Part 1 Jump to part: 2, 3, 4, 5,6,7,8,9

Mari as a young girl found it impossible to make friends, her mother was very domineering, strict Catholic, woman of Irish decent. Mari’s mother was paranoid that her only daughter would be tempted into sinful ways and so made it her duty to shield Mari from any prospect of sinful behaviour. Mari was educated at a convent school, the school was co-educational, which went very much against the grain with Mrs Carmichael but there were no places available at the single sex convent school and so Mari’s mum had to make the best of a bad job.

Mari was very a very bright student, which didn’t endear her to the rest of her classmates and because her mother walked her to school and was there to meet her at three forty five every afternoon just added to Mari’s problems of making friends. Not that Mari cared one way or another, so long as she had her books, her music and her pets she needed nothing more. Shortly before Mari’s sixteenth birthday, her GCE examinations all over and much pressure from school and parents to go into the sixth form, Mari made a momentous decision, she couldn’t face the prospect of being the only student in St Abigail’s school, Chesterfield’s sixth form to be chaperoned to and from school and so she applied for a job as a clerical trainee in a small satellite office of a large engineering company.

Mari was bright enough to have gained professional qualifications but with one thing and another she failed to get on the companies training program and so was destined to remain a clerical assistant until she married and had children. The thought of having children filled her with dread, she had the, quite normal image of herself with husband on her arm, visiting her parents for Sunday mass followed by her mothers fabulous roast dinner. It had to be said that Mari had long ago stopped actually eating the meat but she loved the mountain of roast vegetables that her mother gave her to ‘build her up’ and the special touch of vegetarian gravy just for her.

At nineteen things looked like they were going to plan, Robert, from the regional office in Nottingham, was trying very hard to persuade her to go out with him on a date. Mari had to refuse; she had no choice, when her peers were learning how to talk, kiss and other things, with boys, Mari was reading schoolbooks. While other girls were learning how to dance at the disco with boys Mari was learning how to play the huge church organ. Robert was made of stronger stuff though and after six months he finally got her agreement to go for an after work drink, it took Robert almost a month to arrange his schedule so that he was in Chesterfield at five o’clock to meet Mari and escort her to the local hostelry.

Robert thought that he would kiss Mari on the second date, cop a feel on the third or fourth and maybe go all the way within three months, it had never taken him that long to get a woman into his bed but he knew that Mari was different, he also knew that even if it took him six months to bed her she was a prize worth waiting for. It came as a shock to Robert when he realised that he and Mari were approaching the first anniversary of that ‘after work drink’ and he had managed only to feel Mari’s breasts through her blouse and jumper a few times, in desperation he proposed to her on the night of that first anniversary. Mari rewarded Robert with light hand relief in his car as he drove her home, it was a first for Mari, she had been reading a book which had explained that particular act in some detail and so Mari felt that she could do that at least for her frustrated fiancé. The thing that the book had failed to go into much detail about was the quantity and viscosity of the result of hand relief on a man who had had no relief in over three hundred days, the flood in the palm of her hand, the cuff of her blouse, her skirt and Roberts trousers did put her off doing anything like it again for a long time, not until Robert had been begging her for weeks to try again in fact.

Robert and Mari married on her twenty-first birthday, Mari was a virgin and proud of it, Robert was an experienced lover and had to try very hard to hide it from his blushing bride.

It was the night I had been dreading for an eternity, all of my excuses had evaporated at precisely three o’clock when we both said “I do”, there would be no more hiding behind my Catholic upbringing, far from sex being a sin now it would be seen as a sin to refuse my husband. I put off the dreadful act as long as possible, I encouraged all of Roberts friends and relatives to buy him drinks in the hopes that he would be incapable of the actual act, if he passed out I could even pretend that we had actually consummated and may be able to put the act off for a few more weeks.

Robert was naturally disappointed that he had deflowered his bride whilst too drunk to remember but he wouldn’t make that mistake again, Mari managed to put Robert off a re-match for almost four weeks, at first she complained that he had been so rough on that first time that she was sore and wanted to heal before trying again. Mari had just finished her period when she finally gave in to Robert, she had put him off as long as she could and in her mind at least, doing it so soon after her period would prevent pregnancy.

A few weeks before the wedding the company that Mari and Robert worked for had closed the Chesterfield office and offered Mari a position in the regional finance office in Nottingham. It had taken only a few weeks to prove to Mari how much better her new job was than her old one. There were more people in Mari’s department than had been in the whole office in Chesterfield. Mari was given total responsibility for all suppliers with an initial letter between F and K, she had never had any responsibility before and she liked it, she didn’t relish the prospect of falling pregnant and being forced to give up work so soon after being given such a perfect job.

After the wedding Mari and Robert moved into a large old semi-detached house in a small village just outside Nottingham, the house had three double bedrooms; Robert had said that they could have a large family in such a big house. Mari felt uncomfortable that she didn’t tell Robert that the thought of a family filled her with dread, it was so far away from her Catholic beliefs that she couldn’t even admit it to herself but each time she acceded to Roberts request for sex it was a few days after her period had finished.

I wanted to prove to Mari that she was my whole world, I wanted to bury myself in her at every opportunity, I went to see the family doctor just before our first anniversary, I felt certain sure that Mari should have been pregnant in a year, even if we had only had sex around twelve times. I produced so much sperm each time we made love that I felt I must be incredibly fertile. The test proved me to be right, I was told to bring Mari in to see the doctor next time but I passed over that for the moment, I wanted to try natures way a few more times before I asked Mari to submit herself to such an intimate medical examination. I began to keep a diary at the doctor’s suggestion, noting down each time we had sex, how long we had sex for, the outcome etc.

Mari managed to pass the first financial qualification at night school, it only took six weeks from start to finish but the diploma got her a large pay rise at work and even more responsibility, I was so happy for her that I brought her flowers, chocolates and a broach, we drank most of a bottle of wine and I smooched with her for ages, I managed to get my hand inside her panties while we were both still on the sofa, I massaged her gently, it was the first time I had managed to get her to allow me to touch her sexually while not in bed. I spent almost an hour bringing her off, she reciprocated with me, I managed to stop her masturbating me to a full climax, preferring to keep all of my soldiers in the staging area until battle commenced later. “Lets go up to bed darling and finish this off properly” I said. Mari froze, it was like she came out of a trance, she asked me what the date was, and when I told her she jumped up, “I have a report that’s due in at work tomorrow, I should have been working on it instead of messing on the sofa”, Mari finished her sentence as she passed through the door into her little home office.

Robert fell asleep at two am, Mari was still absent from his side, Robert noted everything in his diary the following day, all the intimate details and just how frustrated he had felt when Mari seemed to prefer work to taking pleasure with her husband.

Eighteen months of trying isn’t much, some couples go for years without issue but Robert was now at the point where he needed the doctor to find out what the problem was. Robert was told to arrange a double appointment with the doctor for Mari and himself; he was told that the appointment should be made for around two weeks after Mari finished a period. Robert realised that he didn’t even know when his wife had her periods but he knew that he now had to bring up the subject of medical tests and he would need to know such things about his wife.

Mari went to see the doctor as Robert had asked her to, she went in alone while Robert was in the toilet, preparing yet another sperm sample for the doctor to analyse. Mari went through the internal examination, the first she had ever had by a male doctor and the experience totally revolted her.

Robert passed his wife in the doctor’s doorway; she turned her back to him as they passed which worried Robert a lot.

I felt just like a slab of meet, I was stripped naked and lying on the doctor’s examination table, he prodded my breasts, stuck his fingers right up my vagina, took swabs and samples from my most intimate places. I hated the whole process, I tried to tell Robert that I was sure that there was no problem with either of us and that we should let time and God's will take its course.

As I dressed the doctor was making notes, he asked me the date of my last period, I told him, he asked if my periods were regular, “I’m a better timekeeper than Big Ben” I told him, I didn’t feel in a humorous way but I had to say that to stop myself from bursting out in floods of tears.

I bumped into Robert in the doorway on my way out, he asked how I was but I just ‘blanked’ him, turned my back towards him and walked away, I had said that I would wait in reception for Robert to get out and that he could drive me the mile or so home, but the way I felt at that moment I just walked home alone, I had things that I needed to think about.

Robert handed over his small specimen pot full of his freshly milked cream, the doctor placed a label on the pot and placed it on a tray with the small pots from Mari, the receptionist was buzzed and she collected the samples to pass on to a motorcycle currier who had been waiting in reception for twenty minutes, the samples had to be in the laboratory within the hour if any useful data was to be gleaned from them.

The doctor read through Robert’s diary with interest, he checked his notes from his consultation with Mari and started to mark dates in Robert’s diary with red asterisks.

I was totally shocked, the doctor told me that he thought Mari and I had wasted a lot of his time and the practices money, he pointed out the dates when Mari had her periods and the fact that each time I had made an entry for sexual congress it was four days after Mari’s period had started in every case. “All you have to do is move the date you and your wife have sex by two weeks and you stand a chance of the pregnancy you wish for” he told me. Then he pointed to the night when I had started to try for sex with Mari on the sofa, the night when she was working on a report for work into the small hours, “That night would have been around the perfect time for your wife to conceive” I stopped hearing the doctor at that point, ‘ping’ the light comes on, Mari was deliberately preventing pregnancy by a crude adaptation of the rhythm method of birth control.

Part 2 Go back to part 1 Jump to part: 3, 4, 5,6,7,8,9

To say that Robert felt totally betrayed by his wife of less than two years was an understatement, he wasn’t surprised that Mari wasn’t waiting in the doctor’s reception for him, Robert didn’t drive straight home but stopped off in the village pub, he had some thinking to do and the alcohol would help him to put everything into the right boxes in his mind.

I needed a bath, I expected Robert to have beaten me home, it had taken me almost thirty minutes to walk from the doctors to our house and he had his car but the drive was empty when I got home.

The bath seemed to take an eternity to fill, I had made the water much too hot but then I felt in need of the cleansing effect the heat would have on my violated body. Robert had set up a crude trap for me and I walked right into it, when he told me that the doctor needed to see me and Robert and that it needed to be two weeks after I had my last period, I really had no idea that it was for a fertility consultation, it was a total shock to find that Robert had been talking to the doctor for six months but he had never said a word to me. I have to admit to myself though that I had been deliberately preventing myself from falling pregnant and that made me feel very guilty. I soaped, scrubbed and flannelled myself for almost an hour in the bath but still didn’t feel clean, I had no idea what would make me feel clean ever again.

Mari heard Robert in their bedroom; the water had turned very tepid, Mari had lost all track of time but she could see that it was dark outside, Robert was making quite a lot of noise and Mari called out to him that she was sorry, she listened for a response but none came and then all was quiet.

I stepped out of the cold bath tub, drew a large bath sheet around my shoulders and walked out across the landing barefooted, the door to our bedroom was open, I could see half the draws in the storage unit were open, open and empty, the suitcases were also missing, there was no note or message just an empty house, empty of everything except me.

At the pub I made my decisions, I had only one pint, I wanted many more but I had the car and I would need to be able to drive before the night was over. Mari was hiding in the bathroom when I got home, I heard her call to me but decided that I wouldn’t be able to be civil to her in my present mood and so I just packed all of my possessions into two suitcases and made a mental note of how much I would have to come back for later.

My mother was heartbroken when I knocked on her front door and asked if my old room was still free for a while, I wasn’t sure if it was my return home that had upset her or the fact that I had left Mari after only eighteen months of marriage. I dropped my cases on the bedroom floor and walked to the local pub; if my plan worked I wouldn’t be able to walk back again.

The barmaid in the Hobgoblin was an old flame of Robert’s, she was one of those girls that he had practiced his ‘date model’ on and she had given in to him exactly as he had planned and because she had, Robert had lost interest in her the second he zipped his trousers closed after the dreaded deed was done. Hobgoblin, even the name sounded plastic, Robert had taken his first legal drink in that pub on his eighteenth birthday but it was called the Huntsman’s Rest in those days, the Huntsman’s Rest was a fifteenth century coaching inn, it had real antique Oak beams, Solid Oak bar and Oak floors, the new owners had ripped out all of that history and replaced it with almost exactly the same thing but in MDF and plastic.

Cathy looked rough, she was really beautiful when we were an item but she has gone a long way down hill since then, unmarried and two kids, why is it that women like her can pop kids out like shelling peas, god I need a drink badly.

Robert took solace from many pints of beer, he met up with a few of his old friends who started to mix his bitter with vodka increasing the speed with which he was now approaching semi-consciousness.

I didn’t sleep at all, I half expected Robert to walk in and tell me he still loved me but I knew him better than that, Robert was a fiercely proud man and if he thought that I had been deceiving him then there would be no way for him to come back. Robert’s pride was one of the things that had endeared him to me, I had been fooling myself all along, just because Robert hadn’t said the words that he was desperate for children and I hadn’t told him that I was far from ready for children that wouldn’t matter to him, it was my duty to bare his children, keep his home clean and feed him.

Mari was glad that it was Saturday and that she wouldn’t have to face the others at work; they were all bound to know within minutes of starting work on Monday morning and then she would have all of that to contend with, her department head was a personal friend of Roberts, they had known each other for almost ten years, hell, Mari was the new girl in that office, she had been there around two years but Robert had gone there straight from school, fifteen years now, but that was something that Mari would have to face on Monday, now she had to tell her mother that Robert had left her, Mari shivered at the prospect of being forced to move back to her mothers and all that would entail.

Robert, being older and better paid, had put down the ten thousand pounds deposit on the house, that was before they had married, Mari realised that she hadn’t insisted on her name being placed on the deeds to the house, it wasn’t because she felt secure, it just seemed like a waste of the three hundred pounds it would have cost for all of the legal papers. Robert had been talking about moving the mortgage to a different company, and that would be time enough to get her name on everything.

If Mari felt low after her appointment at the doctors and after, that was nothing compared to how she felt after lowering the telephone receiver following her conversation with her mother. As one door closes another is slammed shut in your face, Mrs Carmichael had left Mari in no doubt that she was well and truly disowned. There would be no welcome in Chesterfield if Mari found herself homeless as a result of her dishonesty with her husband.

Mari didn’t leave the house at all on Saturday and it looked like Sunday would be a little of the same, the village had no bus service on Sunday’s and so Mari would have to walk to the Melton road if she wanted to go anywhere as she had no car and didn’t even drive.

I was so stupid on Friday night, I remember throwing up in the bar and someone passing me a shot of Vodka to take the taste away and then nothing until a young boy jumped on me as I lay dying in bed. The child was a stranger to me as was the bedroom. I was totally nude, and this boy, he looked around six years old was trying to pull the duvet off of me, there was a girl there behind him, slightly older and the spitting image of Cathy. I couldn’t see my clothes anywhere in the bedroom. I managed to ask the girl if she had seen my trousers anywhere, it was difficult to talk as I was so dehydrated and each sound that passed between my lips was like a sledge hammer pounding inside my head. “They are in the front room” the girl said, I didn’t get the chance to ask her to fetch them, she had a strangle hold on the boy that had been terrorising me and was dragging him from the room. I pulled the sheet from the bottom of the bed and wrapped it around me, toga style. Cathy was in the kitchen talking to her mother, I did the best greeting I could manage but my mouth was only working at fifty percent efficiency. Cathy didn’t even look embarrassed at being caught with a naked ‘old flame’ in her bedroom.

If nothing else Robert was a fare man, he had put nine thousand pounds of his savings into the marital property and that was all he wanted from the house. He managed to talk to the mortgage broker just before he closed up for the day; Robert had forgotten that the place would be closing early on a Saturday. The broker had thought it slightly odd that Robert had completely changed all of the figures for his intended mortgage move. Robert had only put Mari’s salary into the equation and he had increased the amount that he wanted to borrow by almost ten thousand pounds.

“I knew that it would be tight but not that tight, what if we knock three thousand off the sum?” “I know that you rejected the idea of a ‘low start’ mortgage the last time we discussed it but it would mean that you get the full amount within the figure you can afford to pay for the first three years, there are heavy penalties for early redemption and the rate is slightly higher in years six and seven but by then salary should have increased enough to make it affordable!”

If Robert was thinking of the mortgage for himself he would have rejected the ‘low start’ as a non contender, three years at below base rate at the beginning and years eight, nine and ten would be the same ratio above base rate that the first three were below, and to be tied to any financial product for ten years wouldn’t do for him but it would be the only way that Mari could buy him out and still keep the house, that’s if she wanted to keep the house.

I feet dreadful, it was five o’clock in the morning before I finally fell asleep and that on top of Friday nights lack of sleep something woke me, I looked at the bedside clock, it was eleven o’clock on Sunday morning. ‘Brinnnnnnnng’, it must have been the front door that woke me and there it was again, I looked out of the window, Roberts car was parked on the lane at the end of our drive. I wondered why he hadn’t pulled onto the drive, the narrow lane was often the scene of accidents as cars tried to negotiate it too fast when they left the village, the national speed limit sign was at the end of our property line and cars were often already travelling at that speed as they passed our drive.

