Curious, Nancy picked the envelope up and opened it. It was heavy with glossy pictures… snapshots of her. She gasped. There she was, stark naked and being pawed by strange men with tattoos on their arms and leers on their faces! Her own expression was one of drunken abandon and wild ungovernable excitement. She looked up, nostrils flaring, at a grinning Tom. "Any of those you want blown up, just let me know."
"You… you…" words failed her as her face reddened in shame and anger. "You… scum!"
He frowned then grinned again. "That's a little harsh, I'd say."
"You took these?"
"Thought maybe you'd like a little memory of a wild night. Something to look at on a long winter night. Something for you and Allan to enjoy."
Nancy stared up at his red, grinning face. She was too stunned and angry to say anything. She looked at the pictures once again. There were no negatives in the envelope. She looked up at him with real hatred and fear coming over her. Quietly, she asked, "Okay, what do you want?"
"Well, for one thing, I want another drink. Nice Scotch Allan keeps."
"Don't be funny. How much?"
Tom shrugged and looked innocent. "I don't know what you mean."
One lacquered fingernail tapped the envelope. "How much do you want for the pictures and negatives? You're blackmailing me, aren't you?"
Tom looked incredulous. "Me? Blackmail? Oh, baby, have you got the wrong idea. Listen… I just took those because I thought you'd like having them. Honest! Hell, it was just a joke."
Nancy looked at him dubiously. "Honest? I can have the negatives?"
"Hell, yes! I don't have them with me. Listen, I want us all to be friends! Blackmail? Believe me, that's the farthest thing from my mind. Hell, all we have to do is go on being friends. Hell, I don't want you doing anything that you don't really enjoy."
Nancy frowned, a cold bar of fear forming in the pit of her stomach. "What?"
Tom waved a beefy hand and was very casual. "I'm whipping up something for a client. Be nice if you were there, you know, just to… well, entertain a little."
"Entertain?"
"Yeah, you know. Fool around. Like last night. I wouldn't ask you to do anything that you wouldn't want to do."
"Tom, are you serious?" She sat up in bed, holding a sheet around her big pointed breasts.
Tom's expression changed completely. He went from a benign chuckling state, to a nasty seriousness. "You'll see just how serious I am if you don't show up when and where I tell you!"
"T… Tom, you're… insane!"
"Am I?" His boozy bloodshot eyes stared down at her. "We'll see. Listen, I don't want money from you. All I want you to do is what you're dying to do and haven't got enough guts."
"W… what?"
"Don't try to snow me. I know what you're like under all that good breeding and debutante crap. Listen, I saw you during that movie." His beefy face was thrust in front of hers and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. With a sudden snarl and a swiftness and strength that surprised her, he snatched at the sheets and pulled them down. Involuntarily, Nancy huddled defensively, putting her legs together and putting her hands over her breasts and pubic hair. Tom smirked down at her naked cowering. "See… I know what you're like. I watched you watching that Scorpio film. Well, I'm going to tell you something." His voice dropped low. "I'm going to stage a thing just like that. I'm going to set it up, and guess who's going to star? You!"
Nancy was speechless with horror as she tried to hide her defenselessly naked body from his contemptuous gaze.
He laughed harshly. "Okay, blackmail. If you want those pictures back, you'll do it. You'll do as I say and when I say it. If not… copies go to your husband, old Allan the stuff shirt, and copies go to the Board of Allan's bank. In fact, I'll sell those pies anywhere I can. That's it."
"You filthy scum!"
Tom straightened up with an easy grin. "Maybe, but you be there or explain a lot to Allan. I'm sure he'll understand."
"Drunken bastard!"
Tom looked at his empty glass and nodded. "Maybe. But you'd better be there when I call." He chuckled, wagging his head. "I don't know why I'm going on about it. Hell, you'll be there."
She flared up, almost shouting. "What gives you that wild idea?"
