Chapter 02: Screwing up

"I think every guy needs two women. One to show, and one to cook supper." I said more to test what she was prepared to do than anything.

"As long as all three go to bed together it's no problem. I just could not handle it if I was in one bed knowing that my man was in another screwing someone else. I couldn't handle knowing another woman is alone in bed in my home while I'm getting some. We do it together or we leave it." She answered.

She had thought about it before. Her answer told me that.

"Have you done that before?"

"I wish! Guys say they want that but barely have a clue about where the other woman would go, mind you they have a hazy idea of what to do with one. I haven't no but would love that. Have you ever done whips and chains?"

"No but I was at a dance event where that was a theme."

She listened about a ballroom dance event that I had been at in which bondage and discipline and been the theme. The two were actually closely linked in that each required one to lead and another to follow. The event had not worked out very well as a lot of moves became impossible and in one event the dance had turned into a sex show, then an orgy, then a three hour period in which everybody tried to sort tangled restraints out. Amelia laughed at my descriptions. I had been in the audience, why I carefully did not mention, although knowing that it had happened in Germany was fine, there were print articles about it.

"So is there a Mrs Bodenstein right now?" She asked over desert.

"Yes, we're getting divorced."

"Yeah right, they all say that."

I saw Amelia deciding that sex was not an option for tonight, it was not off the table for the future though. I merely had to show her that I was serious about getting divorced. That suited me.

"Seriously, she's firing me."

"Because you date dancers?"

"In fact no. Because she started dating a drug dealer while I was on business overseas."

"Why didn't she go with you?"

"She's a CA and Actuary, she has her own life. So I came back from doing business overseas and get served with divorce papers on the airport. I found the guy in my house and sent him to an institution, it turned out he was drug dealer specializing in date rape drugs to frat boys."

"Good for you. What about her?"

"High school sweetheart, I worked her through college then she used her CA degree while I got my venture capital line going. When that took off she did too it seems, she's been seeing guys for years. With that in the open she can find her own way."

"What if she comes crawling back?"

"She won't, she has seen me destroy other people who betrayed my trust. She knows coming back will end her great career, screwing around has already cost her a lot with her family; strict Christians."

"Fair warning?"

"If you like. More setting ground rules, trust is not established yet. I don't mind third partner but we both approve and know."

Amelia nodded understanding, we both had trust issues. I took her home with us chatting about nothing much. The kiss at her door was a clear invitation for another date with a promise of sex at the end of it if I played my cards right. I left her as she closed her door in the firm knowledge that she was going to masturbate herself to paralytic orgasms. She was clearly into me.

Florence was entirely different, I sent her a bunch of flowers in the morning inviting her to another restaurant for a lunch. Then I got busy. First was the banker's draught for half a million dollars, then a visit to college and a chat with Diedre, we exchanged contact details and I paid Elizabeth's stipend. Diedre looked bemused but eager. I saw her writing an email to her assistant to find material on dowry negotiations as we finished. She had never done this, neither had I and I suggested that we have some basis or precedent to guide our discussions.

Next was the hotel, I paid the people "working" there off and called landscapers and architects in. I explained what I wanted and discussed the electrical system, additional security measures and a few additional construction needs. They started with basic plans like clearing all the old furniture out. I left them to it as I went to meet Florence for lunch.

She greeted me with a broad smile of relief. She had hoped and thought it was me sending flowers. Being right was fantastic. We were in a much darker place, something she loved as she explained that she had been a blues singer in college and this atmosphere took her back. Even our pub lunch of steak, eggs, and French fries took her back to college.

"Damn! It was easy back then, slip into a dark corner like this and have your guy... twenty years on and you need a dark corner to imagine having a guy." She said quietly as she sat down beside me in a booth.

"Are you imagining this?" I asked as I put my hand on her stomach.

She sucked a breath in loudly as did that. The surprise was complete for her.

"You're younger than I am."

"We're the same age in the dark. Move my hand if you don't want it there." I said mildly.

Hesitantly she touched my hand and laid her hand on top of mine.

