Chapter 4
Jim pushed the bedroom door wide and entered. Doreen was standing before an open closet door. She was dressed only in a black net bra which did nothing to hide her breasts and nipples, and in a pair of lacy step-ins cut high on the hips to disclose the sides of the rounded white globes of her buttocks.
She held out her hand and he crossed the room to give her the drink. But his eyes were fixed upon her body, not upon her face.
"Sit down," she said, taking the drink and waving him to a seat on the edge of the double bed.
He stumbled over his own feet as he crossed the room to sit down. Doreen laughed and he felt himself blushing. He was trying his darndest to appear suave and sophisticated, but he knew he was making a bad job of that.
"Haven't you ever been in a girl's bedroom before?" she asked as she set her glass down and turned her back to select a dress.
"Sure I have. But not when she was doing her best to tease me."
"What makes you think I'm teasing?"
"If I thought you weren't teasing I'd walk over there and tear those clothes off. But you intrigue me. Tell me something. Do you always invite men into your bedroom when you've only known them for ten minutes?"
"Ten minutes or ten years, what's the difference? I only invite the ones I like."
"And how many of them sit right here like good boys instead of grabbing you and throwing you down onto the bed?"
"I only get thrown when I want to get thrown," she said in a more serious tone.
"And how often have you wanted to get thrown?"
"That's none of your business. But in case you're getting the wrong ideas, remember, I can take care of myself. You can't force a gal who really doesn't want to. You know what they say about a moving target?"
Jim let the challenge of her remark pass and sat quietly while she finished her selection and slipped into a quiet black dress that was neither too short nor too deeply cut in the bodice. She chose a garment which was not out of place with his own suit.
Once the dress was on, and she wore only step-ins and bra beneath, she picked up stockings and shoes and sat down on the vanity bench to put them on. She crossed her legs and hiked her skirt high on her leg to roll on first one stocking, then the other. She secured the stockings with old fashioned rubber garters which bit deeply into the softness of her upper legs. Next she donned the high-heeled pumps and turned around to face the mirror to put on her make-up and comb her hair.
"You know," she said, leaning forward toward the mirror to get her lipstick on just right, "it's a little silly for you to sit over there and feel uncomfortable about me dressing in the same room. After all, when I came out of the bathroom you saw all there is to see. Now that there's nothing to hide what have I got to be modest about?"
"What makes you think I feel uncomfortable or embarrassed?"
"The look on your face. You look like a little boy who's got his hand in the cookie jar when his mother is in the same room. You want the cookies and you hope she won't see where you're reaching."
Jim could not help laughing. The explosion of laughter relaxed him and he gave up all pretenses. "You're right," he said finally. "That's just the way I feel. I was trying very hard to be sophisticated, but I guess that just doesn't work."
"There," Doreen said, checking her appearance, giving her hair a final pat, and standing up. "I'm finished. Let's go into the living room. A young man like you shouldn't have too much bedroom exposure all at once."
He followed her into the living room and sat down beside her on the sofa. "I like your place here," he said. "Compared to the hole I live in this is a palace."
"It's not bad," she answered. "I've been here about five years now and I bought most of the furniture a little at a time."
"What's the rent on a place like this?" Jim asked. "I wonder how much more it is than I'm paying."
"This is a rent controlled building," Doreen told him. "I got this apartment from someone who'd been living here twenty years. They were paying sixty dollars a month. The rent control law says the landlord can only raise the rent fifteen per cent whenever a new tenant takes over. So I'm only paying sixty-nine dollars a month, plus gas and electricity."
"Wow! I'm paying eighty a month and you ought to see the joint. It's worse than a slum."
"Don't feel too bad," she said. "This is a real bargain. If this apartment wasn't under rent control it would probably go for a hundred and thirty or a hundred and forty."
"Are there any more like this around?"
"Oh, they come up every once in a while. The trick is to find somebody who's been living in a rent controlled place for a long time. And even then you'd have to pay off a couple of hundred to the superintendant and the renting agent to get the apartment."
