Heather Anderson’s stomach lurched as she blankly stared at her desk. She could taste bile, she felt like she might vomit. Heather had just emptied the contents of a mysterious envelope that was waiting for her, and the afterglow from the previous night and the glint of her political future had both dimmed. Now her mayoral chances had been snuffed out... Probably.
She angrily regretted her transgression. She felt dirty. She felt tricked. She felt cheated. And she was bloody furious.
She was being blackmailed.
As a serious contender in the upcoming mayoral election, she knew the current political waters were dangerous. Politics is a death sport. Only a naturally-intuitive but properly-trained and highly-skilled candidate could successfully navigate those treacherous waters. That’s why so many of their city’s thriving business community were backing her campaign. They wanted access to a known quantity with a friendly face. Her unfriendly face now grimaced as it stared at the rough seas she had strewn across her desk.
An assortment of large, glossy, high-resolution color photographs stared back at her. A brief scan told Heather someone had used a costly bit of kit to get these images. Judging by the ones she’d seen, significant damage control would be required if they fell into the wrong hands. Even so, she didn’t know if she could recover. She felt her political career could actually be over before it even started.
How dramatically things can change in less than twenty-four hours. How an in-the-moment passion could dearly cost her. With antipathy, she re-read the accompanying note.
My Dearest Heather,
Several items of interest have come into my possession. If you wish to keep these from appearing online or distributed to the media, you’ll need to do the right thing. I'll be in touch.
Sincerely,
One of your biggest fans…
"What the fuck..."
The profanity was crude and uncharacteristic. If any of her campaign team, including Trish, had overheard her, there would have been questions asked, and answers expected. The darkness of that scene made her chuckle.
If an exasperated 'fuck' got their knickers in a twist, then it's a good thing, Trish, her campaign manager, had left the delivered envelope on Heather's desk unopened. That would have been a God almighty row and one Heather would have been unprepared for. From the cursory glance she had cast upon the images, Trish would be unhappy, and not just on a professional level. She would demand to know why Heather had behaved so irresponsibly, and as to the with who...
A shiver ran down Heather's spine. She knew from past experiences that Trish's wrath could do a Marine Corps Sergeant-Major proud.
Until that moment, her budding political career didn’t seem like a car wreck waiting to happen. It had been driving quite nicely, safely under the speed limit, and on her side of the road. But last night, she may have floored it, and actually steered into the oncoming traffic.
And her marriage? What about Bob?
That made her chuckle, but again it was dark.
She was using humor to deflect, but it wasn’t working. Feeling less nauseous, she picked up the first photo from the pile on her desk.
It showed her arriving at the Convention Hall with her husband. It was a party. They were invited to the outgoing Mayor's birthday celebration. Heather thought they looked happy, very happy. The memory of what they'd done before leaving for the Alexa Grey's event caused her mouth to twitch mischievously.
The outgoing mayor was celebrating and everyone who was anyone was invited to attend. It was formal. Evening gowns and black tuxedos. No gifts. Only their presence was required.
Having woken up horny, Heather's carnal urges had grown all day and in the garage, before leaving, she decided they needed quenching. Bunching her evening gown around her abdomen, she ordered Bob to take her while she bent herself over the hood of her Audi. They fucked like hormonally charged teenagers, giggling away between moans as he pounded her from behind. The risk of getting caught heightened their pleasure. “I need some cock, Mr. Anderson. Oblige me,” she recalled saying.
Damn. Same position. What a coincidence.
She recalled still being horny when they arrived at the party, despite the garage quickie. It had been good, but it was better for him than it was for her. That's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, she rationalized. They hadn't the time to make it into something epic, they had to leave for the party. As soon as he ejaculated, the fuck was over, and Heather needed to clean herself.
On the drive to the Convention Hall, Heather’s mind wandered with the thought of maybe playing with her husband at the party. Maybe tease him. Maybe find an empty bathroom or a secluded storeroom or something like that. This time, it would be better for her. She’d demand that and he’d like it. He loved that horny, slutty side of his wife, but tonight, she decided, would be too risky.
She couldn’t afford being caught. Not now. How ironic, she thought, gripping the glossy picture. Being caught, but with a different man.
Bob Anderson was fifteen years Heather’s senior. He was a successful businessman and proudly, a self-made millionaire. It started with one location which eventually grew to eight and still counting. Everyone needs glass, he used to say. He had a clear vision, he’d also say. Everyone should have visual clarity. That last saying always made him laugh.
Luckily, a successful advertising firm convinced Bob that that was not the best slogan for his company. Bob reluctantly listened and agreed, but he never forgot.
