A man is feminized by his wife and his business partner and framed for embezzlement. Can he survive the humiliations his wife intends to subject him to and start a new life?

Thanks go out to Marina Kelly for her editorial assistance in improving the quality of this story.

Chapter 1

Geri let out a quiet scream as she came yet again. Evan always seemed to know just how to push her buttons when she was on top. She reflected that he had better enjoy the bottom because that was where he was going to be from now, but he didn't need to know that. She rested her forehead on his chin, basking in the afterglow. Once she felt like she had some strength back, she tented her hands on his chest and lifted up to look Evan in the eyes. Her erect nipples brushed through the hair on his chest, sending delightful jolts and shocks through her breasts and exciting her even more.

"It sounded like you enjoyed that," she said, grinning down at him and playing up to his ego. "Almost as much as I did."

"Oh yeah," Evan's voice was hoarse; he had apparently been making noise of his own. "Between having a beautiful woman like you in bed with me and knowing that we're going to be filthy rich, I can't think of a better aphrodisiac. It's always good with you though." Evan hugged Geri to him and sighed.

She waited until he softened and slid out of her, his little head retreating like a snail returning to its shell. "I think that Big Bertha is down for the count," she said, as she patted him on the chest.

Evan winced and said, "I wish that you wouldn't name my body parts with girl's names."

"Why not?" Geri said, looking innocent from her perch. "She may be attached to you, but she belongs to me. And don't you forget it. If I want to give my cock names or draw little smiley faces on the head, you will let me. Remember, we're married and another woman hadn't better ever get her hands it. Oh, and if I decide to put a smiley face on Bertha, it better be there when I see her again."

She delivered this last statement with a gravity and tone that let him know that she actually meant it. He might wear the pants in the marriage, but she was the brains of their enterprise and he had better remember it. If he didn't, she had no problems finding a different partner. It might even be a woman next time. Men were necessary, but not required in her life.

None of these thoughts reached her face or her eyes. To Evan, it appeared as if Geri was engaging in a little post-sex teasing. That is all it would be as long as he didn't cross her. Trying to break the heavy mood before there was any conflict, she rolled off from him and said, "Come on. I've got to get cleaned up. Anders' guys are coming to pick me up." She rolled off of him and padded into the bathroom.

Evan walked into the bathroom as she came of the shower. He stopped to admire his wife as he was peeling the used condom off his now flaccid penis. The two lovers could have been mistaken for cousins or even siblings due to their similar builds and heights. Evan had always thought that she was a good match for him. Evan was about two inches taller than his wife, but where he was fair skinned and blonde, Geri was a little darker, undoubtedly from her Mediterranean heritage. They both fit the definition of non-descript, which was a good skill for a con men and a thieves. But, where Evan's face was an ordinary oval face that did not stand out in people's memories, Geri's appearance was somewhat exotic.

Geri was a beautiful woman, which she had used to her advantage in more than one con. She was just over the average height for a woman so that she could still project a fragile image to her more macho marks that saw her as someone who needed protection. In her later twenties, she was still in excellent physical shape, with tight slender legs and flat belly. Evan had always been a tit man and he loved how Geri's breasts were tight and firm, with no evidence of sagging. Crowning this masterpiece was a pretty oval face with an almost porcelain-like complexion, framed by reddish-brown hair that fell to just below her shoulders. At rest, her face looked almost angelic.

They both had the ability to put people off-guard and to gain their trust. Again, excellent skills for criminals. The two of them were both about the same age and had every right to expect that they would be scamming people out of their millions for the next thirty or forty years.

He dropped the condom in the trash with some distaste as he said, "You know, if you're on the pill, these are overkill."

"I know, but it's better safe than sorry. The pill doesn't work all of the time and it also means that I don't have to worry about anything being out of the ordinary when I go home. There will be time for thinking about kids after we have Rob's money. Between what we get from him and from the business, we're looking at close to a billion. We don't want me getting pregnant to ruin that do we?" Her tone of voice sounded like a parent gently scolding a child and pregnancy was something she never intended to deal with.

"Of course not," Evan answered. "They're a pain though. Keep in mind that we're only getting half of that money. Anders and his boys get the rest."

"True. But at least he's footing the bill to set Rob up." She smiled at the plan that she had laid out to Evan and to Anders' gang.

Evan laughed. "After all the money Rob's won betting on football teams, Anders was only too willing to get his money back. And then some."

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Evan put on a robe and went to answer it. He came back a few minutes later.

"That was Anders. He's sending one of his cops along with Ed and Frank to pick you up. He figures that the presence of a state police deputy will make the story move believable. They'll be here in about fifteen minutes."

Geri nodded. "Okay. I'm about ready, so you better get cleaned up. We'll be calling you later."

Evan smiled. "This will probably be the hardest part of the whole thing. Rob's sharp, even with the hormones and drugs that you've been feeding him. If we can get the start of this past him, we'll be okay."

"Don't worry. Doctor Winters' wife has been Anders guest for quite a while now and he's providing us with those special drugs and conditioning programs. I've been working on Rob for the past three months and I can lead him around by the nose. At this point, I can get him to do pretty much anything I want.

"The hormones we got from the doctor have Rob him right at the threshold of what we want to happen. We give him a healthy dose of additional hormones and his body will change like one of those Transformer toys. I've noticed that he's prone to be a little more emotional that he used to be and his hair growth has changed. It's fun to get him to watch a chick flick and see him trying not to cry.

"I suggested to Anders that he show the doctor some pictures of his grand-daughter walking home from school and that she could always join her grandmother. I figure that Winters will co-operate in using some of those special procedures he developed for the government to change Rob even further. The best part is that Winters won't be able to go to the police or the government because he would implicate himself just as much as he would us."

She finished smoothing her pantyhose before she put on her blouse and skirt. She now projected the image of a chaste, well behaved housewife. She resembled nothing like the woman who had arrived three hours ago who could not wait to get out of her clothes and into bed with her husband.

"How much more time do you need on the company's books?"

"I'm ready to start setting up all of the transfer transactions. It should only take me a few weeks to set everything up so that we can transfer everything out all at once. Rob's trust fund becomes the end of the quarter, so we have to wait until you have Rob prepared to take the fall and I can transfer his money along with everything else."

Geri grinned, contemplating the changes she was going to put her second husband through.

"So you still don't see any problems?" she asked.

Evan shrugged. "I just have to work carefully to get around some of the security in the system. Once I get to the passwords on each account, I can create the wire transfer transactions. I just can't have Rob around to get in the way. He might figure things out. There's his executive secretary too. If Rob's out of the way, I can sidetrack her. Otherwise, she might question what I'm doing. But, if I'm in charge, I can claim that I'm just looking things over.

He grinned, "With Rob out of the office, I'll be able to steal the keys to the kingdom."

"When we're done with him, he'll be hard-pressed to even think for himself," Geri grinned at the thought. It was not a pleasant grin. "He won't know what hit him when they arrest him."

Evan came out of the bedroom, pulling up his trousers. "I'm glad that you don't hate me like you hate your other husband." He grinned at his joke. For a con this big, Geri had no qualms becoming a bigamist.

Geri sneered, causing the angelic expression on her face to become something hideous. "He's a pussy. He was a virgin when we had sex for the first time and he wanted to marry me right after. I can't wait to turn him into 'my' wife with big tits and cock sucking lips. He'll have so much fun in prison!"

Evan shook his head and said, "It's too bad about that prenup that his lawyers insisted that you sign. Otherwise, you wouldn't have to go through this."

"True. But until this is over, I'll play the loving wife and I'll do anything I have to do to get him to go along with me. Then I'll drop him like a bad habit. But not before I have some fun."

They were interrupted by the doorbell and the arrival of the men they were expecting.

