On the way down to Palm Springs, as Leon drove rapidly along the freeway arrowing through the desert, Virginia told him that she was glad he had decided to take the weekend off to have some fun for a change.
"You haven't had any time off for a long time."
"Actually, I came along to keep my eye on you!" Leon told her bluntly, deciding that this was as good a time as any to get things out in the open.
Virginia stared open-mouthed at his profile. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asked with more than a little apprehension.
"It means I know you've been playing around… getting yourself laid!" he rasped out at her, taking his eyes from the road for a moment to flash a look of disgust at her.
"Th-that's not true, Leon!" she lied.
"Do you want me to name names?"
"N-no… because there isn't anybody else!" she sobbed. "I love… j-just you!"
"Let's start with Arthur Hartman… then Hugo Foxx!"
The two names stabbed out at her, and she cringed away. "Ooooohh, God! N-no!" How did he find out?
"I know… so there's no need to lie about it!" he pursued grimly. "Would you like to know how I found out?"
Virginia was absolutely miserable. She was sure that now Leon would be leaving her, asking for a divorce, but nothing would force her to admit to him that his knowledge was correct. She persisted in her plea of innocence. "There's nothing to find out… be-because I-I didn't do anything!"
"Their wives told me!" he grated. "Annabelle Foxx and Phyllis Hartman told me themselves… and do you want to know something else?"
He didn't wait for her answer. Plunging ahead, he told her gloatingly, "They both threw themselves at me… to get even with their husbands… and I fucked them both… at the same time!"
Virginia couldn't believe what she was hearing. Leon? Leon did something like that? "H-how could they?" she sobbed.
"What? Find out… or offer themselves to me?"
"F-find out…"
"I don't know how they found out, but they were positive about it!" he growled. "So positive that they arranged a little sex party for me… and did you hear what I told you? I fucked them both at the same time! Would you like to know how I did it?"
"No!" Virginia flared. "Do you have to be s-so crude?"
"Hell, yes! I want you to suffer! I want you to know all the little details about it, so you'll know how I felt when I found out you were nothing but a lying little cheat!"
"B-but you don't understand!"
"Yes, I do, you bitch! I understand plenty, and you're going to listen while I tell you all about it!"
Then, as his wife sobbed and cringed in the corner of her seat, Leon proceeded to shower her with the welter of details of his sexual encounter with the two sensually attractive women. Surprisingly, Virginia found herself becoming aroused as his tale went on and on. Finally, when he was finished, she crept close to him and murmured, "Leon, darling, could w-we make up… maybe sort of pretend that nothing's happened, since you figure you've evened the score…"
At that point, Leon wasn't sure the score had been evened. "How do you think we can just wish it away? The fact is you were cheating, getting laid behind my back… and I'm not ready to forgive and forget yet! I'm going to have some more fun with those two women! They practically told me that they'd both take me on, again… and by God, I think that's exactly what I'll do! But, as for you, you've been having your fun already, and I'm going to make damned sure you don't go bouncing around from one hot bed to another!"
Virginia was disappointed. Her overtures toward reconciliation were spurned, and she felt the sting of his rejection; at the same time, there was a pervading sense of the unfairness of his attitude. She voiced it. "But you're blaming me… and then doing the same thing yourself."
"Yeah! The difference is I'm telling you what I'm going to do… and then I'm going to do it!"
With an effort, Virginia pulled herself together before they arrived at the sprawling hotel in Palm Springs, which was hosting the Eko-Klean meeting. She was thankful for her dark sunglasses masking her swollen, red-rimmed eyes. All of her excitement and anticipation over the meeting had fled from her; all that was left was a huge, aching void as she felt that everything she had ever held dear, the most precious of which was her marriage to Leon Brooks, was just about lost… forever. God! We can't go on this way!
They checked in at the hotel's desk and were soon in their room. Virginia repaired the damage to her face as best she could, bathing her eyes in cold water and putting on fresh make-up. Then she left to attend the first of several meetings on the program. True to his word, Leon accompanied her to the small auditorium and told her that he would be back to pick her up when the meeting was over.
