The Vault

Chapter 1 Darkness

Darkness. I open my eyes to see nothing. Where the hell am I? And ow, my head hurts.

The last thing I remember was the clerk about to show me the bracelet. But she suddenly got this awful pained expression. Before I could even start to ask her what was going on, I felt a sudden impact on my head. Yeah, right back there where it hurts now.

Let me see if I can feel anything here. Oh my god, someone else is lying next to me. Are you dead? Oh, you are a she, I can feel that. And you are moving.

"What the fuck?" asks the not dead body next to me, speaking groggily.

"I am trying to figure that out myself."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Adam Jacobs, not that I think that's what you meant. Are you the clerk in the jewelry store?"

"Yeah, Rebecca DuBois. Were you just buying a bracelet from me?"

"That's me. I guess your store just got robbed."

"Oh shit. I bet they fire me for this. Jesus, everything in me hurts right now."

"One of the last things I was remembering was your face all contorted."

"The last thing I remember was something stinging me. It hurt like hell, but I couldn't move. Ouch, I think I may have a burn on my neck. Can you look at it?"

"Not in the dark, I can't."

"I guess that's true. Did I get tased?"

"That would make sense. They must have tased you and hit me over the head. Maybe hit you over the head, too. I know exactly where they got me. The spot right here that hurts like a son of a bitch. And I have a splitting headache."

"What did you say your name was?"

"Adam. And you said you were Rebecca, right?"

"Yeah. Where are we?"

"I have no idea. I came to just before you did. I haven't tried to get up and explore yet."

I start to stand up and my head reels. I sit back down with a thud.

"On second thought, I think I will stay seated for a while. Does your store have a supply closet or something?"

"Not really. We have the break room and - "

"What?"

"We have a vault."

I hear her rattling some racks.

"Oh, shit. We are locked in the vault. Are we going to die?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I hope not. I assume there is not a way out from inside here."

"Nope. And we are going to die."

She starts to cry. I put an arm around where I think her shoulders are. "Let's see if we can figure out a way out of here," I say, hopefully reassuringly.

I reach for my phone, but it's not in my pocket. Damnit. My phone had just buzzed. I think it is sitting on the jewelry case.

"Do you have your phone?" I ask.

"No, it's in the break room. We are not allowed to carry it with us on the floor. Boss's rule number one. Instant dismissal."

"Well, that is unfortunate. How big is the vault we are in?"

"About the size of a large supply closet. maybe six feet wide and five feet deep. What is your name?"

"Adam. That should be big enough to give us a good while."

"A good while until what? And I asked you your name already, didn't I?"

"Yeah, tasing can play havoc with your short term memory for about an hour. I was wondering about the oxygen."

"Are we going to suffocate?"

"Hopefully we are found before that. I think we have a couple of days of air in here."

"How do you know all this stuff? The tasing and the air and everything."

"I am a lawyer and I have defended a few clients who have been tased, so I am aware of the side effects. The air, I tried to do some rough math. I am expecting my wife to call me in as a missing person and hopefully they can locate my phone, which I think is still on the counter out there. So someone will come looking for us soon. Well before we run out of air. But we probably want to try to stay calm and breathe slowly until then."

"How can we stay calm when we are going to die?"

She is starting to cry again.

"Well, talking to each other is calming and keeps our breathing regular. And holding on to each other. I am not trying to get friendly, that would be a bad idea, air wise, but knowing someone else is here in the dark is calming."

She leans against me, still sniffling a bit.

"So Rebecca, what do you do when you are not working at the jewelry store?"

My first instinct was to say when you're not being robbed at the jewelry store as a joke, but that would have been a bad idea. I want her to think about normal, everyday life right now.

"I share an apartment about two miles from here with Sandy. We've known each other for years, but we only moved in together last year. Neither of us could afford an apartment on our own. They have gotten so expensive. And this store pays like shit. I was really hoping you were going to buy the bracelet. That would have been a four hundred dollar commission for me."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"More or less. Dave and I are supposed to be exclusive, but I think he is cheating on me. I suspect he is just stringing me along so I will keep letting him fuck me, until he can find someone with bigger boobs. And maybe who makes more money. I really should dump him. If we get out of here, I think I will."

"We will get out of here. And making plans for what to do when we do is probably a good idea for now."

"How about you? Was the bracelet for your wife? You said you had a wife, right?"

"Yeah, it is her birthday next week. She always wanted a bracelet like that and I figured it was time."

"You sound less than enthused. I would have thought you would be buying your wife expensive jewelry because you loved her."

"I think I do love her, but it is not going real well recently. I think maybe I was buying it to convince myself I still loved her."

"Well, if we die, at least we aren't leaving great love lives behind," she says, half laughing.

That's a bit of gallows humor, I think. At least she can laugh about this. It's better than crying.

"So what do you do when Dave is not around?"

"I do the crossword puzzle every day. I have an app on my iPad. I am up over seven hundred straight days. I wonder if this will break my streak. Oh, and I read. I read a lot."

"The New York Times app? I use that too. I just went over five hundred days last week. I was happy when I broke that. What is your favorite day of the week?"

"If it is a good theme, I like Thursdays. I like the clever themes. But I hate the damned quotes."

"I hate the quotes, too."

"I know, does anyone want to solve one with a quote, Some of the Sunday themes are fun. Unless it is a really dumb theme, or one I can't figure out, I like Sundays. If the themes are all bad, I guess Friday. Saturdays make me work too hard."

"I like the Saturdays. They give me a longer escape."

"You are probably really smart, being a lawyer and all."

"Well, I did go to lots of years of school. You said you like to read. Mostly all I get to read right now are legal rulings and briefs and everything. What kinds of things do you read?"

"Lots of different kinds of things, depending on my mood. When I am down about Dave being a shit, I will read a romance and imagine I am riding off into the sunset with my true love."

"They do kind of all end like that, don't they?"

"Well, if an author ever dared to not write the happy ending, I think a million women would descend upon them and string them up. That's the whole point of reading one. To cry happy tears at the end."

"Some men read them, too. I have read a couple over the years. What else do you read?"

"I had a period of reading a lot of detective stories, but I have kind of cooled on them. And I have read lots of fantasy, but not so much recently of that either."

"So what are you reading, then?"

"Mostly romances and um.."

I can feel her squirming a bit.

"I have been enjoying a lot of erotica, recently."

I chuckle.

"It's not nice to laugh at me about it. That was hard for me to admit!"

"I am not laughing at you. My hobby is writing erotica. What kinds of erotica do you read? And where?"

"Oh, just hot guy rescuing the shy girl kinds of things. I read in my bedroom, but that seems like a rather personal question."

"I meant where do you get your erotica, not where do you read it. But now that you brought it up, I do enjoy the thought."

"Oh, I usually get it from the Apple bookstore. Mostly collections of short stories. Do you publish anything there?"

"I have not progressed to actually selling anything yet. I do post stories on a site called Literotica."

"Oh, I have read stuff there, too. It's hard to know what you are getting and the quality is inconsistent, but some of it is really good. Who do you write as?"

"AllRise. I started writing it when I was in law school, hoping to become a judge."

"I read one of yours last week! About two MIT nerds who fall in love on some remote island. It was really well written, but I wanted some actual sex. And they fell in love way too quickly to be believable."

"Yeah, I get that. I am actually trying to write a sequel about them struggling after the world's fastest romance. With some actual sex. I hopefully would have been writing more of it this evening if we weren't stuck in here. Although with how poorly that one has been going, being stuck in here is almost a nice break."

I am starting to get an erection, talking about erotica and thinking about her lying on her bed reading it. And where her hand is sure to go while she reads.

"So what is your favorite date Dave ever took you on?"

"New York. I guess maybe it is more than a date, but we went on an overnight trip to the city. We went out to a nice Italian restaurant before we went to a comedy on Broadway. It was called the Play that Went Wrong or something like that. It was very funny. We stayed in a little boutique hotel near Times Square. We were still laughing the whole walk back to the hotel. We had the best sex we have ever had that night and again in the morning. He was still being very romantic with me at breakfast that next morning. But by the time we got back home, he was back to the same shitty old Dave who mostly ignores me except when he wants sex. If it wasn't for that night, I would have dropped him a long time ago. But that night was magical. I know it can't be like that every night. But does it have to suck so much the rest of the time?"

"It shouldn't have to. Have you tried telling Dave this?"

"No, but he never wants to talk anymore. I am just his sexual release once or twice a week now."

"Definitely sounds like time to move on."

"How about you? How did you and your wife meet?"

"We never really dated or anything like that. We were just in the same friend group at college. We were watching a movie with about five or six of us. It was some really bad action adventure thing. Everybody but the two of us had given up and headed off somewhere else. We were both sitting on the couch, not particularly close together. Someone had been sitting between us I think. I don't actually remember much of the night before this moment. We turned and looked at each other. Looked into each other's eyes. And then we kissed. I will remember those eyes and that kiss until my dying day. She ended up in bed with me that night and we have been a couple ever since. We moved in together a few months later. And got married right after college."

"When did it go wrong?"

"That's hard to say. It's not like there was a sudden collapse or something. And I don't think I am quite as ready to give up on it as you are with Dave. And you should be, from what you have said. You feel like Dave just wants sex with you. I feel like Rachel just wants my paycheck."

"Does she work?"

"She did when we first got married. She supported us while I was in law school. She worked as a copy editor for an advertising company. She hated it. But it kept food on our table and a roof over our head. As soon as I got my job with the firm, she quit her job. And I couldn't blame her. She was miserable doing it."

"So what does she do now?"

"Spends my money, mostly. Tennis lessons, shopping. She will go into the city with her friends for a matinee on broadway regularly."

"Do you ever go to the shows?"

"They go to the musicals, which I am not a big fan of. I offered to come once, but she told me I would hate it, so I didn't have to."

"Is she having an affair?"

"God, I hadn't really thought about that. Did I say something that made you think she is?"

"Well, you have said the spark is gone. I am sure she feels that, too. And misses the romance that was there. I have been the 'friend' excuse for a few girlfriends that were cheating. Maybe I have more dishonest friends than your wife. But going out regularly with friends, when you have been uninvited rings alarm bells for me."

That is not something I want to be thinking about while I am in here. My dying thoughts are wondering if my wife is cheating on me. That will be depressing.

