Chapter 6 - What Walden Wants

JOE BARLOW

Monday a little after 6 pm I drive around the small parking lot for a third time.

“I think we’ll have to try and find somewhere else,” I say to Rachel alongside me. Walden didn’t suggest any alternatives to parking here when he gave us details of where to meet him. I don’t know this part of town.

“It must be the customers at the gym,” Rachel points a finger and lacquered nail at the high, illuminated windows of one of the buildings alongside the lot as we pass by them again. Inside are rows of treadmills and exercise bikes with indoor runners and cyclists pounding them. We’re going to be late. Not a great look when we’re hoping to get Rachel’s job at Traders back.

Or at least, I’m hoping that’s what Walden Barrett wants. And ideally, with no ‘Sophie strings’ attached. The more I’ve thought about Rachel back there since his message, the more I want it.

But Rachel seems unconvinced.

“Joe, look,” Rachel points again and up ahead a couple is getting into a white Chrysler.

At last. I slow up and lower the window. “You guys leaving?”

The man gives me a thumbs-up.

I exhale a deep sigh. The thought of this evening was the only thing that kept me going today through another shit one at work. I was office-bound all day. My stomach knots at the memory. Back to back meetings this afternoon trying to defend the lack of results from my sales team.

I squeeze the car into the space and switch off the engine. Alongside me, Rachel checks her golden-brown hair on the screen of her phone and then examines her makeup. “Do I look OK?” she asks.

“You always look a whole lot better than just OK,” I say and lean across to her. I kiss the side of her face. She smells good.

She’s in a patterned sky-blue dress that sets her pretty gray-blue eyes off. I’d never say anything to her of course, but if I’m honest, the dress has gotten a little more fitted on her now that she’s put a few pounds back on again since she stopped working. Rachel can lose weight as fast as she gains it though. And my wife could never look anything other than ‘hot’ no matter what she weighs. Or what she wears.

“You wouldn’t tell me even if you thought I looked awful Joe Barlow,” Rachel undoes her seatbelt and tosses her hair around her shoulders.

She and I have spoken several times about the possibility of her going back to Traders. Since Walden first left a brief message on her phone about a ‘job’. He wouldn’t go into specific details with me on the phone when I called him back to arrange this meeting though. I expected him to mention the proposition Phil put to me a few weeks back too. The one that involved the ‘double act’ with Sophie. But he didn’t do that either. I’m guessing that could be brought up tonight. It’ll be better coming from Walden than me. I’ve still said nothing to Rachel about it. Her sex drive has been so much higher over the last couple of weeks. Ever since she met with Evie for lunch. I haven’t wanted to do anything to jeopardize that. Plus, Phil told me he’d speak to her too about going back to Traders. But according to her, she’s still had no contact with him since he sacked her. I guess he’s been too busy with the three new clubs.

Maybe they need her so much now that they won’t attach any conditions to her return?

Rachel gets out of the car before me. She crosses to the nearby sidewalk on the street and as she straightens her dress a passing car toots its horn.

“Who was that?” she peers after the red Ford.

“I think it was the equivalent of a wolf whistle,” I grin as I reach her and she takes my hand.

I’ve worked out what I’ll say to her later if Walden does mention the fact that Phil previously made the Sophie suggestion to me. I’ll say I’ve been too shocked to even know how to tell her. She’d go fucking mental if she knew I’d jacked off about it.

And more than once.

I check the GPS on my phone and then we make our way left, along a line of seven or eight storefronts until finally, twelve minutes late, we arrive outside ‘The Vintage Emporium’. A shop owned by Barrett’s wife, Lucretia.

It’s a white-walled building with the name high up in red letters and arranged around a giant ‘VE’ logo in black. In front of us is one of three large windows and it has a poster on the inside that proclaims ‘More Valuable than New’. Beyond that, even though it’s fairly dark inside, there are mannequins and rail after rail of clothes. There’s a ‘closed’ sign on the entrance like Barrett said there would be. I move toward it and look for a bell.

“Wait,” Rachel pulls at my hand and when I stop, she looks right at me and whispers, “Joe, we didn’t talk about…, what happens if Walden expects me to…you know?”

