Frank and Shayleen Ch. 01

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When I got to the office in the morning I did something I should have done the day after my first encounter with Lucero. I made an appointment with a private investigator. That afternoon I saw him and gave him the information I had taken from Lucero's driver's license and then told him that I wanted him to find out whatever he could about Lucero.

A week later I got a call from the PI and he told me that he had what I wanted. I dropped by his office and got the report. The over four months that Lucero hadn't called Shay to ask if she was ready to come back to him were because he was in jail. He did ninety days for something to do with marijuana and when he got out he got into a fight in a bar and got another thirty days.

He wasn't working. He couldn't hold a job because he was incapable of taking orders from his bosses and he kept getting fired. I had been right in my assumption that he was unstable and I decided that I needed a permanent solution to the Todd Lucero problem. It cost me a few bucks and a few favors and a few favors called in, but the job got done.

Following a phone tip the cops pulled Lucero over and a search of his vehicle found enough grass and cocaine that he went down for possession with intent to distribute. As a bonus he got in a fight with the cops that pulled him over and that got him additional charges. In jail he got into a fight with another prisoner and ended up breaking the arm of one of the cops that tried to break up the fight and that got him even more time. I smiled knowing that if he kept it up he would never get out.

I never shared any of this with Shay and just let her think that he had given up on her and had left town.

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Shay and I married and I received a surprise at the party following the ceremony. Shay had issued a blanket invitation to all of the girls she worked with never for one minute thinking that Gloria would come, but she did. The party had been going on for an hour when Gloria walked up to where Shay and I were sitting and asked Shay if she would mind if she danced with the bridegroom. Shay said "Enjoy" without batting an eye. I more than likely would have said "No thanks" if I would have been sitting there without Shay or if I would have spoken up before Shay, but it was Shay's night and if she was okay with it I wasn't going to do anything to spoil the night.

I got up and walked out onto the dance floor with Gloria and as we positioned ourselves for the slow waltz – me being a touch on the stiff side – Gloria said:

"Don't be pissed at me Frank, but I had to do this. It has taken me forever to work up the nerve to face you. I need to apologize to you for my actions. I never did talk to you after that day when you walked in on me and Barry. Too happy at first and then too ashamed later."

"Too happy?"

Just then the music stopped and Gloria asked if we could go off to the side and talk. I have to admit that the "Too happy" remark had made me curious so I walked Gloria back to where Shay was sitting and told her that Gloria and I were going to find a quiet place to talk. Shay smiled and told Gloria:

"Just make damned sure that you bring him back."

We went outside on the patio, sat down on a bench and Gloria said:

"You did nothing wrong Frank. You were a marvelous husband and I really did care for you, but you were not my first choice. I never told you about Barry. No reason to because he was in my past, but to understand what I did to you you have to know that past.

"Barry was my soul mate. It may sound corny, but to me our love was written in the stars. Barry was my everything. He could do no wrong. We were fated to grow old together. I'm serious Frank. Every atom in my body ached for the man. We were together from the seventh grade on. We planned on being married when we finished college. We graduated and Barry was offered a job in Los Angeles. I'd been to L.A. and I hated the place. I told Barry and told him that we wouldn't be happy there. He looked me right in the eye and told me that he was going. With me or without me, he was going and then he walked away from me. Just that quick. Less than a five minute talk and he got up and walked away leaving me sitting at the table in the restaurant.

"I was more than upset. I was steaming and I wouldn't talk to him for a week and then when I felt that I had punished him enough I called him only to find out he had already left for California. I was crushed. My other half, the yin to my yang had walked off and left me. I was crushed. I don't know if you have ever had a love like that Frank, but I was left with a completely empty feeling. I was dead inside. It took me a while to get over it and come out of my shell.

