Ugly Duckling

*Fire inspires Brilliant and consumes the Wicked*

(Thanks once more to Frontma's patience and persistence)

(This is not a rape story – trust me)

My name is Waylon Fielding and I am married to a wonderful woman, my wife Celine Fielding. I would like to say that my life is perfect, or even good, but after two years of marriage I'm pretty freaking miserable and it's all Celine's fault. Actually, it really isn't her fault; it's her Mother's, the lovely Melissa Harmon.

Basically, Celine's family is the richest in our moderate sized Southern home city; she is the second of two children, both daughters. My wife and her sister have always competed for their mother's affections but it seems like recently things have all been going Celine's sister's way. Celine has always been the "smart one"; Kerry, her older sister, is the "social maven."

Kerry Tatum, my sister-in-law, is a selfish, condescending, snobby witch who couldn't hold an intellectual candle to Celine. She graduated from Vanderbilt (barely) and promptly married the 'proper' guy (Sonny Tatum, who has the fine upstanding job white collar job of a CPA). As far as I can tell, the only courageous thing Sonny ever did was climb into bed with his wife (and I believe he puts on artic wear and earmuffs when he does).

Mind you, I would hate my bitchy MIL if all she did was make my wife miserable, but Melissa has gone out of her way to pack on the pain. When Celine brought me home for the first time, Melissa snidely remarked that 'white trash' like me would soon be snooping around another 'filly' because I would never get a handout from her. The fact that I had no idea that Celine was even part of a rich family before that meeting mattered not one bit.

A week after I proposed marriage, Melissa offered me $50,000 to quietly go away because I wasn't right for the family. When I didn't take the deal, she told Celine that I had hit Melissa up for the money. After Celine and I cleared that hurdle, Celine begged her Mother to come to the wedding. Two weeks before the event Melissa finally agreed but...sadly...a pipe burst in the pool house the day before and she had to cancel on us. She even managed to call Celine two hours AFTER the ceremony to tell her.

I changed our honeymoon destination and dumped our cell phones so that the witch couldn't contact us and ruin even more of what was supposed to be the happiest time of my wife's life. After all that crap I wanted to move to Seattle because I knew I'd never talk Celine into Hawaii or Alaska. I knew that going to her hometown was a mistake but I was swayed by the depth of the pain in her eyes and the reality that Celine was a graduate from Columbia Law School while I learned IT, courtesy of the US Navy.

Co-sign a home loan? Yes to Kerry but no to Celine. Sonny needs some start-up capital for his accounting firm? Melissa tossed a gob of money his way. If the money ever was paid back I would be stunned. Melissa also managed to squash Celine's attempt to get a bank loan for the small, second-rate law firm which seemed to be the only one hiring when we first arrived.

Celine went to Melissa for the money. Celine begged and pleaded because it wasn't like there were a ton of options for law firms skating on the edge. Melissa finally relented and pledged the money...and then withdrew the offer at the last minute. Celine was crushed; she took a sleeping pill and went to bed early that night. I opened the gun safe and looked over my small collection of firearms once she was safely tucked in.

Things do change. Normally Celine would get into these low-mood funks for a few days after her mother put her through the ringer but for the past three months, she'd been constantly depressed. I hated to see her give up – that just wasn't her. In the midst of that, Melissa called me out of the blue and asked me to come to her house and help with her security system.

No, she had not suddenly become enamored with my technical prowess. It seemed that her security company's new system was so powerful squirrels were setting it off. She had already called her provider three times. She wouldn't have called me at all but the bloody thing kept going off at three in the morning and she was desperate for a good night's sleep.

It could have been severe fatigue, or maybe it was because Melissa treated me like one of the servant class (she had four; two maids, a cook and a groundskeeper) but Melissa started chatting on the phone while I was crouched down, working on her security panel. I was tuning her out. When the name 'Sonny' came up I wanted to tune it out double-quick and then she said, "Sonny, I want to feel you deep inside me."

I dared not make a sound.

"Get it over with," Melissa grumbled. "What does Kerry want now?" I couldn't hear what Sonny said but Melissa responded with, "Tell her you will have to be much more convincing this time;" then, "I'm going to have to do something about Celine. That thug who put a ring on her finger isn't taking care of her."

