"Well, to be honest," she said, smoothing her dress front, seemingly unconscious of the way the thin material clung to her rounded thighs and dipped into the hollow of her pussy, "I can leave anytime you're ready, Mr. Carmel. My work is finished and Mr. Larson didn't even come in today."

"In that case, get your coat and your purse, and we'll go right now." Carmel was glad for the excuse to leave.

He stood, smiling. "And for heaven's sake, if I'm going to call you Kim, then you should call me Roger. Okay?"

"You know the rules about being too familiar with executives, Mr. Carmel – Roger," Kim said coyly, a small smile dimpling her cheeks. "I wouldn't want anybody to hear me call you by your first name."

"Nonsense," Roger said expansively. "I'll take full responsibility. Besides, as of right now, we're both off work. Right?"

"Right!" And Kim Copeland left with a swirl of her dress and a brief flash of her lovely, slim legs.

The Chevrolet which Roger had rented at the airport was a large, two-door business Impala which almost steered itself as Roger cruised through the downtown Kirsten traffic. For a small town, it sure had enough people, he thought as a car cut him off, making him swerve into the next lane, but then this was Saturday and all the locals would be shopping, he supposed. Kim Copeland was thrown against him, and she gasped with a startled cry as the softness of her breasts brushed against Roger's shoulder. Her touch made him acutely aware of her presence, more than all of the laughing and pleasant conversation they'd indulged in since leaving the Skopos plant. Kim, he had found, was a smart, sparkling woman, and the rapport between him and her was easily established. He realized in that sudden moment of physical contact that she had allowed him to forget his deep-set troubles, and for those few minutes of grace, he was eternally grateful to her. The lurid green-with-jealousy mental picture of his wife being fucked senseless by another man became more remote as the miles passed, and by the time he parked in front of her apartment house, he was almost sad to see her leave him.