Apparently, she could feel my body language change and decided to take charge and change the subject.

"I am sorry. It is probably nothing. Do you work for a big law firm?"

"Yeah, Ferguson and Samuelson. Right here in town. I do mostly corporate law, but I do some pro bono work for the public defender's office, too. I feel better about that. I am actually helping people who need the help."

"Is that what you really want to do?"

"No, I think it would wear me down. So many of the people who need a public defender have such rough lives. A lot of drug addicts. Too many. It destroys so many lives."

"Will you stay at a big firm like you are then?"

"Probably. The money is good, even if the work is pretty boring. It's better than being an ambulance chaser. I couldn't handle being a divorce lawyer either. Seeing all the bitter people all the time. One of my friends from law school does divorces. It eats her up. If Rachel and I are not going to make it, then I hope we split before we get so much hatred. And Rachel would want big time alimony if we split up. I can't see her going back to supporting herself. And she couldn't at the lifestyle she is enjoying now."

"At least if Dave and I break up, there is no money to split up. Even if we were married."

We sit quietly for a while. This conversation has gotten a bit too morose and I am on the brink of losing it.

She breaks the silence. "I knew you were something like a fancy lawyer. That is a really nice suit you were wearing."

"Yeah, An expensive suit is an expectation for the corporate law world."

"And you wear it well. You must work out regularly."

"I go to the gym three mornings a week before work. I feel good about my body for my age."

"What do you mean about your age? You are not old."

"I am thirty-two now. Turning thirty bothered me a bit."

"Well you are a very handsome thirty-two year old. And I don't think that's old."

"How old are you Rebecca?"

"Call me Becca. If we are going to be stuck in here, we should at least be friends. I am twenty five."

"Did you go to college, Becca?"

"I started, but the money was hard and when covid hit, I stopped and just never went back."

"What was your major?"

"English Lit. Like I said, I like to read a lot."

"What did you expect to do with that degree?"

"Nothing, I guess. Probably why I had a hard time justifying the cost. In my dreams, I would like to write."

"Romances? Erotica?"

"I don't think I have the guts to write erotica. Although it would be fun. Romances. And see how far I want to push the sex. Some of them get pretty steamy."

I nod, but, of course, she can't see me in the dark.

"As I said, I have read some of them."

We sit quietly for a while.

I break the silence this time. "You know, we could write a story about being locked in a vault together."

"A romance or a mystery?"

"I was thinking romance, but mystery is probably a better idea."

"Not much we can do in here to solve the mystery, though."

"Not much romance we should be doing in here. Conserve oxygen and all."

"Romances don't need to have sex," she points out.

"No they don't."

I realize I should cut off this line of discussion before I get myself in trouble. I really am not looking to end it with Rachel. And i don't suspect that relationships that start locked together in a vault have high survival rates. Even beyond our dubious survival odds.

We sit quietly again. She probably also realized where that last conversation was going to go.

This time, she breaks the silence. "Adam, do you think I am pretty?"

"I am embarrassed to say this, but to be honest, I had not really paid much attention to you before we were shut in here. Let me see what I can remember if I think. You have curly blonde hair that frames a pretty face. And, yes, you do have a pretty face. I remember that now. At least until you got tased. That face was not pretty. And it is burned in my memory right now.

"And I guess you have a slender build, slightly on the tall side. I don't remember much more about your body. I wish I could."

"You are right with what you remember. I have small-ish boobs. Dave would really like bigger ones, I know. And not much hips or butt. Just a skinny girl."

"Sounds wonderful to me. I look forward to taking a better look when we get out of here."

We sit in silence again, this time for a long time.

Finally, she says, "If you were writing our story as erotica, what would you have the hero do to me in here."

This is treading into dangerous waters. As much as I think this was an invitation to act out my narration, I will manage to control myself. Oxygen and all.

I take a deep breath, and say, "He would start by unbuttoning your blouse. Slowly, one button after another, taking a moment to kiss your exposed flesh with each button opened. Once your blouse was fully unbuttoned, he would slide it back off you. He would then slide a hand down each arm, just to feel the naked skin he cannot see. He would kiss you passionately on the lips before moving any further. He would then gently run his hands over the cups of your bra, just to feel the fabric. Is it lacy or elastic or silken?"

"It is just a plain stretchy material. Would you like to feel it?"

"Very much, but that is a very bad idea, Becca. I am married and would like to stay that way. I am barely resisting the temptation of you as it is. Please do not tease me like that. You may not have meant it as a tease, but I cannot let it be real. I can keep telling my story if you want, but don't tempt me again. Can you do that?"

I can feel her moving, but I am not sure how.

"I can't see you nod, Becca. You need to answer me verbally."

"I promise to behave, Adam. Please keep telling me your story."

"Where was I? Oh, your bra. Is this one of the ones without a clasp?"

"Yeah. It just pulls off."

"Then I will slowly pull your bra up and over your arms and head, setting it aside. As soon as my hands are free of the garment, I bring them back down along your arms, which are still over your head, and down each side, feeling your curves as I go. I know you say you have no curves, but my hands will find them, my palms sense every subtle shift in your body. I feel the goose bumps on you as my finger tips gently glide across your belly."

"Adam, you shifted tense and person, you know."

"You are right, I have. That is what your offer did to me. If this were a story, I would need to edit one part to agree with the other. Should I describe this as if I am doing it to you right now or as what a hypothetical other character would do to you."

"Tell me you are doing it to me. I understand we can't really do this, but this makes it easier for me to imagine it actually happening. I would like it to happen."

"I would, too, Becca. Very much so."

I take another deep breath. I don't want to mention that they do not feel as satisfying as they did.

"After my fingers trace across your belly, I bring both hands up to your cheeks as I kiss you once again, even more passionately than before. I bring my hands down, along your throat, across the top of your chest. They come together to pass between your breasts, then come apart again as they trace down your abdomen. But they do not stop at the top of your skirt. They trace out the tops of your thighs, all the way to your knees, just barely exposed beyond the hem of your skirt.

"I break off the kiss and bring my face down, kissing your left nipple. I pull my left hand up and gently fondle your right breast, pulling the fingers together to softly pinch that nipple. My mouth moves from merely kissing to lightly biting, while my fingers are pinching the other nipple more aggressively."

She is starting to softly whimper, as she leans against my chest, listening intently to my narration of the fictional seduction of her.

"As I attend to your nipples, my right hand slides inside your skirt, following slowly up your inner thighs. You spread your legs apart to give me better access."

I feel her actually spreading her legs a bit. I am not sure if that was intentional, or purely an unconscious action. I can smell the desire rising in her.

"I push the crotch of your panty to the side. Even before I do, I can feel the dampness in the cloth. Are you getting wet for me, Becca?"

"I am probably wetter than I ever have been, Adam."

"I push my middle finger all the way into you. I can feel your wetness, your slipperiness. I pull the finger back out and run it up higher along your lips, until I find your nub. The ultimate source of your pleasure. I rub around it first, not giving you the sensation you seek. Teasing you."

I can feel her shifting, rotating her hips to find my imaginary finger that she is craving.

"I brush across your clit for the first time. Your whole body shudders."

Her actual body shudders, following the script precisely.

"I circle again, without touching. I run my finger across again, and then return to circling. But this time the circle just touches your clit. I can sense your breathing becoming sharper, needier. I wonder, should I tease you more or bring you the release you crave?"

"Make me come Adam. Make me come now."

The fiction and the reality is starting to blur for her.

"I bring my index finger in to join my middle finger to help rub your clit. I no longer bother even trying to tease you. Every touch is directly on your clit. I push my thumb into you as my attentions become more direct, more intense. At the moment I sense you are just about there. I bite your nipple sharply and I feel all of your body trembling with an orgasm, as it spreads from your nipple to your loins and then to every far reach of your body and back again."

She moans loudly and squeezes her legs together.

"Your legs are squeezing my arm, but I will not stop my torment and your climax rages on and on. Finally, you collapse against me and you are just breathing deeply. I give you a few minutes, but I am not done with you yet.

"I reach behind you and spread my suit jacket on the floor to protect you from the chill of its steel. I ease you over backwards. I unzip your skirt and pull it off, tossing it to the side. I climb down over you and kiss you passionately one more time.

"I break off the kiss and begin to kiss my way down your body. I am kissing your throat. And now I am kissing the top of your chest as I bring both hands back to your breasts. My kisses continue down between the breasts as my hands continue their attentions. I am kissing your abdomen now, continuing lower and lower down your body. As my lips reach the top of your panties, I bring my hands down from their previous posts to remove your last garment.

"Even though you are now totally naked, I can still see nothing in the pitch black. I run my hands down your naked legs to feel their shape. To feel their softness. Do you feel my hands on your legs?"

"I do. I can. Please don't stop."

I laugh. "I have no plans to stop, dear Becca. I bring my hands back up the inside of your thighs. I see your privates with my fingers. I sense your hair. You have a landing strip, but you haven't felt like trimming lower and you now have a bit of stubble."

"You are right. I do."

"I can feel the hair. I can feel the stubble. It all feels beautiful. But I cannot tell the color in the dark."

"I am a natural blonde. All my hair is blonde."

"Thank you for telling me. Your lips are open for me, more open than they ever have been, begging for more attention. I now feel all your folds, your openness. I will get to your more precious parts, but I have already visited them. I know them well. Your outer edges are still virgin territory to me.

"I need to taste them as well as feel them. My eyes are denied their desire, but every other sense cries out to experience you, every bit of you. My tongue runs along every edge, through every valley, tasting your juices that are flowing freely for me. My nostrils soak in the aroma of your desire. I thrust two fingers into you, listening to the sounds of your arousal slurping around my fingers. I may be blind, but my other senses are fully sated by you, drinking of your body and its gifts.

"I bring my tongue to find your clit, which is screaming for attention. I swirl my tongue around it and you moan softly."

She follows suit in real life, maybe a bit louder than I had expected.

"My tongue continues to work on your clit while three fingers on my right hand repeatedly penetrate you and my left hand pinches your nipples. I continue to attend to you as your moans are becoming louder. When I think you can take no more, I drive all four fingers into you, deeper than I have while my left hand pinches your nipple.

"You are now screaming, but it's fine because no one can hear you from inside the vault. Your hands are gripping my hair, pushing my head deeper into your crotch. This orgasm is sharper, stronger than the earlier one, but it does not last as long. Before you can calm, I give you a kiss, then lift you up into my lap, your legs straddling me.

