house much too quickly.
'Here's where I live, Pat. Thanks for walking me home. Do you want to come in? I could make us some coffee.'
'No. No, thanks, Karen.' The girl turned abruptly and started away from the house.
Karen opened her mouth to call Pat back, but she could think of nothing to say.
As if sensing Karen's wish, Pat turned slowly and returned to the girl. 'It's a shame, Karen, your being here, stuck with a man you don't love. I feel we belong together. I want you, Karen. I wanted you from the first moment I saw you.' Pat yanked out a crumpled cigarette from her jeans and lit it with a battered lighter. 'Okay. There… you have it all down, now. That's the way I feel in a nutshell. Now, shall we play this dramatic little scene to its bitter end? Shall I ask you to leave your unhappy home and come away with me? Shall I, do you think? And will you say yes? Will you?'
The lightness of Pat's eyes picked up the glow of her cigarette and the faraway streetlight. She took a final look at the charming heart-shaped face, a quick glance at the large breasts that pushed against the brown bodice of her dress. Then she turned on her heel and started away.
'Wait!' Karen called, finding her voice. 'Will I see you again?'
'Do you want to?' Pat asked, her voice rising to make up for the distance between them.
Karen felt wonderfully carefree. It was crazy. It was exhilarating, saying whatever she wished to this woman, not giving a damn what it sounded like to anyone else. This is what Pat did to her – this is what it meant to be free! 'Yes!' she shouted. 'I do!'
Pat smiled faintly. 'I go to the coffeehouse often.'
'Good night!' Karen called, but the strange girl had already been swallowed up by the oncoming fog. 'Goodnight!'
CHAPTER FOUR
Karen had been in bed over an hour before Al came home. Her body glowed all over. She couldn't sleep. By the time Al arrived, Karen was eager to see him. She felt like she had a wonderful secret. Even having Al would be better than being alone.
This time she didn't pretend to be asleep when he lowered himself into bed. Her body churned with the knowledge of her own desirability.
'Al?' Karen turned toward her husband.
'Whom were you expecting?' he asked grumpily.
Karen couldn't resist a smile. He was so childish sometimes. She was amazed at this burst of friendliness she felt toward her husband. 'I went to that coffeehouse tonight. You know, the one in Venice?'
'The place with all the kooks, you mean?' Allen asked.
'Oh, Al! They're just people. Artistic people. It was lots of fun. I met a real nice person.'
'Oh?' Al pretended casualness. 'A male or female?'
Karen giggled. 'Female, silly. A beautiful girl named Patricia Collins. I'd love to invite her over some evening, but I'm afraid you might fall madly in love with her.' Karen wondered if she were slightly hysterical again. Why was she saying all this? What was she trying to do to Al? Or to herself?
'Not if I have you.' Allen reached out and pulled her gently to his chest. She moved to him willingly. 'Do I have you, Karen?'
Suddenly she felt ashamed of herself. He was her husband. What was she trying to do to them? She hadn't given him a chance. She loved him – at least, she had loved him once. It couldn't be dead, not all she had felt for him. 'Yes, Al, of course.'
He ducked his head and kissed her softly on the lips. 'Karen, let me love you. Don't fight me anymore. Please!'
The urgency and hunger in his voice tugged at Karen's heart. She put her arms around the man, drawing him even closer to her. Maybe this could be a new start for them. Why not? She wanted… needed loving now. Never before had she longed for flesh against her own the way she did now.
When they kissed again, Karen slipped her hot tongue between Al's lips. She gloried now in the way his body was responding to her touch. She helped him pull the gown from her lush body. Her nipples, hard now with desire, welcomed his mouth. The teeth gnawed gently at the tender flesh while Karen moaned as the act sent shivers through her body. She was relaxed, magically readied for him and unafraid.
Karen was beginning to guess at this wonderful thing that she had read about, hoped for, dreamed about. A trembling was starting deep in her belly.
She was giving in to it gratefully. What did it matter if this grave excitement had been stimulated by a girl, a strange, beautiful girl. All Karen knew or cared about was that the moment she had so badly longed for was nearing.
Al reached for the soft waiting flesh between the satiny thighs. His fingers hesitated at the entrance-way to his wife's love spot. The dewy moistness excited him even more. For the very first time, Karen was slickly wet – the way women ready for love were supposed to be. He loved this unexpected blast of heat, the yielding tightness of her… He took his time running a finger experimentally down the hot path before enlarging it with his manhood. He wanted nothing more in this world but to lose himself inside her, bury his trembling sex in the pit of her womb.
He was between her legs in an instant; hurriedly replacing his finger with the swollen tip of his rigid erection. As always, before the very first plunge into her belly, Al felt himself swell even more, until the aching flesh threatened to burst before reaching its destination. He couldn't wait, not another second. He arched his back and wildly thrust himself into her, widening and lengthening the tender inner flesh with deep jabs that went on and on.
'Oh, baby, baby, Karen…' Al moved over her.
'Oh, Al!' she groaned. 'It… feels… wonderful…' Strange words, words she had never expected to say to her husband, but she meant it. He felt wonderful to her now. There was no pain, in fact she felt that even pain might have increased the wild passion which was building in her.
Al tried to control himself. But the way Karen was responding to him was driving him beyond control. He finished suddenly, kissing her gratefully as his body calmed itself.
Karen kissed him back and tried to wait patiently for his body to become excited again. She let her lips slip lightly to the side of his stubbly face, breathing softly in his ear. She was so near that elusive paradise she knew she must enter to live.
He was so sleepy. He was being rocked to sleep on a delicately rounded cradle of loveliness. His pillow was a warm, vibrant breast. A generous plane of white flesh was his cushion. He wanted to drift off like this, seduced into sleep by this same wonderful creature who had just brought him so much joy. 'I'm so beat, baby…' he whispered sleepily.
Karen hadn't felt the discomfort of the broken spring under her back before. But now it bruised her suddenly frozen flesh. He couldn't be doing this to her! Not now! Not after she had at last come to life in his arms.
Allen felt the sudden stiffness of her body and understood. He felt humiliated and sorry. He also felt a hot flash of anger. Every time he tried to be a man with her she always destroyed it! In the past by not responding, and now by being dissatisfied with him! 'I'm just too tired now, honey,' he whispered, trying to be what she said he never was – understanding. He kept his anger tightly in check.
'The mind is willing but the flesh is weak…' he kidded softly.
Karen felt removed from her husband, yet, her body still cried out for fulfillment. She remembered that novel she had read long ago, the one from which she had learned that term Pat used – gay. She remembered what it was the two girls in the book had done to each other. She thought of Pat, reddened, then forced herself to put the girl out of her mind. She thought again of the act, though. 'Al…' she whispered desperately, her flesh too hungry to care anymore about anything else. 'There… there are other ways…' She was intensely glad of the dark. She knew her face was furiously on fire.
Allen jerked away from his wife suddenly. He knew what she meant. He remembered the things boys at
