Cross Contamination -

Authors note:

This is the start of a longer story that will contain extreme themes including: cuckolding, humiliation, incest and moral degradation. If you don't like those themes, this story may not be for you.

SPOILER: I understand that for some readers, stories about unfaithful wives have to include revenge or reconciliation for the protagonist in order to feel cathartic and satisfying. Fair warning that this is not intended to be that kind of story. The Harlowes are doomed, and the Cross family will not face justice.

All characters depicted are over the age of 18. Thanks for reading!

Cross Contamination, Chapter 1: The Unfair Key Party

"I mean, I'm sorry honey, but I think we have to go."

Gina gave Daren a cool look from across the room as she hurried to get her coffee ready. Even when annoyed, she was a stunningly beautiful woman, with long, dirty blond hair and deep blue eyes. Her body was curvy, but no one would call her fat. She had big, firm breasts that made Daren's heart beat fast when he saw them even after over a decade of marriage. She was short, a head shorter than his unimpressive 5'8, but her strong confidence and forceful personality made you forget her small size when you spoke to her.

Daren was a little intimidated by her. Always had been, since they first started dating. He comforted himself with the fact that he was far from the only one who felt that way. "Hurricane Gina" was her nickname around her law office, she had once told him, laughing. You either went with the flow or got wrecked.

"And why is that, Daren? So you can suck up to your asshole boss?" The words were sharp, but they were accompanied by the lopsided grin that told him she was joking. He felt a glimmer of hope that he could negotiate this successfully.

"Well yes," he admitted sheepishly, "Mr. Cross does control a lot of the job assignments, and being on his good side would certainly be helpful." For some reason, from the first day he was hired, his towering, muscular black boss treated him with nothing but disrespect. Somehow it seemed like he had sized up Daren immediately as a joke. Most of the best assignments in his marketing department had since gone to Charlie, his rival.

"But it is more than that, baby." He tried to keep his voice from being whiny. Gina hated that, and it might ruin any chance he had of convincing her. "This annual party is only for the inner circle and higher ups at the company. It's a big deal! The very fact that they are inviting me could mean big things for me. For us!"

" Hey dad! Can you put this in the mailbox for me?" Their daughter Cassandra rushed out of her room, holding an envelope in hand. She had turned eighteen just a few months ago, and was the apple of Daren's eye. On days like this, when she was flushed with excitement, Daren couldn't help but worry about how many boys must be getting interested in her. She had his dark hair and pale skin, but recent years had shown that she had definitely inherited her mother's body. He eyed the clothes she was wearing, Shorts cut above the knee, showing off a bit more pale thigh than he was comfortable with, and a v- necked shirt that went a little too deep in his opinion, showing a hint of her naturally ample cleavage.

"Sure thing, sweetie. Are you sure you couldn't wear anything, I don't know, a little less revealing?"

She rolled her eyes, but there was no venom there. "Gross dad! Don't worry," she said, lightly punching him on the arm, "I don't have any time for boys right now, just college applications."

"Listen to your father. " Said Gina firmly, "whether you ate searching for it or not, those sort of clothes will attract the wrong dort of attention from the boys. The women in this family command respect."

Cassie frowned and rolled her eyes dramatically, "Thanks Gina. Maybe I will follow your example and have a baby before I turn 19." Gina and Cassie's relationship had been pretty rocky over the past few months. Cassie had stopped calling Gina mom a few weeks back, and it was constant sniping back and forth on a daily basis.

Before her taunt could turn into a full argument, Cassie turned back to him, pointing to the envelope in his hand, "Please, in the mailbox before you leave for work, Daddy. Love you! I have to catch the bus, bye!" And with that, she rushed out the door, Gina scowling after her.

Despite Cassie's rudeness to her mother, Daren couldn't help but smile. Cassie was too old to still call him daddy, but she knew that he still thought of her as his innocent little daughter, and humored him sometimes.

Gina grumbled as she poured her coffee, and Daren approached her to hug her from behind. She sighed and dissolved from her stiff anger, leaning into him and accepting the embrace. "I'm just not sure how to connect with Cass anymore," she said sadly.

"A lot of daughters and mothers go through a phase like this," said Daren soothingly, "It will pass."

Gina nodded, but still looked troubled. " I'm just not sure what we did wrong raising her."