"I impale you with my rock hard cock. This is no sweet lovemaking. I am fucking you. Hard and deep. My lust for your body controls all my motions. I know I am not going to last long. I want you so badly. I need to fill you with my essence.

"But you are rising to your third orgasm to match mine. I am worried you will not quite catch up to me, so I reach my hand between us and find your clit. It only takes a few touches of that spot before you reach your orgasm. I feel the muscles of your cunt squeezing my cock and I explode into you. Our mutual orgasm runs for minutes as you rock on and off me and I fill you with more and more of myself. Finally, you collapse on to me and we kiss until we can do nothing but hold each other."

"Adam, that was beautiful. Um, I need to masturbate now."

"Be my guest, I can't see anything anyway. I will enjoy the sounds, though. I don't think that violates my wedding vows."

I can feel her pulling up her skirt. I can hear her finger sliding in her pussy. I can hear the sloshing of her juices as she slides through those sopping folds. I bet her panty is soaking wet.

She is moaning now, and not quietly. She suddenly goes silent. Her body touches mine in many places. At each nexus, I feel a muscle in her tensed to its max. Then she relaxes. She reaches up, giving me a quick kiss. Then she puts a finger in my mouth and I can taste those juices that I had craved in my fantasy. That I am craving in my reality.

"Thank you, Adam. But you left out a scene in your story. Before you fucked me, I sat up and unzipped your pants. Your cock is too hard, too erect to fit through your fly and I need to unbuckle your pants and loosen them. Then I pull down the band of your boxers over the cock I can sense below me. I bring my tongue up the back of the shaft, licking from your balls all the way to the tip. I swirl my tongue around the tip once, twice, three times and then drive my mouth over your cock. You are too big for me to be able to take you all in. I pull back until just the tip is in and I tease it with my tongue. Then I drive my mouth back down your shaft, further this time.

"I can feel you getting close. I can't let that happen. I need you somewhere else, want you to fill another orifice. I stand and you lift me onto your lap, impaling me on your cock as you lower me. Forcefully driving yourself all the way into my aching cunt."

"And you said, you wouldn't be able to write erotica. I think you just did. We should probably rest now and save what air we have."

We sit quietly, but she is holding me much tighter now. I don't like to have sex with a woman while thinking about another, but I know I will think of her next time Rachel and I have sex. I cannot help it. I want her so much.

We sit for a long time, certainly multiple hours.

"Adam, I am scared. Each breath is starting to hurt. My head is getting fuzzy"

"Just hold onto me, we will be here together to the end. I have really enjoyed our conversations in here."

"Me, too. If this is the end, I have enjoyed going out on a high note."

"Don't loose hope. We are going to make it. Somehow, we will. And when we do I would like to talk to you again. What is your phone number?"

"417-3310"

"203 or 475"

"475"

"Thank you. We should try to go to sleep to save what oxygen that is left."

*****

Chapter 2 Chaos

Going to sleep is the last thing I remember before the bright light. Is that the infamous tunnel of light? Am I dying? Going to heaven? Then I hear the voices.

"He's alive."

"She is too. Pulse is weak."

"Let's get O2 on them and transport, stat!"

I have a mask placed over my face. I feel them picking me up and lying me on a gurney. I see Rebecca being placed on one of her own. Now that we have light. I try to look at her, but they straighten my head up and wheel me out. I managed to catch a glimpse of her. I will never forget what she looks like.

Rachel runs over to me and holds my hand. "Are you okay, Adam? What happened?"

"He should be fine ma'am. But we need to get him to the hospital to give him a complete check up."

I notice a balding overweight man trying to talk to Rebecca. "Did you see who did this? How much did they take?"

The paramedics push him away, saying, "She is barely conscious, sir. She needs rest before you can ask any questions."

The ambulance ride and many of the hours in the hospital room are a blur. They ask me if I was hurt, and I tell them about the lump on the back of my head. I have a splitting headache. I know Rachel sits with me the entire time, although I am only aware of her occasionally.

A doctor comes in to talk to me. To us I guess, as she is also talking to Rachel.

"You were very lucky. Another fifteen minutes or so and you would have started taking permanent brain damage. In less than an hour, you would have been dead. You probably have a splitting headache right now."

"Yeah. That is putting it mildly."

"That may take a day or longer to go away completely. We will keep you on oxygen for at least all day today. I am monitoring your O2sat. It is still dangerously low. And you may have sporadic returns of headaches for a month or so. No vigorous exercises for at least a month, You look pretty fit, so you must keep fairly active. It's not very often a doctor tells you not to exercise, but this is one of those few cases. Even after the month, if you feel light headed or have a headache coming, stop what you are doing. If it gets worse, call an ambulance."

"Can he work?"

"What do you do?"

"He's a lawyer."

"No Perry Mason moments in the courtroom I guess. And deep concentration may cause the headaches as well. Take a few days off, then plan on working half days for two weeks or so. If you feel up to it, do more. If that makes you feel worse, slow down. You should eventually recover completely, but it's a little bit like a concussion. Everyone's brain reacts differently and takes a different path to recovery. And I strongly suggest never getting locked in a vault again."

"I certainly hope not. How is Rebecca?"

"The woman who came in with you? Her O2 was even lower than yours, but she seems to be coming out of it better than you are. She asked about you, too. First thing she said when she came to. Any other questions from either of you?"

We both shake our heads.

"Well if you think of anything, the nurses can get me a message. And I will see you again before you are discharged probably tomorrow mid-day or so."

The doctor was out of the room and Rachel turns to me, flames in her eyes.

"What is it between you and this Rebecca bitch?"

"Rachel, give me a break. We talked for hours in there. Just to keep each other calm. She held onto me for comfort. We both thought we were going to die in there."

"And what did you two do with your last breaths?"

"Nothing that I am ashamed about at all. I know our marriage isn't at its best point, but I still want us. I still value our marriage vows. We did nothing."

"You were stranded in a vault for fourteen hours with a beautiful woman and nothing happened? But you are the first thing she asks about when she comes to? Do you think I am stupid?"

"Okay, you caught me. She gave me a quick kiss on the lips before we decided to go to sleep, presumably to die. There were times in there I did want to fuck her. I didn't mostly because of our marriage. But I will give you another reason why we didn't do anything. Getting our heart rate up would have consumed more oxygen. If we had gotten it on, as you seem damned and determined to believe, we probably both would have died."

"Now, that sounds like you. Always putting rationality over passion. That is why our marriage is the shits."

"Right now, I wish I had given in to my desires. I would have enjoyed that and I wouldn't be here to listen to this bullshit. You are making my headache worse, Rachel. Can you just let me rest, please. You can stay or go, but just shut up."

She storms out in a huff. So that is what I saved myself for. Fucking bitch.

When I wake up, they want me to order a meal and a police detective is waiting to talk to me. My headache is at least a little bit better. I make my order and tell them to let the cop in.

He flashes a badge at me and introduces himself as Detective Peters.

"I just have a few quick questions and then you can go back to resting. I understand you are lucky to be alive."

"I don't feel particularly lucky at this moment. I don't think I can help your investigation much, but I will do my best."

"Can you tell me exactly what you saw yesterday?"

"Rebecca was getting a bracelet out of the case to show me. I was -"

"Did you know Miss ..." He looks at his notes. "Did you know Miss DuBois already?"

"No, I never met her before. But we spent hours locked in a vault together. We talked quite a bit. That was the best way I could think to keep her calm."

"Was she unusually upset?"

"I don't know it was unusual, given we both thought we were going to die. I think most people find that pretty upsetting, don't you?"

"We just have to cover all the bases. What is it you do, Mister Jacobs?"

"I am a lawyer. At Ferguson and Samuelson."

"Was your work going well?"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything? Yes my work is going well. I am still on track to become a full partner in another ten years or so."

"How is your marriage sir?"

"Jesus, I got assaulted and almost killed and I am being questioned. To be honest, it's been better. We just had a fight because she assumed Rebecca and I had sex when we were locked in there."

"Why would she have thought that, sir?"

"I have no fucking idea. I thought it was odd as hell. Maybe she figures she would have. I don't know. Don't you want to hear what actually happened?"

"You don't need to yell at me, sir. I am just being thorough. But please, do tell me your story."

"I was trying to buy a diamond bracelet for my wife's birthday."

"Was it an expensive bracelet?"

"Fairly, yes. I hadn't decided yet, but the one she was about to show me was about five thousand dollars."

"I would consider that very expensive, sir."

"I suppose it depends on your income, doesn't it. I considered it fairly expensive. I wanted to buy Rachel something nice for her birthday. Maybe it would improve things for us. And I knew she had always wanted a bracelet like this."

"And then what happened?"

"Rebecca's face suddenly went weird. I realized later that she was probably being tased. I have never seen someone's face so distorted as hers became. Then I blacked out. I woke up with a large bump on my head, so I assume they hit me with something."

"You say they. Do you have a reason to believe more than one person was involved?"

"I used they because I have no idea whether my assailant was male or female. Saying either he or she would be prejudicial as evidence, so I chose they as a neutral pronoun. For all I know it was Snow White and all seven fucking dwarves. I have told you everything I know about the incident. I came to in the vault a few minutes before Miss DuBois did."

"And was your wife correct? Did you and Miss Dubois have sex in the vault?"

"We talked a lot. The only physical contact we had was her holding onto me most the time in there, for comfort and consolation. Both of us were fully clothed the entire time. She did give me one quick kiss shortly before we decided to go to sleep. We both expected not to wake up from that sleep and I think she wanted to thank me for keeping her company in our dying minutes. As I think the bracelet can be used to establish, I was in the process of trying to repair my marriage. I had no interest in doing something to break it. And I was aware that raising our heart rates that much would have consumed more oxygen. My understanding is that had we violated my vows, we would probably have sustained permanent brain damage, if not death."

"Thank you, sir. Your testimony has been very helpful."

"Do you have any idea who did this? Are they likely to be caught?"

"We will examine every shred of evidence, sir. You can be assured of that."

He leaves just as my meal is arriving. It occurs to me I don't even know if this is lunch or dinner. I have no idea what time it is. And my headache is coming back again. I, of all people, should know not to talk to the cops without a lawyer present. I feel sorry for Rebecca. That cop is going to try to blame one or both of us for this. I hope that they have good video evidence from the store.

