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Bob looked at the two of them. Something was going on between the two of them, something more than he knew. He sensed he was being tested but he wasn't sure for what. Sex had to have something to do with it, it was in every look Mona gave him. How, he wondered did Leo put up with it? The whites of his knuckles showed as he gripped the arm of his chair and he decided to risk everything. "Actually, there isn't a damn thing I can do for Leo that any other guy with a license can't do."

The two of them exchanged a long look that broke into a pleasant smile. Leo turned to Bob. "Good for you, you've got guts enough to admit it. You're my kind of man!"

Bob was thunderstruck. He had gambled, trusted the truth and had won. He couldn't quite catch his breath or believe himself. He had risked everything and won! Leo was up and swatting him on the back and Mona was slowly sinking into the chair; her soft flesh seemed to flow into the chair and meet with its contours as she never took those slightly depraved eyes from Bob's face. She looked like a hungry feline creature, eager to devour its prey.

The next hour was like a dream. Leo McKern was offering Bob a chunk of his insurance and assuring him that if he did a good job, the whole insurance program was his to write and administer. Leo leveled a finger. "Your honesty got you this far, remember that." Facts and figures were thrown around and Bob had to ask for certain papers and facts of his own. An application was taken and Leo McKern signed with a strong thick swirl and a check was made out for the first year's premium and Bob sat back, a suddenly successful agent. And all the time, Mona never took her eyes from his sweating and startled face. She sat with her legs tucked underneath her, showing a lot, almost too much, of her inner thigh. All the time she was watching him and he was trying hard not to pretend or to notice.

He found himself standing in the parking lot, flush from drinks and the wild success of having made a big sale and all the time an image of Mona McKern was in his mind when he was leaving, when he got to his feet, Mona had risen sticking her pelvis out first and her dress slipped so high that he thought he caught a glimpse of the tight band of her panties. He had looked away and shook hands with Leo.

Now he stood dumbfounded. That woman had done everything but rape him with her eyes and her husband never seemed to notice or mind. And, while they talked, he kept excusing himself to go to the bathroom or make drinks or a private, long distance call and he left the two of them alone. Very little was said when Leo was out of the room, very little of any consequence as they chatted about the weather and the town and hotel. Yet torrid looks were exchanged and once, in a lazy, languid, cock teasing way, Mona leaned back in the chair so that the nipples of her breasts jutted and were perfectly formed, hard and unyielding wider the dress, and, with her breasts jutting out so that her cleavage met and moved, she slowly uncrossed her legs, spreading them slightly so that the hem of her dress barely covered her crotch and Bob felt his mouth go dry as he looked down and thought he could see the forming swelling lips of her vagina pressed against the band of her panties all slightly in the dark caused by the hem of her dress.

His hands trembled as she slowly recrossed her legs and he saw the naked flesh of her thigh, long and white and inviting.

He stood by his car and smacked himself in the forehead. Never had he seen such an attractive woman as Mona McKern. And never had a woman thrown herself at him so completely. How could it be that Leo couldn't see it. He shook his head in wonder at the whole evening. Nothing was real, everything was happening too fast and the blood was pounding through his body and his penis swelling again as he thought of the lazy brazenly bold looks and movements of Mona.

He drove home in a daze. The first thing he did was pick up the phone when he got to the house and dialed Carol. He was going to shout the news into the phone and quickly establish himself as number one bread-earner again. He was going to floor her with the exciting news. No. He hung up right in the middle of dialing. No, damn it, he wasn't going to call her when she was babysitting that bitch of a mother-in-law. No, he was not going to do that.

He paced back and forth, rubbing his palms together, savoring his moment and position. Leo was right; he had gotten the business because he was bold enough to be honest! That was what Leo was looking for! Hell, there was no telling how far he could go as a salesman if he was bold enough to speak right out! No, he thought, pouring himself a drink, a healthy belt of Scotch, I'm not going to blather all over the phone. I'll play it casual, wait until she comes home and let the facts kind of slip out, on their own. Knock her dead and act like its nothing. He chuckled to himself aloud and raised his glass in a silent toast, toasting himself and the precious secret he seemed to hold, that obvious truth that salesmen seemed to overlook: nothing succeeds like telling the truth.

He sat down to relish his drink and the possibilities from here on in. Hell, if he really went at it, it wouldn't be too long before he could expect an executive position with the company. Or, someday, his own brokerage firm in which he had salesmen working for him.

He toasted himself again and drank deep, catching his breath and enjoying the pleasant feeling the Scotch gave him as he stretched out on the couch and felt a bit rueful, left out. Carol would have to be with her mother. Hell, he wanted to celebrate. Calling up and telling her wouldn't be right, somehow. He wanted to have a few drinks and then maybe fool around with his wife, maybe putting his hands where he wasn't supposed to, where she didn't like him to.

Then the phone rang.

He jumped when it jangled next to him, dreading the silence and he looked at it with suspicion, checking the time by cocking his wrist. Automatically, he wondered who could be calling at that hour? Immediately he thought of Carol and perhaps, this time, there really was something wrong with her. The phone rang a second time, tearing a long urgent sound in the room and he put his drink down carefully and looked at the phone, wondering if he should answer it immediately. If it was bad news, how could he react to it after so much good news? The phone rang a third time and he picked it up and said, "Hello?"

The silence at the other end seemed thick and charged with electricity. It was the silence of someone taking their sweet time about answering. It was like an electric jolt and Bob knew that it was Mona before he heard her voice.

"Hello, Bob?"

"Yes. Is this Mrs. McKern."

A low husky voice came back in mocking terms that made him flush anew. "This is Mona."

"How are you, Mona?"

"Not so good." Her voice came into his ear and sounded petulant, like she was used to getting her way.

"What's the matter?"

"Leo's left me," she said, her pout a near burlesque. He could just picture her curled up on the bed, entwined like some sex-serpent.

"He's left you?" There was a note of alarm in his voice, thinking his dream world would come crashing down. Divorce and all kinds of actions and cancellation of the insurance.

A heavy sigh came into his ear and she almost seemed to purr as she said, "He got a phone call from up north. Seems some baddies held one of his drive-ins up and there was some shooting and people were hurt and Leo just had to get on his white charger and leave me in this plastic place without a thing to do until sometime tomorrow evening."

Bob couldn't say a word. He tried not controlling the breath coming through his nostrils hot and heavy. Her voice reeked of sex and invitation. Leo gone and not back until tomorrow.

Carol staying with her mother… "Gee, that's too bad."

A throaty chuckle came through the phone. "Too bad for one insurance agent if he doesn't get over here and entertain me while I'm bored."