“If he wants sex tonight?” my heart accelerates and hammers at my ribs. “Well, you’re not even working for him and Richmond again yet,” I say to offer her an excuse if she wants it. But I suspect we both know what we want.

“I know but, he can be pushy, can’t he?” her throat flushes. “I’d still say no to him though,” she shakes her head, “If you told me not to do anything.”

Barrett is one of my least favorite men who’s screwed my wife. He can get rough, sometimes verging on abusive - but it’s been so long since I saw Rachel with anyone. With anything, other than the dildo at home. “We could just play it by ear,” I look into her eyes, “See how we feel if he asks?”

Rachel nods her head and then she reaches beyond me and presses a fingertip to the doorbell.

“Oh,” I say to the man with a dark bib apron on who opens the door. He’s a few inches taller than me but a lot of years older. And by the look of him, at least a few years older than Walden as well. “We’re looking for Walden,” I say with Rachel at my back.

“Is it Joe and Rachel?” he asks and a glossy, ‘VE’ logo metal metal badge on the breast of his apron states ‘Cleaner’.

“It is, yeah,” I say and then look away and glance in either direction down the street.

“Mr. Barrett said to come right in,” he opens the door wider for us. He’s got a yellow duster or cloth of some sort sticking out of a pocket of his apron and a bottle of cleaning fluid in one hand.

If he knows why we’re meeting his boss then he doesn’t let on. He doesn’t smirk at me when I pass him, nor does he leer at Rachel when she follows me in.

He closes the door behind me and slips the bolt on too, but not before I start to process the noise. Barely muted female whines and cries coming from what sounds like the far end of the store. Beyond rack after rack of clothes and shelves of bric-a-brac.

Rachel glances at me.

Sex. And it’s frantic.

“Look, we could come back another time,” I say to the cleaner and can’t help wondering whether he has to put up with Barrett’s antics every time he comes to clean the store.

“No,” he shakes his head and rubs his palms twice down each side of his apron, “Mr. Barrett told me to take you to his office right away,” his cheeks flush and he lowers his eyes.

“But he’s…,” I frown at the guy then stare again down the length of the store toward the source of the brutal noise.

Fucking and slapping?

“Mr. Barrett wants you to see my wife with him,” he clears his throat and looks down at his shoes.

His wife? The cleaner’s wife is letting Walden fuck her while the husband tidies the store?

Rachel and I exchange another glance. Her throat is as pink as the cleaner’s cheeks now. I raise my eyebrows to try and indicate that I want her opinion on what we should do.

She kind of grimaces but then shrugs her shoulders.

This is fucking awkward. But probably typical Barrett.

And I’d be lying if I didn’t say some sick part of me wants my wife exposed to whatever is happening back there.

Plus I want to see it too.

“If you’re certain he’ll want us there right now,” I ask the guy.

“He said I had to take you to him,” the cleaner mumbles and then gestures down the store, “If you would. Please.”

There’s not enough space between all the clothes to easily walk side by side so I ask him to lead the way. Then I follow with Rachel at the rear.

And as we get deeper into the store and the sounds of sex ever louder and more guttural, Rachel pinches my butt.

Beyond a soft burgundy velvet curtain that’s pulled half across a doorway, the cleaner pauses at a white wood door marked ‘Manager’. The door is open several inches and I can barely hear the cleaner knock on it above the sounds from inside. She’s climaxing.

“Come,” Walden Barrett bellows.

The cleaner gestures us ahead into a cramped little office where shelves all around us are crammed with chaotic rows of lever arch files and manuals or books.

But right in front of us on the edge of a desk, the back and mostly pale bare ass of a large woman who straddles the sitting Walden Barrett. Her spread calf muscles are taut and his trousers are down around his ankles. She clings to him. She whimpers into his chest. Her shoulders are bare too and her maroon dress is bunched around her curvy waist.

I can’t stop staring. She’s got pink blotches on her ass cheeks where I’m guessing she’s been slapped, and her long, fairish hair is matted from their sex and tinted with hints of red.

“Excuse me, Mr. Barrett,” the cleaner mumbles, “Joe and Rachel for you.”

“I can see that,” Barrett peers at us around the woman’s shoulders, “Give me a minute guys, so I can finish too.” His thick fingers grip the woman’s wide hips and he slaps up into her fast from the desk.