"Then I met you and fell in love with you. I honestly did fall in love with you Frank, but it wasn't the bone deep love that I had felt for Barry. I was happy in our marriage Frank; I really was, but then Barry came back and called me. He told me that he had come to realize that he wasn't complete without me. I'm ashamed to tell you that I didn't once think of you Frank. My Barry was back. My Barry was back and he wanted me. When you caught us it was our first time since he had come back.

"When you ordered me out of the house my mindset was "I'm free to go to my love" and I left the house without a word. Unfortunately, while Barry was gone he had changed. Or maybe not. Maybe he was always that way, but I was too blinded by my love to see it. Whatever. When I left the house I moved in with Barry and within three months I was saying to myself "I gave up Frank for this?" It was a classic case of "Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it."

"For what it is worth Frank I have missed you and I've missed what we had, but I also realize that the blame for losing both rests squarely on me. None of it was your fault Frank. You did nothing wrong. You were the kind of husband that most girls search for and never find and I had it and I threw it away."

She stood up and said, "Thanks for letting me get that off my chest." She bent and kissed me and then walked away. I watched he walk away and then I got up and rejoined my new bride.

"What was that all about" Shay asked.

I told her what Gloria had said and then I said, "I guess she felt like she needed some sort of closure."

"How about you? Did you need closure?"

"No. I had my closure when I told her to get out of the house."

"Come on sweetie; give the girl a little credit. It took some guts for her to do that."

"So what? So now she feels a little better? That doesn't change the fact that she ripped my guts out when she did what she did with Barry and left me to live with the pain and self doubts. First Glenda and then Gloria? I spent one hell of a lot of time asking myself what was wrong with me because of that. Her saying "Sorry" doesn't erase any of that from my life. None of it has instantly disappeared from my memory because she said she was sorry."

"You're right. Forget I mentioned it. Now, since it is our party, you need to get me out onto the dance floor."

I met the girls that Shay played cards with at the party and I commented to Shay on one of them. Her name was Mary and besides being a sorority sister she also worked at Apex. Mary was pregnant and at seven months pregnant she looked like sex personified. I didn't doubt for one second that the room wasn't full of men with hard ons after seeing her and yes, that included me. I mentioned it to Shay and she smiled and said:

"She certainly does have that effect doesn't she?"

It was a remark that would come back to haunt me.

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The next five years were the happiest of my life. We spent those years going places and doing things and then one day Shay said:

"It is time for me to be a mommy. Are you up for it?"

"When have I not been up for you?"

"Right thing to say sweetie, but what do you think?"

"I've just been waiting for you to say that you were ready."

"Okay then. The pills go into the trash today and we will start working on making it happen."

Two months later over dinner Shay said, "Guess what happened today?"

"You won the lottery?"

"Close. I saw the doctor today. The rabbit died. You are going to be a daddy."

Shay had always been gorgeous, but a pregnant Shay positively glowed and looked sexier than ever. I couldn't keep my hands off of her and our sex life jumped from three or four times a week to almost daily and often more than once.

That 'glowing sexuality' is what caused what happened next.

Unless she was out of town doing an audit Shay usually beat me home. It was a Tuesday and Shay was in her seventh month. I came home to find her sitting at the kitchen table going over some papers. She didn't smile at me when I walked into the room. She pointed at the chair opposite her and said:

"You need to sit down Frank. We need to talk."

Sensing that it was something really serious I said nothing and sat down. I looked at her and she said:

"I've tried to think of a way to soften this, but I can't think of a thing so I'm just going to have to put it out there. I've done a really stupid thing and it can't be undone. I'll leave it to you to get the divorce. There won't be any alimony and only minimal child support and only while I'm of work on maternity leave. We will have shared custody of the child. I'll move into one of the spare bedrooms until I can find a place."

"Divorce? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I told you Frank. I did a stupid thing and it has bitten me on the ass. I'm just trying to make things as easy as I can now rather than wait for you to throw me out."

"Will you please just cut out the shit and tell me what the fuck is going on here?"

