A Building Job

"You're one horny person, do you know that?"

"I wasn't until met you and this is what I've become because of you. I wouldn't want it any other way. By the way my number is speed dial1." We spoke that night, she with her fingers in her pussy and me caressing my cock, my loneliness wasn't as bad but my sexual frustration only got worse, I wanted her so much it hurt.

Wednesday we had the roof on the gazebo and with her plumbing experience Juliette was a great asset to the team. In that afternoon we painted the lattice ready to fix the next day before we went to our separate home, tired, happy and closer than yesterday.

Thursday we finished the job by lunch time and after presenting the client with the account and getting paid, adjourned to my place for an afternoon of love. We got a little carried away and Juliette had to scramble into her clothes and race home to arrive before Roland.

Friday, what can I say about Friday? I rolled my other car out of my garage and Juliette was most impressed. "This is another thing I inherited from my father." I told her as I wiped an imaginary speck of dust from the immaculate British Racing Green paintwork. "A 1963 Triumph TR3A, four cylinder, just under two litres, push rod overhead valves wire wheels with knock-off hubs and cutaway doors so you don't bang your elbows going around corners." The motor kicked over first time and settled into the characteristic Triumph burble as I reversed out of my drive.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." She settled down in the seat and didn't say anything until we pulled up outside a pub in a small seaside town. We had just sat down for lunch when Juliette grabbed my hand. "Fuck, pardon the French, but guess who just pulled up in the car park? It's my bastard of a husband and his floozy. What are we going to do?"

"Let's see what he does, he won't have recognised my car because he hasn't seen it before, we just have to hope that he doesn't come in here." I was watching Roland as he walked up to the reception desk and took a room key from the receptionist, the fact that he had not signed the register would indicate that he pre-booked and was probably a regular customer. "It seems as if your husband is here for a dirty afternoon, so we can relax and enjoy the good food."

After a pleasant lunch, we drove back to my place and it didn't take anywhere near as long because I drove the short route, not the scenic as I had to get to the pub. We had time for some very satisfying loving before Juliette had to leave for home. She was back within half an hour.

"He left a message for me telling me that he had to fly interstate on business at a moment's notice and wouldn't be back until Sunday evening. The bastard, how dare he cheat on me like this, I'll have his guts for garters."

"Hey, slow down, don't you see what this means for us, you can stay here until Sunday, that's two nights in my bed with me, we should be thanking him for giving us this opportunity."

"That's another thing I love about you, your ability to take a potential disaster and turn it into a positive. Now that I've had a chance to look at this rationally I can't really get angry at him because am I not doing the same to him? Am I not having an affair behind his back? Although I have to admit that I haven't looked on what we are doing as an affair because that would suggest that I thought that we are doing something dirty but it's not that is it? What we have is something pure, something above a seamy affair."

I kissed her to stop her rabbiting on. "Darling hush, forget about trying to rationalise what's happening with us, it is a good thing and it's going to get even better and soon. You and I are meant to be and that's the bottom line, we make a brilliant team both at work and play. Now what I want is to feed you food that I am going to cook for you and then we'll sit down and have a long discussion about our future and then we are going to bed to, what was it that Shakespeare said 'to sleep, perchance to dream.' But not before I make love to you like it is our wedding night."

And so it happened, I cooked one of my specialties, at least I think so and Juliette proclaimed it to be so, chicken thigh pieces cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, onion and garlic with red wine and herbs, served with spirelli noodles and grated parmesan accompanied by crusty bread and red wine. After we'd eaten we cleared up, washed the dishes together and settled down on the sofa to discuss us. We hadn't achieved much when we decided that discussion would be replaced by loving. This began in the shower and ended in our marriage bed doing what newly-weds do, for that's what we considered it to be. Eventually we drifted off to sleep.