Rachel takes me home the next day. She is a little more conciliatory today than she was yesterday. And I finally get my phone back. I enter Rebecca's number into my contacts as soon as I can get away from my wife's prying eyes.

I am going a bit stir crazy sitting at home. Working half time is sounding pretty good right now. I haven't tried to get on my computer, so I can't even write. As much cabin fever as I am catching, Rachel is getting seriously bitchy. She was fine my first day back. But each passing day, she gets crabbier and crabbier. I tell her she can go to her tennis lessons or whatever she would be doing, but she insists on staying home with me.

On the third day back, her cell phone rings when she is in the hallway. She never understood that I can hear her whispers from the next room, so I listen in on her half of the conversation.

"Hi Ted."

"I can just talk for a minute. He is in the other room."

"No Ted, he doesn't go anywhere. He stays here all the time."

"It's not my fault. He did almost die a few days ago."

"I know. I am so horny I am about to snap. But he goes back to work halftime next week. We should be able to start getting together again. God, I need you."

"Love you too, Ted."

When she walks in the room, she has a crack of a smile on her face. The first one I have seen in three days. And I know why.

"Who is Ted?" I ask as she walks by nonchalantly.

She freezes in mid-stride and goes so white I worry she is going to faint.

"You heard that, didn't you? Would it do any good if I denied everything?"

"Not really. I am assuming it is Ted Snocroft, but I am sure I could figure out which Ted it is without too much expense. If it is Ted Snocroft, my lawyer will depose him and he will sing like a bird rather than risk his law license lying for you. He says he loves you, but he loves his law license more. And he knows you would drop him like a hot potato if he had no way of supporting you.

"You can try to fight it, but I think I hold all the cards right now. I will make you a reasonable offer to not contest the divorce. I do not think the courts will be so generous. We will evenly split our financial assets, savings, investments, retirement, equity in the house. That's it. No alimony or anything else. You will need to go back to work to support yourself, unless Ted is going to pay for everything now. But he is already paying alimony to his ex-wife. The way you spend, things may get tight pretty quickly.

"I just have two questions for you. When did this start and is this why you thought I was unfaithful in the vault?"

"It started about a year and a half ago. You didn't seem to care about us anymore. All your passion went into that damn smut you spend your time on. You had a real live woman who wanted you and you would spend your time with fantasy women in your own head."

"I wanted to share my writing with you. But you wouldn't let me."

"I don't want anything to do with your trash. And I don't want anything to do with you anymore."

"So was the accusation about me with Rebecca just trying to assuage your guilty conscious for cheating? But we will both always know, you cheated. I had the chance to and didn't because I took my vows seriously. Yours flew out the window once they were inconvenient. I was going to stay calm, but that is becoming more and more difficult. I am asking you to move out today. Pack up what you need and go. I don't care where. Go to Ted's. Go to a hotel. Go live on the fucking street. Just get out of my sight. You disgust me."

I sit and let my head calm back down. This was not good for it. I can hear her upstairs. She is yelling, but it also sounds like she is packing. On her way down the stairs, she says, "I will be back later for more stuff. I took a snapshot of our finances as of this minute. Fifty-fifty of that, right? Do you want to buy my half of the house off me or are we selling it and splitting the proceeds?"

"Yes, that was the agreement. I will leave your stuff untouched, At some point, we will need to decide about any joint personal items. Think about if there is anything you really want. I don't want to be an asshole about this. I just want you out of my life in a more or less fair way. And I don't know what I want to do about the house yet. I would be willing to let you take it, but there is no way you could swing a mortgage for what we owe plus my half of the equity."

And then she is gone. Essentially out of my life, other than some brokering of items that I hope can be done with as little animosity as possible.

My first task is calling a divorce lawyer I know.

"Sue. Hi, this is Adam Jacobs."

I heard about what happened to you. Are you okay?

"I am healing, slowly. Still a lot of headaches. They don't think there will be any permanent damage though. But I am calling because I need your services."

You and Rachel? Oh, I am sorry.

"Yeah, I just found out she has been cheating on me for a year and a half. The things she can't get away with when I am home laid up. I offered her half the assets, but no alimony, if she does not contest the facts or the divorce. She just took a couple of suitcases of stuff and moved out."

I guess I need to make you an appointment to start on the full paperwork. Are you available tomorrow?

"I am still off work this week. Next week I am back half time, so I have lots of opportunities. But I have to minimize stress a little bit still. So I might need to take a break for a while during our meeting."

I can cope with that. Let's make it 2PM at my office. Are you doing okay with this?

"I think so. Surprisingly okay. Rebecca, the woman I was locked in the vault with, had predicted that she was cheating on me. Maybe that softened the blow."

You talked about your marriage with a stranger you were locked up with?

"When you think you are going to die, you bare your soul to whoever is with you. I will probably ask her out. We have a very strange bond between us. I don't think anyone else can really understand what it was like in there. I know it's a bad basis for a relationship, but we also seem to get along beyond that. Time will tell."

Be careful. You are likely to be very emotionally fragile right now.

"So is Rebecca I am sure. The detective wanted to blame one of us for the robbery. Even in the shape I was in, I held my own pretty well with him. I know, Shut The Fuck Up, Friday. But I wasn't exactly clear headed yet when he asked to talk to me. I am worried how much he managed to browbeat her. See you tomorrow."

My next task was contacting Rebecca.

I , this is Adam from the vault. Sorry I didn't reach out sooner.

and are you doing? Did the detective harass you too badly?

A moment later, I , is this really you? How do I know for sure?

It's me. Would anyone else know about your burgeoning writing career inserting extra scenes?

It really is you! How are you doing?

I still get headaches most of the time. I am going to try going back to work next week halftime.

Headaches are getting better, but still get them occasionally. Store won't let me work until the cops straighten this out, which may be months. Cop thinks I was in on it.

He thought I was in on it at first too. Or that we had done this together.

I have other news. You were right. Rachel was cheating on me. We just broke up and she moved out.

Are you okay?

I just told my divorce lawyer that I was okay because you warned me.

Are you available for dinner tonight? You choose the place

Do you know Rita's by the store? I always wanted to eat there, but it's out of my price range.

Let me see when they have reservations. I will text you as soon as I have a time.

I call the restaurant and get a 6:30.

I send Becca one last reservation. meet there or pick u up? proper date style ????.

love to be picked up. 1423 Pinecrest. Text me I will come down.

Be there at 6:20

I am giddier than I can ever remember. Of course, this is my first real date since high school. I laugh to myself thinking about how different I am than I was then. On my last date, my big hope and fear was holding Anne's hand. Anything else was more a fantasy than a hope. I did hold her hand. And we kissed.

I certainly expect to hold Becca's hand. And to kiss her. How much more? That probably depends more on our health than our interest or willingness.

This is going to be a weird date, though. In one sense, we barely know each other. I might barely recognize her. I doubt I would from behind. But we have bared our souls to each other in ways few have. I think I know her inner thoughts better than I knew Rachel's. This will be some odd chimera of a blind date and old lovers seeing each other after being apart for years. But neither of those are at all right either.

In other words, I have no idea what to expect. But I expect everything. I know what her pussy looks like and what it tastes like, but I have never seen it with my own eyes, have never felt it with any part of me.

I have a raging boner just thinking about her.

Looking at its web site, Rita's is fairly formal, so I will wear one of my suits. She liked me in my suit. I wonder what she will wear.

It suddenly occurs to me, I should get her flowers on my way to pick her up. I bet Dave wasn't getting her flowers. I am not sure about the sex, but I want tonight to be another magical night for her. Even if things don't work out between us, and I have a voice in the back of my head telling me it won't, she deserves more magic in her life.

I fidget nervously until it is time to go. I stop by the florist. I settle on a nice spring mix of flowers -- I don't know any of them by name -- because roses felt too heavy, too I love you. Part of me wants to pledge my undying love already, but that is insanity. So the pretty spring mix. If things go really well today, I can get her roses tomorrow.

I had left some extra time for the florist, so I have to circle the block a few times waiting for 6:20. At 6:19, I pull up and text her. She comes down in a pretty sundress. It is a bit too casual for Rita's but it nicely emphasizes what cleavage she does have. I suspect it was her compromise between fancy and sexy.

I take the opportunity to really look at her. She is slender, without much by way of curves. But I think she is beautiful. And she is so obviously happy, she is glowing.

I open the door and she climbs in. I lean over and we give each other a quick kiss. Not much longer than the one she gave me in the vault.

"You are beautiful. It is my first chance to really see you and I am stunned by your beauty."

She just blushes. I wonder how often she blushed in the dark with me. I would never have known. Her blush is very sexy.

"Oh, and I got these for you."

I hand her the flowers in a fancy box. She opens the box and shrieks a bit and then leans back over and gives me a longer kiss. She is beaming even more.

She carries the flowers, still in the box, clutching it like her prized possession, as we walk in. I am glad I thought to get them.

The sundress makes her look younger than her work clothes did, younger than she actually is. I feel a little awkward walking into the restaurant, my arm around her. I am too young to be her father and feel too old to be her date. Oh well, seven years is really not that much of a difference.

The waiter seats us and hands us our menus. She sets the box of flowers along the side of the table, lid open. I think she wants everyone to know that I bought her flowers.

I speak first, "I just realized that I have no idea what kind of food you like, what you would like to drink or any of that. We know so much about each other in some ways, but we never spoke about food."

"I like Italian food, but I eat a lot of Thai and some Korean. And burgers and pizza and most any way chicken is cooked. I am allergic to tree nuts. I don't like beer, I don't know much about wine, I like some ciders and the vodka coolers. But I don't drink much overall. Except coffee. I drink a lot of coffee. How about you?"

"I eat pretty broadly, but I am not a big seafood fan."

"I don't like seafood either."

"I am acquiring a taste for good wines. I will have an occasional scotch, but not like many lawyers. Expensive scotch seems to go with the expensive suits. I am a tea drinker, no coffee. I drink mostly unsweetened ice tea and water. I don't like soda, especially not colas."

"Oh, god, I used to drink way too much Diet Coke. I have mostly replaced that with coffee."