"I'm fat you know." She said desperately.

"I think you're made for comfort, not speed. Don't worry about the padding. It's there for a reason Florence. A Rolls Royce has a soft suspension, a Ferrari is all bones."

She was breathing faster. We had drinks and a meal, those were forgotten as she tried to process what was going on. I kissed her cheek lightly as she closed her eyes, near tears. She moved my hand indecisively, first a little upwards, then downwards. I did not resist her moving my hand.

"You must be a drug high..." she whispered as she settled for just moving my hand to caress her abdomen.

"Turn your head, look at me." I replied just as softly.

She turned her head to look at me, my hand under hers forgotten for the moment.

"Now close your eyes." I said.

She closed her eyes and I kissed her lips softly but for a few heartbeats. Then I broke off and she opened her eyes. Passion and fear shone in her eyes as she took my face in. She desperately needed some grounding to not lose herself in this fantasy.

"I have children." She said hoping to banish a hallucination with cold hard reality.

"I have children too."

I kissed her lightly again. This time she kissed back. I moved my hand on her abdomen a little and she crumbled. She moved my hand between her legs decisively and leaned against me with a soft moan. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders and her knees parted as she guided my hand under her skirt. She moved to be on my lap and to give me the reach to touch her snatch.

"Oh God yes!" She breathed as my fingers stroked her panties covering her labia.

I tickled the insides of her thighs and stroked her panty that was soaked very quickly. A few kisses under her ear and she had a silently guilty orgasm that shook her body and left her with shaking hands. When she came down I gave her a deep kiss and took my hand away from her snatch. She almost cried at that, until I pinched her nipple in a hard grip between two knuckles. She gasped at the pain and clung to me tighter until I let go. The adventure was over for now.

"Call work, you've picked up a stomach bug." I ordered before we ate lunch.

Florence had no hesitation in doing that. We ate quickly, paid the bill and staggered out holding each other and looking for the nearest place to have a hard and instinctive fuck. A hotel across the road was perfect. I checked us in and we were undressing in the elevator. The door was hardly closed when I had her pinned on the bed and her legs were spreading.

"Don't fuck around, get in here!" she whispered desperately as I positioned.

I did as she asked, thrusting to my full depth in one forceful and unrelenting thrust. She squeezed her eyes shut and helped me in with her hands on my ass pulling me as I thrust. She smiled and kissed me when I was at full depth. I drew back and thrust slowly but evenly, a few minutes of this and she had an orgasm more from not having had a lover in a long time than anything I did. Her body was just getting used to having a man in her after a long time without. after her orgasm i went harder, her next orgasm was quicker and just before I was at the point of no return.

I eased off and let my ejaculation back away then we turned over with her on top. She rode me slowly and deeply delighting in my hands all over her large breasts. She cuddled me when I sat up to kiss her neck, chest, nipples, mouth, and whatever else was in range. When she was close to an orgasm she drove my shoulders to the bed to ride me hard, backing off quickly when her body shook and she cried out.

We rolled over again and I thrust with a tempo she liked while she kissed me and licked my sweat drops off my nose or ears. She had another two orgasms in which she held onto me and bit into my shoulder. Then I increased tempo and force so that she barked like a puppy at the top of each thrust. When I erupted into her she felt it and had a symphonic orgasm at the feeling of her sex being filled with semen. We lay together in spent delight breathing heavily, sticking together as or sweat dried when I rolled off her.

"How did you know I like it slow and steady at the start?" Florence asked after we had our breath back.

"I didn't, I like to make it last." I answered.

Florence leaned over and kissed me.

"I have to get home to feed kids."

"Me too." I answered.

"Nick... Please don't call me at home."

"I agree, let's figure this out before getting the kids involved."

She smiled at that. She had no intention of getting our kids involved. I was a good fuck, that was all she wanted right now. We showered and left separately at her insistence. I watched her go, satisfied about the afternoon.