I was the first to wake and I lay there looking at my beautiful Juliette, so peaceful, so soft and naked, I couldn't believe that this was just a temporary thing and that she would be going home to her husband tomorrow, how cruel this world was. I felt her stir, she rolled over to face me and a smile slowly came over her face. "I was just dreaming about you, about us, and I was getting moist just thinking about what we are going to do today, and tomorrow, and I'm not going to think beyond that because it will spoil the mood." She put her arm around me and lifted herself up so that she could kiss me."I love you so much." She kissed me again and as she did so she straddled me and fed my hard in anticipation of what was to come cock into her. "Oh that feels so good inside me. Don't move, I just want to stay here like this for as long as possible without moving, just enjoying him." She kissed me again.

We didn't move for what seemed like hours, but probably wasn't, before temptation got the better of us and we began to move, slowly at first and more rapidly as the heat of our passion took control of our bodies and led us to a shattering and mutual orgasm. "Whew!" I said as we came down and he went down inside her. "Will this never stop getting better?"

"Never." She whispered.

Saturday passed in daze of love making interspersed by snacks and the occasional and necessary pit stops. We did not discuss our future together other than to continue building our relationship. Exhaustion took over sometime around mid-night and we slept until well into Sunday morning and that was when the mood started to come down. It would soon be time for Juliette to go home and my loneliness to set in. The light at the end of that tunnel wasn't far off, she would come back on Monday morning after he left for work and spend the day with me.

But Roland didn't go to work. Instead he spent the day at home fending off phone calls from business associates. It was after lunch when he left but it wasn't to go to the office, he told Juliette that if anyone called looking for him he would be in meetings for the rest of the day and possibly into the night and not to expect him home until late. Because he was vague about the time of his return she couldn't commit to meeting me but would speak to me later.

I was in my bed that still smelt of us when she called, he wasn't home yet and we were just getting into our usual routine of telling each other how much we loved each other and how much we missed each other when he came home. She only just had time to shove the phone under the bed when he stormed into her room and I could hear quite clearly the conversation that they had.

"Where's my dinner?" He slurred.

"What do you mean where's your dinner? You leave here going you don't tell me where and not knowing when you'll be back, I wasn't expecting you to come home at. . ." She looked at the clock radio beside her bed. "Almost twelve o'clock wanting your dinner. What do you want me to do, get out of bed and cook dinner for you? You're drunk, go to bed and sleep it off and I'll make you a big breakfast in the morning."

"Isn't that what a good wife would do, get her husband a meal when he wants it?"

"Yes a good wife would probably do that providing her husband arrived home at a reasonable hour and not in your condition. Go to bed and sleep it off." He must have sat on her bed and tried to kiss her. "Just leave me alone, I was asleep when you came in and I want to go back to sleep."

"You're not even going to kiss your husband good night."

I heard a quick kiss. "There, good night and go to bed." He grumbled off and the door slammed shut behind him. "Did you hear all of that?" She whispered.

"Yes, we'll have to get you out of there as soon as possible, I don't know that I can trust him not to do something stupid and hurt you."

"I'll be careful." We spoke for another five minutes before she kissed her phone good-bye and hung up.

Her call the next day did little to allay my fears for her safety. "He was full of remorse and contrition and left for the office early I had to drive him to the station because he left his car there yesterday. I have to get out of here because the phone's been running hot with people looking for him, I keep telling them to ring his office but they say that he isn't there. Something is happening and I don't know what he'll do if he gets desperate."

"If he looks like he's threatening you ring me and I'll come running and hang the consequences."

"Thank you darling, I'll see you in a little while, I'll bring you some lunch." I had a small job that would only take a day or two so I hadn't arranged for her help.

She arrived right on twelve with a couple of sandwiches and a flask of coffee, we sat in the cab of the truck and ate. Between mouthfuls she told me more of what seemed to be happening. "It would seem that he had borrowed heavily both from commercial lenders and from friends and was having trouble repaying the loans. He had been stalling for some time but the whole mess was now catching up with him. His friends have apologised for burdening me with their problems but I felt that they had to dump their frustrations on someone and I'm the nearest and easiest. I haven't seen him drink as much as he had been lately and never as drunk as he was last night."

