Fire and Ice

Victoria hurried through the drizzling rain to her house, entered it on the run, and kept going. She stripped off her robe and pyjamas on the way to the shower. She spent a long time under the hot water, soaping herself thoroughly, washing her hair, finally douching before she felt reasonably clean. She dressed in jeans and an old sweatshirt, wrapped her wet hair in a turbaning towel, and attacked her household chores like locusts in a field of ripe corn.

First she picked up every strewn piece of clothing in the house, from Sebastian's boxer shorts to her pyjamas and robe. Most of these, together with towels and linens, went into the washer, but the garments she had worn during the impulsive escapade of that morning went into the trash. While the water sluiced, she did the dishes and scrubbed the kitchen floor, and while the dryer was running, she vacuumed every carpet in the house. She made the beds and dusted, put away the dishes and tidied up, putting everything in its place. She picked some ivy from the garden and arranged the rain-kissed greenery in vases, stood back in weary satisfaction and surveyed the house, as neat and clean as Brenda's, enough to please any man.

It was not quite noon, and she was done with her housework. Victoria ate a cheese sandwich and set some bread dough to rising. She took two thick steaks from the freezer and started thawing them while she made a cherry pie, Sebastian's favorite. She worked steadily and efficiently, and by two in the afternoon the kitchen was all cleaned up again, all ready for the preparation of a special dinner for the special man she had married. She felt like visiting Brenda, but she did not want to bother her friend again with troubles that she should be able to solve herself, and she wanted no more of Brenda's simplistically hedonistic advice. And so she filled the tub with hot, scented water, climbed in, and thought about the welcome she would give to Sebastian that night, starting when the six-thirty train from London pulled in.

Chapter 4.

While Victoria Spence soaked in her tub, her husband Sebastian was quite comfortably dry under his umbrella, standing on a London street corner down the road from his office, looking anxiously up the street for the appearance of a low, red sports car. He wore a three-piece suit and tie, but in the latest fashion, covered with a tweedy topcoat. He was slim, almost lean, but his shoulders were wide and his jawline was strong enough so that he would cut an equally handsome figure in patched and dusty clothes. He had longish brown hair and a full moustache, and now the corners of the moustache turned up as he saw the little red car weave through the traffic and pull up at the curb before him.

The door of the car swung open, and Brenda smiled her crooked smile at him, arm resting on the back of the passenger bucket seat, nylon-gleaming leg showing below the bottom button of the belted black raincoat she had on.

"Hi, there," she said in her sultriest voice. "Going my way?"

Sebastian smiled. "If you're headed for a beef sandwich, madam, I certainly am." He quickly climbed in. "I'm famished. These late lunches are enough to--"

"I am too," Brenda said, and her lightly clutching nails on the back of his neck raised the short hairs there as she drew him down to meet her shining red lips and beckoning pink tongue.

Brenda's spicy perfume expanded Sebastian's skull, and the taste of her tongue set him to salivating as her lips worked strongly on his, sucking him deeper into the kiss, massaging his lips. A horn sounded behind them, and when Sebastian started to turn his head, the fingernails increased their pressure and the slick lips increased their suction. Again the horn sounded, and with a great effort of will, Sebastian pushed Brenda away and slammed the door behind him.

He said: "You had better get going before we cause a traffic jam."

"The hell with them," Brenda said, and gestured obscenely at her back window. "The hell with them and kiss me," she said, and she leaned sinuously closer to Sebastian, her hand drawing his to the conical swell of her breast, her mouth forming a livid red oval lined with teeth that could bite and a tongue that could inject him with an aphrodisiac far more effectively than any needle could.

"Brenda, that's a busload full of people back th--"

Her lips sucked him right inside again, her breast pushed its way into his hand, and the blaring horn behind them faded into insignificance. He felt her all over while their lips sucked and their tongues twined. His hand checked every voluptuous curve to see that it was in its very proper place while they kissed, and her hand moved rustling down to his loins to ensure that his cock was long and hard and his balls firm and full.

Now it was she who pushed him away, turned briefly to glare at the big yellow vehicle behind them, and jammed the gearshift lever into low. "Inconsiderate idiot," she said. "He has no respect at all for people in love. How did your morning go?"

