Chapter 1, The middle.
It was hardly a fairy-tale start to their relationship, but Zoe and Cole were besotted. He was 27 and she was 19. Cole's divorce to his ex-wife Vicky had been an easy process since he had given her more than she should ever have been entitled to. They signed the documents and that was it. They were over and would never have to acknowledge each other again. He still loved Vicky, and Zoe knew it, but she also knew the history and there was no risk of him pining for her, besides, Zoe was all the woman Cole wanted.
They lived in a large 7 bedroom detached house on the outskirts of town, a quiet and idyllic spot away from prying eyes. They had housemates, 8 of them in total, Jim and Hayley, unmarried but very close, Mike and Sian, again unmarried but close, and James and Jayne who had recently become engaged just a few months earlier. The other two housemates were Emma and Jess.
The house was a strange set up. There were two bedrooms where the front reception rooms should have been and another in a room behind the stairs. Four en-suite bedrooms on the first floor with a family bathroom too. On the top floor there was an adult's only spa/playroom with a fully kitted out gym. Where the cellar would normally be was a modern open plan living space that covered the entire footprint of the house. It stood in an acre of grounds and over looked long rolling fields to the rear. At the rear of the house was a wraparound conservatory that made the best of those views.
The majority of the house mates were in business together in a venture which employed Emma and Jess. The gang had their ups and downs and losing Cole's wife Vicky as a partner was a pretty deep down, but when you're at the bottom the only way is up.
Zoe and Cole had met 9 months earlier when Cole and Vicky had employed her to work for them. As Cole and Vicky started to fall apart, she and Cole had started to become closer and closer. After the split they were drawn together like binary stars, constantly falling around each other, continually becoming closer. Those 9 months in this house had brought Cole and Zoe to a pinnacle and they were extremely happy with their situation. They enjoyed their lifestyle and it wasn't for anyone else in the world to judge, except for maybe four people; their parents.
Chapter 2, Sex.
Cole met Vicky when they were still in school. He was in his last year at 19 and she was 18. They met in sixth form and got on really well. He noticed the tall girl with long fiery red hair and deep grey blue eyes straight away and knew she was destined for him. He asked her out but she thought Cole was too nice. It didn't stop him asking her though. He became her confidant and best friend but it wasn't what he wanted. She told him everything but she wouldn't let him any closer.
She was a party girl and she loved men; big men, small men, tall me, short men, old men and young men. She liked Cole, a lot, but felt her lifestyle wasn't conducive to a successful relationship, so she kept him at arm's length. He would try every angle to capture her heart but she refuted his advances at every turn. The thing is, Vicky liked sex a bit too much. She was promiscuous to the point of surrealism. Her libido was insatiable. She thought she could take on the world, and tried too.
In reality she was an addict but she didn't realise it. It was this that kept her from allowing Cole into her life for so long. Cole knew it though. He was the one listening to her mad stories, seeing her actions and yet he still wanted to be with her. It wasn't because she was easy but because he was so head over heels, madly, deeply and mind bendingly in love that he was relentless in his pursuit of her. After two years of asking, begging and pleading she finally relented and agreed to be with him.
She was not a one man woman though and her libido was not to be denied. Every time she met a man while she was out in town she would get her way. To begin with Cole was clueless and maybe he would have been happier if things had continued that way but his own sense of humanity led him to believe that she would be happier if she was allowed her sexual freedom. This would ultimately be their undoing.
Vicky took the offer of freedom as an offer to humiliate him. She loved him but she was extreme. She sometimes brought men home telling Cole he had to sleep in the guest room. It was all a game that Vicky found fun. Cole accepted it as part of his relationship with Vicky. He didn't like it but he accepted it. When she wasn't with other men she was with him and that was the part he had always wanted.
They had talked about having a baby but with Vicky's activity she would almost definitely become pregnant by someone else and not Cole, so the idea was left to die. Then they met Jim. Vicky regularly looked on dating websites for new men and came across Jim's profile. Neither of them knew he would become one of their best friends because Vicky was just looking for her next interaction. When he met them he was surprised at their relationship but Cole was numb to it at that point.
Vicky started seeing Jim in a more and more serious capacity. She wasn't leaving Cole because she had nowhere else to go. Her parents had died in a car crash years earlier so her only shoulder was Cole's. They were reliant on each other but with each new man she was straining the relationship. Jim ended up moving in at Cole's request to try to stop her from going after more and more men. His reasoning was, if she had choice at home she wouldn't need anyone else, and the two of them got on extremely well. It worked, for about two weeks but then she started to stray again as extreme as ever. At least now Cole had a good friend in Jim and they could both sulk together.
Jim wasn't the first man who had moved in. She had 2 other men who had moved in previously. One was Cole's friend, Tim who was struggling after his divorce. Tim didn't mind Vicky's promiscuity since he had no real feelings for her; he was there for one thing and one thing only. He stayed for nearly 18 months.
Jeremy was the other. A man she met on a night out who ended up staying for 6 months until Vicky wanted more again. He wouldn't let her stray and was adamant he was going to keep her inline. More fool him. She went out and did what Vicky did best causing John to move out. During both of those relationships Cole was rarely allowed access to his wife for husbandly rights.
She started to sell herself and while Cole hated it he was always trying to be the hero and thought if he was somehow involved he could at least try to keep her safe. It came about one day in winter when their boiler had broken down and they had no money to have it repaired. She made the attending heating engineer an offer he was never going to refuse just to get the heating fixed. She realised she had a commodity she could make money from and so she did.
Jim lived with them for around eleven months in their little house and she would alternate between them each night. Jim had no reason to complain since he had walked into their relationship and still considered himself the outsider. Cole couldn't complain because she was still with him even if she was also with everyone else. He loved her too much to let go of her completely so letting her off the metaphorical leash was the closest he would come to giving her up.