"Even then it would be worth it. Of course, on my salary I won't be able to afford much more than I'm paying right now."
"How much did Conklin promise you?"
"Sixty-five a week."
"Don't feel bad," she said. "He must like you. The last guy we had in the office was only getting fifty. And he was married and had a kid. That's why he left. He couldn't get a raise out of Conklin. And he couldn't afford to quit, either, until he realized he'd be getting more money if he went on relief."
"Well, that won't happen to me. I've got no one but myself to look out for. If things don't work out the way I want them I'll quit so fast it'd make your head spin. But do me a favor, will you? Keep your ears open for an apartment like this."
Doreen smiled at him. "I'll do that. Who knows, you might be lucky and get a place right in this building. We've got a lot of people who've been living here a long time. If anything comes up I'll let you know."
The conversation died a slow and unnatural death at that point. Jim couldn't think of anything else to talk about and he was uncomfortable under Doreen's silent smirk. She was watching him over the rim of her glass with a cat-like expression on her face.
"Well," he said finally, "what are we going to do this evening?" He tried to cover his discomfort by making a big production of lighting a cigarette.
"You asked me out, remember?"
"How about dinner? Have you had anything to eat?"
"A single girl never turns down the offer of a free meal," she told him. "But you haven't really got a job yet. I mean, you haven't been paid. You can't have much money. If you're not too fussy I could throw something together here."
"That doesn't sound quite fair somehow."
"Don't be silly. The next time we go out you can make up for it by taking me to a real fancy place for dinner."
"You've got a deal. And after we eat we can go to a movie."
Doreen laughed again. "It sounds like a real cheap date."
Jim blushed.
"But I don't mind. Really!" she said quickly. "I know what it's like to be short of funds. A movie would be swell. I'll go and see what's in the kitchen."
They had a couple more drinks while she opened cans and threw together a hurried meal. It wasn't particularly good; but, then, they weren't seeking gustatory pleasure. The food satisfied their basic hunger and they let it go at that.
There was another kind of hunger building between them, a hunger which would be slaked much later in the evening. Jim talked about himself while Doreen prepared the meal and set the table. He sat on a kitchen chair and watched her move about between the stove, refrigerator and sink. He couldn't miss the sinuous movements of her body, the graceful way she walked or knelt down or bent forward. And he couldn't escape hearing the silken whisper her underwear gave with each step.
In his mind's eye he was seeing her without the clothes, as he'd seen her when she stepped out of the bathroom. And she seemed to sense the reaction she was having for him. She worked to increase that reaction, brushing against him every time she had cause to be near his chair, purposely arranging herself to give him views of her ample rear when she knelt and views of her generous breasts when she leaned forward.
Jim thought that slightly peculiar that he should be so aroused by her plays. After all, he'd seen her nude a little while ago. Why should he be so excited when she was walking around fully dressed?
He didn't trouble himself with that question for long. It was enough that he was aroused. There was pleasure in that and anticipation of greater pleasures ahead.
When they were sitting across the small table from one another their meal was often interrupted by the silent locking of their gazes. Their eyes would meet and hold for a long, breathless moment. Jim noticed little signs of excitement in her. There was the slight flaring of her nostrils, the widening of her eyes with their glints of eager flame.
This was a woman unlike any he'd ever met before. In appearance she seemed not very much above average. Her face and figure were acceptable; no more than that. Yet, it was as though she'd been created for a strictly physical purpose. The mere tilt of her head held a promise of extraordinary passion.
The more Jim thought about her the less sure he was of his ability to satisfy her. Surely a woman like this had had much experience. He knew he was a better than average lover, but she would require the very best to satisfy her.
He helped her clear the table and stack the dishes in the sink. They left them there, unwashed, and went out into the evening. It was cool. There was the brisk promise of winter on the black night air. She took his arm when they reached the sidewalk and he breathed deeply to quiet the throbbing excitement of his body.
There were two movie theaters several blocks away and they walked slowly, talking little, now more sure of themselves and one another. Their hips brushed lightly with each step and her arm hugged his against the soft side curve of her breast.