Mari pulled her dressing gown on over her floor length nightdress as she ran down the stairs, Robert refused her invitation to enter the marital home, he asked her if she had any plans for dinner, she shook her head, Mari’s heart had lifted considerably just on seeing Roberts car outside the house but now she wasn’t so sure, Robert would wait in the car for her to get ready and he would treat her to Sunday lunch. Mari’s heart slid a little lower at Roberts parting comment as he walked down the drive.

“I’ll pay for dinner, we have lots to discuss before tomorrow!”

Mari dressed as quickly as she could, she decided not to shower, even though the last time she saw soap and water was Friday evening and she could only guess how badly she must smell by now, Channel number five would mask most of it for a few hours. Mari chose a white blouse and mini skirt; she had a lilac bra and panty set on, the bra of which could now be seen through the thin material of the blouse. Mari’s choice of clothing was no accident or quirk; Robert had brought all of the things she was wearing, she had never worn the blouse out of the house without a camisole top under it or a jumper over it, but she needed to gain something from this opportunity, and her hope was that Robert would like the effort she had made to dress the way he liked and want to just fall into her arms, or into her bed.

“You look nice Mari”

Mari thanked Robert and sat in silence as he drove toward Melton Mowbray, Mari knew that her task wouldn’t be easy when they pulled up outside of the Mash Tub public house. Neither Mari nor Robert liked the pub; the term ‘neutral space’ ran through Mari’s mind. The pub had changed hands since the last time Robert and Mari had been there and it didn’t look half as bad as it did the last time they were there, the food choice had improved beyond recognition too.

“I had a chat with the mortgage broker yesterday Mari, he has given me a copy of the proposal he is sending to you in the post”.

Mari’s head began to spin; she didn’t understand mortgages very well even though she was something of a financial wiz in her field of purchase ledger, especially for companies with the initial letter beginning with the letter ‘F’ through to ‘K’.

Robert explained that all he wanted was the nine thousand pounds he had paid for the deposit; Mari didn’t think that she would be able to afford to pay a mortgage on her salary but when Robert pointed out the figures to Mari she bulked a little, she could just afford the mortgage if everything that Robert had worked out was right, she would only have sixty pounds a month for food and essentials but as she got better qualifications and the pay rises that they would bring she would also get her annual pay rises, it would be tight for six months or so and after that things should get easier. Robert skirted over the increased payments needed later on in the term and the huge penalty payments if Mari ever needed to get out of the mortgage. Mari didn’t like the prospect of the medical that would be needed to prove that she wasn’t pregnant or with some kind of illness that would incapacitate her in the near future. Then Robert told her that the lender might need a guarantor’s signature, someone who would have to step in and pay if she was unable to.

About Monday morning, Robert would pick Mari up on Monday morning and take her to work as if nothing was wrong; he needed time to get a few things in motion before anyone found out that they were no longer together. That suited Mari; she didn’t even know how to get from the city to the office on public transport, she would need time to sort things like that out.

The drive into work wasn’t too bad, Robert gave me his mother’s love, so that explained where he was stopping and that it wasn’t out of his way to offer to take me into work. I was called into the financial managers office as soon as I walked into the office. My instant thought was that Robert had already told his long time friend about our difficulties. “I’m passing your portfolio of work out amongst the other staff Mari, I need your total attention to an important report that’s needed by next Monday, nothing can distract you, we need the best work you can do on this report!” Well at least a big report would take my mind off of my problems, I would be given my instructions from my line manager after I had handed over my list of suppliers to the others and brought them up to speed on what outstanding issues I had.

Mari was unhappy that her ‘F’ list was going to be handled by Carol, Carol was slapdash, every one knew it, she had more rejections and problems than any two other staff in the entire office. Mari knew that all Carol was waiting for was the opportunity to move on, either marry one of the directors or get herself knocked up by one of her many lovers.

Mari received an email outlining what was needed in her important report, Mari took time to read everything twice, she went to her supervisor for clarification on two points, Betty looked totally exasperated at Mari, she gave her best ‘Have we made a mistake here’ look and altered her email to Mari detailing the two points that Mari had sought clarification on.

Robert took Mari home, she was really glad of that as she had an arm full of folders that she was going to sift through to get some of the information she needed for her report, she had decided to throw herself into it completely, make the best job possible, who knows, the report would be seen by a high flyer from head office and Mari may get a promotion if she did well.

Robert was on the doorstep at the usual time on Tuesday Morning to take Mari and her pile of files back to work. Mari buried her head in her report but at eleven o’clock Carol caught her at the coffee machine.

“So are we going to keep your accounts forever or are they planning on replacing you?” I was a little shocked at Carol’s question, “It’s all over the office, you don’t have to keep it a secrete any longer!” Carol said, “What’s all around the office?” I asked.

Mari found Carol’s tale a little hard to take in, Robert had been short listed for a promotion to the London office, apparently he had been asked many times to move to head office but had always turned them down in the past, now he had no reason to stay in Nottingham he had started the ball rolling for the promotion.

Mari was jerked back into reality, Betty had a woman with her, she was introduced as Francine but interjected that she was Frankie, she shook Mari’s hand, her grip was strong, her hands were perfectly manicured, there wasn’t so much as a chip in the deep lustre of the polish on her nails. Frankie’s handshake lasted a few seconds longer than Mari felt was proper.

Frankie was dressed in a navy blue ‘power suit’, white blouse with its collar turned neatly over her jacket collar, her navy blue skirt was one inch above her knee and she wore seemed stockings and her black four inch healed shoes had a shine on them that would have pleased a Palace Guardsman. Mari estimated that Frankie was around fifty-five years old and her strawberry-blond, shoulder length hair was her natural colour, she had faint freckles showing through her immaculate make up.

Mari had missed the point of the introduction to Frankie; the report she was working on was to be used by Frankie as the basis for her project, around six months looking at the viability of the regional office network.

Mari had been re-sited, she was now working at a desk close to the financial managers office, she was now opposite Betty and there was an unofficial exclusion zone around Mari’s desk, no one was allowed to come close enough to see what Mari was working on, that suited Mari down to the ground, it meant that she could avoid all of those awkward questions that her co-workers were desperate to ask her about her impending move to London, and the fact that she would have to tell someone that she wouldn’t be following her husband south.

I thought that I was a little out of my depth, I was really glad of the privacy that working at the desk opposite Betty provided me, it also gave me lots of opportunities to show Betty my rough work as I went along, I needed her to tell me I was doing as she had asked me to do and to get tips on the actual presentation and layout, I knew that my figures were exactly as they had to be, they would stand up to any scrutiny but I needed lots of help in making them look right.

Wednesday morning saw a major confrontation between Frankie and Mr Hopkinson, the financial manager, Dan Hopkinson was a strong man, he had character to spare, he was the youngest financial manager in the group, he had rugged good looks even though the goatee beard was a little trite and would have looked much better at the bottom of the dustbin. Dan had organised Frankie’s hotel accommodation for Tuesday night, the door to his office closed before I could hear exactly what had twisted Frankie’s knickers bur she was standing over Dan, fists clenched and Dan was looking decidedly uncomfortable. As Frankie turned to leave Dan’s office I could see that she was totally composed, she had exploded all over Dan, destroyed him totally and then simply walking out and getting on with her project. Dan was visibly shaken, he asked Betty to arrange for Frankie’s bags to be collected from the hotel and for Betty to arrange for a much better hotel for Frankie for the rest of the week.

Thursday was a similar story; Frankie was not impressed with the new hotel and insisted on Dan going out personally and sorting out the hotel situation.

I got a mortgage proposal form today, I have to take a medical and I need a guarantor to co-sign for the mortgage but I am surprised at the speed that things are moving. I speak to my father on the phone, he will co-sign for me but I have to promise not to tell my mother he has done it for me. “How is mother?” Father told me that she had been wearing her rosary beads out since I told her about Robert leaving me, “Mother has been hit really hard by this, she is hoping that it won’t come to a divorce, it will be the first in our family, ever if you and Robert do get divorced.

Friday saw a rumour flying around the office that Frankie had driven to London at three o’clock in the morning after a problem at her hotel, Dan is looking ever more worried, he had chosen the last hotel personally after all.

Mari was called into Dan’s office, a finance house had requested a reference for her, the reference request wasn’t an unusual thing except that it didn’t mention Robert and Dan had received confirmation that Robert would be transferring to the London office, Dan had to arrange for budget adjustments to Roberts department.

Dan seemed really concerned when he asked me what was going on, he had been at the wedding and he had thought that Robert and I were a perfect match. I broke down and cried as I explained that Robert wanted children right away and that I wanted to wait, it was a simple as that, well it was a little more complicated but I felt that I had told Dan enough for his needs. “Has Robert moved out?” “Yes” I have seen the amount that the mortgage payment will be Mari, it will cripple you paying all that”.

Mari didn’t have to answer Dan’s concern, the managing director was on the phone, Mari was around ten feet away from Dan but could hear the MD’s voice clearly, Mari made her excuse to give Dan his privacy but he stopped her, he muted the phone and asked if Mari would help out by putting Frankie up for a few days.

That was a bombshell, I had the impression that Frankie was a little difficult to please and the thought of her being imposed on me was a step too far, even for a good company. “We will pay you one hundred pounds a day to give Frankie bed and breakfast from Sunday night to Friday morning, that will cover your monthly mortgage payment in one week!” I didn’t really want my privacy to be shattered but the thought of that amount of money was a little too much for me and I said, “If it is ok with Frankie then I guess I’ll go along”.

Mari had to go into work on Sunday to finish her presentation off even though it meant that she had to walk almost four miles just to catch a bus. Mari needed the computer to finish the last of her presentation; Mari was shocked to find Frankie was already in the finance office when she arrived. There was a mountain of paper work around Frankie, files going back ten years and she was working like a whirling dervisher through the files, jotting this and that down as she went. Frankie was dressed informally, her hair was down, cascading over her shoulders, even dressed casually Frankie still looked every inch the businesswoman.

“I see we are to be roomies Mari!” Frankie said after an hour of silence, I looked up at her but Frankie didn’t take her eyes from her task. I just grunted a yes and looked back down at the papers on my desk. I felt very pedestrian in my work compared with the speed that Frankie was going through files. Frankie stood up quickly, she stretched up, exposing her stomach a little, I was shocked to see how flat it was, I was half her age and I had the typical spare tyre that often caused people to ask if I was pregnant.

Frankie wandered off and returned with two coffees, this took Mari by surprise, Frankie was very senior management and here she was fetching a coffee for her. Mari was even more surprised that Frankie had gotten the combination exactly right, coffee, white, one sugar and whipped. Frankie’s strength, well one of many strengths was that she observed everything, she could work at three things simultaneously and still give a verbatim account of everything that had happened during the day in the office.

When Mari had finished the work she had struggled in to Nottingham to complete she didn’t know if Frankie was planning on stopping at her house that night but as she put her coat on and checked her watch to see if she would have much of a wait until the next scheduled bus into the town centre Frankie asked her if she had a car.

I had finished everything I had been asked to do, I checked my watch and realised that I had just missed the bus into town, the next one would be in fifty-five minutes time, that would mean another long wait at Broad-marsh bus station for the bus to Melton Mowbray as the next buss left in an hour’s time and the in next three hours from now. I would still have around a ninety-minute walk from the main road back into my village. No one had mentioned anything more to me about Frankie stopping with me for a few days and as she hadn’t brought it up I guessed that she wasn’t too happy about the possibility of stopping with me. “Hey Mari, do you have a car here?” Frankie asked me, “No!” I replied, I saw Frankie smile for the first time, she lowered her strict business façade and allowed a little sunlight to escape from her face. That smile altered Frankie’s total persona, she was softer, more feminine, I would almost go as far as to say that she was beautiful. “That’s great, at least you will be in the car with me to give me directions to your place instead of me trying to follow behind you”. Frankie admitted to me that she had difficulty following people, she was to use to being in front at everything she did.

Mari followed Frankie out to the managers car park, there was a Porsche 911 turbo parked in the area managers space, Mari was impressed with the car, it was British Racing Green and had a huge white roundel on the bonnet and each door with the number seven in black inside the roundel. Frankie had reached fifty miles per hour before she left the car park; there was a loud screech from the tyres as Frankie turned right onto the duel carriageway without slowing down one jot. Mari found it difficult to keep up with giving directions, as she was saying turn next right Frankie had already passed the turning. Frankie was travelling at over one hundred miles per hour on the Melton Road, Mari knew that the road at that point was a fifty limit but as Frankie exuded confidence Mari didn’t feel in the least bit worried at the speed that Frankie was driving.

Part 3 Go back to part: 1, 2 Jump to part: 4 5 ,6,7,8,9

Mari had to rush around and prepare the bed for Frankie to sleep in, the bed was old, it was a box divan that Roberts parents had before they upgraded to an ‘Craftmatic’, motor driven thing with inbuilt heat and vibro-massage, the old bed was a good few years old but it was a top of the range bed and Mari had found it much more comfortable than the bed that she and Robert had purchased for the first night of their marriage, and supposedly the rest of their life, but that was all changed now.

I’m really glad that I hadn’t loaded the middle bedroom with rubbish like I had the third bedroom. The middle bedroom was intended for our guests to stay over, the guests that I firmly intended to invite to our scintillating dinner parties but never quite got around to. At least Robert has made the room look clean and fresh, far better than it was when we moved in eighteen months earlier. I smiled as I made the bed up, I had sent Robert straight back to the shop with the first armful of wallpaper he had brought home. I told him that while ‘Winy the Poo’ had its place that place wasn’t on the wall of our main guest bedroom. I hadn’t said the words but I made Robert think that I had the third bedroom in mind for our nursery, I suddenly felt sad, I just didn’t realise how mad keen Robert was in sticking me in the pudding club and I didn’t have the words to tell him how much I couldn’t face the prospect of needing that nursery.

Mari busied herself, first by making up Frankie’s bedroom while Frankie relaxed with a glass of ice-cold chardonnay and then by starting to cook the nut-cutlet that was planned for Mari’s Sunday dinner but passed over at the usual time for a sandwich in the office while pounding the keys on her computer.

The pace of things had really spun my head in the past week, London had been trying to tempt me down for almost two years and within twenty minutes of my ringing my counterpart in head office to see if there were any openings in down there I was talking to the Nottingham regional manager and getting the ‘we will be sorry to lose you but our loss is the companies gain’ speech. I had to explain about Mari and I, I didn’t feel strong enough to say anything but the manager was ringing Dan Hopkinson to tell him that he would need a new data processing operative so I had no choice but to tell him that I thought that Mari would probably be stopping in Nottingham.

Mari called Frankie down to the evening meal she had prepared but there wasn’t a sound from Frankie’s room, Mari climbed the staircase and tapped gently on Frankie’s door, still no response, Mari risked opening the door just a tiny crack. Frankie was lying on top of the bed, her hair wrapped in a towel turban, she had showered while Mari was cooking and was now sound asleep wearing her dressing gown with her damp hair still twisted in the hand towel. Mari gingerly walked to Frankie’s side, the dressing gown was open slightly, Mari blushed as she caught sight of the parts of Frankie’s body that had escaped from her dressing gown. Frankie’s breasts weren’t large but they stood out firmly from her body, the freckles that Frankie hid reasonably well under foundation and makeup spread like a strawberry mist over her upper chest and neck, the rest was covered down to her thigh, Mari couldn’t believe the muscle definition in Frankie’s legs. Mari thought that if her legs looked half as good as Frankie’s legs she would wear hot pants or micro-mini skirts all the time.

Mari caught her reflection in the dressing table mirror, she saw her red face and then reached a had to her cheek to feel the warmth that the blood pumping through the tiny surface capillaries had produced, with her other hand she pulled the duvet over from the far side of the bed, making the double duvet act like a single sleeping bag.

Mari didn’t eat anything, she reasoned that if Frankie woke up and came looking for food then they could eat together, by ten thirty Frankie still hadn’t surfaced and so Mari tip-toed up the stairs to bed.

Mari woke with a start, there would be no Robert today to come and pick her up, he had been asked to work for the week in London and then finish his last week in Nottingham the following week. Mari hadn’t broached the question of transport into work with Frankie, she had planned to bring that up over dinner, the dinner that was standing in the fridge, ignored totally from the previous evening. Mari had missed the bus that would have given her time to get to work and faced an hour long wait until the next bus, and that delay would cascade on to the next bus, Mari was looking at being around seventy to ninety minutes late, she shrugged her shoulders, if Frankie didn’t want to take her to work she was already late and so there was nothing left to worry about. Mari decided to make Frankie’s first breakfast a little special, she had lots of ‘part-bake’ roles and cakes in the freezer, there was ten different types of ‘good for you’ breakfast cereal and a huge selection of fruit. The table fairly groaned under the weight of the food piled onto it, then Mari called Frankie to breakfast.

“Frankie, FRANKIE, it’s ten past!” I was looking up the stairs, trying to project all of the power of my voice at her bedroom door, Frankie walked from her bedroom and into the toilet, nothing strange about that, I had done it myself over one hundred and eighty times in this very house, the strange thing was that Frankie had done it totally nude, and not just nude in the ‘unclothed’ sense she was totally devoid of all bodily hair.

