Taking Dani's Place

“Sure,” Dani said, her brow furrowing. “But you’ll be gone tomorrowand Saturday.”

“No, I won’t. Buthe’ll think I am.”

She eyed Dani. They were the same height, of similar builds. Once – it seemed so long ago now, so far away – they’d joked about being able to wear each other’s clothes, of looking more like sisters than mother and daughter.

It could work. The only real difference, at least without a real close look, was the hair. If she was in Dani’s darkened room, in Dani’s nightie … with Rich safely sure that his wife was in San Francisco … yes. It could work. He wouldn’t try anything openly. Not when there was a chance that Kyle might skulk up from the basement and catch him. He’d be sneaky about it. He’d wait until all the household was supposedly fast asleep, and then he’d make his move.

And what a surprise he’d find waiting for him!

Joanna was ashamed to find that, as the evening went on and the plan continued to hone itself to razor-keenness in her mind, she was looking forward to it. Looking forward to flipping on the lights and trapping the son of a bitch. She was even more ashamed by the dirty, slinking thrill she felt at the prospect.

It was an ordeal to get through dinner without giving something away, but Rich was distracted with thoughts of his own – oh, she justbet he was! She reminded the family that she’d be leaving for the airport right from work tomorrow, and would be back on Sunday. Kyle grunted, not lifting his eyes from his plate. Dani, striving for a normal tone but sounding to Joanna’s ears almost excessively relieved, mentioned her own plans for a late movie date.

Bedtime was even more of an ordeal. Joanna found that it took an almost physical effort to get into bed beside Rich. If he so much as tried to touch her, she was sure she would scream, or fly into a rage. But he only gave her a smile as he turned on the news and settled comfortably into his pillows.

As usual, he was asleep before the weatherman came on. Joanna studied him. A man with nary a care in the world. A man totally at ease with himself, with whatever putrid worm passed for his conscience.

She even fantasized, for a few seconds anyway, of smothering him to death. He was fit, yes, but his blood pressure wasn’t the best … no. Forensic science was too good these days. But if he had begun to moan Dani’s name in that hungry tone again, she might just have done it and forensics be damned.

That night was one of the longest in her life. She made it through, and made it through the morning, and packed her suitcase for the trip that she was not taking.

The beauty shop at the mall was called “Hot Cuts,” and the employees were all girls not much older than Dani. They, and their customers, looked at Joanna like she was an alien. She supposed that, in this world, she was. They didn’t get many forty-year-old women in navy blue business suits.

With the plan set in motion, she was consumed by fears of it all going hideously wrong. Of Rich deciding to come home from work early and catch Dani before she could go out on her ‘date,’ for instance.

She struggled with these and other fears until a quick call to Dani at Vickie’s house assuaged her. Dani was fine, safe and fine. It was going to work.

The house was dark when the taxi dropped her off at midnight, after her solitary dinner and a movie she could barely remember.

A blue, flickering light showed in the master bedroom’s window. The television. Letterman. And was Rich asleep? Or was Rich wakeful, listening for the sounds of Dani coming home?

She slipped in and went straight to Dani’s room, making the usual level of noise that a teenage girl trying not to wake anybody but not trying to sneak would make. Nobody confronted her, but she felt his presence in the house. Waiting. Anticipatory.

Joanna changed out of Dani’s clothes and into one of Dani’s nightgowns. It was baby-blue, short, ruffled, with matching little-nothing panties. It used to be the sort of thing that Dani would carelessly go around the house in, but now would never wear outside the privacy of her own room without that bulky, shapeless terrycloth robe.

As she drew the panties up her legs, Joanna was ashamed to feel that dirty thrill again. Her nipples tightened, poking at the thin nightie. She couldn’t wait to catch him. Let him try and argue his way out of this one! Oh, just let him try!

The only light in the room came from a soft rose-colored bulb attached to the plug-in air freshener. It shed enough of a glow to give Joanna an eerie feeling as she looked at her dim reflection in Dani’s mirror. The resemblance was uncanny. The blonde hair, the long legs, the small but still firm breasts gauzily outlined in sheer cloth … she could hardly believe her eyes.

She got into Dani’s bed. The sheets were cool on her legs, the blanket soft as she tucked it around her waist. A two-foot-high stuffed koala bear held pride of place, and she curled the toy into her arm.