Neither of the pictures interested them and Jim made a suggestion.
"Look, I got by without spending any money for dinner. Let's go uptown to one of the big, Broadway movie theaters."
Doreen hesitated for a minute. "I don't care," she said. "It's your money. Remember, you won't be paid until next Friday. An uptown movie will probably run two-fifty or three dollars a seat."
"I can afford that much," he said casually. "As a matter-of-fact, if we take the subway uptown I'll even be able to afford a cab ride back here later on."
They took the subway uptown, got off at Times Square, and walked slowly up Broadway until they found a first run movie they both wanted to see. Doreen's estimate had been just about perfect. The tickets did cost three dollars apiece, but for that sum they got to sit in the lounge on a reclining love seat. It was like two seats put together with no arm rest between.
The short was on when they sat down and the theater was almost full. One of the things that had decided them upon that particular picture was that there was no long line outside the theater. That was probably because this was the last night this particular picture was being shown at this theater.
It was one of those Biblical spectaculars and it had been running at that theater for more than three months. Most of the people who came to midtown movies had already seen it.
When they sat down Doreen stuffed her coat and purse in the corner of the love seat and sat close to Jim. The short was a Technicolor promotional film lauding the glories of a Caribbean vacation. There were shots of boats and tropical forests and beaches, and there were plenty of shots of girls in bathing suits.
When the short was over there was a five minute intermission. Some people around them left and no new patrons came to take up the empty seats. When the main picture started they were surrounded by a small island of empty seats and they both liked it that way.
The picture didn't live up to its advance publicity. It was both dull and predictable, despite the opulent settings and scanty costumes, and despite the almost completely revealed breasts of the female star.
But Jim wasn't about to get up and leave. Not with that luscious bundle of womanhood tucked under his arm, he wasn't. Doreen was snuggled against him. His arm was around her shoulder and her body was twisted at just the right angle to permit the loosely draped palm of his hand to rest lightly on the thrust of her breast.
Both of them were more conscious of one another than they were of the picture being shown. After a while Doreen shifted on her seat and let her hand drop casually to Jim's leg. He tensed slightly but gave no other sign that he was aware of her hand.
He could feel the warmth of that hand seeping through the cloth of his trouser leg and penetrating his flesh. Her fingers were curled lightly on the top of his leg just behind the knee, and after a while she gave him a light squeeze.
He leaned his head down close to hers. "This is a lousy picture," he whispered.
She giggled softly. "Do you want to leave?"
"I don't care," he told her.
"I don't see why we have to waste all this darkness and these lovely seats," she said softly.
She turned her mouth up and he kissed her. Their lips touched, pressed, parted for a moment, then mashed together again. He felt her jaw go slack beneath his mouth. His lips parted and his kiss began a slow searching journey.
Her mouth was warm and sweet to him. Her kiss met his in fervor, working at his mouth. His heart began to race and his blood pounded in his ears.
Doreen reached up, took his wrist, and pressed his hand hard against her breast. Even through the several layers of cloth covering her he could feel the throbbing warmth of her. Her other hand moved along his leg from just behind the kneecap. The muscles in his leg knotted with delightful tension as her hand pressed firmly against him.
The lack of complete privacy hampered them severely. They were restricted to searing kisses and furtive gropings under cover of the darkness. They remained though there was no need for them to remain. By silent, unspoken agreement they stayed in their seats and worked at one another within the limitations imposed by their presence in the movie theater. That would have been perfectly all right for them to get up and hurry back to her apartment where they could have done anything they wanted in total privacy. But some perverse desire kept them where they were.
Doreen changed her position so Jim could slip his hand under the front of her dress and cup her naked breast. With thumb and forefinger he toyed with her exploding nipple. She put her lips against his ear and sighed softly so only he could hear. That sigh was almost as exciting as the groping of her hand.
He dropped his other hand to her knee and slid that beneath the hem of her skirt. The flesh of her leg was warm and smooth and dry, and she trembled beneath the light touch of his fingers.