"It seems as if I did the right thing by getting him to lodge the construction price for the job in a bank account before I started work, at least I'll get paid."

"That's if he countersigns the withdrawal."

"Do you have any reason to think he won't, he can't touch it without my signature?"

"It just means that we have to wait until after you get paid before I leave him because when he finds out he'll refuse to sign."

"Can you wait that long?"

"It'll be hard for both of us but we have to do this, there's quite a bit of money tied up in this job and I don't want to see you lose out."

"What about you, you'll lose a lot more than me, the house, the car and the lifestyle."

"I'll be sad about the house because it actually has character, not that the decor shows that, but it's old and has a style that modern houses try to emulate without success. The car's not a problem, while I like it and it's fun to drive, I'm not married to it if you get my meaning, and as for the lifestyle you can stick that, I certainly won't miss it."

"The house I can offer you isn't as grand as yours but it's liveable, and with you there it will seem like heaven to me."

"Aren't you sweet. I've got to go, I'll ring you tonight, just to hear you tell me how much you love me." She kissed me and walked to her car, I could tell by her walk that this was getting her down.

I finished this job the next day and arranged for her to come to my house on Thursday. She stayed with me while I organised delivery of a cement mixer, bricks, sand and cement for the walls, the timber and corrugated iron for the roof, two windows, an access door and the tracks and panels for the new garage doors. "Just think I'll be able to do all of this for you when were together, particularly when the kids start to arrive."

I looked at her. "You aren't, are you?"

"No, not yet, but we are going to have a family aren't we?"

"Of course, I want at least two sons who can take over the business when I retire."

"What do you mean sons, you sexist pig." She accompanied this by thumping me on the arm.

"Ouch! Brutality we're not even married and you're beating up on me." Anyone witnessing this would think that we were in the middle of a domestic until they saw the smiles and the laughter that followed. We made time for making love after lunch and three hours of bliss followed, we could hardly call it marital bliss seeing that we weren't actually married, but it was every bit as good.

Friday was much the same and the weekend was a real downer with us only able to have short conversations because Roland was coming and going all the time.

Monday I reversed my truck up the drive and Juliette came out ready for work. "What's first?"

"We have to stack bricks around the slab so that they're easy to get at then we can start setting out the first course and work up from that. We build up the corners first that gives us the datum for the string line so that the courses are straight and level. There will be two piers on each long wall for the roof beams to sit on and returns either side of the door, a window at the back and in the middle of the side wall as well as the access door." I took a pair of leather gloves from my pocket. "Here, wear these and chuck those gardening gloves away." I had a pair like them, they were rigger's gloves in soft but durable leather. I started to take bricks from the pallets and making stacks on the slab where they would be easy for us when we started laying.

I loaded brickies sand, cement and water into the mixer until I had the right consistency and emptied it into a barrow to take to the mortar boards I had set up. "Do you want me to start the next load?" Juliette asked. "I know the right mix and I'll leave the water out until you're almost ready."

I set out the front corner and laid the first course down one side to the back corner, squared that off and continued across the back and down the other side to the front. Having set the first course out I started to work up the corners and the piers. Juliette mixed mud and, after a quick lesson, began to help fill in between the corners, moving the string line up for each course. By smoko we were ready to scaffold up to the next level, at the rate we were going we'd have the walls finished by Tuesday afternoon. By three we had one side and half of the back wall done and we pointed up the mortar joins and brushed the half dry mortar off the bricks before washing out the mixer. At four we walked around the back of the house and I kissed her good-bye, soon I wouldn't have to hide to do that.

By Tuesday afternoon we had completed the brickwork, a heavy galvanised angle iron supported the bricks of the gable end over the door with rafters behind and bargeboards in front to stop any movement. The back end was finished, the wall plates on and the rafters over the piers in place along with the ridge beam. Tomorrow will see the guttering in place and the rest of the roof rafters in place, the roofing on making it water tight ready for the final fit out on Thursday.