Time passed. Minutes, half an hour, a full hour.

She’d been wrong after all. Rich was sound asleep in the other room, probably dreaming of nothing more incriminating than –

A footstep in the hall.

Asneaky footstep.

And the faint creak of the doorknob turning. A draft as the door eased open.

Through slitted eyes, Joanna saw him in the doorway. The gentle rose-colored glow just touched him.

Rich. In his robe, which hung unbelted and open over nothing at all.

“Dani,” he whispered.

She realized she was holding her breath and released it, trying to feign sleep. It wouldn’t do to spring up now. Now, he could just say that he’d been in the hall and thought he heard something, was only checking on Dani. And his robe had happened to fall open. No, she needed more.

Her heart was racing so that she was afraid he might hear its galloping gait. He whispered Dani’s name again. Then stepped into the room and closed the door as quietly as he’d opened it. The latch clicked shut.

The bold bastard. If she hadn’t finally wakened to what was going on around her, if she hadn’t finally talked to Dani, she would have been in San Francisco right now, in some hotel room with no idea of what was about to happen. And it would have been Dani here instead, a Dani probably terrified and helpless.

A tugging. The blanket. He was pulling on the blanket. It slid inch by inch down Joanna’s body, dragging the sheet with it. Now her hip was revealed, the hem of the nightie having ridden up over it. Now her thigh as she lay on her side, knees partly drawn up toward a fetal position. Now the covers were gone, and her bare legs exposed to him.

He moved, and for a moment the shadow of his jutting erection was enormous on the wallpaper. Her ears – every one of her senses felt almost supernaturally attuned – detected the silky rasp of his robe dropping to the floor.

Her fingers clenched in the furry nap of the koala’s pelt. Indignation at this violation of trust brimmed in her. She imagined him arguing that they had never specifically agreed that her daughter was off-limits, that that hadn’t been part of their prenup. Never mind that some things were a matter of simple decency, and didn’t need to be spelled out in so many words!

It was as if his gaze were a physical thing, traveling over her skin like a touch. Lingering on her bottom, her thighs, the hint of her breasts behind the concealing koala. Was he suspecting? Noting differences? Would he realize that the body he was seeing was not, in fact, that of an eighteen-year-old but was his own wife’s?

No … he was stroking himself. Staring down at her and running his curled hand up and down his cock. He had never masturbated in front of her before, and Joanna was appalled to find the experience disturbingly erotic even in her revolted outrage.

What more would he do? How far would he dare to go?

She shifted onto her back and let the koala fall off the bed. Heard his choked breath as her breasts came into view. Could he see that her nipples were hard? They were, to her shame. Worse, she was feeling quite warm and slippery between her legs. It seemed ghastly to be aroused by any of this. It was wrong. Dirty and wrong. Which was probably the reason for her arousal … and his.

“Oh, Dani,” he murmured, and his hand moved faster. He edged closer to the bed.

Excited prickles swarmed over Joanna. What was he going to do next? Would he risk touching her? Waking her? Or would he be content to just look at her as he jerked off, and then leave?

His fingertips grazed her hip. Pinched the hem of her nightie and raised it higher, past her navel, so that the wispy panties were unobstructed. She had caused even more of a sensation at “Hot Cuts” when she’d gotten trimmed and waxed down there, and tinted a honey-colored blonde. Dani had blushed crimson to confide such intimate details, but neither of them knew how much spying Rich had already done.

He was practically panting now. Was he going to come? Was he going to shoot it onto her? That would leave a mess that would be hard to explain away. Surely he couldn’t risk that.

“Dani!” he barked in a peremptory voice of command.

For a split second she thought of keeping up the ruse of sleep, but knew that there was no way the real Dani would have slept through that. She jumped as if startled awake. Her eyes flew open.

“What? Who … Rich?” She tried to sound fuddled, groggy. The kids had never called him Dad, or even Father. Always just ‘Rich,’ though they had been young when he’d become their stepfather. “What are you doing? Why are you in my room?”

It shocked her, how much shesounded like Dani as well. Shocked her that he had done that, woken her as he stood right there beside her bed with his naked cock in his hand. She sat up fast, as Dani would have done, and pressed herself against the wall, acting alarmed.