Her lips were on fire against his own and they sank into an oblivious delirium of passion. She was a demanding thing as she twisted slowly in his arms. Her skirt slid up on her legs and her knees fell slackly away.
He touched!
She trembled, sighed, and bit at the lobe of his ear.
He stiffened with surprise when he felt her hand slip beneath his clothing and touch against his bare, excited skin.
Through this mutual manipulation of caresses they brought one another to the very brink of completion and backed off. Again and again they approached the ultimate delight. And each time they stopped their caresses just at the critical moment.
Finally Jim could stand that no longer. He jerked his hands away from her breast and her leg, grasped her by the shoulders, and held her firmly.
"Let's get out of here!" he whispered passionately.
"Yes," she answered. "Oh yes!"
They hurried from the theater, arms about one another. There were plenty of cabs on the street at that hour of the evening, but all of them seemed to be occupied. It was quite frustrating to stand there waving and whistling like an idiot while unslaked passion raged through him.
He wanted her so badly right then his body burned with a terrible fire.
Finally a taxi pulled to the curb before them and they got in. Jim gave the driver Doreen's address and they settled back for the ride. Once again he put his arm around her shoulders and they kissed. But with the driver sitting only a few feet away and watching them in his rear view mirror they couldn't do much more.
Doreen took advantage of the situation. The driver couldn't see her hands. She opened Jim's coat and put her hands on him. He shifted beneath her touch and pulled his mouth away from hers. When he felt her working at a button he grabbed her wrists.
"What are you doing?" he whispered.
She gave him a grin, a wink, and raised one finger to her lips in a gesture for silence while she rolled her eyes in the direction of the cab driver.
Slowly she opened the buttons. But her hands didn't go further. Instead, she opened his belt and bared the front of his body.
Her hands alternately gripped hard and stroked lightly and he had to grit his teeth to keep from screaming with pleasure. She was driving him mad with her teasing and he loved every minute of that.
When the cab stopped in front of the apartment house-Doreen leaned over as though to retrieve some article from the floor. She took advantage of the moment to bestow upon him a fleeting kiss which almost ended everything right then and there.
Jim fixed his clothing quickly while Doreen got out of the cab. He only buttoned the buttons, not bothering with the belt. His coat would keep him covered until they got into her apartment.
He paid the driver, overtipping the man outrageously in his haste, got out of the cab, and went into the building with Doreen. Once they were safely in the elevator he grabbed her, thrust her back against the wall, and pressed against her.
"You're a witch!" he said, his face only inches from hers.
She gave him a mock pout. "But didn't you like that?"
"I loved that," he told her, leaning against her to let her know his still-ready excitement. "But two more seconds like that and the top of my head would have blown right through the roof of the taxi."
She laughed deep in her throat. "If you think that was something wait until I get you upstairs."
"You wait," he told her. "I'm going to get even for all that teasing."
At the door to her apartment she fumbled with the key. Impatiently, Jim grabbed the key away from her and with trembling hands opened the door. They stepped into the darkened foyer and closed the door.
Before she could find the light switch he had her in his arms again. He held her with one arm about her waist and peeled her coat off her shoulders with the other arm.
The coat dropped to the floor and he crushed her against him.
"Wait," she said.
"Don't move," he answered. "This is my turn now."
She tried to pull away, but he held her fast. One of his hands found the zipper at the back of the dress and opened that. With three quick movements he hiked the dress up to her hips, over her shoulders, and off over her head.
Now, in the darkness, she was clad only in her shoes, stockings, and underwear, while he was still dressed in his topcoat. They kissed and his hands swept down from her shoulder blades to the sweeping curves of her buttocks. His palms filled with the delicious mounds and squeezed and she whimpered against him.
Her bra came off easily and her naked breasts crushed against the front of his coat. She leaned back away from him and he dropped his face to those soft, perfumed hillocks. In the darkness his lips traced the curves until he found the nipples. One after another he took those nipples to his mouth and bit at them until she was a trembling mass of flesh against him.
Those nipples were like bullets when he finished.
"Oh!" she groaned. "Oh, I love that."