"Sugar is up a fraction and coffee is up the limit, so you and a lot of other people are making some money today."

"I was talking about you, love." Her hand moved from gearshift lever to his leg, moving smoothly, red fingernails making quick, delightful patterns on the inside of his thigh.

"I had a good morning, but now I'm starving, and not just for food." He fondled the contour of her breast through the stiff black gabardine of her raincoat. She slipped his fingers between the lapels of the coat to finger the creamy smoothness bulging there, and then she pushed his hand away.

"You know I can't drive when you do that," she said.

"And you know I can't keep my hands off you."

"Try for a while, you big snake. You have me all wet already."

"Is that right?" Sebastian grinned, and softly pinched a large nipple that pushed back at him.

"Do you think I'd lie to you?" Brenda gave him that sexy, crooked smile, and he rubbed her belly, squeezed her hip, and slid his hand down her thigh. She said: "If you don't believe me, find out for yourself how hot you managed to get me in -- what? -- two minutes?"

Sebastian's hand cupped the contours of her tautly nyloned knee. His hand moved up over the broad, tight welt of her hose, over the softly bulging flesh of her warm inner thigh as she parted her legs for him. His hand went up to her plump sex mound, and he moaned and muttered, "You're not wearing a thing under that raincoat."

"Well, I am too," Brenda said in mock indignation. "How do you think I'm holding my hose up, for heaven's sake? But I had to take my knickers off. They started to get all wet and sticky against my fanny while I was fixing lunch at the flat. Driving down to actually see you, they got even worse. It felt like they were full of ants, so I took them off and put them in the glove box. If it bothers you, take them out and I'll put them on again.

"No bra, either?" Sebastian said, one hand reaching there, while the other continued feeling her crotch, all smooth and fat and warm, entirely devoid of even the smallest stubble of pubic hair, slick moisture oozing from it onto his moving fingers.

"None of your business," Brenda said, and pushed his hand from her breasts. "But I didn't wear a dress. It was getting late, so I just threw on my raincoat and buzzed down here. Darling, you'll have to stop playing with my fanny or we're going to wind up dead in traffic."

"Because of this?" He gently tweaked her clitoris with his thumb and forefinger, rubbing the swollen little nub deeper into her wet sex.

"Yes, exactly like that, Sebastian." She put her hand on his and pushed it up and harder between her legs. "Diddling me like that makes me want to pull over and get your cock in me right now. And if I do that the lunch will burn. So stop it."

"There's a parking place up ahead," Sebastian said, delving inside her receptively wet sex, reaching fingers inside her coat to feel her bare belly. "Pull into it, and I'll suck you. I'll give you a licking just as you like it. I'll suck you and fuck you right here on the road and let lunch go to hell."

Brenda elbowed his hand from her breasts before he could determine if she wore a bra. She took his hand from between her legs, kissed it and placed it firmly on her knee. She took a deep breath, and said: "Let's talk business. That will cool us off a bit. How much did the coffee you bought me go up today?"

"I told you," Sebastian said, gazing fondly at her legs as they moved crisply over the pedals. He guessed she wore a bra and suspender belt under the coat. Probably black. Narrow, tight, black elastic satin, biting into soft white velvety flesh. "I told you, it went up the limit."

"I don't know anything about limits. How many pounds?"

"About a thousand quid on the nine thousand I invested for you. Let me open that coat, love. Let me look at you. Now."

"Five hundred for each of us," she said, and slapped at his hand moving toward her belt. "Half of everything I make on the market is yours, Sebastian."

"No deal. You have your money and I have mine... if Victoria and I split up and we live together or get married or whatever. One of the things I like about you is your independence, financial and otherwise. Damn it, can't you drive any faster?"

"We're almost there," Brenda said, well out of the financial district now, and headed toward Westminster. "Another thing you like about me is my fanny, darling, let's face it. And you'll be facing it soon enough." She grasped his penis and squeezed it firmly through the fabric of his trousers. Her eyes were molten as she glanced at him and murmured, "You randy bastard, you're as bad as I am."