She orders chicken parmigiana. I get spaghetti pomodoro. We each get salads as well. And I order a plate of bruschetta for the table and a nice bottle of wine for us. A red that will go well with our entrees. The prices are high, but the food is delicious. It is actually a bit too pretentious for my tastes. But Becca is luxuriating in the ambiance. This is how the other half lives, in her mind.

"Did you ever break up with Dave?"

"Yeah, the day after I got released. The creep never even came to check on me in the hospital. How did you find out about your wife?"

"I overheard her on the phone this morning to her lover. She never did understand that I could hear her talking softly in the next room. I have very good hearing.

"She had been getting more and more irritable. She admitted on the phone, she was getting so horny she was ready to snap my head off. Jesus, it just occurred to me. That is why she was so pissy in the hospital. My near death probably dragged her away from fucking Ted. When we had the fight and she stormed out, I bet they got back and finished their session. That's why she was in a better mood the next day. I hope having unlimited opportunity now will make her happy. Fucking bitch."

I add on, "Sorry about that, Becca."

"That's okay. I know you were trying to save it and that hurts. Dave did admit he was cheating on me when I broke up with him. One last snipe to show he wouldn't be missing much."

"From where I sit, he is missing a lot."

She blushes demurely again. I am enjoying seeing her facial expressions. In the dark, I learned every nuance of her voice. But now I can pair those to her facial expressions. To her body language. Although her current obvious joy would have been out of place in the vault.

We share a dessert and then she has a coffee and I have a cup of tea. We are probably the last of the first sittings to leave. It was a lovely meal.

"Should I take you back to your apartment or would you like to come to my house?"

"I would very much like to go to your house. But can I stop at my apartment first? I would like to bring a change of clothes; having to wear the same clothes tomorrow morning kind of sucks. And I will put the flowers in a vase there. And I kind of want to brag to Sandy about you. You can stay down here in the car or come up with me. It is not much of an apartment and it's kind of a mess, but whatever. Most of the mess is hers anyways."

"I would be honored to come up. And be your show and tell if that is what you want."

I follow a step behind her into the apartment.

"Back so soon? I thought you might end up at his -. Oh, hi,"

"Sandy, this is Adam. Adam, this is Sandy. And look what he gave me, Sandy!"

She pulls the flowers out of the box and shows them off. Sandy squeals as Becca gets out a vase and puts the flowers in it and sets them in the middle of the table.

"There, now they can brighten this room. Stay here for a minute while I grab some things."

Sandy tries talking to me. "Becca says you are a lawyer. Like for anything interesting?"

"No, just boring corporate law stuff. We handle contracts and IP disputes and that sort of thing. We would help in a lawsuit, but our clients aren't like Monsanto or big pharmaceutical companies or someone that is getting sued regularly."

We stare blankly at each other again until Becca reappears with an overnight bag.

"Okay, we are off. I will probably see you sometime tomorrow, Sandy."

Sandy gets up to give her a hug, whispering, "He is sooo handsome. Have fun!"

Becca whispers back, "He is, isn't he. And I intend to have fun."

I wonder if Becca remembers I can hear whispers.

******

Chapter 3 Reality

On the way into the house, I warn Becca, "I am not sure what we should do tonight."

"I want to do everything you described to me."

"I would love to do that, too. But I am not sure my body is up to it. I am still at the point that everything I do that gets me excited in any way, makes my headache come back. And my doctor told me to stop whatever I am doing if that happens. So I am not sure what I can do."

"I got the same warning from her."

"But beyond that, I am not sure what we should do. I have had the two most emotional days of my life in less than a week. You have had an emotional roller coaster, too. I am not sure we are making rational decisions right now."

"But, I want you."

"You want me right now. And I want you. Very much. I am very emotionally attached to you, drawn to you. Part of me wants to pledge my undying love as I stand here. But another part of me is yelling that this relationship cannot work. We barely know each other in many ways. We have been living very different lives and it will take adjustments from both of us to make it work.

"What I am trying to say is that we should take this a bit slowly. Tonight we can take advantage of each other's bodies as much as we can handle. I think we both need that after the vault. But we probably want to slow down a bit and see how we get along as our world slowly returns to normal. I just don't want to mislead you."

"Jesus, Adam, you sound like a fucking lawyer. I still want to fuck you tonight. I do understand I am probably not moving in tomorrow, becoming the new Mrs Jacobs as soon as the ink dries on your divorce. I may have been acting like a school girl tonight, but I know the way the world works."

Fuck. I think I just ruined the magic of the night for her. But it was the right thing to do. Her complaint has a familiar ring to it. It is the same complaint Rachel has told me many times. I guess I do need to let go sometimes, not think everything through.

I take her hand and lead her up the stairs to my bedroom. My first thought was our bedroom, but that our was Rachel and me. That our does not exist anymore. Thoughts to chase from my head.

Once in the bedroom, I say, "I would like to do this differently than I described in the vault. I want to use my eyes tonight, take advantage of the light. Right now, I want to watch you take your clothes off. Would you do that for me Becca?"

I sit on the edge of the bed while she stands a few feet in front of me. She pulls her sundress over her head and stands in front of me, letting me ogle her. After a moment she spins slowly around, so I can see her from all sides.

She reaches behind her and unfastens her bra. Unlike the one that she described to me in the vault, this is a very lacy bra. I can just barely see her nipples through the lace. She lets the bra drop off her chest and then fall to the floor. Her nipples are dark, thick, and very erect. She has relatively small areolae, but they are very dark. Her breasts are small, but beautiful to my eyes.

I think she can see that her body is pleasing me. I am already lusting after her. If nothing else, my erection is obvious through my suit pants.

She is reaching for her panty when I put up a hand to stop her. "Come here. I want to touch you."

I spread my legs and she walks up to me and I pull her tightly against me. She pulls back, saying, "No, no, no," as she wags a finger at me.

I am momentarily confused. Has she changed her mind? Is she going to take control?

"You have to take your shirt off now. I want to feel your skin, too. I want to watch you as well."

I unbutton my shirt and pull it off, dropping it off the side of the bed.

"Pants, too. I am down to just my panty. You should be down to your boxers."

I stand up, unfastening my pants, letting them drop to the floor. I kick them aside. She now comes up and puts her arms around me, pulling me tight against her. It is much nicer feeling her skin against mine.

After a few minutes of the hug, I break my arms loose and push hers over her head. I close my eyes and start running my hands down her arms and then down her sides, before bringing my finger tips across her belly. I can feel her goosebumps.

I now turn her around and lay her back onto the bed. I pull off her silk and lace panty before I step back to admire her pussy for the first time.

"I shaved the stubble for you this time. It really was there in the vault."

"It is beautiful."

I reach forward and spread her lips. She is not as wet as she sounded when she masturbated, but she is certainly well lubricated. I reach forward and lick around her pussy before honing in on her pleasure nub. She moans when I first touch it with my tongue. I wait a moment before touching it again. Another moan, louder. I keep my tongue on her clit and her moans are becoming continuous.

I reach a hand up and pinch one of her nipples; she rewards me with a gasp. Her moans are becoming needier, begging for her release. I bring two fingers on my other hand into play, repeatedly penetrating her. I can tell she is close. After a few more minutes of attention, I softly bite her clit as I pinch her nipple again, much harder this time.

This pushes her over the edge and she erupts into her climax. Her hands are grabbing the bedding as her abdomen muscles tense. I can feel my fingers being squeezed inside her. After a few moments, I can sense her relaxing again and I back off the sensations. I climb up and lean my face down to give her a kiss. Not the little pecks we have been giving each other. A deep, passionate, soul sharing kiss.

After a minute of kissing, she pushes me off and rolls me over.

She kneels beside me, pulling my boxers down. I lift up my hips and she pulls them all the way off, tossing them off somewhere.

She leans over and licks the underside of my cock, from my balls all the up to the tip. Then she circles the tip three times with her tongue, exactly as she had described in the vault. I think I know what to expect and I am not disappointed. She immediately swallows most of my shaft.

Up and down my member three times before coming back off most the way to tease the tip with her tongue. Back all the way down again. After three times up and down, she is back to teasing my tip with her tongue.

She pulls off all the way, saying, "How quickly can you recover, Adam?"

Her question surprises me, but I answer as truthfully as I can. "I guess a couple of hours."

"Good. We have all night. And we don't want to get you too excited all at once."

And suddenly she has swallowed my cock once again. This is uncharted territory. Outside the script we had written together. After repeating her cycle of teasing at the top, she adds a hand to her pleasuring of my member, corkscrewing just below her mouth.

I have not had a release in over a week. I warn her, "I am not going to last much longer."

She pulls off, but only long enough to say, "Let me have it, Adam. Give me your load, Fill my mouth with your cum."

And then she is back on me. A few more strokes and I let loose. And she swallows it all. Something Rachel would never do. It feels so good. And I just keep pumping and pumping into her. More and more of me in her mouth. Finally it starts dripping out the sides of her mouth and she pulls off, gasping a bit.

"That felt so good, Becca. No one has ever done that for me before."

"I aim to please. Now I want to masturbate for you again. But this time you get to watch."

She is still crouching on her knees, but she spreads them apart further. She brings her hand into her pussy. I watch her middle finger drive into her tunnel and then glide up her slit. She brings the finger back out and puts it into my mouth. I taste her glorious nectar once again.

She spreads her lips with one hand and fingers her clit with the other. I watch enthralled, but unsure whether to ogle her privates or watch the intensity going through her. As the moment draws near, I watch her face intently. The agonizing approach to the precipice. The ecstasy of her release. And the contentment once she has finished.

I hold my arms out wide for her, inviting her to lie with me. She accepts my offer, laying against my side with her head on my chest. I hold her tight.

"I really liked it when you held me in the vault for all those hours. I would not have made it without that. But I like it even more now, skin against skin, having just pleasured each other, visually and physically."

We lie together for over an hour, in silence, just holding on to each other. She is right, it is drawing on my feelings for her in the vault, renewing the bonds between us that we grew in the darkness.

Eventually, she shifts more onto me and kisses one of my nipples. She brings her hand up and gently brushes across the other. This sensation feels wonderful. Something else Rachel never did for me. She continues the treatment of my chest, with some of the kisses turning into nips with her teeth.

She climbs further onto me, now kissing and biting my far nipple. Her hand that had been buried picks up on the nipple that is still damp from her kisses. And her hand that had been active reaches down to my crotch, slowly stroking the member that is just starting to show some life.

