A young couple are dominated by his new boss, a man who had been his rival all through his childhood.
Ray and I had known each other all of our lives. Our parents were best friends and next door neighbors so we didn’t have any choice but to try and get along. But for some reason, and I don’t know if either one of us could say what it was, we never liked each other. We had maintained an uneasy truce and a less than friendly rivalry since we started playing together at our parent’s insistence. Even back then though, even at the ages of three or four we didn’t like each other.
We lived in a small town though, so we had to learn to get along despite the way we felt. I don’t know the population of our town. It’s less than five thousand. I think it’s less than four thousand. We have one main street with a dozen stores and a Post Office. The town has one grocery store at either end and one gas station at either end. There is one café where all the old folks gather in the morning and there is a Dairy Queen on the edge of town where the kids gather in the spring, summer and early fall when it’s open. It closes in the winter. The nearest mall and the nearest theater are both in the city almost sixty miles away.
We have a high school and kids come from a half a dozen towns in the area to attend. We also have one grade school. They built a new one, a larger one, a few years ago and tore down the one that we went to.
They have added on to the high school. When I went there were sixty-seven kids in our graduating class. It isn’t that much bigger now though. I think I read that the graduating class this year is ninety-two kids.
When we graduated from high school Ray and I both went away to college. Ray’s dad owned the town’s only hardware store and was doing well. He put Ray through college and when he graduated Ray planned on coming back and going to work for his dad.
I had to drop out after one semester. My dad had worked all of his adult life at the town’s one industry, the small plant that made wood furniture. They made good stuff and had a good reputation. But they did a lot of hand work and it was labor intensive. They reached a point that they couldn’t compete and went bankrupt.
It was a shame for two reasons. That company had been making high quality furniture for almost two centuries. They had a great reputation but a small client list. They just couldn’t compete with cheap imports. But the worst reason is a little more personal. My dad lost his job and his pension and his whole idea of who he was. I lost my ability to afford to go to college.
I came home from college after one semester and started looking for work. I hated to do it, but the only job I could find was working for Ray’s father in the hardware store. It wasn’t that I hated working for Ray’s father. I loved him like a father. Mr. Nash and I were very close. I often got the impression that I was closer to him than he was to his own son. It was just the idea that once he graduated Ray would be coming back to that store too.
I worked hard and learned the business pretty fast. But I dreaded the day that Ray would come home from college and go into the business. I still saw him when he came home to visit. We didn’t like each other any more now than we did when we were kids. We were civil, at least most of the time, but we still didn’t like each other.
The problem was that we still had the same friends. So that whenever he came home from college if there was a party or just a few guys getting together then both of us were there.
All through school we had competed in everything. We competed for grades. We competed in sports. We competed for girls. When we got cars we nearly killed ourselves racing on the back roads. Most of our friends thought it was amusing. They knew that we competed in everything. But they thought that it was a friendly rivalry. It wasn’t. We couldn’t stand each other.
Ray met a girl in college, Kathy. She was a beautiful blonde from upstate. She was smart and funny and personable. I never knew what she saw in him. But they got married right after they graduated from college. They came back to town and Ray’s dad helped him build a nice little house on an acre of land down by the river just outside of town.
Ray came to work for his dad and it became my job to teach him the business. I was his teacher, but he was my boss. I tried not to let my resentment show, but we didn’t get along any better now than we did in the past. The trouble was I didn’t have any choice but to put up with his shit and suck it up. This wasn’t just the only decent job in town. It was the only decent job in this part of the state, at least for now. My only other options were to either leave the state to find work or to get a minimum wage job at one of the dairy farms outside of town milking cows and shoveling shit. I used to work on some of those farms during my summer vacations when I was in high school. It was actually pretty nice work. I enjoyed it. But it was hard work and the hours sucked and the money was not quite enough to survive on. And there was no way of working your way up the food chain.
So, I put up with Ray and kept my mouth shut. I don’t think that Ray’s parents or mine had ever been aware of the friction between us. I think that before very long though, Ray’s father, Mr. Nash, became aware of it and there were several instances at work when he intervened on my behalf when Ray was giving me a hard time about something.
Ray had been pretty wild before he went away to college. He went through girlfriends like a hot knife through butter. I doubt if he ever went with a girl for longer than two weeks. I heard some stories about him later, about some of the things he tried to make the girls do. But I don’t know if they were true or not.
He also started drinking pretty heavily. We all drank a little from time to time. But he, well, I suppose he had a drinking problem. And sometimes it took a couple of guys to keep him from doing some pretty stupid things when he had been drinking.
When Ray came back to the hardware store after he graduated he seemed to have settled down a little. I met his wife and I saw her now and then. She seemed real nice and I thought that maybe she would settle Ray down a little. And at first she seemed to.
It even seemed like Ray and I were tolerating each other a little better at first. But that didn’t last long. It wasn’t six months before Kathy left him. He went after her and made all kinds of promises and she came back after a few weeks. For a while it looked like things were getting back to normal, like they were going to make a go of it.
It didn’t last though. It was only about three months later that she left, for good this time. They got divorced and there were some rumors about the things Ray had done, or tried to get Kathy to do, but I don’t know who was spreading them or if they were true.
Ray started acting more like his old self after the divorce. I couldn’t do anything but take it though. Some days I went home from work so mad I couldn’t talk to anyone for hours.
Luckily when I got home I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I lived alone in half of the old Putnam house. When old man Putnam died his son had the house made into two apartments. I had the second floor and half of the garage. It was just perfect for me.
I didn’t date a lot. There aren’t that many single girls my age in town. A lot of the kids I went to school with had gotten married in the first year after high school, mostly to their high school sweethearts. My high school sweetheart had gone away to college and married someone she met there. She now lived in another state. I saw her every now and then when she came back to visit her folks. She seems happy and we’re just friends now. I don’t think that either of us had planned on anything after we graduated. We didn’t have any hard feelings.
Anyway, I wasn’t dating, but I wasn’t a hermit. I had a lot of friends and we got together regularly. I would have liked to have had a little love in my life. But I was still young and I wasn’t desperate. I figured it would come eventually.
It turned out that I wasn’t the only one that was of the opinion that I needed some love in my life. I got a call one Friday morning from Sharon. Sharon and I were classmates and old friends. She had married Roger, another close friend and I saw the two of them often.
She invited me to dinner that evening. There was nothing unusual about that and I accepted gladly. When I showed up I was introduced to Roger’s cousin, Erin. Erin had just lost her job at a drug store in a small town on the other side of the state when Wal-Mart came to town and drove them out of business.
She and I hit it off immediately. She was smart and funny and pretty and damn she was hot! She was staying with Roger and Sharon and was hoping to get a job at the local drug store.
We ended up going for a walk after dinner that lasted for three hours. We didn’t go anywhere and we didn’t do anything. We just walked around town and talked and by the time I dropped her off at Roger and Sharon’s house just before eleven that night I was in love. I’m pretty sure that she was falling for me too.
The hardware store was open on Saturday and I had to work every other Saturday. As luck would have it, I was off tomorrow so I invited Erin to go for a ride in the morning. She accepted immediately. I drove home that night with my head in the clouds.
Erin never did get the job in the drug store. But we were married six months later. It was a simple, civil ceremony held in her parent’s home. My parents were there and a dozen of my closest friends. Ray’s parents were invited and so we felt that we had to invite Ray as well. I was very disappointed when he came.
I wasn’t worried about Erin and all of the attention she received from Ray on our wedding day. I knew that she could hold her own with him. But I felt that he was spending entirely too much time with her and I resented it. It was obvious, in fact it was too obvious that he was infatuated with her. People noticed and I think even his parents were embarrassed.
I had been living well within my means over the last four years. I wasn’t making a lot of money by big city standards but I was doing alright and I had managed to save a pretty good bit of money. So we could have afforded a nice honeymoon.