They passed through Westminster into Kensington, and there, in a rather shabby little road, Brenda parked the car. This had once been a moderately wealthy neighborhood, but now it consisted primarily of small businesses at the street level and small flats in three story buildings that lined the narrow busy street. There were sailors on the walks attracted by the massage parlors, the pubs, the pawnshops, and little restaurants. There was a billiards club on the bottom level of the building Sebastian and Brenda headed for after they left the car, but Sebastian had little interest in their surroundings as they walked briskly to their destination. His interest was focussed directly ahead as Brenda led the way through the traffic. He could hardly look away from her voluptuously big bottom undulating with oily smoothness under the tight, dully gleaming black raincoat. Only that outer garment prevented him from seeing her bare buttocks shifting up and down with her high heels. He followed that lovely big bottom across the pavement and through a door, and as they mounted narrow steps, he watched the smooth bunchings of her nylon- covered calves and the dull gleamings of her high heels as they mounted each rise. Brenda from her knees down was far more exciting to him than all of Victoria just then, and in a few more minutes he would have all of Brenda.

Sebastian's penis was up hard and ready as Brenda worked the key in the door of the flat. He caressed her arms with hands that shook, and he nuzzled his mouth in her hair, and he said: "I'm paying the rent here again next month, and I don't want any argument about it from you."

"Yes, Master." Brenda smiled at him over her shoulder, bumped his penis with the soft roundness of her bottom, and led the way inside.

It was a small, old flat, but the furnishings were modern. Two long couches, several chairs, a tea table, a pair of large lamps hanging from the ceiling on chains. Thick red drapes over the windows, pink shag carpet on the floor. The framed prints and engravings on the walls were primarily of an erotic nature. The kitchen door was hidden by a wooden screen. The other door in the living room led to a small bedroom and bathroom, but the bedroom was rarely used by them since most of the sex in this trysting place was done on the black couches or on the pink carpet in the living room. Beds were for married people; lovers had sex wherever the mood struck them. That mood struck them often in this flat. It had formerly been the flat of a call girl who frequented the club where Brenda worked. Other call girls still lived and worked in the building, but this one had moved on to greener pastures. With rent for three months paid in advance, the girl had given the key to Brenda, and Brenda had used the place when she had been too tired to go home after work, or for entertaining the men she had known before she took up with Sebastian. Brenda was very frank about her sexual affairs and her entire life prior to getting serious with Sebastian. She had told him all about the flat, even described in detail some of the weekend things she had done in it with men she had picked up for enjoyment. When Sebastian had come along, it was a ready-made place for their skyrocketing romance, and Sebastian had started paying the rent just that month. As far as he was concerned, it was well worth it. There was more excitement to be had in this flat than in all the rest of the city combined, including his house. He had worked for it, he had earned it, and he was getting it. And all he had to do for it now was to lie back and follow Brenda's provocative leads.

Now he said to Brenda: "Take off your coat and stay awhile."

She shrugged off his hands, closed the door. "It's cold in here. Sit down and I'll get us a drink first. We've got to have a talk about your wife. Poor girl, she's getting rather mixed up with all this going on around her. Sit down, Sebastian, lunch is in the oven."

She had arranged a little table between the two chairs, a gleaming white tablecloth and two place settings. Today it gave the familiar flat the air of one of those very intimate dining rooms in Parisian restaurants that are used exclusively by secret lovers. Sebastian sat down at the table. He did not want to talk about Victoria, but he knew it had to be done before they could get on to anything else. Brenda was a rather tough woman, well- schooled in the cruel ways of the world, but she was a compassionate woman, too. She had taken a woman's husband away from her, but she would do her best to see to it that the woman was not too badly damaged in the process. Sebastian did not know if he admired Brenda for that or not, but he knew he admired the things she did to him. He was happy about Brenda's concern for Victoria, for it prolonged the time when he had both a wife and a mistress, and there were times when he still felt quite loving for his wife.

Brenda spoke to him from the kitchen. "She pulled a real beauty today, Sebastian. I'm getting worried about her."

