he loves me, too. Is that asking too much?''
'Oh, sure, I know your kind,' the redhead sneered, 'You'll probably tell him what we did to you last night and make it look as if we're a couple of sex fiends. He'll get all sympathetic and give us hell, and then you'll figure you're safe.'
'No-it-it won't be like that at all, I give you my word.'
Heather stared suspiciously at her stepmother. 'What's that supposed to mean?'
The tall brunette matron clenched her fists and drew another deep breath, her head high as she looked levelly back at her taunting young tormenters. 'I mean, I'm not going to tell him anything. I-I think I can understand why you both hate me, and I'm not quite so prudish as you both may think.'
'I'll say you're not, Rachel girl,' young Tim snickered. 'Boy, did you ever shake that gorgeous ass of yours when I started banging you!'
Heather was frowning now, glanced quickly at her brother and shook her head impatiently. 'Can it, Tim! Now let's get this straight, Rachel. You mean to tell me you'd dare to show your face in this house after the way we treated you last night, and still make a play for Dad?'
'I don't have to make a play for your father, Heather. I'm his wife. I married him for better or for worse, and I'm going to try to make it better for all of us-if you'll only give me a chance.'
'I don't get that at all,' Heather's frown deepened. 'Unless you're just a little kinky. Maybe that's it! Just maybe,' she moved mockingly forward, till she stood inches away from the blushing mature brunette, 'just maybe you got a real kick out of what we did to you, and maybe you'd like some more, him?'
Rachel faced the girl unflinchingly, though her fingernails dug into her palms as she steadied herself to confront the redhead. 'All I ask for is a chance to make this marriage last, Heather. Please. You see, whether you believe it or not, both you and Tim, I really am very much in love with your father. Just as maybe I think you are.'
'That's got all the earmarks of a dirty crack, bitch!' Heather hissed, her cat-green eyes narrowing. 'Are you suggesting that maybe I've got the hots for Dad?'
'I'm not saying anything, Heather. Except that it wouldn't be unusual for a fine loyal girl to admire her father so much that she would measure anyone who appeals to her sexually by his standards. That's happened for hundreds of years, in case you don't know it.'
'I don't need casebook psychology from you, Mummy,' Heather sneered. Now it was her turn to flush slightly and to lower her eyes. 'Anyhow, tell you what. Tim and I will give you just a month from today, savvy? And if by that time Daddy doesn't convince us that he's really in love with you and we can't see it for ourselves, we're going to rape you again and then kick your ass out of here. Just so long as you understand it, Rachel.'
'In other words, you want to make a bargain with me?'
'Yeah, I sure do, Mummy,' the redhead jeered. 'You know, Timmy said to me after he banged you that he thought it was a real nice piece of Rachel, and if you know German, that's the word for revenge. Well, that's not too bad for a kid, is it, Mummy? So just you remember you've got a mouth. Oh yes, there's one thing more.'
Rachel Woodling was nearly at the breaking point, and she felt her thighs trembling as she forced herself to stand calmly and confront her spiteful stepdaughter. 'Go ahead, Heather. I want to be as fair as I can, so you haven't any grounds to hate me as a person.
'I don't especially hate you or like you or anything else, Mummy. It's just that we've had Dad to ourselves all this time, and he really didn't have to go and get himself a permanent piece of tail. But since he's gone and done it, what's done is done. Only, we'll give you that month, see? But if Timmy or I happen to want a little fun with you, Mummy, you're going to give. Is that understood? And you're not going to tell Dad either. That's the bargain, take it or leave it.'
Rachel Woodling shuddered, her face was scarlet and she lowered her eyes for a moment. Then very bravely, she looked at Heather and nodded: 'I'll agree to that. But you won't have to take any more moving pictures, you know. First of all, if you're trying to blackmail me that way, I think your father has brains enough to see through something like that, and he wouldn't think very much of either of you for dreaming up such a stunt. As I told you, I'm not a prude. And maybe if I do let you have your revenge on me, even though it's very adolescent, maybe that will help convince you I really do want to stay and be a good wife to your father.'