Mari found herself blushing once again; she had stood open mouthed at the sight that passed before her eyes. Frankie was quite outstanding, she had firm breasts, they would have looked exactly right in a seventeen year old who looked after herself really well but on a woman of Frankie’s age they were quite outstanding. Mari allowed her eyes to quickly fall to Frankie’s stomach, Mari could actually count each muscle on Frankie’s stomach, the term ‘six pack’ was aimed directly at Frankie. It took less that four steps for Frankie to cross the landing, around two seconds and no more but Mari had enough time to take in the whole picture that was Frankie’s body. Mari had never seen a woman with a shaved pubic area in her life; hell Mari had never seen any other woman in the nude before.

It had never crossed my mind before but I had just seen my first naked person, I had lived with Robert for eighteen months and in all that time I had never seen nor wanted to see his naked body. I even stopped him from putting a mirror in the shower cubicle, I had never really thought about it before but I didn’t even want to look at my own body, while Frankie was in the bathroom I went up to my bedroom, I opened my dress, it was a flowery summer dress with buttons all the way down the front. My bra covered my breasts and my M&S draws covered from belly button to well below the place that interested Robert most. My stomach had that nasty spare tyre, nothing like Frankie’s stomach and I was almost half her age. “Good morning” I crapped myself, Frankie was standing in my bedroom doorway looking at me looking at myself in the mirror attached to the back of the wardrobe door. I saw the brilliant red that my face had turned, it flushed right down to the top of my breasts, I snatched the front of my dress closed before responding to Frankie’s greeting, “Morning, there is food on the table, you must be starved!” I said in a very shaky voice.

By the time Mari had composed herself Frankie was working her way through the food that was on the table. Mari asked if she was going in to work today and Frankie answered through swallows of food, Frankie had accepted that as part of the deal she would take Mari into work but that she couldn’t guarantee to be able to take her home in the evening, there would be late nights, and the gym and if she got lucky there would be a little socialising.

Part 4 go back to part: 1, 2, 3 Jump to: 5,6,7,8,9

Mari was glad to be able to hand her project over to Betty as soon as she walked in, Betty skimmed through the document and as she closed the folder Mari asked if Betty would like her to print out any extra copies, secretly the bit that Mari loved about being given a report to write was to see a pile of ten or twelve completed reports, neatly stapled and places in company folders with the name of the report and ‘produced by Mari Dunlop’ showing through the cut-out in the folders front cover. Mari was brought out of her little, self congratulatory, day dream by Betty saying, “No, just email me the original document please Mari!” it was no skin off of Mari’s nose, Betty could print the dammed document herself if she liked. Betty was busily working away at the computer and Mari had to answer her phone, it was Dan, Mari’s first instinct was to look around the doorway into Dan’s office, it came as a shock that he wasn’t sitting at his desk waiting for the report that she had spent around eighty hours of the last week working on, it hadn’t even entered her head that Dan would be anywhere else than right there, in his office like always. Dan wanted to know if the report was finished, Mari told him that Betty had it and she was looking after printing out the copies. By ten o’clock Dan had phoned four times, each time a little more agitated than the last, on the fourth time Betty took the handset from Mari’s hand and told Dan that Lotus notes wouldn’t allow the document to go through email as it was too large but that all was well the IS department had transferred it to the companies web server and Betty gave Dan the URL address of the document. Mari’s interest was peaked as she had easily sent the file to Betty earlier but Mari decided not to ask Betty what problems she had with the file size, she just made a mental note of the web address and wandered off to the quiet area. There were two, stand alone, PCs in the quiet area that were connected to the internet but not to the corporate network, these PCs were intended for staff to use to surf the internet in their free time without the danger of bringing a virus into the company to threaten the business network. Mari typed the URL into the browsers address line and was surprised to see a front page that had a photograph of Dan and Betty, their names and telephone numbers under their photograph and under Dan’s picture was ‘Report sponsor’ and under Betty’s picture was ‘Report Author’, Mari’s name wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Mari was tempted to close the intenet window there and then but she decided to read on and see just what exactly Betty had done to the report to justify her name as author. The web page was laid out as a series of slides that could be projected on to a screen or showed through a large plasma screen. There was a picture for each section of the report and a small text bos at the side of each picture, the whole thing looked very slick, Mari doubted that she could have made the report into such a slick presentation and didn’t feel quite so bad about her name being missing from the leading page after all. Mari didn’t really read the words, there was no real need, ahe had after all written them, but there didn’t seem much room in the text boxes for some of the reports sections and Mari decided to look at those a little closer.

Section five was twice as big as any of the other sections but I noticed that the text box was exactly the same size as all the rest, I noticed that in Betty’s version of the report, section five was very much a simplification of my words and I hoped that they had taken the trouble of either printing out the report in full or at least reading the full version at the presentation.

Just before lunch Mari heard Betty tell a caller to Dan’s phone that he was in London at the main board meeting making an important presentation. Mari was still mulling over what that snippet of information meant when Frankie stopped at her desk.

I noticed Betty visibly shrink in her seat as Frankie approached across the office, I guessed that Betty had expected a similar haranguing to the previous week from Frankie complaining about her accommodation but she didn’t. “Hey Mari, you ready for lunch yet?” I was a little shocked, I was hungry but I never expected Frankie to ask me to lunch in a million years. Frankie was very upper management, she had access to the senior managers dining room, the place where, as rumour had it, there was waitress service and wine on every table, people at my level weren’t even allowed to look through the window of that select eating establishment. I followed Frankie to the regular staff dining room, I was a little disappointed but was happier to eat amongst my own kind. “Why don’t you eat in the managers restaurant?” I asked her, “I hate to be the only woman in a room, and apart from that I think that is one of the main problems with the Nottingham set-up, managers want to be treated like gods still!”

Mari and Frankie ate in relative silence; they exchanged a few pleasantries over soup, exchanged banter over the salad and went into fits of giggles over the ‘spotted dick’ pudding. Frankie saw Betty sitting alone at a table and said, “I see the lap dog, where’s her lap?”

“Dan is in London making a presentation to the main board!” I said.

Frankie’s pretty smile suddenly dropped and her bright face and mood suddenly turned dark, she knew full well that there was nothing on the agenda of the full board that pertained to Nottingham area or she would have been there herself. Frankie’s title of special projects director would have usually meant that she would have been at that meeting but because of the limited time that she had to complete her task she had been given dispensation to miss all meetings that had no relevance to her project or to Nottingham, in fact her special project was Nottingham, or the East Midlands region to be more accurate.

Frankie’s project was to investigate why the East Midlands region had managed to buck all of the companies’ trends, while other regions were enjoying growth of four percent above the governments national growth figure, the East Midlands had actually managed a negative growth of four percent below the governments figure, that was almost twelve percent below the rest of the group.

Frankie had a few quick fixes that would have sorted things out over night but she was hoping to gain more insight from her analysis to help the company better manage this kind of problem in the first place. Frankie had kicked up a stink when the main board had closed the Ridings regions and fragmented their business between East Midlands and North Eastern regions, the closure that saw Mari’s first job disappear and her fortunate transfer into Dan’s team almost two years earlier.

Frankie had her mobile phone in her hand in less than a second, the Managing Director’s mobile was one of her ten speed dial numbers, it was only the look on Mari’s face that made her check her actions, every table in the dining room had a small sign on it asking for users of the restaurant to turn their mobile phones off during lunch. Frankie moved across the dining room like a steam train, Mari had never seen the ‘Flying Scotsman’ but the term ‘Flying Frankie’ had just popped into her head. Mari cleared away her dishes and Frankie’s too and followed in the direction that Frankie had steamed along a few seconds before. Frankie was standing by the fence that separated the staff dining room’s lawn from the Managers dining room garden, a quirk of design meant that the two hundred seat staff dining room had a lawn that was a quarter of the size of the managers dining room even though the managers dining room had only twenty seats.

Mari stopped short, Frankie was deep in conversation with Alan, Mari had no idea who John was but she guessed that he wasn’t enjoying the conversation and then Frankie’s mood suddenly changed, “OK Mr Fisher, if you would rather do things that way I’ll email my resignation to your office within the hour. Frnkie made a big show of pressing the call end button.

There’s something about a mobile phone, pressing a button, no matter how hard or flamboyantly is nowhere near as satisfying as throwing a handset down onto the cradle. I liked Frankie, as soon as she said Mr Fisher I knew that she was talking to the managing director, it’s a shame that she is resigning, I was looking forward to the payment promised by Dan to help reduce my mortgage and make my life a lot easier for years to come and all I was expected to do was share my home for a few weeks, oh well, all good things and that.

Mari expected Frankie to return to her office on the third floor and begin typing her resignation email but Frankie just leaned against the fence, “You know anyone that smokes in this god forsaken place Mari?” Mary was confused, she had told Frankie that she was happy with her smoking in the house with the exception of the bathroom, the kitchen and the dining room but Frankie had told her that she didn’t smoke so there was no problem there, Mari remembered that the stores clerk was one of the few people that she had seen in the smokers shed by the rear door to the office and she had just passed him in the dining room. Mari was back in a few seconds handing Frankie a packed of cigarettes and a lighter, “I thought you were a friend!” Frankie said as she snatched a cigarette from the packet in Mari’s hand and took the lighter, “Now after this one, no matter how I beg or threaten do not give me a cigarette ever again!”. Frankie’s voice was loud and aggressive but the smile that broke across her face belied her aggression. Frankie took a twenty pound note from her bag and gave it to Mari, “Go give this to the poor unfortunate you just mugged the cigarettes” Frankie said pushing Mari away with the force that she handed her the note and as Mari turned to return to Harry, “But don’t you dare give him back that packet or this lighter!” Frankie said as she threw the lighter over to Mari.

Mari heard Frankie’s phone ring as she went through the French windows and into the dining room, it was still ringing as she returned to Frankie’s side. Frankie threw her phone to Mari and told her to tell whoever it was that she was having her lunch and that she wasn’t to be disturbed.

The screen on the telephone said ‘John calling’, I pressed the button and put on my best voice, “I’m sorry but…..” was all I got a chance to say, the voice on the other end of the phone said, “John Fisher here, is Frankie there please?” “I’m sorry she is out to lunch at the moment” I said, attempting to sound as efficient as possible, “Does she have a cigarette yet?” “I’m sorry but I’m not at……” I was cut short once again, “oh god, so I’m too late then, would you ask her what I have to do to get her to put the cigarette out and talk to me please”. Frankie took the phone from my hands and pressed the call end button again, “Oh dear Mari, you just cut the MD off in the middle of a conversation, not the thing to doe when you’re only a grade three clerk!” Frankie was laughing now but she managed to stifle her merriment as her phone rang again. “OK, tell him that the apartment seems a little dowdy and could stand a little remodelling especially the spa bath in the main bathroom” and then she handed me her phone once again. I gave her message to Mr Fisher and he said, “Her apartment doesn’t have a spa bath!”, Frankie had her head pressed close to mine so that she could hear John Fisher’s reply, she snatched the phone from my hand and said, “Exactly you cheap bastard, I’m forced to live in appalling conditions just so that you can save your pox-ridden company a few measly quid”. I stood listening to Frankie as she made non-verbal responses to whatever it was that Mr Fisher was saying to her and in the end she hung up and linked her arm in mine and walked me off across the lawn.

Mari was late back at her desk, Betty was on her back before she sat down, Mari wondered if threatening to resign would have the same effect on Betty as Frankie’s threat had on John Fisher, but Mari rejected that idea and just apologised and offered to work on after five to make up the fifteen minutes.

My phone rang as soon as I sat down, it was Frankie, “Did the witch get you for being late back?” “Yes, you got me in trouble from Miss”, I responded like a schoolgirl to her best friend, “Well watch this then” Frankie said and put down the phone.

Mari heard Dan’s phone ring, she was about to pick up the call but Betty beat her to it, Betty was talking in whispers and her face went very red a few times and then she hung up the phone. Mari watched closely as Betty took a deep breath and then walked over to Mari’s desk, Betty told Mary that Mr Fisher’s secretary had just called to thank Dan for the help that Mari had been to Mr Fisher during her lunch and that Betty thought that it would be a sign of good will to let Mari leave an hour early to make up for her lunch being disturbed. Mari could see that it stuck in Betty’s throat to give her an hour off and Mari har to use all of her self control to stop herself giggling out loud.

Frankie phoned Mari at four o’clock, “See you in the car park in two minutes” she told her. As Frankie drove Mari home at break neck speed she explained that she thought that her boss Dan was up to no good behind her back, either Dan or the area manager had powerful friends, powerful enough to get an extra agenda item on the monthly board meeting at the last minute, and powerful enough to get Dan an opportunity to to present something to the board. Mari put the kettle on and while it was heating the water for a cup of camomile tea she mentioned the website.

“Do you remember the address of the site?” I told Frankie what I could remember of the site address and Frankie fetched her laptop computer from her bedroom, she opened it and asked me to type in the address, I tried a few different combinations of what I thought I could remember and eventually the front page popped on the screen, “Good girl!” Frankie said to me, she began to work through the pages, I could see that she was becoming more and more agitated as she read the subsequent pages, “Who the fuck came up with all this crap!” Frankie said, I blushed and Frankie gave me a ‘I thought you would be better than this’ look. “It isn’t how I wrote it” I said in my defence, Frankie asked me to log on, I looked blankly at her, “Log on to the laptop as if you are at work!” I did a double take behind the tiny PC, there was no wire sticking out, how the hell could I log on to work using a PC with no wires going to it, Frankie saw my confused look and explained that her laptop had a mobile phone built into it and that it worked exactly the same as a PC on my desk would.

Frankie looked over my report and referred back to the presentation that Betty had created for Dan, there were lots of hummmmm’s and uhuuus from Frankie as she perused the reports.

I asked Frankie if there was anything wrong with the presentation, “No lies exactly, more an absence of the absolute truth, the figures are being presented in a very favourable light, more rose coloured spectacles that down right lies” Frankie asked if I had a written instruction for my report, the terms of reference that I had been asked to work to. I opened my email account and showed her both the original mail from Betty and then the clarification of my understanding email as well, “Good girl, I can see that you had spotted something here but just couldn’t see what you were looking at” I was confused slightly, Frankie ruffled her hand through my hair, the way a parent might do to a child in a supportive, congratulatory, kind of way. “If only you had realised that you were being stitched up by this pair” then Frankie checked my list of emails, there were no old emails, she could see that I deleted my messages as a matter of course, “Why did you keep these two emails when you usually delete everything?” I explained that I wasn’t happy with what I had been asked to do and I had kept the emails so that I could keep checking back to make sure that I was doing exactly what I had been asked for. “I feel a plan hatching my girl, are you up to it?” Frankie asked me, “What?” I replied, “Not exactly sure at the moment, I’ll need a night to work things out, now give me a cigarette!” “Sod off, you get nasty on nicotine” I replied, Frankie pushed me over on the sofa and sat on top of me, “Give me a bloody cigarette or I’ll sit on you all night” Frankie said, “That’s ok, I’m quite comfortable” I lied as the laptop dug into my side. Frankie let me up and then chased me through the house trying to get at my handbag, I managed to beat her to the bathroom and locked the door, “OK’ I’ll flush these if you don’t calm down and make a cup of tea” I shouted through the locked door, I heard a muffled “You will have to sleep sometime, then those dammed cigarettes are toast!” Frankie was calling back to me as she walked down the stairs toward the kitchen.

Mari sat sipping her camomile tea, the infusion always calmed her down, she began reflecting on things, she had been happy in her house with Robert for the eighteen months they had been married, she wondered how it was that she had gotten over Roberts leaving her so quickly, perhaps it was work, she had pulled in an eighty hour week after Robert had left, then she thought abot what had happened just a few minutes ago, Robert had never sat on her trying to get something from her, he had never chased her through the house and trapped her in the bathroom. Robert was a ‘safe’ man, he was, and this came as a big shock, on reflection ,the image of her father. Robert was safe with a capital ‘S’, he drove his company, Rover 75, a solid car, a safe car, Mari could never remember Robert breaking the speed limit, not even at two am on a deserted motorway. Robert had never parked on a yellow line, he had never parked in someone else’s space to be closer to the office, not even when they had popped in at a weekend to collect something, Robert used is assigned space. Was it Frankie, Mari had certainly laughed a lot more in the past few days while Frankie was around than in quite a while, Frankie had made her feel like a school girl, up to no good, but doing no real harm. She smiled at Frankie as she took another sip of her camomile tea. Frankie had missed that smile, Frankie wasn’t the sort to miss a signal like that usually but of the two forms of hunting that Frankie liked to engage in hunting for the perfect way to take a manipulative man, or group of men down was her favourite. Had Frankie not been so distracted with her latest project she might have noticed this beautiful younger woman smiling at her affectionately over the top of a camomile haze. Frankie hadn’t made a new conquest for weeks, usually she would have bated the hook and cast it in Mari’s direction on their first meeting, Frankie believed in using lots of bate, cast it widely and take every bite, devour all the sprats and minnows along the way and when a rainbow trout like Mari comes along play her gently, allow plenty of line to play out, don’t fight too hard, just work steadily until she comes in reach of your net and then pounce. In Frankie’s world a rainbow trout was worth a million minnows but as Frankie got older she realised her bate was not quite so good and her line was a little weaker with age, she lost more to snapped lines and bent hooks but she still loved the battle.