I can’t stop my balls bristling at the cleaner’s situation.

“Uhh, uhh, uhh,” his wife grunts as she bounces on Barrett and her tits are fucking huge. I glance to my right at Rachel and she’s gaping at the scene.

Barrett’s left hand leaves the woman’s right hip and he grips her throat.

Fuck.

“Urghh,” she groans but keeps riding, tits smacking off each other.

Barrett accelerates his vicious upward stabs.

She’s attractive, but she’s the oldest woman I ever saw him with.

“Uhh-ahh, Pantyboy, where are your manners?” Barrett leans back, one arm extended and still gripping her throat, his other hand slaps at her tits. A forehand strike then backhand, “Get the chairs out for my guests, oooh-yeah, offer them a drink.”

“Oh yes, of course. Sorry, Mr. Barrett,” the cleaner’s voice is a higher pitch than before as he drags a chair out from each side of the room.

“Urghh, urghh,” his choked wife ignores all of us except Barrett.

“Rachel, Joe, what will you have?” the cleaner asks.

“Coffee,” Rachel says but her eyes remain on the fucking, “Black. No sugar please.”

“Same but white,” I say then return my eyes to Walden and the woman.

“She loves these big double D titties punished, don’t you Carol?” Walden pinches one of her long nipples and when she cries out he cracks a heavy palm across the tit again.

She whines but tries to kiss him.

He holds her firm and at a distance.

Does she even know we’re here?

The cleaner disappears with our drinks order but Rachel and I don’t sit.

Walden backhands both of the woman’s - ‘Carol’s’ - huge tits again. Then he does the same to her left hip and she cries out, she pushes her throat into his gripping hand and tries in vain a second time to kiss him.

“Where shall I put your drinks?” the mumbling voice behind me startles me.

I take a blue and white striped mug from one of his hands and check the color of the liquid. No milk. I pass it to Rachel then take the other cup from the cleaner.

“Will that be all Mr. Barrett?” the cleaner asks.

“Uh-oh, uhh-oh, uhh-oh,” Barrett groans as he powers up into Carol, “Stay there, stay there, Uhh-oh, uhh-oh”

“Yes, Mr. Barrett Sir.”

Wow. This is some whole other level of cuckolding.

Barrett slaps her face.

He slapped her fucking face.

Carol splutters and her mouth gapes but I think she could be cumming a second time.

I side-eye her husband and he’s watching the scene with bulging eyes and not even touching his own dick.

Walden cracks the other side of her face even harder and her head rocks.

Fucking hell.

He stabs up fast several times then groans and grips both her hips, his face buried in her chest and neck as he slows to a halt.

Finally.

“Get her off me Pantyboy,” Walden exhales hard and moves his head and shoulders back and away from Carol. His breathing is still fast and deep.

The cleaner helps the panting, perspiring, and red-faced woman off Walden’s lap and she’s shaky on her feet in low heels. He pulls the top of her dress back up over her sagging, beaten tits. She wriggles the hem of her dress down over her hips and those reddened cheeks. Her neck and throat look sore too.

“Take her to the washroom to get cleaned up,” Barrett zips up, “And if you haven’t already done it, then clean that room properly too. I need to talk with Joe and Rachel.”

“Yes Mr. Barrett,” the cleaner nods - so low that it’s almost a bow, and his wife won’t look at me or Rachel.

“I hope you didn’t mind the brief exhibition?” Walden grins at us from the other side of the desk when the three of us are alone and all seated. “I’d normally get Carol to finish me off with a little rimming. She loves it. And Pantyboy loves to hear about it.”

I try not to gag.

“But we don’t have time tonight,” he says, “I’m expecting a call from the great man himself a little later.”

Richmond?

“So you have sex with the cleaner’s wife regularly while he does his job?” I ask, still trying to piece all this together.

“He’s not employed here,” Walden shakes his head and laughs, and then as Rachel next to me crosses her legs, Barrett’s eyes settle on her. “His wife’s a friend of a friend and I helped re-kindle her interest in other men for pantyboy. Took a while to get her to this stage but now she’s real keen to please. So pantyboy – Mark – he repays his gratitude by performing domestic duties for the business. And wearing a chastity belt in the process.”

