Emerald Binds

Warning - this story contains light bondage and a scene of blackmail.

X X X X X

As Claudia Whitmore pulled up to the house, she was surprised to see her husband Kyle's green-and-white pickup truck sitting in the driveway. But she was more surprised by the unfamiliar black Ford Explorer parked next to it.

It was another sunny summer afternoon in Emerald Pines, Colorado, which meant her husband should have been working the day shift at the Fire Department where he served as deputy fire chief. Maybe he had switched shifts with someone and forgotten to tell her, Claudia thought as she parked her 4x4 off to the side. Or maybe he had swung home for a quick lunch like he sometimes did. Either answer, though, didn't explain the presence of the Explorer.

Claudia groaned as she stepped out of her truck. She had spent the past three days camping out beside Turquoise Reservoir standing hip deep in cold water while running tests to make sure an overturned tractor trailer full of pesticide hadn't contaminated the drinking water for over 720,000 people. The results had come back negative, allowing the Bureau of Reclamation to declare an early all-clear, which gave Claudia an unexpected paid day off. Now that she was on the north side of sixty, such days were warmly welcomed.

"Kyle," she called out after walking through the kitchen door, "I'm home!" Instead of her husband's voice, Claudia was answered by a rhythmic knocking. The dull thump echoed throughout the house. For a brief moment, Claudia thought Kyle was finally nailing down that loose floorboard in the upstairs hallway. But then a loud, passionate exclamation rang through the air.

"Oh my God Kyle, fuck me!"

Disbelief rolled over her. She quickly and quietly headed for the front stairs, climbing them until she could peer through the banister posts. Even without her glasses, there was no mistaking what was happening in front of her. The sight of it was enough to plunge an icy dagger of despondency through her heart.

Kyle, her husband of over three decades, was lying naked on their king-sized bed, vigorously fucking another woman.

Claudia froze. She couldn't make out the woman's face from this angle. All should make out was her short black hair and some kind of tattoo that spiraled along her left arm. She pressed her hands against the headboard, bracing herself as Kyle drove his hips up and down. "Holy shit," the young woman proclaimed breathlessly, "this feels so fucking good!"

"Pull my hair." Claudia's jaw dropped as the young woman reached up and firmly pulled on her husband's gray hair. "Harder," he grunted. Kyle's teeth clenched in obvious pain as she twisted her fingers like she was trying to rip his scalp off. "Come on, harder!"

When her other hand tore at the back of his head, Kyle screamed with a volume Claudia had never heard inside their bedroom. It was a volume he used while leading a firefighting crew, not during the act of lovemaking. What was going on in front of Claudia, however, was far from lovemaking. He redoubled his efforts. The young woman's black hair shimmered as Kyle slammed himself against her hips. "Oh fuck," she cried, one hand moving from Kyle's stomach and disappearing between her legs.

Claudia's brain finished rebooting. Despite the pain and anguish she was feeling, she managed to fish her smartphone from her purse. As Claudia began filming the encounter from her hidden position on the stairs, the young woman's cries became higher and more desperate. Each scream of passion twisted the icy dagger in Claudia's chest, but she stood her ground, filming her husband's infidelity in heart-wrenching high-definition.

The bedframe protested with every forceful bounce as the young woman appeared to race towards her climax. Her screams echoed throughout the house before she began shaking like a rag doll. Kyle continued thrusting for several more moments before eliciting a low groan of pleasure that signaled his own orgasm. Eventually, he collapsed on top of the young woman, both of them panting heavily. "Was that good for you," Claudia heard him murmur.

"Fuck yeah," the young woman answered.

Anyone else would have stormed into the bedroom at that moment and brought down the fury of the mountains. Instead, Claudia quietly slipped down the stairs. What flowed through her wasn't boiling rage but rather freezing despair.

As she made her way through the kitchen, Claudia passed by three empty beer bottles and two dirty plates sitting on the table. The thought that Kyle and his mistress took the time to enjoy lunch before enjoying each other was the final twist of the knife. She held back her tears while she got in her truck and slowly pulled out of the driveway. Once she reached the road, Claudia made a right turn, followed immediately by another, taking her truck onto an old logging trail heading up McArthur Mountain. It wasn't until she had parked in a wooded clearing overlooking her home that Claudia finally let go. Her head rested against the steering wheel as tears began to rain from her eyes, splashing against the dusty floor mat while she pondered the dissolution of her marriage.

