She looked puzzled "Are they here?"

"No, but you are, and I think we can wait a while to really start the Philip Marlowe bit. We want this to hurt them, so there are a few small things we can do."

"Philip who..?"

I rolled my eyes - it really was amazing how little Nikki and I had in common. She caught the sardonic look.

"I don't like you. At all."

"I don't like you either."

"Bastard."

"Bitch."

I led her to the makeup counter at Macy's. She glared at me dangerously.

"Think of this as disguise work."

For the next hour two women hovered over her and tried out a million combinations of makeup, ending up with a remarkably presentable Nikki who they had taught how to apply their products. She didn't come out exactly "pretty", but she managed a sort of smoldering, hungry, sexuality. It would do. The kit cost me $100 out of the grocery money, but I just wouldn't eat lunch at work for the next month and everything would be fine.

We returned to the car, with her clutching the small make up bag like it was the Holy Grail. She didn't want to like it, but she had.

"So what was that all about."

"If we want this to hurt them more, you need to have something Justin wants. Something he feels like he lost. And I need something Beth will resent and be jealous of. That will be you. You hide the makeup when you get home and only use it when you and I are out."

She looked puzzled, so I explained my whole plan.

She sat for a full minute without saying anything. "Damn. That's a bit complicated. And it will take a long time."

I shrugged "You got anything better to do? Or a better plan?"

She smiled just a bit "Nope

She asked to stop at my house to wash off her make up so Justin wouldn't see it. She went into the bathroom, then strutted out just a couple minutes later, carrying a towel while wearing nothing but a wicked smile and the makeup she was supposed to have washed off. The evil glint in her eyes told me everything I needed to know about her intentions.

I looked her over. "I thought you said not to expect anything."

She smiled brightly "It would be a shame to waste this makeup... " She dropped the towel without any ceremony.

My verbal consent was apparently not required, since she promptly knelt between my legs, unzipped me and began to hungrily suck my cock. She made constant eye contact, and when she moved to mount me, she commented "I love the makeup." We fucked on the chair for twenty minutes, slowly. Her ass was still a little too sore to play, although I really think she wished she could.

We eventually finished and headed over to her sister's house. Nikki brought her sister in as a co-conspirator. She'd apparently never liked Justin and we would need her help, a lot.

For the next few months we more or less stayed home - I worked out at work during lunch hours, she worked out at home and we worked out together in the basement until Nikki had lost the baby fat and firmed up everything else - I firmed up a lot too. We hid it from our self-involved "spouses" by wearing baggy clothes and simple evasion. It wasn't like they were paying much attention to us anyway. We were also having sex at least five or six times a week - more than I'd ever gotten from Beth.

We had one thing in common; we'd both been the stay-home-with-family types. So we decided to change that. On a whim, my basement became a dance studio - neither of us knew shit about it to start with. But the magic of Youtube prevailed. We had a lot of weekends and evenings available as our spouses continued to ignore us. We learned basic dance steps, then more advanced stuff. We really liked Salsa dancing, but we had to save it for near the end of our routine. Primarily because we'd end up fucking in the middle of the floor. Every. Damn. Time.

One thing I figured out pretty quickly was that I was playing with matches - Nikki wasn't very stable and had the temperament of a half feral Doberman pinscher. Her moods shifted with no warning, and almost anything could trigger a surge of unreasoning anger. All of this shit with Beth and Justin had broken something important, one of those sanity fences we have had been trampled down. I was always careful to keep one eye on her - all the time. The only time she seemed stable was when she had just been screwed to near unconsciousness or when she was around the kids - mine or hers. Her love of children was overpowering.

We fucked like angry minks constantly; Nikki found she had a fondness for oral and anal sex that she never suspected. The element of distaste in our relationship meant that there was nothing too rough or too dirty for us to try and we both took advantage of it.

She still called me "Bastard" and I still called her "Bitch", but the terms were, if not exactly loving and endearing, weirdly affectionate.

But all that was for was to make ourselves feel better. The real work had to be done as well. And we had to do that very, very carefully.

Casing the construction company trailer took a month and half, and we really only managed to break into it because Justin had a key he'd left lying around and we had a copy made. Nikki made an excuse to visit the trailer during the day and managed to video the whole thing on her cell phone; turned out the cousin was too cheap to spring for an alarm system.

