Chapter 9

The next morning, after Adam left for work, Bev decided to make her move. She fixed herself up and headed for the door. Opening it, she heard Ernie's door open too, and before she could step fully out into the hall she caught a glimpse of the gorgeous blond stewardess leaving his pad.

Ernie followed the dame into the hallway, and Bev slipped back into her apartment, closing the door just enough to hide herself. She peered out, as her neighbor and the girl came into view.

"I'm going to miss you a great deal," Candy was saying as she put her arms around Ernie's neck. She began to stroke his brown hair.

"I'll miss you even more," he said.

"If I send you a telegram and let you know when I'm going to be in town, will you see me?"

"You bet."

"We can have more nights like last night/' she said. "Even better."

"Of course we will. You know that I had just as good a time as you did. Are you sure there's no way you can talk your way out of this flight? Maybe you can get one of the other girls to fill in for you and...."

"No. I'd be giving them too short a notice."

"Phone them and say you have a cold."

"I can't do that, sweetheart. I can't get out of it no matter what. They'd make me bring in a doctor's report. I don't want to lose my job."

"I understand," he said.

"I'm glad. Then this is goodbye."

"Farewell. Never goodbye."

He swept her into his arms, lifting her off the floor. He kissed her on the lips. Bev could see how passionate the kiss was, and in some ways she wished she was on the receiving end. She could actually see the shape of his tongue pushing its way into the girl's mouth, and then, after what seemed like minutes, the kiss was broken off.

The blonde turned away to walk to the elevator, and Ernie patted her on the ass one last time before closing his own apartment door.

The housewife closed hers quietly. She was upset that she had seen him with another woman. In her fantasy she was about to go in and seduce him. She figured he would be the first girl he would have seen in a long time.

It never occurred to her that he might have a string of girls, more like the blonde. He might not want Bev at all. She began to accept that fact.

Bev walked over to the couch and sat down. She could feel herself getting more and more faint by the second, so she spread her legs, put her head way down between them, and started to take deep breaths till she felt a little better. Then, when she lifted her head and felt the faintness leave her, she decided she should have a strong drink ... then go see Ernie anyway.

She fixed herself an extra-strong cocktail, something she hadn't done in some time. Then she sat down and worked on the stiff drink.

It had been a long time since she had picked a man up. She had to be nervous about it. She knew it would be easy to make the first move. She could just come right out and tell him she was feeling horny. The drink settled her, and by the time it was downed she was ready for action.

Bev walked into the hall, walked over to Ernie's door and was about to knock. She had second thoughts, and pulled her hand down to her side.

"This is crazy," she said, and with that she raised her hand again and knocked on the door. First, lightly, and then the second and third times with a little more courage.

"Just a minute," she heard his voice yell, and when she heard it she started to get more and more nervous. She held her hands behind her back in order to keep them from trembling. She didn't know how long she stood there before he opened the door.

She was shocked to see him standing there in his bathrobe. It was a satiny robe, and she could make out the hairs on his chest peeking their way over the place where the robe was open.

"Uh, pardon me," she stammered. "I, uh ..."

"That's all right," he said. Ernie had never expected to see Bev standing outside his door. In some ways, he had been hoping that Candy had worked something out, and she had found a way to get out of the morning flight and come back to him. He wasn't all that disappointed though to see that it wasn't Candy, especially when he saw who it was.

"It's just," she stammered, "that I didn't expect you to be dressed like this."

"Really. It's all right. Is there something I can do for you?"

Now it was really nervous time for Bev, She hadn't expected to see him in his bathrobe, even though she couldn't take her eyes off him. She was wondering how it would look if she tried to talk her way into the apartment considering the way he was dressed. So in some ways, she was relieved by what he said next.

"Would you like to come in for some coffee?"

He was waiting for her to make some kind of move to tip him off as to what she was up to. He wouldn't make the first move, but he could invite her in. That was the best way to set the stage.

"Y-yes," she said. "I will come in. The reason I came was because I was curious as to how you've decorated your apartment. Call it curiosity, but I do like to get to know the neighbors, and I didn't think that you would mind it too much."

"Hey," he said, sensing how nervous she was, "you really don't have to explain yourself if you don't want to. Just come in."

She felt the tiniest shudder go through her body as she heard the door slam behind her. In some ways, she realized that this was it. There was, in fact, no way of turning back. She was in a man's apartment and he was dressed in only a robe. Or was he? She decided that she would try to play a little game. She was going to watch the way he moved, and she would try to see if he was wearing anything else underneath the robe. She thought that it might calm her down one way or the other if she could see what was underneath that robe.

"What can I get you to drink, love?" he asked her.

"Uh, well, I don't know. Whatever you're drinking."

"Terrific." He smiled to himself. He could really sense her nervousness now, and in some ways, it relaxed him a lot more to see that she was as nervous as he. He didn't know if he could call what he was feeling nerves.

It was more like a sense or feeling he had. It was a sense of caution. He kept saying to himself that this woman is married. The kind of housewife who he suspected she was would be nervous. He had seen it all before. The one thing he didn't want was the lady next door feeling guilty about what he had done with her. He poured two Scotches.

Bev wanted to tell him everything. From the minute Adam had walked in last night, and the strange way he had been acting, to the moment he had tied her up. Then she wanted to tell him how Adam had accused her of sleeping with him, and how he had started to whip her and then, when he was finished, made love to her. The final reason that she was so confused had to do with Adam's unwillingness to talk about it. That's why she didn't know exactly how he was. What was he feeling?

