He Reminds Me of My Husband

Maria was still unsteady on her feet as she walked back towards Paul. She bent and picked up her skirt and jacket, and hung them in the wardrobe. Walking back to Paul she stood in front of him with her feet apart. She looked down at the bulge in his lap.

"I see you find something to like in this old widow lady."

"There's nothing old about you, and yes I find everything about you attractive. If things were different you'd be beating me off with a stick."

Maria took his hands in hers and pulled him to his feet. She kissed him.

"No more protests. I really need to be loved tonight. You seem like a nice man; you are divorced so I'm not hurting anyone else. Just give me this night, I promise I'll still respect you in the morning."

She unbuckled his belt, and pushed down his zip. The trousers fell to the floor. His erect manhood made a pronounced bulge in his boxer shorts. She sank down on one knee and eased his shoes off. Paul stepped out of his trousers, and as she stood she picked up the trousers and draped them over the back of the chair. Unbuttoning his shirt, she ran her hands over his chest.

"Hmm, not bad, you keep yourself in shape."

"Well, I'm not into body building but I like to keep in trim."

She eased the shirt off of his shoulders and dropped it onto the chair. Stepping back, she turned and put one foot on the bed and unfastened the suspenders from her stocking. She slowly rolled the stocking down her shapely legs. She turned to Paul.

"Will used to love to watch me do this."

"I can understand that, it's so sexy."

"You see, I told you that you are a lot like him. Would you like to do the other leg?"

"Oh, yes!"

Paul sat on the bed with his legs apart. Maria eased her foot out of her shoe, and then out of her stocking. She put her foot back down, then moved over and put her other foot between Paul's legs. She unfastened the suspender, and waited for Paul to move. As he touched her inner thigh, she felt a shiver run through her. With a hand either side of her leg he started to stroke downwards , rolling the stocking down. He smiled up at her.

"This is the most erotic thing I've ever done."

"And we haven't started yet."

She pulled her foot out her shoe and stocking. Standing back on the floor, she removed the suspender belt.

"The rest is up to you."

Paul stood up and took her in his arms. As he unfastened her bra she held onto him, kissing his neck. With the bra released, he stepped back and slowly eased the halter straps off her shoulders and down her arms. He stood and looked at her newly released breasts. Exquisite was the only word he could think of to describe them. He cupped them both, gently stroking her stiffening nipples with his thumbs. He slowly stroked her sides from her arm pits down to her waist. She sighed as his hands came to rest on her hips.

Paul eased his hands under the waist band of her panties, leaving his extended thumbs outside. He moved his hands down over her buttocks. His hands, stroking her arse, excited Maria. She put her arms around him, and pushed her breasts and pussy against him. He moved his hands, and the panties with them, further down her legs, and Maria released him. He kissed both of her nipples, then down over her stomach, until his hands reached the floor and he found himself kissing her perfectly trimmed mound. As he did so Maria pushed herself against his lips.

Paul stood up and pulled back the bed covers before scooping up Maria and laying her out on the bed. He walked around the bed, took off his boxers, and climbed into the bed beside her. As he stroked her body it rose to meet his hand. He stretched out his arm, and Maria raised her head to accept it. As his other hand caressed her hip she turned towards him, throwing first her arm and then a leg around him.

He rubbed and stroked her back, then down to her waist. His fingers reached her coccyx, and as he massaged it she forced herself against his stiffness. When his finger found her tight little backdoor, she pushed harder and started to moan.

"Love me, Will." She said. "Just one more time, love me tonight."

Paul was suddenly aware of why she wanted him there. He reminded her of William, and he was her substitute. He knew he should have been offended, but nothing this woman said or did would offend him. If she got some comfort from believing he was her dead husband, then he was more than happy to provide it.

Paul's hand came up to her breast, and as he ran his palm over her nipple she pushed even harder against him.

"Love me, Will, love me now."

Paul rolled onto his back, and Maria quickly scrambled on top of him. Reaching down between her legs, she grasped his manhood and guided it into her. Her hot wet pussy enveloped his cock. As he entered her, Maria let out a sigh. She pushed hard against him, rubbing her clit against his mound. She thrust forward, and ground her pussy against him. With every movement, she let out a groan. She pushed herself up giving Paul access to her breasts. As he started squeezing them and pinching the nipples, her movements got more intense.

"Oh yes, Will, yessss!"

Her head went back, her back arched, and her breath came out in huge grunts. She suddenly relaxed and fell down onto him. Paul was still not finished, and after a short pause started to move beneath her. As he moved up and down beneath her, he ran his nails up and down her back, then rubbed his fingers over her arse. He could feel her pushing down against him, circling her hips as he moved in and out. When Paul's fingers started to probe her anus Maria forced herself against him, pushing him down onto the bed. His cock pumped juice into her as the grunts started, and once again her body stiffened.

Maria collapsed onto Paul's chest and lay there, as she recovered and he softened inside her. As they lay there, enjoying the closeness of their bodies, Paul kissed her forehead and gently ran his hands over her back. Her breathing became shallow as she started to drop off to sleep. Paul gave her shoulder a little shake.