"Well," said Daren lightly, "We could always try again. Get things right with a younger sibling" He rubbed his hands lightly on Gina's belly. She grabbed his hands and moved them away, spinning out of the hug.

"I don't want to talk about that right now." She said flatly. Daren let it go. It was an old argument, and there was no use having it again right now.

But, luckily, he hadn't soured the moment. Gina favored him with a warm smile, and knew he had won this time. She stared into his eyes, and her expression grew serious. "Fine, we'll go to this party." She reached up and straightened his tie, giving him a deep and aggressive kiss. "I love you Daren, but I don't like Victor Cross. I don't like the way he looks at me." Her face was set with a distracted frown, and the tie momentarily grew uncomfortably tight. "Victor Cross is going to try something someday if he and I keep attending the same functions. I can sense it just by looking at him. He's that kind of creep."

Then she relaxed with a sigh, and Daren coughed as he readjusted his tie. " I can tell a man to go to hell with no problem at all, Daren Harlowe. But I know you want to kiss some ass. So if you want me to be polite, it's your responsibility to keep Mr. Cross well behaved tonight. Got it?"

Daren gulped, and said "Yes, dear." as his wife kissed him on the cheek and ran out the door to make it to her job at the law firm.

...

The party was just as fancy as Daren had imagined it. He could see elegantly dressed guests entering the ballroom as they drove past. He was glad that he had insisted that they both dress up. Gina was looking fabulous in a slinky little black dress, and he was doing his best to look dashing in his tailored suit. They had to park somewhat far away, and,as they got closer to the entrance, he noticed that the other guests exiting cars (all chauffeured of course) were wearing masks of various animals. Gina was quick to notice as well.

"You didn't tell me that this was a masquerade, Daren!" She hissed angrily, grabbing his arm.

"They didn't tell me either, dear." He fumbled for some sort of excuse. "I'm sure that they will be able to loan us something, we can't be the only ones."

And in this case, much to his relief, he was correct. In the cloak room the attendant was very understanding.

"Of course sir," he said sympathetically, "This happens all the time. We have some masks prepared for just such an eventuality." He stepped out for a moment and returned with two masks in hand.

To Gina he presented a cute little mask with stylized cottony fluff and little ears. "A lamb," said Gina archly, studying the mask, "how...innocent."

To Daren he presented a goat mask with large horns. A goat mask could be made to look manly and intimidating, almost satanic. This mask however, looked somewhat bug eyed and foolish.

"Is everything to your liking sir? Madam? I could certainly see if we have other masks available..." His tone clearly implied that the attendant didn't have much hope.

"No, these will be fine," said Daren firmly. Gina shot him a dubious look. Was he really ok with them looking so silly? Gina had seen the other guests' masks, and none of them were as cutesy as hers or as idiotic as his. Daren's mind was made up. Maybe this was some sort of test, but if it was, then the only way to pass was to show that it didn't bother him. And so, with little choice, they donned their masks and entered the floor of the party.

...

The party buzzed with conversation. Small groups of animal masked men and women drank cocktails and ate hors d'oeuvres. There seemed to be a heavy sense of anticipation in the air as they made their way into the crowd. Daren heard the phrases "fresh meat" and "completely rigged", but he couldn't put context to the words. Gina clung to his arm, a concerned frown on her face. She had thought this would be just another stuffy office party, not this strange, opulent affair. As they pushed through a circle of masked guests, Daren noticed two large glass bowls filled with pink and blue plastic tags in the center of the room.

He was about to turn to Gina and ask what she thought they were for, when he heard someone clinking a fork against a glass, and a loud deep voice calling for quiet.

"Welcome my friends, to the yearly ball of the beasts!" Although the tall man was wearing a ebony bull mask which shrouded his face, his height, muscles, and dark skin made his identity obvious. Victor Cross. "Where we can all get in touch with the more...primal side of our natures"

"I know that we have a few newcomers with us this year, so let me run through how this little evening will work." He seemed to stare directly at Daren and Gina with a shining, predatory grin. But he couldn't know them on sight, right? They were wearing masks. Gina held his arm with a grip that indicated he would be yelled at later.

"Everyone will take turns drawing a number from the bowl. Mem will take a blue number, Ladies a pink number. Then, you will find your numbered table, and get ready for a long night of red hot... dinner and conversation." He winked lazily at the crowd, which laughed heartily.