She knew that she couldn't tell Ernie about those things. It would be an open invitation to him. It would be all this sex talk, and she knew that she was still too nervous to get into it. In some ways, she started to wish that she had been a little different when she was back in high school. Maybe if she had been like the other girls with their pick-ups, it would have been easy.

Right now, she was struggling. Floundering was more the word. She didn't know what she was doing. She felt safe being in the apartment, yet she was scared shitless. She was glad he was wearing only a robe, yet it panicked her. She wanted him to fuck her, yet she wanted to turn and run.

"T ... tell me about yourself," she managed to stammer.

"There's so much, I don't know where to begin. Maybe we should just take it slowly and let all the things come out as they happen."

He was referring to his sexual habits. He was all ready to tell her that he could envision her now, spread out before him and bound with ropes. He could see her red-haired pussy lips calling to him and asking him to fill her up like she'd never been filled before. In some ways, he knew that it was the drink, and the tremendous lack of sleep that was making him think all those thoughts. He and Candy had been up practically the whole night, and he had just been getting ready to take a snooze when Bev rang the bell. Not only was the drink affecting him, but the lack of sleep was making his mind begin to speed up. It was a most pleasurable and sexy feeling. He was horny.

"What else would you like to know about me?" he asked her, bluntly. He purposely shifted his position again, lifting one leg up on the couch. He knew that he was almost all revealed to her. Maybe she still couldn't see his cock yet because of the darkness of his pubic patch and the lighting in the room, but whatever, she was definitely getting more and more interested.

He could see her eyes moving from his chest to the dark area between his legs and under his robe. Every so often she would look him right in the eyes, and he would be looking right back at her. She would blush for a quick instant, and then avert her gaze somewhere else.

Bev didn't know what made her ask the question she asked next. Maybe it was the totally relaxed feeling she was having now. Maybe it was the fact that she could make out the slightest trace of his cock under his robe, and the idea of it, more than the actual thing itself was causing tingling vibrations all over her body. Or was the drink affecting her? She didn't let it stop her from asking what was on her mind next, even if it could be a little embarrassing to him.

"Who was that blond?"

"Blond?"

"I was coming over here a little earlier, and when I opened my door I saw you standing in the hall talking to a stewardess. I know that I shouldn't have been spying on you, but I saw the way you kissed her. Is she your girl friend or something?"

"Something," he said, flashing the most wicked smile he could imagine.

"What do you mean by something?" she asked him.

"I thought that it would be self-explanatory. You were the one who asked me if she was my girl friend or something. She is not a girl friend. As a matter of fact, I don't happen to have a girl friend."

"That's too bad," she said, interrupting him.

Then he went on. "We're lovers."

He could see her mouth drop open. She almost lost the grip on her glass. She just managed to regain control.

"Pardon me," she said.

"For what?"

"I didn't quite catch what you said."

"I'll have to get used to these expressions you use over here. But, you want to know about Candy. She happens to be an old friend of mine. I met her one night in England, and we get together whenever she's working a flight that stops where I'm living. I mean to say, it used to be in jolly old England, and now it's over here. What I meant about lovers is that I don't have any one steady girl friend. I don't know if I ever could. I would like to, I think, but I just find all women too alluring, too radiant, and too mysterious to tie myself down to one. Each time I see someone new I have this strange compulsion to explore that person to my fullest capabilities. I don't think that I could do anything like that if I was married, now could I?"

In some ways she was totally bewildered by what he had said, yet in others she could hardly follow him at all. That was why she just picked up on the last thing he said, and decided to question him on that.

"Do anything like what?"

He grinned. The conversation was getting closer to what he wanted. All he had to do now was move things in the right direction. Then she would take the first big step, make the first suggestion.

"Things like cheat on my wife," he said coolly. "You see, many people feel there is a special bond between husband and wife. Married women expect their husbands to be faithful, and husbands feel that way about their wives. I could never handle anything like that. I see a woman and I know I want her body. How could I commit myself to one woman if I know I'm going to be feeling like that with other women?"

"I don't know," she said, feeling more and more confused. She took a long sip of her drink.

"Let me put it to you this way," Ernie said, leading up to a question that he knew, in some ways, would put her on the spot, "did you ever have the urge to cheat on your husband? I'm a man, and I have to admit that I don't fully understand the way a woman's mind works, but have you ever walked down the street and turned your head twice when you saw a handsome man go by?"

"Sure I have."

"Wasn't there a wish to have sex with that man?"

"I have to admit there was," she said, lowering her eyes.

"Don't be ashamed that you feel that way upon occasion," he said. He gave her an encouraging smile.

"I'm not ashamed about it," she said.

"But..."

"But?" he asked, figuring that she might ask the kind of thing he'd been anticipating since he'd opened the door and saw her standing there. In fact, it was what he'd been hoping for since he moved into the apartment house and first laid eyes on her.

"I ... I'm not sure " she stammered, because I... I've never said anything like this before. I'm new to it."

Her hand was on the backrest of the sofa, and he reached over to take it, giving it a friendly caress. It was a bold gesture, a little more than he usually ventured with a married woman. He was sure he had her. He was so certain she was about to tell him what he'd been waiting for that the rest would be anticlimax.

"Beverly," he said, "you can be open with me. Whatever you've been wanting to tell me, just go ahead. I'm a very sympathetic kind of guy."

"There is a man I have eyes for," she said, growing bolder herself. "I've been giving some thought to cheating on my husband with. It's ... it's ... yes, Ernie, it's you."