Survival... ZERO!

'Stop being vulgar,' I told her.

'Ho . . . yeah. Keep talking, fingers.'

'I barely touched you.'

'Except in the right spot,' Renee said.

'Sorry about that.'

'Yes, you are. Little scarred feathers extending from your wrist, delicate, woman-killing tentacles that touch and excite. Look at me, totally bare and throwing it at you, and you lying there with a drink in your hand and all you have off is your top collar button because your tie is too tight.'

'Like?' I said.

'Like, you dumbhead,' Renee smiled. 'I often wondered what I could do to a nasty slob like you.' She took a big sip of her drink, put it back on the bar and walked toward me, the fingers of her hand spread out over the delicious swell of those sleek, wide hips.

'I think you're impotent,' she said.

The laugh stayed behind my lips. I put my drink down and looked at her, big and naked and lovely, all nice high titties and a dark curly snatch, her smile almost a sneer, and I said very softly, 'Oh, brother.'

'What?'

'In the Army we said you were ready to be rued, screwed, blued and tattooed.'

'You're not doing anything.'

'I'm wondering why I should.'

'Perhaps you can't.'

As carefully as I could I slid off the couch and shrugged my coat off. I picked the .45 out of the shoulder holster and laid the leather on the floor. Then I picked off my tie, unbuttoned my shirt and flicked the belt out of its restraints. My pants were only a hindrance. I let them go around my feet and kicked them aside.

'So you're not impotent,' she said after a long, hungry glance.

I sat down on the couch again and picked up my drink. All I had was ice left. 'I could have told you that.'

'Talking isn't proving.'

'Sugar,' I told her, 'you're forgetting something. There's nothing I have to prove. I get what I want whenever I want it. I can name the time, place and position. Twenty years ago I would have hosed a snake if somebody held it down for me, but now I'm selective. It's

still a man's world, baby, but you have to be a man to live in it. Then again, I'm still curious.'

Her forehead wrinkled inquisitively. 'Curious? About what? There's nothing more to show you unless I turn inside out.'

'Don't do that. I just had the rug cleaned.' I grinned at her.

Then she laughed, picked up her drink and sat down in my Naugahyde relincer like she was at a presidential reception. 'Curious,' she said again. Her eyes went up and down me twice, her smile getting broader. 'We make a great couple. Naked six feet apart. What can be more curious than that?'

I got up, mixed another drink and went back to the couch again. 'Why you came on so strong. This is our second time out, kid. Two hellos and you're ready to go fifteen rounds in the hay. You're class, big business and big money with enough style to snag any guy you want ...' I held up my hand to cut off her interruption '. .. and suddenly you get the hots for a lousy beat-up old soldier in the shadow police business.'

Renee's teeth glistened in her smile and she raised her glass in a mock toast to me. 'Crude, but very astute, Mike. But I told you I was going to cultivate you, didn't I?'

I nodded.

'And I told you it would be hard, didn't I?'

I grinned back and adjusted my position. There were times when a guy could be quite uncomfortable.

'So the answer should be obvious,' she said. 'I enjoy my position, I enjoy my wealth, I take pleasure from my social obligations, but oh, they're so damned dull.' She nodded toward the window. 'There aren't any challenges left out there. I operate on a man's level, but they won't let me get in there and swing. Everybody's so hellishly condescending and polite, patting my head because I did my homework and came up with the right answers. Then when nobody's looking they try to pat my fanny and always seem to miss. Sometimes I wish one of them would get me alone in the stockroom or something.'

'Attagirl, tiger,' I said.

'Stop laughing. It's serious.'

'Why don't you marry William?'

'Because he's already married.'

'Oh?'

'To corporate structure,' she said. 'Commerce is his wife, children and mistress. Women are nothing unless they

are an adjunct to the business. We are nurtured, tolerated and exploited according to our abilities to perform.'

'Come on, honey, you like the guy.'

'He's the biggest challenge of all, but the only game you play without any possible chance of winning.'

'That sure pigeonholes me, doesn't it?' I asked her.

Renee tried her drink again, then swirled the ice around in the glass, making it clink musically. 'Who can win with you, Mike?

'Nobody, unless I let them,' I said.

'Are you going to let me?'

'No.'

'You dirty dog. Why not?'

'Right now you're having too much fun sitting here talking about it. The experience is new and exciting. It's like kicks, doll. It's even better than having a guy roped to stakes in the ground and standing over him with a whip. The only thing that bugs you is that I laid down the ground rules.'

'What a bastard you are.'

'How come everybody says that to me?'

'Because you are. I can even tell what you're thinking.'

I looked at her and waited.

She said, 'You're getting kicks out of it, too, sitting there naked and horny, watching me suffer, knowing damn well there's going to be a next time and when that happens it's going to be something incredible.'

'You called me, remember?'

'And I'll call you again.' She let her teeth show in another brilliant smile. 'I don't care if you are a bastard. I wish you didn't know so much about women, though. Tell me one thing, Mike ...'

'What?'

'You could have stopped it all by having a casual drink with me and turning the conversation into more normal avenues. Why didn't you?'

I finished my drink, studied the empty glass a moment then put it on the floor. 'It's been a rough few days, sugar. I lost a friend, got shot at, clobbered, interrogated by ... oh hell. You were a welcome relief, a lift to the old ego. You have to get up to bat before you know if you can hit or not.'

'Now you're going to make me get dressed and send me home,' Renee said.

I felt a laugh rumble out of my chest. 'Roger, doll. So hate me. You'll always wonder what it would have been like.'

Her glass went down to the floor too and her laugh had a throaty tinkle to it. 'I'll find out. Cultivating you may take longer than I thought. You may turn out to be the biggest challenge of all.'

'Not tonight.'

'I know. But since you've been such a bastard, will you do something for me?'

'Maybe.'

She pushed herself out of the chair slowly, all naked, smooth skin radiating warmth and desire, little pulse beats throbbing erotically in the lush valleys. She reached out, took my hand and encouraged me to my feet until