"Whatever it was, I don't want to hear about it today. I can't divorce her now, not when she's still so in love with me. It would break her heart now. It's bad enough I fell in love with the next-door neighbor, her best friend. If I dump her for you now it will just shatter her. If she had an affair or two in the past few months, I can't blame her for that. Lord, look at what we have been doing and how I've been neglecting her. I haven't made love to her in two months now. She needs the security of a man, and she can go on having her affairs until I judge she's capable of handling life on her own. You told me about the two other men she picked up, but I don't want to hear about this one."

"What if it wasn't a man?" Brenda asked as she entered with the martinis.

Sebastian just sat there looking at her, his face becoming more flushed, while she sat down across the table from him. He lifted his glass, drank deeply from it, and said: "I don't care if she's with another woman, and I don't want to hear about it. Maybe she needed it, and it was something that happened. In another month or so, she'll be safely out of love with me and we can split up our marriage. But she would go crazy now if I dropped her. She's not strong enough yet. As soon as she can face life on her own, I'll start the divorce proceedings. I'll give her enough money so she can be comfortable until she finds another man, one who appreciates home-made pies and slippers in front of the fire like I should. Good martini."

"Thanks. Listen, Sebastian, maybe I shouldn't have told you any of the things she told me in confidence. Lord knows, I shouldn't have fallen in love with you, but that couldn't be helped. But I did tell you what she's been doing, and I know it's been difficult for you. Actually, darling, I think you've taken the wrong tack with her. You ought to have found a way to break with her a month ago, when she took up with the first man. You know I want what's best for Victoria, too. And I think a fast, clean break now is the thing to do. Don't shake your head. Listen to me. The longer this goes on, the worse she'll get with her secret affairs. If this keeps up, she might actually fall into the clutches of some tramp lesbian with a drug habit."

Sebastian set his glass down. "It wasn't a woman she did it with this time?"

"It was a boy. A university student. She picked him up on a street corner and had herself a time with him, made him go down on her and did the same to him."

"Good Lord." Sebastian covered his face with his hands. "And she sucked him?"

"Yes. She's too inhibited to do it to you, but she doesn't mind sucking a stranger's cock. Now do you still think you're doing her a favor by prolonging this thing?"

"Lord, I don't know. A student?"

"And who can tell who it will be next? Sebastian, divorce her now. Come right out and tell her you don't love her any more. Do it any way you want, but my advice is to do it. Just promise me again you'll never mention any of the affairs she told me about. If she thinks a woman betrayed her confidence and a man dumped her, she will really be destroyed."

"I promise I'll never tell her anything. A student? Good Lord, let me think about this for a while."

"Yes, you think about it, love." Brenda patted his hand. "We'll talk about it later, but now let's enjoy the time we have together. Is it warming up in here?"

Sebastian looked up. "Yes, I think so." He thought of Victoria with some young university student. What had he driven his wife into? Was that worth the excitement he knew with Brenda?"

Brenda said: "I think I'm warmed up enough to get out of this coat. Stay there, Sebastian. I can do it myself."

The furrows left Sebastian's brow as he looked up at her, and a slow smile crossed his face. He said, "You can't do it all by yourself, pet, but you can start at it."

Chapter 5.

Brenda's hands began to work together out of his sight, under the table. Sebastian sat straight in his chair, looking down past her glass to the first sight of what those hands would show him.

He had seen it all before, but she was always able to show it to him in a different way. Now just the sight of her wrists working at the belt buckle of her coat was giving him another erection. He massaged his penis under the table. Her smile was a blur of red at the top of his field of vision as he stared at that first flash of white between the smooth black folds of her raincoat. And it was merely a flash he saw. The teasing bitch. She was not opening the coat as she unbuttoned it, so all he saw as she slowly worked her way up to the buttons between her breasts was a thin strip of alabaster flesh, and a few millimeters of the black lace of her bra. Buttons all opened, she curled her fingers inside the lapels of her coat and ran them up and down.

Sebastian muttered. "I knew you'd be wearing black under that coat. Let me see it, then. Let me see you."

Brenda lifted her drink and sipped it, set it down and rose slowly and suggestively to her feet. She opened the two sides of her coat, opened them wide.

"You see?" she said. "I'm not completely naked under this coat. Do you like what you see?"