Chapter 16

SUDDENLY she had had it. All those drinks caught up with her, full force.

She slumped against Mike, moaning, "Oh, but I'm tipsy-I think I'm going to pass out."

The room was spinning crazily. Her knees wanted to buckle. But for Mike's arms about her, she would have fallen.

"I've got to he down-I'm terribly sorry."

Greta came and slipped an arm about her. "Come along, dear," she said sympathetically. "You did overdo it. I'll help you get to bed."

"Please," Janice said.

She leaned heavily upon Greta. They moved slowly down the hallway to the bedroom. She stood teetering while the dark-haired girl opened the bed. She tried to undress herself but was unable to manipulate the zipper of her dress. Greta helped her, finally found a shortie nightgown and put it on her. She tumbled into bed, flopped over onto her back. The room, its furnishings, Greta, were still whirling around her. It was good to he down.

Greta sat on the edge of the spinning, teetering bed, looking at her with concern. "All right now?"

"Not all right," Janice said. "But better."

Greta leaned over her, kissed her on the lips. "Good night, then, darling."

Tipsy though she was, Janice was startled. She had never before been kissed in such an intimate fashion by anodier woman. Strangely, she found it not unpleasant.

She said, "I'm awfully sorry I had to be a spoilsport and break up the party."

"Think nothing of it," Greta said and kissed her again. Smiling, she caressed Janice's bare arms and a little later kissed the nipples of her breasts through the thin nylon of the shortie nightgown.

"You're very lovely, Jan. I could like you very much."

"I like you too, Greta."

"Let's be friends, shall we?"

"Of course," Janice said. "You know, I have no woman friends at all. I've always devoted myself entirely to Al. I've been so possessive about him."

"Would you come have lunch with me tomorrow?" Greta said. "Mike is playing golf and I'll be alone."

"I'm sorry, but Al and I-well, we have things to straighten out. Personal things. He hates me, you know."

"I didn't know. Another time, then. I'll call you, Jan."

Greta kissed her again, first her lips and then her nipples. The experience was strange-strange but pleasant. Then, getting up from the bed, Greta drew the sheet up over Janice and turned off the lamp on the night-stand.

"Good night," she said. "Pleasant dreams."

Janice murmured a gOod night, then let herself go completely limp. She told herself that she would merely rest. She would remain awake until the Ransomes left. Maybe they could still straighten out what they had to, if she could rest a little first.

She knew now what Al's intended trap for her had been tonight-and it meant Al and she were through. She would let Jay make whatever legal arrangements were necessary.

Drowsiness overcame her. Then blackout....

She came to with arms around her. Al's? His seeking hands brought her to a half-awakened state. She had to fight him off. He was already in bed with her, his body nude. She struggled to come wide awake-could not. Instead she felt aroused. No, the hands were too gentle to be Al's. Jay's, then. Jay must have found her, come to rescue her from Al. She tried to make herself responsive to Jay-but she could not become really excited. Even when he took his place in her arms and between her thighs, passion remained dormant. But with his penetration, she tensed and experienced the beginning of desire.

Suddenly she was no longer numb. She wrapped her arms about him-and then she knew.

Knew this was not Jay. Nor was it Al.

Al's flesh was firm, hard. The flesh she touched, that touched her, was male-but flabby.

Numbed again, this time with shock, she jerked her arms from about the man and struck at his shoulders with her fists.

"Oh, damn you-damn you-"

"Easy, Jan," Mike Ransome said and pinned her arms to her sides with his own.

She struggled futilely. He was stronger than she and she found that a woman was utterly helpless when invaded. A woman was wholly a prisoner when taken in the ultimate embrace. She could not escape. Nature had not intended her to escape.

A captive of Mike's flesh, she felt for a time that she was being suffocated by it. She moaned with an anguish that was entirely mental. She was not in physical discomfort. On the contrary, she was being betrayed by the weakness of her own body. His steady, rhythmic laboring at her touched off a response of increasing intensity. The spark of desire flared into sudden passion and, with passion released in a molten flood, she closed her mind to the distressing fact that she was being possessed against her will by a stranger.

Soaring sensation came, bursting into full ecstasy. She was transported to the heights of rapture, then plunged down into unfeelingness. But as he continued his exertions she was again carried up, soared once more to fulfillment at the instant he, too, gained completion. Again she tumbled abruptly into numbness as the peak of pleasure was passed.

She experienced an unspeakable horror at having enjoyed this violation of herself.

When he lay apart from her, breathing laboriously, she said bitterly, "Oh, you louse, Mikel You and Al!"

"Why be sore," he said, "when you enjoyed it?"

That, she realized, was partly the reason for her anger. She had enjoyed it, unwillingly, this simple animal act of sex. She had no feeling for Mike Ransome-did not even know him, really-yet she had found intense pleasure with him. She had always believed that sex was meaningful. It had been with Al. And later with Jay. But to wallow in sex-and to exult in the wallowing ... Yes, her anger was as much at herself as at Mike and Al.

"Get away from me," she said. "Just go-please." She turned over and buried her face in her pillow, and sobbed bitterly with self-hate and disillusionment.