Heather exchanged a mystified glance with her younger brother, then shrugged. 'All right, Mummy. We'll leave it at that. Just you remember today's date. You've got exactly one month. And if some night next week we come barging into your room, Timmy and I, that is if Daddy isn't keeping you busy that particular night, you'd better get ready to put out or else. Come on, little brother, let's give Mummy a chance to put on her glad rags and welcome Daddy back home.'
It had been a trying evening for Timothy Woodling's beautiful new wife. She herself had prepared a light supper, and served her gray-haired husband, as well as Tim Jr. and Heather while they ignored her during their conversation with their father to ask him about his New York trip, the sights, the fine restaurants and what was playing on Broadway. From time to time, he had sent her an apologetic look and she had smiled and nodded understandingly. Then finally they had been alone together in the living room, young Tim professing a date to listen to some new rock records with a boyfriend of his down the street, and Heather to give herself a shampoo and set.
'I missed you, Rachel,' he sat down beside her on the couch and put his arm around her waist, kissed her gently on the mouth. 'Did the kids give you a hard timer?'
'Not really, Tim darling. It's good to have you back home again. And your news is certainly wonderful. It's quite a feather in your cap to have got that account away from all those big New York agencies.'
'I know. And if I can handle it on a commuting basis to their satisfaction, it's just possible we might be able to open up a New York branch. It would mean a lot of money for everybody and we might even have an apartment on Riverside Drive some day. But that's for the future. Right now, what I'm concerned about is those kids of mine. I felt sort of uncomfortable at the table tonight when they were talking to me and not including you, Rachel.'
'It'll take time, darling. We both know that They're bound to feel hostile towards me. And it's only proof that they loved their mother very much and that they miss her. I couldn't expect to take her place, not ever. But if they'll look on me as a sort of older and wiser friend who can help them along and solve their problems, then that's something to work for.'
'You're a wonderful girl, Rachel, and that's why I did marry you. Let's just sit here like old married folks and watch the movie, and then we'll go to bed and it'll just be the two of us and we won't think about the kids.' He hugged and kissed her again, and Rachel quivered with anticipation. A strange sensual aura had pervaded her, remembering as she did the unholy bargain she had made with young Tim and Heather. Now that she could sit back and think about it, she had virtually offered to be their whore if they would give her a month's trial as their father's new wife. And there was always the terrible danger that somehow they might betray her and actually tell Tim how they had entrapped her and perhaps accomplish their original purpose of having her driven out of the house as an unfit wife and mother. No, she would just have to take that chance. She knew that she needed love and the security of being wanted by this gentle, intellectual man who shared so much in common with her. It was true that she had her own shop and could earn a good living, but the prospect of lonely years as a career girl-and at thirty-four she couldn't really call herself a girl any longer-frightened her. No, she had made a bargain, and she would keep it, cost what it may…
She had left him watching the ending of the late show to go to her room and to change into a seductive black nylon nightie and open-toe sandals, applying perfume to her armpits and the valley of her breasts as well as the insides of her thighs. Glancing down at herself, she could see a few faint bruises on her shoulders and the insides of her thighs where young Tim's sinewy fingers had gripped her last night. And a wave of lascivious awareness came over her as she hastily drew on the filmy sheath which outlined the magnificence of her breasts, the smoothness of her round belly, the litheness of her waist and the jouncy hillocks of her bottom. Then quickly she moved down the hall into her husband's room and, drawing back the covers, got quickly into bed and waited for him.
When the door opened about ten minutes later, she whispered huskily, 'Hurry, darling, I'm ready for you, I need you so.'
His eyes widened with surprise at the sight of the gauzy nightie, for it was one she hadn't worn fill now. 'It won't take me a minute, Rachel darling,' he said, his voice thickening with anticipation. In his mind there swirled the exotic night with Eleanor, the meaningful restoration of his virility. He went to his dresser and took out a pair of
