Brendon was immensely proud of Eleanor and utterly in awe. She showed no outward signs of the traumatic experience she endured. Eleanor never played the victim card. Eleanor was as resilient as she was determined.
She never dwelt on the negative aspects of that night or the events leading to it. In fact she had been resigned to something happening and had been mentally prepared. To her it was stuff that just happened as it does in a myriad of ways for other people. She always looked to the future; she had a positive outlook for her private life as well as her work. She concentrated on what she could command. She never concerned herself with self-defeating harmful nonsense. This event became just another case study in her quest for equitability and safety in the workplace turning a terrible event into a building block for her future aspirations.
She had destroyed the aggressor and received legal justice. Other women came forward and several other aggressors were implicated. It included three board members, a senior manager and three senior clinicians which included one woman.
Yes, the restructure occurred but not in the manner Sutherland has envisioned. The rot was cut out of the organisation and the dinosaurs that held back progress rendered extinct.
Acknowledging Brendon, Eleanor had never seen it as her fight alone. In her mind Brendon and she were a formidable team. Family to her included their boys. They were her dream team. Now she looked to expanding the team.
For Brendon this whole experience, including Eleanor's openness throughout, wiped any remaining issues of trust. But there was still an unfathomable uneasiness in their relationship from Brendon's point of view. It was not one that Eleanor could readily detect. The crux of Brendon's feeling was that he still did not feel committed to the relationship. Although Eleanor brought him joy he felt more committed to the boys. For some reason he could not see the relationship enduring. That heady day when he told Antonio, the hairdresser, that he would marry Eleanor now seemed a fading dream that needed recharging.
At the heart of this was male pride. Eleanor's affair with Jeremy Brunswick represented a rejection in Brendon's mind he could not shake. Male pride is something most men will not talk about. Women recognise it but are unknowing to its root cause and therefore misread its significance.
This feeling of rejection and resentment also fuelled Brendon's lack of desire for sexual intimacy. Of course he was virile enough and Eleanor attractive enough. There just seemed to be a deep seated revenge in withholding sex; Brendon's inner pout.
Unfortunately in Brendon's mind the image of Eleanor's cum filled cunt as Sutherland was pulled off her added a revulsion that compounded the issue.
So how were they to go their next step of reconciliation?
Brendon was being swept along by Eleanor's joy and the support of all those around them. There was no intimate relationship but it seemed like they could not exist without one another.
Eleanor was aware of Brendon's uneasiness. They did talk about it in a roundabout way. Of course Brendon did not mention the feeling of rejection as it could too easily blown out of proportion, or so he thought.
Although they did not have an active sex life before the event Eleanor took for granted the act of discovering Sutherland violating her must have affected Brendon badly. Paradoxically she thought it was more traumatising for him rather than herself, the subject of the attack. But she daren't mention counselling to Brendon; that would be too much for his pride, she knew that.
Eleanor was determined that they have a durable relationship and that they should marry. Brendon's reticence could scupper those objectives.
She was convinced that the way forward had to be through their sexual relationship. If she forced it on him it could be repelling. If he tried to perform and couldn't, it could kill it all stone dead.
Eleanor had a plan.
First she had to restore his desire for her. She knew she was in good shape, her figure still youthful despite two children. She knew he was virile and masturbated privately but did not know his fantasies. She decided she would tease him and see where it would lead. Her feminine sexuality would be her bait. There would be an ultimate test, Brendon's resolve to remarry.
She knew Brendon well enough; marriage would equal true commitment.
Step one; they all needed to be under one roof. Brendon did not take much convincing for the entire family to move into Grace's rambling modernist edifice, giving up Eleanor's apartment and their former family home.
Initially they had separate rooms but that did not last long. Eleanor declared it silly and insisted that Brendon and she share a room even if they slept in separate beds. Brendon acquiesced.
This enabled Eleanor to flaunt herself a little, cavorting at times in her underwear and eventually using the en-suite to reveal her naked self. All the time Eleanor carefully observed Brendon's reaction. She did not rush the strategy but his desire was definitely there and if she was not mistaken increasing. She would feel his eyes following her around.
In time she would become provocative, 'innocently' bending over in her underwear to pick up discarded shoes or such like.
One evening she busied herself in the shower, aware that Brendon was watching her though the open door from his bed. Leaving the shower she deliberately minced out naked letting her tits sway for the delight of Brendon. As she passed him he leant out to grab her and she lightly skipped out of his reach.
"OOOH, what do you want?"
And she deftly lent over picked up the bedcover and exposed a very stiff dick. With her other hand she reached in and gave it a quick caress.
"Well your thingy is all high and mighty. What's the occasion?"
"Want to join me?"
"UUH no. I want to be a virgin when I marry; ha ha."
"Bugger."
Eleanor knew she had him.
He followed up. "Why don't we get a bigger bed and sleep together."
"Nope! Not until we're married."
Brendon left it at that.
Out of office Eleanor took to wearing sexier clothes and lingerie. Taking advantage of the pool she took to wearing skimpier bikinis.
She knew it was having an effect on Brendon. She would wake up at night and in the gloom see his bedclothes quivering accompanied by his light grunting. She had a fair idea that his fantasies would now be including her.
She took to reciprocating. Brendon eventually discovered what she was doing and they took to facing each other vigorously stroking, he, his spit filled hand around his cock, she, her moistened fingers in the hairy cleft between her legs.
It all reached a crescendo when, with the lights on, Brendon pulled down his bedclothes to reveal himself as he worked his cock. Eleanor lifted herself out to swing around and spread her legs. Staring directly into his eyes she began to slowly manipulate her vulva through her thick blonde bush. She continued by stroking the length of her clit. Licking her lips she worked the juice from her swelling flesh and worked two fingers into her vagina.
With that there was grunt and a shudder from Brendon. As his hand gripped tightly around his tumescent appendage, a stream of white cum flew vertically, ascending messily along the length of his torso.
Brendon, lay there breathing heavily after his exertion, finally muttering, "Bloody hell we really have to do something about this."
Eleanor's reply before silence ensued, "Really? Well I'm waiting Lover!"