"Viagra?" Melissa questioned Sonny with an artic intonation. "I would think I was enough inspiration for you." Yes, my dumbass brother-in-law had made a Viagra joke to Melissa. "That Neanderthal might have found that funny but then he probably doesn't need Viagra either," Melissa sneered. "All of 'those' people are like that – breeding like rats; humping all night and all day."

By 'those people,' she meant all us lazy, slovenly, unmotivated idiots who failed to make over half million bucks a year...because being poor and middle class was all our God-damn faults and no one and nothing else's.

"The servants have Wednesday off so I expect you at 9:30 am," Melissa finished up the conversation. By the undercurrents of her mutterings, I didn't believe she was a happy camper.

I had to think about what I had heard. Kerry was using Sonny to get Melissa to do her favors and theoretically could be getting Melissa to spurn Celine. Oh, I never had a doubt Melissa hated me, but I could live with that; I hated her right back. What I had here was an opportunity...but for what I wasn't yet sure.

As I continued to work on the system, I mulled over in my mind what I could do about the relationship between my wife, mother-in-law, and myself. Celine would never let me expose her mother, sister, or brother-in-law to any public ridicule so blackmail was out of the question. If I couldn't use negative reinforcement, maybe I could use positive. I figured I could make my opening moves without getting the wife's consent but I was definitely going to get her blessing before following through.

"Melissa," I started off a few minutes later.

"You know I don't like you using my first name, Winston," Melissa shot back. I was sure she knew my real name because when she was pissed, she cursed at me with it.

"Whatever," I shrugged, which only made her angrier. Being treated as if she was irrelevant burned her up. "I can't finish your problem today."

"Of course not," Melissa rolled her eyes. "I started today knowing you were worthless and I am proven right."

"Actually your security company uses a cheap sensor so to deal with your problem, I need to order a better brand on-line," I blew off her criticism. "I need to use your computer."

Melissa looked at me, then to the laptop I was carrying.

"Why can't you use yours?" she smiled mockingly.

"Are you going to give me a credit card to use? Because I'll be damned if I'm paying for the parts," I explained. I wanted to get angry but that would be self-defeating at this point.

"That's right; you can't get a decent paying job and Celine chooses to work down on Cole Street...in that part of town," Melissa reinforced her snobbery.

"Meh..." I shrugged, and gave a contented smile, "all that urban warfare makes for some great after-dinner sex. Her coming at me two hours a night – every night – is a bit fatiguing but I always want another go with her in the morning."

"I do not need to be made aware of you rutting with my daughter," Melissa snapped bitterly. "The computer is in here." Melissa led me into the main entertainment room, sat down at her system, and typed in the password...how nice of her. As we switched places at the console, I could swear Melissa was scoping me out for the first time.

Once I started to work, Melissa got bored and left. Sure enough, I found a credit card number and used it to order the parts I needed. I had them sent to my place; it would ruin things if they showed up at her place and she had someone else install them – it would ruin my excuse for showing up on Wednesday. I took a further look around before deciding that I wanted to be a low-down snoop and started to look for some more dirt.

I gave myself privileges on her wireless network before going for my final phase of this part of the plan. First I pulled up a series of lingerie websites. I had to fill my search history after all.

"Melissa, could I have something to drink?" I called out.

"There are glasses on the shelf and water from the tap," she shouted back. No, she wouldn't get anything for me and all she was offering was water.

I got up, made a pit-stop in the bathroom to both piss and then stroke myself up to some real proportions. I went to the kitchen, made myself a tall glass of mildly cold water and returned to the computer where Melissa was at the console, her hands on the keyboard – scrolling over the screen.

"Work?" she regarded me over her shoulder.

"Role-playing stuff," I respond. "Naughty housewife, French Maid, Beautiful Angel...I read off some favorites. "Certainly a woman as sexy as you has done a little role-playing."

"Ladies don't do those kinds of things," Melissa shot back.

"Pity," I said softly.

"What was that?" Melissa snarled. I knew she'd heard me, as I intended, but she felt the need to force an explanation from me because I hadn't been too obvious.

"Nothing," I muttered.

"I knew you were full of shit," she snorted.

"Fine, I'll keep that in mind tonight when Celine's ankles have been on my shoulders for twenty minutes and she's begging me for two more minutes of hard fucking," I joked.