We decided not to though. It would have been nice, but we decided to save the money instead and start watching for a good buy on a nice house. Meanwhile my duplex in the Putnam house was a little small, but it was cozy and we were happy there while we kept putting money in savings. We didn’t take a honeymoon but we had one at home.
We were perfect together. Neither of us had much experience with sex. We weren’t virgins but neither one of us had gotten much experience in that area. But we both loved our sex life. We were somewhat adventurous and we were both open minded. There was more than enough lust in our lives, especially those first few months.
Eventually things settled down in our lives. Erin managed to get a few part time jobs every now and then but there just wasn’t much work in our little town. We were doing alright though. All of our entertainment was free or almost free. We got together with friends. We had cookouts and swimming parties at the river. Maybe once a month we would drive into the city for a meal at a restaurant. It was a different lifestyle than people in the city are used to. But for us it was what we were used to. It was what we were comfortable with. It was what we enjoyed.
For the first few months after we got married Erin would come to the hardware store and bring me lunch and we would eat together out on a picnic table under a tree in back of the store. Ray started to be a problem though. He was constantly flirting with her. He would almost hit on her. It didn’t seem to bother him at all that I was sitting right there watching him. He was careful not to cross the line, but he leaned over it often enough that it made us uncomfortable. So we started meeting in the town square in the center of town at lunch time and eating on a park bench or in the bandstand or when the weather wasn’t so nice I’d go home for lunch.
That fall there were a string of tragedies in our lives that really shook us. My father was killed in an accident on his way home from the job he had found in a city with a commute of sixty miles of country roads each way. Within a couple of months my mother suffered a stroke and she died two months after that. Their house had been paid for. It’s a good thing or they never would have gotten by when the furniture plant closed down. But medical bills drained the estate and then some.
While my mother was in the hospital dying, Erin’s father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, suddenly got much worse and had to be institutionalized. Her father’s health and the medical bills were a terrible strain on her mother and her health began to fail too. It didn’t seem possible but by the end of the year we had lost all four of our parents. Needless to say, we did not have a merry Christmas that year.
We weathered those tragedies and I suppose that we felt closer and stronger for having survived them as well as we did. We started that spring with an unstated but mutual resolve to put all of that behind us and get on with our lives. We were still grieving for our lost parents of course. We had both been close to our families. But we were determined to get past it.
That spring, probably before we were really ready, we got a good deal on a house. You need to realize that in a small town like ours, the real estate business isn’t the same as it is in larger towns and cities. People live in their homes for generations. Their kids grow up and if they are able to find work and stay in town they stay in the family home or they build homes nearby and stay in them. People don’t move in and out of houses. So finding a suitable home for sale is very difficult. We would have liked to have been able to buy my parents house but to avoid liability for my parent’s medical bills that remained unpaid after the estate was settled we were advised not to.
When the River’s were moved into an assisted living home by their son who had moved to Connecticut they put their home up for sale. A good friend let us know about it before it was even advertised and we jumped at it. The house was a little large for our needs. But we were planning on starting a family in a few more years so we didn’t think the extra rooms would go to waste. It took every cent we had in the bank and the payment was higher than we would have liked but we loved the house and buying it seemed like a way to put the tragedies of this past winter behind us and start anew.
Just as things in our lives started to be getting back on track Ray’s father decided to retire. That left Ray in complete charge of the store. I had really liked Mr. Nash and I was going to miss him. But more than that, I dreaded what life was going to be like with Ray in charge of the store.
I had never stopped keeping an eye out for an opportunity to get into another line of work, or the same type of work in a different business. I had known from the beginning that one day Ray would be in charge and I dreaded it. But unless we wanted to leave the area I was going to have to stay where I was and count myself fortunate to have that job.
So I did the best job that I could do and put up with Ray’s crap and kept reminding myself that I was lucky to have a job.
Things took a turn for the strange when Ruth, the woman who had worked in the office handling inventories and actually was more responsible for keeping this place running and well stocked with merchandise than anyone else decided that she couldn’t work for Ray any longer and gave her two weeks notice.
That same day Ray came to me and asked if Erin would be interested in the job. He wanted to get someone in as soon as possible to get them familiar with the system and get a little training. So if Erin wanted the job he would need to know immediately.
I had some pretty serious misgivings about having Erin in such close contact with Ray on a daily basis. But there was no denying that we could really use the money, especially right now after just buying a house that was more than one hundred years old and needed some serious upgrades.
As soon as I got home from work that day I discussed it with Erin. She was excited about the possibility of having a job finally. But she too had misgivings about working so closely with Ray. We had to be practical though. Our house payment was nearly twice what we had been paying for rent in our old duplex. We were getting by, but we were no longer putting anything into savings and any unexpected expense would really be a problem, like for instance if our eight year old car needed repairs that I couldn’t do myself.
So I called Ray at home that evening and told him that Erin appreciated the offer and she would love to take the job. He told me to have her come in with me in the morning and get started.
Erin was more excited about the situation than I was. But it really did take some of the pressure off that she was employed and we had more money coming in.
We both let our guards down a little in that first two weeks while she was training under Ruth. During that time, other than to ask how Erin was doing, Ray left her alone. He even seemed to be easing up on me a little bit. Every night when we got home we would talk about our respective workdays and I would ask about Ray. She knew what I was worried about and she reassured me every day that Ray had been a perfect gentleman.
Things started changing after Ruth left though. It was a slow change. He didn’t start grabbing her ass or anything like that. He did start touching her though. He would rest his hand on her shoulder or on the small of her back or touch her arm. After a while, whenever he was talking to her he was touching her. Just not in a way that she had any reason to complain about.
Then one Monday, after she had been working there for five or six weeks, he came into her office and said, “Erin, you’re doing a pretty good job. But I think you should start dressing a little sexier.”
That was all that he said. Then he turned around and went back into his office.
That evening while we were eating dinner I could see that Erin was upset and I was almost afraid to ask what was wrong. Because I had a pretty good idea that it was something that Ray had said or done at the office.
I had to ask though and when I finally got her to tell me she kept insisting that she could handle him. She was just going to ignore him. We needed the money, I couldn’t deny that. We talked about it and decided that as long as he was manageable she would try to put up with him. It would be nice if we could at least get enough money put aside to replace the roof and the heating system in our new old house.
We left it there, but I can’t deny that it was praying on my mind.
The next morning at breakfast I noticed that Erin was wearing a light, breezy little sundress when she came downstairs. I cocked my eyebrow when I saw her and she shrugged and said, “I’m fully dressed. If it keeps him happy, well, what the hell.”
I said, “If you give in to that then what will his next request be?”
She said, “This is not a sexy dress. It is a little less businesslike than what I’ve been wearing, but it isn’t sexy. I’m not going to sleep with him because I’m wearing a sundress to work!”
I didn’t say anything else. I figured the next move was up to Ray. If he left well enough alone then I didn’t have a problem with Erin dressing like this. Somehow I didn’t see Ray leaving it at this. I knew that any man in his right mind would love to go to bed with Erin. She is pretty and sexy and extremely desirable. But Ray would want to sleep with her if she wasn’t, just because she was my wife. Even better, he would love to take her away from me. And if he couldn’t do that I have no doubt that he would take great pleasure in breaking us up. He was just that kind of an asshole.
As usual I asked her how it went at work when we got home that evening. She shrugged and said, “He didn’t get fresh. He said I looked much better, that was all. He didn’t try anything. Hell, he pretty much ignored me the rest of the day.”
That was the end of that for the rest of the week. Erin kept wearing her flirty little sundresses to work and Ray checked her out every day. He still touched her all the time when they talked, but he was careful to keep his hands away from anywhere inappropriate.
When we were on the way home from work the following Monday Erin was quiet and I could tell that she was uncomfortable. I didn’t even have to ask why. I knew the problem was going to be Ray. I didn’t say anything until we got home and I asked her what he had done now.
She just kept saying that it was nothing and tried to evade the subject. That’s how I knew there was a real problem this time. She was afraid to tell me what he had done.