* * * * *

By the time Robert was finished with the new prospectus that he wanted to submit, it was well after quitting time. He didn't like having to work late, but it was starting to become a standard for him. He hoped that once the audit was done, he could go back to a regular work day. Except for these kinds of situations that called for a prospectus to be finely tuned for a client that meant a great deal of money to the company.

These days, if you weren't bringing new clients to the investment funds, it meant that the company was dying. He had heard the Peters Corporation was considering a change in investment managers and he wanted to make sure that his firm was the one they chose. He thought that he had a pretty good shot at it; after all, he had a very good reputation for helping peoples' money grow. He'd even gone through the closer scrutiny caused by the Madoff scandal and gotten an excellent rating. But the Madoff scandal was why the audit was coming up.

As he was locking up his filing cabinet and desk, there was a knock at the door. Not surprisingly, it was Sally, his executive assistant. She knew the business as well as he did and had been there working for his father until the accident that had killed him and Rob's mother. Because Rob worked late, she worked late, whether he had tasks for her or not. He had been tempted to ask if she had a life outside of work, but thought that was probably a topic that was out-of-bounds between an employer and employee.

Sally stepped into the office, not bothering to close the door as everyone else had gone home an hour ago. As she crossed the room, the heels she wore made it seem as if she were looming over Rob. She slipped her shoes off, knowing that her boss was somewhat self-conscious about his height, and she ended up being eye-to-eye with him again. She was an attractive woman with a medium build and fairly athletic figure. Add in her shoulder-length black hair and the creamy complexion and Rob could not understand why she was still single. There had been several times when couriers had found excuses to hang around her desk after they had made a delivery or were about to leave to make one. Rob had seen her looking embarrassed a couple of times when he had come upon those situations. He had found it necessary to make his presence known in those situations because they were just not taking Sally's 'NO' for what it meant.

"Still working on the Peters' proposal," she said with a smile.

"Yes. I made some notes for some changes I would like to have worked in,' Rob said.

"Did you type them up or mark up the printed copy?" Sally asked with a wry grin. "You know that your handwriting is awful. Based upon your penmanship alone, you should have been a doctor."

Rob hung his head in mock embarrassment. "I know. I made sure to mark up the document where I think the changes will work, but I typed up the notes as well. That way, you'll know where I want the changes inserted and you will know what I said too."

"That will work. Thank you," Sally said with a nod. "But, if we just sent you back to third grade, we could fix your handwriting and you wouldn't need to do double work."

"I know…I know. But we don't go through this too often. Now, if I were writing a lot, then we could have my third grade teach come here. As long as she doesn't bring her ruler to rap me on the knuckles with." Rob grinned, teasing Sally. "I’d have to remember to bring an apple for her every day too."

Sally grinned at the thought. "Could I talk to you about the new dress code that you and Evan came up with?" she asked. Sally was not shy about coming to Rob about problems in the company, so asking to speak to him meant that that Sally had an issue with him. Rob and Sally usually had no problems with communication and had talked about many personal problems over the years. They had even discussed Rob's prenup and marriage to Geri. Something that Sally had expressed misgivings about and she had wished many times since that she had been more vocal in that particular exchange.

Rob smiled in relief. "I thought that it was something important. What seems to be the problem?"

"I think that this is important, Rob. I'm speaking for the rest of the women in the company and I have to tell you that there some unhappy ladies out there." Sally's tone bordered on angry when it became apparent that Rob was some kind of male chauvinist. "The women in the company are expected to only wear dresses. In addition to that, they are not supposed to be too baggy or too tight. I think that what is really getting to the girls is the part about wearing heels to work."

Rob took a step back at the intensity of Sally's statement. He rubbed at the scar on the bridge of his nose where the break healed. When he was nervous, he always seemed to want to cover where his nose had become slightly crooked. Both Sally and Geri had assured him that the crookedness was not really noticeable. Sally's sudden flash of irritation was enough to trigger that nervousness these days. He wished that he had never tried fooling around with that skateboard last year.

"I…I hate to point fingers, but Evan wanted that put in claiming it presented a more professional atmosphere. I didn't see any problem with it, so I didn't disagree while we were writing it. I get the impression you are recommending we remove that requirement."

Sally smiled slightly and it was not fully a happy smile. "If you don't want a full-scale rebellion on your hands, I think that would be a good idea." She was nodding seriously. She saw that Rob was stroking his nose and reached out to pull his hand away from his face.

"Rob, I'm sorry," she said gently. "I didn't mean to upset you, please relax." Then she smiled impishly, "I'll make you a deal. You wear heels for a full work day! After that if, you still think it isn't a big deal, I'll drop the issue."

Rob pulled his arm down to his side and smiled.

"If you feel that strongly about the issue, why don't we just take that part out? Go ahead and rewrite the policy and I'll sign it when you're done. I didn't realize that it would a problem. Please apologize to the ladies for me and I'll send out an email to everyone."

He thought about the time he spent in heels at home and never considered them to be uncomfortable — of course he never spent eight or nine hours straight in them either. Once they had worked out Sally's complaint, they exchanged pleasantries for a few more moments and they both headed for home.

* * * * *

Robert waited for the garage to finish opening before pulling into his side of the garage. He paid close attention to the front end as he did not want a repeat of bumping the trash barrels like last week. No one had seen it and it did no damage to the car, but it was embarrassing all the same. The past couple of months were starting to get to him and he looked forward to being able to relax once the government auditors had come and gone. With all of the press around the collapse of the banks and big investment firms, it was only natural that they would start looking at the little guys eventually. They'd be around sometime in October, to review the accounting for the funds that rolled over at that point.

He'd been feeling so run-down that his executive assistant, Sally, had mentioned on more than one occasion that she was concerned about his health and appearance. She had convinced him to make an appointment with the physician that his family had been seeing for years, but Geri had been involved in a car accident that particular day and he had been unable to reschedule. He'd been so busy lately, he had not even had time to get a haircut and it was starting to become really long.

He thought that keeping his hair in a guy's pony tail down his back looked sort of cool. Fortunately, his clients knew him and what he could do for their money. Who cared if their investment banker looked like a surfer dude or a metrosexual hipster needing to see a hairstylist? The other reason the company was so successful was that everyone knew that he kept his word, even when the situation changed against him. Individuals of integrity were still highly respected in the business world.

The fact that he was just barely average in height and slightly built had been a little bit of a sore point for him growing up. The only girls who had been interested in him at college had been the ones who could only see his parents' millions. They'd dropped him or drifted away when they found out that those millions were in a trust that he could not touch until he turned twenty-seven.

That is, until he had met Geri. She loved him and couldn't care about money that he would get sometime in the future, which was coming up in the fall. Even then, she would not be able to touch the money as it would be locked up in the company's accounts until he could transfer it out and the prenup would prevent her from getting it in a divorce.

The pressure of preparing all of the company's financial records for the annual government audit kept him and Evan working late quite a lot lately. Fortunately for him, he was the partner that dealt more with 'sales' and getting additional customers in the door, so most of the business management side of things was left to Evan. Much of what he needed to do was to review the spreadsheets and the summaries before signing off on them. He was able to get away from the office at about six or six-thirty most evenings while Evan would work much later. Of course, Rob made up for it by being in the office early most mornings.

Closing up the garage, Rob looked across to Geri's empty parking spot. She was apparently out late again, probably with one of the planning groups for the charities that they supported. He headed on up into the house to find himself something to eat. Rob knew that Geri would grab something to eat before she came home, so he finished up the leftover chicken from a couple of nights ago. He reflected on how intensely Geri had thrown herself into volunteering to assist with the charities after her accident. The accident had not been that severe, but it had obviously scared her into wanting to do more for others. He thought that was good, because Geri had developed a rather callous, almost bitchy, attitude up to that point; which was nothing like the girl he thought he had married a little over a year ago.

