Chapter 6

The two Windsor uncles were now dead. Barbara was in a mental home. Carl, of course, was also dead. That left Lee completely alone in the world.

He had a cooperative luxury apartment in one of the finest sections of the city; but for his vengeance operation, he'd rented a small apartment far on the wrong side of the tracks and was known to his neighbors only by a name on his mail box: Allen Brown.

After dropping Grace off that night, he parked her car and returned to his temporary home on foot. He entered and locked the door inside and snapped on the light.

"Not a very nice place you have here. I'm sure you can afford better."

He did not have to look around to find her. It was only one room and she was seated on the only chair looking cool and blonde and beautiful.

She smiled with amusement. "Don't look so startled. I'm sure you've seen a woman before."

"Mrs. Payne."

"And don't be so formal. Just call me Nude Nellie, the girl with the sore feet."

"How did you get in here?"

"You disappoint me. I had a feeling you were too original to ask the obvious questions. I certainly must have found a way because here I am."

"How did you get in?"

"That door of yours has a slanting lug. I pushed a small celluloid calendar into the crack. No trouble at all."

"I mean how did you discover me?"

"Through your own carelessness. You had the address and name on a memo in your wallet. I looked at it while you were asleep in the woods."

He sat down on the edge of the bed and watched her as though she were a cat and he was waiting for her to jump one way or the other.

"At first I thought this must have been the address of a friend because I figured you for something far better. But when I came hunting, I saw you leave the building. It was all very simple." She paused to look around the small, shabby room. "Also I thought it must be a friend's address because of the penciled notation in your wallet. People don't usually have to write their own names and addresses in that fashion. They remember them." He remained silent. The old taunt was in her smile as she waited for him to speak and filled the time by rambling on, herself. "Of course, I was a little suspicious because there was no other identification. No licenses, no credit cards. Nothing. A remarkable wallet. Almost as remarkable as its owner."

He finally found a question of his own. "What made you figure me for something better?"

"Instinct, I guess. You just didn't look like cheap apartment in crumville."

"And now that you're here?"

"We're going to have a little talk."

He appeared to be wondering which logical emotion he should give rein to. There had been flashes of surprise, anger, and even fear. Now he sat and stared, with curiosity in seeming domination.

"Why didn't you bring the police?"

She looked around again, smiling in lazy satisfaction. "There's hardly room for the two of us. A couple of burley policemen would bend the walls."

"You're not afraid of me?"

"If I wasn't afraid in the woods why should I be afraid where one scream will bring people to the door."

"That's logical, I suppose."

"And now, as I said, a few questions, Who are you?"

"The name on the memo was Allen Brown, I believe."

"But that's not what I asked." When he didn't answer, she began studying his face closely. "It bugs me that I don't know, that I can't place you because I feel I should be able to. I'll swear I've seen you before somewhere."

"In the woods, you told me you wouldn't stand still and let me strip you. The same goes for me, after a fashion. I won't pour out information just because you ask for it."

"I think it's a little different. I can call in help, so you're pretty much at my mercy. You'll have to answer."

"You were at my mercy, too."

"But I knew you wouldn't injure me."

"It was only a guess on your part, so I'll make a guess, too. I don't think you're going to complain to the police."

"It looks as though we're both too smart for our own good, doesn't it?"

He took a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and offered her one. She accepted and they were silent, measuring each other during the lighting rites. Then he sat back, waiting.

"Something about your face," she murmured.

"I hope it isn't too offensive."

Then her reaction was explosive. Her eyes widened. She jerked forward. In a quick motion, she pointed her cigarette at him.

"Carl Windsor! No! Carl was killed. You're his brother. Lee'Windsor. You survived that accident."

"Yes, I'm Lee Windsor."

"But-"

"My face was horribly mutilated."

"No one around Ludlow actually got the true story. They knew Carl was killed but otherwise no information was given out. I heard that you died later."

"I was in the hospital for a long time. But the big problem was my face. Fortunately, there was a great deal of money available, or I would be a hideous beggar with a cup in my hand on some corner."

Laurel's excitement at the revelation wiped away she usually wore. Her eyes sparkled with interest.

"Plastic surgery?"

"What else?"

"I don't know how bad your face was, but it looks like a remarkable job."

"It was a masterpiece of reconstruction."

You and Carl were so alike I could hardly tell the difference."

"He was lucky. He was killed in the accident."

She appeared about to inquire into his way of putting it. Instead she asked, "Barbara "

"Barbara is in a mental home. Her condition is incurable. She will die there."

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

"There's a lot more I want to know."

"I have nothing to tell you."

"It can wait, though. A little while. There's something else"

He waited, watching the expression on her face. It was changing. The excitement remained in her eyes but it deepened and broadened somehow. A tiny smile played on her lips; a smile of satisfaction.

Excitement and satisfaction. They added up to something. He wondered what.

Laurel said, "You didn't think I was going to let you get away with that afternoon, did you?"

"But you've declined to call the police."

"I will call them, though if I have to."

"I hope it won't be necessary."

"All right. Then get up out of that chair."

Mystified, he obeyed.

"Stand there in the light in front of me."

He moved the necessary three steps. "Now undress.

He paused before replying. "I consider. that a ridiculous request."

"And I consider this a great opportunity. Undress. Drop your clothes on the floor a garment at a time."

"I think I prefer the police."

"There's an old saying. You can dish it out but you can't take it. That seems to apply to you. You can force me to strip, but "

"I had a reason,. "

"I have a reason, too. Take off your clothes."

For a long moment they fenced with their eyes. Then he snubbed out his cigarette and raised his hands and began unbuttoning his shirt.