After dinner we sat out on the front porch and talked quietly. I refused to let her keep this from me. If it was so bad that she couldn’t tell me what he had done then I figured that it was time for her to quit working there.
She finally said, “It’s not that bad Dean. He just suggested that my hemlines could be a little shorter.” Then, in a voice that was almost a whisper she said, “And that it would be nice if I stopped wearing a bra.”
I gaped at her. She would never have put up with something like that from anyone else. She had always been a strong young woman who had no trouble standing up for herself. I couldn’t believe that she would permit Ray to talk to her like that!
I finally said, “That’s it! I don’t know why you didn’t quit on the spot, but today was your last day working for Ray. We can live on my salary just fine. In fact, I think it’s time I went over to Ray’s house and had a talk with him.”
I started to get up but Erin grabbed my hand and pulled me back down. “Don’t Dean. You can’t. I did quit. At least I tried to. I told him off and grabbed my purse and started to leave and he told me that if I was leaving I should take you with me. He said that if I quit you were fired. I told him he couldn’t do that, it was against the law. He just laughed and said that it wasn’t against the law if he caught us stealing from him.”
I stared at her and she just shrugged and said, “It would be his word against ours. You know how hard it is to get work around here. We would lose the house, we’d lose everything. And we would never get a good job anywhere again. You know that when it comes down to his word against ours they are going to believe the guy that owns the business.”
I pulled my hand away. I could see that I was going to have to kick that bastard’s ass and teach him how to treat my wife. Fuck him and his job! I started to get up but Erin jumped up and blocked my path. She looked up at me and said, “Don’t Dean! We’ll lose everything! Let it go. I can handle him.”
I responded, “No, you can’t handle him. You don’t think he is going to stop with short skirts and not wearing a bra do you? He won’t be happy until he is fucking you and you damned well know it! He needs to be taught a lesson!”
Erin almost yelled, “NO! I refuse to give up my house and everything that we have struggled for. We will just have to put up with that arrogant bastard until we find something else. It isn’t like we have any savings to fall back on or relatives that can bail us out. We are alone in the world and every penny we had went into the house that we love. You know that there are no other jobs within driving distance of here and even if there were you couldn’t get them once Ray started telling prospective employers that you are a thief.”
I stared down at her in helpless frustration and then I asked, “And what are you going to do when he pushes you down over a desk in the next week or two and rapes you?”
She suddenly covered her face with her hands and started crying. For a second I was afraid that he might already have done it. But she finally whispered, “I don’t know. Oh god I don’t know. Don’t you think I’ve been worried about that?!”
I finally went inside and got a beer out of the refrigerator. I sipped at it for a minute and then I went back out to the front porch. We really did love this house. It was a large, two story house on a nice quiet street with lots of tall old trees and nice neighbors. It had a wraparound front porch on three sides. There was a large attic and a large, unfinished basement that we had a lot of plans for.
The house needed some work, but it was structurally sound. It needed a new roof and I wanted to put in a new furnace before winter. The bathrooms could use some remodeling, the kitchen too. But until we could afford that kind of work everything worked just fine.
Now I stood on the porch and wondered if we were going to lose our dream house. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I had grown up with a definite idea of what sort of behavior a man could tolerate from another man around his wife. Ordering her to dress in sexier clothes and stop wearing a bra were good examples of totally unacceptable behavior. And I knew that he was only half doing it because he wanted to get into Erin’s pants. He was just as much interested in tormenting me as he was her. I didn’t doubt for a second that if Erin were not married to me he would never had said or done the things that he had.
I was reasonably certain that any man who learned of my situation would not blame me for kicking Ray’s ass all the way down Main Street. The problem was, I didn’t doubt for a second that the vindictive son of a bitch would carry out his threat and brand both of us as thieves. He wouldn’t even need to prove it.
People that knew us wouldn’t believe it. But that wouldn’t matter. We would still have our friends, but we would lose everything else.
I didn’t know what to do. I had never been in a situation where I wasn’t sure if the right thing to do was the right thing to do. I had to think.
The problem is, the more that I thought about it the more I knew that Erin was right. Our only choices were putting up with Ray’s sexual harassment or losing everything. But I knew Ray well enough to know that it wasn’t going to end with telling Erin how to dress. He was going to keep pushing until she was bent over a desk with her skirt up over her ass and his cock in her pussy. And once he got that far, well, I had heard some pretty disturbing rumors about him all through school. He is said to have some pretty unusual tastes when it comes to sex.
I finished my beer and put the bottle in the recycle bucket. Then I said, “Come on Erin, let’s go for a walk.”
We went out to the sidewalk, leaving the door wide open. That was one of the nice things about living in a town like this. We didn’t even own a house key. The previous owners had never locked their doors. Nobody in town locked their doors. There wasn’t any need. We didn’t lock our homes, we didn’t lock our cars. It wasn’t necessary. That was one of the reasons that it was so hard to contemplate giving this all up and leaving town. This little town may not have a museum or a good restaurant. It may not have a theater or a mall. But you couldn’t find a better place to live anywhere in the world.
We walked down to the town square and went up into the bandstand where they held the band concerts every Wednesday evening from late spring to early fall. It was about eight o’clock and everything in town was closed up except for the gas station across the street. But there was no one in there but Tommy, the old guy that ran it. He’d be closing up in a few minutes.
We sat there quietly and I held Erin in my arms and she started crying quietly. I didn’t know what to say. Things like this just didn’t happen in places like this!
After a few minutes she said, “Dean, I love this town. I can’t give this up. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I just can’t throw away our home and I can’t imagine leaving this town. Please don’t make me.”
I knew what Ray was thinking right this minute. He knew that he had the upper hand and he had every intention of having sex with my wife and he wanted me to know it. It was pretty obvious where this was leading. I am pretty sure that the reason he was taking his time and leading up to it the way he was instead of just taking her was to prolong the torment he knew that I was experiencing. He had to know that I was dying to go over to his house and kick his ass. He also knew that he had us over a barrel. If we didn’t go along, at least up to a point, we lost everything. But I didn’t doubt for a second that he was going to push us just as far as we would let him.
I explained that to Erin. But all she knew was that she loved our house and this town and she would do anything to keep from giving that up. I tried to point out that that was exactly what Ray was counting on. But she insisted that she could handle him. I didn’t think that she could. I just didn’t know what to do about it.
We walked home hand in hand. We didn’t talk, there wasn’t much more to say. When we got to the house we went in and went right up to bed. It was almost nine and we read for a few minutes and then turned the lights out.
We both lay there awake for a long time. I could tell by her breathing that she was awake too. We were both struggling with the same train of thought. It didn’t take a mind reader to realize that.
In the morning we took our showers and I dressed and went down and made coffee. Erin came down a few minutes later. I looked up from pouring our coffee and saw that she was wearing a miniskirt. I wasn’t sure, but I was willing to bet that she wasn’t wearing a bra.
She saw me looking at her and she blushed. She asked me if I was hungry. I wasn’t. We sometimes bought fresh bagels at the small bakery on Main Street to have for breakfast. But the only day that we ate a big breakfast was on Sunday. We liked to sleep late and then get up and make bacon and eggs and toast and have a long, leisurely breakfast. During the week though, unless we had bagels we just had coffee.
When it was time we went out and I drove us to the hardware store. Ray was pulling up behind the store at the same time we were. He smiled at me, an arrogant smile, daring me to say something, anything.
I didn’t though. I just struggled to keep my anger in check and waited for him to unlock the back door. He said good morning to Erin and ignored me. I knew as he turned his back to me that I had screwed up. I should have said something. I should have threatened him. I should have done something. In his mind I had just given him permission to sexually harass my wife.
He had seen that she was wearing a miniskirt as he had requested. I didn’t doubt that he would soon know that she was not wearing a bra. I guess he was right. When I didn’t object to what he was doing I was, in effect, giving him permission. I had shown myself to be helpless. He was not going to let that go.