We slipped in on five separate evenings and photographed every document in every file drawer and began going over the documents bit by bit. More useful information turned up in Justin's desk and Beth's purse.

After a while, neither of us argued with our spouses, which was a problem with Beth- she actually seemed to miss the arguments and seemed to try to start arguments for no reason, but I never rose to the bait. Well, almost never.

Frankly, after fucking the hell out of Nikki all afternoon, I didn't have the energy reserves left to argue. It took me a while to realize that Beth probably used the arguments to self-justify her horrible behavior. She became more disconcerted by the day. Justin, on the other hand, seemed to think that Nikki had caved in and given up.

I also got a good break on the money front: I'd gotten my $2000 deposit back on a vacation bungalow in a Mexican seaside resort that I had slowly built up so I could take Beth there for our anniversary - an event that obviously wasn't going to happen. I wasn't expecting them to refund it, but they did; customer relations, I guess. That money would come in handy.

When Beth started making excuses to stay overnight with Justin, Nikki and I started hitting the occasionally dance club, slowly getting to try out the dancing moves we'd learned. It was fun, but there was stress involved too - Nikki's unpredictability was a constant strain on me. She was snappish at the best of times and could go from joyfully excited to almost psychotically angry with no warning at all if provoked. One particular night was nearly a disaster and reminded me just how careful I had to be.

By this time, after several weeks of exercise and near-daily screwing, Nikki practically radiated "sex", so it wasn't surprising that we often had people cut in on us while dancing. She enjoyed the attention a lot, but, not surprisingly, she was sympathetic toward abandoned girlfriends and tried to keep her sexuality banked with guys who had girlfriends. Unfortunately, some of the guys thought she would be dancing with them the same way she danced with me, which was just short of fucking on the dance floor.

We'd been cut in on by a couple at the small club, a bit back in the boondocks. I was dancing with the girl - a cute little blonde cheerleader type - while the guy was apparently trying to get his hands inside Nikki's miniskirt. She warned him off twice, but he persisted; I just caught the back of her hair as she lunged for him.

"I said STOP!"

Her raking claws had just missed his eye, leaving bloody tracks on the side of his face. With the little blonde on one side and a hissing, pissed off Nikki held by her hair, I was expecting a disaster immediately. The guy backed off quickly, wide-eyed, while Nikki slowly rotated back into me, curling her long leg around my hips, pulling her groin tight against me.

"Bastard! You pulled my hair! That hurt!" she paused then purred "You really do know what I like, don't you?"

She looked over the blonde who stood frozen by me, then winked at her. "You can do lots better than that guy Cream Puff. You deserve better, he's an asshole."

We headed outside at a fairly quick pace; it seemed wise given the three guys in "Security" t-shirts heading our way.

The parking lot was full of cars but empty of people - two rows in, I saw the scratched boyfriend and two other guys step out.

He started toward Nikki while his friends came toward me.

"Bitch."

Nikki smiled, "I didn't realize I'd given you my name."

"For that shit, your boyfriend can watch me get some of what's in your panties."

Nikki pulled up like she was scared and he reached toward her, getting ready to grab both her arms. But I could see the maniacal shine in her eyes as I felt the biggest of the three come up behind me.

Nikki lunged - not with her arms, which he grabbed, but with her teeth, sinking them deep into the side of his face.

He screamed a high pitched scream of terror and pain. I spun. I was no MMA champion, but I'd been in more than my fair share of brawls, and I'd seen the rabid look in Nikki's eyes, so I was ready. The big guy was expecting grapple or a punch, but he was distracted by his friend's scream and was completely flat-footed when I threw a hard elbow strike toward his face. Since he was expecting a wild punch, he ducked right into the elbow, which crunched across his nose. He dropped. The second guy was stepping forward to detach Nikki from her screaming victim. So I stomped on the back of his leg just at the knee, driving him to his knees. I grabbed his head and spiked it backward like a football, letting it ring off the asphalt. Nikki's victim had tripped backward over a curb block and was covering his blood-gushing face. Huge mistake. Nikki spit out her mouthful of flesh - at least I hoped that was all of it - and stomped her spike heel into his groin. His scream rose out of human hearing. I yanked her back as she was lining up to stomp his chest.

