But our
fathers
found out, and that was certainly bad enough.”
“And yet you prefaced the telling of this tale with the words, the ‘first time.’” Kate looked at Patrick, and then up and over her shoulder at Gerald.
“You don’t miss much, do you?” Gerald didn’t appear to be bothered by that fact.
Kate recalled one of their exchanges earlier and couldn’t resist. “I’m so glad you noticed.”
“So am I,” Patrick said. “It will make life a lot more amenable for all concerned in the future if we keep that in mind, too.”
Kate relaxed against Gerald, her smile wide—partly because of the way Patrick had just said that, but mostly just in sheer delight of the moment she was living with these men.
“Why were you so adamant against ‘romance’?” Patrick picked up her hand and played with her fingers. Then he met her gaze. “Back in Washington, that first night we spoke. There was a fervency in your voice then. And yet, baby, you’re the most passionate woman I’ve ever known.”
Kate sighed. She’d already had a clue as to why she’d felt that way, and even though it had only been a couple of weeks that she’d been here, in Lusty, it had been long enough for her to understand something very important about herself.
“My parents are nothing like yours.”
“Few are, Kate,” Gerald said.
Kate shook her head. “I’m not talking about the fact that you have one mother and two fathers.”
“It’s called a ménage marriage—what our parents have, what our grandparents had.”
“Ménage marriage. I’ll remember that. But that isn’t what I meant. It’s that my parents are…” What could she say, really? How could she convey her lifetime of experience in this one, very basic facet of her life?
“I’m an only child, as were both of my parents. Our only extended family was my father’s uncle Donald and his wife. Dinners at our house were very quiet.” There for certain had never been a dinner like the one last night at the Big House. “I’ve been trying to recall, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen my parents kiss. Well, beyond a peck on the cheek. And my mother doesn’t smile very much.
“I equated her with the general condition known as ‘wife,’ and I wanted no part of that. I didn’t want to live her kind of life at all.”
“You’re not your mother, sweetheart,” Gerald said. “You’re your own unique woman—and you’re a woman of strength. When I look at you I think of my mother, and my grandmothers.”
“Thank you. I admire the women of your family greatly. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“I feel the same way,” Patrick said. “And there’s one more thing for you to consider, baby. You don’t have to live your life the way anyone tells you to. You can make your own choices and live it your way.”
Kate knew their words would stay with her a long time, and that she’d think about them in the nights to come when she was on her own.
The heat of the water, and the accumulated activities of the day combined to make Kate feel drowsy. She couldn’t hold back a yawn.
“I think we need to tuck you into bed, Kate.” Gerald scooped water over her to rinse the soap off.
“I don’t want this day to end.” That hadn’t been very coy of her, but then she never could see the sense in putting on a false front.
“The day has to end, but you don’t have to be alone when it does. We’ll spend the night with you, if you’ll let us.”
She should have been shocked at Gerald’s suggestion. Instead, she felt relieved. “I’d like that very much.”
“Are you sore, angel?”
She turned her head so she could meet Patrick’s eyes. It never occurred to her to pretend she didn’t know what he meant. Neither did it matter that she could feel the heat of embarrassment blooming on her face.
Surely to goodness I’ll get over my modesty before long.
She couldn’t see that she wouldn’t, with the liberties these two handsome men kept taking with her body.
Kate smiled and shook her head, and then responded with words to Patrick’s question. “Only a little. The cold water earlier and this bath have helped, I think.”
“Good. There are practical reasons to indulge in bathing, besides the purely hedonistic.” Patrick leaned over and kissed her.
When he stood and prepared to get out of the tub, her face was only inches away from his very stiff cock. Her belly clutched and her feminine bits shivered, and in that moment, as her mouth watered, Kate discovered a desire she never knew existed.
“Can I do to you what you did to me, use my mouth on you? I mean, is it even done?”
Patrick nearly tripped getting out of the tub. His cock became even more erect than it had been, something she wouldn’t have thought was possible.
Beneath her, Gerald’s harshly indrawn breath and the pulsing of his cock against her bottom let her know that both men seemed to like the suggestion inherent in her question.
“Do you want to, Katie?”
She never would have thought so before these men had come into her life. But now she knew she hungered for so much more than the lovemaking they’d already shared, as amazing as that had been. “I want to know everything, do everything with you both—only with you both.”
“Damn right only with us.” Gerald wrapped his arms around her and thrust his hips up, as if he would caress her with his engorged penis.
“Come here, sweetheart.” Patrick had gotten completely out of the tub and must have dried himself very quickly. Only a bit of dampness gleamed on his skin in the light. He held out his arms to her, a towel slung over his shoulder.
Gerald lifted her, and before she could blink, she was standing on the mat, being wrapped in that towel.
“To answer your question, baby, yes. It is done, and if you want to give us such a wonderful gift, you can be assured that we will both very eagerly receive it.”