As a young woman, Heather worked for Bob. While in high school, she frequently babysat Bob’s kids from his first marriage. For a young woman, she was incredibly reliable and he grew to depend on her. He entrusted her with his children. Bob was busy at work, building his business and hopefully a better life for his family. His ex-wife also helped with the fledgling company, when she could. However, her primary role was financially supporting the family during the lean years, from a dehumanizing cubicle while working full-time for the city.
Her building permit approval job paid well and helped keep the family finances healthy. Although she was free most evenings and weekends, she was unhappy. She avoided homelife as much as she could, relying heavily on Heather to look after their children. Bob's ex-wife wanted more from life. She wanted something Bob couldn’t provide no matter how hard he tried. She eventually went looking for her utopia somewhere else, leaving Bob with his glass business and Heather to take care of the abandoned family.
Bob had never met anyone like Heather and dependence evolved into love.
Confident, smart, loyal and sassy as fuck, she made him laugh. Heather aroused him in ways he never thought possible. He knew it was wrong, inappropriate, but he became uncontrollably enamored with her. However, he had to wait until she returned from college for her to officially fall in love with him. Then they waited for the divorce to be finalized, choreographed while she was away graduating before they went public with their relationship. It seemed like the right thing; the absolutely best thing to do. It was also an easy transition with the kids, whom she adored, and they adored her. Heather liked the idea of having a family but didn’t want to push out any of her own. This was a wonderful arrangement which worked well for everyone.
Bob doted on his younger wife. Anything she wanted, she got. Anytime. Anywhere. She was his everything. He even offered Heather her first job after graduating from college, but she respectfully declined. She wanted something else, other than just glass, to talk about at dinner. Immediately after college, she found work in human resources with a large accounting firm.
She quickly rose through the ranks, running the HR department in her own manner, eventually only answering directly to and working under one of the firm’s senior partners. Although both men knew one another, Bob swore he had nothing to do with Heather’s hiring or her quick rise in the organization. Heather's talent had achieved that.
Bob was a good salesman and second time around had become a great husband. He loved Heather to bits, as he’d sometimes say, and was her biggest fan. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. Heather recalled Bob actually saying that at the mayoral candidacy announcement party.
Biggest fan?
Shit.
Because they shared the same challenging liberal views in the current politically conservative climate, Bob had offered to bankroll her campaign if the fundraising fell short. He helped pick her campaign manager, which was no easy task, and also served as her campaign’s finance manager. Bob knew everyone who was anyone because anyone and everyone needed glass. This was his second chance. He had a vested interest now. Because Heather wanted it, he wanted it. He wanted to help realize his young wife’s goal of becoming the town's next chief executive officer. This time, he knew he would succeed.
o0o
Heather quite liked the photo. She thought she looked ravishing. Her long dark hair swept over her shoulders and her green, cat-like eyes gleamed with intrigue and excitement. The risqué, but contemporary black evening gown, with plummeting back, purchased specifically for the Mayor’s celebration, clung to her curvy figure more than she realized. The mid-thigh split also proved to be more revealing than she first thought. Her shiny, open-toed black pumps added a few more inches to her height, making her long, lean legs the envy of every woman, and the target of every man. Heather knew she’d need to tone down her attire when she was elected. She didn’t want to be known as the slutty mayor, but that was in the future. Tonight was a party and she was going to enjoy herself.
The next photo showed her adversary in the upcoming election, Sean McCarthy. He was embracing Alexa Grey, the retiring mayor and the lady of the evening. She was standing next to an indifferent Bob. Heather looked at the men in the photo and smirked. Except for money, they couldn't be more different if they tried. Even how they got their money was a polar opposite.
Both were wealthy, but while Bob was a well-respected humanitarian and a philanthropist who donated to local charities, good causes, and worthy foundations, Sean in comparison was a philanderer who inherited and some would argue, probably mismanaged his fortune. It was also rumored that he had squandered most of it away, spending a lot of it on Vegas hookers and cocaine. Who knew the truth? Regardless, it was a very dark time for Sean when his parents passed away. They never saw the truck coming.
Sean certainly wasn’t the Bruce Wayne-type, darkly combating evil and injustice. Some felt that he could, at times, be simultaneously both evil and unjust. People blamed his parent’s untimely deaths on his behavior, claiming that he was an unguided youth lashing out. And now, a man who had never grown up. She remembered that even in high school, he already had a reputation for being a kinky womanizer. He was trouble. He was to be avoided. She also remembered how the high school, including their entire graduating class, turned out for the funeral.
Sean epitomized the term playboy. Good times, fast cars, and faster women were the only things that seemingly mattered to him. He lived life in the fast lane, seemingly on a collision course with destruction, and didn't care who he took with him.