He cleaned up his mess when he finished eating and reviewed the mail. Of course, all bills were sent to the accountant for processing, so the post mainly consisted of circulars and Geri's woman magazines — which for some unknown reason Rob had come to enjoy browsing through lately. He settled in his chair with a glass of juice. He would have loved to have a glass of wine, he found that even one glass made him dizzy these days. On reflection, he decided that he would have to have Sally make that physician's appointment tomorrow. There could very well be something wrong if a single glass of wine could put him down.

* * * * *

The normal time for Geri to arrive home had long passed and Rob was becoming concerned. His calls to her cell phone had rolled over to her voicemail unanswered. While she had been this late before, she had always answered her phone or called to let him know that a meeting had run over or that she was on her way. He could not turn in for the night until he knew that she was okay. Almost at the same time that he had arrived at the decision to call the police to check on a possible accident, the doorbell sounded.

The security camera showed Geri standing at the door with three men positioned behind her. The men had positioned themselves far enough back from the door so that the camera could see them properly. They made no attempt to conceal their faces; rather they looked directly into the camera and held their badges up so that the camera could see them clearly as well. One was a state trooper and the other two were dressed in dark suits, black shoes, and black coats. It almost appeared as if they had pulled their clothes from the same rack at the store. All three of them stayed well back from the door and from Geri to show that they were not a threat.

Rob opened the door and Geri ran to him, sobbing, to give him a hug and hid her face in his chest for a moment. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. "Rob, we're in trouble." The expression on her face showed that she was scared.

He looked past her to the men on porch. "What seems to be the problem gentlemen?" Rob could not think of any reason why a police officer and two detectives would visit him late at night or have any reason to accost his wife.

The police officer spoke for the trio. "Mr. Tanner, may we come in? These are federal marshals and they need to talk with you and your wife." Rob nodded and stepped back to allow them to enter. Looking past the men as they moved into the house, Rob could see a dark-colored SUV parked at the end of the driveway and a police squad car parked on the curb.

Everyone studied each other for a moment before the taller marshal moved forward slightly and said, "Mr. Tanner, I'm agent Tyler and this is agent Johnson. We represent the U.S. Marshal Service." They both held their shields up for inspection again.

Rob just glanced over the badges as he had seen government badges many times as part of being in the investment business. "Shall we go in and sit down?" They all moved into the living room and took seats.

The two marshals almost looked like they could be related. Agent Tyler was fairly tall and strongly built, while Johnson was a few inches shorter and much broader across the shoulders. It almost made one think of a visual aide for a demo of Brains and Braun. Both were clean shaven and looked as if they were prepared to deal with anything and accept no disagreements.

Rob's confusion about the situation was obvious and he looked at Tyler, and said, "What's going on?"

Agent Johnson spoke up instead. "Mr. Tanner, your wife was a witness to an incident today that could very well put her life in danger, as well as yours. At the direction of our superiors, we have been instructed to offer you temporary protection in the witness protection system to keep you safe while the crime is investigated and prosecuted."

"What happened?" Rob looked at both Tyler and Johnson. A chill of fright and concern went through him as he pulled Geri to him. "Are you okay? You weren't hurt were you?"

"There was a drug exchange taking place as your wife was walking by. Apparently, the deal went sour and one of the perps killed the other. Unfortunately, your wife was seen by the killer and he also targeted her. The only reason she was not killed was that she just moments from leaving the scene in a taxi. She reported what she saw to the police and we became involved."

Rob frowned. "Witness protection is a little extreme for witnessing a shooting isn't?"

Johnson nodded and said, "Yes sir, it is. Right now, we propose to only put the two of you into protective custody. However, we believe that this is related to the Mexican cartel that has been gaining strength in the city recently. We believe that your wife's testimony will help us to prosecute one of their main enforcers and give us a chance of driving them out. The danger to you and your wife is that these people are perfectly willing to kill anyone that causes them trouble. Your lives could very well be in danger."

Geri was still huddled against Rob's side. She shuddered while Johnson was relating the story. When Johnson finished, she looked up at Rob with tears in her eyes and said, "I was so scared! I saw him pointing the gun at me from across the street and I heard him shoot! I don't know if he hit the taxi or not! I can still see the other man lying on the ground behind him!"

Rob hugged Geri to him and said, "It'll be okay Geri. I'm here." He held her out in front of him and looked into her eyes. "I promise you. Whatever it takes to keep you safe, I'll make sure that it happens."

He felt an overpowering desire to protect her and he wanted to do cry when he thought that she could be hurt, simply because she had seen something by accident.

She looked up at him again and said, "Rob…They want us to go into hiding for a while so that they can keep me safe and while they can catch him. Please Rob! I'm so scared." She hugged herself to him and shivered. Rob was unable to see her self-satisfied smile, knowing that she had maneuvered him into agreeing to the start of her plan.

Rob straightened and tried to look tough when he look at the government men and asked, "What do we need to do?"

Chapter 2

Tyler looked around and then back to the Tanners, bowed slightly, and said, "I think that for your comfort, we could just keep you here, in your own home, until we know what the situation is. If it's possible, agent Johnson and I could set up in an extra room and watch over you here."

Rob thought for a moment and said, "Well, there is a room upstairs that we're just using for storage. It's pretty crowded though."

Tyler and Johnson exchanged looks and nodded. "Let's take a look at it. If we can make it work, that would be better. Otherwise, we would need to think about moving you to a safe house. This house looks like it would be okay though, at least in the short run."

Rob looked at Geri and said, "I hope that it's just the short run." She smiled back through her crocodile tears.

Satisfied that the federal agents had everything in hand, the trooper returned to his car and left. The agents assured him that they would call for help if they suspected a problem. Rob led the agents up the stairs at the back of the house to the large space on the second floor. Geri made a circuit on the main floor to ensure that everything was secure.

Upstairs, they found that while the area was cluttered, they were able to clear about half of the space by stacking everything. This left a good-sized area for the agents to be able to setup. Tyler seemed to be the senior agent and said, "We'll have beds brought in for the time that we'll be here and we'll have to work out living arrangements with you and your wife."

"That makes sense," said Rob. "That way, we can stay here and I can deal with work and you'll be able to make sure that nothing happens to Geri."

Tyler held up his hand to get Rob's attention and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Tanner. We need to set it up so that you are in hiding. If it looks like you are still going about your business, the cartel will know that you and your wife are here. That will put your lives in serious danger."

Rob frowned. "But I need to handle things for my business! We're preparing for a major audit and I need to be there." Rob's alarm and concern for the company almost made him forget about the danger to Geri and himself. "May be we could send Geri into hiding and I could manage things from home. I would only need to be in the office once or twice a week." His voice hadn't quite taken on a pleading tone, but it was close.

Tyler shook his head slowly and repeated, "I'm sorry sir," said Tyler. "If the cartel thought that they could get to your wife by using you, you would be in as much danger as she is. We need to keep you out of the public view to be able to keep you both safe."

"If I'm not there, my company could be in trouble. If we can't figure something out, I can't go into hiding with my wife. There would be nothing to come back to." Rob's voice took on a note of finality. It sounded like he was finally digging in his heels.

Rob was looking at Tyler while he was talking and did not see Johnson behind him. Johnson's face darkened as he started move toward Rob, as if he was preparing to get physical with him. A cautioning look to him from Tyler caused him to relax and step back while Tyler told Rob reassuringly, "Mr. Tanner, we understand these kinds of issues. Let me contact our supervisor to see how we can work this out." Tyler took out a phone from his suit and looked up at Rob. "Would you mind giving us some privacy? We need to explain everything to him and get instructions."

