Chapter 7

The voices behind her jolted Naomi out of her slumber. Some men had come into the library to get away from the activity of the auction. They stood behind Naomi's chair, oblivious to her presence, and nursed their drinks that they had brought with them.

"Quite an affair!" came a thin nasal voice. "Looks like they're going to make enough to get that hospital wing built."

"Yeah," a deep, husky voice joined in, "One thing about this crowd, they sure know how to spend money."

"You can say that again!" someone slurred, clinking the ice in his glass. "S ... sometimes I think it's the only thing we know how to do!"

He was laughing at his own inability to sputter out his 'words'.

But Naomi could hear his long-drawn draught from the glass pressed to his lips, punctuated by the loud swallow and choke as he found strength to continue the conversation.

"When you come right down to it," intoned the nasal voice with authority, "I guess we're pretty boring people. We never did do anything very exciting except make and spend money."

Naomi was partially awake now, and with half an ear she listened to the conversation. For a moment she half-considered making her presence known. And then because of her semi-drunken condition, decided against it, trying to relax deeper into the oblivion of the cushions.

The words that followed jolted her out of her relaxed and contented stupor. And she turned her dark head to better catch the context of their talk.

"Except for that Randy Harcourt." The deep intonations and dropping of the r's from his words told Naomi the second man was speaking. "He sure knows how to do more than make and spend money."

Naomi could hear his words grow louder as he approached and leaned against the back of her chair.

"Howwah 'bout that!" exclaimed the third men, slurping at his ice for the last drops of liquor. "W-wonder where he dug that broad up!"

He was laughing hilariously at his own words for some reason Naomi couldn't fathom through her own melting euphoria.

"He's sure got a lot of nerve bringing her here though," the authoritative nasal twang injected, ignoring his companion's laughter.

His feet stomped across the thickly carpeted floor, coming to Naomi in muted drum beats as they paced impatiently across the length of the room.

She shrunk deeper into her haven.

"I thought my wife would flip!" he continued.

"Mine, too!" chorused the New England accent, eager to be a part of every word.

"Looks to me like every woman in the room hated her guts...." the first man informed them, slightly breathless with his pacing...."and every man would be glad to change places with Randy!" intoned the happy third voice.

Naomi's fingers tensed in her palms, leaving small white streaks.

"Well, you know what they say about girls like her ... and I'm not denying that I'd like to find out if it's true or not!" twanged the authoritative-speaker.

"Me, too!" agreed the anxious Yankee above Naomi, his hands wringing his bourbon glass precariously on the chair's back over her wary eyes. "If she's anything like she looks, they'd have to carry me out of he-ah!"

"Guesh we'll never find out," responded the mellowing drunk. "Someday we'll have to ash Randy how it really ish!"

"Oh, just like any other black whore!" the authority sang out in an imitation of Randy's response while the others cat-called.

This was the moment when Naomi made her presence known. She struggled out of the deep chair, then came around the other side, leaning on the back of the chair provocatively when the little man fled his post.

She watched him, somewhat amused, the little man with the deep Bostonian drawl. Why she was doing this, she didn't know. But she was going to show these ofay bastards her worth in one way or another. Alcohol ... anger ... just not caring anymore? Whatever was spurring her on, she just had to show them in one way or another.

Thrusting her hips forward, she asked the surprised men, "Why go to Randy to find out? Why not find out for yourselves?"

The three men looked at each other then at Naomi.

Her mouth turned to a sarcastic grin as she watched them lick their lips nervously.

"What's the matter, boys, afraid to find out? Afraid it won't be true? Or are you afraid you aren't men enough!" she shouted.

Their faces paled and their eyes nervously scanning her and her immediate surroundings, Naomi could read the greed and lust in their looks and it delighted her.

Ofay bastards! Nothing but animals when the doors were closed to Society's leers. Animals! Interested in their own guts and loins. They didn't give a damn what that charity auction was all about outside those doors.

"Wanna try?" she dared them.

Their silence was their answer. And then the tall man went over to the door and locked it. He turned to the other two men and the three of them grouped themselves around Naomi in a small semicircle, waiting expectantly for her next move.

She held up her hands trafhc-cop-like to ward them off, and then laughed a dirty laugh.

"Whoa, fellows," she said, stepping back cautiously to grip her haven-chair, "There's one problem. I've got a boy friend up here and I don't think he'd like sharing me!"

The short blonde man answered hurriedly. As if in an effort to shake away her fears, he half-smiled, his eyes surveying her length.