When she finally started telling me the story it shocked me. It started years ago at one of her card nights. The girls let their hair down and shared things with each other that they would never tell anyone else. One of the girls, Mary, told the rest of the girls about something that she had done. She had always wondered what sex with a black man would be like. She had heard so much about their size and stamina that she had always wondered if any of it was true.

"I was already pregnant so I didn't have to worry about condoms or condom breakage so when Travon, a black man who worked over in Asset Management, made a pass at me I decided to satisfy my curiosity. One time and no one would ever know right?"

One of the other girls, Nancy, said, "Travon made a pass at you? You are six months pregnant girl."

"He told me that pregnant I was still sexier than two thirds of the other girls he knew."

"Did you do it?" Beth Ann asked

"I did. Dave (her husband) was out of town on business so I took Travon home with me."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Was any of it true? The size and stamina thing?"

Mary had laughed and had said, "I'm not telling. All I'm going to say is that for the three nights Dave was gone Travon was in my bed."

"Are you still seeing him?"

"No. I satisfied my curiosity. No one for me but Dave any more."

I shook my head at that. Mary had seemed like a sweet and innocent girl to me when I met her at our reception. I did remember commenting on her sexuality.

"So what has any of that to do with this divorce stuff?"

"Remember those Wednesday nights when I came home from my card game and damned near fucked you to death?"

I nodded a yes.

"It was because I was so turned on by what Mary was telling us. The pure wickedness of it was exciting to think about. A married woman, six months pregnant, fucking a black man just to satisfy a curiosity. I imagined his black body on top of her pregnant white body and it made my juices flow."

"So it made you want to try a black man?

"No. No it didn't. At least not then."

"But you have since? Is that what this is all about? You found yourself a black lover and you are dumping me for him?"

"Good God no! There is no way that I would ever leave you for another man."

"Then what is this all about?"

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity?"

"I was pregnant and Travon started making passes at me. You need to understand this part Frank. I know that you are always telling me how sexy I am pregnant, but you love me and you are going to say things that you feel will make me feel good. But that doesn't mean that I take you seriously. You say you see a sexy wife, but when I look into the mirror I see a bloated whale so when another man starts telling me I look sexy I eat it up.

"Three weeks ago when I was in Baltimore to do the audit Travon was part of the team that I went with. We were there for three days and the entire time Travon was telling me how sexy I was and how much I was turning him on. And I admit that when he started coming on to me I remembered what Mary talked about on our card nights and I got curious about the same things she was curious about. Over those three days in Baltimore that curiosity built up. The last night we were there I convinced myself that I wouldn't hurt you or us if I satisfied that curiosity because it would be a one time thing and you would never know.

I went up to Travon's room with him. I let him undress me. I let him suck on my breasts and then I watched him undress. He cock was hard when he got naked and he walked over to me, took my hand and put it on his cock and I started stroking it. He put his hands on my shoulders and started to push me down so I could take him in my mouth. I started to go to my knees and about halfway down a voice in my head screamed out:

"What the fuck are you doing?!!!!"

I straightened up, told Travon that I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't cheat on you and I started to dress. He tried to stop me and I kneed him in the balls, finished dressing and got the hell out of his room."

"Well I didn't know until you just told me. The question is why? Why tell me now?"

"Because I owe it to you to get it from me and not from somebody else."

"Who else knows besides you and this Travon character?"

"I don't know that any one else knows. I haven't told any one; not even my sorority sisters."

"Then why did you think that you had to tell me? Who was going to blow the whistle on you?"

"Travon. The asshole had a camera set up somewhere in his room. He came to me yesterday and told me that I had hurt him when I kneed him and that I had to kiss it and make it better. I told him to fuck off and die and then he said I'd better do it or he would send you the tape he made. I told him bullshit and he showed me some video captures that he had. They were pretty explicit. One showed both of us naked with my right breast in his mouth and one showed me with my hand on his cock. He said besides you he was going to see that copies were passed around at work."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I told him you were going out of town over the weekend so I would see him Friday."