He unlocked the door and went inside. He waited for Erin to enter behind him and as soon as she stepped inside he put his arm around her shoulder and they walked off towards the office. He glanced over his shoulder as they walked and grinned widely as he moved his hand slowly down her back.
His hand was still moving down as they turned into the hallway leading to their offices. I just stood there like a retard and watched him lead my wife away. I finally stepped inside and got the store ready to open. When it was time I unlocked the front door. I didn’t have much to do until people started showing up and I stood behind the counter and wondered what was happening in the office. I had some pretty disturbing images in my mind. I was listening intently for any sound from the back but I heard nothing.
I looked around, desperate for an excuse to go into the back and check on them. When no one came in right away I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. I had no reason to go back there, but I had to see if Erin was alright.
I walked into the back. I wasn’t sneaking exactly, but I was being quiet. There were two offices in the back. Erin’s was the first door and Ray’s was the second. There was also a connecting door between the two offices.
I opened Erin’s door and went in. The connecting door was closed. I went over to her desk and I didn’t know what to say. I looked down and one look at her face told me that she was upset about something. She was blushing and she looked…I don’t know, distraught I guess. I couldn’t tell if she was mad or sad or scared.
She finally looked up and I asked, “What did he do?”
She just shook her head and in a loud whisper she said, “I’m okay Dean. Get out of here before he hears you.”
I asked again, “Erin, what did he do?”
The connecting door suddenly opened and Ray was standing there with that arrogant grin on his face. He leaned up against the door frame and said, “Go ahead Erin. Tell him what I did. He is your husband. He should know.”
She was silent for a long time but finally she said in a quiet, toneless voice, “He checked to see if I was wearing a bra.”
I had seen him run his hand down her back. I thought that she meant that he had felt for her bra strap.
Ray asked, “How did I check to see if you were wearing a bra, Erin?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked like she was going to cry. At last she said, “He unbuttoned my blouse and he reached inside. He put his hand on my tits and squeezed them.”
I started for Ray then. I was going to kill him. He didn’t move. He just smiled that arrogant smile and said, “Go ahead you fucking faggot. Hit me. I fucking dare you!”
I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew him well enough to know that he would love it if I hit him. He’d let me too, just so that he could have me arrested.
I stood there glaring at him and he suddenly stopped smiling and growled, “Get that fucking look off of your face you fucking faggot. Don’t forget who won this fucking war. You and your hot little wife belong to me now. You fucking lost. You’ve been a loser all these years. You just didn’t realize it until now.”
He started grinning again and in a softer tone he said, “Erin, tell him what else I did after I made sure you weren’t wearing a bra. I want him to know. I want him to know everything that happens from now on. He needs to learn a little humility.”
Erin didn’t say anything at first. I continued to stare at Ray for a few seconds and then I looked at Erin. She was staring at her desk and had her lips pressed tightly together.
Ray prodded her, “Erin?”
Erin sobbed quietly and said, “He made me take off my pantyhose and my panties. He took them away and told me not to wear them again.”
“What else did I say Erin?” he prodded again.
There was another long silence and finally Erin whispered, “He told me to shave my pubic hair off.”
Ray chuckled evilly and said, “That isn’t what I said Erin. Tell the loser what I said to you.”
Erin took a deep breath and said, “He told me to shave my cunt hair off so that my cunt would look like a little girl’s.”
That was all that I could take. I started for him again and Erin shot out of her chair and came between us. There were tears running down her cheeks but she stood firm and said, “DEAN! Stop it. You’re smart enough to know he wants you to hit him. Do you want to go to jail? What happens to me then?”
I stared at her. I stood over her struggling with this fury I felt and the absolute need to protect her. She knew what was going through my mind and I suppose that she wished that she could let me do to him what he deserved. But she said, “Dean, you can’t win this. Let it go.”
I looked back at Ray and I could see that he was disappointed that Erin had stopped me. He straightened up and moved into the room and I saw that he wasn’t ready to give up yet. He really wanted me to hit him.
He moved behind Erin and casually reached down pulled her miniskirt up to her waist.
She just closed her eyes and stood still.
He smiled at me and said, “Take a good look Dean. This is the last time you are going to see her with hair on that cute little pussy. I don’t know about you, but I hate getting pussy hair in my teeth.”
He continued to hold Erin’s skirt up around her waist and he looked me right in the eye and said, “Now get your lazy ass back out there and get to work before I have to fire you. You don’t want me to fire you Dean. If I fire you then the only income you will have is what Erin brings home. I would imagine that your manhood is hanging by a thread as it is. If you had to send your sweet little wife off to work every morning while you stayed home and cleaned house I imagine that little thing would just shrivel up and drop right off.”
As he was ordering me back to work and threatening me he reached out and rested his hand on Erin’s ass and caressed it as if it belonged to him. I suppose that was his way of telling me that it did. And as I turned and walked out of that office I heard Erin sob quietly and I knew that I had just conceded defeat to Ray. I had, in effect, given him my wife.
I was sick as I made my way back up the hall and into the store. I mean that I was physically ill. I was struggling to keep from throwing up. Before I got to the end of the short hall I heard a noise from Erin. I didn’t know what it meant but I couldn’t bring myself to go back down there and see what he had done, or was doing to her. I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to know.
I went back out into the store just as two men came in. The store sold more than hardware. We also stocked a large selection of firearms and ammunition and fishing equipment. Nearly everyone in town, or at least nearly every male and a large number of females, was a hunter or fisherman or both. We were the only hardware store for a lot of miles in all directions and people came in here for all of their hardware needs, but half of our business was supplying sportsmen with their supplies.
The two customers that had just come in were shopping for ammunition which was an easy sale for me. That meant that my mind was free to wander into the back room and wonder what Ray was doing with my wife. I kept glancing at the display of pistols and wondering if shooting him would be as much fun as I thought it would.
Business started picking up after that and I was kept pretty busy for the rest of the morning. Just before noon Ray came out and said, “I have to go home for a little while so I’m going to take my lunch break now. You can take your lunch when I get back.”
I half expected him to leave with Erin. But he didn’t. He went out through the back and got in his car and left. As soon as he was gone and I had a free moment I hurried into the back to check on Erin.
She was sitting at her desk staring straight ahead and not moving. She had been crying and she looked like she was about one step from going out of her mind.
I went over to her and tried to hug her but she tried to push me away. She shook her head and said, “No Dean. Don’t. I…he wants me to tell you. He wants you to go crazy and do something stupid. He wants you in jail.”
I pulled her to her feet and took her in my arms and held her tight. I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, but I had a guess and I didn’t think that I wanted to hear what she was supposed to tell me.
She buried her face in my chest and cried like I had never seen a woman cry before. It broke my heart. I could only hold her and try to kiss her and tell her that we would find a way out of this. Every time I tried to kiss her she turned away and finally she said, “He made me suck his cock. He came in my mouth and he made me swallow it. Do you know where he is now?”
I stuttered, “H-h-e w-went home. He went home for lunch.”
She sobbed again and then she said, “He went home to get some of his ex-wife’s old clothes that he wants me to wear. He said my clothes are too frumpy.”
I remembered Ray’s ex, Kathy. She had been beautiful and very nice. I don’t remember her dressing in anything unusually sexy though. I don’t remember her wearing anything that most of the women her age didn’t wear. I remember that she was very petite. Erin was pretty small, but I wasn’t sure that Kathy’s clothes would fit her. But then, Ray probably wouldn’t care about that.
I finally came to my senses and said, “That’s it. Let’s get out of here. No house is worth this. No town is worth this.”
She pulled away from me and with tears streaming down her cheeks she said, “He showed me the proof he is going to use if we don’t do what he says. He has a stack of papers that he says prove you have been stealing from the store. He even has pictures of you taking things out of the back of the store.”
“What things?!” I exclaimed. “Erin, I have never stolen anything in my life!”
She said, “I know that Dean. He has pictures of you taking boxes off of the loading dock and putting them in the car.”
The only thing that I could think of was that he had pictures of me loading up the car to make a delivery, at his request. And any papers he had which purported to show that I was a thief had to be faked.