“What is it with some husbands and chastity?” I ask.

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Barrett says and momentarily his eyes leave Rachel. “And you should try it. Or ask your friend Kevin how much she and Evie like it.”

Wait, Kev wears a chastity belt? I glance at Rachel.

Did she know? Did Evie tell her?

But maybe that explains why Kev never jacked off all those times we saw Evie fucked, or sucking other guys off.

“So,” Walden’s chair creaks as he leans right back and scrutinizes my wife. “How have you both been? Rachel? You’re every bit as pretty as I remember you. More so, maybe.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Rachel moves her golden-brown hair around her shoulders, “I’ve still got more pounds to lose.”

“Hmm,” Walden says and his eyes crawl across her cleavage.

My balls bristle in my pants.

“Does Carol work at Traders too?” I ask to try and steer the conversation toward the ‘job’.

“No, no,” he shakes his head, “Unlike you two, that pair isn’t into the wife being shared far and wide.”

Rachel shifts in her seat.

“Ours is just a three-way relationship,” he says, eyes still on my wife. “Although I have thought more than once that there could be a nice little niche for more mature ladies too at Traders. Particularly ones with attributes and an appetite like Carol’s.”

“Right,” I say and can’t help wondering whether his mention of more mature females might provoke him about Sophie. And Phil’s suggestion.

I steel myself.

“Your titties look good in that dress, Rachel,” he says.

“Oh, thanks,” she says and looks down at her neckline.

My gut clenches and my breathing quickens.

“So how is everyone at Traders?” I ask, “You must be busy with all the new clubs?”

“You can say that again,” Barrett sighs, “And your wife is sorely missed.”

At last.

“Richmond’s gone into overdrive since he lost Zaria,” Walden shakes his head. “We’re trying to get Grace - Spencer’s wife - fully integrated. And then there’s Bella, the boss’s bisexual interior designer who he wants in one of the clubs on a regular basis. Plus he’s now got some side project or other with a European couple. They’re in their 30’s. German or Austrian or something,” Walden rolls his eyes. “What he calls his ‘Long term control project’. He’s taking charge of their sex life, dictating when, where, and how they’re allowed sex. He’ll get the guy - Rene - into chastity soon enough, no doubt. The girl’s pretty though,” Walden puckers his lips then plucks his phone from the desk and scrolls at it. He swipes and then shows us a slim, green-eyed blonde in a loose-fitting dress.

He was right about her looks.

“Sandra,” he says and the girl’s hair is very long and her legs toned. “Nice ass too apparently,” Walden shrugs and puts his phone back down on his desk.

Alongside me, Rachel adjusts her position on the seat again.

“They get off on being dictated to,” Walden leers openly at Rachel, “What she wears. Richmond’s introduced her to nylons, high heels, and pencil skirts. Grooming her to be a little slutty. And get this, her Mom’s new husband hosts pool parties at his home and Richmond’s got himself an invite and Sandra to wear a sheer string bikini to goad all her stepdad’s old buddies there. I should get me an invite too,” Walden chuckles.

It sounds like Richmond’s having a midlife crisis without Zaria.

Another one.

“What about Phil?” Rachel’s voice breaks as she asks.

She does still think about him.

“He’s been getting the new girls settled in at the club. I don’t think you and this one ever crossed paths,” Walden reaches for his phone again.

Seems like a lot has changed and moved on since we were last there.

“Look at her,” Walden opens a video on his phone and holds the screen to us.

The cameraman holds the phone over the bare back and tiny waist of a round-assed, dirty-blonde who’s on all fours. Walden uses his thumb to raise the volume.

The sound’s not great, but whoever she is, she’s loving what’s being done to her.

“Is that Phil with her?” Rachel frowns.

“What do you think?” Walden asks her then winks at me.

“Shiloh,” Walden says, “Another one who loves cock. She’s about an inch or so shorter than Austrian Sandra who I just showed you. About your height, eh Rachel? Very fit.”

Rachel uncrosses her legs and then crosses them again the other way.

“You can’t tell from this angle when she’s been taken from behind, but this one’s eyes are blue. She’s kind of got that sexy bimbo style. You know? Big fake titties and lips injections and everything. You wouldn’t believe it, but she’s a company VP!”