"Wake up, sleepyhead, I think we need to clean up."

Maria slipped out of the bed and walked to the bathroom, and Paul feasted his eyes on her as she walked away from him. He heard the shower running; five minutes later she came out of the bathroom and came back to the bed. Paul kissed her, and got out of the bed. By the time he got back, Maria was asleep. He gathered up his clothes, and went back to the bathroom to get dressed. He bent over and kissed her cheek before leaving.

Maria woke at 8 a.m. after the best night's sleep she could remember. What a dream she'd had. Her Will had come back to her, they had made love, and it had been wonderful. Her hand moved over the spot where he'd lain; then she felt it, the damp spot. It had to be a dream, but dreams don't leave damp patches like that one. Her head was throbbing. Slowly things came back to her, as she found her handbag and took out a couple of Paracetamol. She moved to the bathroom. She remembered Paul.

"My god", she said to herself. "I threw myself at him."

As she washed and dressed she made up her mind to seek Paul out before he left, and apologise for her behaviour. On the way to the restaurant for breakfast, she asked at reception for his room number.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Lancaster," the receptionist told her. "Mr Robertson checked out about ten minutes ago. I think he was heading for the Post Office, so you might catch him there if you hurry."

Maria cursed under her breath. "No, it was nothing important, thank you."

She had a light breakfast, and made her way to the court buildings. On arrival she was greeted by an usher, who took her name and pointed her in the direction of the prosecuting counsel in the case. He told her there was no real need for her to be there.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Lancaster, but you're not a witness. We only need you for the victim statement, which will only come after the conviction, if there is one."

"But we will get a conviction, won't we?"

"I can't say; the witnesses say he used his phone. The only phone the police found hadn't sent a message for hours. His network records back that up. If the defence use that to introduce an element of doubt, he could get off."

A tear came to Maria's eye. "I want to look at him. Where do I go?"

"As I said, we won't need you until we have a conviction. If you want to watch the proceedings, you'll have to sit in the public gallery."

He walked her to the entrance to the public gallery, and left her.

Maria found herself a seat on the front bench of the gallery. She had an excellent view of the whole court. She looked at her watch. It was 10.00 am. As she made herself comfortable, two officers of the court led him in. Suddenly she didn't feel so well; the prisoner being led in was Paul. She raced out to the toilet, and only just made it before her breakfast tried to find its way out the same way it went in.

By the time she got back to the court, Paul stood in the dock, and the proceedings were underway. The clerk read the charges.

"Paul Arthur Robinson, you are charged with driving in a dangerous manner, and in doing so bringing about the death of William Robert Lancaster. How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?"

"Guilty, your honour."

A hush spread over the court. Defence counsel looked surprised. "I request a ten minute recess, M'lud. I don't think my client is fully aware of the consequences of his plea."

"Mr. Jeffers, am I to take it this plea has come as a surprise to you?"

"Yes M'lud, it has."

"Very well, ten minutes."

"May I speak?" Paul asked from the dock. The judge nodded to him. "I don't need ten minutes, your honour. I know the consequences of my plea."

"But I can get you off!" said Jeffers.

"Not any more, you can't." He looked at the judge. "I get the chance to tell you what happened, right?"

"You can make a statement of mitigation, yes."

"OK, then let's get on with it. This has been hanging on long enough."

It took ten minutes for the court to settle down again. Paul was led to the witness box. As he stepped up into the box, he looked at Maria and mouthed the words "I'm sorry."

She looked at him with nothing but disdain. "You bastard", she mouthed back at him.

The judge told him to go ahead with his statement.

"Your honour, the witnesses were mistaken. I didn't send a text message just prior to the accident."

"Make up your mind, Mr Robertson. You pleaded guilty, and now you say the witnesses were wrong."

"I didn't send a text, your honour, I received a video message from my wife. Sometimes when I'm away my wife sends me messages with pictures and video. You know the sort of thing — intimate pictures, videos of sexy activities. She does it to show me what I'm missing."

"You can do all this on a phone?"

"Yes, M'lud", said Jeffers. "It's called Multimedia Messaging."

Paul continued. "This message came from my wife's phone, but it was not from my wife. What I saw was another man boasting about having sex with my wife. It was followed by videos of her sucking his cock and him screwing her. It was such a shock that I wasn't functioning normally."

"This sounds more like a defence than mitigation, Mr Robertson."

"No, it's not, your honour. I know I should never have picked up that phone. Because I did, a family have lost their father and a wife has lost her husband. That's something I'll always regret."

"So what happened when you saw these messages?"

"I don't really know, your honour. I don't remember much about the long grind up the hill, I must have been driving automatically. When my truck started to pitch and roll a bit, it snapped me back to reality. I saw the car ahead had stopped but hadn't pulled completely off the road. I was going to pull into the outside lane, but when I checked the mirror I saw a car overtaking me. I stepped on the brakes as hard as I could, and just prayed there was no one in the car."

"It seems your prayers weren't answered."

"They weren't, your honour. I'm truly sorry for the effect I had on this family."