A few minutes later, she shifts again. bringing her mouth back to my cock that is still no more than half mast. She spends a few minutes, getting it mostly ready, then stops.

She reaches for one of my hands and guides it to her crotch, the other she brings to her chest. I now understand my role and take to it with enthusiasm. While I bring her closer and closer to another release, she is lazily stroking my fully engorged erection, getting me ready for the next act.

A few minutes later, she has her third orgasm of the night. Not nearly as powerful as the first one, but she definitely enjoyed it.

She sits for a moment, reveling in her post-orgasmic bliss before climbing off the bed and reaching into her dress, lying crumpled on the floor.

She climbs back onto bed and rips a package open, pulling out a condom, which she unrolls onto my member. Mission accomplished, she climbs onto me, straddling my midsection. She slowly lowers herself, impaling herself on my cock.

"Let me control the pace. You just lie still and keep your heart rate down."

She begins to rock on and off my cock. It has been a long time since I wore a condom. Between the reduced sensations and the earlier release, I should be able to enjoy her nice slow fucking for a good long time.

I look up at her as she rides me. She truly is beautiful. I reach up to her breasts, to her thick dark nipples. I feel her flesh, soft under my hands. Pinch her nipples, held tightly between my fingers.

I look up at her again. I had worried that my next sex would be with Rachel, but I would imagine fucking Becca. But she is actually here. I am actually having sex with her. My heart and soul are filling with lust for her. I wanted this so badly. I need this. I am having to control myself not to thrust up into her.

And my headache returns. Like my head was cleaved open. No! This cannot be happening. But I know it is. And I know what that means.

"STOP!" I yell and grab my head.

She instantly climbs off of me and reaches out to me. We sit up and she holds me, my head against her chest. I am crying now, as she soothes me, her arm gently caressing my back.

"I am sorry," I sputter out between tears.

"This is not your fault. You wanted this just as much as I did. Just relax and let your head calm down. There will be other nights. Shh. Just relax now. I have already had three orgasms tonight. I can't complain too much."

We sit there for many minutes until my tears have stopped. I did want that so much it hurts right now. We lie down on the bed, my head once again on her chest and we fall asleep together.

I wake up in the morning, curled around her back. With a severe need to pee. I slide out of bed and relieve myself, but not before removing the condom still stuck to my shriveled member.

I climb back in bed and slip back against her, giving her a soft kiss on the back.

"Morning lover boy. How is the head doing?"

"It seems fine this morning. I am sorry I woke you up."

"It's about the time I would wake up anyway. I usually don't sleep this soundly in a strange bed. I will say this one is comfy. I could get used to it."

"Becca, we already talked about -"

"I am teasing you, silly. Lighten up. Although the bed is comfy. And I like the company."

She rolls over and gives me a kiss.

I look at her again. Her body is mostly covered by a sheet, but I can see enough. She is beautiful. I can see why some men might think she is too skinny, but I think she is perfect. And her face is divine. With her blonde curls.

"You are so beautiful."

"Compliments will get you everywhere. But we are not supposed to be getting serious about each other, remember?"

"Thank you for taking care of me last night. And I don't just mean at the end. You were wonderful all night. And I would never had thought about a condom. Rachel has been on the pill since before we were together. I just haven't worried about that for many years."

"You are not the only one who worries about our long term interests, you know. I may have been giddy about our date last night -- and Sandy brings that out in me even worse, we have been close friends since high school -- but I knew what was happening. I know how emotional of a time this has been for me. And you have just split up with Rachel too."

"I have to say something to you Becca. My heart is screaming out for me to profess my love, but my brain is screaming that it is too soon. But I want you to know what's in my heart."

"I am feeling it too, Adam. We went through something remarkable together and I think we have a bond that will never be broken. But it may or may not stay romantic. But let's enjoy the romantic side as long as it lasts."

"I think we may have broken the record for shortest romance. You know the one set by the two MIT nerds on a remote island."

She laughs.

"I don't think I want to try sex this morning yet, but would you like to take a shower with me? The shower is large enough for two and we can wash each other."

"That sounds wonderful. I have never actually done that. I have never had a shower large enough, I guess. Or someone I thought that I wanted to do that with either."

We hold hands heading into the shower. We hug and kiss between washing each other's backs and fronts. My cock is responding predictably to her soapy attentions.

Then I hear the garage door opening.

"Oh, shit! That is Rachel. She must be coming back to get more of her stuff. Let's rinse off real quickly and I will throw a robe on and go talk to her. You probably want to get dressed."

While I am turning off the water, she says, "I didn't bring my new clothes up yet. I think they are still in your car."

"Can you at least throw your dress back on? I don't want this to get ugly between the two of you. I am sorry about this."

I throw on my robe and hurry down as Rachel is coming in through the door from the garage.

"I didn't expect you to be back so early this morning."

"Well, there is stuff I realized I need that I didn't pack yesterday. Is there a problem?"

A noise comes down from upstairs.

"Is someone up there? Is that her? I knew you were lying to me."

She turns towards the upstairs, screaming, "Is that you Rebecca? You fucking whore. Was this whole thing a setup to steal Adam from me, breakup our marriage. You fucking bitch!"

"Yes, it is Rebecca. But I did not lie to you. Our marriage vows is what kept me faithful. But once you broke those, I felt free to follow suit."

"I thought your health wouldn't let you fuck, you god damned lying bastard."

"It still doesn't. We did try last night, but the headache came back," I say, trying to sound calm. "Try to be civil. I am not going out to confront Ted. But he is not the one who broke our wedding vows. You are. So back off."

So much for staying calm. I at least bit my tongue before I added my own 'you fucking bitch'.

"Just keep that whore out of my way. And damnit she was in my bed last night. I hate that. I hate her."

I run up ahead of Rachel and escort Becca into the spare bedroom until Rachel is in our bedroom. I then come downstairs with Becca.

"I will run out to your car and grab my stuff. I assume there is a powder room here I could use to change into my clean clothes."

"Yeah, right over there."

I sit in the living room, waiting for Becca to get changed, listening to Rachel screaming about her up in our bedroom. A moment later, Becca comes out and we sit quietly on the couch holding hands, waiting for the furor from upstairs to depart.

When it sounds like she may be finishing her packing, I tell Becca to stay put while I go talk to Rachel again.

"It's probably a good idea to text me when you are going to come over."

"So you can protect your little bitch."

She turns towards the living room, yelling "I don't know what he sees in you, you skinny bitch."

I glare at Rachel, and the say, "I would prefer not to be here when you come back to get things, unless we need to negotiate over some item. This afternoon might be good. I will be at Sue's office, filling out the divorce paperwork. And I will create my own bank accounts this afternoon and transfer exactly half of our money out. I will leave a little extra in the checking account to cover any outstanding checks. Feel free to use money from the accounts after that. It's all yours."

She stares daggers at me. "Just stay out of my fucking way, you bastard!"

She pushes by me, carrying another load to the car.

Once she is gone, I hurry back in to Becca. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. So much for breaking up before it got ugly."

"And she is the one who cheated on me."

"I guess she still has more feelings for you than she wants to admit. I am fine. I don't want to sound catty, but I am the one sitting here with you while she is out there swearing at both of us. Thank you for trying to protect me from that, though."

She leans over and gives me a quick kiss.

*****

Chapter 4 Progress

"Do you want any breakfast? I can make a pretty good omelette. I think we have tomatoes and cheese. I am not sure what else, to be honest. Rachel did most of the cooking."

"Omelettes would be great. Tomatoes and cheese sounds fine. Do you have any orange juice? Where is your coffee maker?"

"I think there is OJ in the fridge. There is a Keurig over there. Rachel didn't drink coffee either, so we just got the Keurig so guests could have coffee."

"If I do move in here at some point, a real coffee maker will be my first demand. But I can live with k cups for now."

Soon we are eating our breakfast together. This is a much more relaxed meal than last night's dinner.

"What did you think of Rita's now that you have been there?" I ask her.

"The food was great. And I have to admit I was enjoying showing you off. Dave was always such a slob, I was kind of embarrassed to go anywhere with him. In your suit, you are exactly what a woman wants to show off at a place like that. And you brought me flowers. No one has ever brought me a box of flowers like that. What did you think?"

"I agree that the food was great. But I thought they were trying to be pretentious. I prefer going to places that are a little more casual."

"Well let's have you pick our next place to eat. But one of us probably needs to learn to cook if we are going to be together long term. I am not a good cook. And it doesn't sound like your repertoire goes much beyond eggs."

"A little beyond, but not enough. I think I would like to cook more. I think that was just one of Rachel's trophy wife duties. Although she never really enjoyed it and wasn't that good of a cook."

"I am not sure I will ever be particularly good at it or enjoy it. And I definitely don't want to be a trophy wife."

She shakes her head with an ugly look on her face.

"I don't think you would keep working at the jewelry store if you didn't need the money, would you?"

"No, and he won't let me work there right now."

"I want to talk about that in a minute. But what would you want to do otherwise? In the vault, you mentioned writing. Would you really want to do that full-time?"

"I would like to try, at least. Oh, and I did read all of the rest of your stories on the site. You write well, but your characters tend to sound stilted. Do people around you really talk like that?"

"Mostly. Remember I talk with lawyers. And we are trained to choose our words very carefully. So, yeah."

"You need to get out and listen to real people talk."

"So some of my comments have told me. Anyway -"

Her phone buzzes and she picks it up to read something, then types for a minute. She sets her phone down and laughs briefly.

"Well, that was Diane, probably my best friend at work. Boss apparently called an all hands meeting this morning, notably without me, ostensibly to talk about security. But a few of the clerks jumped on him about not letting me work anymore. It got heated enough that the whole staff threatened to not open the store today, unless I started getting shifts again, too. So I guess I am working tomorrow."

"I was worried about how you were going to stay afloat without working. You said you had no real savings or anything. Are you going to be okay with the week off from work?"

"I appreciate that you are about to offer me money. And if things get bad enough, I will ask you. But I also have my pride. I want to be self-sufficient. Thank you for worrying about me, though."

"Just promise you won't get yourself in trouble. I may have just given half of my savings away to that woman I won't mention, but my monthly expenses also went down. Way down. So if you need anything, even if the romantic phase ends, please ask. As you said, I don't think our bond from the vault will ever be broken completely."

