Chapter 10

Lou was wondering how his life was shaping up when the phone rang in his office. He knew he had disappointed Marilyn and Tina both in things expected of him and if matters didn't clear soon he'd put himself on some analyst's couch and let a perfect stranger probe his weaknesses. Was it really something he thought too much about? Was his wish to possess first one then the other girl more than lust?

He knew he had to get a bold grip on himself and solve his problems himself. He remembered the last night with Tina and then the scene with Marilyn. He was playing a shell game and he feared exposure-the news would spread fast and he would be ruined. He had been sitting at the desk toying with a pencil, and dreaming of Tina. He knew she stood outside his mental door every moment of the day. His mind had little room to dwell and play. It was only when he felt really pressed down that he remembered Marilyn. And then with only a thin slice of hope and meaning.

So when the phone rang he jerked at its sound, cursed his nervousness, and picked up the receiver. He started. The voice was young and familiar and pretty and his heart soared instantly.

"Linda," he shouted. "Linda, my God, where are you?"

"I'm in town. In a hotel, Lou."

"I can't tell you why but I'm darn happy to be talking with you. Are you free!

"Yes. Can you come over for some drinks?"

"Right away. How about Eddie's for old time sake?"

"Half an hour?"

"Twenty-five minutes. How's that?"

"See you there."

The wonderful things in life come in pretty breaks sometimes when you need it most he thought to himself. It had been a long time ago with Linda. He smacked his lips. He walked back through the city room and waved meekly to Marilyn at her desk.

He was sipping a martini when he saw her coming across the dimly-lit room. He stood up, smiled and extended his hand. She looked positively ravishing in a cocky outfit as though she knew she was meeting a cocky guy. He stared at her with admiration in his eyes. Her face was silk-screened in delicate lines and she walked firm and erect, the way he liked his women to walk. He liked her because she was a dame who didn't kid around-she said what was in her mind and never hid coyly behind the screen of sex. She sat down and Lou ordered a drink from the passing waiter for Linda.

In her eyes was a promise of gossip. "Tell me everything, Lou, don't leave anything out," she said, with a ravishing smile.

Lou shrugged. "Nothing much to tell, still on the paper and hammering out yarns for the public to gobble up."

"That's all? No romance or marriage?"

He chuckled. "No-although I still see Marilyn. You remember her?" he said sheepishly.

She looked suddenly deflated as though she had a run in her stockings. She saw him take a hurried sip of his drink and place the glass on the table. She leaned forward anxiously.

"Yes, I remember Marilyn, Lou. I would think by this time you would have a painted cottage and a dutiful mortgage," she said easily. "I still think you made the wrong choice, you know?"

He remembered a dark elevator shaft in an unused warehouse loft he had gone to in pursuit of a story and he wished it was before him so that he could casually drop into it and float down and away.

He stared at her-the memory as rigid as a tightly clenched fist. Linda asked about the paper-reminding him how much she had enjoyed being one of its reporters before going to New York. They rang up some more martinis and giggled over old times-discussing women, dogs, sex and imbeciles in that order, and ending with a curse on their canned civilization. He asked how she liked New York.

Her eyes blazed. "Positively enthralling, Lou, you would love it ... exciting, wicked, enjoyable-birth and decay going on all the time," she said with pride.

She was seated close beside him and he felt like an old mustard plaster heating up. She looked delectable and he wished he had her where he could hear himself pant like a long-distance runner. When she suggested going back to her room and having a round of drinks there he agreed willingly. Her hotel was a few blocks from the cocktail lounge and they held hands like eager kids as they trudged through the street.

He bought a bottle of bourbon in the hotel lobby. The moment she closed the door and bolted it he took her in his arms and crushed her. He felt her breasts digging into his chest as he squeezed her madly-pouring hot kisses upon her receptive mouth. He could feel his knees tremble.

She folded her arms greedily around his neck as he carried her to the bed. She stared at him with dreamy eyes as he slowly undressed first her-then himself. His face was flushed and the blood boiled madly in his temples. Her eyes glittered as he moved beside her. Now she lay completely exposed and his eyes drank up her pink liveliness completely. She was long, slender and strong and now she lay there waiting-her mind on fire and whirling in a sensual confusion of love.