I said, “I didn’t take anything Erin. I’m sure that I can prove that his proof is faked. We need to get out of here now. If we don’t then he will own us. He will be able to do anything he wants to you. I have heard things about him Erin. He doesn’t just want to fuck you. He likes some weird stuff. He wants to humiliate us. If we don’t leave now then he wins. He owns us.”
She shook her head and said, “I’m scared. I can’t let him put you in jail. I don’t dare cross him. We have to find another way Dean. We can’t fight this fight with him. I’m too afraid that he might win. If he put you in jail it would kill me. And then he would have won.”
I took her back in my arms and said, “Erin, I don’t know what to do. My mind doesn’t work like his. I don’t know how to fight this.”
She hugged me and said, “I know baby. I don’t expect you to fight him. I don’t want you to fight him. I’m so afraid right now. But of all of the things that I am afraid of I am most afraid that he will have you put away. I couldn’t stand that. It would kill me.”
I heard someone out front at that moment, calling out for me to come check them out. I kissed Erin. I had to hold her face in place. She kept trying to turn her head. I said, “I have to go. Erin, I would rather go to jail than let him take control of our lives this way. Please, think about this.”
She said, “I have Dean. I can’t let that happen. We’ll find another way.”
She pulled back again and said, “Go. I’ll be alright.”
Somehow I doubted that.
I went out front and apologized to the customers that were waiting. I started ringing up their purchases and trying hard to act normal.
I had just finished with the last customer when Ray came in the back carrying a large suitcase. He smiled and waved at me and said hello to the customer. Then he said, “Dean, after Mr. Hill leaves would you come into the back please?”
I just nodded and turned back to Mr. Hill. He was staring at me and he had a funny look on his face. He said, “Are you alright Dean? You don’t look so good.”
I smiled as well as I could and said, “Probably just a case of spring fever Mr. Hill. You have a good day now.”
After he left I stood there for a moment. I glanced back over at the pistols in the display case on the wall. Then I went into the back.
I looked into Erin’s office and she wasn’t in there. I went down to the next door, Ray’s office, and opened it. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Erin was standing there naked and about to put on some article of clothing that Ray was handing her.
I stood there unable to move or speak. I had never felt more helpless in my life. Erin didn’t even look up. She was bright red. I assume that she was too embarrassed to look at me.
I watched as she put her arms into the dress that Ray had given her. I think it was a dress. When she pulled it closed and tried to button it I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t just a long top. It only just barely covered the cheeks of her ass.
She stood with her back to me and buttoned it up with difficulty. It was pretty tight on her. When she was done Ray stepped closer and unbuttoned the top three buttons. That opened the dress to below her breasts. Then he ordered her to turn around slowly.
I watched as she turned to model the dress, if that’s what it was. It was nearly obscene. Erin is a very shy person. She doesn’t even dress in things like that when we are home alone!
When she had turned to face me I saw that with the three buttons unfastened her breasts were uncovered almost to her nipples. She turned all the way around and said, “Ray, it’s too tight. And it is way too short.”
Ray smiled and said, “Nonsense Erin. It’s perfect. And what did I tell you about addressing me by my first name?”
Erin said, “I’m sorry sir. Mr. Nash. But Mr. Nash, Kathy was smaller than me. I can hardly breathe in this.”
He just smiled and said, “It looks beautiful on you Erin. You just need to get used to it. Now I don’t want to hear any more about it.”
He turned to me finally and said, “Isn’t she beautiful Dean?”
I was still thinking about those pistols out front. I said, “Listen Ray…”
He interrupted me brusquely. “That’s Mr. Nash, Dean. We need to restore order around here. My father was much too lax with the help.”
I bit my tongue for a long moment and then I said, “Mr. Nash, you can’t do this to us. You have to stop this. It isn’t right. You and I never got along, but your quarrel is with me, not her.”
Ray just smiled and said, “Apparently I can do it Dean. Did she tell you she sucked me off a little while ago? She wasn’t bad. She just needs a little practice.”
He paused to enjoy the look on my face and he seemed to feed on it. I could see that he had a hard on and I didn’t doubt at all that it was as much from how much what he was doing was tearing me up inside as from seeing Erin in the nude and dressing her up like a stripper.
Then he went on to say, “You see Dean, I have been planning this for quite some time. It wasn’t just something that occurred to me when Ruth handed in her notice. I have been accumulating documents and photographs and I’m reasonably certain that if I take those things over to the town marshal and show him what I have you will spend the next five to eight years in prison. I have already begun gathering a case against Erin as well. It isn’t as ironclad as the case I have compiled against you. Not yet anyway. But the really funny part of all this is that even if you were to convince a judge and jury that you were innocent, by the time you did your house would be in foreclosure and you would both be ruined in this community. And you know the way people think. Even if you win in court people are going to be pretty sure you did it. After all, they wouldn’t have arrested you and put you on trial if you were innocent. That’s how it works and you know it.”
He was so damned sure of himself, so fucking cocky. And he was so fucking right.
I stood there helplessly as he pushed Erin down over a table and lifted her dress up in back. He opened up his pants and I was forced to watch as he pushed her legs a little farther apart with his foot and then forced his cock up inside of her while I watched in silence.
As his cock entered her he was looking at me. He was smiling and taunting me. Erin was gripping the table and crying. I was just about to snap. I took two steps towards him when Erin became aware of what I was about to do and she screamed, “NO! Dean you stay where you are!”
I started to turn and leave but Ray said, “Hold on Dean. I’ll be finished in a minute or two. This whole situation turns me on more than I have ever been turned on before. God damn this makes me hot. I love raping your little wife in front of you. It is, without a doubt, the hottest sex that I have ever had. We are going to have to do this more often. A lot more often!”
I stood there stunned and beaten. I watched as he gripped Erin’s hips and began raping her violently. He seemed to last a very long time to me, and I’m sure that it seemed like a long time to Erin too. He finally tensed up and came inside of her. He swore softly and caught his breath. Then he said, “Damn Dean! I love your wife’s tight little cunt!”
He finally stepped back and reached over her. He grabbed a handful of her long, natural blonde hair and pulled her around to face him. He pushed her to her knees and said, “Clean that up for me bitch. I can’t put my pants on over that mess. I don’t want to stink.”
I watched in disbelief as Erin leaned forward and opened her mouth. Before his soft, slimy cock entered her mouth the smell reached her and she retched. She struggled to control it and managed to remain still as he forced his cock into her mouth.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! But worse than that, I couldn’t believe that I was being forced to watch as this man, my rival all through our youth, raped my wife without fear of my reaction or hers. Now all three of us realized that he was free to rape my wife with impunity, whenever and wherever the spirit moved him.
He had just put both of us in our places. I have no doubt that his orgasm was of secondary importance. He had established the ground rules for our future relationship. Erin and I were, in effect, chattel.
Ray pulled his cock out of Erin’s mouth and ordered her to put it away. He stared at me with an amused smile on my face as I found myself forced to watch Erin tuck his cock back into his pants and zip him up.
When she had finished he went around to his chair and sat at his desk. When he was comfortable he said, “Dean, I want you to come over here and get this suitcase and take it out to your car. These are the clothes that Erin will wear to work now and for special occasions. There are close to thirty outfits in there. I have labeled the ones that I want you to wear for the next three weeks. They have a little note on them with the week number and the day of the week on them. There is also one that says Friday night on it. I’m entertaining a wholesaler Friday night and you two will be joining me. Dean, you will need to get a black suit if you don’t have one, a black suit and a chauffer’s cap. You’ll need them on Friday. Now take the suitcase out to your car and get back to work.”
After dismissing me he said, “Erin, I hope you don’t think that just because I enjoy your cunt so much that you can get away with not doing your job. Get back in your office and get to work. I’ll let you know if I need you…or want you.”
Erin rushed past me and hurried to the bathroom. I closed up the suitcase with difficulty. I suddenly realized that I had tears in my eyes. I heard Ray chuckle. As I was on my way out he said, “God Dean, you’re such a fucking pussy.”