He was young and harsh compared to her husband's mature and mild. Brash and arrogant to Bob’s decent and prudent. While her hubby was now a safely-planned, extended vacation, Mr. McCarthy was a wild, dangerous weekend in Mexico. Although happily married, Heather couldn't deny Sean's animal attraction. He was still a bad boy. He was still trouble. Unfortunately, women seem irresistibly attracted to bad boys and Heather was no exception. The hell of it was, Sean knew it as well.
Studying the next photo, Heather’s stomach lurched again, like she had just descended a ten-story fall on a rollercoaster. Her muscles clenched trying to hold in her breakfast.
She was walking towards the ballroom with Sean. His hand was resting on the small of her back, with the tips of his fingers inside the opening of her dress. Heather remembered the tingling caused by his inappropriately intimate gesture. She was still horny. He was a possible cure. It was a bitter opportunistic pill that she wanted to swallow.
Heather’s head began to hurt. Her left temple now throbbed, one throb for every racing heartbeat. She grabbed a couple of aspirin from the drawer of her desk and washed them back with a shot of Irish Whisky, which she also stored in her desk. Many had come to toast to her campaign and pending success. She eventually just kept the bottle and a few glasses in the bottom drawer.
After wrestling with the lid and then chasing the pills, Heather wondered why she hadn't employed the time-honored excuse the previous night. She could’ve lied. She could’ve had a headache. She didn’t even think of it. Most probably because her head didn’t hurt, but her body ached.
Plus, she was out of her fucking mind.
With dread, Heather pulled another photo from the stack and sighed. She was dancing with Sean. They were waltzing. She tried to remember the song but couldn’t. She allowed herself to reminisce at their image. His lean, hard, black tuxedo-clad body pressed tightly against hers as he led her around the room with the ease and grace of a dancing professional. She recalled feeling his eyes removing her gown the entire time.
Sean’s fingers continued to explore the shape of her hips and the curve of her back, triggering more tingling feelings of the same. Although she knew Sean was an outrageous flirt, and she had always tolerated it, Heather kept him and his intentions at arm's length. Stay close to your friends but closer to your enemies, Bob would remind her. Plus, she didn’t want to make a scene. They had previously agreed that they’d keep the next campaign decent and civil. Not like the last one.
Alexa’s victory had left the community with a black eye. It had been ugly, damned ugly. It had been a bloodbath. Lives were ruined and relationships destroyed. Heather and Sean agreed that they’d behave like adults and not fling shit every chance they got. So tonight, they could dance and no one would be the wiser, or suspect anything. After all, it was supposed to be an innocent birthday party.
Heather wasn’t sure if it was the champagne talking, or if he was confiding or bragging, but while dancing, Sean disclosed that he had sex with Alexa. Despite not trusting him, Heather listened. She imagined. She learned. But she wasn’t as shocked as upon reflection, she thought she should’ve been. She also wondered if this was something she should mention to Bob or Trish.
Heather didn’t understand why she allowed it, but her body’s ache intensified while listening to the devilish details of Sean’s conquest. He seemingly relished the opportunity to tell her. It was almost like he was rubbing it in her face. He had bedded an older woman. He administered his tale like an aphrodisiac. He spoke carefully, using words like pussy and cock and hard and fucking and cum. His aphrodisiac was working. As they gracefully spun on the dance floor, all Heather could think about was having sex with Sean, and how good it could be.
She arrived at the party already in the mood. She wondered if he’d take her hard. Would he be rough? Would he slap her ass as he fucked her from behind? Would he want her behind? He probably would, she thought, to all of it, and she thought she’d probably like it.
Heather felt her wetness begin to pool and the crotch of her panties cling to her body. Each spin on the dance floor brought cool air between her legs, reminding her how warm and wet she was. Each time she felt the draft, her nipples seemed to harden a little more. Each time Heather felt Sean’s hand move, she ignored it. Then she felt Sean’s adventurous hand slip from the side of her hip to the edge of her ass, and alarm bells went off inside her head, as his fingers inched closer to her anal crevice. As his fingers advanced, Heather looked over Sean’s shoulder and saw Alexa being entertained by Bob. And the Mayor was practically sitting on her husband’s lap, entertaining him.
Where the hell was Jerry?
Interesting. Heather quickly scanned the room but couldn’t see him. For a woman who was leaving politics to spend more time with her family, she had a funny way of publicly displaying her renewed marital commitment to Jerry. Her party behavior was probably related to the reason she and Jerry had temporarily separated shortly after Alexa announced that she would not be seeking re-election. Again, interesting. Heather returned her steely gaze at Sean, the suspicions and disbelief clearly visible.
He interpreted her non-verbal challenge as being for his story, and not his aggressive libido. It was actually for both.