"You don't trust me at all?" she asked, new anguish coursing through her.
"No!" Leon told her. "No, I don't trust you any more than I trust those two bastards who've been fucking you!"
Sarcasm dripping from her words, Virginia spat hissingly, "But you – you're different?"
"I'm honest about it! Now, go on in to your meeting – and don't leave until I pick you up, understand?"
"Yes, sir!" she hissed. "Do I salute too?"
Gripping her arm angrily, but mindful of the scores of other people milling about the entrance to the meeting hall, Leon hissed back menacingly.
"Don't get smart with me, Virginia! You're just damned lucky I haven't marked you up so far… but you just keep it up, and you'll be asking for a scab on the end of your nose."
When he released her, Virginia was so terribly frightened that she scuttled away from him and darted into the auditorium, finding a seat near the rear corner where she could be alone. It was the first time since she'd known Leon that he had threatened her with physical violence. Remembering the grim anger in his eyes, she was sure that he was capable of doing it. Unbidden tears streamed from her eyes; she dabbed at them with a tissue and wished that she'd decided to stay away from this meeting. Her first reaction when she'd gotten the notice about it was to refuse to go. But it's mandatory! I have to be here!
Hugo Foxx conducted the meeting, spouting sales statistics and pointing out areas for improvement along with quoting stimulative suggestions and anecdotes urging greater volumes of sales. He was every bit the ebullient sales manager, acting the part of coach and mentor, as he exhorted his team to greater effort.
Afterward, there was a period of about three hours of free time before the dinner meeting in the evening, at which time the president of Eko-Klean was to give one of the major talks. When Leon met her at the door of the meeting hall, Virginia had regained her composure somewhat and had decided to try to enjoy herself.
"Let's go for a swim, Leon darling," she suggested.
"Okay, I haven't been in for ages."
He was grinning, and as she came close to him and smelled his breath, she knew that he'd been drinking.
"Have you been relaxing with a drink, darling?"
"Yeah, I had a couple," he admitted. "If you want, I'll order for you, out at the pool."
"That'd be nice! Thank you," she murmured.
They swam for a while; each had a drink, and Leon dozed off in the warm afternoon sun. Virginia had no intention of doing anything to provoke Leon further. She had made up her mind that she'd stand up to Hugo Foxx and Art Hartman, refusing to let them use her any more, come what may. Now that Leon knows, the rest of it doesn't make much difference! Anyway, he must know about the money, too, and maybe we can work something out, so that it gets paid back! Except for her husband's threat to take his sexual pleasure with those other two women, if he got the chance, she was rather glad that he was there with her acting as a guardian. At least with Leon so close, Hugo and Art wouldn't dare try anything with me!
Suddenly she was startled. A loudspeaker near the pool was blaring out her name, informing her of a telephone call. A cocktail waitress with the thick red hair and scanty bikini directed her to the nearest house phone.
"H-hello?" She was worried and apprehensive.
"Virginia, baby…" Hugo Foxx purred, rumbling in his bass voice. "I see that your husband's taking a little nap…"
"Mr. Foxx, don't try to get me into your room, because it won't work any more! I'll see that you get your money now, because my husband knows all about it!"
"That's what I heard!" he growled. "And I also heard that he was with my wife the other day."
"And I kn-know all about that."
"I suppose he told you?"
"Y-yes! He told me!"
"Now I'm going to tell you something! You're going to come to my room, now! Standing right behind you are a couple of my friends. They're going to escort you here – and don't you dare make a scene!"
Virginia glanced behind her, her eyes widening with fear, as she saw that two well-dressed, smiling men stood lounging easily waiting for her. "You wouldn't d-dare!" she rasped hissingly into the telephone.
"Oh, but I do! You still owe me something, and I'm going to collect! Now, hang up the telephone, turn around, smile, and accompany Jack and Bruce to my room – with no fuss!"