Apparently he is right. I should have killed him for raping my wife this morning. Hell, I should have kicked his ass when he started trying to tell her how to dress!
I wiped my eyes on my shirt sleeve as I carried the suitcase up the hall and through the store to the back door. I saw a few customers in the store and I apologized for the delay and promised to be right back.
I put the suitcase in the backseat of the car and went back inside. As it turns out the customers were still looking around and hadn’t been waiting for me at all. I told them to let me know if they needed anything and then I went over and stood behind the counter.
I stood there with obscene images in my mind of Ray raping my wife and ordering her around like a common prostitute. I was trying to force those images out of my mind and concentrate on the solution to this outrageous dilemma. The only one I kept coming up with was to kill Ray. The only problem was that I needed to find a way to do that without going to prison.
Unfortunately it was not a busy day. I did not have a lot of work to distract me from the events that I had witnessed in the back. I did my best to stay busy. I was working on some inventory changes when Ray came up behind me just before five.
I didn’t even notice him until he was standing behind me. In a friendly, casual voice, as though he was talking about a baseball game he had seen on TV he said, “I just fucked Erin again. I thought you’d like to know. I was wondering Dean, have you ever fucked that cute ass of hers?”
I spun around fully intending to beat him to a pulp. He stood there smiling and said, “Go ahead loser. Hit me. His eyes glanced up and I looked up too. He was just reminding me of the surveillance system. The cameras were pointing right at us. He would love it if I hit him, especially while he was standing there smiling and apparently carrying on a pleasant conversation with me. That’s what the cameras were seeing.
He saw my resolve drain away and he said, “I asked you a fucking question faggot. Did you ever fuck Erin in the ass?”
My mind was…god, I don’t know. I think I was losing my mind. I said, “Ray…”
“I told you fuck face!” he interrupted. “You call me Mr. Nash.”
“Mr. Nash, no, I have never done that. Please Mr. Nash, you have to stop this. You have seen what you are doing to her. It isn’t right!”
He just smiled that calm, pleasant smile and said, “Damn right I’ve seen what I’m doing to her. I’m fucking her sweet cunt and her mouth. And I guess tomorrow I’m going to fuck her cherry ass. I don’t want to, you understand. But someone has to do it. You are obviously not doing your job at home.”
I stared at him a moment longer and then I turned back around and made as if I were returning to working on the inventory adjustment. As I stared sightlessly at the papers in front of me he said, “I fucked her three times today all together. I fucked her mouth and I fucked her cunt twice. I wonder how long I can keep that up. I’ve been saving up for a long time. It’s been years since that fucking cunt Kathy divorced me. Well, you get back to work now faggot. I’m going back to my office and think about fucking your wife’s cherry ass tomorrow. In fact, I think I’ll stop on the way back and just admire it for a few minutes. It is an almost perfect little ass, isn’t it?”
He left then. And I was left with the image of my wife bent over her desk with her tiny dress up over her back and her ass exposed. She had always been so shy, so modest. I knew that this was killing her inside.
The last two hours of the day were only sporadically busy and I had far too much time to think about what might be happening in the offices in the back. When Ray left at five thirty I thought that I could finally relax. But I didn’t. I could only think about was how upset Erin must be. I was dying to go back and try to comfort her. I was afraid to though. I was afraid of what Ray might make of the film record if I went back to her office and held her.
I waited until six, but it was killing me. At exactly six PM I rushed to the front door and locked it. I hurried back to Erin’s office and rushed to her desk. She wasn’t crying any longer. She was working, though somewhat listlessly.
I went to her and pulled her to her feet and held her. I apologized for the mess that we were in and we both cried for several minutes. She finally lifted her head from my chest and asked, “What are you apologizing for? This isn’t your fault!”
“Maybe it isn’t my fault,” I responded. “But I haven’t been able to stop it. A man is supposed to protect his wife. I have been a dismal failure in that regard.”
She managed a wry smile and said, “You couldn’t possibly have anticipated this mess. You didn’t realize what sick, twisted, devious bastard Ray was. And don’t forget, you did warn me. All I saw was dollar signs. I thought I could handle him. If anyone is responsible for us falling for his scheme then I am afraid that I am to blame. Instead of worrying about who should get spanked, let’s figure out how to get out of this.”
I nodded and kissed her and we held each other tight for a while. I finally let her go and said, “I need a drink. Let’s go home.”
Erin nodded and got her purse from her desk. We started out but I asked, “Did you see where he kept that fake proof of his?”
She answered, “He gave me a copy to give you. He said that the originals are in a safe place.”
We went home and Erin had to remind me to bring in the suitcase containing her new wardrobe. I grabbed it out of the back seat and we went inside. I put the suitcase down and headed for the kitchen. I made myself a stiff drink and Erin said, “Make me one too please.”
Erin hardly drinks at all. Sometimes she has wine with dinner or some fruity chick drink, but she has never joined me in a highball. I made two of them. I made hers just as strong as mine. I figured that she needed the numbing effects of the alcohol more than I did.
We sat at the kitchen table and didn’t speak for a while. Neither of us had eaten yet today. I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t want food to interfere with the effects of the alcohol.
We held hands and sat in silence. I kept trying to think of a way to get out of this mess that we were in without losing everything and my mind just kept going around in circles. I remembered the blackmail material that Ray had given to Erin and I asked her for it.
She took the papers out of her purse and I started looking through them. I wasn’t very much involved in the paperwork that kept the store running and I had to ask Erin what some of the forms were. She explained and showed me the paper trail indicating that high value items were disappearing from the inventory. There were copies of inventory forms that seemed to show clumsy attempts by me to remove those expensive items, mostly rifles and shotguns, from the inventory. I was all the more confused because I kept a close watch on that inventory in particular and I knew that no guns were missing.
I went over the forms until I finally found where the problem was. They had been doctored more artfully to make it appear that we items in stock that had never actually existed. Then there were my supposed less than professional attempts to remove them from the inventory. I had to wonder, would it really be that easy to put me in jail?
The last half dozen pages were fuzzy pictures of me taking items off of the loading dock in back of the store and putting them in my trunk. The pictures were of such poor quality that I couldn’t tell what the items were. If I couldn’t identify the item then I couldn’t say that it was something that I had delivered and name the person to whom it was delivered.
In other words, the pictures didn’t necessarily prove my guilt, but neither could I use them to prove my innocence. But they were suspicious. There were rules about people removing items from the loading dock. There was no way of showing that those items had been delivered to a customer.
This was all over our heads. We needed to talk to someone, but we had no idea where to go for help. We had no money. We couldn’t hire a private investigator. We wouldn’t even know where to find one! We had no money for an attorney either. I kept coming back to killing Ray as the only way out.
Erin wouldn’t hear of it. She said that even if I could prove that we had been framed and blackmailed and that she had been raped, that wouldn’t excuse murder in the eyes of the law. I would still end up in prison. We both would. She would be a co-conspirator.
She asked me to take the suitcase upstairs so that she could hang up the clothes that Ray was insisting that she wear to work. When I had done that I went down and started supper while she hung up her new clothes and then took a shower to remove all traces of Ray from her body.
When she came back down in a t-shirt and a pair of loose shorts I had already made us both another drink and we sat and sipped it while the casserole was in the oven. When it was ready we picked at it. We both managed to eat a little, but we had no appetite.
After we had put the leftovers away and cleaned up the kitchen Erin asked, “Where do you suppose that you can get a chauffer’s cap?”
I had forgotten all about that. I wanted to think that by Friday this would somehow be over. But I couldn’t take that chance. I thought about it and said, “I guess a uniform shop. I’ll drive over to Middlebury after work tomorrow. I’ll check the internet and make sure they have one there. I imagine they do.”
We sat around in silence after that until it was time to go to bed. I held Erin in my arms and thought about what kind of man allows his wife to be raped right in front of his eyes. I had thought that I was a better man than that. But I didn’t know what else to do.
