A whispered voice softly said “Beth”.

I opened my eyes, blinking in the hazy light and gazed at the unfamiliar surroundings and voice.

It was Steph. She was smiling and she handed me a cup of tea. I had slept all night, wrapped in the soft warm throw and the cocoon of really good sex.

“It's 7am. You were so peaceful last night that we didn’t want to disturb you, but I know you have important matters to deal with. Steve cleared your car of snow, warmed it up, and ploughed a path to the road.”

I knew I was still naked. Where were my clothes?

Folded and on the nearby armchair. Steph saw my glance.

“It was Ken. Before he left. He’s not always a rampant bull!” She laughed.

I knew that.

“Can I get you breakfast? Would you like a shower?”

I shook my head; they had done so much for me already. I drank my tea and prepared to stand. Tactfully, Steph made to leave. I motioned her to stay. Her seeing my nudity did not phase me. I got dressed and she fetched my coat.

Steve came in from the cold—his face red from exertion and the biting wind which blew in from the North Sea.

I hugged them both and thanked them.

“Text when you are safely back, we’ll see you soon and we will finalise a plan.”

The drive back to Aberdeen was magical. The landscape was covered in a blanket of white snow, daylight filtering the lightening sky. I felt lighter too. I could still smell Ken’s scent on my skin. I hadn’t wanted to wash it off just yet. In my bag were my scarlet panties, somewhat stained! I felt sticky from last night’s sex. It felt good.

I did not head home or go to the office. I drove to a beautiful, modern, but soulless apartment block near the City Centre. I punched in the code for the underground car park.

I took the lift to the top floor and took a key out of my bag. The name on the door said, Jones.

You were not expecting that were you?

You honestly think that Chas and I don’t plan

And plot and look out for one another?

Once inside I saw evidence in the perfect, too perfect, home that Chas had left in a hurry.

Not too much of a hurry to leave me a letter. I knew she would. I snatched the envelope marked Beth and tore it open.

“Beth.

I do not have much time. I will be brief. You know I had a story to tell you about DTD? Well, we didn’t get that chance. Events have overtaken me and let’s just say the Boss has found out. When you read this, I will be in Italy. The official line is a temporary transfer to Naples. I’m pretty sure the Boss is going to have his wicked way with me.

Please, God!

You know the address and email to reach me. If I get near a P.C. I will be in touch.”

(Did you know Chas is a genius with computers? She can hack any computer and leave no trace. More about that later. Very few people know this.)

“Please sort out any trace of my rushed departure. Tony isn’t due home for ages, but that ice-cold bitch of a mother-in-law also has a key.

Love you and hope all is good.”

CL

All my love

Chas.

Also in the envelope was a memory stick.

The plan!!! How had she known I needed it.?

I felt tears slipping down my face. Even with all that was going on in her life, she had thought of me.

It didn’t take long to rectify things and soon I was back in my beloved VW Golf and heading for home.

On the hands-free phone, I contacted the office and explained I would be working from home today.

The house felt warm and welcoming. Any chill from THAT phone call had dissipated. Jo Malone filtered the air, not David Beattie.

Somewhat reluctantly I headed to the shower. Quick affair this time. No self-love or gratification was needed. I washed away all traces of Ken, smiling as I remembered a pretty special night. I don't know what I had expected. More of the aggressive, demanding sex from the pub? I’m glad it wasn’t. On this occasion, I needed tenderness after the chilled threat from my husband. I’d also found warmth, genuine affection, and concern from Steph and Steve.

Yes, I had sent a message to let them know I was safely home.

I dried off and changed into comfortable, casual baggy clothes. The stuff I couldn’t wear when HE was around.

After a quick breakfast, I headed to the small room which served as an office. We shared a pc, but David also had a laptop which he kept locked away. Typical of him. He thought I was unaware of its existence.

Big mistake as he was going to find out. He never took it abroad with him on business trips. He took the official company laptop. That’s what first aroused my suspicions.

The day he left for Chicago, but it was the Cayman Islands, I had called Chas to come over. Unlocking the drawer was no problem. Gaining access to his pc was even less of a problem.

The screen lit up and there was everything I could have possibly dreamt of.

Business files, contracts, bank statements, contacts, dates, addresses. Everything. Yes, the files were encrypted but for Chas that was nothing.

To the inexperienced eye, all the business files etc looked perfectly normal, but as we went through them, I found out quickly that they were dodgy. I explained the discrepancies to Chas. Remember I am an expert in these things, corporate law and finance, unknown to David. Chas had grinned like a Cheshire Cat.

