The Marigold Mark

Author's note: This is a non-consent story. If you don't like non-consent stories, don't read it. (Story tags provide some spoilers so toggle to see them at your own peril.)

Part I

Chapter 1

Mary O'Connor was a good mother and a dedicated wife. Her husband worked hard to support their family of five, and she filled every day with kids' activities and volunteer work.

Despite all the time she spent volunteering at the school, she had failed to make any solid friendships with the other mothers. They were pleasant and cordial, but superficial and petty under their pleasant façades.

Jack Pierson was a breath of fresh air infusing levity to their parental meetings and extending friendship to all the women, including Mary.

Jack's son, Ollie, was in the same class as Mary's fraternal twins, Jenny and Kara. Jenny took after Mary in looks and personality, while Kara and their son, Sam, took after Mary's husband Sean.

When Jenny came home in tears, Kara explained that the boy she liked had picked on her and stolen her new hat. Kara informed Mary that Jenny had a crush on the new boy Ollie.

After the next parent volunteer meeting, Mary approached Jack.

"I know they're eight and very much so still figuring out life, but my Jenny is very sensitive and very attached to her new hat. I don't want to tell you how to parent your own kid, but if Ollie could return her hat, I'd be grateful."

Jack handed her the hat from his coat pocket. "This the one?"

Mary's face lit up. "Yes! Thank you!"

Jack said, "Ollie wouldn't tell me where he got it, but I knew it wasn't his. We had a good long chat about right and wrong last night. Hey, you think you'll chaperone for the field trip at the beginning of next month?" He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "It would be nice to be around another parent who doesn't expect the world to revolve around them."

Mary put her hand on Jack's arm significantly more flirtingly than she planned. "I already planned to," she said with a husky voice that surprised her. Jack was attractive and affable, but certainly not worth ruining her marriage over.

Jack thankfully seemed unphased as she withdrew her hand from his arm in a rush of embarrassment. "Thank goodness. Maybe we can get the kids together for a playdate before then, it'll help me figure out why Ollie started acting like a degenerate teenager long before he should."

They exchanged numbers and addresses and compared calendars to set a tentative date a week away.

Jack came over with Ollie and the kids all played in the yard, while Sam had his own friend over. It was a warm fall day, the air had turned chilly the week before but a tantalizing few days of summer graced the week. Mary offered Jack a drink and he sipped at his wine while they observed the kids from the patio.

Mary learned that Jack moved here after his divorce was finalized. Ollie's mother had died seven years ago in a car accident and Jack had jumped into marriage with the closest support person he could find. She also happened to be a gold-digging menace. Mary tempered the tale of her vileness with a dose of realism knowing she was hearing only one side of the story.

Mary shared her history, high school sweethearts with her husband, community college before they both transferred to a nearby four-year college and graduated. They married at twenty-three, had Sam two years later, and the twins at twenty-eight.

Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pointed discreetly at the kids.

Whispering into her ear he said, "I see the problem. Ollie and your Jenny are experiencing their first crush." His breath tickled her ear, sending moisture straight to her crotch. "Watch them closely."

Perhaps it was the wine, perhaps it was how good he smelled or how nice it was to finally have a friend at thirty-six who wasn't her husband, but she snuggled into Jack's arm and watched the kids.

She turned to tell Jack she saw what he was talking about, but when she faced him, his eyes were already on her, studying her face. No, he was studying her lips.

His free hand came up to brush her chin and she could feel herself melting, tipping her chin up to greet his lips.

A well-timed, blood-curdling scream pierced the moment and Mary pulled away to see what had happened. Both hers and Jack's parental instincts kicked in and they were on their feet running towards their kids when they saw the swarming wasps.

Tended stings and an investigation later, they determined that wasps had been building a nest under the pachysandra and had inadvertently been disturbed by an errant soccer ball.

"Thanks for the wine, Mary; let's do this again soon. Maybe at my house next time while you clear the wasps." He bent down for a hug, and she kept him at arms' length. He still whispered into her ear. "We can do a little experiment and see where this goes."

Mary pushed away aghast at his audacity. "I'm a happily married woman," she hissed.

Jack smirked. "I know you're married. I was talking about the kids." He discreetly pointed at Jenny and Ollie.