We went to bed early. We weren’t tired so much as we were anxious to put an end to this day. We lay together in the dark and I took Erin in my arms and kissed her. She was crying quietly and I hadn’t even realized it. I held her tight and I was so ashamed when I started to get an erection. I couldn’t help it. Erin always had that effect on me. I pulled back a little, hoping that she hadn’t noticed.
She reached down and wrapped her fingers around my erection and I said, “Oh god Erin, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I can’t help it. I love you so much and I can’t help wanting you. I know this isn’t the time for that. I’m sorry baby.”
She kissed me and said, “Shut up stupid! Jesus Dean, after today I was scared to death that you would never want me again. I’m so happy that you still do. Please baby, make love to me. I really need you to love me right now.”
I couldn’t believe that she would want a man to touch her after what she had been subjected to today. I asked, “Are you sure Erin? We don’t have to. I know, after today, you must…”
She kissed me again and I heard the smile in her voice when she said, “Shut up. You sound like an idiot. I adore you Dean. I will always want to make love with you. I love the way you touch me and the way you get excited when you see me. I am so afraid that Ray is going to kill that.”
I said, “Nothing that bastard could do would change how I feel about you. That is the one thing that you don’t have to worry about. You just worry about keeping your head on straight until we get out of this. I promise you Erin, there is nothing that anyone can do to make me stop loving you or stop wanting you. You are everything to me.”
I rolled her over onto her back and I kissed her passionately. We kissed for a long time and I gently caressed her beautiful body. Then, I began to kiss my way down her body. She reacted just as she always had in the past and I was so relieved. I had been afraid that being touched, after what she went through today, would upset her. I didn’t want her to think that I was just another man that just wanted her body. I was so relieved that she still wanted me too.
When I was between her legs and teasing her sweet pussy with my lips and tongue and she started to react just as she always had I almost cried with relief. I knew that we were going to have a rough time in the immediate future. But it was going to be so much worse for her. I would have to be very careful to make sure that she knew that how I felt her never changes.
I think that we finally managed to forget about Ray for a while. We made love and just as it always was when we made love, it was wonderful. We probably were not the most adventurous couple in the world when it came to sex. But we were perfect for each other.
When it was over we lay in each other’s arms and just enjoyed being in love. It was a long time before we took turns going to the bathroom. Then we held each other again. It was getting late but neither of us wanted to end it. We were enjoying being close and in love.
After a long time Erin said, “Dean, the way you feel about me right now. I want you to remember this. I want you to remember it tomorrow when you see me wearing the first of those outfits that Ray gave me. I went through them. They are awful.”
I felt so bad for her. I knew how shy she was. There was not an exhibitionist bone in her body. She was going to have a hard time of it.
I pulled her tight against me and said, “Erin, I am never going to hold anything that bastard does against you. I swear to you that there is nothing that he can do, or make you do, that will change the way that I love you.”
She kissed me and whispered, “Oh god, I hope that’s true.”
I kissed her one last time and said, “I swear it.” I meant it too. I was just as jealous as the next guy I suppose. It bothered me when guys got out of line with my wife. But I knew that Ray was going to go out of his way to push all of my buttons until we figured out how to get out of this. This was, after all, about driving me crazy more than it was about raping my wife. I realized it and I tried to explain that to Erin. She seemed to already realize it too. And that just made me feel even worse. She knew that if Ray didn’t hate me that none of this would be happening.
We finally drifted off to sleep. When I awoke the next morning Erin was still nestled in my arms. We hadn’t slept well, and I knew that it would be another day of torment for both of us. I lay there until the last possible moment and let her sleep as long as I could.
She wasn’t quite fully awake when she looked up at me eventually and smiled and kissed me. She said, “Aren’t you going to be late?”
Then she remembered everything that had happened and what was going to happen today. The beautiful, peaceful, loving smile left her face and she groaned when her happiness was drowned in mental anguish. She rested her face against my chest and quietly exclaimed, “Fuck!”
I laughed. In the time that we had been together I couldn’t remember her ever saying that word. She pushed me away and glanced at the clock. She said, “My turn to make coffee. Go take a shower baby.”
I took my shower and got dressed while Erin was taking hers. I went down and poured us both a cup of coffee and then I sipped on mine while I was waiting for her. It seemed like a long time before she finally came down. She was blushing as she came into the kitchen and came over and stood in front of me.
She grinned shyly and slowly lifted her extremely short dress to show me her freshly shaved pussy. It certainly was a different look.
She watched my face and then she asked, “What do you think?”
I stared for a moment and then I was forced to admit, “You know, I hate to admit it. I like it. I don’t like what that says about me. But it looks pretty sexy.”
She looked down at herself ruefully and said, “Yeah. I look like a little girl.” Then she smiled at me and said, “So, all this time you were a pedo and I didn’t know it!”
I pulled her into my lap and kissed her and said, “I guess so. But then, I didn’t know it either!”
She struggled to her feet again and asked, “Did you notice the dress?”
Like I could not notice!
The hemline was almost even with her crotch. With her standing and me sitting I could lean back slightly and see her slit. But that wasn’t the only problem with the dress. The top was sheer. There was a lacy design woven into it but it was not designed to cover her breasts and it didn’t. Her nipples were plainly visible.
I reached out and took her hand and said, “I’m sorry Erin. I know how modest you are, how hard this is going to be for you.”
She took a deep breath and said, “Well, maybe I’ll learn to lighten up a little.”
I could tell from her tone of voice that she didn’t believe it any more than I did.
We put our coffee cups in the sink and went out to the car. Erin sat staring out the window as I drove. I said, “Honey, I know how hard this is for you. I really admire how brave you are being. You are handling this situation a lot better than I am.”
She didn’t turn around. She just said in a very quiet voice, “I’m certainly not feeling very brave. I’m terrified.”
I replied, “I will do what you have asked Erin. I will try to find some way out of this mess without losing everything. But I am willing to give up everything right this moment because I can’t stand what he is doing to us. All you have to do is tell me when you can’t stand it anymore and we are out of here. Until then I will hang in there with you. But I don’t want you to hang in there if you are doing it for me.”
She was quiet then. She didn’t respond until we had arrived at work and I had shut the engine off. She finally said, “I am fighting for our lives. It isn’t just that I love you and our house and this town and our friends. Something inside of me tells me that he can’t be allowed to win this. He is going to make our lives intolerable, I know that. But somehow we are going to come out on top. Life cannot be this unfair. We have to win.”
I didn’t share her optimism. But the decision was hers. I would take this as long as I could.
I was unlocking the back door when Ray pulled up. He came in behind us and called out to Erin to stop as she made her way back to her office. He obviously wanted me to watch as he checked out her new dress.
He came up beside me and asked, “Isn’t she beautiful Dean? She should have been dressing like this all along. That dress was made for her.”
He called her back over to where we were standing and said, “You look beautiful Erin. But I can’t wait to see your pussy with all of the hair shaved off. Let’s see it.”
Erin reached down and pulled the skirt of her dress up, baring her stomach.
I saw the pain in her eyes. She was staring between us, looking off into space as she displayed her vulva to this cretin that had taken control of our lives.
Ray said, “Spread your legs out a little Erin. I want to see that stark naked pussy of yours.”
Erin shifted her legs as ordered and Ray sighed loudly.
“Christ that’s hot!” he exclaimed. He looked up at the clock and said, “Let’s go back to the office so that Dean can open up. I’m going to have to sample that thing. I can’t wait to taste it without all that hair.”
Erin dropped her dress back into place and as Ray watched her walking away he put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Damn Dean, that is one fine piece of ass we have there. You go ahead and open up. I’m going to have to go back and get some of that.”
I fought back the urge to kill him and as he walked back to his office I got the cash register ready and opened the front door.
I struggled to think of my job and not what was happening to my wife in the back. Unfortunately, it was only fifteen minutes before I heard Erin cry out. I rushed into the back and found her bent over her desk and Ray was behind her.