"You bastard!" Virginia spat. The telephone went dead. Her brain was spinning in confusion, and she wondered briefly whether she had any chance of making a run for it. Numbly, she cradled the phone and turned to face the two men, knowing that she couldn't willingly go with them. Instinctively, she gathered herself and spun away from them, breaking into a desperate, loping run that lasted for two or three steps. They caught her. She didn't struggle and no one apparently noticed the brief action.
"Mrs. Brooks," Jack Keller smiled. "I'm surprised at you… after Mr. Foxx issued you such a nice invitation to come to his room."
She looked up abjectly into their implacable faces and knew that there was no hope of escape from them.
"Come, Mrs. Brooks, shall we go now?" the other man, Bruce Holcombe, grinned. "We don't want to keep Mr. Foxx waiting, do we?"
Virginia shrugged her terry cloth robe close around her, shivering with fright and already visualizing what was going to happen once she was inside Hugo's room. God! It'll be another nightmare of sex – and more sex! She hated to think about it, but much worse, she hated to think about Leon's reaction to it… when he found out! He'd never believe that I was practically kidnapped.
Hugo met them at the door, standing there huge and bearlike with a drink in his hand. Glaring at her, he grunted. "One thing you're going to have to learn, doll, is that when I tell you to do something, you do it!"
Defiantly, Virginia rapped out, "I-I told you before – you don't own me!"
"I never said that!" Hugo said with elaborate, placating tones. "We just have a business arrangement! Now, I'd like you to meet our associates. You already know Art Hartman…?"
Virginia shot a glance at her sponsor, lounging at ease in his chair sipping an icy drink, his jacket and tie off already. God! Him again…?
"The two gentlemen who escorted you here: Jack Keller and Bruce Holcombe!" Hugo was going on. "And, of course, you know me."
Jack Keller, she had noted before, was stocky and quite short, with a broad, ruddy face and silvering blond hair. Bruce Holcombe was younger, athletically trim, dark hair graying at the temples, and nice eyes. Virginia thought, as she glanced at each of them in turn: four? Four of them? My God! No! No! No! Her mind refused to accept it. She could have screamed – but she wondered whether it would do any good.
"And maybe later on we'll have another distinguished gentlemen, but I won't be able to tell you his name yet!" Hugo was still talking, as Jack and Bruce began helping themselves to Scotch-on-the-rocks.
Groaning, Virginia objected. "Do you mean there're going to be five men… who-who…?"
"Are going to fuck you, Virginia baby! That's right! After the way you made it with Art and me, you'll have no trouble at all with five! Why, Christ! I think that hot little pussy of yours should be able to handle ten men!"
Virginia shuddered at the thought that he had somehow intended that as some kind of compliment. It was too bizarre even to consider. "You're crazy if you think I'm going t-to agree… to th-that!"
"You don't have a choice!" Hugo told her. "Take off that robe so Jack and Bruce can get a good look at you!" His eyes bored into her, and the commanding figure and voice of him caused her to obey.
She shrugged off the terry robe. Underneath, she was wearing a skimpy bikini which left almost nothing to the imagination. Amid lewd compliments from the four men in the room, she looked around dazedly to see them crowding around her and reaching out to fondle her almost naked body. In a moment, one of the men (she thought it was Jack Keller) had untied her brassiere top. Hugo plucked it from her to expose the lush vision of her full mounded breasts. "See what I mean?" Hugo croaked gloatingly. "Isn't that the prettiest pair of tits you've ever seen?"
"Damned right!" Bruce Holcombe reached out to cup and caress one of her faintly quivering breasts.
Then Arthur Hartman was untying her bikini bottom and pulling it down over the ripely curving swell of her hips and buttocks. She was naked in the midst of four virile, salaciously turned-on men, and as she glanced around at them, seeing the lewd desire in their burning eyes, she couldn't help noticing the massive bulges in their pants. Ooooohhh, my God! They're serious! They're really going to d-do it to m-me! All four of them!