Gene felt a stab of jealousy too. It was the first time he had ever actually seen his wife screwing with another man. It was all he could do to restrain himself… to keep from rushing into the midst of the lewd orgy and tearing them apart. Somehow, he knew that it would be the wrong thing to do. His year-old marriage to Nancy was already hanging in the balance; a scene now would kick it over the brink into dissolution. Swearing under his breath, he clenched his fists and watched helplessly.
Cheryl was screaming, "Frank! Why? Why? WHY?"
And, her husband, barely noting her presence, deep in his own ecstatic passion, answered with a choked, "Because!"
Then, the older woman was rushing blindly out of the bedroom, and Gene drew back as she rushed past him back toward her own room. He saw how emotionally wrought up she was, her heartbreaking sobs coming from deep in her soul, and he knew that after having witnessed the scene in the Hardings' bedroom, Cheryl would be vulnerable, ready to do almost anything to avenge it. He stared at the Hardings' door, which Cheryl had slammed shut after her as she made her headlong flight. What he had seen behind that door was etched into his mind also. The little bitch! I'll take her up on what she told me this morning! From now on… every woman I meet is going to be fair game!
He was on the point of following Cheryl down the hall and into her room, when the thought occurred to him that perhaps right then wasn't the best time to approach Frank's wife. Hell! Maybe she ought to stew a little first! It'll be easier to get next to her, later on! The fact is that Gene had never been able to handle a woman's tears. He just didn't know how to act, didn't know what to say. It was the one thing that tied up his glib lawyer's tongue… so he hesitated.
Charlotte appeared at the head of the stairs, her usually serene face showing concern. Spotting the rotund lawyer still standing in the open door of his and Nancy's bedroom, she asked, "What in the world's happening up here? I heard doors slamming and somebody crying."
"That was Cheryl."
"What happened? Do you know?"
"She just got a hard lesson in the facts of life!" His eyes bored into the closed door across the hall.
Her discerning gray-green eyes followed his gaze.
"Do you mean… Jim was…?" she began. "But, that isn't possible! Jim's hurt!"
"Not that bad, I guess! Both he and Frank are in there… with my wife!" he choked sourly.
"And, she saw them… Cheryl, I mean?"
"Yeah! She saw them all right!"
Charlotte was already hurrying down the passage toward the Paynters' room. "I'll have to see her and talk to her!" she breathed as she brushed past the lawyer.
"Wait a minute!" he called out to her. She was already disappearing into the Paynters' bedroom, leaving him standing alone.
"I'll be damned!"
Gene Barber had missed his chance and knew it. He turned and went back into his room uncorked the bottle of Scotch and drank another scalding mouthful of the potent whiskey. Christ! He was disgusted. Hell! There's nothing left to do but get drunk!
Charlotte found the distraught Cheryl curled into a ball in the middle of the bed sobbing and sniffling in her misery. Sitting down on the bed, the older woman stretched out a hand to smooth consolingly along Cheryl's shoulder. Her voice was low, full of sympathy. "You know, Cheryl, this could be the beginning of something very exciting for you and Frank… if you'll let it…"
"Oh, Charlotte!" Cheryl sniffled, trying to stop her tears as she sat up on the bed and found herself suddenly enfolded in the other woman's embrace. "I don't see how you can say it's the beginning of anything. It's the end… because Frank doesn't love me any more! H-He was… in your room… doing it… to Nancy Barber!"
"Listen, honey… when a man strays, he's trying to tell you something… and it's up to you to do something about it!" Charlotte told her, her hands roaming soothingly and caressingly over the other woman's smaller, petite body. "He's telling you that he's not getting what he wants… not being satisfied with what he is getting! Anyway, most men are not really one-woman men. They like variety!"
Knowingly, Charlotte's hand caressed and massaged her breasts, now, and Cheryl felt the same tingling arousal she had experienced before; now however there was no fear attached to it. She wanted to be petted a little by the older woman, almost as though she were a little girl, again, crawling up into her mother's lap to have a small hurt kissed away. Cheryl thought about what her hostess was saying.
"He's more like a tomcat!" Cheryl said scathingly. "First you… then Nancy!"
Charlotte's fingers found the zipper at the back of Cheryl's dress and lowered it; then, she was unhooking the bra snaps in back as she went on talking earnestly. "The thing of it is that most women are that way, too… but they don't realize it!"
"I'll never believe that!"
"The majority of women never get a chance to find out!" Charlotte said softly, as her hand went into the back of Frank's wife's dress smoothing along the satiny flesh and coming up under her loosened brassiere to cup caressingly the nakedness of a firm but softly pliant breast. Cheryl gasped as she became aware for the first time that her hostess, who was one of those women — in her mind — was undressing her… trying to seduce her.
"Charlotte! What…?"
"But, you're getting the chance to find out!" Charlotte murmured in her ear. "I'm going to turn you on, so you'll be a better wife for Frank… and maybe you'll find out that swinging with him will be more fun than you've ever had!"
"Swinging…?" Cheryl tried to writhe away from the other woman's embrace, protesting with an inarticulate, "Oh, p-please?"
"Swapping partners!" Charlotte explained. "That way you both get variety… but there's a great big plus to the whole thing that a lot of people overlook. After their men are all satisfied… that's when the real fun begins… with the women! A man gets all fucked out after just a few times, but a woman's got more on the ball. She can cum and cum, and keep cumming all night long!"
All the time she was talking, Charlotte deftly began removing Cheryl's dress, working the sleeves down over her arms one at a time, finally removing her bra to expose her nakedly from the waist up.
Unaccountably, the petite wife of Frank Paynter allowed the black-haired, older woman to do it. It was almost as though she were hypnotized by her voice… or perhaps it was the sudden, surging warmth that had begun to pervade her body, emanating from her loins and spreading outward causing her breasts to tingle with anticipation and her tiny, berry-like nipples to harden and swell. The sensations sang in her body like a prelude to the forbidden pleasures Charlotte was describing.
Her hand, soft, gentle, and knowing caressed the younger woman's breasts, her fingers teasingly tracing their white satin contours and ending always at a nipple, which she rolled between thumb and forefinger with a firm yet not painful presence.
Cheryl had tried to follow her reasoning. Let Frank have his little flings… but join in with him? Is that what she means? But, that means I'd have to do it with other men… and women! Somehow, she couldn't see herself in that role. Why… it's almost like some kind of prostitution… except that I'd be doing it with Frank's permission! And, then there was all of that about woman-woman sex afterward… after the men were too tired to continue. God! I couldn't do that!
Suddenly, she realized what Charlotte was doing to her. What am I thinking about? How did I ever let her get started undressing me…? Even though her body reached out yearningly for the forbidden sexuality Charlotte was offering her, her mind, the seat of reason, disciplined and censored the sensually lubricious signals her body was sending.