She sighed heavily and closed her eyes but her hands, as if they had a will of their own, slid knowingly down the lines of his naked body. Her naked thighs gleamed whitely as she locked her long legs around him and kissed him with gasping ardor. He was far too quick the first time and Linda did not mind. She knew there would be more now that she was back with Lou.

She felt his desire renew almost immediately and he crashed into her loins like a high voltage current. Now a wave of animal lust swamped them both and she could sense quick flames mounting within her. She remained beneath him, cradling his love, her body containing him with an erotic sense she could not release. He was deep and strong and she leaped with a special kind of joy she hadn't felt for a long time. When she convulsed around him and started to throb, his arms tightened about her like steel bands-solid muscles of erotic music, imprisoning her.

When the thundering chords stilled she lay back and said, "I still love you, Lou."

He didn't know what to say. So he smiled.

"That's where we really busted last time, you remember? You thought I was too much for you," she said quietly.

He wanted to forget the past. "I was wrong," he said.

She rolled her head and laughed. "See how unfettered I am with you. I work without a net," she said.

He bent down and kissed her. "At every occasion. Keep it up," he said. "There's always a reason for everything you do, isn't there, Linda?"

She laughed. "To quote an old college professor, Lou, reasons are reasons for man's greatest achievements."

He maintained the clinical joke. "What's Mickey Mantle got to do with Lenin?" he asked with a smile.

Her eyes darted in a quick movement as she stared up at the ceiling. "What would you like, Lou? A sermon or an analysis?" she asked.

They had a way of talking to each other, trading words as if they were hors d'oeuvres. It had started at the beginning with shyness and grew into small jokes when their eyes traded warmth. Now she was trying to scrub the world clean for him as if she were secretly aware of the outrageous arrows consuming him.

He caught the sparks in her face out of the corner of his eye. The screaming color of passion consuming her a few minutes ago was now a graceful, subdued pink.

"Please, Linda, no sermons and especially analysis. I'm not an emotional mirror that requires prying," he said sullenly.

She turned on her side and rested her chin on her elbow. "I'd like to tell you what brought me here, Lou." She reached for a cigarette and held it in a firm grip as he lighted it for her. Then she settled back in the same position and exhaled deeply." We have dreamed of great passions while love has eluded us both. I didn't come back to haunt you either. I'm on assignment from my magazine. I'm going to drop over to see your editor-my old boss-later. I'm doing the same type of expos in New York on Bohemian cults and practices in the sex field that Marilyn is doing here. I understand you dug up a lot of color for her. Do you think you can do the same for me if I ask you to?"

He felt the sudden hot stink of steaming sewers choking him., .all force and staying power suddenly gone. He wondered if Linda knew more than she was revealing. He felt a strange-hold on his reputation and security, as though a block of granite was edging closer to annihilate him completely.

He hacked a sudden cough. "It's quite strange that hundreds of miles apart my two loves are working on the same project," he said, filled with remorse. "Maybe the girl reporters have begun to inherit the world." He suddenly had the vision of a catastrophe.

She sat up. "What's eating you, Lou? Do you think I would lie to you? For what reason?" She narrowed her eyes. "There's something about this whole thing you're scared of-aren't you, Lou?" she demanded.

The pressured fever of doubt quickly began to dissipate. "I'm sorry I gave you that impression," he said hastily. "No ... it's not so ... not at all."

She kept staring at him. Then stood up and smiled quickly, it was as though she were restoring luster to an old coin.

"Well, maybe my thoughts were crawling to hasty conclusions, Lou. Let's forget about it. I'll be in town for a few days, and I'll pretend I'm still a Bryn Mawr virgin and you're the man I have selected to deflower me in the most brutal fashion." As she said this, she put her arms around him.

He felt for a moment, staring into her dancing eyes, that he wanted her more than anyone else-even Tina-if he could only match her as a man. If he only knew what direction to take, what to do.