"The blackmailed wife" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jensen Peter)

CHAPTER TWO

Ann listened dejectedly to the ringing on the other end of the line. It had been ringing for about ten minutes this time. It was the fifth time she had tried to call since arriving home four or five hours ago. It was nearly dark outside and Julia still didn't answer. The longer she waited, the more worried Ann became.

She went to the kitchen cabinet and reluctantly got down a three-quarter full bottle of Scotch. She had promised herself this morning that there would be no more of this – but she was so nervous now from the waiting that she just had to have something to soothe her frayed nerves. She poured half a glass, put the bottle back up in the shelf and returned to the living room.

Though it was now dark outside, she didn't bother to turn on the light. The streetlight in front of the house gave her enough light to move around in without falling over the furniture. Somehow, she didn't feel like facing the brightness just this moment. She had to come to an understanding with Julia on the phone before she wanted to see anything again. She picked up the phone by the couch and dialed again – she had done this so often, she could do it in the dark without a mistake. She let it ring for what seemed an almost eternity – no answer.

Damn it, she muttered under her breath as she took a long drink from the straight Scotch in her glass and felt the soothing warm liquid hit bottom. She had eaten nothing all day and the impact was immediate.

The warmth crept through her body, causing a slight tingling sensation to ripple across her skin – she raised the glass again and finished it. It felt good – she could see the smoke in the dim light from her cigarette curling slowly up to the ceiling – it was funny to watch – almost seemed to have a purpose – it knew where it was going for a moment – up – and then it seemed to waver and diffuse into funny little wisps in all directions – finally disappearing into nothingness. She giggled from the alcohol. I might just disappear into nothingness, she thought.

She returned to the kitchen and filled her glass again. And after reaching up to put the bottle back she changed her mind, carried it with her back to the living room and placed it on the coffee table in front of her.

She started to call Julia again but decided against it for awhile. It had only been a few minutes since the last attempt. She drained another glass of Scotch instead and then leaned back on the couch, lighting another cigarette. The alcohol had a soothing effect on her.

It was rather warm and she opened the housecoat she was wearing to expose her body to the slight breeze that came in through the open window. She could see its contours stretching down in front of her. It was beautiful, she had to admit. The rounded peaks of her firm breasts stood up defiantly and she could look through the canyon between them down to the soft golden triangle that proved she was really a natural blonde. She was proud of it – and yet, she mused, it was the reason for all of her troubles now. If she had just been a plain-Jane none of the sordid things that had been forced on her in the last few months would ever have occurred. On the other hand, she probably would never have gotten Dave either – if she hadn't been beautiful she thought as she took another drink of the stinging liquor.

She wondered if there couldn't be a middle-ground somewhere – something in between – that must be where real happiness lies.

So many of her almost, but not quite plain, girl friends from school were settled down and happily married with children. They would never be bothered by the curse of being wanted just for their striking beauty, they had to give something else to attract – something that came from within them. How she wished that had been true for her – but it would be now, she vowed. The hazy effect the liquor was producing seemed to simplify things. She pondered the plus points of having a beauty like this…

She had been elected campus queen of her high school when she was eighteen. Of course, she had been chased by all the young cocky males in her class but they had all seemed so immature and had not really appealed to her. Nevertheless, she had gone out with several of them and had engaged in the usual back seat petting with some who appealed to her a little more than the others.

She had even on occasions let them brush their hands over her full ripe breasts, but despite their pleadings she had never let it go farther. It had aroused her somewhat, she admitted to herself, but she had always overcome this by strict concentration on the moral values her mother had drilled into her.

Her mother was extremely religious and had made Ann attend church with her without fail each Sunday when most of her other friends had been running off to the beach on picnics. Her mother also gave persistent warnings on the evils of petting and had instilled into her the idea that a girl should at all costs save herself for her wedding night. Ann had accepted this and deported herself accordingly.

She had met Dave at the Rose Bowl ceremonies in Pasadena. He had been a junior at UCLA and in charge of arranging the float processions for the Rose Parade. As delegate of her school, she was to be assigned to one of them. He had given her one of the best positions on the most beautiful float in the procession. He had called her several weeks later for a date and they had gone to his annual fraternity dance at the University. She had caused quite a stir among his fraternity brothers and more than one had tried to get her off into the corner and get her phone number or a quick kiss. She had detected also the envious looks she had received from the other girls.