“We’ve got him!! Not Mr Squeaky clean executive after all. I knew it.”

While nothing was strictly illegal, it was certainly bordering on it. Tax evasion, etc but the really interesting part was some of the names. We searched.

Correction, Chas searched. Somehow, she got into law enforcement files, and we found that some of these people had links to crime syndicates. These were dangerous people.

Chas had brought a memory stick and downloaded everything.

We had no idea how we were going to use this, but it was my ticket to freedom.

We were about to close everything down when Chas said,

“He has a music file here. Ebony and Ivory. Is he into Paul McCartney?”

I was puzzled. No. He was pretty scathing about him

“Open it and see.”

It was full of photographs. To say they were eye-opening is putting it mildly.

The female was dark-skinned and stunningly beautiful. She reminded me of a panther. Dangerous and deadly. She was naked in most of the first pictures. Huge, obviously enhanced breasts, dark areolae, and very large nipples.

She was shaved and had prominent lips which had been photographed at close range, mostly open displaying her clit. Her butt was large and rounded. Again, close-up shots with her buttocks pulled apart to reveal all.

Gradually the pics became more explicit, as she masturbated first with her fingers then all sorts of conceivable toys.

Chas and I scrolled through in stunned silence.

“Fuck Beth, if these cameras go any further inside, we’ll see what she had for breakfast!”

We both dissolved into fits of laughter at that. It broke the trance we both were in.

Ebony. No other name.

Next followed a clip with sound. Again, Ebony but she was outdoors, there were four stakes in the grass, and she was bound to them in an x. She was blindfolded and gagged. Her body looked like it had been oiled. It gleamed. Then a male appeared in the shot.

Yep. My hubby. Butt naked, holding what looked like an instrument of torture. He proceeded to strike her body with it, before inserting it into her wide-open pussy. He was grunting and groaning like an animal.

I felt sick. Then he threw the object aside and mounted her. Thrusting and grabbing her breasts, his buttocks heaving up and down. The clip ended.

Chas and I sat staring at the screen. We couldn’t speak.

That was Ebony. But what about Ivory?

I think we had both had enough porn for one night, but we knew we had to look at Ivory.

She was the opposite, as you would expect.

White-skinned with blonde hair that was practically white too.

Unlike Ebony she was partially clothed, if you can call it that. Neither Chas nor I are naive, but neither of us had ever seen attire like this.

Our local Marks and Spencer’s certainly didn’t sell it!

Bras and thongs, actually it was bits of ribbon and string really, of every conceivable colour.

Bras where the breasts were pushed up but entirely bare, others where holes were cut to allow the nipples to push through. It was mesmerising while being shocking.

The panties, if you could call them that, were the same, backless and crotchless.

Again, a clip with sound. Again, outdoors with Ivory on all fours. She wasn’t bound and gagged though.

Again, my darling husband appeared, butt naked with a huge erection, carrying what looked like a paddle. He proceeded to spank the rounded upturned arse.

“Ouch!” We both shouted in unison. Again, fits of the giggles. It wasn’t really funny. It was a release of tension.

When the butt was a deep shade of pink, the paddle was tossed aside, as before and he mounted her. However, this time he had gone in the back door. The clip ended but this time alongside the word Ivory was a name.

Elena Tolstoy. We had seen that name before.

She was the wife of one of the more shady contacts from the files. A dangerous crime lord.

Without a word, Chas downloaded Ebony and Ivory to the Memory Stick. Then she carefully did what she needed to do to erase any evidence of her presence on the laptop, which was returned to the desk and locked.

We looked at each other and we both started to speak at the same time. The gist of it was, “Fuck, we need alcohol.”

It was agreed that Chas would stay. I poured us both a large G and T with ice and lemon.

It was a summer evening and mild for Aberdeen. We took our drinks out to the garden and sank into the comfortable chairs. We had hardly spoken a word both of us trying to digest what we had just seen.

That evening was last summer Chas had taken the memory stick to keep it safe. Tony was dull and unimaginative, to put it mildly. He’d never look through Chas’s things. The same could not be said about David. Now I had everything I needed to get out of this toxic marriage and away from my cruel, sadistic husband. OK, I know many people are into this type of sex. I’m not judging, but it wasn’t for me, or at least with him!

It was how to use this information. Chas and I had a sketchy plan, but I knew who could come up with a much better one.

Steph!