He’s right. I don’t believe it.

“This was part of her trial night,” he grins at us, “Girl passed with flying colors. We’ve got plans for this one. Brains as well as beauty. Come in useful as the business expands.”

“Right,” I say. But when do we walk about Rachel’s job there? And is he going to mention Sophie?

“Weird thing is,” Walden closes his phone down again, “Her husband’s name is Joe too.” Walden looks right at me and chuckles. “We just call him ‘Jay’. Amongst other things. Less confusing.”

Rachel glances across at me and gives me a tight smile.

“All this talk of other girls is working me up again,” Walden’s right hand moves down under the desk, “You fancy giving me head Rachel, before we get down business?”

Fuck.

Rachel looks at me with arched eyebrows.

He’s just had his cock in some other woman. Someone we don’t even know.

“I’m OK with it if you are Joe,” my wife says.

Fucking hell. All guys like Richmond and Walden ever have to do is snap their fingers for sex and my wife gives it to them.

My cock swells right up and pulses in my pants at the realization and I nod my head.

“Good girl,” Walden moves his chair back, “You want to move your chair back from there too a little Joe? I’ll come sit on the front of the desk again,” he stands and fumbles with his zipper as he makes his way out from behind his desk, “Let you get a bird’s eye view of your wife doing what she’s best at, eh?”

My breathing rattles in my chest and throat but I shove my chair my chair back away from Walden’s desk.

And then Rachel is on her knees feeding her hair through an elastic band even before Walden has his pants fully down.

She wants to prove her worth to this fat old man and get her old job back.

“At a girl,” he stands astride in front of my kneeling wife with his thick dick out and stiff in her face and his ass against the desk. Then he leans down over Rachel and grips her ponytail in a fist. He holds it up.

“Mmm,” Rachel’s head rises but with the backs of her heels under her proud ass she wraps her fingers around his tool, and then, as he eases his grip on her golden-brown hair, she licks his balls.

“Can you smell the sex on me, girl?” He twists his hand through her hair a little.

“Uhh,” Rachel winces but she sucks.

“Can you?”

My sucking wife looks up at him with her mouth bulging and she nods her head.

“Good girl,” his head rolls back, “Suck the sex off me.”

“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” Rachel’s head and shoulders lunge at his groin.

My fingers shake on my zipper but I rip it down.

“Look at your girl go, Joey boy,” Walden gasps and half-laughs.

“I know,” I beat my dick through my fist.

“Cock crazy this one.”

“Yeah,” I gasp but shit it’s been so long since I watched her and I’m so turned on that I can’t control myself. I cum fast into both hands.

“Uhh,” Walden groans above the terrible, abandoned sounds of my wife’s famished slurps and moans, “Don’t get that mess on the floor,” he looks at me and gasps, “Washroom’s next door.”

I nod my head, and gripping my cock and the hot discharge in both hands I shuffle toward the door.

I push the handle down with one elbow and then to the sounds of Walden’s groans and Rachel’s hunger I head out of the tiny office.

There’s no sign of Carol but her husband is wiping down the tills. He doesn’t look up from his task as I find the washroom.

It’s small like the office but it smells of bleach, not sex. I guess he just cleaned up in here like Walden told him to.

I wipe and wash myself down then without even looking in the cleaner’s direction this time, I return to Walden’s office. I knock but enter right away, without waiting for any response.

Walden leans right over my kneeling wife, a forearm locked around the back of her head and holding her tight to his groin. He powers his hips fast at her face, surely almost cumming now as my wife chokes - but she keeps sucking.

I close the door to let them know I’m back.

“Ahhh,” Walden groans from the chest and still holding Rachel tight to his groin down there, his head rolls back on his shoulders.

Rachel chokes and coughs, splutters around his balls.

“Fuck, your girl’s good with her mouth boy,” Walden shakes his head.

“Thanks,” I say, the word sticking in my dry mouth.

Walden straightens up and shakes his big tool. At least one droplet of cum stripes across the front of Rachel’s dress. “Oh shit, sorry about that,” he says and helps her to her feet. “You got tissues there Joe?”

Red-faced I find one in a pocket.

Pity I didn’t think to use it before. I could have stayed to watch everything.