Dave had been considered to be one of the best catches on campus. He was tall and handsome and very wealthy. His grandfather had left him a trust estate of several million dollars which he would get on his thirtieth birthday. He had done this, according to the will, in order that his grandson would learn to support himself before being spoiled by the money. He was a wise old man and Dave had admired him very much. Ann had learned all of this long after she had fallen in love with Dave so it had not even been a factor in their relationship.

She had never gone all the way with him during their courtship, but several times it had been close. On more than one occasion, it had been all she could do to hold herself back.

Often, in compromise, she had let him reach under her sweater, unfasten her bra, and massage her exposed breasts while they were petting in the back seat of his car. Once they had gone to one of the fraternity dances and she drank too much. Afterwards, when they were parked at the beach and he had massaged her breasts into maddening hardness with his fingers, he had taken one of the nipples in his mouth. The gentle playing of his tongue around it had driven her to near madness and she had hardly noticed when his hand had slipped under her skirt and begun caressing be tween her creamy white thighs.

"No Dave, no!" she had gasped, sensing that she might not be able to hold him back this time.

But his hands had kept on stroking her, roving the full length of her body, over her flat white stomach and on down to the nylon covered softness of her pubic hair. He stroked her there slowly, insinuating his middle finger under her soft nylon panties into the moist virginal split of her vagina. It started a tingling sensation that she had never known before and she squirmed around on the car seat beneath his hand. Their heavy breathing in the car fogged the windows.

"Dave, not now, darling, not now," she had gasped into his ear.

He had paid no attention to her and she had heard the metallic sound of his zipper opening – and suddenly – a blunt fleshy pressure against the top of her thigh. It was his prick! She had never felt one before and the muscles of her body contracted involuntarily at the strange touch.

She had been ready to pull away when suddenly his finger between her legs had probed into her wet vagina. It had sent an electric shock of rippling pleasure up through her that froze her to the seat. She could not move for the moment as the pleasure raced around inside her and he had taken this to mean she had succumbed.

He moved her hand over his cock and with his own fingers wrapped hers around it. She clenched them tight, hearing his answering groan of pleasure through her own gasping breath. She had never expected it would be so enormous. It seemed her fingers could barely go around it. Without thinking, she began to massage the thick outer skin back and forth up and down the hard shaft. Nothing else in the world had ever felt so good or so complete. He was digging his single finger deep into her cunt that was wet from the juices excitedly seeping from its lips. It was stretching the tiny ring of her still intact hymen and she was afraid it would split and end her virginity on the spot but there was nothing she could do about it. The thrills he was giving her were racing too wildly through her to resist and she relaxed her inner thighs to give him greater access to her and at the same time increased the speed of her own strokings. With each gentle push she could feel Dave's prick jerking into greater hardness though a moment ago she would hot have dreamed that possible.

He had suddenly tried to roll over on top of her and, at the last minute she had clamped her thighs tightly together, trapping is rockhard penis between them. Dave had struggled like a madman to lift it up and get the tip into the opening of her wet, throbbing vagina but she knew she must wait even though she wanted it as badly as he did. She struggled with all her strength against him and inadvertently her grip tightened around his straining cock. Just as he had forced the head under the legband of her panties, and the throbbing nose was poised between the splayed open lips of her cunt, she felt it begin to jerk out of control. Dave gasped and she felt a hot, thick stream of liquid spurt from it, until her pubic hair was drenched with the warm, sticky sperm. It covered the insides of her thighs wetly and dripped down between her legs to moisten the car seat beneath her buttocks.

Dave emitted a final groan and collapsed over her body. He was mumbling abject apologies into her ear for his failure, seemingly unaware that she had resisted. He must have thought he had let her down. She stroked the back of his neck tenderly, consoling him with soft whispers of love while he continued gasping for several long minutes. Finally, he had sat up on the seat, helping her to rise beside him. He had held her hand silently for a few moments and then fixed his clothes, acting sheepish.

She had scolded him afterwards when she was smoothing down her skirt and had made him promise never to do that again – she reminded him that she was just flesh and blood also and that it was just as much his responsibility as hers to not let themselves go too far before they were married. He had apologized and had never made any real attempt on her virginity after that.