"And it is a much more exciting story to tell how we met than being the last two who could tolerate watching a bad action adventure movie."

I laugh.

I start gathering up the dishes to clean up from breakfast.

"I will let you get away with it today, but if I am going to eat many more meals over here, I don't want to be treated like a guest. So if you cook, I clean. Deal?"

"It does seem fair. In my defense, I think I am more courting you than thinking of you as a guest."

"I like that idea. And I am enjoying sitting here watching you move around in that robe. It shows off your body nicely."

I can feel her eyes on me as I am washing the pan. It is putting ideas into my head.

As I turn back to wipe off the table, she laughs, saying, "Another part of you decided to put in an appearance as well."

I look down. My cock, now fully erect, has forced itself through the opening in the bathrobe.

"I think that cleanup duty may be mine this morning."

She walks around the table and sits beside where I am standing. She grabs my erect cock, stroking it with her hand a few times before bringing her mouth into play. She is soon giving me a classic blowjob, hand and mouth. It does not take long for her to get me off, swallowing another load, this one much smaller than last night.

"I could get used to that kind of cleanup service. Do you want anything in return?"

"Not right now. I did make out pretty well last night, even without the final act reaching completion."

I want so badly to tell her I love her. But my brain says no.

"So what is the plan for the day?" she asks.

"Well, I have a meeting with my divorce lawyer at 2. Probably not a good idea for you to come to that. And I need to go by the bank and rearrange our accounts, as you might have heard. Otherwise, my plan was to relax. And since you are still off work today, I would like to relax with you."

"So let's relax this morning. Then get a light lunch somewhere before you drop me off at my apartment. You can then run your errands. Do you want to do dinner as well tonight? But I should probably sleep at my apartment so I can get ready for work in the morning."

"That sounds perfect. I know you say you like to read. I have some books here. I may try to read a nice romance myself, today."

"I brought a book for myself, so that sounds perfect. Why don't you go get dressed. Is there a better place to read quietly together than the couch we were on?"

"That is as good as any place. I guess I should give you a proper tour of the house at some point. I have one question for you to help me think about. Should I keep this house or sell it. I will need to remortgage if I keep it, to give her half of our equity in it."

"Are there too many painful memories?"

"My biggest problem is that I keep thinking of things as ours, meaning Rachel and mine. Every time I do that, it brings everything home. But that will probably fade with time. And selling the house sounds like more of a pain than I am interested in. So I don't know."

"Just sit on it for a while and see what you think. Selling it in six months is not really worse than now."

"Except I will have to refinance before then, which has a cost in time and money. And get an appraisal done, to know how much Rachel is due. So it is somewhat worse. Letting it rest for a week or two won't hurt. I can see what Sue suggests as well."

"Sue?"

"My divorce lawyer. We went to law school together."

"The one you mentioned who is getting eaten up by the nastiness, right?"

"Yeah. She just had a case where the ex-husband didn't contest the divorce, but he sat outside the courtroom and screamed obscenities at her client after the hearing. He shot himself last month."

"Yeah, I heard about that. I went to high school with his daughter, although she was a year ahead of me. She was the smartest kid in the school and a star basketball player. I felt sorry for her. It's got to be tough enough when your parents split, let alone dealing with your dad taking his own life."

"Are your parents still together?"

"Yeah, mostly happily married twenty-nine years on."

"And I take it you are a local?"

"Born and bred. So were both of my parents. So pretty rooted here."

"Have you ever traveled, spent anytime away?"

"Never had any money to do it. That New York trip with Dave was one of my biggest travels. I would love to see Europe. And maybe some of the exotic Asian destinations, like Singapore or Hong Kong. And maybe Rio. They all seem like places I would like to place romances, at least part of the story."

"Once we have clean bills of health, maybe we can take a nice trip somewhere."

"I would like that."

"I guess I should actually get dressed and let you start reading."

I go upstairs and head into my bedroom to get dressed. I walk in the room and shout, "God-damned bitch!"

I hear a voice from downstairs, "What's wrong?"

"She tore the sheets that were on the bed. Pulled them off and then ripped them."

I decide to leave the mess and get dressed. Then I realize I should document this, so I grab my phone and take some pictures of the damage done. Something else to talk to Sue about.

As I come back downstairs, I hear Becca talking on the phone.

"I guess I can come down this afternoon if I really need to."

I come around the corner and she looks unhappy.

"Who was that."

"The damned cops. Detective Peters. I have to go down to the station to answer more questions."

"That's not okay. I assume you don't have a lawyer."

"No, should I? I didn't do anything wrong."

"We know that, but the detective wants to pin it on somebody and you make a good culprit in his mind. Let me get you a lawyer."

I grab my phone and make a call.

"Sam? This is Adam Jacobs."

Adam. How are you doing? I heard about your incident.

"The doctor said we would have died in another hour or so. And I still get headaches whenever I try to do anything. But I have a favor to ask of you. I just talked to the woman who was locked in there with me."

The clerk?

"Yeah, that's her. The detective wants to pin the robbery on one of us. I think he decided not to take me on, but she has to go down to the station to answer more questions."

And she needs legal representation. Do you think she is innocent?

"I do. We talked a lot to each other while we were in there and I trust her. I should also warn you that we may be becoming romantically involved, which is going to complicate things and bring me back in."

Romantically? What happened with Rachel?

"I found out yesterday she was cheating on me. I have a meeting with Sue this afternoon to file the divorce papers."

Did you know the clerk before the robbery?

"No, we had never met. But when you think you are going to die, you bare your soul quite a bit to whoever happens to be with you. And it turns out we are pretty compatible."

Sounds like a bad start to a romance to me, but that's your call. What's her name?

"Rebecca DuBois. And, Sam, she doesn't have any money."

So you are asking me to do this pro bono, I take it.

"As a favor to me. I feel responsible for her. I don't think I would have made it in there alone."

Do you know which precinct station?

"No, but I can ask her."

She is standing there with you?

"Yeah, she just got off the phone with the detective."

Jesus, Adam, did she spend the night with you?

"Yes, I took her out to dinner last night. Our first date."

Sounds like 'may be becoming romantically involved' is a little misleading, don't you think? Okay, why don't you put her on the phone.

I hand the phone to Becca, saying, "This is Sam Everton, a good lawyer and a friend of mine. He is going to represent you in this, but he wants to talk to you. I will head into another room so I don't listen in."

I go into the study to look for a romance novel to read. A few minutes later, she comes in to find me.

"Thanks for getting Sam to represent me. Am I in real trouble?"

"You shouldn't be. I suspect our friend in blue will back off pretty quickly once you have a lawyer. You were going to be too easy to intimidate on your own. There are definitely cops who will pick someone who can't defend themselves and try to pin the crime on them. I don't want him to just move on to another fall guy, but at least it won't be you."

I grab a book off the shelf, saying, "Shall we try reading? Unless this morning has been too disruptive."

"No, I think the relaxation of reading is even more important now."

I sit at one end of the couch and she lies on the couch, head in my lap. My left hand holds my book and my right hand turns the pages, resting on her abdomen in between. I am surprised how easily we can just sit here together. Rachel and I could never do this.

We read for a couple of hours. She laughs when my stomach rumbles.

"I guess it is time for lunch," she says. "Where do you want to go?"

"How about a Thai place not too far from here. Then I should take you home, so I can do my errands and you can go talk to our favorite policeman."

"Sounds good. Let me grab my bag from the powder room and then let's go."

Lunch is easy. We are becoming more and more comfortable together. We spend lunch talking about where we would go on a trip. She really wants the old European grand tour. I point out some of the out of the way places can be more fun. We start to plan out a trip, mixing big name places with more out of the way places. It soon becomes obvious that we are talking about more than one trip. But is fun to dream together.

We settle on a little trendy cafe for dinner at 7. We will meet there, since we will be going to separate places afterwards.

She gives me another quick kiss before she climbs out of the car at her apartment. I watch her walk up the steps to her front door. She really is beautiful.

I get to Sue's office a few minutes early, but she doesn't have a client at the moment, so she asks me to come on in.

She starts right in with the appointment. "So are you sure you want to go through with this? Not try some marriage counseling to see if things can be repaired?"

"No chance after this morning."

"Was there an incident I should know about?"

"Yes. She came by this morning to collect some more of her things and it got ugly."

"How ugly?"

"I let her go pack stuff up by herself. When I came back up to get dressed, after she left, I found this."

I pull up the pictures on my phone and pass them to Sue.

"Yeah, that is getting pretty ugly. I have to ask you, what aren't you telling me. That looks very focused on the bed. Was someone else there?"

I look down sheepishly and say, "Rebecca was there."

"Adam, if you want me to do this, you need to be more open with me. Rebecca is the clerk who was locked in the vault with you, right?"

"Yes."

"Have you two had a relationship before this?"

"We had never met before the robbery. My first contact with her after that was right after I called you yesterday. We went out to dinner at Rita's last night for our first date."

"That was some first date if she spent the night, wasn't it?"

"Jesus, no one understands how much we bonded in there. Neither of us is sure if this will stay romantic, but I think we will stay connected for the rest of our lives."

"Did you have sex with her in the vault?"

"You are the third person to ask me that. No. We wanted to. We talked about doing it. But I wouldn't let us. Because of Rachel. I believed in our vows. Unlike her. It's why I wanted to see her right away. We both still wanted each other's bodies. The irony is, I couldn't actually have sex last night. I am not healthy enough yet. My headaches came back when we tried. I ended up crying against her until we fell asleep. But when Rachel realized Becca was there, she flipped."

She laughs and I look at her oddly.

"I am not laughing at you. I am laughing at an odd coincidence. I have another client right now who was furious because she had restrained herself from cheating days before discovering her partner was cheating. She went back to her lover the same day, too. She was more angry about not following through earlier than you seem to be."

"I also know that we would have burned more oxygen had we consummated our relationship in the vault. If I had survived, I almost certainly would have had substantial brain damage. My awareness of that downside may be the only reason I held to my vows. So I am a bit relieved I did not know about Rachel and Ted."

"Ted is Rachel's lover? Ted Snocroft?"

"I don't know for sure what Ted, only that she calls him Ted. I guessed it was Ted Snocroft in front of her and she didn't say yes or no. But that is still my guess."

