Yet William respectfully refrained from attempting to resume their love affair, which had ended several years before, around the time that Michael had first taken an interest in her. At the onset of autumn, he was content simply to appreciate her increased dedication and enjoy her platonic companionship over an occasional meal.
In recognition of her superior job performance William showered benefits on Damaris. He hired a maid for her and provided a generous expense account. Whatever services she needed, he paid for. And he also replaced her antique bug with a sleek new company car.
Between William and Hugo, Damaris was able to furnish Cobweb Cottage, as it was charmingly called. And William found his way over every weekend to do small repairs and installations until everything was perfect for her.
While the two of them were busily and virtuously working together, they began to shyly study each other.
William had become so thoroughly tamed since the departure of his wife, that he hardly dared pat his secretary’s bottom. And then too, Damaris had become such a hardworking puritan that there was little one could feel superior to her about. She was hardly a frivolous child to be put across one’s knee and spanked any more, William told himself soberly.
Meanwhile, Damaris began to feel a stirring inside her whenever William strode into a room. One day he was over doing work around her house. Damaris went out onto the small verandah overlooking Pigeon Cove and observed him, in his shirtsleeves, up on a ladder, installing a new porch light. He was a slender and gracefully muscular man with short black hair and a chiseled, intelligent face. He looked down at her and smiled. Her tummy suddenly filled with butterflies and she knew she was in love again.
Damaris felt this revelation with a mixture of pleasure and anxiety as she sank into a low wooden porch chair to gaze at the small patch of coast.
When she had first become attracted to William he had been newly married to Laura. He and Damaris had been drawn to each other, and had enjoyed an office love affair. Then came the dreadful mistake that had led to her dismissal and her subsequent involvement with Lt. Flagg.
Though they hadn’t been in each other’s arms in several years, Damaris had often wondered whether William still cared for her. The way he had prepared the house for her and Michael indicated that he did. And so did the way he was looking after her now. Obviously William needed a woman. Laura had left him on pleasant terms and they saw each other often, but clearly she did not intend to return to him.
Damaris tried to exorcise the seductive thoughts. She mustn’t even think about such absolutes as being William’s woman. What she really should be doing was dating. In the scene. Placing and answering ads.
“Are you placing and answering ads?” she suddenly asked William, when he came down off the ladder to test the new light.
“No, are you?”
“No, not yet,” she said.
William sat down to enjoy the pleasing vista of cove, sea, sand and sky on a temperate autumn afternoon. While Damaris was bringing out coffee, he mused on why he hadn’t placed an ad. He didn’t like to admit this to Damaris, but due to the exuberant accessibility of Laura’s sister, Susan and Laura’s own occasional availability since their separation, William had not felt like a wholly abandoned man. More recently, of course, he had begun to take a renewed interest in Damaris and thoughts of making love to her now filled his head whenever she was near him. She was and always had been the most daintily feminine young lady he had ever met.
When she handed him his coffee he scrutinized her closely. Why had she made that remark about ads, if not to let him know that she was once more available?
“Why don’t we take each other’s photos and submit ads to Hugo’s magazine?” William suggested, as an activity.
“Should we?”
“Definitely. You’ll get a new boyfriend immediately.”
“And you?”
“I managed to get Laura last time I had an ad,” William’s tone indicated an abiding admiration for his wife in spite of the fact that she had outgrown him.
They agreed to meet back at William’s house that evening to take photos. William set up a seamless and lights for portrait shots. Damaris was wearing a sleeveless, cream silk sheath, sheer stockings and high heels.
She looked very alluring and it reminded him of the old days. There had been perhaps 5 encounters in total, each of them special and sweet. Damaris saw him staring at her and blushed.
William made a few minor adjustments and began to take pictures.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t encourage you to place an ad,” said William, surprising her into a gratifying expression.
“No?”
“Someone might take you away from me.”
“Would you hate that?” she smiled.
“I’d hate it.”
“Are you saying something?” she asked.
“I’m saying that maybe neither of us should place an ad.”
After they shot a roll of film between them, William took her into the downstairs sitting room, where he made a fire and insisting on serving her tea himself. Damaris then shyly addressed him.
“William, do you ever think about the fact that there is unfinished business between us?”
“What do you mean?”
“A long time ago I did something very bad to you.”
“Oh, that,” William frowned momentarily.
“I’ve felt guilty about it for years. It’s grieved me.”
“It’s all right,” he told her, “I forgave you for that long ago.”
“But I’ve never forgiven myself,” she explained. “And I never will until my transgression has been punished, and by the one I wronged.”
“You want me to punish you?” he asked, surprised and immediately aroused.
“Yes.”
“Punish, as in spanking?”
“Yes, and for real.”
“For real, huh?” William stuck his hands in his pockets and paced.
“You don’t agree?” she asked timidly.
“I’m not sure,” he folded his arms and looked at her steadily. “I was very angry with you at the time. As I recall, I was seriously contemplating pressing charges.”
Damaris flushed deeply, realizing how tasteless her request might seem to a person of sensibility.
“Forgive me, my suggestion was entirely inappropriate,” she raised her beautiful eyes to him.
“It isn’t that, Damaris. You just took me by surprise.”
“You see, I made a terrible mistake. I’m really not that way,” she explained with painful sincerity, her heart suddenly throbbing with love for William Random.
“I know you aren’t. And besides, you’ve been such a model young lady ever since.”
“Whatever I do to make amends never seems adequate. I still feel so horribly guilty.”
“Well, you needn’t.”
“I wouldn’t feel right about going out with you unless we took care of this business between us first,” she softly insisted.
William paced and considered whether it would be strictly ethical to comply with her wishes. Throughout