"But joking aside," He continued smoothly, "Although some little beasts have gotten a bit saucy in the past with their assigned date, there is no obligation here at all. If dinner and conversation is as far as you want things to go, you wouldn't be the first or the last."

"So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's pick some numbers!" He raised his hands wide, and was greeted with loud applause.

"This is some weird kinky shit, Daren," said Gina, looking around the room suspiciously, "Let's just get out of here. It doesn't sound like there will be much opportunity for ass kissing anyway, if they are just planning on playing this fucking key party game all night."

"And let's start with our newcomers!" Daren heard the loud deep, confident voice boom across the hall as the crowd turned to look at them. He had a choice to make. He could walk out, make Gina happy, and endure the whispers and laughs behind his back next monday. Everyone would say that he was too scared to play the game, or that he couldn't trust his wife to eat dinner with another man. ...Or he could man up, grit his teeth, have dinner conversation with a random lady, and survive the night. He was sure Gina wouldn't be happy, but she could endure an evening of boring conversation with some old executive and survive. He certainly didn't have to be worried about her being tempted to do anything else. He was more worried that she would knock out any man who tried. He could feel Gina's eyes burning into the side of his head, and the heat of the crowd's attention facing towards them. He made his choice.

"You heard him honey, all you have to do is have dinner with someone. Then we can make our excuses and leave." It seemed like Gina was trying to say something else, but Daren had already walked forward and plunged his hand into the fishbowl with the blue number tags. Withdrawing his hand, he saw the number 00.

Victor Cross peered over his shoulder, and seemed to be suppressing a laugh as he said. "Well well, ladies and gentlemen! Table Zero! What luck for a first time draw." The crowd also seemed to be suppressing giggles, some of them unsuccessfully.

"Well Mr. Goat, the waiters will show you to your table."

The waiters escorted him to a table on the far edge of the ballroom, in a somewhat dimly lit corner. As he sat, he could see Gina, silently seething, walk quickly to the pink colored fishbowl and retrieve a tag.

"Table 1!" Cried out the bull masked Mr Cross, a strange note of triumph in his voice. "Couldn't ask for a better seat."

Based on the numbers, Daren was hoping that zero and one would be close together, but no such luck. Table one turned out to be a central, well lit table on a small raised platform. It was far from where Daren was sitting. Gina sat, crossing her arms and legs in an annoyed posture, shooting daggers at him from across the room.

"And now, my turn," Said Victor Cross with a sharp grin across his chiseled face. He snatched a tag right from the top of the mens' bowl and read it.

"Table 1" He said, the cocky grin never leaving his face.

...

Gina Harlowe was seething as she sat at the table she had drawn. She had warned her spineless husband that something was strange about this party, and yet here they were. She couldn't wait for the night to be over, and to stop feeling Victor Cross's piercing eyes crawling all over her body from behind his bull mask.

She had had a run in with him at Daren's office Christmas party the year before. Well, no. Correction. It wasn't big enough to call a run in. She and Daren had been making awkward small talk with Victor, and Victor, as usual, was making barely veiled disparaging remarks about Daren in the form of jokes. It made her as angry then as it did now. Daren, her loving husband, was a kind, sweet, and thoughtful man, and the fact that swaggering assholes like Victor thought they would walk all over him made her grind her teeth in rage.

Daren had suddenly walked away to try to catch the attention of a coworker, and for a moment it was just Victor and Gina alone by the punchbowl. And in that moment ... it was hard to describe, but suddenly she had been very aware that Daren was a big, attractive, muscular man, and she was a short and relatively weak woman. She had felt strangely... pliable. In his power. She wasn't sure what had happened, but those thoughts couldn't have come from her. She hated guys who saw things that way: Big, strong, tough, dominant men and weak, submissive, soft, girls. What a joke. She certainly never thought things like that herself! It must have been a sexist vibe given off by that man, but as she looked into his eyes at that moment, she knew that he could see those feelings in her. His deep brown eyes had followed her for the rest of the night, seeming to drink in her body, and she had sworn never to be in the same room as him again.

She was so lost in recollection it took her a moment to notice that Cross himself had sat at the table across from her.

Oh hell no.