Mari cooked dinner, Frankie pointed out that she was only here on a bed and breakfast basis and that she could pop out for a meal. As Mari poured a cool glass of Chardonnay for Frankie and dished up her food she pointed out that the nearest food was a cold bar snack at the R0atters Arms in the village or an six mile drive to Melton or even worse a ten mile drive back towards Nottingham. Frankie gave in and promised that dinner would be on the company tomorrow.

I woke Frankie up early, I had places everything I had seen her eat the day before on the table and eventually I had to go into her room to wake her up. Her hair was tousled and fell across her face, I had to resist the temptation to brush it back off of her face, I had never had a strawberry blond friend before, none of my friends had freckles which I understood were more common among blond people and ginger haired people had even more freckles, I could see half of Frankies right breast as she lay on her side, the freckles that were quite plentiful on her neck thinned out as they spread across the top of her breast, I was wondering how far down her body they went. I cursed myself slightly, I had seen her in the nude the day before but I had turned my back on her, too shy to look, but now, if she was nude now, I would have looked. “All the way” Frankie said without opening her eyes, I jumped out of my skin, quite literally, “Sorry to make you jump but you brunets are all the same, just want to know what we blonds have lower down our bodies!” Frankie was smiling but I was a little offended, either that or embarrassed, or maybe ashamed, I felt like the kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, how the hell did Frankie know that I was wondering how far down her freckles went? “Your breakfast is getting cold!” I said, “It’s a cold breakfast, you vegetarian freak, now give me a dammed ciggy ‘for I chop you up and stick your body in the freezer” Frankie was giggling as she said that, I guessed that she didn’t really want a cigarette, just a reason to berate me in a friendly though aggressive way. “There’s no room in the Freezer it’s full of ice-cream and frozen cakes, you’ll have to chop me up and put me in the dustbin instead!” I retorted.

Frankie leapt up out of bed, she took the duvet with her like a backward cape and chased Mari through the house and down into the kitchen, Mari was dressed in her dressing gown and nighty, she grabbed at the two sharp knives on the kitchen table and hid them behind her back. Frankie toyed with the idea of a little play fight with Mari over the knives but she decided that this want the time for that kind of fun and it might be a little dangerous in more ways than one.

Frankie asked Mari how she fancied doing a little job for her, Mari shrugged her shoulders in a noncommittal kind of way, Mari would like to work for Frankie but she was a little worried exactly what Frankie had in mind for her.

“Do you like London?” Frankie asked, I told her that I had never really been to London, I had passed through it a few times but only ever on my way to someplace else. Frankie set up her laptop on the dining table as she ate her breakfast, I tutted loudly at her for not concentrating on her meal, I hated the mobile phones or news papers at the table and this was a hundred times worse. Frankie then phoned Mr Fisher, “John, oh sorry, have I woken you? Well get your lard ass out of the sack and do some work for your vastly over padded salary” Frankie outlined her plan to John, I found it very frustrating to only hear one side of a conversation, I found great difficulty in concentrating on my food, especially when Frankie’s duvet cape fell to the floor and left her sitting naked in my dining room, she was quite right, I followed the trail of freckles down her chest, over her breasts and onto t he flat of her stomach, with each inch of downward progress the freckles quantity, size and colour diminished. I noticed Frankie caught me looking at her, my first reaction was to look away quickly but if she was comfortable with me looking then why should I be any other. I did notice that her nipples hardened as I looked at her, her areole shrunk slightly and ‘puckered up’, as my eyes rested on her lap I noticed that her triangle wasn’t shaved but closely trimmed into a tight, little ‘V’, I couldn’t see below the apex of her triangle as her thighs were close together but it looked like she night have been shaving the area around her labia. I had slipped into a parallel reality momentarily, the dimension where Mari was a confident person. Worldly wise and experienced. I had missed most of her conversation with Mr Fisher but suddenly my alternative dimensional rift closed and threw mw back to reality, I was the girl that was blushing cherry red right down to my belly button while listening to Frankie outline her deviant plan to John Fisher.

The main thrust of Frankie’s plan was this:

1. Roberts boss would be persuaded to send an email to the East Midlands area manager asking for compassionate leave for Mari to travel to London for a reconciliation meeting with Robert.
2. I would use Frankie’s office to work on a little project for her and stop in her apartment in London
3. Frankie wouldn’t kill Dan, the area manager or Betty until after I had finished my work for her.

Frankie told me not to bother packing too much, just a few personal things like toiletries and make up, I would be given a company credit card while I was in London and I would be expected to buy whatever I needed while I was there, we did a key swap, I got the key to her company apartment and she the keys to my house. We drove to London, Mari was constantly being called on her phone and while she was talking to someone a police car drew along side and sounded his siren, Frankie looked over to the constable driving, he pointed to her phone and indicated to her to switch it off, “Can you drive Mari?” I nodded my head, I had taken lessons while still in chesterfield but I had never actually driven a car since, Robert had suggested that I could drive the Rover if he had too much to drink and as such he had put me on the companies insurance but Robert was ‘Mr Safe’ and he never drank while he was out in the car. Frankie pulled off the motorway at Watford Gap services and told me to swap places with her.

Mari’s inexperience behind the wheel showed itself the first time she lifted her foot off of the clutch peddle, the Porch ‘fishtailed’ across the car park as too much gas was applied and too little clutch control, Mari thought that Frankie would make her pull over and swap places again but a quick glance in Frankie’s direction told Mari that her ‘3G’ take off had impressed Frankie no end.

Frankie was talking the whole way to London, Mari had decided to err on the safe side and had driven all the way to London at seventy miles per hour, Mary was quite pleased when the traffic build-up meant that Frankie had to stop tutting and saying that Mari was driving like an old man and accept that Mari couldn’t fly over the top of the other cars. Part 5 go back to part: 1, 2, 3,4Jump to part: 6,7,8,9

I recognised our head office building from about a half mile away, it was so distinctive and I saw it every day on the companies’ letter head and on the front cover of every report I had ever read, Frankie was busy talking on her mobile and as I was rapidly approaching the building I began to panic, “For god’s sake Frankie give me a clue where I have to park this thing?” I squawked, Frankie told me to carry on past the office and over the bridge then take the second turning on the left.

Mari turned the Porch into the narrow road behind an old, converted warehouse, the road markings seemed to turn into the side of the building but just before there was a red traffic light. Frankie told Mari to edge the car a little further forward and suddenly the light turned to green. Frankie told Mari to take it slowly and Mari really didn’t need to be told that, she had finally mastered the beast, she could feather the throttle and balance the clutch so that the car would creep silently along at a fraction of a mile an hour or make it growl and pounce forward to take full advantage of every bit of road space the capital would allow her.

The steep ramp turned through ninety degrees at the bottom and opened out into a large, underground, car park. There were only a few empty places and Mari was lining up on the first one bur Frankie stopped her, “My space is closer to the lift, it has my registration number on it!”

I drove slowly along the backs of the parked cars, there seemed to be a theme running through the number plates I passed F1 SHT, then F1 SHP, then there was a gap and a Ferrari with F1 SHJ, I noticed that the only space at this end of the car park had a sign on the wall with F1 SHF, “Is this your space?” Frankie nodded her head and was just finishing her phone call when I grabbed my small overnight bag from behind the passenger seat.

Frankie stopped the lift at the ground floor, she wanted to collect her mail and introduce Mari to the doorman, the post boxes formed a rough triangle, the top box had a number one on it, then there were two boxes with two and three on their fronts and then four on the third row, Frankie opened box number five, on the third row and there were four rows of boxes below that row.

The building was a six story warehouse, in the eighteen hundreds it had been used to store the company’s products while they waited for a ship to sail up the Thames and load them onboard for distribution world wide. When the Thames began to decline as a major port and ships became larger and unable to navigate the Thames so far inland, the company was forced to buy storage on wharves at Southampton for their distribution needs. The old warehouse had been up for sail many times until in the end the board of directors decided to convert the building into living accommodation. This kind of conversion had become common place in the late twentieth century but this building was the first Thames fronted building to have been converted. The penthouse took the place of a series of old slate covered, pitched roofs. The pitched roofs had been totally removed and replaced by a flat roof with an apartment on top, set back from the edge so as to not be seen from the road and so that it had, what amounted to a garden area all around it. As the building was such an oddity in the commercial district of London at that time they decided to set convention on its head and number the penthouse flat as number one and the number of the flats increased the closer they got to the ground.

Frankie took around fifty envelopes from her post box, I looked a little amazed at the quantity, “This is just today’s mail, I was here on Saturday and emptied it”, Frankie told me, then she took me and introduced me to the liveried doorman who had a large desk just inside the door looking out over the Thames and to the head office on the opposite bank. The doorman said. “Good morning Mrs. Dunlop and I hope you enjoy your stay with us” as Frankie and I walked toward the lift.

Frankie pressed the button to the fifth floor, it took the old Otus elevator an age to get to the fifth floor, Frankie told Mari that she would usually take the stairs from choice as it was much quicker and it helped her to keep trim. The lifts doors opened onto a short landing, there was plush Axminster carpeting on the floor and oil paintings on the wall, there were only five doors off of the landing, one marked ‘stairs’ and the front doors to four flats, flat four was to the left of the lift, flat five opposite, flats six and seven to the right.

Frankie opened her front door and invited Mari inside, “Make your self at home!” She told Mari, she pointed out the bathroom, her own bedroom, the bedroom that Mari would be using, the kitchen and the sitting room. There was a balcony looking out over the Thames and across to the office that Mary would be working in later on in the day.

My eyes were popping out of my head, I had never seen anything quite this opulent in my life, well not in real life anyway, I often saw film stars or pop stars on TV or in films living in this level of luxury, Frankie pointed out the bath in the bathroom, it was huge, “But not a spa bath!” Frankie was quick to point out, “The two flats above this both have spa baths” Frankie continued, I asked “Two flats?”, “Two flats, the sixth floor has two flats and the seventh is just John’s flat!” What kind of bath does John have” I asked, “John has a four person Jacuzzi in his bathroom, an eight person hot tub on his patio and a spa bath in both of his en-suite bathrooms” I let out a low whistle, “How many people live there then?” “Just John!” I noticed that the shower cubicle had two walls that were made of mirror glass, floor to ceiling, I would definitely feel on show if I used that shower, my practical nature forced me to ask how Frankie managed to keep the place so clean, Frankie just laughed out loud, “We have a woman that doe! She’s a marvel at keeping everything just so”, “WE?” “I share her with Paul, Rachel and Emma, they have the other flats on this floor”. I asked how come there were so many post boxes in reception, there must have been around fifty post boxes but at four flats to a floor they would only need half that number, “Oh, the floors below this one have ten apartments on each floor” Frankie explained.

If Frankie’s bathroom made Mari’s eyes pop out her bedroom made them pop out, bounce on the floor and jump right back in again. Frankie’s bed was an antique four poster bed, it was eight feet high, seven feet wide and seven feet long, it was a monster of a bed by any definition but it looked small in Frankie’s bedroom. The wall opposite the door was almost fifty feet long and was covered, floor to ceiling, with mirror fronted built-in wardrobe / draw units. The wall to the right of the doorway, which was opposite the foot of the bed had a six foot wide fire hearth with oak surround and a life-sized, Rubenesk, painting of a nude reclining.

“That picture looks famous”, I said, ”It’s an apprentice piece, while Rubens was painting his masterpiece that is hanging in the National gallery his apprentice was painting this”. Frankie stood on the hearth to gain an extra few inches and invited me to join her, she began to touch the painting with the tips of her fingers, “Here, feel here”, Frankie’s fingers were caressing the nude painting in the region of it’s lower abdomen, I felt too self conscious to touch the painting as Frankie was. Art, well some art, is there to be revered from a distance, created by super humans it wasn’t for the likes of mere mortals to get close enough to touch. “Here, feel here, they think that the master himself painted the eyes, the mouth and this section”, I reached up and touched, the paint, it almost felt like hair, it was silky and smooth and light as a feathers ribs, Frankie took my fingers and moved them to the nudes thigh, the feeling was totally different, the paint had been applied in thick tramlines, the crests of the paint mountains were sharp and angular, there was defiantly no similarities between the two patches of paint apart from the colour and age. “To think that Peter Paul Rubens may have touched this very canvas over four hundred years ago” Frankie said dreamily.

Mari left Frankie stroking the surface of the nude on her bedroom wall and wandered toward the sitting room, there were many photographs of women around the room, almost every flat surface had a photograph of a woman in a delicate frame. Most of the women in the photographs were younger than Frankie, most had dark hair and of the ones where you could see their chest in the photographs had much larger chests than Frankie. Mari noted the similarities between the photographs in Frankie’s living room and herself; a photograph of her would have fitted right in among Frankie’s collection.

The kitchen looked like it had been transferred to Frankie’s apartment from a Michelin ‘stared’ restaurant, it didn’t look ‘lived in’ though, everything shone, everything had a place to be and was in it, Mari was going through kitchen implements and gadgets in her head and as she looked around Frankie’s kitchen she was ticking them off one by one in her head, yes, if there was a ‘thing’ that Frankie didn’t have for her kitchen Mari couldn’t think of it.

Frankie pulled Mari back to the present, “Come on ‘Dolly daydream’ drop your bags in your bedroom, we have work to do!” Mari’s room was thirty foot square, it had a small dressing room concealed in a wall full of imitation baroque furniture, there was a walk in wardrobe behind a second wardrobe door and an en-suite shower room behind a third. Mari’s little overnight bag looked totally insignificant in the walk in wardrobe.

Frankie led Mari back through the flat and out to the hallway, they took the stairs down to the ground floor, Mari peered through the little window in the door leading out on to the fourth floor, there were ten doorways leading on to that landing, there was carpet on the floor but it looked more ‘Carpet City’ that Axminster or Wilton. The third floor had an Oak effect floor, or a real Oak floor, it was hard to tell through the window and the last two floors had vinyl covering on the floor of the common way.

Frankie opened a door on the ground floor, “The gym!” , Mari took a quick look through the door before it closed, the gym was a huge room, full of every kind of fitness torture implement known to man, then out passed the doorman standing holding the large glass door open for them.

The doorman cleared his throat as we passed him and Frankie stopped in her tracks, “Will Mrs Dunlop be requiring anything for tonight madam?” Frankie looked at me with a slight question on her face and said, “I think she would like a mixed salad, fresh baguette and the largest, most disgusting, calorie filled, cream cake you can find! Oh and she will need a few boxes of cardboard flavoured breakfast cereal and a quart of cow juice for the morning”.

The entrance lobby to the companies flagship office was impressive, the building had originally been built as three wings, two running away from the river and one parallel to it, from above it looked like three sides of a box with the road, running along side the Thames, forming the top. In more recent times the company had put in an atrium, it filled in the ‘box’ as it were creating a huge greenhouse that was almost a hundred feet high, Mari had thought that it was a good thing that no one plaid golf off of the roof of Frankie’s apartment building, she thought that even she could hit a window that was so big.

The receptionist held out a temporary pass toward Mari, “Mrs Dunlop will be working out of my office!” Frankie said, the receptionist apologised and withdrew the ID card. As we stepped into the lift Frankie said, “No one wears ID on the top floor”.

I was taken into Frankie’s office, there were two rooms, the outer room was for her Personal assistant and beyond was Frankie’s office.

Personal assistant to the Special Projects Director I read on the outside of the door that will be me for the duration of my current assignment, I thought to myself. Personnel had set up an access on to the company computer system in my mother’s maiden name, I had pointed out that I had all the access I should need in my own name, the security systems allowed me to move around the company and use any computer in any office and all the files that I needed for my job would be instantly whisked to the terminal. “Indulge me, it won’t be half the fun if people know what you are up to in advance” Frankie said.

A tall thin man walked in behind Frankie as she was talking to me, he grabbed her from behind and hugged her into him, he nuzzled her neck, kissed her cheek and said, “Hi gorgeous!” Frankie seemed to enjoy this over familiar, contact, “Mrs Dunlop, this is John, Mr Fisher, this is Mari”, Mari bulked slightly at this introduction, she had guessed that Frankie and the Managing Director were close friends but the way John ‘man handled’ Frankie it was far more than mere friendship. Mari had wondered how the stated company policy on sexual harassment in the workplace fitted in with the way that John Fisher had greeted Frankie.

John was much younger than Frankie, a little older than Mari though, he was very tall, around six foot six inches or taller, he had the kind of hair that no matter how much oil, gel or styling wax he used, ten minutes after he had combed his hair it managed to fight it’s self back into an untidy tangle of sand-blond wire. There was no doubt that John was good looking but he didn’t have the appearance of a managing director of a futsi one hundred company. Mari considered that was probably why he never made trips to the regional offices; it would destroy the staff’s image of John Fisher as a strong and powerful leader.

Frankie and John were in the inner office now, Mari could only just hear what was being said, “Mum missed you at dinner on Sunday” John said to Frankie, “I told you to explain to her that I had a lot of important stuff to do for work” Frankie replied. “There were twenty-five people there and all she could say was why wasn’t her favourite niece there, the rest of us could have disappeared for all she was concerned, can you pop in on her before you go back to Nottingham this afternoon”.