Rob nodded and headed out the door and back to the main floor. Johnson closed the door behind him. Tyler dialed while they both moved further into the room away from the door. Tyler held the phone so that Johnson could hear the conversation as well.

"Paul, this is Frank Tyler. We're at the Tanners," he said.

"Is everything going okay?" The man on the other end asked.

"Yeah…It looks like he's buying into it, but we have a problem. He's upset that he can't leave the house and go to work. He says that his company will have problems if he isn't there. I know how touchy this whole thing is, so I don't want to put my foot in it. What do you want to do?"

"I'll have to call Evan Stevens and find out if what Tanner is telling you is true. We don't want to get rough with him until we have to. You never know when you might need his willing cooperation. I'll call you back in a few minutes." The call clicked off and Tyler folded the cell phone closed.

Tyler looked at Johnson and said, "We're supposed to get Tanner to agree to get a disguise so that he can be in public. After that, we'll move to the other place. Go ahead and call the guys and have them drop off a couple of cots for us. We won't be too uncomfortable and we'll sleep better until we move." Johnson nodded and moved off to make his calls to have the equipment they needed delivered. Tyler's phone rang a few minutes later.

"Hey…What do they want us to do?"

"Stevens agrees that there are some forms that Tanner needs to sign to keep the SEC in the dark. He would have had us bring it up tomorrow, but Tanner is doing that for us. Tell Tanner that we realized that there were documents that need to be filed to protect his company and that we'll have him meet with Stevens in the morning. Once that's done, we'll see about moving to Stage 2."

"Okay, Paul. I'll handle it then. Ed's getting some beds delivered and I imagine that they'll be here in an hour, considering that the guys were standing by. Yeah…I think we can manage it. We'll report in tomorrow." He folded the cell phone again.

"He needs to sign some papers tomorrow. Once that's done, we'll talk to them about getting surgery to disguise them." He grinned evilly. "Let's go tell him." They made their way back to the main floor.

They found Rob sitting in the living room, leaning forward with his hands clasped between his knees. They could see that he was upset about leaving his company without a leader. Geri was next to him, hugging him like a dutiful wife should.

"Mr. Tanner? I spoke to my superior about your concerns. It appears that he was already in communication with your partner…a Mr. Stevens? and that it would be necessary to file some paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This would allow your company to continue operation without a problem."

"Yes, that's true. But I would feel better if I were able to help manage the business." Rob's concern for the company was obvious, but he was relieved that there might be a solution.

Geri spoke up, looking teary-eyed. "But Rob, you agreed that this was the best thing to do. If you try to keep working, they might hurt you to get to me. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you."

'Besides,' she thought. 'We need you out of the way while we set up all of the transfer orders. If you're there, that would ruin everything.'

Rob looked into his wife's eyes, only seeing her concern for his safety and he couldn't say no. "Okay, when can we get the papers signed?" The love he felt for her was enough to make him willing to agree to anything.

* * * * *

The sleeping arrangements for the agents were quickly sorted out. Workmen had pulled up to the house with collapsible beds and had them set up within minutes of their arrival. While they worked, Tyler and Rob worked out that Evan would prepare the proper documents and that he would meet with them at a nearby coffeehouse the next day.

Tyler went up to the makeshift bedroom and Rob looked around the living room. Furniture had been moved about while everyone had talked and then the movers had shown up. Instead of trying to restore order, he stepped out onto the small front porch to try to relax.

He looked around the neighborhood, seeing the older oak and maple trees that indicated that this was one of the better areas in the city to live. Not somewhere that a person with two hundred million dollars in the bank would live, but definitely where the senior partner of a relatively successful investment business would live. When this was all over and he had taken possession of his trust fund, he was sure that Geri would start pushing to move away to some gated estate so that she could flaunt their 'wealth and position'. He wasn't really concerned about it though, that was just how his wife was.

He took a deep breath to clear his head and tried to relax the tendons in his neck and back. It was amazing how quickly everything could tense up. He could smell a cloud of old cigarette smoke hanging in the air, one of the workmen must have been smoking before they had left in their truck. Even though it had been a couple of years since he had stopped smoking himself, inhaling the corrosive and mildly aromatic tobacco smoke reminded him of the days when he had apt to smoke at least a pack a day. He'd gone cold turkey when he realized that both Sally and Geri found smoking to be disgusting and repellent. There were times that he still missed it though.

The neighborhood looked quiet and it looked like he was going to be stuck around here for the foreseeable future; he just hoped the Evan would be able to keep things on an even keel at work. He knew that Sally would help where she could. She was the best assistant in the business she had willingly agreed to work for Rob when he needed the help settling into the job of being the owner. She knew as much about the business as he did and she seemed to have as great a proprietary interest as well.

He smiled when he thought about her. She was only a couple of years older than he was, not quite thirty yet. She was actually one of the reasons the business had not collapsed after his parents had died in the crash. Their clients may have been nervous about dealing with him at the beginning, but Sally had been with the company for years and everyone saw her as a link between his father and himself. Clients knew that his dad had trusted Sally with a great deal of responsibility and the day-to-day work. She had become an excellent stabilizing influence and sounding board for him over the past couple of years.

The more he thought about it, Rob wondered if his dad hadn't hired Sally for more than her sharp mind and administration skills. If he didn't know better, he would have suspected that his father might have had the idea of trying to match Rob and Sally up. Of course, that would not have panned out as he had met Geri only a little bit before his parents were gone. He did wonder though. Sally never seemed to have a boyfriend, which was curious. She was attractive, standing a little taller than he was. She was in good shape, which meant that she probably went down to the corporate gym on her lunch hour. Rob knew that there was no shortage of young bucks around there that were only too happy to squire Sally around. She would have one or two dates with a guy and then they would be gone. She always seemed to be on good terms with them afterward though. She just seemed to be looking for something and had not found it yet.

Once the workmen were gone, everyone turned in for the night. Rob took the final turn in the shower, following the agents and Geri. Geri was, of course, first. It was almost an hour later before he stumbled into the bedroom and prepared to get into bed. As he did so, Geri rolled over and looked at him.

"Do you think that Diana wants to come out and play with her mistress?" she said sexily.

Rob grinned broadly, looked down at his feet, and said, "I'm sure that Diana would love to play with you, Mistress."

Geri had introduced her husband to role-playing games early on in their marriage so that getting him to dress up would be easy to do at this point. At the beginning, she had been the one to dress up as the French Maid, but she had gotten him to agree to also do it occasionally.

Once in a while had become a regular occurrence when they had sex. She did not consider what they did as making love. After all, she was married to Evan already and had only married Rob as part of her master plan to defraud him of his trust fund and company assets. A little bit of hypnosis and a lot of positive reinforcement on her part had gotten Rob to the point where he willingly dressed as a maid and was only interested in sex when he was.

He turned to one of the bureaus and took out a pink bra and a thong panty set. He quickly stripped off his pajamas and put on the silky undergarments. He took out his new set of breast forms and slid them into the bra. Geri had recently upgraded Diana from a tasteful C cup to a full figured DD. She had wanted him to get EE forms but Rob had sensibly pointed out that would require an entire new set of bras and dresses. He immediately went from being a slightly built blond man to a well-endowed blond bombshell in her underwear. His face was the only thing that betrayed the fact that he was not female.

He strutted to the closet in his lingerie, putting on a show for Geri, and took out a pretty pink baby doll nightie. He pulled the nightgown, what there was of it; over his head let it slither down his body. His wriggling caused his breasts to wobble, just as if they belonged to him. The feel of the nightdress brushing against his bare butt cheeks excited him to no end and was reflected by the bulge in his thong. He decided to forego using one of his gaffes because he expected to be taking it off in a few minutes anyway. A pair of skyscraper-height high heeled shoes, pink of course, completed the look. Rob had gotten enough practice in their dress-up play that he was perfectly comfortable with them and his legs had taken on the look of a runway model.

