"Hollister," J.B. said, putting one arm around Jack's shoulder, and at the same time taking the liberty to do the same with Pam, he started to walk them toward a table loaded with a glittering array of bottles and glasses. Despite his tightness, the old man loved good liquor and never stinted in that department. "Hollister," he said again. "I like you. You have a great future with our company." Jack felt his heart begin to hammer. Was this going to lee it? he wondered. Was J.B. going to make the announcement now that he was to be the new vice-president?
But it wasn't going to be that easy. J.B. went on talking in the same general vein, but saying nothing definite. His arm around Pam's shoulder had slipped down to her waist, and his hand was comfortably near the base of her breast. She wiggled nervously. J.B. kept casting glances over toward Anna, as if he wished he had an extra arm for her, too. She stood, a few feet away, watching the clumsily joined trio, an enigmatic half-smile on her lovely face.
Pam had a chance to free herself from J.B.'s unwanted embrace when he offered to make them some drinks. She shuddered, feeling as if a toad had been crawling on her body where J.B. had touched her. Her dress was low in the back and his clammy, bony hand had trailed across her bare flesh. When J.B. came up to her again, she deftly moved away when he once again tried to touch her. His narrow sunken face clouded, but he quickly regained control. Stiffly, he turned around and began to talk to Anna.
"For God's sake!" Jack whispered to Pam, dragging her out of earshot of the boss. "Can't you be a little friendlier with J.B.? He's trying to be nice to you." Pam listened in open-mouthed wonder to her husband's words.
"You mean you want…?" she spluttered, but Jack shushed her as J.B. came up to them.
"You certainly make a lovely couple," he said with one of his humorless smiles. "I haven't had much of a chance to get to know your wife, Hollister, but I think that's a situation that will soon be remedied. I have plans for you, my boy. Plans that will demand that we see a lot more of one another socially." He paused to see if his words had taken effect. They had. Jack's face was tense with strain, waiting for the magic words that would give him what he wanted most. He was quite willing at that moment to offer J.B. the use of his wife for the night, if the old man had asked.
He'd do anything to be vice-president!
Slowly J.B. began to insinuate himself around Pam again. The more he drank the bolder he became, until even Jack became a little embarrassed. The old man was no longer paying much attention to Anna. Apparently, realizing that she was an employee, he felt she would always be there for the asking. It was Pam who mattered to him now, and perhaps part of her attraction to him was that the winning of her would involve an exercise in pure naked power. He secretly disliked the tall, athletic, handsome Jack and delighted in using the promise of the vice-presidency as a lever to take the other man's beautiful, eminently desirable wife.
Pam eventually had to use the only excuse she could – a trip to the powder room – to escape J.B.'s ever-present grasp.
"Jack!" she said, gripping his arm tightly when she came back into the room, before J.B. could corner her again. "I can't stand any more of this! If you don't tell that horrible old man to leave me alone, then I will!"
Jack's handsome young face paled. "For Christ's sake, you can't do that!" he exclaimed in a strained whisper. "That would be the end for me!"
Tears started in Pam's eyes as she heard her husband's selfish unfeeling words. But she instantly calmed herself. "Very well," she said coldly. "But there's nothing to stop me from being sick. You know how weak we women are. I'm going home with a headache. Give me the keys to the car."
Jack wanted to argue with her – make her stay and butter up J.B. some more, but he detected the edges of hysteria in Pam's icy manner and was mortally afraid of a scene. Then, suddenly, he asked her to take a taxicab home, and went with her to the boss while she made her excuse. J.B. was obviously annoyed to be losing his prey, but not as much as Jack had feared. The old bastard must have about burnt out his libido by now, pawing over Pam, he thought bitterly. Why does life get to be so hard?
"I want to talk to you, my boy," J.B. said when Pam had left. He led Jack into the library. "I was going to make the announcement tonight that would make you vice-president," he said bluntly, "but I don't think the timing is quite right… yet." He looked at Jack suggestively. "I feel that a man's wife is an important adjunct to his career, and I realized tonight that I don't know yours very well." He paused. "That must be remedied."
Jack swallowed painfully. So near and yet so far, he thought sadly. It only Pam had been a little more… accommodating! "Anything you say," he said aloud.
"Wives often… hide their real natures in front of their husbands," J.B. went on. "I feel it would be… a valuable experience if… Mrs. Hollister and I could have a… private meeting. Could you arrange that?"
You rotten shit! Jack's mind screamed. You want to fuck my wife in exchange for the vice-presidency but don't have the guts to come out and say it! Jack felt a rush of loathing come over him and for a moment he was afraid he was going to pass out. I should tell him to shove the company and everything else up his ass! he thought wildly. But he knew J.B. would never ruffle a feather. He would just simply give him his notice and it would have all vanished like smoke – the vice-presidency, the job, security, the good life – all out the window because of his wife's Goddamned sacrosanct pussy!
"I'll see what I can set up, J.B.," he said, his face expressionless.
"You do that, my boy, and then perhaps I'll have some good news for you."
There it was, clear as crystal… the vice-presidency for his wife's body. And he knew he'd make the trade… if he could find some way to make Pam see the light.
The rest of the evening was a haze for Jack. Perhaps to torment him, J.B. spent most of his time talking to Harry Steers. Trying to rub it in, Jack thought bitterly. But there was no real danger from that direction now that he knew what the old lecher was after. Harry's wife was as ugly as a mud fence. Left to himself, Jack began to get very drunk. He was propping up the mantelpiece with one shoulder, a large drink gripped tightly in one fist, staring moodily out a window into the black night, when he sensed someone at his elbow.
"I thought you'd forgotten all about me," a soft voice said into his ear.
It was Anna!
She had watched the whole scenario between Pam, Jack and J.B. Anna was far too experienced in the grubby ways of the world to be horrified by the little drama, but she couldn't help feeling a sharp pang of sympathy for Pam. Her encounter with the younger woman tonight had intensified her liking for her. There goes me five or six years ago, she thought bitterly, remembering her own confusing marriage. And now, what am I going to do but stick another knife in her by seducing her husband! Actually, she should thank me. Turning on her most seductive manner, she determined to make a good job of it.
"Sorry," Jack said, his voice thick from the alcohol. "Got a lot on my mind tonight."
"At a party? Let me see if I can do something about that." She was standing close, and Jack slowly became aware that one of her large lush breasts was pressing against his arm. He could feel the warm, billowy softness of it through her dress. Jack's body stiffened as he remembered how he had wanted to fuck Anna for days now, and had been frustrated in his intentions time after time. What about tonight? Pam had gone home. He was on his own, not expected home for hours, and Anna was sounding very friendly.
Experimenting, he moved his arm, dragging it a few inches across Anna's tantalizingly soft tit, wondering if it was an accident it was so near, giving her every chance to pull away.
She didn't. If anything, she moved closer, so that now both her large cushiony mounds were in contact with his benumbed arm.