Author's note: Thanks to Grey Eagle 286 for the idea behind this story.
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Judy Farmer knew better than to argue with her husband, but she decided she had to at least try to talk him out of this madness.
Even as the thought came to her, she reached up with her left hand and felt the soreness on her cheekbone that was the remnant of the last time she done something to piss him off, which had been four days earlier. The swelling had gone down, but the area was still sore and still slightly discolored.
No, indeed, Judy knew from hard experience the possible consequences of arguing with Richard, but his insistence on having her go into the hotel bar, picking up a strange man and bringing him to their room for sex left her no choice.
And she figured he wouldn't risk slapping her around right here in the lobby of the downtown Atlanta Hilton. She took a deep breath and bravely pressed forward.
"Richard, please, don't make me do this," Judy said. "I don't want another man. I just want you. Please?"
"Shut up, bitch!" Richard snarled. "If you know what's good for you, you'll do as I say. You're going to be my slut whether you like it or not."
"But why?" Judy pleaded. "Why do you want me to do this?"
"Because I can," he answered. "And because it turns me on to know that my prissy little wife is really a slut inside, that she'll fuck another man if I tell her to."
"But I'm not!" Judy cried. "I'm not that way."
"You are if I say you are," Richard said. "Now, shut your mouth and go sit down at the bar. There's a nice-looking fellow sitting at the bar, third stool from the entrance. He'll do nicely."
"But ..." Judy said.
"Judy ..." Richard said menacingly.
Judy's shoulders slumped and she nodded her head in defeat. If only she wasn't so dependent on him for her well-being, if only they didn't live in a small town where everyone knew her and knew him, if only she had some place she could go. If, if, if. She'd thought about leaving him many times, but all those ifs added up to make that impossible.
Richard pointed Judy toward the bar, then stood back with a self-satisfied smile. He'd bend her to his perverted will yet.
Calvin Davidson – Cal to his friends – was nursing a Coors Light as he wound down after a busy day. He had one more day of business in this city, then he could fly back to Colorado, back to his beloved mountains. Suddenly, his attention was diverted by a soft, hesitant voice from his right.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" Judy said.
Cal turned his head and found himself face to face with one of the prettiest women he'd ever seen. She appeared to be in her early 30s, she had soft blonde curls, cut short, a perky nose, enticing lips and a body that had no excess anywhere.
She was about 5-3, maybe 5-4, and trim, with a set of breasts that appeared to be around a size 34B. She was dressed in a thin white blouse, with no bra, a short floral skirt and high heels.
The only thing that was unusual about the woman that Cal could see was the pair of dark glasses she was wearing. Sunglasses at 9 o'clock at night? Then he noticed the thin white cane that she sat against the bar, and he understood.
Judy sat down on the stool, sat her purse on the bar and ordered a drink. She wasn't sure how to go about picking up a stranger, especially a stranger she couldn't see. Fortunately, Cal made it easy.
"What's a girl like you doing alone on a night like this?" Cal said. Then he laughed. "I know that's kind of a lame line, but I'm not real good at this sort of thing."
"Neither am I," Judy said. "I ... I'm just here looking for a little fun."
Cal took note of the wedding and engagement rings on her left hand, then he looked at her face – really looked – and a frown creased his face.
"Maybe I should rephrase that," Cal said. "What's a nice married girl like you doing in a place like this?"
"Do you want the truth?" Judy said.
"Please," Cal said.
"My husband sent me," she said, and she could feel her composure cracking. "He's got this notion that I'm really a slut inside, and he wants to share me with strangers. He talks all the time about having me do threesomes, gangbangs and all sorts of other perverted things."
"And you're not too keen on that notion, are you," Cal said.
"Heavens, no," Judy said. "I don't know why he wants me to do this, but I don't have any choice."
"How often does he hit you?" Cal said.
"What do you mean?" Judy said.
"Unless you're a lot clumsier than I think you are, you didn't get that bruise on your face by yourself," Cal said.