Looking at his legs, Geri could see that the exercises and diet that she had encouraged over the past few months had started to sculpt Rob's body in the direction she wanted. The less flab and undesirable muscle there was, the easier it would be to change him.

He turned to the bed and curtseyed to Geri. He shifted his voice to the higher registers Geri had encouraged him to use as a maid. "Can I get you anything, mistress?" For some reason, using a higher voice had gotten easier as time went on.

"Yes, Diana. I would like a glass of warm milk."

"Yes, Mistress," Rob said. He curtseyed again and shimmied out to the kitchen to get the milk. As he reached the bedroom door however, he stopped and turned. "Those marshals are upstairs, what if they happen to be out there?"

"Well, Diana. You are my servant and I want a glass of milk. If you run into them, just tell them that I sent you. You do want to obey me, don't you?" Geri's voice took on a tone of someone who expected to be obeyed, without shouting or being threatening.

"Yes, Mistress," Rob said again, his voice quavering somewhat with his uncertainty. His tone was one of obedience and there was something about what Geri had just said that made him want to do what he was told, but his stomach was doing little flip-flops.

The kitchen was dark, so he turned on one of the side lights so that he could see what he was doing. He got a glass from the cabinet which always seemed to be a little too high for him, but the added height of his shoes helped a little. The bottom of his baby doll slid up the back of his ass and tickled. The sensation was so erotic, that Rob didn't think that his cock could get any larger.

He had just set the glass on the counter in order to get the milk when he heard, "Well…well…I didn't know that Mrs. Tanner's little sister was visiting."

Rob gave a girlish little shriek and spun around. He saw agent Johnson leaning against the counter behind him grinning. For some reason, Rob felt small in the presence of the other man and all he could do is look down at the floor.

"What might your name be, missy?" Johnson asked.

"My name is Diana, sir," Rob said, curtseying. Unconsciously, his hand crept up to scratch at his nose. When he realized what he was doing, he forced himself to relax and put his hand down. Even though he knew that he had been caught and he knew that Johnson knew exactly who he was, he found that he couldn't break out of his persona as Diana, even down to using Diana's high voice. At the same time, he was trying to pull the front of the nightie down so that he wasn't betraying just how much fun this all was.

"My name is Frank Johnson ma'am," Johnson said, playing it straight. He knew who this was and Rob knew that he knew it. It was as if they were both trying to keep a straight face and he was sure that Rob was mortified to be strutting around in cute little nightdress.

Rob could not help curtseying again and said, "My mistress sent me out for a glass of milk. I'm afraid that you surprised me sir."

"I apologize, ma'am." Johnson's whole behavior let it be known that he wasn't sorry and that he was enjoying the whole thing. "I just came down to get a snack." He picked up an apple from the counter next to Rob. "I'll just head on back upstairs now. You have a good night ma'am." He winked and sauntered out of the kitchen with a smile. Rob wasn't sure, but he thought that he saw a bulge in the front of the other man's trousers.

All Rob could do is look down and shake his head in shame. He couldn't understand why he had acted like a submissive servant, but it was like he was locked into autopilot. Even though he didn't think that he could be more embarrassed, he somehow felt a thrill go through him that he had been dressed like a sexy girl in a night dress in front of a strange man.

He was sure that neither one the agents would be down any more tonight as they would not want to walk in on whatever he and Geri might be doing later. He poured the glass of milk that Geri had requested and warmed it briefly in the microwave. He watched it carefully as he did not want Geri yelling at him again for bringing her hot curdled milk. She had not let him back into bed with her for two days for that mistake. When he thought the milk was ready, he found a tray to carry it on and took the glass out of the microwave. He returned to the bedroom, sashayed up to the bed, and offered the tray to Geri.

"Diana, did you bring me any cookies to go with my milk?" Geri asked, looking at Rob as he stood before her with his hands clasped before him.

Rob looked down and said, "No, ma'am. I didn't look to see if we had any."

"Diana," Geri chided. "A good maid must learn to anticipate her mistress' or her master's needs and wants. If you are going to be a good domestic, you need to keep this in mind."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll try to do better," Rob was properly polite and apologetic; he should have known that Geri might want something to go with her milk. He had let her down again and he felt like he wanted to cry. "I will make you some cookies tomorrow."

Of course, this was all role-play to him and his only thought at this point was to please his wife again so that they might do this again tomorrow. After all, the after role-play play was so much fun.

After Geri finished her milk and set it aside, she said, "Diana, my husband took a shower earlier. Did he take care of his towel or leave it on the floor again?"

"I believe that it is on the floor, Mistress," Rob said, looking down.

"Well, please clean up in the bathroom. I swear, if you did not clean up after him, this house would be a mess," Geri said, shaking her head.

"Yes, Mistress." Rob strutted in her high heels to the bathroom and cleaned up the mess that he had made as Rob. Geri watched him as he left the room. Just looking at him dressed this way made Geri hot. She wished that the next phase of her master plan would arrive sooner.

Rob returned after a few minutes to find Geri reclining on the bed, nude.

Playing the demanding mistress to the hilt allowed Geri to continue to browbeat her husband and enforce his submissiveness and the maid mentality. "Diana! What have I told you about makeup? Put on your lip gloss!"

"Yes, ma'am." Rob picked up a tube of chapstick from the bureau and coated her lips.

"Now, I need attention myself. Give me a kiss please." She spread her legs wider as she spoke, making it plain which lips she wanted to be kissed. Her pussy puckered invitingly to Rob and he could see that his wife was already hot and wet for him.

Rob climbed on to the bed and knelt between Geri's legs. Leaning forward, he kissed his way up and down the insides of Geri's thighs, dragging his tongue as he went. He was rewarded with little shivers and moans from Geri who was becoming very aroused. Rob was just as aroused as his cock threatened to break through the tight thong. After licking and kissing all around Geri's pussy and favoring it with several puffs of air that made Geri jump each time, Rob lightly licked the glistening slit from top to bottom. Several light flicks of the tongue made it clear that Geri was more than ready for the main event and Rob closed down on her clitoris to give it a serious tongue-lashing. Geri gave a small yelp every time Rob's coarse tongue scraped over her clitoris. Finally, Geri could take no more and pushed her partner away. The lip gloss that Rob had applied was seriously smeared and most of it now coated his wife's nether lips.

Rob left for the bathroom to clean up and to get ready to return to bed. Of course, he came back unclothed and got into bed. As he lay back, expecting Geri to roll over to being kissing and rubbing, she snuggled up to him, dressed again in her nightclothes. Her hand trailed up his thigh to briefly cup his balls, avoiding contact with his seriously hardened cock, before continuing across his belly to his chest. Her nails scratched lightly across his chest and erect nipples.

"Your skin feels kind of dry, Rob. Are you using enough moisturizer?" she asked.

"I believe so. I hadn't noticed any problems."

"Well, let me rub some in for you. You don't want to have to deal with irritated skin," Geri sounded so concerned about Rob's comfort. It gave him a warm feeling to know how much his wife cared about him.

Geri rolled over and picked up a tube of cream from her nightstand. "Here, I'll rub it in for you." She squeezed a generous amount on to her hands and began to rub it into his chest, paying extra attention to his nipples and the area that would be called his breasts. Rob stiffened as the area under her hands began to feel warm and tingly. His nipples felt as if they were hard enough to scratch glass and he could swear that his cock was stiff enough to drive nails.

Just when the heat felt incredibly good and his entire body seemed to be vibrating, she craned her neck to kiss him. "Thank you for helping to protect me," she said. She put her arms around him to hug him and her head down on his chest, making it plain that her teasing would not be going any further.

