Chapter 6
During the next week, Lena Troy saw a lot of Bart Laramie. They had lunch together nearly every day. They'd meet again after office hours for drinks, dinner and a night on the town. The first several dates ended the same way, with Bart letting her out at her apartment, after a tender, almost solemn goodnight kiss. Each time, though, Lena could tell it was getting more and more difficult for him to stop with that. She wondered how much longer it would be before he would become more demanding. She had mixed emotions about that. Part of her wanted it to happen, couldn't wait. Another part of her mind dreaded it, was sure that she couldn't allow him to touch her intimately.
All this time, Lena found herself actually falling in love with the man. She was sure of it, after their fourth or fifth date. No man had ever held her interest so long before. She usually found them infantile and boring after one or two dates. But each time after she went out with Bart, she found herself eagerly looking forward to the next time. She found herself resenting the time she had to be away from him; at her business.
She even found herself thinking about marriage, for the first time. Although she still wasn't worth a million dollars in liquid assets the goal she'd set for herself, what did it matter, now? Bart, himself, was a millionaire. As his wife, she would share half of his fortune. Then, too, she could sell her business for at least that much and thus acquire her goal. She could set that money aside, to remain independent financially, just in case things didn't work out.
As for Bart, her woman's intuition told her that he was already hooked, would be more than willing to marry her, as soon as she gave the word.
Friday night, when Bart Laramie brought her home, Lena felt a hot current of physical need flow through her, when he kissed her goodnight, such as she'd never known before. Bart must have noticed it, too. He didn't seem surprised when she invited him upstairs to her apartment for a nightcap.
They sat side by side on her sofa, sipping B&B's and talking casually. As they finished their drinks, as though by mutual agreement, they both set their glasses down at the same time and turned toward each other. Gently, Bart took her into his arms. Lena let herself flow against him, thrilling to the sensation of her breasts being mashed against his strong chest. Their lips met, gently, at first, twisting, seeking and then with a shock of pleasure, Lena felt Bart's tongue force itself between her lips. Her own leapt to meet it and now their mouths clung together, deeply, demandingly, their tongues feverishly lashing at each other, until both were gasping for breath.
All the time, Bart's big, gentle hands were stroking, caressing the hollow of Lena's spine, moving at the nape of her neck. And now, as their passionate soul-kissing grew in intensity, Lena felt Bart's hand slide up her ribs and under her breast. She felt it close around the full blown fleshiness of it, fondling and feeling through the cloth of her dress and the bra. The sensation caused a wanton flood of excitement to flow through her. At the same time, she felt his other hand slide up under the hem of her dress, onto the smooth, warm inside of her thigh. It stroked and caressed there, moving ever higher and then suddenly it touched her, intimately, through the frail thin silk of her panties.
Instantly passion fled from Lena and she felt a strong surge of revulsion. She gasped and twisted away, reaching down to roughly push Bart's hand from tinder her skirt. She edged away from him on the couch.
He was instantly beside himself with remorse. I I'm sorry, Lena. Honestly, I am. I just thought well, you know that you wanted me to do that I should have known better. I shouldn't have tried to rush things."
She wanted to tell him that she had wanted him to until it had happened. That he hadn't been rushing things, that she'd been just as anxious for further loving as he had been to give it. That was one minute, though. The next she couldn't stand for him to touch her there. But she found it impossible to say any of that She didn't know how to explain it She thought it would sound ridiculous, as though she was a nut of some kind. So, all she said, was:
"It's all right, Bart. I I'm not angry. I guess it's well as you said. You'll just have to give me a little more time. I'm not really a prude, you know or or cold natured. It's just that "
"Honey," he butted in. "You don't have to explain to me. Listen, in a way, I'm glad you're like that. Believe me, there aren't many that are. And I guess I'm just old fashioned enough to find such standards desirable in a woman, still."
"Thanks, Bart," she said, gratefully. "Just don't misunderstand, darling. It isn't because I don't like you, don't find you attractive. I do terribly. In fact sometimes I think maybe I even..."
Her voice tapered off. She couldn't bring herself to finish.
"Say it," he begged. "You were going to say that you loved me, weren't you?"
She nodded and then flung herself into his embrace. He held her gently, again, now. He whispered: "And I love you, too, Lena. So much that I want to marry you. You will marry me, won't you?"
With that Lena Troy suddenly burst into tears. Her whole body was wracked with her sobbing. Bart held her tightly, murmuring: "There, there, honey! Let it all out. It'll do you good. But I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry I rushed things so, threw everything at you all at once. It was only because I guess I'm so impatient, have been since the first moment I set eyes on you."