"You don't have to worry about Randy," he said quickly. "He left about a half hour ago!"

"Left?" she queried, her voice betraying her doubt.

"Yeah," twanged the tall man. "When he couldn't find you, he left. Guess he went to look for you."

Somehow Randy's apparent abandoning her caused a quiver of anger to shake through Naomi.

The nerve of him! Leaving me like this! He's got his nerve, she thought angrily. Well, I'll show him ... if that's the way he wants to play the game, two can play at it!

Then she turned and looked at the three men who still waited expectantly. Their faces were hungry, lips parted as if breathing in anticipation before the lunge upon their prey, beads of sweat lined their foreheads.

"Well, fellows, willing to try me?"

The three glanced at each other once more, nod-make the first move. ding their heads and anxious to see who would make the first move. "Who's first?" she cried.

Again they looked at her, then to their hesitant feet, shrugging with embarrassment. Naomi sensed their discomfort and took command.

"Tell you how we're going to do it, fellows. Since this is an auction for charity, we're going to raise some money. I'm up for sale. First crack goes to the highest bidder!"

They looked at her in disbelief. But none of them made a move, the incongruity of her statement shocked them into immobility.

Damned ofays! If you can't steal it, rape it, or take it by force-then you don't want it. Won't even buy the joys of the flesh honestly, make fair sport of it. It was fun when you thought you'd take it by the use of your strength over mine. Steal it, plunder, assault, violate, kill,-But don't use fair means of getting your prey or dealing with it! Those are your standards, eh, ofays?

"What's the matter, fellas?" she asked gaily, "Don't you believe in charity?"

She looked into the face of each one, shaking her head in apparent disappointment at their silence. Then she snapped her fingers when a solution suddenly came to her.

"I've got it," she laughed. "You boys just want to see the merchandise before you start bidding. Can't blame you for that!"

At first they didn't understand what she meant. But comprehension came when the white gown suddenly tumbled from her body and she stood in front of them clad in nothing but a half-bra and garter belt.

Quickly they looked at her in wide-eyed amaze-merit as she unhooked her brassiere and then thumbed her panties past her hips and down her legs. Now nude, she stood in the middle of the semicircle and pirouetted slowly.

"Like it, fellas?" she taunted. "How do you like the merchandise? Now, who'll start the bidding? First sample goes to the highest bidder!"

She stopped turning and thrust her pelvis and her breasts out at them invitingly.

The men licked their lips and were unable to take their gluttonous eyes from the golden flesh of her body.

"I'll go a thousand!" the drunken man stuttered, trying to suck strength from his melting ice cubes in the glass that trembled in his hand.

Naomi grinned, her eyes mere slits, as she watched them call out their bids. The tall man lost the authority in his voice, and had to wrench the tightly knotted tie at his throat to let his thin, quavering tones escape. And the little man with the Yankee habit of dropping his r's and adding them where the 'y' didn't belong, was vibrating with excitement as he clamored his bids and clapped with nervous eagerness, obviously sure that this was some magnificent alcoholic euphoria from which he'd awaken too soon. The older man, eyes glazed with inebriation and self-induced limbo, watched with half distrust, wary that she would retreat or disappear before he could spit out his bid.

Around and around flowed their voices, muddled by intoxication and the craving of lust. Naomi, concentrating on the scene before her, intent to prove to these whites and her own Randy who had deserted her in her moment of need, was caught up in the whirl of furor of their competition for her.

"Two thousand!" cried the tall man in a nervous voice.

But it was the short blonde man whose bid was the highest.

Naomi looked at him, a gay laugh in her eyes, and then took him by the hand. Raising high over his head in a victory salute, she smiled.

"The winner!" she called excitedly. "And a man after my own heart. Any man who'll spend money like you do, I like! And I'm going to prove it to you!"

The implication was obvious and he grinned weakly at her.

Still holding his hand, Naomi turned to the other two men.

"You want to watch?" It's okay with me! But if you've got weak hearts, maybe you'd better read some of those books for a while!"

She indicated the library shelves with a toss of her head, and, then ignoring them, she led their friend over to the large sofa.

He followed her meekly.

"Got any preference?" she queried coyly.

The man swallowed and shook his head.

"I don't think I know what you mean," he whispered.

Naomi threw back her head and laughed deep in her throat.

"Oh, you do have a lot to learn, don't you! And I'm just the girl to teach you!"