Rob let out a quiet, frustrated sigh, bringing an unseen smile to Geri's face. It took Rob a while to finally fall asleep, but not before some strange feeling of sadness caused tears to stream down his face.

* * * * *

The sun had been up for a while when Rob finally woke up. Geri was gone from beside him and her spot was cold, she had obviously been up for a while. He dressed quickly in casual clothes and took care of his morning business in the bathroom.

Padding into the kitchen he found that coffee had been made, so he poured himself a cup and went looking for everyone. He found Geri and the federal agents seated at the dining table talking. Their conversation came to an abrupt halt the minute he appeared.

As he entered the room, agent Tyler looked up at him and said, "Ah…Mr. Tanner. I was beginning to think that you were going to sleep all day. We were getting ready to wake you."

"Sorry. It was a late night," Rob answered. He took a swallow of coffee, savoring the taste and hoped that it would wake him up.

"Did you take your vitamins, dear? They should help," asked Geri. When Rob indicated that he had not gotten around to it yet, she went into the kitchen and came back with two tablets in her hand. "Here you go. I swear you'd forget your head if it wasn't fastened on." She laughed and looked at Tyler and Johnson, who laughed a moment after her. Rob smiled to acknowledge the humor and popped the pills into his mouth. Washing them down with the last of the coffee, he returned the cup to the kitchen.

Tyler stood up and said, "If you like, I can call Mr. Stevens and arrange for him to meet us. You could get some breakfast at the same time."

Rob nodded and said, "That sounds good, but my appetite has been off lately. I'll have to see if I'm hungry when we get there."

Tyler made a call and arranged to meet Evan in an hour. He and Rob headed out a few minutes later, leaving Johnson to watch over Geri. After about a twenty minute drive, Tyler pulled up to a small coffeehouse and they went inside. As Evan had not appeared as yet, they ordered coffee and bagels at the counter and found a table. Their names had not been called yet when Evan and Sally pulled up in Sally's car.

Rob waved at them as they came in and they went through introductions and exchanged handshakes. Evan towered over Rob by several inches. Sally was the only one to note that it was a normal occurrence that Rob seemed to retreat into himself a little when he was around Evan, almost like he was afraid to challenge him in things. Evan's expression was all business, where Sally's showed concern for Rob. She smiled warmly at Rob, which went unnoticed by Evan and Tyler.

Evan sent Sally up to the counter to place their orders. He thought nothing of treating her as a subordinate instead of a co-worker. Rob had noted it several times and had mentioned it to Evan. After the second confrontation, Evan had made it clear to Rob that she was only a glorified secretary and he saw no reason to change his attitude towards her. Rob had retreated from the conversation and had not brought it up again, even though he felt bad for Sally when it happened.

After they had taken their seats, Tyler spoke first, "Mr. Stevens? How much paperwork do you have for Mr. Tanner to sign?"

Evan looked at Rob and then Tyler before saying, "There is a fair amount that requires signatures and notarization. I brought Miss Olsen as she is a notary public. As long as she witnesses our signatures, she can take care of the formalities later and we can file everything with the SEC.

"There is one problem though…The SEC has changed their procedures somewhat and we did not find out until today that we will need to submit these documents to them, wait for confirmation, and then sign the documents that they send back."

Tyler said, "That's interesting."

Evan shrugged and said, "Yes. I explained what the situation was to an upper-level supervisor and they agreed that these are highly unusual circumstances. They did offer to courier the counter-signature documents to us though. It just means that I will need to meet with you again tomorrow to finalize things."

"Well, if that is how it must be…" said Tyler. He looked over to Rob and asked, "Will that be okay with you, Mr. Tanner?"

Rob hesitated and said, "I suppose so. It still feels like I should be there to help run things though. We don't know how long we could be in this situation."

Evan spoke calmingly to Rob, "Rob, agent Tyler explained things to me. Geri's life could be in danger and yours too. You both need to protect yourselves until this is over. I promise to take care of the company as if it were mine alone; I know how much it means to you. You just need to worry about watching over Geri."

Sally had been watching the conversation quietly. A moment later, both orders were announced and Evan turned to her and said, "Sally, be a good girl and get that? I'll start getting everything ready."

His tone of voice was a command instead of a request and she rose stiffly to comply. Rob stood as well and said, "I can help you Sally. Agent Tyler, I think that we will need more space for everything. Could you pull that empty table over? That way we will have a place to put the paperwork."

Tyler looked up at Rob and nodded. While he was moving chairs and the table, Rob and Sally picked up the various breakfast items and maneuvered them back to the tables. By the time they had returned, Evan had pulled out a stack of folders and laid them out.

Everyone busied themselves with their food for a few minutes and then looked up to begin the process of working through the folders and documents. Not every sheet required a signature, but it began to feel like it to Rob. Evan would sign off on a packet, Rob would review it briefly before adding his signature, and then pass it to Sally for her notary seal and then to put back into its folder and then into the briefcase that she carried. Rob noted in passing that Evan was not carrying anything and seemed to treat Sally like a pack mule, why hadn't he noticed that particular attitude about Evan before?

It took them a couple of hours and coffee refills before everything had been signed and counter-signed properly. Sally was finally able to zip her briefcase closed and Evan stood immediately. "We need to get these finished and over to the SEC. I believe that using a courier rather than sending everything by fax will be more secure, so we need to leave now." Rob stood and Evan shook his hand, "Don't worry about anything. The company will be fine, trust me."

"I know that, Evan. I just don't like sitting back and letting someone else do the work that I should be doing," Rob answered. "After all, my dad built that company and I know most of our investors personally. The company is almost like my child to me."

"Don't worry. It will be okay. You and Geri will be back before you know it. Think of it like a vacation." Evan and Tyler turned to head for the door. Rob could not see the sneer of contempt on Evan's face. 'When Rob was able to return to his company, he wouldn't recognize it. Nor it recognize him, hee hee.'Thought Evan.

Only Rob saw Sally's narrowed eyes directed at Evan's back. Rob let the other two get almost to the door and quietly asked Sally, "What seems to be the problem? Is there something wrong at work or home?"

Sally relaxed and shook her head, "Nothing really. I just get a bad feeling with Evan. I know that you and Geri are stuck with having to drop out of sight, but it just feels like a mistake to put Evan in charge of everything. The thing is that I don't know what else you could do."

"I know, Sally," Rob said. "I feel the same way. But, like you said, Geri and I are in danger. So we will just have to trust Evan to keep the business running. He just is not that good at bringing new investors."

"You're right. I'll keep my eyes open and try to help where I can. You know that you can depend upon me, Rob." She looked at him a little sadly, but Rob did not notice.

Evan and Tyler had paused at the door and were looking back at them. When Rob and Sally realized that the other two were waiting for them, they turned and headed over.

"Is there a problem?" Tyler asked.

"No. Sally was just concerned about Geri and I being away and I was telling her that everything would be fine," Rob answered.

They all headed out to the cars. Evan shook Rob's hand and again told him that he had nothing to worry about. Sally impulsively gave Rob a strong hug and whispered that she would do her best for him.

* * * * *

Rob and Tyler drove home in silence. Once they were back, Rob told Geri about the meeting with Evan and that he would need to meet with them the following day to finalize giving Evan the ability to deal with the SEC and other organizations. Afterward, he napped for a few hours, attributing his fatigue to the late night and relative lack of sleep. He did not see the smiles on the faces of the other three as he trudged off to the bedroom.

