"But we've got to do something! We can't just let them get away with it!"
"Helen Peterson's been getting away with it for some time, as I've been led to believe. She's usually more discreet, but I have heard stories. We'll have to drop it, Laura."
"We can't!" she exclaimed, confused and terribly disappointed in her boss. "Company policy states…"
"I know what it states!" he declared, with such force she flinched back in her chair. "But I'm stating that the subject is closed! Drop it, Laura. Forget it."
They glared at each other until Chuck intervened. "Look, it's not such a big thing. It didn't cause any harm. It was after working hours. It goes on all the time. And the main thing is we've got to get along with each other in this department. Laura, forget it. I'll take you out to a big steak dinner tonight, and that'll make you forget it."
It was useless to argue with them. She didn't have enough power. She gave in and said she'd forget all about it, and she returned to her work with a vigor fueled by impotent rage. Each time she saw one piece of data from the pilot plant, each time she chanced to see it through the window, she was starkly brought back to seeing them naked, fucking each other, and it made the whole organization seem dirty and rotten.
Shortly after four, Chuck said he was going to get the charts from the pilot plant, and Laura got up from her desk and said, "That's my job. I'll do it."
"Well, I thought maybe…"
"Don't," she said. "We've all got to get along here."
Heads turned in her direction as Laura drove to the pilot plant, for it was unusual to see her pretty face set in such harsh lines. One of the maintenance men whistled at her as she drove past him, and she resolved to fire people like that, too, when she worked her way into becoming the first female vice president in Consolidated's history. Her anger lasted until she was out of the car and walking toward the little concrete building, and then the sight of the window and the remembrance of what she'd seen through it diluted her rage with the soft, sinking fear of the brute inside.
Smiling at her from behind his battered desk, Perry Coleman looked more like a snake than a brute. His teeth were so white and his lips were so thin. His nose was like a hawk's, though, and his eyes were as dark as his hair. Except for his shoulders, his body didn't fill Out the blue coveralls he wore. It was the same body that had been joined to that of a woman, right here in this place, not twenty-four hours before. Those hands clasped behind his neck had mauled feminine flesh, and those lips had kissed it and sucked on it and made it all hot and feverish and as damp as Laura's loins felt. And, the bastard, he was grinning at her, knowing he'd defeated her and making it all the more difficult for her to go through with the charade of normalcy.
"Where are the charts and data?" she asked coolly.
"Right there on my desk," he said. "Pick them up.
She'd been too angry to notice them. Briskly, she took them in her hand and turned on her heel; and when she was but three steps from his desk, he sent a hot chill up her spine with his taunting, dirty words.
"Sure like to pick you up in town some night. Sure like to get my hands on that pretty ass of yours, honey. Or some afternoon. You could stand lookout at the window for sneaky little snoopers while I slip it to you doggy style."
She turned on him, ready to blast him into the floor with a well-placed verbal salvo, but the sight of him grinning at her, licking his lips with the tongue he'd used on the company whore, was just too much for her. She spun on her heel and left slamming the door behind her, and the sound of his laughter could be heard following her, just as those other words had followed her.
Chapter 3
A part of the terms of Perry Coleman's parole was that he must stay out of bars, but his probation officer was an understanding man and he condoned Perry's regular visits to the Happy Hour. It was an ordinary enough saloon, catering to the working man. He'd been in bars just like it throughout the country before he'd been busted. They served only beer, as far as the law knew, but the hard stuff was available if you wanted it. There were two coin-operated pool tables on which the patrons played for up to a dollar on Thursday nights, up to fifty on Fridays, paydays. They cashed Consolidated paychecks at the Happy Hour, and it was a big temptation for Perry to keep out of the big money pool games on the big money nights, for he knew he could beat the wage earners on the tables, but he had to keep his nose clean. He didn't want to go back to jail, and he almost liked his job, so the pleasure of fleecing a few drunken laborers out of their hard-earned cash just wasn't enough of a temptation to yield to. So he went to the Happy Hour every night after work, and during the time it took him to drink four beers, he gabbed with the other Consolidated employees and reflected on how much better off he was here instead of in jail, and occasionally he picked up one of the broads who ventured in. On that Thursday night, because he was broke, his beers were bought on credit, and he didn't want to use his credit to buy the drinks necessary to pick up a chick, even though he was terribly horny.
****Perry Coleman wanted to sit and savor his close escape, or more correctly, the victory he'd won over the establishment. And he wanted to think about how he could make that victory even sweeter. Sure, it had been a gas putting tight-ass Laura Dandridge on when she was leaving the pilot plant, but how much better it would be to rub his victory in, to have her hustling her luscious little body out to the pilot plant each day for a fast fuck? He'd always wanted to try her. The pent-up sexual energies inside him needed a lot of release, and he'd have liked to take it out on her. There had to be a way, and it wasn't with the direct approach he'd used that day. Words wouldn't seduce her, but other things would.
He should have been content with Helen, and in any other circumstances he would have been. Ace out her boy friend, whoever he was, move in on her, and live it up for a while. Still he was horny for Laura, the sneak, the hard-up virgin. That was the way with Perry, the more ass he got, the more he wanted. Far from satisfying him, Helen had only turned him on more, now that it was over. But that was to be expected, for he was way behind in the cunt department after having spent five years behind bars. So he'd forget about Laura for tonight and use what he'd learned about Helen to get it on with her again that night. He had her address from the phone book, and that should be enough. He. finished his fourth beer and left the Happy Hour.
Helen's address was a new, expensive apartment house, one of the best in Sulfur City. Still in his work coveralls, he had no business being there, but Perry used his confidence and his coveralls to stroll past the swimming pool like a workman called in to fix an air-conditioning unit. He had an erection when he rang her bell.
"Who is it?" Unmistakably, it was her voice.
"Perry Coleman. From work. Lemme in."
There was a pause and she said, "I can't now."
"Sure you can," he insisted. "I got something to tell you. It's important. About work. Lemme in."
"What about work? Did you tell somebody what we did?"
"Lemme in."
She did. She had on a flowered robe, short, and beltless and he could see a lot of her body through it, a body he'd known, all hot and giving, a body he wanted more of, right away. Though she was backing off and holding out her palms at him, he tried to reach her, until the big blond kid in the towel appeared from her balcony.
"Who's this guy?" he asked.
"Perry Coleman. The guy I got it on with at work yesterday. Perry. this is Bobby Barker. He works in Transportation."
Surveying the frowning young giant, Perry said, "He's a fork lift operator. I've seen him. You really go for the crumbs, don't you, Helen?"
The big guy started forward, but Helen ably stopped him by plastering her body against his side, not caring now that her robe fell open. Smiling, she said, "You've got no complaints, Perry. I balled you and maybe I'll ball you again. But that's for work. Bobby's for here."