"Nikki! Stop!"

She fixed me with a wildly defiant look, then stopped - and smiled. Blood covered the lower half of her face and most of the front of her white tank top. Her smile was full of blood, a scene from one of those epic Hammer Studios vampire movies. She spun around and put her hands on the nearest car, standing nearly over her gasping victim.

"Fuck me. Here. Now. And I'll let him go."

I would have never guessed that anything like this would be arousing, but I unzipped. I just pulled her thong to the side and took her from behind, while she gasped out a stream of obscenities, urging me to do it harder. To make it hurt. She was incredibly excited and wet. I pounded her as hard and fast as I could until we both climaxed - just a couple minutes, although it seemed a lot longer. As I stood back from her and zipped up, I saw a couple figures standing fifteen feet away in the lot - the little blonde and a dark haired Goth looking girl standing in shock.

Nikki pulled her thong down and stepped out of it, then picked it up, wiped herself with it, and threw it down in her mewling victim's face.

"There, you can have it. That's what's in my panties."

Then she saw the stricken blonde and started for her.

I wanted to grab her and run, but I knew that would trigger rage - and if I didn't get her out of here quick, we'd both be in jail by morning. She stalked over to the apparently paralyzed blonde and stood over her.

"Nikki! Be nice, she hasn't done anything wrong."

Nikki looked back at me and smiled - her face was still a bloody horror mask.

"Oh, I know she hasn't."

She pulled the blonde to her and kissed her - hard. I was about to intervene when I realized the blonde was kissing back fervently. Nikki slowly let her go. The blonde was staring at her as if she was hypnotized, and her face was streaked with her own boyfriend's blood.

"Believe me Cream Puff, you can do a lot better than him."

I saw Gothgirl catch Cream Puff as her legs gave out.

Once we were in the car, Nikki pulled her tank top off and wiped her face. An ambulance blazed past about two miles out. I didn't have to guess where it was going and could only hope nobody had gotten our plates. I pulled into a rest stop to give Nikki my shirt, but getting dressed wasn't her immediate interest, so I laid the seat back and let her unzip me and ride me until she was satisfied. It took a long while. My pants were soaked with her juices before she was done. She didn't say anything for several minutes then commented.

"I'm really fucked up aren't I?"

"We all are in some way."

"I really got off on that though. Hurting him felt so good."

"Yeah. I noticed. It's a little worrisome in a Hannibal Lector sort of way."

"Hurting him was like fucking. I could just let all the anger out."

"He earned it. Well, I'm not sure the law would agree, but I think his girl was okay with it."

Nikki giggled. "She stuck her tongue in my mouth first."

"Crap, I may have some competition."

She paused. "Seriously... The hurting thing? Don't let me do that again. Promise me." Very serious. Tears glimmered in her eyes.

"You were defending yourself."

"I know, but that wasn't what I was really doing. I wanted to hurt him. So, so, much. If it happens again... what if I can't stop ... what if I can't find my way back?" She suddenly sounded like a lost little girl afraid of the dark.

That honestly scared the fuck out of me. Nikki probably needed real help - medication - hell, she probably needed to be committed.

We made the papers - the brutal attack in the parking lot was attributed to a gang of 6 men and a Hispanic woman by a witness - Cream Puff, who was apparently actually named Amber.

I had to chuckle over that when I showed the story to Nikki.

"Soooo... you seem to have impressed Amber anyway."

Nikki smiled "She seemed sweet. Strawberry lip gloss."

"You into girls?"

"I didn't think I was. I was just messing with her in the club, but the parking lot was a different story. She wanted me, I could feel it, and that made me want her. I looked right in her eyes while you fucked me, and she wanted me to fuck her. I could see it in her eyes. And ever since you and I have been together, I just don't seem to have any boundaries with sex."

After that incident though, Nikki seemed to fight for more self-control. It got better. Slowly, unevenly, but gradually better. I could see her fight to keep the demon down when it showed up. Sometimes she even won.

We continued to hit clubs, but kept it a lot lower key.