“So you remember Amanda from Traders?” Walden asks when we’re all seated again. Alongside me, Rachel’s cheeks and throat are still flushed.

I glance at the floor. There are no more signs of any of Walden’s mess anywhere down there. I glance at my wife’s throat again. Then at Walden’s fat face.

“Amanda?” Walden repeats, like he knows I wasn’t thinking about what he said.

This time I nod and I visualize the voluptuous blonde who we haven’t seen in a long while.

“This is where I first met her,” Walden smiles, “She worked part-time in my wife’s business. She’s been moved on to one of our newer stores now. Hence we’re looking for some additional able-bodied help,” he smiles at Rachel.

Wait. Is he offering her a job here? In his fucking shop?

“I know you pair are restricted with potential working hours because of your little one. So we could organize a rota that works for you. Keep it flexible if that helps. Hours to suit.”

He fucking is. He expects my wife to work here.

“And here, you wouldn’t have to worry what your boss would be like,” he grins. “You’d see plenty of me, though. When I don’t have my hands full with Carol, of course.”

Back at our car after Walden apologized for an incoming call from Richmond and asked us to let him know about the ‘offer’, Rachel doesn’t seem as pissed about it as I feel.

“I can’t believe tonight was just about working in his fucking shop,” I say and fire the engine. It’s dark outside now.

“I don’t know,” Rachel fastens up her seatbelt, “It could be a way for me to get back into the workplace. I could just do it while I look for a job in a nursery again.”

Does she like the idea of being at Barrett’s beck and call for sex? The same as that other woman?

My cock shifts in my pants.

But how would I get to watch her if the sex happened while she was at work? I’m not cleaning his fucking shop like that other guy.

“Wouldn’t you like to be back at Traders once in a while, though?” I peer across at her then check the rearview mirror and reverse out of the parking space.

“Joe, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Even if I lost enough weight to feel OK about my body. You heard what Walden said. They’ve got new girls now. When Richmond called him, he didn’t even mention we were there with him.”

Yeah. I noticed that.

“Anyway, are we going to stop off somewhere on the way back for JJ?” she asks.

“For a drink?” I peer across at her.

She smiles and reaches across for my thigh. “That’s not what I was thinking,” she says.

Is she turned on because of what Walden made her do back there? Still hot after watching that other woman get treated rough by him?

Fifteen minutes later the car wheels roll over the gravel at one of the rest areas where she and I used to make out when we were dating.

Rachel points to one of the far corners as my headlights wash over the trunks of tall conifers over there. I can’t see any other cars.

“Do it to me from behind, Joe,” she gives me a dirty smile in the pale light from the dashboard and undoes her seatbelt.

I turn off the engine and pull at the belt of my pants.

Rachel wiggles her hips and butt on the seat and then drags her panties to her ankles and off.

I undo my pants and pull my hard dick out as she pushes her seat back and turns around on it. She kneels up there and leans over the headrest toward the back seats with her ass stuck out.

“Aw fuck Rach,” I groan and clamber across to her. I tug the back of her dress right up over her cheeks and feel her there. “You want it just like that woman in the video?”

With Phil. Is she thinking of Phil?

“Put it straight in Joe,” she says over her shoulder and reaches for my erection.

I’m nice and hard and I don’t need her help to work it into her hot opening.

Rachel moans and pushes her hips back at me.

I drive it right in.

“Uhh,” we both moan and her head and hair roll back.

I grip her fleshy hips. “Fuck Rach, you looked so hot down on your knees for him before.”

“Mmm,” she moans and grinds her hips back at me.

“Sucking his big cock,” I slap into her.

“Mmm, oh yeah, oh Joe.”

My phone rings on the center console and I glance across at it.

Walden.

I keep thrusting, keep smacking into her. What does he fucking want now? Did he mention us to Richmond after all? Is this her invitation back there?

Rachel doesn’t react as the phone continues to ring. Her left shoulder is twisted a little and lowered. She’s playing with herself as I fuck her.

But I can’t last. “Uh Rach, Rach,” my balls spasm but she’s cumming too, crying out and tensing as I explode inside her.

“It was Walden,” I say as I pull out of her. The phone is silent.

“What would he want?” she asks and reaches for her discarded panties from the floor.