Frankie gave me my orders, I was to do everything by email, no phone calls, I had to keep a copy of every email that I sent and a copy of every reply. If I needed information that was held in paper files then I had to ask for the file to be couriered to London or that the contents be scanned into a computer and emailed to me. Frankie had given me very complex instructions as to what I was looking for in the paper mountain that I would be climbing and I slowly realised that Frankie suspected a cover up and that Dan’s unscheduled presentation to the board was someone’s idea of heading the truth off at the pass.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sending out email requests for information, nothing came back by the end of business so I felt that my first day was a little bit wasted but there was always tomorrow.

Mari walked back toward the apartment block at the end of a long crocodile of people all moving in the same direction, she followed them as they entered the building one by one. When Mari was ten people back in the queue going through the large glass doors being efficiently held open by the doorman she heard a silly parody being played out. “Good evening Mr Fisher”, “Good evening Harry”. “Good evening Miss Fisher”, “Good evening Harry”. “Good evening Mr Fisher”…. And so on until Mari reached the door, “Good evening Mrs Dunlop”, as Mari said her good evenings to Harry the snake of people ahead of her turned as one, as if pre-programmed to move as one, there were ten pares of ‘Fisher’ eyes looking back at her in disbelief. No one took the elevator, they all trudged up the stairs as one but some opened the first floor door, some the second and a few the third, there was no one left walking up the stairs past the fourth floor except for Mari.

There was a slight smell in the hallway inside Frankie’s apartment; it was a vinegary smell, or a wine, something like that. Mari followed her nose and found a huge salad bowl with French vinaigrette dressing, the salad looked pre-tossed, there was a side plate with a selection of cheeses, mushrooms and cold. Cooked pasta shapes. There was also an ice bucket with an open bottle of Chardonnay with a note around it’s neck, ‘I’m very expensive, sip me slowly, you gulp and I’ll punish you with heartburn’.

Mari was around half way through her meal when the phone rang, Mari was uncertain if she should answer the phone, Frankie had mentioned nothing about the phone, Mari knew that the thing had a built in answer phone but she picked it up anyway. It was Frankie, she asked if Mari felt up to doing one of her best friends a small favour, Mari said, “OK”. “OK, quick shower and meet the car at the front door, get a suite bag from the left hand cupboard in my room, put the black ‘Vini of Paris’ dress, from the third cupboard from the left, in the suit bag and take it to my friends house. The driver will drop you off on route at a shop that will sort you out for me, I’ll warn them that you are on your way to them and everything will be charged to the company, oh and Mari, my friend has promised to look after you as a payment for lending her my best dress”.

I showered and dressed in the same clothes that I had been to work in, I had brought almost nothing with me at Frankie’s instruction, fortunately I had brought a few clean M&S draws and bra sets so I didn’t feel too bad. I found a wardrobe absolutely full of empty suit bags in the left hand wardrobe and the third from left had ten very expensive looking dresses, each with a label inside proudly proclaiming ‘Vini of Paris’, fortunately there was only one black one, and I popped it into the bag carefully.

I found a man dressed in chauffeur’s uniform waiting for me in the fifth floor hallway, “Mrs Dunlop?” He asked, I nodded as I locked the door to Frankie’s apartment. He took the suit bag from me and opened the lift door for me to step in ahead of him, he introduced himself as James and I had a difficult time stifling a laugh. We stepped out on the ground floor and I was escorted through reception and out into the street, there was a white, stretched, Mercedes parked outside waiting for me, the doorman had opened the apartment building door open for me and then rushed past to open the door into the limo for me too. As we drove the chauffeur told me that he was going to be there to drive for me all night and that he had promised Miss Frankie that he would see me safely home.

It was six thirty in the evening and the Mercedes crawled through the busy streets of central London, Mari soon began to recognise world famous names like Harvey Nicks and Harrods, eventually, just off of the world renowned Oxford Street the car pulled to a halt in front of a building, it was large and old but didn’t look like a shop at all. As soon as the car stopped the door that the Mercedes was opposite opened and a man in a white tuxedo rushed out and opened the door for Mari.

The inside of the shop was a total contrast to the outside, it was like a beauty department store, there were the best quality shoes from around the world, the best handbags, all of the top designer labels in clothing, sunglasses and jewellery, the place was huge and it was so exclusive that you had to be invited to shop there.

There was a tall woman dressed in a black, man’s, suit, white tie and dress shirt, she looked like the Mata Dee of a posh restaurant, she even acted like one too, she clicked her fingers toward an assistant and the girl rushed forward and asked Mari if she would like anything to drink. The Mata Dee came to Mari; she reached out her hand and ‘scrunched’ Mari’s hair, “Why don’t you just rinse with battery acid when you shower” she said snootily and then she bellowed “Hairdressing on standby please”, she lifted one of Mari’s hands, looked at her fingers and called “Manicure” her eyes scanned down to Mari’s feet, Mari was wearing her office shoes, they were like men’s loafers but with an inch and a half heal, “I don’t even need to look, “Pedicure” was barked out. As three people worked on Mari simultaneously an assistant asked what colour Mari was looking for, roughly what length, strap or strapless. Mari answered as best she could, she was thinking of something that would be smart for going out but that she could wear to the office. The team of highly trained beauticians worked their magic as a stream of staff wandered past with outfits of roughly the things that Mari had stipulated in her request. She had chosen eight or nine different dresses and they were taken to a dressing room to await the beautified Mari to try on.

Mari was on her way to the fitting room when Mata Dee woman approached her with a set of exquisite lingerie, Mari had never seen anything so beautiful or so skimpy to go underneath clothing, “I am assuming that Madam will be needing something a little less practical to go under her ‘frock’?” The frock comment was said in a slightly condescending manner.

Mari fell in love with a dress, it was totally impractical, she would never dare to wear it in Nottingham where some one who knew her might accidentally bump into her but the was the great metropolis, no one knew her here. Mari stepped out of the fitting room, Mata Dee woman cleared her throat, “I must apologise Madam, you appear to have excellent taste if I may say”. The dress was a little loose under the arms but Mari loved it and would put up with that slight imperfection. As Mari was about to un zip the dress Mata Dee woman stopped her, she called for the stylist, a studious looking woman stepped forward, she walked around Mari and snapped her fingers, then she began barking instruction to assistants from every department in the store, a small insignificant woman stepped forward, she pinched the dress in slightly under Mari’s arms and clipped it there with a few pins. Mari went back into the fitting room and stripped out of all of her cloths, she put on the exotic silk underwear set, suspender clips were provided that fitted to the bottom of the bask and real silk stockings handed to her. Fantastic looking shoes with a four inch heal were passed to her and a handbag that complimented both the shoes and the dress without looking too ‘British Home Stores’, and then the dress was returned, it had been hand sewn by the little seamstress who had pinned it a few minutes earlier. Mari looked a million dollars, well more like eight thousand pounds, that was the bill that Mari signed just before she left the shop, her old clothes had been bagged up and handed to the driver to keep safe in the limo.

The chauffeur knew the address of Frankie’s friend; he had been there many times, James escorted Mari to the front door of a tiny muse cottage in Mayfair, he did the formal introduction, “Mrs Dunlop, may I introduce you to Rebecca Forbes, Miss Forbes it gives me the greatest pleasure to introduce you to Mari Dunlop”. Rebecca muttered “Bitch” under her breath, Mari said, “Pardon?”, “Frankie is a bitch, all I want to do is borrow her eighty thousand pound frock for the evening and she has to send you along to make it look like an ‘Old bags at Debenhams’ creation. She slapped Mari on the back and directed her into the living room. It took mere minutes before Rebecca was back by Mari’s side, she looked good, she was early fifty’s, five foot five inches tall, she showed the signs of an obvious face lift and her hair was a little thin but well styled, she had applied her make up with more skill that Mari would have been able to manage, over all, Rebecca looked like class, and in an eighty thousand pound dress she looked that little bit more so.

Rebecca told James the name of a club and James set off at a pace, the traffic in the heart of London had begun to thin out now, Mari checked her watch, it was eight o’clock, it took thirty minutes for James to thread his way to the club. The building was old and run down, it was in an old and run down area in the east end of London but the streets around the club were wall to wall limo’s and sports cars. The inside of ‘The Cats Meow” was totally different from the impression that the outside gave it. Mari thought that it was like walking through an inter-dimensional portal, dereliction and decay on the one side and wealth and splendour on the other.

Mari had been to clubs in Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and even as far away as Leeds but she had seen nothing like this place. At a table just inside the door there were two men, nothing unusual about that, but these two men were holding hands and whispering sweet nothings into each others ears and no one, apart from Mari, was taking any notice of them. Then there were four women sitting together, one was on the other’s knee even though there were plenty of free seats, as Mari passed them she watched open mouthed as they French kissed. Rebecca was a few yards ahead of Mari and had just been hugged by a very pretty younger woman, the young woman kissed Rebecca tenderly and then Rebecca introduced Mari to Katie, Katie kissed Mari as she had kissed Rebecca, “Rebecca will you dance with me please?” Katie asked, “No darling, I have to get the drinks in, why not take Mari on to the floor and introduce her to the girls!” Mari was still saying no as Katie had pulled her fifty feet and onto a tiny dance floor, there was quite a crush on the dance floor, there was an acre of empty space but the club had only provided a dance floor about twelve feet square.

Kati was a very physical dancer, she was touching Mari all over, stroking her face, chin, neck, arms and even at one point her backside, Mari didn’t know exactly what to make of Katie or Rebecca for that matter, there seemed to be about a fifty – fifty split between the women in the room, between women who dressed and looked like men and women that dressed very feminine and flowery, Katie was a very feminine, flowery woman. A small light went on in Mari’s head, she actually heard it ping too, this wasn’t the Radio City Music Hall, not the ‘Plaice de Dance’, it was a gay club and Katie had just been tapped on the shoulder by a striking woman, dressed in a mans suit, and Katie had handed Mari over to her just as a slow dance began.

I couldn’t believe that I had just been passed on by Katie, the woman that was now pulling me closer to her than I like to be to anyone was whispering in my ear that I looked a million dollars. I like to dance, and if the partner is a good and experienced mover it is quite a turn on. I was dancing with a woman in her late forties, her blond hair had been gelled flat and back almost like a mans ‘short back and sides’ of the fifties, she danced like an angel, she was placing me and guiding me and helping me to dance better than I had in my life. Before that first record was over I had forgotten that she was a woman at all and as the final bars of music were fading away I allowed her to kiss me, it wasn’t a friendship kiss, her mouth was pressed hard against mine, her tong was working it’s way into my mouth, even though she was being a little forceful she was still a hundred time more gentle than any man would have been.
Part 6 go back to part: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9

Everything went silent, I felt good, my surroundings were fantastic, I had been dancing with someone who was very skilled and attentive and the kiss just seemed to be the right thing to do at that moment. I knew that the tune we were dancing to had ended, we were standing perfectly still on the tiny, over crowded dance floor, well not perfectly still, there was a little movement in the mouth area, a little light tong wrestling had begun but the thing that surprised me was just how silent everything had suddenly gone.

Sound suddenly came crashing back into my life, a couple, who were dancing a little exuberantly, crashed into my back just at the moment that my dance partner had taken my bottom lip between her teeth, the resulting crash caused a little flash of pain and brought me instantly back to reality.

Mari, suddenly aware of what she was doing and where she was doing it froze on the spot, the woman kissing her was now rubbing her hands down Mari’s back from the position they were while they danced and lower down Mari’s back, toward her bottom. Mari had danced with few people in her life, there was Robert, naturally he and Mari had danced together, they had kissed a few times on a dance floor but Mari was far from being comfortable with public displays of affection and another thing Robert would have never taken such a liberty as to try touching her bottom in public even after they had married.

Mari felt her face colour up, she even thought to herself that any second she would be out on the street and into the relative safety of the Fisher limo’ but she was still standing there, her dance partner was still fondling her bottom and now she was leaning forward once again, leaning closer to her dance partner.

Ok this was a little left field for me, I have never really likes displays of affection in public, hell I preferred not to see displays of affection, that’s probably why I always insisted on the lights being out when Robert and I had our monthly liaisons. This was different, very different, the mouth that I was kissing, that was kissing me, wasn’t the hard muscular thing that I was use to feeling against my mouth. This mouth was soft, lips were full and cushioned, the tongue that wanted to play in my mouth wasn’t demanding entry, it was requesting admittance, was toying with me, was easing its self into me, into my mouth for sure but also trying to reach much deeper, trying to ease its way into my soul I wondered to myself if that’s what was meant by soul kissing.

I reached my hand up, the tips of my fingers brushing gently against the cheek of the woman kissing her way into my very being, that cheek was softer than I could believe, if I touched Robert like that I would have found a hard surface course like a sheet of sand paper, no matter how carefully he tried Robert could never have attained this level of smoothness, once again I was lost in the silence of the moment, I was moving, swaying in time to the tune in my head and not to the tune on the dance floor.

Although that first kiss from a woman was a near religious experience for Mari the woman who was sharing that very special moment with her was a predatory female, she soon picked up on Mari’s inexperience, on another night things may have been different, very different but this night, this woman, she was brought into the club by Rebecca, and Rebecca was a very powerful woman around the club, and there was only one reason Rebecca would have brought this young and very beautiful, obviously heterosexual woman to the club, that was if she had intentions for her ‘training’ all to herself.

As soon as the record had stopped Mari was escorted back to Rebecca’s table, her hand was tenderly kissed and a hoarse “Maybe next time gorgeous” was whispered into Mari’s ear. Rebecca danced a few times with Mari, she invited a few of her close friends to dance wit h Mari too and although Mari received a few kisses from her escorts to the dance floor those kisses were nothing like that first kiss.

When Rebecca said, “OK Mrs Dunlop, it’s two am, time we all headed for our beauty sleep!” Mari felt a little let down, she had never felt so free in her life before, she had let go all of her inhibitions, she had drank far more than she would have ever drank in an evening out before, she had allowed total strangers to put their tongues into her mouth, let them feel her bottom as they danced, let them touch her quite intimately on that crowded little dance floor, she felt totally liberated and now totally let down. Rebecca had talked James into dropping Mari off first as she lived a way beyond the Fisher building, Mari had thought that perhaps James may suggest a venue where two Fisher employees could let their hair down after hours, and who knows she might even leave the light on if she got lucky. It was more the alcohol and the ambiance of the club that had broken down Mari’s barriers but once down Mari wanted to keep them down, well keep them down for the rest of the night at least, but no, she was at the front door of Fisher towers, the doorman standing to attention holding the large glass door open for her.

The alarm went off at seven o’clock, Mari could hardly hear the ringing of the bell over the pounding of the timpani in her brain, she pressed the little ‘off’ button and as she swung her legs out of the bed she fell, not onto the floor but back asleep. The phone rang at eight thirty, Mari had managed to include the phone ringing into her dream and so it took at least ten minutes to realise that it was the phone in her room that was ringing, “Is everything alright Madam?” the voice on the phone was asking, “It’s eight forty Madam, and as I haven’t seen you leave for work I decided to check to see if everything is alright!” Mary had difficulty talking through the cotton that had formed on her tongue overnight but she told the doorman that everything was fine; Mari refused his offer of calling the company doctor for her. As late as Mari was she still had to shower and brush her teeth, god how badly she needed to brush her teeth and then perhaps some of the cotton sticking to her tongue would disappear.

Mari was almost an hour late on her first full day at work, she expected some comment from somebody, at Nottingham she would have been sitting in Dan’s office having her error pointed out and her pay docked, things here on the top floor of ‘Fisher Towers’ was as different to Nottingham as chalk and cheese. Mari set about the task that Frankie had set her with a passion; the only thing that slowed her down even slightly was the timpani section in her head practicing for their solo performance in the 1812 overture. Wednesday ended eventually after what seemed like twenty hours of work, Mari arrived home to find a meal waiting for her, she hadn’t asked for the meal, hadn’t told anyone that she even wanted one, but the meal was simple, green salad with cheese and egg flan, someone had also made a huge jug of coffee, it was strong but decaffeinated it helped Mari to quell the timpani section and she decided to go to bed while all was quiet.

Thursday was uneventful; Mari was out of bed at the first ‘ding’ of the bell on her alarm clock, Mari was in the long crocodile of people in single file walking down the stairs at eight twenty five, in time to hear the “Good morning Mr Fisher. Good morning Miss Fisher. Good morning Mrs Dunlop!” Mari watched as, with military precision, all of the little Fisher heads snapped backwards at the ‘non Fisher ness’ of her name. Mari managed to steam through her work on Thursday, there wasn’t so much as a finger tapping in her head which made concentrating much easier.

Friday was much the same as Thursday with one exception, at noon her office door opened and John Fisher looked in on her, “Hi erm, sorry I have forgotten your name, sorry er! Mari is that it, Mari some kind of tyre, Dunlop? Is that it Mari Dunlop?” Mari nodded her head, “Well it’s Friday, we usually leave at noon on Friday, it helps the cleaners to get round the building easier, OK! Hope you have enjoyed your first week with us, and I’m sure we will see you bright and early on, Well Monday I guess”. With that John Fisher smiled his boyish smile and closed the door.

