The job was way up in the hills, nearly two hours south of town, and after driving ninety minutes or so I realized why my small company had gotten the gig: no one else wanted to travel so far to such a remote location. I was desperate for business though, after the year I'd just experienced. My divorce had been messy and very expensive, and I just couldn't really afford to turn anything down. And I knew I'd be getting paid well. The name of the home's owner was familiar. He was a hot-shot real estate developer, or had been until a year or so earlier. There had been rumors of serious health issues in the local financial pages. I hadn't heard anything about him for some time.
His wife had offered me the job over the phone, assuring me that I'd be paid extra for travelling expenses. The sound of her voice and what she had to tell me provided the final incentive for accepting it, if indeed I needed one.
"It involves some special video camera installation," she explained with her sultry, sexy voice. "In one of our bedrooms."
I was hooked. I was intrigued. And not just by the nature of the job. That voice was so interesting. There was a kind of appeal in it that I couldn't quite figure out. And a youthfulness. I understood her husband to be in his fifties, but his wife sounded so much younger, somehow.
Imagination can be deceiving, of course, but in this case it turned out to be not far off the mark. She met me in the courtyard of the palatial mansion as I parked and I immediately took her to be in her mid-twenties. She was petite and slender, but remarkably full-breasted in her short summer dress. She had terrific legs and one of the most stunningly beautiful faces I've ever come across. She'd been working as a model, I learned later, when her future husband first clapped eyes on her.
She shook my hand and led me through the ground floor of the rambling old house. It dated from the 1930's, apparently, the only concessions to modernity a fabulous updated kitchen and a huge emerald pool in back. Then she led me upstairs where I was to meet her husband.
"He suffered a severe stroke two years back which has left him --- incapacitated," she explained. "He only leaves his bed twice a week when he's driven into town for therapy."
I was suddenly standing at the foot of an enormous bed being introduced to the once vigorous and successful Ralph Knight and it was no small shock. He might still be the head of a thriving business but he was now a shell of a man. He stared at me with dark, intense eyes from his bank of pillows and there was a labored half-wave of an emaciated hand but no word, no sound at all. We simply stared at each other for maybe thirty seconds and then Holly, for that was her name, was leading me down to a basement bedroom, which was apparently where the cameras were to be installed.
"This will seem strange to you I know," she said, "but you'll be paid well for your discretion in the matter. He wants cameras mounted around this bed so that he can watch me --- perform. I'll give you the details later."
Without waiting for my response she led me through the bright and cheerful lower level, with a small office space in one corner and glass doors opening onto the apron of the swimming pool. There was an exercise room down here also and a large bed with another full bathroom close by. She tried to keep up her husband's business affairs from here, she explained, though most of it was in the hands of very capable associates in the city.
"Your husband, then, can't ---." I paused, unsure quite what I wanted to say.
But she was ahead of me.
"He can't do much of anything," she stated, leading me out through the glass doors to sit by the pool.
"How then, exactly, do you communicate?"
"He types things, very slowly, with one finger, on his laptop. He gives me instructions."
We sat quietly then, in the sweet sunlight, both of us lost in thought for a while. Till she finally broke the silence by asking how long I thought the job would take and other mundane details. I promised to be back within a day or so with my two helpers, and then I was on my way.
As I drove off I could see her in the rear-view mirror standing at her front door with her arms crossed. She watched me till I was out of sight and I felt a pang of such tenderness for her, stuck way out here with an incapacitated husband and the occasional professional attendant. I wondered when was the last time she'd had sex.
* * *
The job was a bit trickier than I'd first envisioned, but my two helpers were experts. Rodney had also recently been through an unpleasant divorce and we sympathized and supported each other as we ground through our days. We'd grown pretty close and spent time together when we weren't working. Ike was a young mechanical whiz, tall and athletic and full of wry humor. He was single and spent his evenings prowling the clubs, and from what I could gather he was very successful. He kept Rodney and me entertained with tales of his sexual exploits. He never came to work late, though he was often hung over, and his extra-curricular activities never seemed to affect his days with us. He'd only been with me for eight months but proved himself totally reliable and by now indispensable.
We all worked well together, and on this job our only real distraction was Holly as she strode to the pool for her daily exercise in the skimpiest teal bikini. What an ass. What tits. I'm amazed we stayed as concentrated as we did.
Rodney and Ike had followed me up to the mansion in the equipment van while I drove my old compact and within two days we had the job close enough to completion that I could send them home early while I cleaned up and reported to Holly on our progress. We couldn't really test and sign off on the project until Ralph returned from his bi-weekly overnight stay in the city hospital, where he regularly underwent various tests. He'd been gone since early that morning.
"That young woman sure is a looker," Rodney commented quietly as I walked them to the van.
"Yeah. What do you think she does for nooky?" Ike grinned. "I don't think old Ralph is up to much."
"She must have her outlets," I suggested, wondering just what those outlets could possibly be.
It took me another hour to finish up and I must have looked pretty grubby by the time I was done. Holly laughed and said I could use the basement shower before my long drive back to the city. As I relaxed under the warm spray I found myself growing erect as I thought of Holly and her possible outlets. I had no idea that within minutes I would have a much clearer insight into what that lovely young lady was all about.
When I came out of the shower she was sitting at her desk with a bottle of gin and two glasses. She wore a short bathrobe and her hair was wet, as if she'd just come from the pool.
"Thanks again for the use of the shower," I smiled at her.
"I should have invited you to use the pool. Sorry, I wasn't thinking."
"I was pretty greasy. I needed the shower. I'm about to drive back to the city. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"You could have a drink with me. Keep me company."
I pulled up a chair next to her as she poured me a shot and added some tonic from an open can.
"It must get pretty lonely out here so far from everything. And your husband in his condition. You must care deeply for him."
She gave me a long level look.
"Not really. He's twenty five years older than me. It was a marriage of --- convenience. For me."
"There must have been some attraction. For you."
"All monetary, I assure you. I had very little to offer other than my looks. And sex. And I wanted the life-style. Never having to worry about money. I've paid for it though, in many ways."
"By having an invalid on your hands."
"That, and in other ways. Ralph wasn't the nicest guy in the world, believe me. He could be charming in company. And he was an excellent salesman. But he was often verbally abusive, in private. And on more than one occasion he came close to being physically so. I could see it in his eyes. He's been quite a bastard, actually."