“You’re … you … get out of here!”

He slapped her face. A hard, stinging slap that rocked Joanna’s head to the side and brought tears to her eyes.

“Not a word out of you,” he said. His voice was a husky growl that she barely recognized. “No yelling, either.”

Joanna huddled against the wall. She had never really expected that Rich would outrightrape Dani. Oh, she was going to get him for this, she was going to make him pay …

He knelt on the bed, and before she knew what he was doing, his fist was knotted in her new short blonde hairdo and he slapped her again, this time with his cock. Its head, moist with eager fluid, left a dribble on her cheek.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” his husky growl continued. “You know it, too, don’t tell me otherwise.”

“Don’t …” she said. He pulled her hair and she hissed.

“I said to be quiet. Now, listen to me, Danielle. I always get what I want. What I want now is for you to open that mouth. Open it, and be a good girl, and nobody ever needs to know about this.”

Her lips locked tight together, Joanna shook her head.

His cock prodded. She had never had it in her mouth before. Oral sex was one of those things that neither she nor Rich ever expressed an interest in. Something better left to people who readCosmopolitan instead ofThe Wall Street Journal orForbes.

“You’re old enough now, and it’s not like I’m your real father,” he said, proving to Joanna that her reasoning had been right on the button. “I’ve helped raise you, feed you, clothe you, and pay for your college tuition. You owe me something for that, Dani.”

When she didn’t answer, and didn’t open her mouth, he pulled her hair again and then pinched shut her nostrils. He had her held against the wall now, his knees on either side of her legs.

“No struggling, no fighting,” he said. “Just your mouth. Nice and easy. It won’t do you any good to resist me, Dani. No one would believe you, even if you told them. Your mother would hate you if she found out. Is that what you want?”

The need for air was urgent, so she took a breath. The instant her lips parted, his cock was there, pushing its way in. She tasted him, salty and slick, and a muffled cry escaped her throat. Then he was in, as far as he could go, gagging her. Worst of all was the knowledge that this was making her hotter than ever. He thought, honestly believed, that he was forcing Dani to perform fellatio on him, and somehow that inflamed Joanna with heat.

“Oh, God, yes,” Rich said, arching his head back. “Suck it, Dani. Suck it. Use your tongue.”

She did, and he rocked back and forth, nearly choking her on the forward strokes. They had somehow slid and twisted down, around, so that Rich was kneeling above her and pumping his cock in and out of her mouth. Her hands were free, but when she brought them up to try and push him away, he caught her wrists in a viselike grip. The fine bones ground together as he forced her fingers around the base of his cock.

“You know I’ve been watching you,” he said hoarsely. “Showing off for me … you’ve been wanting this as much as I have.”

Joanna made a sound of negation that he ignored. In all the squirming, her nightie was bunched beneath her breasts and the narrow strip of cloth that formed the crotch of the tiny panties was wedged between her labia, so that every movement caused the most maddening friction.

“Couldn’t let you go away without this,” he said. “Had to … had to do it. Suck it, Dani, suck my cock, that’s a good girl, what a mouth you have, good God!”

It was the last coherent thing he said before giving way to a string of inarticulate cries and grunts. Joanna saw his expression contort and knew that he was about to come, he was going to come in her mouth and she’d have to swallow it down. The idea should have repelled her but she sucked harder, suddenly wanting to feel it, taste it.

He let go of her wrists but she kept her hands where they were, gripping the base of his cock with one and cupping his balls with the other, feeling them tighten as his body strained toward orgasm. He had hold of her breasts then, kneading them roughly through the thin fabric, rubbing his thumbs over her nipples.

His ejaculation was a series of violent, jetting spurts that defied her best efforts to keep up. Sticky fluid spilled from the corners of her mouth and ran down her neck, puddling in the hollows of her collarbones. Rich stifled a yell by flinging his forearm over his face and biting down on it, at the same time squeezing her breast so hard that she winced.

Rich fell away from her, shaking and sweating. His chest heaved. His breathing was so ragged and labored that he sounded on the verge of a heart attack. He slumped, head down, taking long inhalations and releasing gusty exhalations.

Joanna wiped her face and neck, and uttered a small sob. Her body was in turmoil and her mind was reeling from what had just happened. What he had done, what she had done. How much she’d liked it, in such a nasty, nasty way.