The girls were at home instead of their mother's when I got there and helped them with homework. Both girls liked Elizabeth and chatted about her with her strange mother. Cathy had found her at school, Cathy was more with the science geeks while Elizabeth was in the arts and language crowd. Neither were in the popular crowd. Nicole was learning violin, having discovered that at music class and loved it, this meant she was not entirely popular either.

"Dad, can Liz visit?" Cathy asked suddenly

"Here? Yes I don't see why not."

"Her mom goes everywhere with her until she feels Liz is safe."

"Then we'll have to see to it Liz is safe here."

Cathy lost no time calling Elizabeth then speaking to her mother, then handing the phone to me. We chatted and arranged for the next evening. I could sense Diedre working very hard to not refer to our discussions, laughing at it internally, my practice at subterfuge giving me the advantage in this.

The next day was busy as I resigned from the DOD. For someone in my position this did not just mean handing a resignation letter in. It was a lot of work as my reason for resigning was first considered. Citing that I could not guarantee my uncompromised status with Esther's conduct over the last four years got the officer handling the issue's immediate attention. The inevitable PSV validation audit that was going to come would hurt me but destroy Esther if her lovers were not noted on contact reports. Then I cited concern for my children at Esther's apparent choice of lover as Jimmy's arrest warrant got pulled out. This meant the DOD started looking at other utilizations for me taking note of my plan to start the hotel.

I had to hand in issued kit, what I could not hand in (a super yacht in the Canary Islands most notably) I had to give accounting for and explain why it was not available to be handed in. Then I had to supply my contacts list with recognition codes to be able to allow my replacement to step in easily. Finally there was agreeing to a termination period, giving them time to replace me and get my replacement up to speed. In this time I had to remain available to be deployed but also to advise if needed.

Diedre and Elizabeth were already visiting when I got home. Cathy was explaining about the divorce and how fast I had got this house for them. Diedre was adept at reading between the lines and understood that my work had comprised a large amount of illegal activity to be able to do what I had done so easily. Far from getting her to call negotiations for Elizabeth off it convinced her to pursue this with more confidence. I saw this as soon as I came in and we chatted about my plans after the divorce.

I proposed a boating day at the hotel as a day out over the weekend as a signal of my sincerity; the three girls just thought it would be fun. I knew about a few sailing boats for sale and I had sailed in the past. I thought the girls might like it and wanted to see too. The girls were full of questions about that but I would only say that it was best explained at the lake.

Diedre insisted on bringing something so I asked her to bring some side dishes for a picnic lunch. I had already picked up that Diedre was struggling financially. Mostly for having an older son in a special needs home, he had a laundry list of issues that included mental and physical disabilities and that she got no alimony or child support. The stipend I was paying for Elizabeth was going to be making a vast difference as that range of costs fell off her budget. It did not mean I was going to leverage that though. I was wondering how far I would take this negotiation as the two said goodbye after supper.

"Dad? Can we get a puppy?" Nicole asked suddenly.

It had been a fairly constant nag since she was five. I had always been in favor provided it was two of them, they were useful as protection for the girls, and they slept inside. Esther was dead against any pets because she would end up taking care of them according to her. I had seen more of my daughters since the subpoena than before and I had seen something about both of them I liked a lot.

"No, we get two. What were you thinking of Nikki?" I answered.

Both sisters were dead quiet in shock. They had never asked me directly before, on principal I had never contradicted Esther. I decided to fill the silence with some ground rules.

"They sleep inside, you clean up if they crap indoors. So you train them. You keep them fit, and play with them, you feed them. If it's your dog you are responsible."

"You mean it dad?" Nicole asked.

"Yes, I grew up with a dog, I loved her, Petty was a real bitch. She was a Staffordshire terrier, she was a friend when I needed company, a coach when I needed to get fit, she was a guard over my tools if I was working, she was a hot water bottle at my feet in winter. I think both of you can handle a dog each. Just make it something bigger than a handbag."

"Mom said you were going to try and buy us away from her." Cathy said as Nicole jumped me.

"How do you know me?"

"We don't want to break the rules." Cathy smiled.

