Between the Pages of Adultery Ch. 03

"I'm home, pumpkin," he said with a big grin.

Ashley jumped up from her chair and ran into his arms. "Oh dad, dad," she blubbered as she held on to him with all her might.

Later that night a naked Harrison crawled into bed next to his equally naked wife.

"I... I'm kind of nervous," she whispered.

"What are you nervous about?"

"Is it... ah," she took a breath. "Is it too soon... you know... "

Harrison knew exactly... he'd wondered the same thing. Had he really forgiven her or was he just lying to himself. Could he really make love to her again... really? Not just go through the motions? Could he dig deep enough down into his heart and let his love push back the pain and anger? It was the moment of truth.

Laura was still talking. "I, um... I want you to make love to me. I want you to show me you really do forgive me. I'm, ah... I want you so bad, honey. Please, do you think... "

Harrison rolled over and shut her up with kiss. As he broke the kiss he held his finger to her lips. "Shhhh." He planted another kiss on her chin... neck... around to the back of her ear; his finger left her lips as he slid his hand gently to the other side of her face and stroked her tenderly.

Laura could feel her heart beating with unbridled desire. Silently she prayed, thanking God for a second chance and vowing to never screw it up again.

Her loving husband's hand flowed tenderly down the side of her neck and onto her breast compassionately caressing one nipple, then the other.

Laura moaned and closed her eyes. For so long she had craved his touch.

Harrison slowly worked his way down her body. When his hand reached the entrance to her vagina he found her flooded with passion.

"Please," she sighed, "please put it in." Instinctively her hands grabbed at his back as he moved into position.

He had no trouble achieving an erection. He felt the warmth of her pussy as he slipped his rock hard cock deep inside.

"Oh, oh, God, I love you so much," she cried.

"I love you too," he replied with his first thrust.

It didn't take long for both to climax. They came together with all the hurt and pain disappearing within a fiery cloud of ecstasy.

The continuing sounds of love made it down the hall and found their way to the ears of a young girl who was too excited to sleep. Once again she thought of herself as the luckiest girl in the world.

It took almost two months before wife and daughter started treating him like a person and not a king, but eventually life became normal again.

***

It was about eight months after Harrison had moved back home when Ken called him into his office.

He hadn't even had a chance to sit down before Ken started talking. "Harrison, I've created a new position, Vice President in charge of International operations."

As perceptive as Ken was, he knew what Harrison was thinking... they didn't have any international operations?

He laughed when he saw his confused employee's face. Yeah, yeah I know, it sounds bogus doesn't it; but with a little luck and a lot of salesmanship that title could mean the future of this company."

Now Harrison was really puzzled.

Ken continued. "I'm sure you've heard of Sean Craig, the actor."

"Yeah, of course."

"Well he's starting a chain of restaurants. Right now he's thinking about seven here in the states and two in Canada, but if they're successful he wants to sell franchises all over the world. We are one of the companies he's considering to scout locations and analyze the market. If we could lock this in, it could mean millions."

"Jeeze, Ken that's fantastic."

"Yeah, but you haven't heard the best part yet... "

Harrison listened with anticipation.

"I'm naming you as the new VP," Ken elaborated. "Your new cards are being printed as we speak."

"Me? Ken, I'm... ah... "

"Hold on there, cowboy, there're strings attached."

I should have known, thought Harrison.

"You're the best salesman we have, bar none. I want you to take your top man as your assistant and go out to L.A. next week. We're counting on you to nail this thing down. If you don't, I won't take the title away from you but it won't mean anything and you'll be right back doing what you've always done. If you succeed it'll be your baby. Sean Craig will be your one and only account and we'll work out a nice compensation package for you."

It still didn't make sense. "Ken, I don't get it; why not just wait until we see if I can land the account before giving me the title?"

"Because I don't want to send a project manager; I'm hoping Craig is impressed with us for sending a VP to talk to him."

"Ahhhh," said Harrison indicating he now understood.

It took Harrison five trips to Los Angeles but he finally returned to Chicago in triumph after selling his firm as the one who could do the best job. There were cheers and accolades from all, including his loving family.

Over the next six months, Harrison and his team had all the preliminary ground work completed and was working with Sean Craig and his team to select the first seven locations for his restaurants.

Harrison had just returned from L.A. again when he was summoned into his boss' office once more.

Ken told him what a great job he was doing before getting to the reason for the meeting.

"Harrison, does the name Brad Griffin mean anything to you?"

Just hearing his name again made Harrison's blood run cold. His body stiffened and he had to force air into his lungs.

"Yeah," he declared with a growl. "He's the son-of-a-bitch that was sleeping with Laura... why?"

"I thought so," responded Ken. "Did you ever feel like you wanted to get revenge?"

"Are you kidding, plenty of times, but I didn't want to land in jail."

Ken looked at his star VP and spoke with an evil sounding tone in his voice. "Would you like to get that revenge?"

Harrison looked at his boss. He wouldn't ask something like that hypothetically. He had something up his sleeve. "What'd you have in mind?"

"Well your guy is quite the entrepreneur. Do you know what he did with that temp agency?"

Harrison shook his head no. "I know he was their biggest client, that's all."

"He contracted to do the shipping for a bunch of retail companies that marketed seasonal products. He hired people from your wife's company and put them to work in the shipping departments. When the season was over, they'd be out of a job but Griffin had a whole stack of companies that he was working with so he'd be hiring all the time. He ran a pretty lucrative business."

"Whoopee for him," Harrison said sarcastically. "So how do I get revenge?"