Nikki's sister couldn't watch the kids every night - and I wasn't going to give up all my time with my little angels, so Nikki brought Jaime over a lot and we "worked out" after tucking them in bed, checking on them occasionally until it was time for Nikki to slip away. When we stood in the doorway checking on them, I'd sometime sneak a look at Nikki and wonder at the softness in her expression that never seemed to be there any other time. And occasionally she'd catch me looking and give a sad, soft, half-smile.

At those times, her demons seemed very far away.

Sooner or later, I knew something would happen. Beth eventually ran into me without a shirt on and noticed my weight loss and new muscle - and commented on it. I put it off to stress which she tried to turn into an argument, but I'd already popped a shirt on and walked out of the room. Mostly I wanted to avoid her seeing Nikki's nail marks on my back and butt from the night before. I could sense she wasn't buying it.

Beth's deepening suspicion meant that we had to move on to the next phase. So I told Nikki it was time for more of "the Philip Marlowe stuff". She rolled her eyes at me over her shoulder - I was in her ass to the hilt at the time. So, a few days later, instead of working out and sex, we had the car and a nice digital camera we'd borrowed ready to go and when Beth and Justin left, we quietly followed at a distance - it wasn't really a following job, Nikki had snagged receipts and credit card bills until we figured out their patterns. Beth was wary and cautious, but in Justin's mind, Nikki was crushed, incapable of self-defense, so he was careless and stupid.

Justin's parents owned a little cabin near the shore, buried in the woods. It was bit rundown, but from car mileage it was where they went on Fridays when they skipped the gym entirely. We pulled off the road and moved quietly up to the cabin with the camera. There were no curtains, so it was no challenge to find them and watch - they were already naked on the bed by the time we got in position. Beth was sucking on Justin's prick, which I was secretly relieved to see was about the same size as mine - we all have our insecurities. I carefully and quietly snapped pictures, while Nikki and I watched. When Justin started to cum, Beth yanked her mouth away, catching much of the spray in her face and on her hair. I could see her bitching him out for not warning her, but he only laughed. I felt Nikki fumble with my jeans, tugging them down. Despite my hushed attempts to stop her, she lowered her mouth to my rod. Maybe I didn't fight her all that hard. I tried to get her to be serious but she hissed that she would stop when I shot my load in her mouth. It didn't take long given the intensity of the situation - and when she'd swallowed every bit she sat back with a very self-satisfied look and let me snap off a few more pictures.

Since we had to walk back to the car, I let some of the air out of one of Justin's tires to slow them down in case they tried to leave early. We dropped the film off at a photo lab that specialized in discrete one-day photos, and then headed home. Beth arrived much later than usual, with her clothes and hair a wreck - a giggling Nikki told me the next day that Justin had changed the low tire, then, on the way home picked up a nail in the road resulting in a miserable trek in the rain to get a can of fix-a-flat from a gas station 4 miles away.

As they used to say in the Army; Payback's a bitch and her stripper name is Karma.

For the next week, we talked, really talked about what we really wanted to happen. Nikki surprised the hell out of me, but I eventually agreed.

We stayed quiet, then made our big move about three weeks later after we'd organized our evidence. Beth and Justin always disappeared all day on Saturday, but Nikki and I had pieced together their pattern. First the gym, then to the cabin for sex and a shower, then to a nightclub to dance and party. They usually ended up home about 6 or 7 in the morning on Sunday. This time, though, things would be a little different. As soon as they left, we dropped the kids off with Nikki's sister and took off. First we went shopping. Nikki picked out a skin-tight deep emerald dress with a power diving neckline and a super short hemline. The emerald green really set off her hair. I had a dark grey suit with a black t-shirt. I took her to a full hair salon and told them to "go for it" - hair and make-up. Dressed up, we headed over to the club. We walked in like we owned the place. Technically, the bouncer should have screened us, but Nikki looked like pure sex-on-a-stick. A million lunges gave her an ass that could stop traffic in jeans, and she wasn't wearing jeans. She was wearing a tissue paper thin dress that showed nearly everything - and it was obvious she didn't have a stitch on underneath. Her nipples were at full staff - more from her near nudity than from any hint of cold. When the light hit her just right, you could even make out the tiny heart she had shaved her pubic hair into. Since part of a bouncer's job is to make sure the crowd is interesting, we were waved in without even presenting IDs.