"Why Friday? I'm not going to be out of town so what does that have to do with it?"

"It has to be Friday. If I do it Wednesday or Thursday he would be missed when he didn't show up at work or call in. Someone might get curious and go check on him. If I do it Friday no one will miss him until Monday or Tuesday."

"Miss him?"

"I intend to cut his cock off and watch him bleed to death. I'll use Saturday and Sunday to go through his place and find any hidden cameras and any film I can find. I figure that if he filmed me he filmed others. I'll take mine and leave the others. When the police find the body and the film of the other women those women and their significant others will be who the police investigate. It is a gamble and I know it, but the asshole picked the wrong woman to try and blackmail."

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When Travon opened his door Friday evening and saw Shayleen standing there his face lit up in a big smile. It only lasted a few seconds though. The pepper spray she shot into his face wiped the grin away and as his flew to his face I stepped from the side of the door frame where I couldn't be seen if he looked through the door peep hole and moved into the room. His hands were still rubbing his eyes when I buried my fist into his stomach. It took the wind out of him and made it easier to handle him.

I moved him into his kitchen, sat him down on a chair and then used zip ties to secure him to it. Shay got some towels and a wash rag and cleaned his face and then sat down across from him. I just looked at him and waited. Finally he said:

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"I'm Shayleen's husband and what I want is to cause you some extreme pain for the pain you caused me."

"How the fuck did I cause you pain? I don't even know your ass."

"You fucked up my happy marriage and now you have to pay for it."

"Bullshit! It wasn't me. She was willing. All I did was offer her what she wanted. I didn't chase after her."

"Sure you did. When it came time to fish or cut bait she said no, but you just had to come after her. That was your big mistake. The thing about blackmail is that it doesn't work unless the person you are trying to blackmail cooperates. In this case Shayleen isn't cooperating. You threatened to tell me and she said "Fuck it" and told me herself. Even though she didn't go through with it the fact that she started out to do it probably will have a major impact on our marriage. A marriage that I was extremely happy with until I found out about that trip to Baltimore.

"The thing is, I would never have know if you would have just accepted that no means no and had left Shayleen alone. But you didn't leave her alone so here I am. In a way you should be glad that I'm here. Shay's original plan was to show up here tonight, cut your cock off and then watch you bleed to death. I couldn't let her do that although I do think it would be a fitting punishment for you. But I don't want my child to be born in a prison hospital. However, I can't see letting you off Scott free so I talked Shay into going along with my plan.

"It would embarrass me no end to have pictures of Shay showing up anywhere. People would be looking at me and thinking things like "You poor boob. Being married to a slut like that." I don't want stuff like that to happen so my solution to the problem is to get the material in question. All of it. The originals, any copies you may have made. Sounds simple right? The problem here is that I don't trust you. You could say that I have it all even though you have other copies stashed somewhere or maybe even a duplicate tape. So what I am going to do is adapt Shay's original idea."

I opened up the tool box that I had brought with me and took out a pair of bolt cutters. I held them up in front of his face and then said:

"I'm going to start with the little toe on your left foot and then work my way across until I get to the little toe on your right foot. Next will be the fingers on the left had followed by the fingers on the right. Hopefully, before I get to the point of putting out your eyes you will have given me what I want. What I want is the location of every camera in this place. The location of every recording device in this place and the location of all the material that you have. Video, still, digital or whatever, I want it all."

I opened the jaws of the bolt cutters and placed them around his little toe and said, "Start talking."

He sneered at me, laughed and said, "Who the fuck you think you are kidding."

I nodded at Shay and she covered his mouth with a towel to muffle the scream and I cut off his little toe. I gave it a minute and then I nodded at Shay and she removed the towel. He was blubbering and moaning:

"Oh fuck! Oh Jesus! You did it! You fucking did it! It fucking hurts. Stop the bleeding man; stop the fucking bleeding."

"Forget that toe Travon; it is gone and it isn't coming back."