X X X X X

"That asshole!"

Tara jammed her finger against the smartphone to cut off the video. "That no-good, low-down, dirty-rotten, asshole! The next time I see my brother I'm going to make Rocky Mountain oysters out of his balls!"

"Don't," pleaded Claudia. "The second people start yelling, it's not going to stop. I just...just...I just don't know."

"This is the exact time for yelling," Tara countered as she refilled both wine glasses. "Punching too. I'd go so far as to recommend scratching."

The two women currently sat on opposite sides of the island in Claudia's kitchen. As soon as Claudia had seen Kyle and the other woman leave the house, she pulled in and immediately called her sister-in-law, Tara. It normally took twenty minutes to get from town up the ridge to Claudia's house. Tara had arrived in ten, a bottle of wine in hand and the engine of her motorcycle ticking loudly in the driveway. A speed demon by nature, it was a trait that served Tara well as both an EMT and a volunteer firefighter.

"Look," said Tara, "I know a top-notch divorce lawyer in Aspen. He owes me a favor. You wouldn't have to pay him a cent until the settlement because with this video it'll be an open-and-shut case..."

"Divorce?" Claudia looked up from her hands. "Why would I want a divorce?"

"Because the bastard cheated on you. In your own bed. My brother's done some stupid shit in his life, but this is the clincher." Tara slammed her fist on the counter. "You can't let this slide!"

"I'm not. I just...we've been married for almost thirty-five years. We have three children and by Christmas will have our first grandchild. Once we both retire with our pensions, we're going to spend more time outdoors than in. And you've told me you've seen him turn down women who were blatantly hitting on him. I want to know why, and yelling and screaming won't make finding out any easier."

"No, but it'll make it a hell of a lot more satisfying."

After taking a drink of wine, Claudia warily eyed the half-full glass. "Maybe I've let myself go and Kyle doesn't find me attractive anymore."

Tara's laugh was both mocking and reassuring. "Are you kidding me? You're in great shape for your age; you're tan, you've still got your red hair, and you're the only woman I know whose laugh lines make her more attractive. I like guys, but come Christmas you're gonna be a GMILF, count on it."

Claudia's chortle was her first smile since discovering her husband's infidelity. "Look," Tara said, "I promise I won't say anything to Kyle until you give me the all-clear, and I will do my best to act normal around him. But you need to confront him at some point, sooner rather than later. Did you recognize the woman?"

"No. I didn't catch her face. But she had a tattoo," she said, drawing a path along her upper arm. "Barbed wire and flowers, I think."

"Let me see." Claudia slid her smartphone across the counter to her sister-in-law. Tara had the decency to lower the volume before watching the video. Her eyes narrowed. "Huh. That tattoo looks familiar..."

The kitchen door opened. "Hey ladies," a voice called out. "This is a pleasant surprise."

Claudia and Tara turned to see Kyle sitting down on the bench to take off his work boots. Having joined Claudia in the "Over Sixty" club last year, his black hair was more salt than pepper, and years of fending off a dad bod through outdoor activities and firefighting had finally begun catching up with him. Kyle still possessed his roguish good looks, however, as well as a gruff, resonant voice that could be heard over a roaring wildfire. "You weren't supposed to be home until tomorrow," he said to Claudia, "and today's your day off, sis."

"They called the job early," Claudia answered. "I just got back an hour ago."

"And I was out for a ride when I fell in behind her," added Tara. "Figured I'd help her kill time before you got home. Speaking of which, let me get going so you two can be alone."

"You don't have to rush off." Kyle motioned towards the fridge. "I pulled some venison to cook for tonight. There's enough for three people."

Tara waved a dismissive hand. "You guys haven't seen each other in a few days. I'm sure you have plenty to talk about."

When Kyle took off his other boot, Tara's fingers quickly danced across Claudia's smartphone before sliding the phone back across the counter. "Texted myself the video," Tara quietly mouthed as she stood up and came around the island to politely peck Claudia's cheek. "Catch you later. And I'll see you tomorrow on the evening shift." Her statement to Kyle was punctuated by a hard shot to the shoulder before she headed out the garage door.