I was in Frankie’s apartment by one pm, I wasn’t at all use to knocking off early just because it was a Friday, I looked across the river at the office building, I could see people working at all the floors but the top floor which was now in total darkness. There was something different in my bedroom, a dress hanging on a rack that had been placed at the foot of my bed. The dress was shot silk, it was black but it had a silver sheen to it too. I had never seen anything quite so beautiful in my life nor had I seen anything so impractical. There was a message written on a luggage tag tied to the hanger, please wear this for our first dinner date in London this evening. The label was unsigned but it said that I would be collected at seven o’clock. The dress was full fronted; it was backless and the sides were folded to look like a university gown, I knew that I couldn’t wear a bra with that dress and looking at how low the back was I doubted that I would be able to wear any of the panties I had with me. They must make special knickers for a dress like that but I had never seen anything that I could wear under it before in my life.

At four pm the door knocked and two women walked in on Mari watching afternoon TV, the women looked horrified, “Madam hasn’t bathed and there is less that three hours before Madam will be collected” they said in unison. Mari was pulled into the bathroom at break neck speed, she found herself undressed in seconds, her hair protected by a shower cap and her body under a stream of warm water, the two women washed her even though she was, valiantly, fighting them off, she was pulled out of the shower and dabbed gently all over with soft warm bath sheets. Mari was moisturised from head to toe and then encouraged to lie flat, face down on a, mobile, massage table, both women worked in unison, massaging every inch of her back. Her legs were waxed, and the small of her back, even the little ‘V’ of downy hair that formed a triangle just above the junction of her buttocks and the small of her back.

The women spent almost an hour teasing Mari’s hair with lacquer and backcombing to give it height and body before making her face up like a professional model. When Mari was introduced into that fabulous dress it looked ordinary compared to her glowing beauty. Mari was led into Frankie’s bed room, the women stood Mari in front of one mirrored door and opened one in front of her and one behind, Mari could see herself from three directions at one time. Mari loved the view from the front, the dress made her look very sophisticated and with her make up, gave her the air of a catwalk model, the back of the dress looked more like it should have been in a bordello, but the overall package, that was, wow, Mari felt, quite literally like she was worth a million dollars.

The women congratulated each other and at the stroke of seven they led Mari to the apartment door and handed her over to James, James had to catch his breath, “My god, Mrs Dunlop, you look, well, tonight I’m the chauffer to the prettiest woman in the whole of England!”

James drove Mari to a very up-market restaurant, Mari recognised Frankie’s car parked outside on double yellow lines, Frankie had driven straight from Nottingham to the restaurant and had beaten Mari by scant minutes.

Frankie lept to her feet as she saw Mari being escorted by the waiter to her table, she took Mari’s hand and kissed it, “Wow girl, you look great tonight, I was going to take you clubbing but I’m not sure that I could keep all of the smitten men and women off of you all night!” Mari smiled and blushed at Frankie’s comments.

The meal went well, Frankie paid Mari lots of attention, there were more waiters serving the two women than any other table, it seemed like every man in the place wanted to get a close look at Mari and Mari lapped up all of the attention. In the end Frankie asked if Mari would like to go to one of the number one nightspots in London and Mari nodded her head.

James opened the door to the limo’ Frankie helped me into the back seat and then she got in the opposite side of the car, “You look so pretty Mari, I’d love to give you one kiss!” Frankie said, I swallowed hard, something inside of me screamed out oh yes please but I just blushed a little and said that it was ok with me. Frankie leaned over to me a little awkwardly, she was trying to kiss me without allowing any other part of her body to touch me, I pulled her hand and placed it on my hip, that simple change in position made Frankie’s kiss far less awkward, it started out as just a friendly peck, it lingered a little longer and I opened my lips slightly, I was inviting Frankie to kiss me a little more like a lover and a lot less like a beast friend.

That kiss lasted all the way to the nightclub, as James opened my door and cleared his throat I opened my eyes to see a vision of opulence that took my breath away, the club must have spent over two million pounds just on the façade. As Frankie took my arm and led me through the long line of people queuing for entry to the club of clubs, there was a barrage of flashes from the cameras of the paparazzi waiting for the rich and famous to arrive, I laughed inside, if only they knew that I was only a simple office worker from Nottingham.

Frankie danced with me all night, she took every opportunity to touch me and kiss me when ever she thought that I wouldn’t be too shy to let her and even though she offered to take me to a different club to see if I liked it more I refused, I loved the club, the music and her company and I didn’t want anything to end that magical evening.

There’s a famous Latin phrase, ‘Tempus fugit’, time flies, and time soon flew for me, it was four am before I knew it, the club was emptying but I wanted the night to go on forever.

James drove us home in silence, as we pulled up outside the apartment block Frankie said, “Did you want to stop out longer to put off this!” I looked shocked, “This?” I asked, “Coming back to my place with me, I feel a little guilty, I feel like I have almost trapped you into something that you may not want to do or might not know how to ‘escape’ from”.

Mari took Frankie’s hand and pulled her from the Mercedes behind her even though James had rushed around to the opposite door to let Frankie out. Mari put her arm around Frankie’s waste and encouraged her to reciprocate, because of the backless nature of Mari’s dress Frankie’s had went inside instead of on top of the material and that was how they entered the elevator. Mari pulled Frankie to her as soon as the door had closed and they were kissing hungrily before the lift reached the first floor, Frankie had her left hand cupping around Mari’s breast by the time the lift reached the second floor, Mari had her hand inside Frankie’s blouse by the third and Frankie had proved her suspicion that Mari had no panties on by the fourth.

Up to the point of entering Frankie’s apartment, Mari was making all of the running, now it was Frankie’s turn, she pulled Mari into her bedroom and spun her onto the huge four poster bed. Frankie and Mari lay for a while just kissing and exploring each other from the safety of the outside of their clothes, then Frankie began to undress, Mari wanted to help her but Frankie just pushed her away playfully, when Mari started to lift the hem of her dress Frankie stopped her, “You’re my present, I want to unwrap you!” Mari blushed coyly and then Frankie was nude, Frankie’s breasts were so solid, not a large as Mari’s but they stood out firm and proud, they belied their owners age. Frankie moved up the bed and lay half covering Mari, the silk of Mari’s dress did little to protect her from the heat of Frankie’s body. Frankie had a fire inside of her and it would take all of Mari’s effort to put it out. Frankie traced her fingers over Mari’s chest, as the tips of her fingers reached Mari’s nipples they were rewarded by an instant reaction that saw two small mountains growing beneath the silken covering. Frankie, satisfied that Mari was totally responsive to her, moved on and drove her fingertips lower. As they crossed Mari’s slight spare tyre and then lower Mary opened her legs slightly, Frankie tugged the flimsy material upwards and as soon as her fingers felt the tangle of hair on Mari’s pubic mound, she broke her kiss and looked down Mari’s body. Mari realised that the light was still on and that she would love to have the cloak of darkness to hide behind but she wanted to show Frankie everything. Mari eased up slightly and allowed Frankie to remove her dress, Frankie went into raptures, she set about kissing every inch of Marie’s body, starting at her breasts.

As Frankie’s kisses approached Mari’s most secret of places Mari began to have a few doubts, she had pushed Robert away every time he had tried to kiss around her sex, that part of a woman’s body was so dirty, according to Mari’s mother that no one should even touch it for fear of catching a foul disease. Like the concession of the light, Mari was willing to allow Frankie anything, and opened her legs even further as Frankie kissed lower and lower still. When Frankie’s tongue touched her clitoris Mari went into instant orbit, her hands pushed hard against the back of Frankie’s head, Mari wanted Frankie’s tongue to be deeper inside of her body that Robert had ever gotten his cock, Mari’s back was arching involuntarily from the sheet below and as an orgasm washed over her she began to cry. Frankie, worried deeply by hearing a woman that she was trying to make feel the best possible way. Crying stopped and began to raise her head from Marie’s vagina. Mari almost screamed out not to stop and fought her lover to continue working. Mari had heard of multiple orgasms, she believed that it meant one orgasm closely followed by another but Frankie had taken her to her very first genuine orgasm and she was just getting use to the feeling when Frankie brought her fingers into play as well and pushed Mari up to another plane of orgasmic consciousness. Mari was fighting for breath as she gasped through that second climax which had been stacked directly on top of an existing one, then Frankie took careful aim with her teeth, protected by her lips and bit hard down onto Mari’s clitoris, Mari couldn’t draw enough breath into her body to feed all of her muscled that were now in spasm, Frankie had driven her up another level, to a third orgasmic plane and to darkness, the weeping Mari passed into unconsciousness and temporarily the pleasure / pain of such an orgasmic awakening subsided and Mari slept.
Part 7 go back to part: 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9

I opened my eyes, even though I had a headache I felt wonderful. As the room came slowly into focus, it was obscured by Frankie’s head; she was lying on her side, propped up on one elbow looking lovingly down at me. The room was lit by bright sunlight, “What time…….” I almost got out, “It’s almost lunch time sleepy head, I have never had a woman pass out on me before, I’m not sure if I should worry of be flattered!” Frankie said. I just smiled up at her, I apologised in advance, I found it very difficult to talk intimately with anyone, I began to explain about my family background and my strict upbringing but Frankie just touched her finger to my lips to silence me, “You don’t have to do or say anything that you don’t want to, or that makes you feel uncomfortable” Frankie told me. She asked if there was anything I wanted to du with what was left of the day, I reached up, pressed my palm against her shoulder and pushed gently so that she fell onto her back, I reached my right arm over her chest so that her right breast was cupped in the crook of my elbow and I raised my right knee so that it fell between Frankie’s thighs. Frankie raised her left knee instinctively so that it pressed firmly against my soft ‘lower’ lips, “Yep there is something I need to do right now” I said, “I really, really, really need to pee!” Frankie and I both burst out laughing at the same time and I hopped out of her wonderfully large and very safe bed and ran naked to Frankie’s en-suit bathroom. I thought that it was a major step forward, me in a room with another human being and I was naked, I couldn’t remember a time ever before in my life that I could have done that. I closed the door to the bathroom but it didn’t close, Frankie had followed me into the bathroom, I hesitated before sitting on the toilet, Frankie sat on the edge of the bath, just sat there looking at me as I ‘performed’ my toilet, “Do you have to sit watching me, I can’t go like this” I said, “I’ve just spent four whole days not looking at you and in thirty-six hours time I will have to not look at you again for another five days!” I relaxed and tried to pee as quietly as possible. Frankie came to my rescue, she began running her large bath full of water, I wiped and flushed and as I stood up Frankie stood up to meet me, we kissed open mouthed as the bathe continued to fill. Frankie sat on the toilet and pulled me down on to her knee, we sat there kissing as Frankie peed. “I never want you to be further than this from me for the rest of my life!” Frankie whispered into my ear.

Frankie stepped into her bath, it looked a little larger than my own bath at home but it was quite different, the taps were half way along the long side of the bath that was attached to the wall, the taps stood high above the bath rather than encroaching into the bath and both ends were sculptured so that two people could sit opposite each other in comfort. Frankie held out her hand to me, inviting me to join her in the bath, I went to sit opposite her but she pulled me around so that I was sitting with my back to her, I could feel her breasts pressing into my back. Frankie reached around and took the weight of my left breast in her hand, she whispered, “I really wish that I had never had the implants in my breasts” into my ear, as Frankie sat holding my left breast in her hand she splashed warm water over my breasts and chest with her right hand as she told me that once, while she was still confused about her sexuality she had allowed a man to persuade her to have the silicon implants. Her breast size had trebled, I did a double take at that comment, I tried to look over my shoulder, tried to imagine what Frankie’s, smaller than average breasts would have looked like three times smaller. “I know, they looked like fried eggs, that’s what my, then, boyfriend called them, he was so disappointed that even after five thousand pounds worth of plastic surgery they still looked the size of a preteen’s breasts”. She told me that was one of the things that had convinced her to try other woman, “They just accept people, warts and all”, she didn’t know of one woman who had undergone implant surgery just to please her female lover.

Frankie sat with her chin resting on Mari’s shoulder, she cupped Mari’s left breast in her left hand and had stopped splashing warm water over Mari. Frankie’s right hand was now toying in Mari’s lap, she was running her fingers through the tangle of dark hair covering Mari’s pubic mound, Frankie took a hand full of Mari’s hair and pulled it gently away from Mari’s body, Frankie told Mari that she preferred this, pulling once again at her pubic hair, to be well trimmed or not there at all, she mentioned the inconvenience of hairs in her mouth while she was trying to concentrate on delivering pleasure.

Frankie tried to reach further but she couldn’t reach her goal, she asked Mari to lift herself up slightly and as Mari took her weight from between Frankie’s legs Frankie closed them, Mari was now sitting on Frankie’s knee, Mari was almost totally out of the water now, and Frankie repositioned her left hand, still cupping Mari’s left breast gently but now coming at it from beneath Mari’s left arm, Frankie guided Mari to lift her legs over her own thighs, that made Mari’s sex more accessible to Frankie’s right hand. Frankie was toying with Mari’s sex, she hadn’t penetrated her finger inside yet but she was rubbing a finger lazily over Mari’s labia.

The position that Mari was sitting in gave her an unobstructed view of her own sex, Mari had never realised just how beautiful her vagina looked, she imagined just how much better it would have looked if it had a little deforestation. She watched intently as Frankie’s fingers ran down one side of her labia and then the other, crossing sides just above the beginning of the valley leading into her moist inner being. Mari watched in wonder as the thin sliver of visible, light pink, flesh that was her inner lips began to alter colour, Mari was aware that her breathing had stepped up a pace, she could feel her heart beating slightly faster and as the two things happened she noticed that her vaginal lips were beginning to grow. The blood was now being pumped directly into that moist inner flesh, making it swell and grow, the thin sliver of visible flesh widening with each beat of Mari’s heart. Mari knew the basic mechanics of it all but she had never seen it happen before, Frankie was taking her time building Mari up, it took more than twenty minutes before Mari recognised that her inner lips had stopped changing colour with the ingress of blood. The colour had changed from an almost white to a deep coral pink and her lips had parted from two or three millimetres to twelve or thirteen. Frankie could tell from Mari’s breathing and the feeling of her heart, as it pounded, being transmitted to her own chest through Mari’s back that Mari was now ready to play!

Frankie stopped teasing Mari’s vaginal lips, she had now positioned her index finger so that it was at the start of Mari’s vaginal valley, Frankie’s finger was almost touching Mari’s clitoris, Frankie pressed down gently and pulled her finger back, Mari watched in astonishment as a cowl of skin covering her clitoris slid back revealing the miniature pleasure centre that was Mari’s own. Mari felt, rather than heard the pop as her clitoris emerged into the world, Frankie allowed Mari’s left breast to fall back and then her left hand was free to join in the task of imparting pleasure into Mari’s body. With the hood held carefully back and the clitoris exposed to the atmosphere Mari was feeling about as good as she had ever felt in her life but the first time that Frankie’s left index finger flashed over the sensitive spot Mari jumped slightly. Frankie took a long time in building Mari’s climax, Mari was trying to watch every stroke of Frankie’s expert fingers, wanted to watch her own body reacting to Frankie’s expertise. Mari had marvelled at her own body, now as she began to climb the pathway to a high climactic plateau she watched her clitoris grow slightly, it grew like a small cock might grow as it received stimulation.

Mari threw her head back at the most important point in her climax, she could no longer keep her eyes on her own growing intensity, her eyes were now tightly closed, head back, mouth wide open gasping for oxygen, Frankie was whispering encouraging words but for the most part they were lost on Mari. Frankie had to decide quickly, did she continue her ministrations and take Mari to a second climax, a climax within the first climax and risk tipping her over the edge again or allow her to return to the earthly plane slowly and with a gentle re-entry, Frankie chose the latter and as Mari slowly came back down to earth she opened her eyes and saw her reflection in the floor to ceiling mirror at the end of Frankie’s bath. Mary looked great, all of her perceived imperfections had been smoothed out in that one climax, where a few short days ago catching sight of her own body filled her with dread Mari now realised that she was a beautiful woman, all woman, she felt sure that she could only feel this way while in Frankie’s arms, while Frankie was working her magic on her, but for now she was woman!

Frankie washed Mari’s body, Mari tried to help but Frankie tapped her hands away, Mari felt just about as special as any woman could feel, then, one of those quirks of fait struck Mari and it made her burst out laughing. “I’m not sure if sex with you is dirty or not, is it so dirty that you have to wash me or is it that with you sex is all so terribly clean?” Mari receiver a gentle slap on her backside for her comments.

I asked Frankie what she wanted to eat, I apologised for the fact that there was no food in the house, I had meant to do a little shopping after work the day before but things got away from me, “Everything I want to eat is right here!” Frankie said, I was helped from the bath, dabbed almost dry with huge, fluffy, towels and led into the bedroom once again. Frankie lay me on her large bed and began to move as if to take up a position with her head between my thighs as she had done the night before, I stopped her, pulled her head away from between my legs, “I don’t think I could ever do anything like that to you Frankie so I don’t think that I should expect you to do it to me” I said, “I perform oral sex on you for my own pleasure, if you dislike me doing it to you then I’ll stop right now but whether you want to reciprocate on me or not is your choice, I just want you to do what you are comfortable with doing and allow me to do things that don’t disgust you or make you feel uncomfortable”. I felt comforted by Frankie’s words and then she couldn’t speak any more as her mouth was full of me!

