Innocent Sins Ch. 06

"I came here to talk, and I'm not leaving until you hear me out," she told him with a strength that was at odds with her tears.

"Talk is cheap," he shot back. "Actions speak louder than words, and your actions a minute ago told me all I wanted to know."

He fleetingly felt an ounce of remorse for treating her as he had, but it was chased by the thought that he'd love to keep her here and repeat the experience over and over until she was out of his system once and for all. Not a wife anymore, but his own personal slut. What a thought.

Just then the sound of someone opening the door to his condo snapped him out of the wicked train of thought. Jenny walked into the room saying, "Jake, honey, you shouldn't have left me at that nightclub. I...what the hell is going on here?" she demanded when she saw Heather struggling to finish dressing, then saw that Jake was half undressed as well. She turned a look of pure hatred in his direction. "You bastard!"

He swallowed hard and could only lift his drink to his lips for courage. He really hadn't wanted to hurt Jenny, and he felt sorry that she had to walk in on them like this. Damn, he knew what it felt like. At the same time, he was relieved he wouldn't have to break things off on his own. When she continued staring at him, wanting some sort of explanation or apology, all he could do was shrug and say, "What took you so long, baby?"

Without another word, Jenny whirled and stormed out of his home and his life, probably forever. Thank God.

When he looked at Heather, she was watching him as if he were a complete stranger and his actions horrified her. She was dressed now and still standing in front of the window. She walked over and sat down on the sofa, wiping away her tears.

In addition to her feelings of jealousy over Jake's relationship with Jenny - the woman from the video, no less - Heather was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that this cold-hearted man was the same man she had loved most of her life. She knew she was to blame for the way he had become, and she made up her mind to do whatever it took to bring back the old Jake. The Jake who would have never made love to her and then dismissed her as quick as that; the Jake who would have never shrugged off the feelings of the other woman so nonchalantly.

Clearing her throat, she began, "You asked why I wasn't with Ty. I don't want to be with him."

"Hmmm. What, did he kick you out already? That figures." With a drink in his hand, he walked over to an adjoining chair and sat down, apparently now willing to listen to whatever she wanted to say.

"No," she corrected him carefully. "Ty hasn't stopped pursuing me since...since before the divorce, but I've made it clear that I want nothing to do with him."

"Too bad you couldn't have done that to begin with," he stated frankly.

"I'm sorry, Jake," she said in a pleading tone. "I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't want it to happen. Ty drugged me those first couple of times, and after that, he threatened to tell you if I didn't cooperate."

"How cliche. Though there is something I've been wondering," he commented casually. "What did you plan to do when I got home? I mean, you probably would have kept sleeping with both of us if you hadn't been caught, right? Isn't that the way it usually works."

"No, Jake, I swear," she told him, but the truth was she didn't know what she would have done. She had once condemned spouses who cheated on their partner with the old adage, what they don't know won't hurt them. Now she understood all too well what a temptation it could be to do so. However, she seriously doubted she could have ever looked into her beloved husband's eyes each night while keeping a secret affair going on the side. She suddenly remembered how a close friend of hers had discovered her husband was having an affair. She'd said she should have known because his personality had been different...he'd been alternately irritable and then affectionate for no reason. Heather thought she understood why now. It would have torn her heart out, made her crazy, having an ongoing affair. The strain would have proven too much, and she would have eventually confessed everything. At least, that's what she'd like to think. In a way, she was glad it had never come to that.

"Doesn't matter anymore," he said, and his voice was slightly slurred. "We can't go back, no matter how much we might wish we could."

"No, Jake, we can't, but we can go forward," she said, sliding closer to reach for his hand. "You can give me a chance to make it up to you. We can start over. Please?"

He pulled his hand away but seemed to be considering the idea. Finally he said, "What would you be willing to do?"

"Anything," she replied eagerly, certain he was going to accept the offer. She would soon have the old Jake back!

He tossed back the last of the whiskey in his glass and smiled at her, but it wasn't a familiar smile. It was cold, calculating. "Tell you what," he finally said. "I hate sleeping alone, and as fate would have it, there seems to be an opening for a new slut in my life. I'm willing to consider you for the position, given certain conditions."

Heather felt her heart drop to her feet, hearing the word slut instead of wife or even lover, but the truth was she loved Jake and would do anything to get him back. Maybe this was some sort of test, she realized. Maybe he needed to know how far she would go to get him back.

"I don't even need to hear the conditions to accept. I'll do anything. Just tell me what you want, Jake."

"First of all, if you want to live with me, you have to go see a doctor and prove that you haven't picked up some STD," he told her coldly. "Even so, I always use a condom, so don't even think about faking 'an accident' to trap me back into marriage. Still listening?"

Shocked at the way he was talking to her, Heather could only nod.

"Second, you have to be available when I want, wherever I want, do whatever I want, no questions asked. I expect you to dress the part of a slut at all times. I, of course, will buy all of your clothes. And of course I would expect you to give up other men. I value my health too much to sleep with someone who fucks around."

"There are no other men to give up," she said in a firm voice. "Is that all?"

"A few more things," he said, as if he'd just thought of them. "I don't want you to ever mention to anyone that we were ever married. And if you ever tell me again that you love me, I'll show you the door in a heartbeat. Got that?"

She nodded, shocked by the conditions he'd listed.

"Of course, otherwise, if and when you decide to leave, that would be your choice," he told her. "So, if you want the position, it's yours. Now I'm going to bed. If you're gone when I wake up, fine. Have a nice life. But if you decide to stay, Jenny always gave me a blowjob first thing in the morning. I've gotten kind of used to it, if you don't mind."

He left Heather sitting on the couch, looking dumbfounded and stunned. Good. He figured she would hightail it out of here as soon as he hit the sack. No woman with an ounce of self respect would agree to his terms, and Heather had a lot of pride.

Heather, meanwhile, was going over the conditions in her mind, coming to terms with them. She didn't want to live with Jake as some sort of dirty mistress, but she needed to be with him as much as she needed to breathe. How could she pass up an opportunity to get back into his life? Besides, if she proved her love over and over again, eventually it would sink in, and the old Jake would feel safe enough to come back out and love her in return. The hardest part would be not telling him how much she still loved him, but she was pretty sure she could hold her tongue....for a while, anyway. Vegas was a big city. She could find work here easily, she'd bet. All she would have to do was move her things out west, quit her job. It wouldn't be easy, but she would do it.

Jake was still in the shower when he realized someone else was in the room with him. Through the glass he could see the shape of a dark-haired woman as she peeled herself out of her clothes. Then the door of the shower slid open, and Heather gracefully stepped beneath the spray with him. "If you don't mind, I'd like to start my own traditions," she said a bit tartly, obviously jealous of Jenny's lingering presence. Jake then felt her hand sliding down his stomach and caressing his cock. "Besides, I don't want to wait until morning to do this."

Sliding to her knees in front of him, Heather took him into her mouth, and any jealousy Jake had been feeling, remembering the tape of Heather fucking Ty in his shower, suddenly fled his mind.

He supposed it was enough to know she was here, with him, and she didn't appear to be going anywhere soon.