The appeal against the restraining order was a massive blow to Esther's divorce case. My lawyer showed how the order was illegal from the moment of application. He had my letter of appointment to the DOD and referred to the legislation that made me immune from prosecution while deployed in a foreign country. Esther's lawyer did not contest and walked into an ambush as my lawyer then slid the divorce in showing that the allegations of infidelity had no proof whereas he had proof in the other direction. given that her current lover was in jail for distributing date rape drugs, meant she was unfit to be the responsible parent. As such custody should be granted to me with Esther having the restraining order against her.

The judge had no choice but to overturn the restraining order. Esther stood up and said that I had been disregarding the order from the beginning. Her lawyer silenced Esther and put it in legal terms. The judge had no sympathy, the order had been illegally granted and as such it was void and disregarding it meant nothing. On looking at Jimmy's conduct and arrest warrant the judge had enough to grant me custody although not fully, Esther still had visitation rights. There was no restraining order against Esther because there was no direct evidence of wrong doing on her part, although the judge made it clear that he thought she had exposed the children to harm. This suited me to a tee as we left the court at lunch time with a court order to attend family and relationship counseling sessions.

Florence was in the health food franchise as I came in. Esther was sitting beside her, obviously pissed off about the day. Florence forgot all about Esther as I kissed her hello and guided my hand to her breast under her jacket. She was wearing a lacier bra than our first time, a clear signal of what we were going to be doing after lunch. Esther watch in pure fury. Obviously every detail had already been relayed. Florence remembered Esther and tried introductions.

Such was Florence's delight in having me that the revelation of who we were to each other didn't matter to her. She had a man she had struggled to find, Esther who had picked men up easily didn't; there was justice in the world as far as Florence was concerned. Esther leaving in a screaming rage barely made a ripple in the restaurant.

After a fantastic afternoon with Florence at the same hotel, this time I had pre-booked, it was time for the next stage of my action plan. I knew that Esther would have spent the afternoon in a PSV revue audit being asked about her lovers and why the DOD had no knowledge of them. Now I was going to make her bad day even worse.

I was kissing Amelia in front of the dance studio when Esther came to pick the girls up. She walked past Amelia and I, shrieking like a fish wife as she was inside. When she came out with the girls I stopped her going further.

"No you don't Es. I have custody. They choose, you don't." I said.

"Straight Dad?" Cathy asked with a smile.

"Straight up. You're staying with me if you like, or with your mom, you choose I'll abide by that." I said.

Amelia stiffened immediately to realize I had children. I could feel her under my hand as she realized these were my children; she was dead set against being a stepmom. I was a close call but in the past to her. It didn't matter to me, her job was done; she had showed Esther that I could get any woman I wanted.

The entire purpose of Amelia and Florence was achieved as I saw Esther understand how bad her position with me was, there was never going to be a reconciliation. She had heard about me doing similar things to national security threats in the past. She also knew that my reputation was for clinically cold and total demolition of opposition. It was an almost rapturously satisfying moment to see her understand that I was going to destroy her and build myself at the same time. Even more satisfyingly she helped me with what she said next.

"Keep them! They are just in the way with finding a man! Come and fetch their school things." Esther said in blind fury and stalked away to her car.

"Anyone still in there?" I asked to get the girls to stop thinking about how their mother had just thrown them aside.

"Liz, her mom is running late. A few more girls and boys."

"Let's go and keep Liz safe then."

Amelia stayed outside as I took the girls back in. Elizabeth stared at me with huge eyes behind her enormous spectacles when I greeted her, chasing a boy she didn't really like away. She answered about dance and struggling with a few steps in a quiet and shy voice. I held out my hands and took her around the floor. Hesitant and stiff steps loosened up as her confidence in me grew. Then I felt her uncertainty as we went through steps she struggled with and got a huge smile with watery eyes as she got them right. After that we did a few new steps to her and she nearly jumped around in happiness as the music ended. I took Cathy and Nicole through the same dance and they also had fun as they got difficult steps right.