"Horse shit," she grunted.

"Would you rather hear that I was horny and I needed something to keep my mind on my wife?" I asked. That brought her up short.

"Is horniness a malfunction of your kind, along with gross exaggeration?" Melissa inquired.

"What am I exaggerating about?" I wondered. I also 'absent-mindedly' rubbed my left hand from the top of my jeans down to my crotch. I was nice enough not to call Melissa on looking my package over.

"Why do you have to distract your mind back to your wife? Are you cheating on her?" she got snappish, "If you were, I wouldn't be surprised."

"I was window shopping and daydreaming, Melissa, not doing anything wrong," I stated.

"Oh, so you haven't cheated yet," she chuckled dryly.

"Is it cheating if they remind you of your wife?" I requested.

"Yes," she mocked, but then said, "who is it?" The past ten minutes was the most in-depth conversation Melissa had had with me in all the years she'd known me.

"She's not beautiful in the same way as Celine but she's hot enough to be her sister," I related.

"You keep your hands off Kerry," Melissa ordered, but she could have been angrier when she said it.

"Oh, God, I agree to that," I held up my hands. "She's not the one I'm interested in." Melissa wasn't an idiot; she could do the math. There were three women in the family; since I was married to Celine and wasn't interested in Kerry, that left her.

"You had better not cheat on your wife," Melissa counseled. Thirty minutes ago she was thinking of ways to break us up.

"It is not that simple," I explained. "You wouldn't understand but poor people, not having much, hunger for the finer things in life."

"You don't deserve the finer thing things in life," she gloated as she stood up to confront me.

"That's why sometimes we have to reach out and take what we want from time to time," I leaned into her. Melissa didn't back down one bit.

"That's very low-brow of you," she sneered, but there was something else there. "You go where you are neither wanted or belong."

"It goes past the moment where we care what you want," I explain, "and is more about taking what we want – you don't matter."

"We fight back and we win because what you want doesn't matter," Melissa was now playing along.

"Fighting back makes it better, but we overpower you in the end. It is that raw, desperate hunger that drives us on," I taunt. "No amount of civility can counter that."

"So, have you done this before?" Melissa questions.

"No, but I am about to find out...real soon," I glared at her.

"Ha, you don't have what it takes," she huffed as she turned her back on me. The words still echoed about the room when I moved behind her and put a hand on each skirt covered ass cheek. Melissa jolted at the contact but didn't pull away.

"If you do anything, I'll scream," Melissa threatened in a quiet voice. "The servants will hear."

I shifted my hands around until they rested against the front of her hips, fingers splayed down toward her crotch. I pulled her tightly against my now agonizingly aroused cock. I'm endowed enough that I've had a girl deny me sex because she thought it was too big. That is a compliment, unless you are actually in the room and terribly horny – then it is hell.

"Stop it," Melissa challenged me. "Don't cheat on Celine." Was she saying that to me or herself?

"It is not really cheating if she reminds me of her," I whisper into Melissa's ear.

"I'm not her sister...I'm her Mother," Melissa told me, but that didn't stop her from pressing back lightly into me and rocking herself on her feet to get a better feel for my dimensions.

I squeezed her hips tighter, kneading the flesh through her clothing.

"You don't look like her mother to me; you are far too hot," I growled.

"What are you after?" Melissa grumbled. She wasn't willing to give in yet. I moved one hand down to her pubic mound and the other up to her right breast. Her tits were actually larger than her fashion sense would lead me to believe.

"I'm holding all I want right now," I purred, my voice hot on her neck. "I don't want your money, your businesses, your house, or your approval. I hate you and you hate me. I don't give a shit about that. What I want is to bend you over that French sofa and fuck you until you cry, and the more you try to fight me off, the more I know I'm going to love it."

"That's rape, you monster," she ground her teeth.

"I don't care; I want you so much I don't care about what comes after," I lie. I don't hate Melissa so much I would rape her, and I certainly wouldn't cause Celine the pain of raping her Mother, but Melissa thinks much less of me.

"Get your hands off me," Melissa groaned. She put one hand over each of mine but was pulling them away with the strength of a three-year old. "The servants will see."