He looked up and smiled when I rushed in. He said, “I hope I didn’t disturb the customers Dean. I was just popping your wife’s cherry ass. You really should have been tapping this man. I do believe that this is the finest ass I’ve ever fucked.”
He turned back to Erin and started thrusting in and out of her ass as she grunted in pain. After a few strokes he turned back to me and said, “Don’t worry, she’ll get used to it after a while. It only hurts the first half dozen times or so. After that it’s just another fuck.”
I was kept from killing him by a customer calling out to ask if anyone was here. I turned and went back out to the store and waited on the customer. After he left there was a steady trickle of customers. There weren’t enough to keep my mind off of what was happening to Erin. There were only enough to keep me from having time to think of some way out of this mess.
At lunch time Ray came out from the back with Erin following behind. He said, “Dean, it’s been pretty slow today. Put a ‘Closed for Lunch’ sign on the door and let’s go get something to eat.”
I saw the terror in Erin’s eyes. She had not expected to have to go out in that dress. We had thought that her exposure would be confined to the office for the entertainment of Ray.
Ray said, “Hurry up. We’ll wait in the car.”
I went and locked the door and put the sign up as he had ordered. We normally stayed open all day and alternated lunch periods. But sometimes, when it was slow we closed up for lunch. People didn’t like it, especially the ones that wasted their lunch breaks to drive over here, only to find that we were closed. But that was Ray’s problem. My problem was what Ray had in mind for lunch.”
I went out through the back door and locked it after me. Ray and Erin were sitting in the back seat of his Towncar. When I approached the car he said, “You drive Dean.”
I got into the driver’s seat and he tossed the keys over from the backseat. They landed beside me and I picked them up and started the car. He said, “Drive out to the Dairy Queen.”
There were only two places that we could get lunch in town. The café in the middle of town and the Dairy Queen where the kids hung out now that school was out for the summer. I couldn’t decide which option was worse.
As I pulled out onto the highway Ray asked, “Did you get that chauffer’s cap yet Dean?”
I said, “No Mr. Nash. We are planning on driving to Middlebury after work tonight and looking in the uniform shop there.”
I saw him nod in the mirror and I also noticed that his hands were all over Erin. A moment later he said, “Make sure she wears this dress when you go. It looks so damned good on her.”
I just ignored him until he said, “Did you hear me Dean?”
I glanced up at his arrogant face in the mirror and said, “Yes sir. I heard you.”
He nodded and said, “Make sure she accompanies you into the store too. In fact, while you are in town I think you should have dinner in a nice restaurant, my treat. I’ll give you my credit card before you leave. And I’ll be checking on you.”
I pulled into the Dairy queen then. There were several cars and a dozen teenagers there. They were sitting on the hoods of their cars or occupying picnic tables and they ignored us as they talked happily among themselves. Most of the kids were teenage boys but there were a few girls too.
They ignored us until Ray sent Erin to get a menu. He ordered her to get the menu and come back and lean in through the back window and wait for him to decide what he wanted to eat.
We all knew what kind of show she would be putting on for those teenagers when she bent down and leaned in the window. But it started before that. As she walked up to the small building her little dress blew around giving little peeks at her bare pussy.
Ray chuckled and said, “I instructed her not to hold her dress down. Look at the faces on those boys. They can’t decide whether to look at her tits or her pussy. I’m getting a hard on just watching them watch her.”
Erin picked up one of the menus from the counter and brought it back to the car. She leaned in through the back window and I knew that even if the wind were not blowing her skirt up in the back, half of her ass would be exposed to the boys who were now staring in awe at her exposed flesh.
Her face was bright red as leaned into the back window waiting for Ray to make his choice from the menu. He didn’t really look at it. Everyone in town already knew what was available here. He left Erin standing there like that for several minutes though before he said, “I’ll have a cheeseburger and a Coke. What do you two want?”
Neither of us wanted anything and Ray just shrugged. He pulled his wallet out and handed a few bills to Erin. Before she could go back and place his order he said, “After you put my order in I want you to go over and say hello to the boys. You know them all don’t you?”
Erin nodded and took the menu and the money and went and placed the order. Then she went over and said hello to the boys who were all staring at her in disbelief. They all stared at her all but naked breasts and watched the breeze whip her skirt up from time to time. They couldn’t believe the way that she was dressed or that she would ignore the wind exposing her pussy to them.
The girls, on the other hand, were shocked and appeared to be offended. At first they had giggled and whispered among themselves. But now they saw her prancing around all but naked in front of their male friends and they were embarrassed and upset.
The boys were all good kids. We knew them all. But they were teenage boys after all, and they couldn’t help but enjoy the show. They glanced over at the car from time to time but for the most part they ignored us as they crowded around Erin and vied for the best view of her exposed charms.
It was an incredibly long ten minutes waiting for the food to be ready. The girl behind the window called out that her order was ready finally and Erin said goodbye and picked it up and brought it back to the car. She handed the food in through the window and Ray ordered her to get in.
As soon as she was in he said, “Erin, I’d like it if you would suck my cock while I’m eating my lunch. But first I think you should take the top of your dress down. I like my cocksuckers to have their tits hanging out. It’s so much sexier.”
The boys were still staring at us. They could see into the car well enough to see Erin lean forward and unzip her dress in the back. They must have been able to see her pull it down in front and then it was obvious that she disappeared from view when she bent over.
Ray ordered her to get up off the floor and kneel on the seat. I heard the sound of a zipper in the back and then I heard the sounds of Erin sucking that bastard’s cock. He sighed in pleasure and sat back and began to eat his cheeseburger while she sucked him off.
I was staring straight ahead. I didn’t want to see him in the mirror as he was raping my wife again. But out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and I turned to see one of the braver boys coming closer and looking into the backseat from a distance of only about three feet. I looked back to see that Erin’s dress was gathered at her waist and she was kneeling on the back seat, totally exposed and obviously sucking Ray’s cock.
I saw the boy look in disbelief for a second before turning and motioning frantically for his friends to come closer. In seconds the car was surrounded by a dozen boys jockeying for a better view as my wife sucked Ray off in the back seat.
Under any set of circumstances this would have been a horrible thing. But it was so much worse because we knew all of these boys and their families. By the end of the day I had no doubt that half of the town was going to know what Erin had done here today. They would also know that I had permitted it to happen.
I noticed that all of the girls had gotten into one of the cars and they were leaving. I knew that there would be repercussions from this.
Now that the girls were gone the boys seemed to be even less restrained. They came closer and watched Erin kneeling naked on the seat and sucking Ray’s cock. The boys on one side of the car could plainly see her naked ass and her pussy. The boys on the other side looking through Ray’s window could her mouth full of cock and her breasts hanging down as he groped them roughly.
Ray finally groaned and filled Erin’s mouth with cum. He pushed her head away and ordered her to sit up. She returned to her seat and sat there with her body on display to the boys who had begun to crowd even closer now.
Ray put his cock away and finished his drink. He gathered his trash and opened his door and got out and, leaving his door wide open, he slowly went over to the trash can and deposited his trash. He stood there for a few moments, enjoying our humiliation as the boys stared at Erin’s naked body. She sat back there staring straight ahead, wanting desperately to cover her exposed flesh.
We waited impatiently for Ray to get back in the car. He was in no hurry though. He finally sauntered slowly back to the car but he paused when he reached the pack of boys that was staring excitedly into the car on his side. He smiled and said, “Isn’t she beautiful?”
There was a loud murmur of agreement and he said, “She is a pretty damned good cocksucker too. Once she gets a little more practice she is going to be great.”
His audience snickered at the reference to her cocksucking skills. It was quite likely that most of these boys had never had a blowjob.
He finally decided that he had tormented Erin enough and he got back in the car. He ordered me to take us back to the store and I gladly left the Dairy Queen and that gang of super horny boys. I had been afraid that he was going to decide to share her with them.
Continue… in Part 2(Final)
by Vulgus