She said, 'Ummm,' but that was before she bit into the sandwich.
Moving her arms jerked the shortie up too far. Ellen blocked the view by handing me my beer and called back over her shoulder, 'Either go put some more clothes on or get back in bed.'
The towhead took another bite and mumbled, 'With you around I need a handicap.' She took another bite and shuffled back to the bedroom.
'See what I have to put up with?'
'I wish I had to put up with it.'
'You would.'
So we sat and finished the snack and dawdled over a beer until I said it was time to scram and she looked painfully unhappy with an expression that said I could stay if I wanted to badly enough. I told her about the kid and the arrangements I had made with the nurse, tacking on that I should have tucked him into bed long ago.
The same look she had in the office stole into her face. 'Tuck me into bed too, Mike,' she said. With the lithe grace of an animal she slid out of the chair past me and in the brief second the passion that our eyes met I felt the heat of passion that burned behind those deep blue irises.
Not much more than a minute could have passed. Her voice was a husky whisper calling, 'Mike...' and I went to her.
There was no light except that which seeped in from the other room, a faint glow that made a bulky shadow of the bed with against the deeper blackness of the room itself. I could hear the rhythmic sigh of her breathing too heavy to be normal, and my hands shook when I stuck a cigarette in my mouth.
She said, 'Mike...' again and I struck the match.
Her hair was a smooth mass of bronze edges on the pillow, her mough full and rich, showing the shiny white edges of her teeth. There was only the sheet over her that rose and dipped between the inviting hollows of her breasts. Ellen was beautiful as only a mature woman can be lustful.
'Tuck me in, Mike.'
The match burned closer to my fingers. I reached down and got the corner of the sheet in my fingers and flipped way back. She lay there beautiful and naked and waiting.
'I love brunettes,' I said.
The tone of my voice told her no, not tonight, but her smile didn't fade. She just grinned impishly because she knew I'd never be able to look at her again and say no. 'You're a heel, Mike.' The match went out.
'You told me that once tonight.'
'You're a bigger heel than I thought.' Then she laughed. When I backed out of the room she was still chuckling, but that thing was running up my back again.
I was thinking of her all the way back to my apartment and thinking of her when I put my car away. I was thinking too damn much to be careful. When I stabbed my key in the lock and turned it there was a momentary catch in the tumblers before it went all, the way around and I swore out loud as I rammed the door with my shoulder and hit the floor. Something swished through the air over my head and I caught an arm and pulled a squirming, fighting bundle of muscle down on top of me.
If I could have reached my rod I would have blown his guts out. His breath was in my face and I brought my knee up, but he jerked out of the way bringing his hand down again and my shoulder went numb after a split second of blinding pain. He tried again with one hand going for my throat, but I got one foot loose and kicked out and up and felt my toe smash into his groin. The cramp of the pain doubled him over on top of me, his breath sucking in like a leaky tire.
Then I got cocky. I thought I had him. I went to get up and he moved. Just once. That thing in his hand smashed against the side of my head and I started to crumple up piece by piece until there wasn't anything left except the sense to see and hear enough to know that he had crawled out of the room and was falling down the stairs outside. Then I thought about the lock on my door and how I had a guy fix it so I could tell if it had been jimmied open so I wouldn't step into any blind alleys without a gun in my hand, but because of a dame who lay naked and smiling on a bed I wouldn't share I had forgotten all about it.
And that was all.
Chapter Four
I thought I was in a boat that was sinking and I tried to get over the side before it turned over on me. I clawed for the railing that wouldn't stand still while the screaming of the bells and mechanical pounding of laboring engines blasted the air with frantic insistence.
Somehow I got my eyes open and saw that I wasn't in a boat, but on the floor of my own apartment trying to grab the edge of the table. My head felt like a huge swollen thing that throbbed with a terrible fury, sending the pain shooting down to the balls of my feet. I choked on my tongue and muttered thickly, 'God... my head... my head!'
The phone didn't let up and whoever was pounding on the door wouldn't go away because they could hear me inside.
I staggered to the door first and cursed. It was still unlocked; nobody had to pound like that. The damn thing was almost too heavy for me to open with one hand.
I guess I must have looked pretty bad. The elderly nurse took one look at me and her arms tightened protectively around the kid. He didn't scare so easily though, or maybe he was used to seeing a bloated, unshaven face. He laughed.
'Come on in,' I said.
The old lady didn't like the idea, but she came in. Mad, too. 'Mr. Hammer...' she started.
'Look, get off my back. I wasn't drunk or disorderly. I damn near got my skull smashed in...' I looked at the light streaming in the windows, 'last night. Right here. I'm sorry you were inconvenienced, but I'll pay for it. Goddamn that phone... hello, hello!'
'Mike?'