Lena didn't answer. She didn't know what to say. She sobbed for a few more minutes and then Bart dried her eyes with his handkerchief and in a few more minutes left.
After he had gone, Lena tried to figure out what had gone wrong, what it was all about. It just didn't make sense. Here was a man with whom she was madly in love a man whom she wanted to have her body and she wanted to have his ... yet when the time came, she couldn't go through with it. Not even that, but could hardly get started. Why couldn't she stand for him to touch her intimately? Why was it all right as long as they just necked or lightly petted like school kids but then when it began to go past that point it was just as suddenly all wrong?
Lena puzzled about the thing and got nowhere, for several hours, before she finally fell asleep.
The next day, Saturday, she and Bart Laramie went to the races at Belmont. They had drinks and dinner at a swank roadhouse out on Long Island, afterward. That night, once again, Bart dropped her off at her apartment house, after a tender good night kiss or two. He made no attempt to touch her intimately this evening and Lena, strangely, was both relieved and disturbed by this. But she admired Bart for his restraint and for figuring it out that he had better let her hold the reins on their passion.
On Monday, she and Bart had lunch together but they made no date for that night. Lena planned to work late at the office, going over the material that had been laid out for the promotion campaign connected with Bart's drug stores.
At five o'clock, the offices of Helena Troy Cosmetics, Inc., began to empty out By five thirty, everybody was gone. Before she settled down to work, Lena went into Harry Fields office to make sure he wasn't hanging around. Even though he'd been polite and respectful and business-like, ever since she'd had that showdown with him, Lena still didn't trust him completely. Several times she had caught him looking at her body, at the jut of her breasts and backside and there was an expression in his eyes like that of a lusting bull's around a cow in heat. It almost made her shudder.
Back in her own office, Lena caught herself staring toward the window, to look out at ,the hotel across the street. Several times she fought against it but then finally had to give in to it She stood there, looking over at the hotel but there was nothing to see. In the first place, it was not yet dark, this being daylight saving time and you couldn't see into the rooms, anyhow. Despite herself, she felt a little disappointment. She also caught herself thinking about the scene she had witnessed between the two lesbians and beginning to get excited, just thinking about it.
But then she told herself she was acting like a fool and turned back to her desk and buried her thoughts in her work.
And hour and a half later, Lena sent out for a sandwich and coffee, ate it and drank it at her desk and then took a break while she smoked a cigarette. It was now quite dark. As Lena sat smoking, she wheeled her chair around so that she was facing the window. She watched the faint flash and fade of a neon sign out there in the dark and then her curiosity got the better of her, She got up and stood by the window, looking out.
She saw that several lights were on in windows of the hotel across the way, now. But in only one of them were the occupants visible. In this one a man and a woman were sitting on a bed, smoking and talking. Lena found her interest quickening as she saw that the man was wearing nothing but shorts. He was a big man, with a heavy shock of wavy golden hair. The girl with him was land of cute. She too, was blonde. She was wearing nothing but a bra and brief panties. She was kind of a cute looking girl in a baby-doll-faced sort of way. At the moment, the pair were doing nothing but apparently carrying on a conversation.
Yet why were they undressed that way? Lena wondered. She felt a pang of regret at the idea that maybe she'd looked out too late, that maybe they had been doing it and now were all through. Then she saw the man get up and go over and stamp his. cigarette out in a tray on the dresser. Then he hooked a finger into the waistband of his shorts and forced them down over his hips and off. He stepped out of them naked and seeing him like that, Lena Troy felt something like a flash of tingling fire run up her thighs and into her loins. She felt her breasts begin to throb and ache, especially when the man walked over and stood in front of the girl who was sitting on the bed and she pretended to be shocked and held her hand over her eyes, until he took it away and guided it toward himself. Her caressing then had an almost instant effect, which was obvious to Lena, even this distance away. While the girl thus busied herself, the big blonde man reached back over her shoulders and unhooked her bra. When it fell away, his hands instantly moved to her small shapely breasts, began to fondle them, teasing and toying with the elongated nipples, Oh, look at them, look at them! Lena thought. "Oh, if only they don't pull down the shade," she said, half aloud.
Then, afraid that if they should happen to glance up here and see her, they might do that, she wheeled and raced to the wall switch, cut off the light in her office. Back at the window, then, she stood there in the dark, watching.