Frankie was using a finger to expose my clitoris once more, she was allowing very light pressure from the tip of her tongue to flick across the exposed tip of my clitoris, each touch brought my back arching from Frankie’s bed. Frankie brought her other hand into play next, she gently inserted one finger into my love tunnel, as her tongue flicked a little harder across my bud her finger was massaging the roof of my vagina, suddenly it wasn’t just my back arching but my shoulders left the bed too. I felt powerful contractions in my lower abdomen; Frankie covered my clitoris with her lips and began sucking hard as she massaged that one magical spot, on the roof of my vagina, so far inside of my body.

I jumped instantly from a state of high arousal to a full blown climax, Frankie seemed to be able to play me like a musical instrument, she knew all of the finger-holds that would make my body resonate. Frankie broke mouth contact and replaced her tongue with her thumb; she began talking to me, telling me to focus on what was happening deep inside my own body. Frankie increased the pressure on my clitoris and the speed and intensity that she was massaging deep in my vagina, I felt the second wave of climactic pleasure build again, a climax on top of an existing climax, my head was thrashing from side to side, I was fighting to get enough oxygen into my body to prevent my blacking out again, both of my hands were grasping at Frankie’s wrist, I didn’t have the power in my muscles to push her hand away from my pussy, I begged Frankie to stop, begged her not to drive me on any higher in my climax, “You want me to stop?” ”Yes please”, “You sure you don’t just want me to let you have one more orgasm?” “No please let me catch my breath”. Frankie squeezed her fingers together tightly, pressing my ‘G’ spot against the back of my clitoris, the feeling caused my muscles to spasm so violently that I sat bolt upright, it was totally involuntary, I had absolutely no control over my body, I had forgotten to breath or was it that I had become incapable of breathing. Frankie was looking deep into my eyes as she held me frozen for an eternity, just as the world started to drain of colour and turn various shades of grey Frankie finally released her hold of my sex and I fell back on to my back panting and gasping for breath.

Frankie had taken Mari on three wonderful trips of sensuality but Mari had done nothing to or for Frankie at all and Mari was feeling very guilty, she wanted to do something to make Frankie feel as wonderful as she had been made to feel, Mari mumbled to Frankie that she wanted to try and make love to her, she was begging Frankie to forgive her inexperience and to help her to do everything that Frankie liked best in the whole world.
Part 8 go back to part: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

I felt a little guilty, Frankie had taken me so far beyond any form of pleasure that I had had in my life and I still hadn’t done anything to make her feel special, she said that just being able to be with me was special enough for her but that just didn’t make sense to me. I asked Frankie to teach me what it was that she liked to do most, “I’m willing to do anything to try and make you feel the way that you have made me feel”, I said to her. Frankie doubted that I would still think that way after she told me what it was that would make her evening as special for her as she had made the previous twenty-four hours for me. I was a little worried, there were still things that I couldn’t see myself doing, thinks like oral sex, I was sure that in time I would want to do that kind of thing but for now, things like being naked with someone, more, naked and with the light on with someone was major steps forward to me. It hadn’t seemed wrong or strange to me that I had been making love to a woman, there had never been any sign in my life before that I would want to have a physical relationship with some one of the same sex as me but I had never thought that I wouldn’t do it either. I thought back to my school days, there had been boys and girls that I had wanted to be friends with back then but because of my mother I had been mainly ostracised by my piers at school and so had given up any hopes of ‘normal’ friendships and had retreated into myself and of course into my family. Robert came along at the exact right moment, just as I was beginning to earn money, just as I was beginning to want more than home, work, church and family. Robert to his credit had begun the process of opening me up, expanding my horizons and maybe even one day he might have given me that baby he so desperately wanted but what had taken him years to build up to Frankie had achieved in days if not hours.

Frankie had been thinking, we were just lying next to each other cuddling, occasionally stroking a hand softly down one another’s body, then Frankie broke the silence “I don’t want you to do anything that you feel uncomfortable with so I’ll say this without wanting you to feel under any obligation!”

Frankie explained that for her, the perfect evening would start with her showing Mari off at a chic club, to dance all night with everyone envying her and then to return home to the bedroom. Mari didn’t mind the idea of the club and the dancing and she really wanted to please Frankie in the bedroom too so she said that she would love to make Frankie’s evening special. Frankie searched through her wardrobe and found a black dress, Mari had seen similar dresses in films, they were usually worn over bikinis on a beach, the dress was basically black nylon netting with quarter inch holes in it, Mari took the dress and put it on, Frankie had a packet in her hands, she almost gasped at the sight of Mari’s body, totally on display through the netting. Frankie handed the packet to Mari, it contained new panties, they were pink, almost a perfect shade to match Mari’s skin tone. The panties had a front, gusset and back, the sides were one-inch broad elasticised material that was designed to pass over the thighs, the front and back had no elastic at all and the front was shaped so that it dipped right down to a point, pointing to Mari’s vagina. Mari looked at herself in the mirror she could see more than an inch of her pubic hair showing above the ‘V’ cut into the front of the panties. Mari couldn’t help her reaction to what she saw, she would be happy to dress like this for Frankie in the privacy of the bedroom but to contemplate going out in public dressed like that was a non-starter. Frankie didn’t need to hear the words; she saw Mari’s face and that told her everything she needed to know. Frankie held out her hand to Mari, she wanted Mari to take off the dress, “It’ll be ok darling, I’ll find you something nice and safe to wear, we’ll go and dance and then you can show me what you have learned about a woman’s’ body”. Mari sensed the deflation in Frankie’s spirit and removed the flimsy dress and handed it to her. Frankie felt the dress between her fingers, she was deep in thought for a while and then she threw the dress into the corner of the room, where it hit the wall and slid into a black, spider’s web, of a heap

Frankie found a ‘nice’ dress in her wardrobe, it was designed to be worn as a baggy over dress but on Mari it would be a tight fitting dress, Mari put it on and she looked stunning in the dress, Frankie’s spirit lifted a little at the sight of Mari filling out the pretty material so well, “Would you at least leave your bra off for me, you look so yummy like that?” Mari smiled a slightly sickly smile, she knew that Frankie liked her looking the way she was, but she knew that Frankie would have preferred her to dress more daringly. While Frankie was getting ready Mari took the dead, netting dress into her own bedroom, she knew that she had a vest top in her bag that she would usually wear under her best, white silk, blouse. The colour of the vest top was almost exactly the same as the panties she was wearing. Mari sat and had a little discussion with herself as she sorted through her overnight bag. “OK Mari my girl, what exactly are you willing to show in public, OK, not that, what am I not willing to show in public. No nipples, no pubis hair, apart from that, if I were on the beach, on holiday, I would probably show most of my body off”. Mari made up her mind, she undressed totally, she took the ‘Veet’ that she used to deforest her under arms, and started to apply it to the inch or so of pubic hair that had been visible above the sexy panties that Frankie had given her, then she went a little lower, ‘just in case’, and then she plastered all of her pubic hair in the cream, she just couldn’t decide how much she needed to remove so to be in the safe side she removed it all. While the cream was doing it’s work she put on the skin-toned vest, she used her eye-liner pencil to mark the lowest point that of her breasts and cut the bottom off of the vest. She put the vest back on and looked in the mirror, the shortened top looked ‘safe’ but the edge was very raggedy. Mari decided that she needed to quickly hem the material even though it would end up showing slightly more of her breasts than she had planned on. It took a few minutes to rough hem the material and by that time the ‘Veet’ had performed its task so Mari took a shower in the main bathroom. She dried herself quickly and returned to her task, she pulled on the panties, she had to admit to herself that they looked a million times better without that tangle of dark hair the panties sat better on her body and looked like a second skin. She then pulled on the ‘crop top’ that she had just made, she could see a quarter of an inch or so of her lower breast peeping but no nipple or areola, she pulled the dress over her head and smoothed it down so that it was in the perfect position, then she set about tack stitching the inner vest to the outer dress, she also tacked each shoulder strap of the inner vest to the shoulder seam of the netting creation.

Frankie was sitting making her face up, she was applying her eyeliner when she was suddenly aware of breathing sounds coming from her bedroom door, she looked in the mirror and refocused on the distant opening, she really did gasp this time, Mari was a vision, the most famous artists in the world would be queuing to paint, sculpt, photograph or simply to look and gain inspiration from her beauty. Because of the colour of the material under the black netting it looked to Frankie as if Mari was totally nude. Frankie really appreciated what Mari had done for her; Frankie didn’t actually know any other woman that would have had the skills to make such a creation without the help of a little woman in a shop. The thing that impressed Frankie most though was that Mari had done it to please her and now she couldn’t wait to gat her out in public so that everyone in the world could see exactly how lucky she was.

Frankie got the chauffeur to drop her and Mari a short walk from the nightclub, they walked arm in arm down the road and drew a lot of attention from the people queuing in front. Frankie led Mari to the front of the line where the doorman recognised Frankie at once and took down the silk rope that was holding the ‘less well famous’ people back. The club was very chic, very expensive and very gay, Mari had expected to be going to the club that she had been to a few days before but this was the height of elegance from the outside. The club plaid two ‘pop’ records and then a slow one all night long, Frankie rarely danced with Mari, preferring instead to sit and watch as woman after woman tried to seduce her latest girlfriend on the dance floor. There seemed to be a ‘no holds bard’ atmosphere inside the club and often while dancing the women would openly touch Mari’s breasts and rub her between her legs, as each new dance partner returned Mari to Frankie’s table Mari was more and more excited, more and more turned on and more and more wanting this part of the evening to end so that she and Frankie could get into bed. When Frankie did start dancing with Mari it was slow and seductive, she whispered into Mari’s ear that she would love for her to remove her panties and dance so that Frankie could feel her hot pussy pressing against her thigh, this took Mari right over the edge and Mari begged Frankie to take her home and to her bed.

As the two women danced the last slow dance before going home to even more pleasure someone took a photograph of the two dancing intimately and was off running like a rabbit through the crowded nightclub. Frankie and Mari wee a little shocked by the intrusion into their private time but they thought nothing more of it, Frankie gathered the two women’s things and they made their way to the main entrance where the clubs manager was waiting for them to apologise for their lapse in security and to also apologise that the errant photographer seemed to have slipped through their grasp, Frankie smiled sweetly at the man, she told him that she didn’t hold him or any of his staff responsible and she kissed him on the cheek and then out into the night and into the safety of the Mercedes and James’s driving.

Mari kissed Frankie as soon as the front door closed behind them, Mari told Frankie that she wanted to try and do everything exactly right and if she did anything wrong she wanted Frankie to stop her right away and point out what was wrong. Frankie was led through to her en-suit bathroom where Mari pored scented oils and salts into the stream of hot water filling the bath, Frankie was about to loosen her blouse but Mari stopped her. As soon as the bath was at the right depth and the right temperature Mari quickly collected every candle she could find in the apartment and placed them on every flat surface she could find, once lit the main light was extinguished, Mari had found a CD of Jean Sebelius’s violin concerto in D minor, opus 47 and started it playing on Frankie’s bedside music system, the sound was a little high in the bedroom but in the bathroom it was absolutely right, soft, gentle and seductive.

Mari began to undress Frankie, she was kissing every bit of skin as it was exposed, she kissed right down to Frankie’s pubis but not the actual object of her desire, when Frankie was totally naked Mari helped her to get into the bath, as Frankie acclimatised to the warmth of the water Mari ran quickly into the kitchen and opened a bottle of Moet and filled a tulip glass. Mari was naked as she re-entered the bathroom, Frankie was lounging in the bath with her eyes closed as Mari touched the rim of the glass to Frankie’s lips. Frankie took the glass and sipped slowly as Mari began to soap her entire body, Mari carefully washed every inch of Frankie’s body with the care and attention of a surgeon at work. Mari had rinsed Frankie carefully and then remembered the trick that Frankie had played on her earlier, Mari exposed Frankie’s clitoris, it was unlike Mari’s, there was no hood to hide the tender bud, Mari began to softly flick her thumb across the tip of Frankie’s clitoris as she massaged gently around the roof of Frankie’s vagina. Mari was talking to Frankie as she massaged, she was looking for that little sign that would tell her she had found that certain spot, the mystical ‘G’ spot, Mari’s words were her attempt at being sensual and erotic, Frankie had to try very hard not to giggle and kiss Mari to stop her killing the moment but then Frankie felt the tiny electrical shock that indicated to her that Mari had finally his ‘pay dirt’. Mari picked up on the slight facial twitch and massaged over that spot again, this time with a little more force Frankie’s head lifted slightly, that was Mari’s ‘que’ she began to work Frankie as she had been worked herself, she managed to bring Frankie to a pinnacle of pleasure, she clumsily tried to use more force that she should and Frankie’s climax was wiped out. Mari apologised and began to build her up again, it took several more minutes for Frankie to return to her orgasm and this time Mari managed to keep her there for twenty minutes, allowing Frankie to cycle through the climax between low and high but not managing to push her through the first climax and onto the still higher pleasure of a climax within the climax.

The water was far cooler that comfortable and so Mari decided to lead Frankie into her bedroom where she placed large bath sheets on top of the bed and lay Frankie on her back, Mari took oil from Frankie’s extensive collection of essential oils and rubbed them through her hands to warm them, she began to massage Frankie at her toes and worked up to her upper thighs, she skipped the lower abdomen and moved instead to Frankie’s neck and upper chest, Mari had changed oil to a gentler one and began to massage Frankie’s neck and breasts, she was careful while massaging her breasts but less so around her nipples. Mari worked her way down Frankie’s stomach and on to her abdomen then lower abdomen and pubic mound, once again Mari stopped before reaching Frankie’s vagina. Mari cleaned every trace of oil from her fingers and began to massage Frankie once more with thumb and middle finger trapping Frankie’s clitoris and ‘G’ spot, once again Frankie climbed to her climax in a few minutes, Mari worked very hard to try and tip Frankie over into her second level of climactic pleasure without success until she finally gave in to her fears and guilt feelings and bent her head to the task, replacing her thumb with her tongue, Frankie rocketed to that upper climactic level and Mari settled into the task of giving Frankie total and complete pleasure with her mouth. Frankie wanted to return the gift of pleasure on Mari but Mari stopped her, Frankie told Mari that she was totally satisfied now, and a little sore in to the bargain so Mari stopped working her lover into a frenzy and covered her with her duvet, Mari lay by her side, half covering her with her knee between Frankie’s thighs, one arm under Frankie’s neck and the other straddling her chest, both women fell into a deep, deep, sleep within seconds.

The women were late waking up on Sunday morning, Frankie wasn’t looking forward to driving up to Nottingham later in the day but she had a job to do, as had Mari, Frankie knew that the two women would get nothing done if they were in the same town as each other. Frankie called the doorman and asked him for a news paper, it was eleven thirty in the morning, Frankie had a little bit of a bomb shell to drop on Mari in a few moments but wanted her fix of celeb’ gossip from the gutter press, the doorman delivered the paper with an apology that all he could find was a late edition of a Sunday Mail, not Frankie’s first, second, third or even last choice but she needed her fix.

Frankie’s face went white, she had opened the news paper at the middle section and now her white face had turned bright red, she threw the paper to the floor, I picked it up, there in the middle of the news paper was a quarter page photograph of Frankie and I dancing together, they had managed to alter the photograph enough to make me look nude beneath the netting dress. Frankie apologised to me for putting me in that position but I told her that the news paper had put me in that position not her, Frankie kissed me and told me that she would remember ‘our’ night together as the most special of her entire life, then she told me to brace myself for another shocker, I would have to accompany her to her aunties house for the traditional family Sunday lunch, no more that twenty or thirty of the most influential members of the Fisher dynasty, I smiled weakly.
Part 9 go back to part: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

This was a difficult thing to prepare myself for, Frankie wanted to take me to Sunday lunch with her family, this would have been a daunting enough prospect for a new lover if it was just a mother and father, maybe a few brothers and sisters but with Frankie her family Sunday lunch would be more like the board meeting from the company I worked for, as far as I could make out the people that I would meet at lunch between them held around ninety percent of the company shares.

We took a taxi from Frankie’s apartment to Mount Street, it wasn’t far, if I were at home I would have had to walk further just to catch the bus into work, I had chosen to dress in ‘basic black’, a knee length black skirt with white silk blouse and black jacket over. Frankie was dressed a little more flamboyantly. Frankie’s aunt lived in a huge Mayfair mansion, from her front door I could see the rear of the Dorchester and the roof of the American Embassy, Hyde Park was just over a hundred yards away. The family were all congregating in the drawing room, my house, both floors would have fitted inside that drawing room with space to spare. I counted twenty people as we walked in, it was just before one o’clock in the afternoon when we arrived and it took John Fisher less than fifteen seconds to drag Frankie away from my side, they were having a very animated discussion in a corner of the drawing room. I felt very exposed, almost naked, I actually felt more comfortable the previous evening, walking through a central London street in the skimpy dress I had converted, than I felt here, now. I reasoned that it must be because I was now out from under Frankie’s shadow, out in the open glare of ‘Fisher light’, as I looked around the room I recognised almost every face, they were all occupants of the various apartments in the Fisher flats complex. I had an inward 'titter’ to myself at the thought that we had all made our way through London to this huge house when Mrs Fisher the elder could have just come to our building, the one coming to the many rather than the other way around.

