'Maybe she found you attractive.'
'Sure. Maybe. Anyway, she put the make on me. I didn't have to do any chasing where she was concerned. All I had to do was stand still and let myself be caught.'
'You didn't have to be caught, you know. You could have told her you weren't interested.'
'No man would have told her that. She was beautiful. Like you. And she knew it, like you. She liked the things the sight of her body did to men. She liked to feel their eyes on her. She loved it when pricks were standing at attention, and they were yearning for her the way a man in the desert yearns for a drink of water. It amused her.' He took another puff on the cigarette, saw that it was burned almost down to the filter. He dropped it on the carpet and crushed it with his toe.
'And she had to die for that? Because she liked being beautiful and attractive to men?'
'It was the way she used that attractiveness. There's no excuse for a bitch like that, I was a happily married man. I had children. She made a little game of breaking up my life. She swayed her hips in my face, and when I was helpless and she knew it, she started to take the candy away from baby. She made up little excuses, little reasons why she couldn't spare the time to bed down with me that day. She liked to hear me beg her for it. And I begged. Jesus, how I begged.'
'You don't have to tell me all this,' Sally said, looking at the window shade with embarrassment all over her face.
'Sure I do. I want you to know what she did, because you're the one who's going to pick up the tab for her fun. You might as well know what you're paying for.'
'Didn't she pay enough?'
'Hardly. When she was dead, I… No, I'm getting ahead of the story. Let me tell you how it happened. She started to play with me, as I said. And she started to get bored with me. I knew she was taking up with someone else. She was too damned sexy to do without it. If she wasn't getting her sex with me, she had to be getting it with someone else.'
'And that made you jealous.'
'Sure it did. You're damned right it did.'
'So you killed her?'
'Her and her fucking partner. I followed them one night. He was another student at the college. I followed them to a place where the students went to fuck when they couldn't afford anything better, and when they were together in the back of the cock-sucker's car, I walked up and shot him, right through the window. That was when she panicked. She scared easily, like you. And she lost her cool. Isn't that the term?'
She didn't give him an answer, but when she saw that he was waiting for one, she nodded mutely.
'Well, she lost her cool. She opened the door on the other side of the car and started to run. Naked as a Goddamn egg, running across the landscape. I shot her through the leg. One of those slender, lovely legs. And then I went up and fucked her, while she lay there writhing in agony. And then I killed her. I shot her through the belly, and listened to her beg me to get a doctor. She took fifteen minutes to die.'
'How horrible.'
'Really? I thought it was pretty nice. What was horrible was what she did to me, to my nice, orderly life. To my marriage. My wife is divorced from me now, and married to another man. A guy I've known for years. They've got my kids with them, and she's had another one by him. Isn't that horrible? I think it is. And that little cunt back on the campus was the one who made it possible. She started the whole thing.'
'You're kidding yourself,' Sally said with surprising boldness. 'You did it. She couldn't have hurt you if you hadn't been ready for her.'
'Shut your mouth,' Max said. 'When I want psychological help, I'll ask for it. She was the one who made it happen. And you know, the moment she was dead, I was sorry. I wanted to bring her back to life. Not that I was sorry I had killed her. I was just sorry she was out of my reach, and I couldn't hurt her any more. She deserved a lot more hurt than she got.' He looked at the girl, a slow grin spreading across his face. 'And you remind me of her. You could be her twin sister. Does that give you any idea of what's in store for you, sweetheart?'
She licked her lips, but he had to admit she was showing some guts. Well, he'd see how much guts she had when it came down to it. 'I guess it does,' she said. 'I guess I'm in for a bad time. How bad a time do you plan to give me?'
'I'll make it up as I go along. First, I want you to strip down. Right now.' He said it with no shift in the tone of his voice. She didn't react right away. It took a moment for the meaning of his words to sink in, and then she looked at him with widened eyes. Something in the flatness of his voice, he guessed, had sent a shiver of fear through her greater than she had felt before. Besides, this was it. This was more than talk. Sally's hands moved aimlessly, in a soft fluttering gesture. He could see the rapid pitching of her breasts, and her breathing became audible. He was about to repeat the command, more firmly, when she raised her hands and began to work at the fastener behind her neck. She had trouble with it.
'Come here,' he said. 'I'll do that for you.'
'No, I can…'
'Come here,' he said again. His voice wasn't any louder, but there was a firmness to it, and she got the point. She moved closer to him and turned her back. 'Bend your knees a little.' He was still sitting on the bed, and she had to move down a little so that he could reach the top of the dress without stretching. He opened the hook-and-eye fastener, then pulled the zipper down her back, as far as it would go. It jammed once, and he had to place a hand on the top of the dress, holding it taut, to get the zipper moving again. It opened all the way down to her ass. She was wearing a slip underneath the dress. It was pink, and it felt soft and smooth. It made his prick stand a little straighter. He could smell her, and it wasn't exactly an unpleasant smell. There was a mingling of soap and shampoo, and nice perfume, and good, clean girl.
'That ought to help,' he said. 'Now go back where I can watch you.' She walked back to her former position, faced him, and pulled the dress over her head. Her hair, long and shining, swirled about her shoulders. The dress, just a piece of cloth now, dropped to the floor.
She was breathing with a steam-engine quickness now. She looked as though she was trying to keep from crying, and trying hard. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she gnawed at her lower lip to hold back. Max grinned at her and waved a casual signal to proceed.
Sally bent at the waist and took the lacy hem of the pink slip in her hands. She pulled it up to the level of her waist, then made a little hip-wiggling movement to work it higher. She pulled the slip up over her head as she had the dress, and threw it to the floor quickly, as though having it in her hand made her more naked.
She was down to pantyhose, bra, and shoes now. She was really an exquisite little thing. The best he'd seen since — well, in a long time. Her skin was like silk, and her fine, aristocratic lines were enough to make a man come standing up. Max grinned even more broadly at her, and, with the air of a Roman emperor signifying his preference, he pointed to the bra.
It was pink, like the slip, but otherwise it was much like the one Connie had worn. Brief, covering her breasts only halfway up. It was soft and thin, almost sheer, not hard and thick. She did not need an uplift model.
For a moment she looked as though she were going to plead with him, but then she steeled herself. He could see her taking hold of her courage, and it was amusing. She reached behind her and worked at the clasps of the bra. She had to work at it for some time, and Max didn't offer to help as he had with the dress. This was too enjoyable. She jiggled invitingly, and the bra wasn't restrictive enough to keep her tits from taking part in the movement.
Finally she got the clasps open. She crossed her arms over her breasts, holding the bra in place for another moment, then let it slide down her arms and drop to the floor. Her tits were lovely, firm and fragile with rose tips. She stood before him, naked from the waist up, looking like she was going to die from embarrassment any moment. Max leaned back on one arm and looked her up and down, letting his eyes rest on her nipples, one at a time, for several seconds. She squirmed and started to cry, unable to hold back any longer. She closed her eyes, and the tears leaked out under her eyelids and ran down her cheeks. Max laughed softly. This was almost worth it all, the months in court, the years in prison, all of it.
'Come here,' he said. She opened her eyes and looked at him with panic, but she did not refuse. She forced her legs to carry her forward, coming to him in a jerky, slow movement. Her knees looked as though they were about to give way under her.
Max reached up and took one tiny, slender hand. He gave her a tug, and she sprawled on the bed next to