Jim dropped to his knees before her in the darkness. She staggered half a step and bent over his back to keep from falling. He reached down, lifted one of her feet, and pulled off the shoe. Then the other foot and he pushed at her feet on the cold linoleum floor of the foyer.
His hands were big enough to completely encompass one solid upper leg when he reached for the top of a stocking. The leg muscle jerked and twitched beneath his purposely feathery touch. He rolled the stocking down and off and repeated the procedure with the other foot.
"Wait!" she gasped when he reached to hook his fingers under the elastic waistband of her panties.
"No," he said, jerking the panties down over her hips.
He slapped her hard on the upper leg when she refused to raise her foot so he could remove her panties.
"I told you I'd get even," he said.
When the panties were off she was completely naked and he, close to her in the darkness, was still fully dressed. His hands slid from her hips around behind to fill with the now-naked globes of her buttocks. He squeezed hard, his fingers digging at the soft flesh.
She groaned and swayed back and forth on her trembling legs. Both her hands were braced against him to help her maintain her position.
In the darkness he pulled her forward and pressed his face against the softness of her body. His lips touched her and fluttered over her bare and trembling skin.
"Wait," she pleaded softly. "Please wait. Let's go into the bedroom and turn on a light. I want to see you. I want to watch you."
He kissed her harder, letting his lips wander. His teeth nipped lightly.
"Oh God!" she groaned, shuddering, her hands moving to his head, her fingers twining in his hair and pulling hard in a vain attempt to make him stop those wicked and delightful kisses.
He ignored the painful yank on his hair and dropped his lips to the columns of her legs. He kissed her legs and let his mouth roll against the smoothness of her flesh.
"Are you sorry now?" he asked, rocking back on his heels.
"Yes ... oh yes. I'm sorry! I'm sorry I teased you in the taxi." She said the words all in a breathless rush.
Jim rose to his feet and let her pull him into the bedroom. He walked blindly in the darkness but she knew the way around her own apartment and they didn't bump into anything.
Once in the bedroom she let go of his hand and he waited while she fumbled around with the bedside lamp. There was a click and the lamp came on. They blinked in the sudden illumination.
He saw her standing naked beside the head of the bed. Her hair was mussed, her eyes were glazed, her mouth hung slack and her lips were dried from the panting excitement.
Once there was light she seemed to regain some control of herself. Now there was no longer any urgency between them. She straightened, smiled at him, and pressed her hands against her hips. He watched as she swept those hands upward to cup her breasts toward him.
"They like you," she whispered, flicking at the erect nipples with the tips of her forefingers.
He said nothing and one of her hands dropped to cover her navel.
"All of me likes you," she told him.
She stepped to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled herself against him. But when he tried to take her in his arms she backed away.
"Don't move," she told him. "This is my turn now. And this won't be teasing."
She drew his coat off his shoulders and followed that with his jacket. Both garments were draped carelessly across the back of a chair. His tie and shirt quickly followed and he was bare to the waist. That was but a moment's work to open his clothes. The belt was already opened and the trousers were pushed to the floor around his feet.
Doreen knelt before him, untied his shoelaces, and removed his shoes and socks. He stepped out of the pile of his trousers and watched her put them with his other things.
Now he wore only his shorts, and that was easy for her to yank his shorts down to his ankles and he had no choice but to lift first one leg, then the other, so she could pull the shorts off and toss them away somewhere behind him.
She attempted then to imitate the caresses he'd bestowed in the darkened foyer. But before she could really get going he bent forward and grabbed her.
Their arms locked about one another and they pressed together, naked, warm, demanding. Her body moved with slow sensuous motion. Her breasts flattened against his chest, the nipples digging at him. Her legs were against his.
They battled back and forth in a soul-searing kiss. He stroked her silken back and buttocks, let his hands rub the tops of her legs. Her body moved against him with rhythmic regularity.
Jim groaned with delightful passion, swept her up in his arms, threw her down onto the bed, and dropped down beside her. He tried to rolJ her over onto her back but she stopped him with a hand pressed flat against his chest.
"Not so fast," she breathed. "There's no hurry any more."