Paul was excused, and Maria took the stand. She told the court about life without William. She outlined the effect on the children of having their father taken from them.

By 1pm the judge was ready to pass sentence. He accepted that the effect of the messages would have been traumatic, and acknowledged the fact that the guilty plea had saved the taxpayers money. He handed down a sentence of five years imprisonment. Paul's head went down as they led him away. Maria stared at him, but he never raised his head once. Her feelings were in turmoil. She wanted to kill him for taking her William away, but at the same time she felt sorry for him. He'd had losses too, and that loss had led to what happened.

At 9.00 am Monday morning Maria's friend Sally welcomed her back to work.

"Well, do you feel better now?"

"Not really, Sally, no."

"I suppose not, five years is not much for taking a man's life."

"That's not what I mean. I thought I'd make him understand what he'd done to me. I wanted him to suffer like me. I expected to hate him. When he explained to the court what had happened, I realised his life shattered on the same day he smashed mine. Now I don't know how I feel."

"Well your work's been piling up, so you've got plenty to take your mind off it. By the way, if he pleaded guilty what kept you away so long?"

"I'd booked a week off, and mum and dad were looking after the kids, so I decided to join them for a few days. We got home yesterday."

"Well I hope the break's done you good, girl, because you've got a mountain to get through."

The two women went their separate ways and didn't meet up again until lunch time, when Sally put her head around Maria's door.

"We're going out for lunch today, you wanna come?"

"No thanks, Sally, I've got to go to the sorting office. The postman tried to deliver a parcel while I was away. "

"Ooh! Something nice, I hope."

"I haven't a clue. I'm not expecting anything."

"Oh well, I'll see you later."

Maria went out to collect her parcel, and was back in her office finishing a sandwich when Sally came back in. She noticed the unopened parcel sitting on the desk.

"You're not telling me you still haven't opened it? Come on, girl, let's see what the surprise is."

Maria giggled then picked up the parcel. Using her letter opener she removed the brown paper wrapping, and cut through the sticky tape holding the cardboard box together. Inside she found a smart phone and charger and an envelope. Written on the outside of the envelope were the words:I'm sorry to have to do this to you but a promise is a promise.

Maria had a feeling of impending doom, but Sally was looking at the phone.

"Wow! That's some surprise. My brother has one of those. Have you any idea how much those things cost?"

Maria trembled as she opened the envelope. There was a short note inside:

Hi Maria,

You'll find everything you want in the messages folder. You only need to look at those from Josie. It's all there for you to do what you like with. That includes the phone, I won't need it anymore.

P

Sally excitedly picked up the phone and switched it on, and was reading the note over Maria's shoulder.

"Messages! Ah, Josie! That should do it."

Maria tried to stop her. "Sally, I really don't think I ..."

Her speech was interrupted by the sound of Will's voice. Maria grabbed the phone and sat there mesmerised.

"Hi there, little dog." Will's voice rang out from the phone. "Just letting you know there's a big dog in town, and that fine little bitch of yours just can't get enough of him. Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure she throws you a bone from time to time, but when the big dog's in town she's gonna come running. You don't believe me, do you? You think this is some evil joke by someone who's picked up her phone. Well, you hear that noise in the background? That's her in the shower, cleaning herself up for when you get home. When I finish talking, you can see a few extracts from today's session."

"Switch it off" said Maria, as the picture changed to a woman with dark hair and green eyes looking straight at the camera as she sucked on a man's cock.

Sally made no move. "Switch it off!" Maria screamed, as the scene changed and now the woman was on her hands and knees as William took her from behind. She reached out grabbed the phone and threw it across the room. Sally stood watching her for a moment, her friend's eyes burned with rage.

"So now you know. I'm really sorry, I couldn't be the one to tell you. I haven't got that many friends, I couldn't afford to lose the best one."

"You knew, and you didn't tell me. Why? Why would you do that?"

"We all did. You must have noticed the way the girls behaved around him at the Christmas parties. Maria's octopus, we called him, because he seemed to have hands everywhere. Some thought you turned a blind eye, others could see you were besotted with him. If we'd told you, you would have called us liars, and said we were jealous. I knew it would take something like this, condemned from his own mouth, to make you believe it. I love you, Maria, you are my oldest and dearest friend. I didn't want to lose you over an arsehole who couldn't keep his trousers up."

"No, it can't be true, it just can't be. My Will wouldn't do something like that. He just wouldn't, it must be a trick."

"It was no trick, Maria. Do you want to watch the video again?"

"No, no, I never want to see it again."

"Aha! So you know it's real."

"I don't know anything anymore." She sat and started to sob, and Sally got up.

"I'm going to see Maryanne and get you some compassionate leave, then I'm going to drive you home."

Sally left the office. She came back ten minutes later to find Maria fighting back the tears. She put her arm around her friend.

"Come on, sweetheart, let's get you home."

Sally walked over and picked up the phone. It was completely dead. She looked back at Maria.

"Do you know who I really feel sorry for? The poor bastard who got that message. I wonder what happened to him?"

"He got five years."