"Grrr," I responded. "Celine is expecting me home in an hour but know I am going to be pounding her pussy tonight while I'm thinking of you."

Total lie; Celine may be the very best sex I've ever had. I wasn't kidding about the two-hour sessions, though they've been rare as of late. I backed off Melissa who spun around.

"You are a vile beast," she hissed. "You will never touch me again and you had better thank your Creator that I don't call Celine right now." There could only be one reason she wasn't going for the phone and it didn't involve Celine's happiness.

"If you want to stop me, Melissa, simply don't let me in the house again," I smirked.

"Wish granted," she shot back. "Get out right now."

"Sure thing, but I still need to replace those sensors," I reminded her.

"I will have someone else do it," Melissa stated. I packed up my stuff and headed for the door.

As I stood on the threshold, I looked at her.

"I'm coming back for you," I promised.

"I'll fight you," Melissa glowered.

"I was hoping you would say that," I winked before turning and heading for my car.

(After dinner)

I was sitting on the sofa, drinking iced tea after a light workout with my wife's calves resting on my thighs.

"Honey," I began tentatively.

"Yes," she replied. She is looking over some case files in her lap.

"I think I found a way to make your mother forgive you for marrying me," I said.

"Way (that's what she calls me – the last sailor to call me that had to explain to our CPO why he fell down two flights of stairs aboard our destroyer) Mom doesn't hate...okay, she hates you," she admits, "but do you think you have a way of making her understand you?"

"Yes, I do, but I think a little explanation is in order," I sighed. "Does your Mom date?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Celine shook her head. "She hasn't been with a man since Dad died eight years ago and even then-- well, he wasn't in good health for five years before that."

"Okay. Kerry is using Sonny to curry favor with your Mom, not only to help herself but to put roadblocks in our way...that last bit is conjecture," I told her.

Celine put her papers down and looked at me.

"How do you know this?" she asked fearfully. She had never doubted me since that fiasco with her mother saying I'd shaken her down for that $50,000.

"Like always; even in her house, she treats me like I don't exist, but this time she had a conversation with Sonny while I was only feet away," I related.

"Way, what are we going to do?" Celine sighed.

"I'm thinking of something," I moaned. "But I need to know you will back my play when the time comes. If not, what do you suggest we do?" That was a set-up question.

"We reconsider making a new start elsewhere," Celine lowered her head. "I don't want to leave, Way, but Kerry's gone too far and I don't know how to stop her."

"Are you sure that...Sonny is sleeping with Mom?" Celine seemed confused.

"Pretty sure," I offered.

"It is only that I was at the beach house when Sonny and Kerry started dating and...I've seen him in a swimsuit, plus my room was next to theirs," Celine was embarrassed to confess. "He's hardly physically impressive and that night was bang-bang-bang-pop! – gone in sixty seconds."

Oh, that's why Melissa had given me a tentative lap dance earlier. She had no sex for eleven years, and then expecting Sonny to fill that void for the last two must have been extremely disappointing. Perhaps it was disappointing enough for her to turn to her 'thug' son-in-law...I had to laugh, which only made Celine look at me funny.

(Wednesday)

Monday my Mother-in-law asked Celine out to lunch, for only the second time in the two years since she had returned to her hometown as my wife. Celine had been truly upbeat as she retold the day's events. Things had started out badly; Melissa had complained that I wasn't taking care of her. Half-way through her litany of my failings, Celine had interrupted and informed her mother that we were thinking about leaving town.

It was a major weather shift for Melissa; suddenly she was incredibly sympathetic to Celine's plight. It was too much to hope she would change her opinion of me but she was now willing to 'invest' in Celine's firm and take another look at our mortgage. Celine was bubbly and all I could think was that I had better perform or Melissa's good will would evaporate as quickly as it had manifested.

When I knocked on the door Wednesday I had a canvas bag with the sensors I had ordered and a goodie bag for fixing other problems. I had also given Sonny's BMW two slow-leak flat tires on the off chance he was supposed to be here anyway. The look she gave me and the view I was getting told me I was on the money.

"What are you doing here?" Melissa snapped. "I told you I didn't want to see you again." This was made all the more charming by the emerald green very short robe she was wearing. It was short enough to show where her black fishnet stockings ended and her garters began. The robe was also open to the point it revealed a black peekaboo bra.