Stanley Redman - Mark_s wandering wife vol. II

Well, that wasn't true either, he thought, again feeling like a Pharisee. He hadn't married her for love, had he… just gain. Besides, she really wasn't to blame for the hang-ups her missionary parents had steeped her in… twisted little quirks that could be overcome with patience and time… and a loving husband. She was nineteen, still a child… and she loved him. God, how he'd used her!

He couldn't study; his mind was confused. Dianne crept into his thoughts, but he forced her out quickly. Instead, he tried to concentrate on his own ambitions; they were the only solace he could ever seem to find… the only self-satisfying reasons behind the ruthless things he had done to further his own ends. God knows, they were all that had kept him going after Dianne…

It'd been shortly following his meeting Laurie that the student revolt and demonstrations had started at the University, and he'd thrown himself into it, feeling their causes and demands to be just, suddenly finding himself the unappointed leader. Laurie had been frightened because of her uncle, Judge Julian Reed, afraid that he would refuse to let her have anything to do with a radical, but as it turned out, his own bringing of all parties concerned to the table and settling the thing to the satisfaction of both students and authorities, had gained him considerable publicity, until the obese Judge and kingmaker began to look upon him as a possible political figure of the future.

He'd never considered the field of politics prior to that episode, but once the Judge had instilled the thought in his mind, the idea of killing two birds with one stone had quickly registered. He immediately saw himself on the same level with Dianne, and moving in the same circles socially. How better to get at her, to destroy her than from within the very world she lived, while at the same time, furthering his own career! And to secure it all… assure himself that the Judge could have no change of heart, he'd marry his precious niece, tie it all up in one little knot… and he had, even to accepting Uncle Julian's "string-pulling" in obtaining him a position in the District Attorney's office, and the down-payment on this thirty-thousand dollar home in exclusive Carlton-Dell.

Why not, he thought acrimoniously to himself. Why not take all he could get? Wasn't that the way it was done by the unscrupulous… the people who amounted to a damn in this world? Well… he wasn't sorry for a single thing he'd done, or intended to do, and whoever got hurt in the course of events had his sympathy… that was all, just his sympathy!

He picked up his glass and drank from it while sounds of Laurie moving about him came to his ears. Once again, he began to watch the enticing figure of Beth Tierney engage in some intriguing bends, wiggles and thrusts. Damn… she did have one tight looking ass all right… and he'd gamble that she knew how to use it. Jack Tierney was the type of fellow who'd demand that from a woman… big, muscular, athletic Jack… a pretty fair architect too.

Phillip tilted the glass to his lips while he contemplated some of Beth's more recent actions that had caused the sudden stimulation to his libido, after knowing her all these months. Like last night when they were all assembled in his living room and he'd just come in from a political confab with the Judge. He'd been damn near exhausted with school five nights a week, after working all day, and politics on top of that, not excited a bit at seeing them there, but after a few drinks he'd picked up, even to the point of taking part in the dancing. It'd been one of those slow, romantic numbers and Jack, Beth's husband, had chosen Laurie for a partner, so he'd done the gentlemanly thing and extended a hand to Beth… Damnit, the more thought he gave to it, there was no question but what she had really ground her cunt right into him… and all of the time whispering little goodies like: "Gosh, it's too damned bad you're not around more, Phillip Gates…" and, "I'll wager we'd have some dandy times… just you and I, Doll… given half an opportunity…"

Where the hell had he been, anyway? Allowing such obvious "come ons" to soar right over the top of his skull. Hell, this sexy piece of pulchritude was trying to make him! Maybe he didn't want any, but was that any excuse for being so stupid as to not be aware when the dessert was being offered?

He shook his head, finished his drink and smiled to himself at his own asininity. No wonder he had gone after Laurie like a rutting bull moose last night!

Laurie moved about their bedroom trying desperately not to break into outright tears. His words had slashed deeply into her. God, he could be cruel… and she'd tried so hard to understand, knowing the strain he was under with the workload he was trying to shoulder. If there was only some way she could help; she felt utterly useless to him, even in… no, especially in, bed. Oh, God, she didn't want to think anymore about that.

She stared at the two valises she had started packing yesterday morning and left open to add odds and ends as she thought of them. She had so wanted to make these three-days they would have together their most rnemorable ones to date… at least, sexually memorable. Dear God, she loved him so much… and it was as if she had actually watched him change from the sweet, attentive boy-man she'd fallen in love with, to an almost ruthlessly ambitious, and feelingless robot.

Sometimes, she felt as if she were but a prop in the whole scene… a tool meant to be used by both her Uncle and her husband. Perhaps it wasn't fair to think such a thing, but she did, nevertheless. She couldn't help it.

Since that tragic day when word had come from the Nigerian government explaining that her missionary parents had lost their lives, and she had come to live with her Uncle Julian where she could finish her education at the University of Rio Lado, she had been plagued with a feeling of uselessness… of being an unwanted burden to her retired and widowed, mother's brother. She had never before seen the man, having been born and raised in the East, then traveling from one country to another with her parents, wherever their calling would take them. And now, as she recalled that first meeting with the powerful Judge, she remembered how shocked she'd been at the initial sight of him.

His obesity had startled her speechless, and the fact that he was forced to employ a wheelchair for mobility even though he was not at all impaired of limb, seemed almost unfeasible to her. She remembered that he had grinned at her with a little, baby-like mouth in the center of his massively bloated face. Near nausea had gripped at her stomach, but somehow she'd fought it and managed to smile back at him, while he stared at her through tiny, wet, and unquestionable lecherous blue-eyes set deep in the puffs of fat on either side of a button-nose, gaping and raking her supple young body lasciviously, his small pointed tongue popping out to lick at red, wormish lips. From that day forward to the last day she had lived under his roof, he had continuously tried to put his hands on her, but always in the guise of parent-like affection, fondling when he could, or brushing his hands unconsciously against her breasts or buttocks, until she learned to carefully stay beyond his reach. Yet, she had never hated him… just grown to pity him, and when he'd finally agreed to let her marry Phillip… gave them an expensive church ceremony and the down-payment on this house as a wedding present, she had even come to love him a little.

He had been good to them, letting her leave school to become Phillip's wife, getting her new husband a place in the D.A.'s office, plus all the other little things she didn't think of right at that moment, but she couldn't help believe he had ulterior motives of his own. Maybe, once more, she was being unfair, but she'd come to know Julian Reed both as a guardian and as the powerful kingmaker… and she couldn't imagine him doing anything that wouldn't evolve into some personal gain for himself. Lately, she was convinced she'd discovered the answer to that in Phillip's political future… Uncle Julian intended to one day manipulate him into the Capital, and own his soul in the bargain.