She is about to stand when Cross placed a large brown hand over hers, emphasizing the difference in size. "Gina, Gina, don't be so hasty."

She snatched her hand away, instantly denying to herself the fact that his touch has sent a shiver up her spine.

"I said sit down, girl." His voice was deep and strong. Before she knew what was happening, she had sat. Then, a split second later, when she had time to think, she started to get angry.

"You think you can just order me around because my husband works for you?" she asked derisively. But she didn't get back up. "I probably make more than you!"

"Yes, I've heard. A high powered lawyer," Victor said, warmly, "Very Ally Mcbeal. Do you wear shoulder pads to work?"

What a smug condescending prick. "Don't need them. Everyone knows that I'm a killer."

"Really? A tiger huh? You look more like a little lost lamb to me." He said with a chuckle.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't just get up and walk out the door."

"And leave your poor little goat man alone at table Zero?" He gestured over his shoulder at Daren sitting by himself in the corner of the room, and Gina couldn't help it. She snorted a laugh. He just looked so ridiculous. She turned back to Victor, and didn't even notice the subconscious comparison her mind made between her silly looking husband and the dominant, suave man in front of her.

"Fine Gina, I'll give you a reason." Victor deftly gestured to a waiter, who began pouring two glasses of wine.

"I'm sure that you make a good amount at your job, but I am also sure that your household would struggle without poor little Daren's income." He swirled the wine beneath his nose before nodding at the waiter and waving him away.

"Daren's sales numbers are, frankly, abysmal. He doesn't pull his weight. Charlie outperforms him 3 to 1 at least. And, on a personal level, I just find him weak. Contemptible. Below me. I have been thinking about firing him for months, since before last Christmas in fact. But something made me change my mind around that time." He leered across the table at Gina. "Can you guess what that might be?"

His direct gaze made Gina's face flush for reasons she refused to examine. "Are you serious?" she said incredulously, "What you just admitted to me is all kinds of illegal. If you even tried to fire him after this conversation, especially after..." Her faced grew even more flushed, "Laying out some kind of sick quid pro quo, I could nail your ass to the wall in any courtroom in the state."

"But you won't, Gina." Victor Cross was completely at ease, sipping wine and lounging in his perfectly tailored suit. "This conversation never happened. And I have plenty of numbers clearly demonstrating that your pathetic little husband is underperforming. It would be very difficult to prove that he was fired for any other reason."

Gina gritted her teeth. His logic was twisted, but it wasn't wrong.

"So what do you want from me then? Sex? Never going to happen." She proclaimed it suddenly and fiercely, even as the thought of being forced into sex with this jerk sent a shameful pulse of heat through her.

Victor threw back his head and laughed warmly, and seemingly genuinely. " Never say never little lamb. But no, not right now." Gina couldn't believe the arrogance of this man. It took her breath away. She found she was literally breathing heavily. "I just want to play a little game. If you win, I guarantee that I will never fire your husband. I can't speak to anyone else in the organization, but it won't come from me."

"And what do you get if you win?" asked Gina in a voice not nearly as firm and strong as she wanted it to be. Filthy images flashed across her mind despite her best efforts. This man had some sort of twisted charisma. An animal magnetism which was mixing her up. But she wasn't worried. Gina wasn't some sort of creature of instinct who couldn't control herself. She wouldn't be doing anything with Victor no matter what his leering eyes made her imagine.

Victor grinned broadly, as though he could read her dirty thoughts. "You would agree to meet me socially for drinks. Just the two of us, no husband allowed. No more than that."

"This game seems weighted in my favor."

"I agree. Think of it as an incentive to convince you to play."

Gina mulled the proposal. Well, it couldn't hurt to hear what he had to say. She could always shoot him down later if it seemed like he was up to something.

"What game did you have in mind?"

...

Daren sat by himself, watching in disbelief as, after a second of looking like she would storm out, his wife sat and began having a conversation with Mr. Cross. Well, one crisis averted. He watched nervously as other couples split and pulled tags from the fishbowls, finding their tables scattered across the room. He wondered which woman he would be paired with. Was Kate from reception at the party? No, stop it Darren, he told himself, your whole goal is to get through this with nothing but polite conversation. But as the line got shorter, and the fishbowls grew emptier, he began to grow impatient. He just wanted this farce done with, and the anticipation was killing him.