“No one can ever know about this, Dani,” he said, and swallowed thickly. “It’s our secret. You don’t tell, I don’t tell, and everyone stays happy. Understand?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak convincingly in Dani’s voice.

“Besides,” he said, “it’s not like I hurt you. It’s not like you didn’t enjoy it.”

The first, she was tempted to argue. That slap …

But she really couldn’t refute the second. Her body, anyway, was a whirlpool of conflicting sensation and emotion. When Rich’s hand fell on her thigh, she jumped. His palm was hot, feverish.

“Didn’t you?”

Now was the time, she thought. To jump up, snap on the lights. Fire her accusations at him like machine-gun bullets and leave him riddled with the truth. But she couldn’t muster the strength to do it. Not yet. Not with his hand sliding up her leg, his fingers curling to stroke the freshly shaved expanse of flesh around the trimmed strip of pubic hair.

“Dani,” he said, low. “You like that, Dani?”

He wormed a finger under the bunched-up strip of cloth, and she knew he was feeling how damp it was, the heat rising from that part of her. She held her thighs together but it did not stop him from managing to probe the pad of his fingertip deeper until it touched her clitoris. Joanna’s body surged and she bit back a strangled moan.

“I thought so,” he said, rubbing gently.

She felt as though her bones and muscles were dissolving. When he moved her knees apart, she let them go without resistance, and now he had his finger pushing up inside her, exploring her. She hadn’t felt anything so wonderful in years, not in years.

“That’s good,” Rich said. “Isn’t that good? Just hold still, Dani. Hold still. I won’t fuck you – that’s going too far and we both know it – but I’ll make you come.”

Joanna whimpered. He arranged his hand so that his first two fingers, both wet from her arousal, formed a vee on either side of her clitoris. The indirect pressure thus applied sent spiraling waves rushing through her. On each downstroke, his fingers just dipped inside her, and she was horrified all over again to realize how much shedid want him to fuck her after all.

But to say so, to invite that, would mean he’d have to stop what he was doing long enough to get his cock down there, and she never wanted him to stop what he was doing, not ever, not until …

Her orgasm was a slow-motion firework, bursting over her and making brilliant sunbursts explode in the darkness behind her eyes. Her loins clenched, trapping his hand, and she clawed the mattress as her upper body lifted, held poised for an endless moment, and finally fell back in an exhausted collapse. She was breathless, her head spinning.

She was barely conscious of Rich rising from the bed. He gathered his robe and put it on.

“Remember, Dani,” he said.

“I … I will,” she managed.

In the rosy glow of the little nightlight, she saw him smile. It was his smug, self-satisfied courtroom smile, the one he used when he knew he’d gotten away with something that would never be able to come back to haunt him.

The door closed behind him and she was alone, the aftershocks still rolling through her. As her senses gradually returned to normal, Joanna sat up. The room swayed. She steadied herself.

And that would have been Dani, she thought. That’s what he would have done to my daughter. He really does think he’s getting away with it.

With no warning, she was in tears. She fell face-down across the bed, which was sorely rumpled, and shoved her face in the pillow, and cried like she had never cried before. It was, in its way, a release almost as great as her climax had been.

He thought he had done all that to Dani. That he’d made Dani suck his cock, and made Dani surrender to his clever fingers. The arrogant prick! The unbelievable bastard!

She could never let him near her daughter again. This success would only make him confident. He’d think he could do it any time. That Joanna would never know.

Which, if thishad been Dani and not Dani’s mother taking her place, might have been the truth. She couldn’t imagine her reaction if she hadn’t figured out what was going on. If Dani had come to her with such a story after something like this had happened.

Joanna got a tissue and carefully wiped up the rest of his semen. She wadded this evidence into a ball and wrapped it in another tissue. Here was proof he’d have a damned hard time denying. She could march in there right now and …

No. Not now. Not tonight. Not with both of them still smoldering from the events of the past hour. She’d want her head to be clear, her thoughts and her words as sharp as knives.

She cleaned herself up, re-made the bed. The smell of sex hung heavy in the air despite the plug-in’s best efforts at masking it with perfume and sweetness. She opened the window an inch and listened to the secret hiss of the falling rain.