Bertrice Small - Private Pleasures

By the way, do get Rick to have Raoul Kramer negotiate the sale of your husband's partnership in Buckley, Coutts and Wickham. The senior partners will attempt to cheat you. And do invest the moneys conservatively."

Nora shuddered. It was like being on the other side of the looking glass. It was surreal. She was getting investment advice from the Devil. But how could she live with herself knowing what she had done to her children by refusing him? And she would remember, Mr. Nicholas said. Nora believed him. Everything he had promised her had come true. Why would any woman in her right mind give up all of this, all of what she could have, out of a sense of right and wrong? She looked at Kyle. His face was expressionless as if he didn't want to influence her. They would be together every day in his antique shop, and every night here within The Channel. "How long must I repay this debt I owe you?" she asked Mr. Nicholas.

"Does it really matter, my dear Nora?" he asked her with a small smile.

"No," she said with a deep sigh. "It doesn't."

"Then we are agreed, my dear? You will accept my offer?"

"Yes," Nora told Mr. Nicholas, "I will. How clever you are, sir, to seek out a weakness and use it to your own advantage."

"You will learn how to do that in time, my dear," he promised her.

"Will I learn all of your little tricks?" she queried him.

Mr. Nicholas laughed. "No," he said, "but you will learn enough over the coming years to be quite valuable to me, my dear Nora. Oh, one small thing more, dear girl, employee. The Kyle who will exist in your reality, your world, will not know you other than as his employee. Only in The Channel will he be the man you have come to love, and who loves you. His memory of you in your reality will not exist. You must, after all, suffer some small punishment for your sins. Even I am not allowed to put the universe out of balance." He stood up. "I will leave you and Kyle to your private pleasures now." And with a neat little bow he departed the bathroom. They heard the elevator doors closing behind him as he went.

"Do you want to know?" Kyle asked her.

"I know what I need to know for now, I suppose," Nora answered him.

"I was never privy to what he intended to do with you," Kyle said.

"No, you wouldn't have been," she replied, lying back on the table, and unfolding the sheet that had covered her so that she was naked once again.

"I never lied to you when I said I loved you," Kyle told her.

"I know that too," Nora agreed.

"Are you angry?" he asked her.

Nora thought a moment. "No," she said. "Just sad."

He began to massage her again, and when he had finished they went into the bedroom, where they climbed into the king-sized bed and began to make passionate love to each other. And in his jail cell bunk Jeff Buckley dreamed that his wife, Nora, was screwing another man. He saw her plainly. Beautiful. Young. And far more passionate than he had ever seen her before. The horny little bitch, he thought, and he tossed restlessly. And then he heard her cries of pleasure as the dark-haired man used her mercilessly over and over again. He could feel his own heart beating violently in his chest as he watched them. How could she betray him like that? She was having a really hot fucking party with the guy, who behaved as if she belonged to him and it wasn't the first time he'd had his big cock up her wet pussy. He was going to kill the bitch when he got out of here. And all the while she had played the proper suburban matron. She sure as hell wasn't behaving properly now. How long had it been going on?

And then Nora's lover turned her over onto her stomach. She knelt with her deliciously round bottom toward him. Leaning forward, she balanced herself on her folded arms. The guy had the biggest dick Jeff had ever seen, and he slowly slid it into Nora's asshole. Jesus! She'd never done it for him that way. He'd never even suspected she was that hot. A respectable man's wife wasn't supposed to be like that. Jeff could see Nora's face. It was alight with her pleasure. A look he had never seen. The guy was reaching beneath her to get at her clit. Jeff's heart beat faster. He heard Nora's voice as plain as if she had been in the room with him.

"Do it!" she begged. "Do it to me, Kyle!" And then she looked directly at him. "Good-bye, Jeff," she said, laughing.

Jeff Buckley's heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a large hand, and then it stopped entirely. There was a white light ahead, and a well-dressed man came forward smiling at him.

"Hello, Jeff," the man said to him. "I'm Mr. Nicholas. I've been waiting quite a long time for you."

The idea for this novel came about several years ago when I read about the long-time wife of a very wealthy businessman who was being divorced by her husband so he might take a younger wife. The gentleman in question wanted to give his wife a bare minimum of what he had. She sued for half of what he had, including an interest in his pension, and she won. And subsequent courts upheld her. Her attorneys had reasoned that the lady was responsible in part for her husband's success by being there to entertain his clients, raise their children, and give him the all around backup he needed to succeed.

The lady was very lucky. Most women being divorced don't have that option. Those who have been in long-term marriages, who have no work experience like Nora, or who have been out of the workplace for so long that their skills are no longer viable, usually end up barely subsisting. And the women with children generally find themselves in poverty, or just above what is called the poverty level in this country.

But what, I thought, would happen if the wife about to lose everything got to turn the tables on her unfaithful mate, and ended up with it all? And what if she also got everything she had ever secretly desired? But be careful, my friends, for what you wish. The road to Hell is more often than not paved with noble intentions, and in the end good must always win out over the dark side as Nora's tale has shown you. She was betrayed, and badly treated. But in the end she was responsible for the death of another human. And she is paying the price for it. But Kyle remains by her side.

He always will for if Nora did not find true love in her own reality, she has it now in the reality of The Channel.

Bertrice Small is a New York Times best-selling author and the recipient of numerous awards. In keeping with her profession, she lives in the oldest English-speaking town in the state of New York, founded in 1640, and works in a light-filled studio surrounded by the paintings of her favorite cover artist, Elaine Duillo. Because she believes in happy endings, Bertrice Small has been married to the same man, her hero, George, for forty years. They have a son, a daughter-in-law, and three adorable grandchildren. Longtime readers will be happy to know that Nicki the Cockatiel flourishes along with his fellow housemates; Pookie, the long-haired greige and white; Honeybun, the petite orange lady cat with the cream-colored paws; and Finnegan, the black long-haired baby of the family.