"Well our boy has set his sights a little higher these days. He's making a pitch for the contract to ship all the food to Craig's restaurants."

Suddenly Harrison sat up in his seat. Ken had his attention.

"He's gambling to get in on the ground floor of what he feels will be a worldwide chain of restaurants. He's really bet all his marbles on one roll of the dice, in fact he's over extended himself. Right now he's pretty heavily in the red and if he doesn't get the contract he'll be financially ruined."

Ken saw Harrison's eyes light up.

"I can make that happen with one phone call," smirked Ken.

"Do it," Harrison said without so much as a second's hesitation.

"Are you sure? I've never known you to be a vindictive person. Are you going to be able to sleep nights if I do this?"

"Like a baby," he replied. "Look, I know Laura was just as responsible as he was but this asshole almost ruined my life as well as hers. Ashley, Laura, me... we all went through hell; why should Griffin get off Scott free? He knew damn well she was married but it didn't mean a fucking thing to him. He knew she had a family who loved her, he didn't care. All he wanted was to get into her panties and he didn't give a shit who he hurt."

"Okay, consider it done," countered Ken.

Harrison started leave then had a thought. He turned toward Ken. "I want him to know it was me," he said. "It doesn't work unless he knows it was me."

Harrison sat back down where he and Ken hatched out a plan.

Three days later Harrison walked down Wabash Avenue in downtown Chicago. He turned into a high-rise office building and rode the elevator to the ninth floor. From there he took only a few steps before finding himself standing in front of the door marked, 'Brad Griffin Inc.' He smiled as he stepped inside.

"May I help you?" The S.O.B. had good taste in women, he thought. His secretary was a knockout.

"Yeah, I'm Mr. Jamison. I'm here to talk about the food contract for The Sean Craig Group."

"Yes sir, Mr. Jamison, he's expecting you," she said while reaching for the intercom. "Mr. Griffin, Mr. Jamison is here."

The voice of the devil came emanated from the box on her desk. "Send him right in."

"Go right in," parroted the shapely redhead. "Would you like some coffee?"

"No thanks, I won't be here that long," he stated. He tapped the 'send' button on his phone dispatching the pre-arranged text, as he entering through the office door.

Griffin had a large grin on his face as he stood to shake hands. "Mr. Jamison, it's very nice to meet you."

There he was, not more than four feet from the man responsible for the worst time of his life. "Sorry, my name isn't Jamison, it's Corbett, as in Laura Corbett, the married woman you had an affair with."

The big grin left Griffin's face immediately. He lowered his hand, Corbett wasn't about to shake it anyway. "What do you want?" Get out of my office," he demanded.

Just then his secretary's voice came across the intercom. "Mr. Griffin, I'm sorry to interrupt but there's someone else from the Sean Craig Group on line three. He said it was urgent."

Harrison smiled. "You'd better take that, it's important."

Griffin stared him in the face as he cautiously picked up the phone and hit button three. A few seconds later his face contorted with distress.

"What? You can't do that! No, wait a minute, but I... hold on... no, don't do that... " he looked up in horror as the line went dead.

Now it was Harrison who wore the big grin. "Payback's a bitch, isn't it." With that he turned and left. On the way back down the elevator, he reveled in his elation. It was almost biblical he thought. I met the prince of darkness and slew him, he told himself. Yeah!

Epilogue;

It's been three years since I reconciled with Laura. There were a lot of factors to consider back then but family was at the top of the list. To be honest, at the time I thought there was a good chance that by now I'd view that decision with regret, but thank God, the opposite is true.

Laura is doing great in real estate. Val taught her well. These days she pretty much makes her own hours and she brings home a lot more than she ever did as the manager of Star temp. Am I worried when she leaves to show a house in the evening? Actually I've never been more confident of anything, than I am in her faithfulness. She has proven her loyalty and fidelity time and time again.

Ashley is getting ready for college; she'll be leaving in another month. We are so proud of her.

I'm still the vice president of international operations but I really don't have that much to do anymore. My staff is amazing and has everything running very smoothly. Of course one of the major perks of that whole situation... well, aside from the kick I got destroying Griffin... was developing a friend like Sean Craig. He's a hell of a guy and we've become great buddies. I always have to laugh at Laura and Ashley whenever he comes to our house for dinner. It's funny watching them fall all over themselves.

Ashley couldn't help herself and started bragging in school about Sean being a friend of her dad's. Of course no one believed her and she was developing a reputation for being a liar. Sean heard about it when he was in town and asked if he could pick her up after school. He purposely made sure he was seen by as many teachers and students as possible, from that time on Ashley was the most popular girl in school.

One other interesting anecdote; a couple months ago Laura said she had something she wanted to discuss. It seems she's authored a book about her experience with extramarital sex; no, not about the sex itself, but the aftermath. She wrote about her immeasurable guilt and shame. She described her own pain as she watched her family deal with the grief and anguish, while knowing she was the cause. She detailed the extreme remorse she felt for putting her family through the worst time of our lives.

She wanted me to read it but I couldn't, it was too heart wrenching. She asked how I would feel if she self-published it on Amazon. She knew it wouldn't make much money but she wanted others to feel our pain in hopes that it might keep just one person from hurting his or her family the same way. I gave her my blessing with one stipulation, any money she made went into Ashley's college fund. She very heartedly agreed.

The first month it only made three hundred dollars but it's already surpassed that this month. It seems to be growing in popularity.

If any of you are considering having an affair, maybe you should read her book first, it's called, "Between the pages of Adultery."

The end.

*****

I hope you enjoyed the read. As always, comments are more than encouraged.
Thanks again,
Laptopwriter