Chapter 1

Mike Bowman used the remote to turn off the news concerning the contentious appointment of some minor political friend of the President, to an insignificant ambassadorial post overseas. He wasn’t all that interested in hearing the typical Democrat versus Republican political dance since he had more important things to do with his time. He was scheduled to defend his dissertation, later that afternoon.

Seated on the couch next to him, his wife Karen, said, “I was watching that.”

“Sorry,” Mike said reaching for the remote control to turn it back on, “I just wanted to go through my talk one last time.”

“Don’t worry about the news. Focus on your presentation,” Karen said with a grin. Hopefully, by the time the afternoon was over she would be married to Dr. Mike Bowman rather than just plain old Mr. Mike Bowman. The years of being married to a poor college student were coming to an end. Within ten days, Mike would be starting his new job at the CIA.

Almost as if he was reading her mind, Mike asked, “Are you ready to move to Virginia?”

“I’m not so wild about Virginia, but I’ll be happy when you start your new job,” Karen answered. She loved living in Boston and she would have loved to stay there. However, there were advantages to living in Virginia rather than Boston. Her parents lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland and they would be right down the road from their new home.

“You don’t mind being married to a member of the US intelligence community?” Mike asked with a grin. His new job was within the CIA as an intelligence analyst focusing on high energy weapons development programs by various countries overseas.

“I don’t know, Mister Marine. My Daddy is a Naval Officer, and he always says that the phrase ‘Military Intelligence’ was an oxymoron of the highest order,” Karen said with a light teasing tone in her voice. She looked at him and, batting her eyes, said, “I’m not sure how I’ll feel about being married to an oxymoron!”

“Oh, I’m wounded,” Mike said with a laugh. She was always teasing him about how Captain Vincent Dougherty viewed Marines. He had met the Captain back when he was still in uniform and had just begun dating Karen. He knew his father-in- law’s views about Marines and they were far better than Karen liked to imply.

Despite the jokes, it was easy for Karen to see that her husband was concerned about his defense. Wanting to keep his mind off it, Karen said, “You know, after this afternoon you are not going to be plain old Mike Bowman any more. You’re going to be Dr. Bowman.”

“I hope so,” Mike said. His adviser had told him that it was basically a done deal and he shouldn’t expect any problems. After all, no one knew as much about the material as Mike. No matter how much he knew about the topic, there was always that little bit of fear that he’d fail the defense.

“Well, I’d like to screw plain old Mike Bowman one last time. Of course, I’ll have to entice the esteemed Dr. Bowman to bed tonight, so that I can compare his performance,” Karen said with a wink.

“Hmmm, I wonder what will be the result of your comparison,” Mike said reaching for his wife. He liked it when she talked dirty like that as a precursor to sex. Karen looked and acted like a very proper woman as befitted an officer’s wife, but she could surprise the unwary person with the words that came out of her mouth at times.

She giggled when he pulled off her tee-shirt and discovered that her breasts were hidden behind a bra. This wasn’t one of her lacy little bras that looked sexy. This was one of her heavy duty bras built for support. The look of disappointment on his face was almost too cute.

After six years of marriage, Mike still found Karen to be the most attractive woman he had ever met. She wasn’t the standard hard body or anorexic type that graced the covers of women’s magazines. Mike didn’t care about women who looked like that. Other woman might think that she was five pounds overweight, but he thought she was womanly with all of the curves that made a woman a woman. With her light brown hair and green eyes, she looked like the girl next door. He, and most men that he knew, thought she was sexy.

Karen enjoyed the expression of delight that her body brought to her husband. The physical attraction wasn’t only one way. His broad shoulders, flat stomach, and muscular arms and legs took her breath away. At the age of thirty-two, Mike was still in great shape. He jogged five miles every day and worked out every morning following habits instilled as a Marine. Every time they went to bed, she was the lucky recipient of his fitness.

The injury that had cut short his military career after two years of service was more of an irritant than a liability. He had never imagined that a simple hole through his hand would have such an impact on his plans for the future. The hole wasn’t enough to completely disable his left hand; only two fingers were affected. According to the military doctors, he was fifteen percent disabled and no amount of physical therapy would correct it. The wound came too early in his career and not being able to have further combat experience would slow his career as a Marine Officer to a crawl.