While I was setting up the tracks and motor for the four panel door that retracted along the ceiling beams Juliette was showing off her plumbing skills by making the round down-pipes to carry the rainwater from the roof, these required a double off-set at the top that required some skill that proved that she had learned from her father. She showed them proudly to me before soldering them and I was suitably impressed. I kissed her, "Think you're clever, don't you?"

"My father taught me well, I guess that I didn't forget the lesson." I had to admit that the finished product was better than I could have produced. Most down-pipes these days are PVC or colorbond and require little skill but because I wanted to keep the original integrity of the place, I used traditional materials.

By Thursday afternoon it had reached lock-up stage and there was only finishing touches and the clean up to do on Friday, but rain intervened. We did as much as possible inside, the lighting and the wireless control box for the big door, the rest would have to wait until Monday.

We finished up just after lunch on Monday and I loaded most of my gear onto the truck. "There'll be one more load to take away tomorrow morning." I gave her the papers for the final payment. "Can you get Roland to sign that for me?"

"Sure, when's our next job?"

"Seeing as how we finished this one a week earlier than I anticipated, I don't have another straight away."

"What will you do?" I could see that she was working towards a commitment from me.

"I hadn't really thought about it," I teased, "Did you have anything in mind?"

"I'll think about it." She teased in reply.

Tuesday morning I had just finished loading the last of the gear onto my truck when Juliette came out with the signed paper. "You've been paid in full." She had a funny look on her face. "I've got a surprise for you, wait here." A couple of minutes later she emerged from the back of the house lugging a large suitcase. "Can you give me a hand to throw this on the back of your truck. I've left him."

All loaded up I drove out of the property with an excited Juliette sitting as close as the seat belt would allow and kissing me every time I had to stop for lights or at an intersection. I don't know what other people thought of our behaviour and , quite frankly I didn't care.

On Wednesday morning I left a message on my machine telling callers that I had gone fishing for a few days and to leave a message and I'd get back to them. We actually did a bit of fishing, we didn't catch anything just sat at the end of the jetty with lines in the water but no suicidal fish took the hint. The fish and chips from the shop tasted just as good as if we'd caught and cooked it ourselves. The rest of the time was doing honeymoon stuff like walking along a nearby beach, making love in the dunes where no one could see us, we only did that once because sand got in places that sand was never supposed to get. We went to bed early and slept late and by the time we had to head home we were so totally in love with each other we thought that we were invincible.

That came to a screeching halt not long after we got back. A knock on the door revealed a policeman. "Mister Spaulding, I understand that you did a construction job for Mister Sampson, is that correct?"

"Yes. What's this all about?"

"It seems that Mrs Sampson has disappeared, I wonder if you have any knowledge of her whereabouts."

"As a matter of fact I do. Come in." I ushered him into the kitchen where Juliette was preparing dinner. "This policeman wants to know if I know where you are, what shall I tell him."

"I'm Juliette Sampson, what is this all about?"

"We've been trying to contact you since Wednesday, we need for you to accompany us to the mortuary and identify a body for us."

"Who is it?"

"The identification that was on the body was of your husband Roland Sampson but the body is a bit of a mess, when you see it you'll understand."

"I'll get my coat, can Mark come too?"

"Yes, I don't see why not, we'll bring you back afterwards." He wasn't joking when he said that the body was a mess. "Your husband stepped in front of a train early on Wednesday morning, the driver had no way of stopping."

"The poor driver, how is he getting on?"

"He's being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he had to uncouple carriages so that the body could be removed, it affected him quite badly."

Juliette blamed herself for Roland's suicide. "Darling, don't blame yourself, there may be another reason why he did this, possibly connected with the fact that his business was doing badly."

"But me leaving might just have been the final straw."

"You weren't to know that, he had been acting a little strange of late, he could even have had a falling out with his girlfriend, who knows what drives people to do that sort of thing."