Richmond might have told him about the Sophie proposition. Should I tell her now after all? Avoid any risk of her finding out that I’ve known for weeks and kept it to myself?

Rachel smiles at me and then inspects her hair and face in the mirror.

She’s in as good a mood now as she’ll ever be, I guess.

“There’s something I should have told you a week or so back,” I say and gaze right at her. “But I didn’t know how to.”

“Do I need to be afraid?” she gives me a little smile.

“Phil called me, that time we were at your Mom’s when Talbot and that Paul Baily guy were both there.”

“Joe, that was weeks ago,” she frowns, “How come you never told me before now.”

“Like I said, I didn’t know how.”

“So tell me now,” she raises her voice on the last word, “What did he want?”

Just say it Joe, for fuck sake.

“He said he thought Richmond would take you back at Traders if your mom worked with you.”

“My Mom?” Rachel’s brow knots.

“At the same time as her,” I say and try to make that fourth word sound significant without totally spelling the whole thing out, “I was in shock,” I say. “I mean obviously.”

“But you still agreed to meet Walden?” her throat flushes.

“I just thought it was one of Phil’s sicko ideas. Walden never said anything to us about it, did he? I don’t think he’s had anything to do with it.”

“So why tell me now all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know,” I look right at her but then lower my eyes, “In case him and Richmond got wind of it, I guess.”

Rachel’s phone rings and she pulls it from her bag. “Hey Walden,” she says and listens.

He’s still got my wife’s number too.

“Oh, right thanks,” Rachel says into her phone and then smiles to herself. “Oh, yeah OK,” she says. “Joe; Walden wants me to put it on hands-free,” She taps at the screen and then holds it out closer to me.

“OK?” Walden’s voice booms.

“Yeah we can hear you,” she says.

“Thanks again for both coming through earlier,” he says, his voice strong and steady, “And sorry again about having to end the conversation when Richmond called.”

“It’s OK,” I say and the guy must be keen to have her in his shop if he’s calling back like this.

“So I had a thought about a couple of other potential opportunities for you after you left,” he says and Rachel peers at me. “I’ll be hosting a surprise party for a golfing buddy of mine in a few weeks. 60th birthday. Once I can get the venue confirmed. Nothing to do with Traders, so I’d appreciate you keeping it confidential if you ever speak to anyone else. I’ll give you the date if you’re interested.”

Does he want my band to play at the party?

“Rachel, I thought you might like to work it for me,” Walden says, “Offer all the guys there something over and above what’s on the bar menu. Joe you’d be welcome to come along too. You can sit it out and watch Rachel do her thing.”

My gut clenches but my heart thumps fast.

“Oh, er…I don’t know,” Rachel glances at me.

“We’d need to know the date, Walden,” I say to the phone then glance at Rachel’s flushed face, “And obviously talk it through together.”

“I got you,” he says.

Rachel’s chest rises and falls fast.

“OK. Look I’d love her in the shop with me too,” he says, “don’t forget to come back to me on that as well. But Rachel, if you’re really worried about your weight and you’re not ready yet for public fucking and sucking at a party, why don’t the pair of you think about CCTV in your bedroom.”

“What?” I say out loud.

“I got Amanda and her husband Chris kitted out with a set of cameras, she must have told you? And you wouldn’t even need to leave home to get your kicks, and earn from it.”

Rachel and I exchange wide-eyed glances.

“Give that some thought too, eh?” his disembodied voice says, “I’d be happy to add some monthly retainer to Rachel’s wages at the shop. Especially if we did some kind of a deal where she stayed on standby for me at home. Let me come over when in the area and get blown when I need it. No one gives head like your wife, Joe.”

 Author's Notes

Where do you think Rachel and Joe should go from here? Which offer (if any) do you hope they accept? What's your opinion of Walden's behavior and the news about Phil and Richmond? It would be great to get your thoughts in the comments below.

Next week, following his rejected marriage proposal, Roy tries to pick up the pieces with Rachel's sister Lanie. But unfortunately for Roy, he's not the only man with his sights set on Miss Machin..

© 2024 Tinto Selvaggio. All rights reserved.

 All characters portrayed in this ebook are consenting adults eighteen years of age or older. As a work of fiction, any similarities to any situations or persons living or dead are entirely coincidental.