Mary's face flushed at her presumption. She hadn't imagined the almost-kiss, though, had she?

The garage door machine sounded, and Sean emerged as Jack left out the front door, steering wide of the wasps' nest. Jack looked back over his shoulder in time to see Sean plant his obligatory peck on Mary's cheek. Before Mary could make a show of it, Sean was headed to the bedroom loosening his tie.

"How was your day, honey?" she asked, following him to their bedroom.

"I made a big sale today. Looks like we'll be able to get that present for the kids after all this Christmas." There were always prying ears. Despite being vague, Sean mouthed the bit about the present. They were finally going to be able to take the kids to Disney.

"That's wonderful, honey. We also have a wasp nest in the yard we need to deal with. The twin's new friend, Ollie, Kara and Sam all got stung earlier."

"Everyone okay now?" Sean was down to his boxers and socks. He was still lean with the boyish musculature, or lack thereof, he'd had since they were teens. "Earth to Mary," he prompted as she watched him nearly naked thinking that jumping his bones while Sam's friend was still over would be a poor parenting moment.

"Oh, yes, kids are fine. I didn't get dinner started yet in all the hubbub, you okay with pizza take-out?"

He stepped into his ratty high school sweats. They were threadbare, but every time she tried to get rid of them, he fished them out of the trash.

"I'm going to run on the treadmill, yell for me when dinner's ready?"

Mary dropped off Sam's friend on the way to pick up the pizza, her daughters bickering in the back of the car the whole way.

They ate as a family and the kids retired to their rooms to spend more time on electronics than Mary had planned. She'd dreamed of being the type of mother whose kids only watched TV or played on the internet on special occasions, but the ease of being able to multitask won out.

After lights out, Sean climbed on top of Mary and humped her until he came. She crept to the bathroom and finished herself with her vibrator. Sean had a vasectomy after the twins, so he assumed she was just being fastidious, and she always returned to him asleep in the bed. On cold nights, she snuggled into him and he wrapped an arm around her, but on warm nights, she kept to her side. Tonight, she lay on the bed staring at the ceiling imaging what sex with Jack would be like. She convinced herself that fantasy was not the same as adultery.

It was Thursday before Jack texted asking if Mary and her kids were free Friday night for a playdate at his house. They were, and they arrived at the large house at three-thirty.

"What do you do for work?" Mary asked in awe at the accommodations. The foyer was larger than her kitchen, the sitting parlor off to the side bigger than her family room. Jack had Ollie show the kids to the game room, a room designed for active kids, moody teenagers, and drunk adults. There was a climbing wall with mats and hoops, a movie theater section, and a pool table next to a wet bar. The cabinets of the bar were all padlocked shut, Mary saw, thankful that the kids couldn't inadvertently get into any alcohol.

Jack pointed to the camera in the corner.

"C'mon, I'll give you the grand tour. I can pull up the feed on my phone, so if there's screaming, we can intervene.

"I'm a consultant of sorts," Jack finally answered when they weren't addressing the din of the kids. There were more bathrooms than bedrooms, and Mary wondered why Jack needed such a big house for two people.

"How does a consultant have time to volunteer, make playdates, pay alimony and still pay the mortgage?" Mary asked as he handed her a glass of scotch. Jack hadn't explicitly told her anything about his financial situation, but she was smart enough to make reasonable assumptions.

They clinked glasses and sipped the smooth liquid. "I happen to be an expert in a rare but lucrative business. I negotiated to only get called in a few times a year. Unfortunately, when I do, it's usually overseas and lasts for several weeks. My business partner is trying to bring some work closer to home, but that's still a work in progress. By now, Ollie's used to staying with his grandparents, my in-laws, when I travel, but with them halfway across the country, it will require a bit more advance planning."

"I can talk to Sean and see if he could stay with us," she blurted.

"I appreciate the offer, but he's accustomed to having his own bedroom. Perhaps, if you all stayed here... There are more than enough rooms. I'm getting ahead of myself. Talk to your husband."

"What's this room?" Mary pointed to the door locked from the outside next to the stairs.

Jack smiled dangerously for his innocuous words. "A work in progress. It's not ready for you to see it yet. I wouldn't want kids getting hurt in there, so I keep it locked."