"I ..." Judy started, then she started to break down. Cal took her hand, put his other hand on her shoulder and got her to calm down.
"Tell me about it," Cal said gently.
"It was Saturday night, last weekend," Judy began. "He came home drunk from his lodge, where he does his drinking. He brought a guy home with him, someone I didn't know, and wanted me to have sex with him. I tried, but the guy had had too much to drink and couldn't get it up. He left in disgust, and Richard blamed me, said I wasn't sexy enough. I made the mistake of trying to argue with him about it, so he punched me."
"How often does this happen?" Cal said.
"A couple of times a month," Judy said. "Usually when he's drunk."
"Why do you take that kind of treatment?" Cal said.
"Look at me," Judy said. "I can't see, I have no skills and I have nowhere to go. And my family's no help; they're the ones who pushed me into marrying Richard."
"So tell me about yourself," Cal said, genuinely interested.
"Only if you buy me another drink," Judy said with a smile that seemed to light up the whole room.
Cal learned that Judy was 32 and lived in a small town in central Georgia, a couple of hours away. She and Richard had been married for six years, were childless and she didn't work. Richard was a real estate agent in the town where they lived and was very active in local politics.
Judy learned that Cal was 41 and lived in Denver. He was an architect who owned his own company. He had married young, and had two children, a daughter and a son who were now 21 and 19, respectively.
For some reason, he'd gotten the seven-year itch and had started fooling around on his many business trips, when he was working for a top construction company in Denver. His wife had found out about his little side affairs and had divorced him.
"Biggest mistake of my life," Cal said.
"Why? Do you still love her?" Judy asked.
"Oh, I guess at some level I still do," Cal said. "But it's been so long ago, and she's remarried so it's a moot point. We're still friends, though, and we shared custody of the kids. I kick myself all the time about it. I threw away a damn good woman just because I wasn't completely satisfied."
"But why did you do it?" Judy said.
"Honestly?" Cal said. "I wasn't getting as much sex as I thought I deserved, and I felt like I was entitled to take on the road what I wasn't getting at home. Of course, I completely forgot that my wife had a job of her own, plus two small children that she wasn't getting much help with. In other words, I was a dumbass."
Judy laughed then, and Cal felt a chill slither down his spine at the sound. It was a mirthful sound totally at odds with her difficult situation.
"Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Cal asked, then continued when she nodded her head. "Have you been blind all of your life?"
"No," she said and looked away at the far corner of the room. She still remembered – indeed, she still cherished – the things she'd seen in her youth. "I was 8, and I suffered a fall from a second-story window. I was lucky enough to land in a sandy area, but the impact severed my optic nerves, and I've been blind ever since."
"They can't repair that?" Cal said.
"I don't know," Judy said. "I don't think they could when it happened, and it wouldn't have mattered if they if they had been able to. My family was poor and couldn't afford it, plus my parents are very fundamentalist Christians and they believed it was 'God's will' for me to be blind."
"What about your husband?" Cal said. "Surely he can afford it, especially if he's on a good medical insurance plan."
"He's never looked into it," Judy said. "I think he likes having me helpless and dependent on him."
"Helpless?" Cal said. "That's a crock of shit, pardon my French. I know several blind people in Denver and they live full active lives. You're only limited by your own expectations."
"I don't know," Judy said uncertainly. "Richard doesn't seem to think I have much chance of being productive, although I do cook, clean house and let him have sex whenever he wants it."
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Cal saw a tall red-headed man walk into the bar, stop for a moment and gaze at where he was sitting, then walk over to sit in a corner booth.
He guessed that was Richard Farmer, and turned his head to look right at the man. Cal then winked and Richard nodded his head in acknowledgement. Cal took just a second to take in the man's features, noting the hard look in his eyes and the cruel set of his mouth.
"How did you come to be married to this guy?" Cal asked, turning his attention back to Judy. He was more determined than ever to make something happen with this beauty, if only to spite her husband.