Her smile deepened into one of triumph.

He dropped his shirt and unzipped his pants and stepped out of them. Balancing himself against the foot of the bed, he removed his shoes and socks.

"Is that satisfactory?"

"You know better."

Slowly, he pulled down his shorts, stepped out of them, and stood naked before her.

There was silence while she went over him, inch by inch. Her satisfaction was obvious. She enjoyed her victory.

"You're quite a man," she said, her eyes on his chest.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me," she mocked. "I had nothing to do with that"

"What's the next step?"

She got up from her chair. "Haven't you guessed?"

He watched as she began undressing. Garment by garment, she stripped, the smile still in place on her lips. When she was down to her panties, she stopped, passing her hands voluptuously over her breasts.' She looked at him.

She laughed.

"Do you want to love me."

"No."

"You're a liar."

"Ignore any evidence you see to the contrary."

"That's pretty difficult to ignore."

Slowly, exaggerating every move, she stripped off her panties and dropped them to the floor.

Then she stepped forward until their bodies were just touching.

"You're sure you don't want to love me?"

"No."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and brought them down lightly over his chest. Her hands then went farther but she held her eyes on his.

"Now?" .

"No."

There was a full minute of silence.

"Not even now?"

"No."

She sensed rebellion in him and whispered. "Be careful. I can still scream and end all your fine plans whatever they are."

Taking his head in her hands, she forced him to her breast, She pressed his face deep, toward the soft, lush yielding flesh.

"Nice?" she murmured.

He didn't answer. She saw his fist double.

But this did not deter her. Using two fingers as levers, she worked at his lips and place the tip of her left breast at his mouth. She met clenched teeth.

"Yes," she breathed, "you're quite a man in more ways than one."

Putting her hands against his chest, she forced him around the bed and down on it. He lay there looking at her. She climbed on the bed beside him, took his head in her arms, and placed her mouth to his.

Her lips began working against his stiff, resisting mouth. She forced her tongue to his lips and against his teeth, but they would not open.

"I've got all night," she whispered.

He did not answer and she opened her mouth and ran her kiss over his jaw and neck. She used that as a weapon to worry sensitive points on his chest.

"Your heart betrays you," she said. "It's beating like a trip-hammer."

He fought her for another minute. Then he snapped.

"Damn you!"

He seized her and hurled her over on the bed.

"Oh, lover," she cried. "Do you think I could ever forget that glade in the woods?"

He had rocketed to the other end of the pendulum's arc. From a block of ice, he turned into a raging animal.

Laurel, her face alight with pure joy, fended him off. "No, lover-wait, wait! Just lightly at first-ever so lightly."

Using her hands as braces, she showed him what she meant. She moved his body until they touched lightly against each other. Then she began to work the slow, sensuous circles.

"The anticipation," she whispered. "I love this drives me crazy"

"You witch!" he snarled. "Do you think I'm made of stone?"

She laughed. Then he was savagely pulling at her body and bending her. He used her ankles as levers to do this, and he looked into her upturned face as he forced her to a position that would have taxed a contortionist. The pain was reflected in her eyes and he took vicious satisfaction from that.

"No! You'll break me in two."

But then he drove with a savageness that bulged her eyes and opened her mouth and brought a gargled wordless cry.

Her arms went around him. Her nails went deep to his back. She found his mouth, and as his impassioned though trying to kill him.

"Oh, hurt me, lover! Destroy me!"

Frantically, they fought each other on the battlefield of love. As they approached their mutual victory, her eyes rolled.

"How can you be so good, lover? No oh, now I can't stand any more!"

Then: "Stop mc lover! I'm going to scream!"

He snatched a pillow, and put it over her face, and as her body stiffened, he heard the faint screams through the thick pad of feathers.

They lay exhausted in each other's arms.

"How can you be so good?" she asked.

"I never knew what a man was until I met you," she said. "How do you get so good? How are you able to drive me crazy?"

He kissed her breast and she stroked his head. But still, he was silent.

"With other men, they were only motions. I was there, but I was never a part. But with you, I am you."

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know why that is."

She clung to him. "You weren't this way with Caron Lovell were you?"

"She was only something I had to do."

"I don't understand that."

"No, you wouldn't understand."

"But I want to. I want to understand and know everything about you."

"That won't be possible."

"Don't say that."

"We mustn't see each other again. You mustn't ask me any questions."

"But I will. I've got to know. I'll follow you around until I find out."

"If I told you, would you go away?"

"No. I'll probably follow you around anyway, like a slave like the woman slave I've turned out to be."

"This is dangerous."

"I don't care."

"You've got to leave now."

"Not until you promise not to hide from me. I've got to see you again."

"That wouldn't be wise."

"I don't care if I'm wise, or not. I won't betray you, darling. Whatever your secret is, I won't try to stop you or betray you."

As he remained silent, she rolled over to him and looked into his eyes. Tell me, be honest was any other women ever as good for you?"

"No."

"Could you bear not seeing me again?"

"That would be terribly difficult."

"Tell me you won't run and hide."

He took a deep breath. He let the air out of his lungs and she settled close to him again. It was almost as though this were a symbolic gesture; acknowledgment that they would not separate; that she would always be there.

"We'll see each other again."

"I'll come tomorrow night."

"All right."

"You'll be here?"

"I'll be waiting for you."

"And you'll tell me everything?"

"I'll tell you everything."

Then she got up and began to dress.

He lay where he was, watching her. When she was ready to go, he did not rise, staying as he was. The door closed behind her. The lock clicked.