He looked at her for a minute before he spoke. When he spoke, it was with a voice that was quiet and easy, carrying the conviction of truth. "You'll be there. You'll come and I'll give you the negatives. But you'll be there, because you really want to be there. You're basically an exhibitionist at heart… an exhibitionist and a masochist… and an over-sexed broad."
Nancy was too stunned. Stupidly, she said, "What?"
He went on, quiet, confident. "You love it, Nancy. You're dying for it. Admit it, you loved it all, the motion picture, the men last night!"
"N… no!"
"You love it. I'm an alcoholic, but I know what you are, and you'll be there." He sauntered to the bedroom door and held up the glass. "Thanks for the drinkee-poo and I'll be calling you." He stepped out, closing the door, leaving Nancy to face herself.
And that had been the beginning of it all. The blackmail had started with that one drunken night. And it was as if Nancy Dodge had fallen into a quagmire of quicksand; the more she struggled, the deeper she went into the evil… and her torment and guilt knew no bounds.
Tom Nelson had been right. She had gone. She had driven to the estate of Fred Hartman for the first time and met Tom. He had been half-drunk and smug, sure of himself. Like he had said, she had gone. She had to. Tom was clever… he arranged the party to coincide with Allan being out of town. Besides, he was right! She was in a state of near sexual frenzy for days before the party. On the day of the party, she did housework and shopping, but she could think of nothing else. By afternoon, she was drinking and so horny and excited that she could barely contain herself.
She drove slowly, carefully, so sexually excited she could barely see the road. She told herself she had to go… she was being blackmailed. And… the very thought of being forced to do something lewd against her will set off a flood-wall of lust in her. The more she drank, the more reckless she became… just once, once to give in to raw lust and depravity… two men… other things…!!
The more excited she became, the more controlled her behavior. She was calculating and carefully dressed as she left the house. She was cool and remotely polite as she was introduced to Fred Hartman. She looked at him and didn't know he was a man who would change her life. He was polite and lofty… tall and thin and bored looking. Nancy noticed that everyone treated her with great politeness. Rita was no where to be seen, and the party consisted of only a handful of middle-aged men who looked successful.
She was led to a guest room where her every wish was attended to. She had a private and luxurious bath and food and fine Scotch to drink. A man, a servant and chauffeur that Nancy was going to come to know as Herman, showed her a cigarette box carved out of teakwood. "Hashish, mam. It would help if you had some." Nancy didn't… that first time… but later she came to need and rely on it.
She had a television set that Herman turned on. "Closed circuit," he explained as he left the room.
Nancy gazed at the set and saw a film of a naked young girl writhing on the bed. Cynically, she smiled. They were going to show her smokers, porny films, to get her in the mood. With a fatalistic masochism that made her feel depraved and excited, she poured herself a drink and watched the lewd and obscene conduct on the television.
They gave her all the time in the world to get ready. She thought they would come for her and rip her clothes off and drag her out to be ravished and raped. They didn't. They gave her time to think… and drink. They gave her time to look at the teakwood box. She looked more closely at it: a naked couple were carved on the lid, writhing together, their mouths sucking on each other's genitals.
She looked away and drank. They gave her plenty of time to get acquainted with her surroundings. They gave her time to watch the closed circuit TV. She saw a close-up of a naked man sitting in a chair. His erection was enormous and obscene. A young girl… very young… was obediently kneeling between his thighs and holding the shaft of his hard cock with her fingers. Her tongue lashed out and wantonly curled around the swelling mushroom head. Her wet lips played slippery tricks, sliding and sucking the very tip of the lust-thickened penis. The girl's lewd teasing was obviously having its effect on the man… he grabbed her head brutally with both his hands and, at the same time, savagely thrust his hips upward and forward, sinking his thick shaft of hard flesh deep in the girl's mouth. Nancy watched the girl's face as she closed her eyes and her wet lips closed tightly around the shaft… and her cheeks hollowed as she sucked.