"She's in a mood today." Kyle walked across the kitchen and gave his wife the same peck on the cheek her sister-in-law had. "Is everything OK?"

Claudia managed to put a smile on her face. "Just Tara being Tara. How was your shift?"

"Nice and easy," he said while opening the fridge to grab a bottle of beer as well as a paper-wrapped package of venison. "Spent the day watching the avalanche-warning signs get replaced at Sapphire Drop. Tomorrow I get to do the same thing for the rough-water signs out along the Roaring Fork. Heh. Since I'll be working on the river, I should see if they want to hire you to come along as some kind of consultant."

"I'm done standing in water for the foreseeable future, with the exception of hot showers. Speaking of which, if you're going to start dinner I'm going to go grab a quick one before we eat."

As Claudia slid from her seat, making sure to grab her smartphone, Kyle took a deep pull from his freshly opened beer. "When you come back down," he told her, "I want to hear all about your day."

She felt her smile pulling tighter as she responded, "And I want to hear all about yours."

X X X X X

The shower had been running for almost ten minutes. Steam filled the bathroom to the point where Claudia had to wipe the mirror off with her hand so she could study her naked body with a deepening sense of melancholy.

Her red hair was slowly turning from fire-kissed to dying embers. Working outside for her entire career had given her tanned skin that survived each Colorado winter without fading, but now everything was beginning to... sag. Claudia couldn't tell if it had happened so slowly she hadn't noticed or if it had hit her practically overnight. Men had it easy. They grew old slowly and gracefully, becoming silver foxes somewhere along the way. Women? They went from 'barely legal' to 'MILF' to 'crone' at the drop of a hat.

Maybe that's what had happened with Kyle. At their age, Claudia had assumed that their decelerating love life was simply a matter of decreasing hormones. They still had sex, despite needing a little assistance at their age. Claudia still enjoyed it, however, and until this afternoon assumed Kyle had as well. She hadn't seen Kyle that vigorous in years, however. Maybe that was it. Maybe her husband was trading something old for something new and it was giving him a new lease on his sex life. It wasn't an excuse, far from it. But it was a possible theory, which was more than she had earlier.

After a quick, perfunctory shower, Claudia wrapped a towel around her body before walking into their bedroom, where she was greeted by Kyle unbuttoning his work shirt. "The grill's still warming up," he explained without looking at her. "How's the reservoir?"

"The pesticide didn't make it to the water. Turns out the driver of the tanker was drunk and took a turn too fast. The trees soaked up most of the liquid between the crash and the lake, so odds are the company's going to be on the hook for the cleanup and any trees that need to be replanted."

"Hmm." Standing on opposite sides of the bed, which Claudia noticed had been done up with clean sheets, Kyle proceeded to take off his work clothes while she dug out a t-shirt and sweatpants. When Kyle stripped down to his boxers, she decided to test her theory. She waited until Kyle glanced in her direction before casually dropping her towel onto the bed, exposing her naked, freshly showered body.

His response was to turn to his dresser and pull out his own set of comfortable clothes, missing the frown that creased his wife's face. "When did you change the sheets?" she casually inquired while getting dressed.

"This morning," he said, sounding out the pair of words. "I went to bed without showering last night, and the sheets felt all scuzzy when I woke up. Figured I'd change them while I thought about it." Kyle quickly finished getting dressed. "Grill should be warmed up by now. Come down when you're ready. Hey, I'm gonna grab some more beer from the garage. You want one?"

"No, thank you."

Changing the sheets to hide his infidelity was the final straw. After Kyle quickly made his retreat out the bedroom door and down the stairs, Claudia sat down on the bed. The lead weight pulling on her soul caused her to slump over. She felt the tears beginning to form behind her eyes. Confronting her husband would be difficult enough. But what about explaining things to their children? Their friends? Kyle's firefighter buddies? Her work colleagues? It was all becoming too much. The pressure in her eyes built like water against a failing dam. Just before Claudia's emotional reservoir crumbled, however, a sharp ping emanated from her smartphone.

I know that tattoo, Tara had texted. She's a bartender down at Speakman's. She's off today but opens tomorrow. If you're not going to yell at Kyle, at least yell at her.