Mary remembered their own construction nightmare when she had Sean had decided to renovate the bathroom. Trying to keep the kids out was nigh on impossible despite shattered ceramic, open walls with exposed electrical and other hazards. She told him as much, and he moved on around the bend of the hall to a wing where Ollie's room and several other guest bedrooms were situated. Leading back past the staircase, he pointed out his room at the other end of the hall, but didn't give her a tour.

When he showed Mary the hot tub in the conservatory, she was standing one minute and the next she was face down in the water. She didn't even see what she'd tripped over. Strong hands grabbed her waist and plucked her out of the water.

Before she could stop him, Jack was peeling off Mary's saturated top. "Can this go in the dryer?" he asked, reaching for a towel. He tossed it to her as she confirmed the shirt could.

She wrapped it around her, and he suggested she avoid moving her feet lest she drown herself in his absence. His tone was lighthearted, and Mary found herself a seat on the padded wicker chair, trying not to be embarrassed that Jack had seen her in her bra. She didn't have the same toned body as before she'd had kids, not that she was fat, but she just didn't have time to maintain a steady exercise regimen. Jack had barely even glanced at her decade-old bra which was in dire need of replacement as her boobs had begun to overflow the cups several years ago. My drink!, Mary remembered as she sat. She had upended it and the glass had fallen in with her. She dropped the towel on the chair and bent over the edge of the hot tub, pinching her nose, to fish the glass out of the bottom of the tub. Her head was submerged, so she didn't hear Jack walk back into the room, instead jumping and dropping the glass back to the bottom as his hand wrapped around her hips and pulled her back out.

"When I told you not to move, I didn't really mean it. Perhaps I should have tied you to the chair so you wouldn't fall in again."

Mary tried to turn to explain, but his hands held her firmly against him. As she spoke, one hand left her hip and splayed itself along her stomach coming to the base of her bra. "I was just trying to fetch my glass," she said breathily.

His hand cupped her breast. "There are better ways to offer yourself to me," he breathed into her ear. A shudder made its way down her spine. Her head was thrown back against his pec and it took every ounce of self will to push his hands off her body and escape his clutches.

"I'm sorry, Jack, I... This is wildly inappropriate. I think we should keep a professional distance." She wrapped the towel around her, shielding her generous bosom from his gaze.

He gave her a half smile. "Whatever you say." He gestured to the seats.

"I mean it, Jack," she warned as he sat in the chair perpendicular to hers spreading his legs and brushing his knee against hers. Mary yanked her leg back as if his knee was on fire. It might as well have been for the heat that radiated from the touch.

Jack set his phone down on the table at their knees and turned on the video feed of the kids. "Looks like they're all playing well together," Jack said calmly, turning off the sultry voice and demeanor instantaneously. Somehow the switch-flipping made her uneasy. "Kara seems to be quite the climber."

Mary leaned forward to make her daughter out on the screen most of the way to the high ceiling. The other kids were clearly cheering her on. A climbing gym membership would make a nice present if they could budget for it appropriately.

Jack's hand gripped the back of her neck, caressing it.

Mary stood abruptly. "I'm sorry, Jack, this isn't going to work for our children if you can't keep your hands to yourself. Please show me where the dryer is. We're leaving."

Jack respectfully took her to the laundry room, cold once again. Her shirt was almost dry, and he gave Mary a smoldering look as she shed the towel and pulled the tee over her head. Back to hot.

She gathered the kids, and they moaned about how little time they'd spent. Mary told them she had forgotten about plans to meet their father at work for dinner out. They grumbled while she loaded them into the car, but immediately began talking about the fun they'd had before their afternoon was ruined.

Mary walked to her driver's door, which Jack held open for her. "See you at the field trip," Jack reminded her. As he closed the door, he winked at her through the glass. She was sure he wouldn't try anything with the kids around, so she vowed to maintain her commitment to the school.

They pulled into the dealership lot, and the kids ran amok through the lot while Mary yelled about being careful of moving cars. They made it to the office in one piece, all except her frazzled nerves.

"Hello, Mrs. O'Connor," a pimply-faced kid greeted her at the door. "Mr. O'Connor said he'd be in the back doing paperwork."

"Thanks, Pete," she said. Her husband had told her they'd hired a teen to help wash the cars before they left the lot: Pete was apparently the most reliable. One of Sean's colleagues was showing off the showroom model to her kids and she ducked into the back to line up her story with Sean, so the kids didn't feel gipped at their abbreviated visit with Ollie.