When he woke, it was evening and getting rather dark outside. Tyler and Johnson were outside the front of the house, smoking and trying to stay concealed. Rob shook his head in confused amusement at how government employees could be so foolish as to shorten their lives by smoking. Most people understood that smoking was a mistake. Rob gave a mental shrug and went out to the kitchen. He found Geri at the stove, stirring a pan of soup.

She looked a little surprised to see him and said, "Hi! The way you were sleeping, I thought you were going to sleep until tomorrow. I decided to make you some soup and I was about come and get you."

"Smells good. What is it?"

"Just some soup. I seasoned it pretty well, so it won't just taste like canned," she answered with a smile. She ladled a large helping into a bowl and set it before him, along with a sandwich.

The soup tasted good, but he complained that the sandwich had an off taste. Geri just frowned and said, "There should be anything wrong with it. Maybe you're coming down with something. Your appetite has been off too. Try to eat it anyway," she answered. He plowed through the sandwich and the soup as he was told. Before too long, he was yawning again.

Geri looked at him closely and said, "You're looking a little pale. Let's get you back to bed." She let him lean on her as she guided him back to the bedroom. He was almost asleep by the time they reached the bed. Geri turned him slightly toward the bed and pushed, letting him flop loosely on to the mattress. She threw his legs up onto the bed and pulled him over to one side before covering him with a blanket.

"There. Now you're all nice and comfy. Let's let you listen to some more music shall we?" She opened the headboard and pulled out headphones which she slid over Rob's ears. She started a small digital player that was attached to the headphones and left the room. Rob was sound asleep and never moved a muscle.

The two men looked up as she came out into the living area. She looked at them and said, "He's out like a light. I don't expect him to wake up for about twelve hours and he won't even remember falling asleep." She grinned wolfishly. "I've started him on a new conditioning program, so he should start being a little easier to handle. It won't be noticeable when you take him out tomorrow, but we should be able to get him to cooperate with the plastic surgery."

Tyler sat back and looked at her. "I don't understand why you're doing this. All we need to do is keep him on ice until Stevens has all of the transfers set up. We probably won't even need him around by the time he actually executes them."

"True," Geri replied. "But we need a fall guy to take the heat for us after all of the cash has been transferred away. The way I understand it, Evan is going to move the money through three or four different companies before it reaches our dummy corporation. Then we have to be careful about moving it to Belize. Once it's there, we can draw it out in American dollars. But if we don't have Rob for them to focus on, they'll come looking for us. That's why we're having plastic surgery. Also, if we put him off-balance with the surgery and the hypnosis, the story he tells will make him look crazy and like a pervert. Imagine how the media will play up an investment banker who steals a billion dollars and wants to go live as a she-male somewhere.

"Humiliating him is just a plus for me. I mean, either one of you would make two of him. He's a nice guy, but all he ever does is to give in to me. How can you respect somebody who is always falling all over themselves just to make you happy? It's like living with a human puppy dog.

Tyler could tell that he had struck a rather sensitive nerve and he decided to change the subject. "Stevens thinks that he'll have everything he needs from the SEC by the early afternoon. He wants you to call him." Geri nodded curtly to him and went into the kitchen with her cell phone. She returned about a half hour later.

"Evan thinks that he should have the SEC documents like you said. He wants you to take Rob to the office tomorrow to be signed and I'll go out to meet Evan. You should plan on being gone for a few hours so that Rob doesn't wonder where I am."

Tyler smiled slyly and nodded.

Geri looked thoughtful for a few moments and Tyler could almost see the light bulb flash on over her head. "I think that it couldn't hurt to start Rob's day off a little out of balance. If the two of you help me, I think that tomorrow morning could be fun." She looked at the two men, grinning broadly.

She led them into the bedroom where Rob was lying in his drug-induced sleep. Quietly directing them, they took out Rob's French Maid uniform, undergarments, and everything needed to transform him into Diana. They quickly stripped him of his clothes, being careful not to disturb Rob's headphones and redressed him. The only time that Geri was on her own when it came to the gaffe. Geri was forced to perform the tuck and roll with Rob's penis and two attendants. Apparently, gangsters were too manly to touch another man's equipment.

* * * * *

Rob seemed to be standing in a large room. The gray walls, floor, and ceiling made it impossible to tell if the room was the size of a gymnasium or as small as his bedroom. He tried yelling, but there was not echo. After a moment, he wasn't sure if he had even tried to make any noise. When he tried to walk, he couldn't tell if he was actually moving.

The monotony of his surroundings coupled with a just-noticeable warmth was enough to completely relax him. With nothing to catch his attention, either sight or sound, he let himself just settle to the floor. The floor itself seemed to be incredibly soft almost as if it were a giant cushion. He wondered that, if he had the energy, would the walls be just as soft and warm.

As he let himself drift, he became aware of a whisper, just at the edge of his hearing. "Relax…Don't worry about things…Just do what you're told…" If he tried to focus on it, he couldn't seem to hear it, but by relaxing, he could just hear it. He let himself just seem to float, listening to the whisper. He felt so safe and warm…

* * * * *

Rob woke up at about mid-morning, sunlight streaming in through the blinds. Again, Geri was long gone from the bed and he did not recall when she had come to bed. He made his way into the bathroom to take care of business and the grogginess he felt cleared when he realized with a jolt how he was dressed. He hyperventilated for a moment because he had no memory of dressing before he had gone to bed. He was sure that he had been wearing pajamas earlier, so what did it mean that he had gotten up in the middle of the night and become Diana? Geri must have seen him when she got up this morning. What would she think? He looked in the mirror and saw that he had even put on eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick. And he could feel the gaffe between his legs, almost too tight against his member. What was wrong with him that he would dress as Diana in his sleep?

Before he could totally lose control of himself, Rob made a conscious effort to relax and regain control of his breathing. He needed to talk to Geri about this. He had to make sure that she wasn't somehow upset with his cross-dressing when they weren't playing and reassure her that this would never happen again. At least without her knowledge and agreement. He gave no thought to the fact that he suddenly needed her permission to play dress-up; he just knew that the thought made him feel good.

He came out feeling much better after a shave and a shower, the shave appearing to be a waste of time. He found Geri and agent Tyler in the living room, watching a game show.

Geri looked at Rob with a little smile and said, "Did you enjoy yourself last night?" All Rob could do was look down with a bright red face and nod. With Tyler in the room, he was afraid to ask her what had happened once she had come to bed.

Tyler pretended not to know what was going on and said, "Ah…You're up. Mr. Stevens called about an hour ago to tell us that the SEC documents were being couriered to your business offices and that we should come there to finish up."

"Sounds good. Let me get a cup of coffee and we can go," replied Rob.

"We can get one on the way. We would like to get this cleared up," said Tyler.

"Okay," Rob said quietly.

"We can leave now and be back in an hour or two," Tyler said, amazed at how easily Rob agreed.

Geri was watching the conversation with a barely concealed grin. She had been preparing her husband for this for weeks and, now that they were stepping up the hormones and hypnosis, she expected to turn him into a helpless puppet in no time. She watched her husband trail after Tyler to the car, almost laughing now that Rob was out of the house.

"What a wimp," she sneered. As the car pulled out of the drive, she gathered her purse and headed for the door. As she was opening it, Johnson was coming into the room. She looked back and said, "I'll be back in a few hours." Johnson nodded and turned toward the kitchen.

The drive to Rob's business office was quiet and uneventful. By the time they had arrived, Rob had roused himself from what almost felt like a trance. He and Tyler entered the main door and waved hello to the receptionist as they headed back toward Evan's office. They had to pass Rob's office first and Sally caught them as they went by. "Rob! Evan's not here. He had to run out to take care of something that came up, but he said that you and I could finish things up. He made sure to sign everything and wanted me to have you counter-sign and then I could notarize everything."

"Okay. Do you want to do it in here?" Rob asked, indicating his own office.