Claudia used her towel to dab her damp eyes. Yelling at people wasn't in her nature. Talking to the young woman, though, was something she could do. After sending a thumbs-up emoji to Tara Claudia finished getting dressed and headed downstairs to the kitchen, ready to tell her husband all about her day while listening to him lie about his.

X X X X X

Claudia's fingers tapped against the steering wheel as she pulled into Speakman's parking lot. She eyed the black Explorer by the front door before driving around to the back of the L-shaped building, parking out of sight of the main road. The fire station was a half-mile down the way, and she didn't want Kyle to be driving past and seeing her 4x4 parked next to his mistress' truck.

The emergency door was propped open, allowing the faint sounds of country music to escape from inside. Nervousness gripped Claudia's stomach. She had kept up as normal a facade as she could while talking to Kyle before calling it an early night. When it became obvious sleep would elude her, she had passed the time by going over what she would say to Kyle's mistress when she saw her. With the moment of truth imminent, her pulse began racing. Claudia found herself almost wishing for a spark of anger to replace the ice block of tension that was slowly melting into frigid droplets of anxiety. The urge to get back in her pickup and drive home grew as she walked over the collection of cigarette butts and spent joints scattered near the emergency door. Once she made it inside, it was inertia that carried her past the bathrooms and kitchen into the main lounge, where she was greeted by the lyrics of John Anderson.

Wild and blue, it's no wonder

Look at the things you do

They could just take you up yonder honey

You're already wild and blue

Speakman's had been the watering hole for Emerald Pines' sheriff's deputies and emergency personnel for over a century. Named after John Speakman, the town's first sheriff when it was still called Ashcroft in the late 1800s, its rich, colorful history was a minor reason why the brand-new emergency complex had been built a stone's throw away. The bar's motif was best described as "antiseptically dingy." The walls were covered with photographs of men and women in action, ranging from the sepia tones of Sheriff Speakman bringing in a bank robber to the high-definition shots from last year's forest fire on the Western Slope. Stickers, badges, and unit patches dotted the walls between the photographs, left by visitors from the various emergency units along the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond.

"We're not open yet."

The statement came from the attractive young black-haired woman who had been mopping the floor when Claudia walked in. "I can't start serving booze for another half-an-hour. You'll have to wait outside."

It was the first time Claudia had seen the young woman's face, but there was no mistaking the tattoo wrapped around her upper arm - a long strand of barbed wire interwoven with blood red roses. She looked to be in her mid 20's, with short black hair cut just above her ears that framed a pretty face with brown eyes and chiseled features. Her black sleeveless t-shirt was practically molded to her firm body. Screwing up her courage, Claudia responded, "I'm not here for a drink. I'm here to talk to you about my husband, Kyle."

Claudia expected a stunned look, a sharp denial, maybe even a stuttering apology. What she didn't expect was a boisterous laugh. "I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to meet you," the black-haired woman smiled. "Grab a seat at the bar. I'll be with you when I'm done."

With that, the woman returned to mopping the floor. Stunned by the woman's casual reaction, a flustered Claudia could only sit down on a barstool. Through the wall-length mirror behind the bar, she watched the young woman casually go about mopping without even glancing in Claudia's direction. Even when she pushed the mop cart past Claudia, she acted like the older woman wasn't even there.

After disposing of the dirty mop water, the young woman headed behind the bar. She turned off the jukebox and continued to ignore Claudia while she washed her hands in the sink. It wasn't until she dried her hands off that she turned to face her. "Hello," she said with a beaming smile. "What can I get for you?"

"I...um..." Claudia was completely thrown, but she managed to shake her head and refocus herself. "I'm not here for a drink," she repeated. "I saw you and Kyle yesterday afternoon having sex in our bedroom."

"You saw that? We thought you weren't supposed to be back until today," the woman said, impressed. "You sure you don't want a glass of water or something?"

"I want to know why you're sleeping with my husband," Claudia tried to shout in anger, only for her words to come out in a choked tone.

"Because he's a good fuck. And although it's none of your business, I have a thing for older men."

"You're..."

There it was. The familiar spark of rage threatening to light the powder keg inside of her. Claudia gripped the edge of the bar as she took a deep breath. "You're sleeping with a married man," she firmly proclaimed. "Don't be so casual about this."