She should have knocked, she always knocked. Instead, she opened the door to see her husband's bare ass with his pants around his ankles thrusting into a women bent over his desk.

"Oh hey, Mary," the curly-haired brunette, Gabriella, said as they both turned to see who had barged in on them. Gabriella, the woman who always twirled her hair and smacked her gum looking for all the world like a trashy hussy, was exactly the trollop Mary'd always thought she was.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck," Sean said tripping over his pants trying to extricate himself from Gabriella's pussy. "Mary, wait! I can explain."

Chapter 2

Mary closed the door in his face, sliding down the hallway wall. Through the door she heard Gabriella say, "The cat's finally out of the bag, baby. Now you just have to end things for good like we talked about." Mary didn't wait to hear Sean's response.

In a daze, she said to the kids, "I got the dates mixed up and we're going back to Ollie's." They jumped for joy and ran to the car.

Mary didn't remember navigating back to Jack's house, but when she rang the doorbell, his ecstatic grin faded quickly when he took in the pallor of her face.

"Ollie, your friends are back," Jack shouted over his shoulder holding the door open. "Go on downstairs. Ollie will be down in a moment," he said to the kids who were running headlong for the basement door. Only Jenny paused at the door, intuiting that things weren't quite right. Mary nodded her ahead, and Ollie followed two steps behind Jenny, tugging her hair as she started down the stairs.

"Come, tell me what happened," Jack said wrapping his arm around her shoulder guiding her into the house. She sat at the kitchen island while he poured her two fingers of scotch. She slammed it back and he refilled her glass.

He tried again. "Why did you come here?"

"Because Sean was my only friend. I didn't have anywhere else, and I can't go back to that house."

"Ah," Jack said standing across the island from Mary. "Sean fucked up somehow, didn't he? You and your kids are welcome here as long as you like."

She thanked him gruffly, still in a state of shock. "I walked in on him fucking his co-worker."

Jack swirled his glass restlessly. "Mary, I feel like an idiot. I only intended to flirt with you, a little physical flirting, but no crossed lines. If I'd known Sean was doing this to you, I wouldn't have even done that."

"Thanks, Jack. I really need a friend right now."

He reached across the table and grasped her hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. "You've got one."

He released her hand, and they finished their drinks in companionable silence.

She laughed loudly, breaking the silence. "My fucking bra is still wet."

"Mommy, you said a bad word." Mary jumped as Kara spoke from the kitchen entryway.

"You're right, darling. I'll put a dollar in the swear jar when we go home. Hey, how would you like to have a sleepover tonight?"

Kara shrugged. "I'm hungry. And I don't have Snuggly Bunny."

Mary looked beseechingly at Jack. "Food is almost ready. I hope you like mac and cheese," he said wiggling his eyebrows at Kara.

Kara's face lit up: Sean's eyes. "I love mac and cheese!" She ran back to the basement door and announced the dinner selection to the others.

"Write me a list of all the things you need for tonight and where they are, and I'll send my guy to pick them up. Uhh, you should probably let Sean know a large man that goes by Sarge will be stopping by. Or you can give me your phone and I will." Jack spoke quickly as three sets of footsteps clomped up the stairs. The oven timer beeped, and Jack pulled out a casserole-sized dish of homemade mac and cheese.

"Ollie, will you please show our guests how to set the table while dinner cools off?" Jack asked and they all sauntered off to the dining room.

When they disappeared, Jack brought Mary a pen and paper for her instructions.

"Got an atypical request for you," Jack said into his phone walking into another room and closing the door.

She made up the list of jammies, change of clothes for the morning, Kara's Snuggly Bunny and Jenny's Dear Deer. She pulled out her phone and realized why it had been buzzing in her jacket pocket for what seemed like hours, even though no more than eighty minutes passed since she walked in on her husband fucking his coworker for what was clearly not the first time. Fifty-six missed calls. Make that fifty-seven as she sent the incoming call to voicemail.

She inhaled deeply. She didn't bother reading any of the hundred or so text messages. "Guy named Sarge will be by to pick up some things for the kids for the night. They're happy and know nothing. You and I will talk tomorrow."