Sally held up a large package and said, "Sure." She turned to Tyler and said, "It will take some time to finish up. Do you want to sit in here with us? We do have a lounge where the chairs are more comfortable."

Tyler took in the office chairs and said, "I can wait in the lounge. Is there some place I can get some coffee?"

"Sure, there's a coffee pot in there too."

Tyler thanked her and walked off toward the lounge.

Before they settled down to work through the stack of documents requiring a counter-signature, Sally retrieved coffee for them both. Rob sat back in his chair and said, "I feel like I've been on the go for the last three days."

Sally studied Rob's face closely and could have sworn he was wearing mascara, but decided now was not the time to bring something like that up. "Well…you do look tired," Sally said.

"I shouldn't be. I've been getting close to twelve hours of sleep a night. But I never even had a chance to have breakfast this morning. I woke up and we had to get over here right away."

"No problem. I have a sandwich I made for myself for lunch. Hang on," Sally said. She went out to her desk and brought back her sack lunch.

"Sally, I don't want to take your lunch," Rob objected.

"Don't be silly Rob," Sally replied. "It's easier for me to take care of lunch than it will be for you. Go ahead."

While Rob worked his way through the sandwich, Sally watched and sipped her coffee. "So, can you tell me what's going on? All Evan told me yesterday is that you and Geri had something going on with the feds and that you were going to be away from the office for quite a while."

"I am not allowed to tell anyone this, but you are not just anyone, so keep this just between us. Well…the federal marshals are telling us that it should only be a few days. It seems the Geri witnessed a murder being committed by someone they believe is an enforcer for a Mexican drug cartel. They think that we might be danger and they're keeping us in protective custody at the house until they know that the danger is over."

Sally shook her head in confusion.

"No offense, but that sound a little funny to me. Why not move you to a more secure location and bring Evan and me to you instead of exposing you by coming here? And what happens after they catch the guy? It seems that you would be in even more danger."

"I know. Things have been happening so fast around me that I'm a little confused."

"Rob, I understand. You've been distracted for the past few weeks. Is there something wrong?"

"No, I don't think so. Geri thinks that I'm either dealing with a virus or getting over one."

"You're a lot quieter today than I've ever seen you before. I wish that we could have gotten you to the doctor. You've been tired for weeks now and I swear that you have lost weight."

"Well definitely, when this is over."

Sally threw her hands up and said, "But it's still up in the air. Do you think that the feds can get you in to see a doctor while they have you locked down?"

"I'd have to check, but it seems like a good idea to see if they can get me in somewhere, if not with Dr. White," Rob said. "Something else that just occurred to me. My parent's trust fund is supposed to come under my control in October. With all of this that is going on, I'm thinking that we don't need the additional confusion that will bring. If I delay it, we'll have to move it out for a full year."

"Your trust fund is a pretty good size. I mean, that's two hundred million dollars to defer taking ownership of!" Sally was surprised that Rob would put off taking ownership of such a large amount of money, but not shocked. He didn't regard the money as a right or let it make him overbearing or obnoxious, like many of their rich investors she had to deal with.

He shrugged. "Well, the monthly allowance from the trust should be enough until this time next year."

"How does Geri feel about that?" Sally asked, her eyes narrowing.

"I haven't been able to discuss it with her. We've been living pretty well on the monthly check, so she shouldn't be too upset. I'll tell her as soon as I can though. Another thing, I want to make you the executor of the fund, in case that becomes necessary."

Sally nodded, but her expression was rather skeptical. Her impression of Rob's wife over the past year or so was of someone who cared about her position and the money that went with it. Almost everyone who met her could see it. The only one who did not was Rob. He was still so much in love with her that she could no wrong. Sally had an image in which Rob would do absolutely anything for the woman he loved, with no questions asked. But her image of Rob was not of a gullible sucker but of someone with a good heart who just needed to learn who to trust.

When she looked at Rob, her eyes were tear-filled and Rob could not miss the concern that her expression conveyed. "Rob, what am I supposed to do if something happens to you?"

Rob was a little teary also as he hugged one of his best friends and said, "Sally, you will be responsible for disbursing the funds. Make sure that Geri is taken care of and then give the rest to charity. Just remember charity starts at home — as executor you are entitled to a fair salary."

Being a man, Rob had missed the real point of Sally's question. Not wanting to embarrass him by having to explain her question and absolutely terrified if he answered it the wrong way, she let it go. She let herself just hold the man that she had come to love over the past years and that she had resigned herself to never having.

They finally got to work and spent the next couple of hours wading through the various pieces of paper that needed his signature. It took a little longer as Sally imprinted her seal on each sheet as they worked. When they were finished, Rob took a few minutes to call for the courier while Sally caught up with her notary tasks and he let Tyler know that they were almost done. It looked like they would be able to submit the papers before the end of the day.

Once everything had been sent off with the courier, Rob went back to the lounge to find Tyler. Tyler was just finishing a phone call and said, "Philadelphia PD believes that they may have a lead on the killer your wife saw. We're going to have your dinner delivered this evening and my supervisor will let us know where we stand."

They arrived back at the house a while later. It was almost dark by the time that Tyler parked in the drive and they went in. They found Geri and Johnson preparing the dining table and laying out the food that appeared to have just been delivered. Rob gave Geri a quick hug and everyone sat down to eat. Tyler filled Johnson in on the plan to call their supervisor after dinner. Geri was rather quiet and did not respond to Rob's attempts to start a conversation about how she spent her day.

When they had finished, Tyler and Johnson went off to make their phone calls and Geri left the room, rebuffing Rob's attempts to talk to her. Rob was left to clean up by himself. He really wanted to discuss the decisions he had made about the trust fund, but he realized that he would have to wait until she was in a more receptive mood. He assumed that her behavior must be due to the stress of the need for the federal security. He resolved to discuss this with her when they got up in the morning. By the time he had finished his shower, he found Geri already feigning sleep so he got into bed also, finding it easy to fall asleep.

* * * * *

When Rob woke the next morning, he did a quick check to see how he was dressed — relieved to find Diana wasn't there this morning. He found that Geri had beaten him out of bed yet again. He dressed quickly and went out to find himself a cup of coffee. He found Geri and Johnson sitting in the living room while Tyler was on the phone. From the little Rob heard, the news did not sound good. Tyler hung up, faced the other three, and started his story.

"The Philadelphia Police Department arrested the killer that Mrs. Tanner saw. Unfortunately, the cartel is now aware of her and we need to take steps to put you in a safe place and prevent them from finding and killing you both."

"What does this mean though?" asked Rob.

Tyler looked uncomfortable as he said, "It means that we need to move you out of here to a safe place and take steps to keep you from being recognized."

Geri spoke up and asked, "What do you mean keep us from being recognized? Will we have to wear disguises all the time?" She followed her part of the script perfectly.

"It's something that we really do not publicize about these cases, Mrs. Tanner," answered Tyler. "We utilize some minor plastic surgery to modify your appearance and also move you to a safe house. By changing your appearance, we can reduce the level of security to avoid the possibility of detection and give you the ability to be out in public somewhat. This is something that we could not do if you remain as you are. You would be forced to remain out of sight in the safe house and we would need to maintain a greater presence while protecting you."

"What would the plastic surgery entail?" asked Rob. He still felt a little concerned about leaving the house behind, but his head seemed to be filled with cotton, making thinking difficult.

"I can't tell you that. We need to take you to the clinic so that you can talk to the medical folks. They will be able to discuss what will be involved. I'm sorry to have to rush you, but we need to go as soon as possible before the cartel takes any action."

Geri stood up. "I guess if we're going to do this, we should get going then."

Rob looked at Geri and nodded. "We can at least talk to the doctors and find out what they recommend."