Once in bed, they proceeded to make grand and glorious love. Years of knowing exactly what made the other feel good allowed them to take their time. Mike had learned to use a slow hand on her body and she loved it. She enjoyed everything a couple could do in bed and provided the kind of variety that kept his interest. Their sessions in bed often lasted for four or five hours. The session that day was only two hours long. Both Mike and Karen would have been disappointed that they had been rushed except for the knowledge that he had to get to school to defend his dissertation.

While he went off to jump through the last hoop on his quest for a Doctorate, Karen stayed at home to pack up the house for the move. They would be leaving for Virginia in four days, and there was just too much work left to be done. She paused and looked around the house trying to decide if he would appreciate her support at the University.

The past four years had been tough financially and she was looking forward to easier times. Money was always tight despite his military benefits, research assistantship, and her job as a legal secretary. Time had always been tight with her working full time and him working long hours in the lab, and Boston was not known for having a low cost of living.

It seemed the only time they spent together was when she was typing his dissertation. Mike had been touch typist, but that was now impossible. The bullet had taken out bone, tendon, and nerves rendering his little finger and ring finger on his left hand useless. His damaged hand made it difficult to type the letters: a, s, q, w, z, and x. Now he had to be a hunt and peck typist. That made typing anything of significant length a long laborious process.

She didn’t mind a single moment of the time spent together at the computer working on his dissertation. If anything, it made her even more proud of him. Marines didn’t allow obstacles to prevent them from accomplishing their goals and Mike was a Marine through and through. He recovered from his injury, his career setback, and charged on to establish a new career. He might have had his doubts and concerns, but he didn’t allow them to hold him back.

Karen decided that rather than going to the university, she was going to make a nice dinner and dress up for him. He liked it when she did things like that. To tell the truth, she liked how he showed his appreciation when she did things like that.

Mike returned home from his defense satisfied with the result. He was now Dr. Mike Bowman, although there were still a few minor things to finish. He had to correct a couple of typographical and grammatical errors. He then had to submit five copies of his dissertation along with a copyright form. It wasn’t much considering the years of work that had gone into it. The university would have the copies sent out to be bound and he was looking forward to getting a bound copy.

Entering the dining room, he could see that Karen had gone all out and set up a nice formal meal that significantly dented their budget. The table was set with the china and silver they had received as wedding presents. There was even a very expensive bottle of wine on the table. The candles were waiting to be lit.

All of her dining room preparations paled beside the beauty of his wife. She was wearing her slinky ‘little black dress,’ with the low front and even lower back. He was pretty sure she was wearing a garter belt to hold up the stockings that encased her legs. She had even done her hair up to show off her graceful neck.

Adopting a very sad tone of voice, Mike said, “It’s such a shame that we have nothing to celebrate.”

Karen looked at him thinking that he had not been successful in defending his dissertation. She didn’t even know what they would do if that had happened. After being worried for a second, she realized he was teasing her. She swatted his arm and groaned.

Attempting to sound angry, she said, “You are so bad.”

“Didn’t you know that a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering can’t be bad?” Mike asked with a grin.

“Why?”

“We’re too dorky,” he said with a grin. She was always teasing him that he’d turn into a complete dork when he got his degree.

“I’ll dork you!” she said in a threatening voice. It was too difficult to pretend to be angry and she burst into a grin.

“Nope! I plan on dorking you, very thoroughly, after dinner,” Mike said moving in and hugging her. The hug turned into a kiss that lasted long enough to threaten dinner. Stepping back, he looked her tenderly in the eye and said, “I love you, Mrs. Bowman.”

“I love you, Dr. Bowman,” she replied. The celebratory dinner was outstanding as was the after dinner celebration in the bedroom. It always turned Mike on when she wore her stockings and high heels to bed.

Early the next morning, the couple was hard at work finishing the last touches of the dissertation. Karen scrolled through the document and entered the corrections. Habits gained as a legal secretary served her well. Mike watched from his seat beside hers fully familiar with the speed and accuracy of her work. It only took her an hour to finish what would have taken him all day. Turning over the last page, she said, “It’s done.”

“Yes. We need to print up five copies on the heavy paper and then drop it off at the school,” Mike said watching the monitor as the computer saved the updated document.

When the computer finished with the save, Karen started printing the document. She sat back and said, “It’s printing.”

“You know that I could never have done this without you,” Mike said.

“I know and I’m going to make you pay for that every day for the rest of your life,” she said in a teasing voice. She gave him a little nudge in his side with her elbow.

He reached over to the mouse and opened a document. In a soft voice, he said, “This page goes at the very beginning; right after the cover page.”