As the grandfather clock struck one, there was a sudden rush as Phillip Fisher and his wife rushed through the drawing room door, closely followed by the dowager Mrs Fisher, she saw the conflict between Frankie and John in the corner and moved in to separate them both. Mrs Fisher was in her late sixties, she was far from pretty but she was very elegant, from her perfectly covered, blue rinse, down to her country brogues she looked every bit the duchess. As she spoke I went a little weak at the knees, she had power and projection, as the first words left her lips the room fell into total silence, this was a family of very rich and powerful people but they were all in awe of this elder stateswoman.

Mrs Fisher took John in one arm and Frankie in the other and led them through a door on the opposite side of the drawing room, John looked back at me and his look spoke volumes, I could only assume that the picture of Frankie and I from the previous evening had been brought to his attention. As the family formed up in twos and began filing through what looked like a library on their way to the dining room I suddenly felt very alone, I watched the familiar Fisher crocodile walking in perfect line, heading for lunch, Frankie kept trying to look back but Mrs Fisher kept demanding her attention, John on the other hand kept his cold, withering stare on me for the entire, long walk. As the lead trio entered the dining room the last of the ‘Fisherdile’ was leaving the drawing room, part of me wanted to just tag on to the end of the line and go in to lunch but that other part of me won out and I ran.

Mari left the Mayfair mansion, turned left and walked past the Dorchester, across the dual carriageway that is Park Lane, Mari was upset but she still had that inner spark that made her ask herself if she was about to pass go and if so where the hell did she get the two hundred pounds. Mari walked a short way across the rough grass at the beginning of Hyde Park, she came across the first path and found a vacant seat, she would have had an even greater chuckle to herself if she had known that the path she was sitting by was called Lovers Walk. Mari had been aware of being followed as she made her way to the park, James had been tailing her and was now standing one hundred yards away from her, James was fiercely loyal to the Fisher family but he had seen this particular scenario plaid out many times before, but this was the first time it was someone like himself that was on the receiving end of the Fisher ‘cold shoulder’ routine, and by ‘like himself’ he meant an ordinary company employee. To James, if Mari had been one of the usual ‘rich kids’ that often hung around the Fisher table waiting for scraps then it was ok for them to be treated badly, but not one of his own.

John Fisher was in Mount Street looking for his car, because of the parking restrictions in the area and the fact that Mayfair was a potential terrorist target John was use to having to ring James and calling him back to his mothers house, this time James couldn’t bring the car as he was standing on Hyde Park watching Mari. John asked James why the hell he couldn’t bring the car around and James explained that he had followed Mrs Dunlop, as she looked upset and James explained where he was, John told him to wait for him to get there.

Mari was staring out over the vast expanse of Hyde park, there were thousands of people using the park in the spring sunshine but for the centre of London it seemed empty, Mari was brought back to ‘real time’ by the shadow of a tall man standing in front of her. “Hi, may I sit here?” John asked, “Free country!” Mari replied, John Fisher sat by her side, “I’ve been sent to bring you back to lunch”, John said, Mari said nothing, she had been upset up to this point but now she became emotional, she knew that if she had spoken that she would have probably burst into tears. John spent a while trying to persuade Mari that the family wanted her to return, he was very apologetic about the way he had treated her earlier. Eventually when John realised that Mari was no longer able to hear him he had to admit defeat and ring his mother to tell her that he didn’t think he would be able to bring Mari back.

It was a good thing that Mari had her back to the Dorchester Hotel or she may have decided to run for her life, the ‘Fisherdile’ was making it’s way tenuously across the very busy Park Lane dual carriageway, Mrs Fisher was at the helm, Frankie, her favourite niece was helping to keep her steady as she struggled across the uneven grass, even though the younger members of the Fisher clan could have easily overtaken their elder relative but none would ever dare to.

Mari was sobbing her socks off inside but she was holding her stony faced countenance in tact, her teeth gritted, stare fixed on the tree line, everything in the world closed out of her life temporarily. Mari was totally surrounded bt Fishers, Frankie had tears in her eyes, there were members of the Fisher family that were too young to have ever seen Frankie show any signs of emotion before, but then it had been a long time since Frankie had let anyone so far into her life. “Mari darling”, Frankie’s voice cut through the morass and turmoil that was filling Mari’s head, she lifted her eyes and scanned the circle of faces in front of her until they fell on the face of Frankie, then Frankie’s aunt spoke, “Walk with me my dear!” There was an authority about Mrs Fisher that absolutely demanded compliance and Mari stood up, the old lady offered Mari her arm and Mari took it, taking the place of her lover at Mrs Fishers side. They had walked around ten paces when Mrs fisher stopped, turned and scolded her family, “For Gods sake stay there, leave us a little piece will you!” They began walking again, “You may call me Elizabeth if you wish, I have a feeling that we should be great friends if you can get over the obstacle course that is my family” the two women chatted as they walked along Lovers Walk, Elizabeth told Mari that she loved her photograph in the news paper, that made Mari blush, she explained that the photograph had been altered to make her appear nude when she really wasn’t, “That’s a shame, I’m sure that Frankie would have been in heaven if you had gone out dancing with her in the nude”, the old woman allowed herself a hearty chuckle. “Do you know that this is the first time in almost thirty years that I have been in this Park” the old woman said. Mari was beginning to warm to her, beginning to forget the deep insult that she had felt. “My family let me down badly, I have had words with all of them about it, and no lunch for any of them until you feel you are willing to forgive them. They let me down and themselves, but the worst thing is that they let down a guest in my home”. Mari had felt that Frankie had taken her to the family lunch on a whim, or for a bit of devilment but Elizabeth dispelled that notion, “Frankie told me all about you last Tuesday when she visited me and I told her that she had to bring you to lunch today”. Mari’s mind said to its self, but that was before anything happened, before they were involved with each other, Mari also found out that Frankie had phoned her aunt on they day that she first saw Mari and told her all about her, told her that it was a shame that Mari was married and unavailable. Mari felt suddenly ten feet taller, she had never felt quite so drained and so exhilarated at the same moment.

Mari and Elizabeth had reached the statue of Achilles and the gateway out of the park, James was sitting there in the limo’ with the engine running, he rushed to open the door for Mrs Fisher and the two women were whisked the short distance back to Mount Street in comfort. As the Mercedes sped past the central fountain one of the younger Fishers, one with good eyesight, spotted the two women in the back of the car, Mari watched with a broad grin on her face as the ‘Fisherdile’ tried to form up hurriedly for the short march back to the Mount Street Mansion. Mari and Elizabeth were sitting at the head of the table when John and Frankie entered the dining room at the head of the family. Elizabeth would usually sit at the head of the table alone even though there was enough space for three to sit there, Frankie always took the first seat to her right and John the first seat to her left. Frankie was pleased to see that Mari had been given a seat at the head of the table next to her aunt, John on the other hand was not so pleased to see that he had been demoted to the far end of the table, he was seated beyond Kevin Fisher, the spotty fifteen year old who delighted in his few moments of superiority to someone in the family.

As the meal came to an end, Elizabeth told Frankie and Mari that the next time they were going dancing she wanted an invitation, especially if Mari was going to wear ‘that dress’ again. Elizabeth also gave an executive order, that Frankie was to stop in London on Sundays from then on, where ever she needed to be on Monday she would have to arrange to be there after lunch, “Weekend are for family and friends”, she announced.

Sunday evening was very special, Frankie and I spent an hour just cuddling in the bath together, then we slept all night wrapped in each others arms. Frankie did wake me early on Monday morning so that we could have sex for an hour before she left on her drive up to Nottingham. When I arrived at my office at nine o’clock I was surprised to see that Frankie’s name had been removed from the glass panel in the door and my name had been added with ‘Personal Assistant to Special Projects Director’ painted in smaller letters under it. By Thursday I had finished gathering the information that Frankie had set me gathering, I’m no financial expert but even I could see that something was wrong. Nottingham was using more raw materials, more hours of labour and more money was passing through it’s accounts than any other area but the figures seemed to indicate that business was very bad in the Nottingham area. Just looking in my simple terms Nottingham area should have been around ten percent more profitable than the average area but instead it was ten percent less profitable. I had produced the report, I had printed it and bound twenty copies which were delivered to a hotel in Nottingham where Frankie had rented a business suit to facilitate an extraordinary board meeting, we could have actually held the board meeting over Sunday lunch as every member of the board was there but this time the area managers and financial controllers of the Nottingham area of the business would be there to answer serious accusations. I had been very careful to make sure that my real name was showing through the little window of the report, with my new title proudly on display.

Frankie phoned me just before I joined the ‘Fisherdile’ crossing the bridge between the office and the apartment block, the good news was that the board of directors hadn’t decided to close the business in Nottinghamshire down but to hand over my report to the police fraud squad and all of the senior managers as well. I felt good because my work had indirectly saved the jobs of around one hundred people, many of them almost friends of mine.

While on the phone Frankie asked if Mari had been out at all, painting the town red, Mari just laughed that off, she had been far too busy with producing the report to do any gallivanting. Frankie asked if Mari would like to go to a social gathering in her place, she also told Mari that she wouldn’t be expected to go into work the next day, it was after all a Friday so she would only be missing four hours of work really as the ‘top floor’ always left at noon on Fridays to make it easier for the cleaners. Mari thought about it for a while before deciding to accept Frankie’s offer of a fun filled evening in her place.

Mari took a cab to Oxford Street, it took her a while to find the shop that she had been taken to by James the week before, there was an assistant standing by the door, the sign said closed on the door and Mari just stood there looking in disbelief, it wasn’t even six o’clock, no one closed before eight pm in Oxford Street. The assistant spotted Mari standing at the door and recognised her from her previous visit, she opened the door slightly and whispered that if Mari were to return in thirty minutes she would let her in. Mari walked directly across the road, she had noticed a small coffee shop directly opposite the boutique, she took up a place in the window, drinking coffee. After around twenty minutes she watched as a Lincoln Town Car pulled up at the front of the shop opposite and four large men emerged from the boutique, hidden inside the group of burly men was the diminutive figure of Madonna. They had closed the shop while Madonna had been trying on her new outfits.

Mari was treated almost the same as Madonna, the shop sign remained as closed and Mari had several assistants fussing over her needs, when she finally chose her dress the manager was talking to someone on the phone, it turned out to be Frankie, she had been receiving a running commentary on what Mari looked like in the various outfits, Mari chose the outfit that she wanted and Frankie chose several more based solely on the managers description.

James picked Mari up at seven thirty and drover her in the company Mercedes to an old, council swimming pool, there was a sign on the door that the pool was closed for a private party. Mari recognised the woman sitting in the ticket booth, she couldn’t remember where she remembered her from but the woman also recognised her too. Mari followed the directions to the changing rooms, Mari had brought a dress that showed her charms off to their best effect and now she was going to take it off without anyone seeing it, she also realised that she didn’t have a swimming costume either.

The other side of the changing room were the steam baths, Mari walked out fully dressed expecting to be standing on the side of the swimming pool so it came as a shock to find herself in a large room full of naked women. The room was the ‘pre heat’ room, the temperature was only slightly higher than the normal, ambient temperature and the humidity was around twenty percent higher. Mari was welcomed into the group; she was by far the youngest in the room, by far the most clothed and by far the most embarrassed.

After stripping and picking up an almost white, threadbare council towel Mari was back in the ‘pre heat’ room, Mari looked around, she had seen every one of the faces the previous week at one club or another, apart from her the next youngest woman n the room was in her forties, the eldest was around sixty. The other women made a big thing about Mari sitting wrapped in a towel while they were nude and so eventually Mari bowed to pressure and stripped off too.

Mari felt very much out of place, she was like a child at the women’s institute, as out of place as a ham sandwich at a synagogue. This was the first time that Mari had ever been to a sauna or steam bath in her life, she didn’t really like hot steamy environments but then someone began to smooth her fingers through Mari’s hair from behind her. The feeling was nice although unexpected, Mari was about to look behind her to see who was playing with her hair when she noticed that two of the other women were kissing, at the point that Mari'’ eyes were focussed on the kissing women the person behind her gripped a handful of her hair to keep her head in that position. Another woman moved in to position just in front of Mari and she began to rub Mari’s legs and thighs while a third moved in and began to rub her stomach.

It took an hour for Mari to reach a climax, she had watched two women having full sex while three people gently massed various parts of her body, the orgasm took Mari totally by surprise as no one had touched her intimate place, it was her own body that had pushed her into the climax, her vaginal muscles, and her upper thigh muscles had been rhythmically contracting and relaxing as she watched two women making love in front of around twenty other women. The usual response to forbidden pleasure took over Mari, she wanted to run from the room but six hands held her there, w familiar voice whispered in her ear, “It’s OK, Frankie has organised this party just for you”, it was the woman that had been running her fingers through Mari’s hair, the woman who had prevented Mari from looking past the two women making love. Thirty minutes passed by that seemed like thirty hours, Mari was sweating far more that the steam in the bath would cause, she began to squeeze her thighs together, trying, consciously to achieve what had happened earlier by accident but she wasn’t left long enough to fulfil her climactic needs. The two masseuses left her side and wandered back toward the changing room and Mari was lead through to the third steam room, this was around as hot as Mari could stand and the humidity formed as a sheet of water all over her body. This room had a solid wood table and again the seating for her audience, the head of the table had a tank of soap suds and two rough towels. Mari was soaped and towelled roughly by four women; they didn’t touch her labia but did scrub her breasts with the soap covered towels. The sensation was totally alien to Mari, no one in her life had treated her as roughly as the four women were treating her right then. Mari was then sat upright, facing three women giving each other oral sex in a triangle. There were far fewer women there watching, the three having oral sex, three others watching Mari and the four who had massaged soap into her body, and those four were now leaving back toward the changing room. Mari was once again led through into another section, there were hot showers that two women drew Mari through, they ensured that Mari was totally soap free, one using a water jet to rinse right inside Mari’s vagina, the shock of the powerful jet of water almost drove Mari over into her, very much, delayed climax.

After the shower there was just one woman left with Mari, she was beautiful, even though reddened by the heat of the steam room, her breasts were larger than Mari’s. Her straw blond hair was short and in a ‘boyish’ style, even without makeup Mari could tell that the woman was very beautiful. Mari looked down and saw the woman’s triangle was cropped to around a quarter of an inch long and the base of the triangle had been shaven into the shape of a heart. Mari was led into a small room, the room was cosily warm and had a vinyl covered massage table in the centre of the room. Mari noticed the large glass window, the row of tabled beyond the glass, the faces of women that she recognised from the various steam room activities. The party seemed to be in two parts, the first part was the various stages of massage that Mari had just gone through and the second part was the meal that was about to be delivered into the cafeteria of a rundown council swimming pool.

There is something less unusual about twenty plus women all in the nude in a steam bath than two women in the nude with twenty women watching through viewing glass windows while drinking red wine and preparing to eat a meal. But those musings left me as the beautiful fifty something woman who I had never even spoken to before clamped her mouth between my legs. mY eyes closed, not from shame but from the sheer pleasure of the feeling that was running up my body from my sexual centre. I hit a level one climax in thirty seconds, I reached down and began to fondle my ‘stranger lover’, her vagina was dripping wet and she climaxed the instant my fingers touched her. She quickly pulled my fingers from inside of her love tunnel and she kissed her way up my body while still holding my hand, as she reached my face and kissed me softly on the lips she then brought my hand to her mouth and licked her own fluid from my index finger. I was offered my own middle finger to suck, I could clearly see the woman’s lubricating juice glistening on her finger, as I was deciding whether to take my finger and suck it clean I felt my public lovers other hand searching out my clitoris. As I was tumbled up to another climax I took my own index finger into my mouth to much cheering and applauds from the audience. The taste wasn’t what I expected at all, in my imagination the taste should have been foul but it was quite pleasant, if a little slimy. As I began to climb down from my climax a waitress entered the room with two small plates with melon balls on them. My partner indicated that she would like her melon places around my shaven vagina. She ate her starter from my lower abdomen and then a melon ball was inserted inside my vagina by the waitress and my lover spent five minutes eating it out of me. Then it was my turn, I was being egged on to eat melon from my lovers vagina and so I reluctantly agreed and a single melon ball was inserted inside after she took my place on the massage table. I had never had my mouth that close to another persons genitals before, it took all of my powers of self persuasion to actually make contact between my mouth and her vaginal lips but as soon as I tasted her ‘starter’ I was hooked, it took me longer to eat my melon ball than it had taken my partner but I managed to finish it all.

Mari was quite pleased with herself, she had managed to be completely naked while others were watching her, she had managed to make love to a stranger in front of others and she had gotten over the fear of oral sex, well at least oral sex with a woman, Mari still couldn’t see herself ever feeling comfortable with a man’s penis in her mouth, after all men weren’t as clean as women and from Mari’s memory they could produce copious amounts of fluid at the crucial moment. But what made Mary the proudest of all was that she wouldn’t have to say no to anything that Frankie asked her to do from that moment on.

Go back to part: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9