She supposed it had something to do with protocol and decorum. Of course they had made love and there were no house rules or company rules against that. Cherie had heard the girls in the office talking about it, about the things they did with men, so even though she had been shocked and could not imagine herself doing such a thing willingly – at least, not before marriage – she knew that many girls did it with their boyfriends and men at the office. She had even heard one of the girls, Candy Holmes, talking about having had sex with the boss, Mr. Melville. While Cherie had stood at the coffee machine, pretending not to listen while Candy spilled the story to another typist, the naughty girl had talked excitedly about Mr. Melville's big, heavy body and his huge penis. Cherie had felt a frisson of fearful excitement shoot up her spine at the thought of the massive penis ramming into Candy's vagina, and, vicariously, into her own. Cherie had felt a dampness develop between her legs and she had had a hard time keeping her mind on her work the rest of the day.

Work had gone on that second day at the big house in the mountains with the same businesslike intensity as the previous day, but as they broke for lunch, Cherie's sharp eyes caught a furtive glance that passed between Sue Midori, a lovely Oriental girl and Vic Torres, the forty-ish man of Mexican descent who handled the company's business for Latin America. Curious, Cherie hung back, rearranging her note-pads while everyone filed out for a rest and a meal in their respective rooms.

Vic and Sue didn't see Cherie walking behind them when they ducked into the storage room in the hall outside the conference room. The door didn't close properly and the two conspirators didn't seem to care as they disappeared. Curious, suspicious, Cherie stopped and looked through the crack between the door and the jamb. It was a linen closet, with sheets stacked neatly on shelves and dinner settings on others but it was what Sue and Vic were doing on the bottom shelf that captured Cherie's attention.