"Someone should teach that man how to keep his zipper up. Alimonies become expensive. How did you find out?"

"I overheard her on the phone with Ted, planning to get together. She talked about how horny she was and how much she needed him. It didn't take much to put two and two together. I asked her who Ted was and she admitted she has been sleeping with him for a year and a half. That she didn't want anything more to do with me. I just wanted out, so I offered her an even split of assets, but no alimony, if she would not contest the facts or the divorce. Yeah I know, it was overly generous."

"And you had another lover waiting in the wings."

"Okay, I deserved that one. Yeah, I am sure that impacted my frame of mind."

"It actually isn't an unreasonable settlement. Depending on the judge, she may well still receive alimony because of the income differential, despite the infidelity. Her stunt this morning actually hurts her case as well. I would have no problem defending your oral agreement in front of a judge if she hires a lawyer that decides she should fight for alimony. You are not completely out of the woods on that one. But, if she does get it, it will probably be temporary and significantly less than she would have received without the infidelity. So I have some standard questions. Are you still doing okay to answer them?"

"Yeah, I will let you know if the headaches start."

"How much are we talking about in assets?"

"Well I think the house is worth a little over a million and we owe about 400k on it. We have about sixty grand in the bank and a few hundred thousand in retirement."

"How much do you make?"

"Just over 270 last year."

"I don't want to judge, but where the hell do you spend all that? That is very little in assets for your income."

"Rachel spends like a maniac. It's been driving me crazy. I feel like we are almost living paycheck to paycheck."

"Is there any chance she has been stashing money somewhere else, away from you?"

"I don't think so. But she was fucking Ted for a year and a half and I had no idea. I am not sure I am a good judge of what she might have been doing."

"If you consent, I would like to have an accountant look at your household expenditures for the last year or so, just to be sure. It's probably a wild goose chase, but it's a whole new ball game if she was. Half of that should be yours as well. And any chance of her winning alimony goes out the window."

"Yeah, it's probably a good idea. God, she really is a bitch if she was doing that."

"We don't know anything right now, so don't hold it against her unless we find out it's true. What do you want to do with the house?"

"I asked Becca this morning what she thought I should do. I don't know. Right now, I keep thinking about it as our house, as our bedroom, everything as ours. Every time I do, it pisses me off at Rachel and that this is ending. But I am comfortable there. And selling it will be a pain."

"I assume you have not had a recent appraisal for a refi or anything?"

"Not since we bought it seven years ago."

"It wouldn't surprise me if it is worth more than you think. Real estate prices went insane a few years ago. So we need to get an appraisal. Oh and we need to find a way to protect your property from her. Do you have any mutual friends you would both trust to escort her when she is recovering her stuff?"

"I will think about that."

"And are there any other items of value? Financial or emotional."

"Nothing like expensive art or anything like that. Just our two personal cars. Emotional value. Nothing special to me. Lots of things about us, but I am not sure either of us wants to keep those right now."

"Don't destroy all your memories. There will be a time when you want to look back at the good times you two had. How long were you married?"

"It would have been ten years in August. And we lived together for a year and a half before that. So I guess ten years of a faithful relationship."

"So try to remember those ten years. I have time before the courthouse closes to get the paperwork filed today. Given this morning, we probably want to use a marshal to serve her the papers. And you may want to contact a locksmith to change the locks on your doors."

"Go ahead with the marshal. And I will find a locksmith. I had told her earlier I would be meeting with you right now, so who knows if she did anything this afternoon."

"Did you leave Rebecca at the house alone?"

"No I dropped her off at her apartment on the way. She has to go answer questions at the precinct. The idiot detective thinks we were involved in the robbery. Before you ask, I got Sam Everton to agree to represent her there. We do have dinner planned tonight, but she will spend the night at her place. She is starting back at work tomorrow. We actually just spent the morning sitting together, reading comfortably."

Sue laughs. "Does she know what you write?"

"I forgot I told you about that in law school. Yes, she knows. It turned out she had just read one of mine. She told me what was wrong with it -- she was right, of course. She had me tell a story of what I would do to her in the vault. That is what left us needing each other so much. I should let you go. Thank you so much for your time and your wisdom. I am hoping this one doesn't turn too ugly for you."

"I will contact you when I find out anything. I should have some news, like an accountant, shortly. Take care of yourself. And good luck with Rebecca. If it works for you two, it will be the most unique first meeting story ever."

I stop by the bank and set up the accounts, transferring half the money to the new accounts that are in my name only.

My first task at the house is looking all the way through for any more mayhem, but it does not appear she came back this afternoon. I do remake the bed while I am in there.

I try to find a locksmith, but no one can come this afternoon nor the weekend, so I am stuck until Monday. I am going to work Monday morning, so I get an appointment for Monday at 3.

At dinner, we mostly talked about our afternoons. Detective Peters was surprised that Becca had brought a lawyer with her. And from the sounds of it, maybe a bit put out. He was very interested in where she had spent the night, and pushed repeatedly whether we had known each other previously. Becca said that Sam cut off more than half the questions from ever being answered. She thinks the cop will try to find another fall guy.

I tell Becca that the divorce papers were filed and Rachel will be served them sometime next week. It should be finalized in ninety days. I tell her that Rachel could still decide to fight and may be able to get some alimony out of me. I mention that Sue was wondering if Rachel was stealing money and had another account where she was stashing the stolen money. She is arranging for an accountant to read through our household financials.

Becca will text me at the end of her shift tomorrow to see if we want to get together for dinner. We are both worried how she will hold up to a full day of work. She recovered faster than I did, but it's a big jump to a full day working on your feet.

We give a friendly hug and kiss before we go our separate ways in our cars. I head home, very aware that I am about to spend the night alone. One of the very few times I have slept alone in over a decade.

*****

Chapter 5 Unity

We start finding a new normal over the next week. We manage ten meals together and she spends the night with me twice. I bring her flowers a couple of times, but still not roses. I am feeling much better this week, even with my half time work schedule. And Becca has had no fatigue issues with work.

We do manage to fully consummate our relationship. The sex is good between us -- she is much more adventurous than Rachel ever was -- but I think the non-sex time is even better. We read together regularly, sometime showing each other passages we like in our books, We are both reading mostly romances. We each do the crossword puzzle every day, sometimes individually, sometimes collaboratively.

Sue brokers a common friend to escort Rachel into the house to collect her things. We start dividing common items, like furniture (mostly staying with me) and pans (mostly going with her), without any real nastiness, much to my relief. But she has hired a lawyer and he is pushing at our oral agreement a bit too much for my taste.

The next week I am feeling nearly back to normal. We keep about the same schedule together, but now we are doing some outings on our full days. This week, we go to a museum because it rained on our common day off.

Sue calls me with the results of the audit of our finances. Rachel was stealing money. She moved close to 90K to an unknown account over the one year audited. That could be real money if she had been doing it for years. Sue has contacted Rachel's lawyer with this information, which was apparently a surprise to him. At least Sue believes he didn't know. Sue demands a full accounting of that money, or she will go to court to require it, which might also open a criminal investigation.

Rachel chooses to cooperate. She reveals that she has been stashing money for a little over six years and has amassed almost a half million dollars in the account, which should be joint property. We agree not to pursue legal recourse against her in exchange for a revised settlement: we split the retirement, savings, and her special account, but I keep the house in its entirety and she drops any demand for alimony. I actually have more money in the bank than I did before the divorce and no long term commitments.

When I am finally back to work full time, Becca and I lose a little bit of our time together, which both of us miss. At dinner a few weeks later, I bring her flowers, as I frequently do. This time, there are six red roses in the box.

I say, "I would like to be seeing more of you than we can right now. What would you think about moving in with me? This is not a marriage proposal, but a request to take the next step together with me. I am comfortable that we are more than just the adrenaline from the vault or rebounds from our earlier failed relationships."

"Of course I am going to say yes, Adam. I was starting to get impatient with when you were going to ask."

"I still have that voice in my head, saying this is insane, we can never work. I made a big decision today at work. Fuck off, voice. I am in love with Becca.

"Becca, I love you."

"I love you too, Adam. I have had no doubt for weeks, but I didn't want to make the decision for you."

She leans over and kisses me.

"I just need to think how not to screw Sandy over," she worries.

"You will not be paying any rent to me, so you could stay whole financially for a while and pay your full share of the rent until she can find a new roommate. That would be very generous. Or you could pay some fraction of it, just to help her out, without paying full freight."

"Let me talk to her, find out how much she actually needs to get by."

"And how much she is willing to accept. She has her pride, too," I point out.

"What if what she needs is more than what she is willing to accept?"

"Try to talk some sense into her, but in the end, you probably need to respect her wishes. You cannot force her to accept money. And you can offer to help if she does end up needing it."

A few days later, she starts moving things over. It takes a couple of weeks to move in completely. I do get her a coffee maker as a welcome home present.

I don't know what arrangement she came to with Sandy. We are keeping separate financial lives. Of course, I pay for everything joint, like meals and admissions and things. I am hoping Becca is saving up enough money to be able to relax about it a bit.

The week after she moves in, they catch the robber. It was a former employee who got caught trying to pawn the bracelet I had tried to buy. Detective Peters tried to find a link between Derrick, the robber, and Becca. They did know each other, of course. But they hated each other and had had no contact. He chose that time to rob the store, knowing she was on shift, hoping she would get fired for it.

My favorite thing is that Becca has become my muse for my writing. I tell her plot ideas and she helps me refine them. She beta-reads every story and always gives me great feedback. And she inspires me to write far more. Half of it is for her eyes only. Sometimes I read those to her, just like my story in the vault.

And she is writing on her own. She is well into a romance novel and we are trying our hand at co-writing a mystery. There is a socially inept detective who suspects a beautiful blonde of the murder. But they fall in love and end up solving the case together. If it works, maybe we can write a whole series with them.

Two months later, not long after the divorce is final, I come to Becca, saying, "I have an idea for a new story for Literotica. The hardest part will be making it believable. Two strangers get locked in a vault and fall in love, thinking they are going to die."

"Do they have sex in the vault?"

"My first thought was no. I didn't think it was true to his character. But I guess they better. Apparently, no one will believe it if they don't."

"How does it end?"

"With them planning their honeymoon to Europe."

"Yes, Adam, the answer is yes. I will marry you."