Her back arched and her breasts rose onto a line with his mouth. "Kiss me," she whispered.
He wrapped his hand around one breast as though that were a football and squeezed until the nipple threatened to pop right off the end. She groaned and her eyes slitted with desire.
He took the nipple to his mouth, worked with his lips, and bit gently with his teeth. She shifted her shoulders to offer the other breast and he did the same things there.
She curled one hand behind his head and crushed his face against her bosom, smothering him with the soft, silken, perfumed flesh. He twisted his face from side to side and kissed the flat space between her breasts while his hand slid down along her side, over the curve of her hip, to the length of her leg.
He stroked her legs, caressed her stomach, and reached behind to cup her buttocks, all the while his kiss was still busy at her breasts.
She was crying out continuously now. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and her passion-dried mouth bung slack. He knew when she could stand no more of his delightful caresses. She loosened her grasp on the back of his neck, rolled flat onto her back, and her arms reached for him.
He moved closer to her but did not take her. She was helpless then, completely lost in the grip of her passion and desire. He rose to his knees beside her and let his eyes travel the length of her lovely nakedness.
Now his hands traveled over her body. From neck to knees those hands searched and found every pleasure-giving inch of flesh. And when his hands had completed the journey several times, he allowed his lips to make the same trip.
She was mewing like a helpless kitten. A trickle of saliva ran down from the corner of her mouth and dampened the pillow beneath her head. Once her body had stiffened and jerked with completion but he'd continued with his kisses and caresses. She was twisting and twitching and sobbing now. Her eyes opened and stared sightlessly at the ceiling.
Finally Jim could hold back no longer. He threw himself at her and her arms twined about him. Until that moment he'd concentrated solely upon her pleasure. Now he let his own senses take over.
They pressed together and moved in unison and lightning bolts shot through him. The nerve endings in his flesh screamed with a surfeit of sensation. His heart hammered in his chest and his blood roared in his veins. His eyes were closed and behind the eyelids there was only a red haze of passion.
His spinal cord was like a lighted fuse and he could sense the fuse burning closer and closer to the dynamite charge which would explode him.
Doreen rocked and rolled with him. Her nails raked his back and her teeth clamped down on the flesh of his shoulder.
When the moment of ecstasy arrived, that was like a tidal wave breaking for him, rushing here and there, smashing and destroying everything in its path. His brain seemed to explode, and, like a short circuit in an electrical system, burned out the nerve pathways of his body.
At the same moment Doreen screamed. She went rigid against him, every muscle in her body locked tight.
They held that way for an eternity of seconds, then blissfully relaxed with twin sighs. Jim rolled away from her. He was weak and breathless, the major muscles in his body still trembling with exertion and fatigue. He was numb and tingly and deaf and sightless all at the same time.
It was many moments before his senses returned. He raised himself to one elbow, leaned over her, and gently kissed the tip of one of her breasts. She hummed softly at the contact, her eyes still closed.
"Thank you," he whispered. "You were wonderful."
"Umm," she answered. That was the only answer she could make.
Jim rose from the bed and searched through his clothing until he found his cigarettes. He lit two, stretched out beside her again, and placed one between her lips.
"Umm," she said by way of thanks, and inhaled deeply.
They didn't speak again until their cigarettes were smoked down and crushed out. Then she opened her eyes, grinned at him, and spoke.
"And I was afraid you were too young," she said in a voice full of wonder.
He laughed. "For a while I was afraid of the same thing. I didn't think I'd be good enough for you."
"Honey, you were good enough for any woman in the world. I'll give you references if you want them."
"I don't need references when I've got you," he told her.
She rolled to her side to face him. Her hand touched against his chest and traveled slowly over the front of his body. She held him gently, but firmly.
"Will we have to wait very long before we can do that again?"
"You just keep teasing like that and we'll be ready before you know that," he told her, his hand reaching over to cup one buttock and his face dropping to her breasts again.
That was a long and wonderful night and the sun was streaming in through the window before they fell into an exhausted sleep, their arms still entwined.