«Don't Mademoiselle me when we're alone, please…
«Well Ghislaine, I've never been in love. I knew nobody over there.»
Ghislaine looked disappointed.
«So you know nothing about love?
«I don't think the pair of us knows much about it…
«Why! I do know something I've read books, forbidden books in Daddy's library. They told extraordinary, unbelievable stories. There was one about a girl who had been kidnapped, and raped afterwards, then they obliged her to sell herself to everybody, and if she refused she was beaten…
«It was written all along…?
«Yes, and how she had been forced, and everything they did her… Do you think such things are possible?
«If it was printed it must be true, said our naive heroine. What did he do…?
«Oh I can't explain, but it must have been painful, she cried, and the more she'd cry the more he'd hurt her.
«Yet said Myriam, they say love doesn't hurt, except the first time because it's big and of course you're not used.
«How do you know that since you never tried?
«I heard it once, it was a girl who had just married. She was telling my aunt her first night with her husband, I was hidden and I heard everything, but I didn't understand it all.
«Did she like it?
«Yes, she said it was fine!
«It must have been something different from the book. Surely there are several ways to do it. I won't bear to be hurt, I'll fight.
«In that case you can't fight. They may bind you on the bed…»
Ghislaine giggled.
«What a silly goose! how could a man bind you. It would no longer be love it'd be just a fight!
«Anyhow, this can't be love. If I was in love, I'd give anything to my lover. Even if he hurt me, I'd love him all the better for it…
«And I would be so sweet, he couldn't help being kind.»
This pretty scene was on, a quiet night in their delightful mansion in Neuilly, a fortnight after they had settled down there.»
Ghislaine's father who had his flat on the Avenue Foch, visited them everyday. He showed them around, took them to the theatre, played the darling father to a nicety.
He had never been alone with Myriam yet, and only got a few stolen caresses here and there in the dark… when he left at night, a few kisses at best…
Myriam was too much absorbed by her new life to attach much importance to Kozincko's attempts, she had never refused him the trifles he had asked for up till now, he was as much attentionate to her as to Ghislaine and seemed to guess her slightest desires.
Myriam now was very well dressed, and on an equal footing with Ghislaine who, kind hearted as she was, would always approve her father's, suggestions.
Everything, then would have been for the best, if, by chance…
— On that morning, Ghislaine found her favourite scent bottle broken, a very small matter indeed, if Ghislaine hadn't thought it impossible to do without that subtle personal mark of elegance. Myriam quickly proposed to go and bring back from town the missing bottle.
She went out, looking for a taxi. The weather was enchanting, as she walked along the Bois towards the Porte Maillot, a smart Jaguar stopped by her side and a youthful male voice laughed:
«May I take you for a drive, Mademoiselle?»
Myriam turned round and her heart beat quick. The man who had called to her was young, gay, suntanned… He looked so self-confident, he was so handsome she had to stop, thought unwilling. She was aghast at her own answer:
«Why not?.. In such a deliberate tone the man laughed outright.
«Here's a girl who knows her own mind!»
He got out of the car and helped her in. Myriam sat down on the low seat. She didn't catch his eyes, diving quickly and appraising the snowy frills between her thighs as they were revealed for half a second.
«My name is Jerome, would it be too much to ask for yours?
«Mine is Myriam.»
She had spoken without the least embarrassment. She was amazed at finding herself sitting by this stranger, as she had so often dreamt…
It was so simple.
«Well Myriam where are we going?»
She gave the great perfumer's address. And Jerome started with the feeling that once chance was on his side.
Jerome Lazart was exceedingly good looking (and he took advantage of it you may be sure) but he was above all an adventurer. He was well off, how he had got his money is no concern of ours, he spent his fortune at a quick rate, and his one care was to get his full of pleasure every day… Constantly obsessed with one desire, he couldn't conceive how a woman might possibly resist him. All his moral and physical resources he used in that game as well as his money, hence his numberless successes.
He knew a few things about fucking a lovely woman, and got the loveliest mistresses in tow, yet he loved variety to such an extent that he was utterly unable to stop on the path of volupty. As soon as he caught sight of Myriam he wanted her. The way she walked was extremely alluring.
He hadn't hesitated a second before calling out to her. And now she was so close he was but thinking of the quickest way to get his end in.
Myriam was answering every one of his questions, he soon knew she was living with another girl, that they were along except for the servants and a strange thought was shaping itself in his mind.
«Is your friend as pretty as you are?
«She is very pretty, owned Myriam.
«Certainly less than you are. You're fresh as a bunch of roses. Would you believe me if I said I fell in love at first sight with you.»
Myriam was blushing with sheer delight. She had never known such emotions. How wonderful to listen to that caressing, warm, male voice, to be close to this handsome clear cut face, to those tender full lips. She dared not answer and looked straight in front of her. He went on.
«Do you mind if I tell you what I feel for you. I desire you with the best of my soul and body. It may be too quick, too sudden… but it's so wonderful. You're not cross with me are you.
«Oh No! said Myriam, with so much spontaneousness Jerome felt sure of the game.»
He went on in the same style. He knew the key words to a woman's… heart. His voice was caressing. Myriam was elated with his charm.
As soon as she had done with her errand he took a short cut to the Bois. Myriam protested, but he was so persuasive she accepted to play truant. As soon as they got into a secluded sunny underwood he took her in his arms, bent slowly over her lips and gave her a long, passionate kiss.
Had she wanted she wouldn't have been able to resist so imperious and caressing was he. He had tumbled her back on the seat, and sliding a hand round her waist, he fingered one breast slowly, skillfully. She was almost fainting between his arms, and a thrill ran through her frame. When his pleasure. How different from Kozincko's brutish kiss, with his appetite for her flesh and that hard quivering lump against her thighs. How kind and soft her present lover. She could have stayed like this for ages.
Jerome knew perfectly well what he was about. At the first kiss he had understood she was «virgin-ground». He saw he would have to play the grand love scene if he wanted to have her. A virgin was a great incentive and he felt he would warm her up to that point when she could no longer say nay… He found she had a splendid body as he was rambling gingerly, up and down, here and there. Firm throbbing breasts, hard high nipples; his other hand he had first laid on Myriam's knees, then it slid under the skirt, up the nylon stockings, slowly… then be reached the