Upon graduation from UCLA, he had gone to Pensacola to take his flight training and afterwards, they were married. It had been a wonderful wedding night and she felt a complete woman to be able to give herself freely to him. He had been an accomplished lover and Ann had suspected that he had not come to their marital bed as pure as she, but it didn't really matter as long as he was faithful after they were married. Besides, it was a man's place to teach the woman in the arts of love and how else could he learn? She had heard the boys laughing sometimes together in the fraternity house about their trips over the border to Tijuana on holidays and suspected that this was where they were all gaining their experience.

They had moved to San Diego to set up house-keeping after Dave had received his orders stationing him there and had joined the social life with all the other officers and wives. The Friday night dances at the Officer's Club was about the extent of their going out other than bridge games at friends' houses and they settled down into the routine of married life. It had been wonderful and Ann had never been happier any time in her life.

Dave had proven to be the perfect husband in almost everyway. There were rumors about most of the other couples on the base but Ann and Dave had been able to stay aloof from this. It would have been difficult to even fabricate gossip about these two devoted young lovers. Ann remembered Mrs. Leary saying once they certainly typified her vision of what the Adam and Eve relationship must have been. That was before the serpent entered the garden, Ann thought, bitterly, and sipped more of her glass of Scotch.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the phone. How long had she been lying here thinking? She swung her legs over the edge of the couch and reached for the phone on the table next to it. She could feel the Scotch now and almost knocked over the lamp trying to turn on the light. She finally reached it and flooded the room with brightness. She looked at the clock on the mantle as she picked up the phone. It was almost midnight, she had been lying here for over five hours.

"Hello?" she said into the phone.

"Hello, Ann," a familiar feminine voice answered at the other end, "this is Julia."

Ann's heart skipped a beat and she said quickly, "Oh, Julia, I've been trying to reach you all day, I have the most wonderful news…"

"Yes, you sound like you've been celebrating, how much have you had to drink?"

"Not much," Ann answered guiltily, "I've just had a few shots while I've been lying here thinking."

"Well, don't think too much," Julia told her, "I called to remind you about the party out at Max's house tomorrow night."

"That's why I was trying to call you," Ann answered quickly, "I can't go, I got a cable from Dave this morning and he's coming home in ten days." She paused for a moment and then said, almost pleading, "Remember what you promised when he came home?"

There was a long pause at the other end of the line Ann held her breath silently praying. Those pictures could destroy hers and Dave's happiness, for the rest of their lives.

Finally Julia spoke, "Now, dear, he won't be home for ten days, we can talk about it tomorrow night at the party."

"Oh, please, Julia, please," Ann pleaded, "I can't go again! Not just before Dave comes home. I just can't!"

"Nonsense, dear, it won't hurt, what does one more time matter? He'll never know. Remember, I've always told you that what they don't know doesn't hurt them."

"I know what you said," Ann replied, "but I just can't do it to him, I've done too much already. Please – please, Julia. You promised."

"That's enough, Ann," the voice became harsh on the other end of the line. "I told you we would discuss it tomorrow night after the party – you wouldn't want those pictures to be waiting for Dave at the base when he returns, would you? Particularly not the one of you and that fat Mexican. You remember that one, don't you, my dear?" There a mocking tone to Julia's voice now.

"Julia, please, please!" Ann was whimpering into the phone and tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I'll do anything you say, just please, please give me those awful pictures before Dave comes home."

"See you tomorrow night, dear, and then we can make some arrangement. Don't you be all messy from crying, either. We have some important people down from Hollywood and Max wants to impress them – he's counting on you and if you're nice to his friends you may get them back."

There was a click at the other end of the line. Julia had hung up. Ann sobbed softly into the dead line for several minutes before she dropped the phone back into its cradle.

She fell limply back on the couch, reached for the half-full glass of Scotch and drained it straight down. Droplets ran loosely down the edge of her mouth. The burning sensation dulled her senses and she poured herself another… and later another… trying to forget she would have to go tomorrow night for Dave's sake if nothing else.

She couldn't bear for him to know the depths to which she had sunk and the degradation she had been forced to endure while he was gone. It would destroy his love for her.

She poured the last of the Scotch, drained her glass and slumped over on the couch. Her loose robe fell open to expose the lush, ripe beauty that was the cause of all her troubles. Unconsciousness swept over her, blocking out the horrible memories. But, it was not long until the dreams came – dreams she had endured for what seemed an eternity and yet had been only a few short months… even in her sleep she suffered from the curse of beauty…