'Jesus, let's talk for a minute. Maybe we can figure something out,' he wheedled. 'You're always sloughing me off. Mara, whatever I've done, I'm sorry… I love you. You know that.'
His little-boy tone touched her deeply. She could not bear to hurt him. She backtracked a little.
'Maybe we could have an early dinner tomorrow night,' she suggested. Her mind was calculating Ruth's movements. Ruth had told her she had to do some shopping and dress fittings right after school. She could tell Ruth that since she could not figure her time too accurately, the best thing would be to meet her later at her house. Ruth would not be suspicious if she agreed to come later to her home around nine.
Mike was delighted with the idea and. readily accepted. She did not realize what a mistake it was until the following night. The dinner and her early departure only reinforced his jealousy and his belief that she was lying to him.
The dinner went along beautifully. Mike took her to one of the best seafood places on the beach near Malibu. The wine he ordered and the food, lobster thermidor cooked to perfection, the lovely decor of the restaurant with its plate glass window fronting on the restless ocean-all of pleased her very much.
But as the clock crept toward eight, she began to be apprehensive. She had promised Ruth to meet her by nine-fifteen at the latest.
'I think we'd better go, Mike,' she said finally.
'But why baby?' he laughed. 'I was going to order some Benedictine and brandy-you love that. And then I thought we'd drive along the water, get the cool breeze. Maybe even stop and do a little loving,' he finished with a leer mixed with his usual grin.
'No… I have to go home,' she said. 'I-I have to do a report.'
'I'll help you, then,' he laughed. 'I'm great at reports. And we can squeeze in a little screwing too,' he added softly.
'No,' she said. 'I-I have to deliver it to my boss, Miss Peter,' she said quickly. Too quickly because he remained unconvinced.
'You're dumping me for another date, right?' he said flatly…
'No I'm not,' she protested. 'We agreed on an early dinner-just as we said. And that we'd break it off early.'
'But it's only eight-thirty, for Pete's sake!'
When she remained adamant, he drove her home, keeping a sullen silence most of the way. She tried to rouse him out of his grim mood but gave up finally. He barely kissed her on the cheek and drove away. Mara went into her apartment, called Ruth to apologize for coming late, and left a few minutes later.
Driving like the wind, she did not notice the familiar car following her from a distance. Had she done so, she would have panicked. Mike was following her all the way, making sure that at least one or two cars moved between them.
At Ruth Peter's house, she parked and ran toward the door. Ruth had been polite on the telephone but cool. She hated being kept waiting.
Still, Mara's warm smile and the girl's beauty melted her intended frostiness. She forgot the lecture she had prepared and the warning that Mara must never do this again. Instead, she threw her arms around the Eurasian and hugged her tightly.
'If you only knew how much I missed you darling,' she cooed in her ear. 'Did you have dinner?'
Mara nodded. 'Just a hamburger but I'm not hungry.' Ruth eyed her quietly. 'Sure you don't want to eat any thing?'
Mara shook her head. Ruth took her by the hand and led her to the master bedroom.
'Well, I want to eat you darling,' she whispered 'Very, very much.'
Outside Mike, puzzled by Mara's sudden departure and her arrival at the mansion-like property, crept around to the lighted window in the rear.
Perhaps Mara was telling the truth. Maybe she had to do the report for her boss. But then why had she left the apartment ten minutes after she entered it? Again, giving her the benefit of the doubt, he reasoned that her boss might have called and demanded that she bring it over right away. Maybe she wanted to work on it with Mara.
But something kept nagging at him. Why couldn't she have waited another half hour in the restaurant? he asked himself petulantly. And why was she consistently breaking their dates. There must be another guy involved, he told himself doggedly. Nobody just rushed off like that. The report crap he was reluctant to believe. She was a beautiful girl and he was sure some of the guys on the faculty were dying to get into her pants. Well, he damned well intended to find out if that was what was actually happening.
Creeping on tiptoe to the window that was lit, he peered into the sliver of glass that had not been rendered opaque by the window shade. As he stared, he saw nothing for a moment and then he gasped. Mara was stark naked.
And she was not with a man. She was with a woman who was as naked as she and the woman was on her knees busily licking Mara's pussy.
Chapter 6
Mike's initial reaction was sharp disbelief. A moment later it was sharp anger. The bitch who employed his girlfriend was a dyke, a living dyke, and she was asking, no, demanding, that Mara put out for her. It was perfectly clear to him and he could not even think of any other alternative.
Obviously, he thought, that's why she's been so closed mouthed about her school job, about the people she worked with. And especially about her boss. Whenever he had asked her about them, she had been extremely evasive.
No wonder the poor kid's been avoiding me, he told himself. No wonder she had to break loose early tonight. The cunt, her boss, probably laid it on the line. You either go to bed with me or you're out on your ass. What other explanation could there be for what he was seeing right now? He knew damned well that Mara Blake wasn't queer. He had gone to bed with her too often for that. She had sucked his cock too many times for that.
His first plan was to break in on them somehow. Just get into the house and confront them bluntly. And warn the lousy dyke that if she didn't get her hands off of Mara, he would go right up to the Board of Education and expose her. But a moment later he reconsidered. What if Mara got angry at him for spying on her, for following her the way he did. He couldn't really blame her, could he. He knew how pissed he himself would be if she had pulled the same stunt on him, tried to catch him in the hay with another girl.
But how the hell could he get the goods on Ruth Peters, he asked himself, without breaking in? He racked his brains for a few minutes and then realized that the answer was in his trunk. He always carded around a cassette recorder to make notes on business arrangements he might forget during the press of other meetings and running around town. Or he would need the machine to dictate memos. Why couldn't he take it inside with him, record Ruth and Mara's conversation and then call Ruth on the phone and play it back.
'This will go to your boss baby, and anyone over him in three days if I hear you're playing around with Mara again,' he would warn her. His guess was that the bitch would drop Mara like a hot potato. He got the cassette player, a small pocket-sized machine and crept around to the kitchen door. Using his pocket knife he fiddled with the lock. It was not easy but he had done enough times with his own door to know how to open a simple lock.
After several moments he succeeded in opening the door and crept inside.
A moment later he was kneeling in front of the bedroom where the two women were making love. Turning on the cassette player which was outfitted with a condenser microphone that easily picked up sounds yards away, he waited. He took care to stand as far back from the doorway as possible.
'Oh dearest Mara,' he heard Ruth say. 'I don't know what on earth I'd have done without you. I lie in bed here mornings thinking about you and your gorgeous pussy. And thinking up new ways to do it to you. You ever think of those things?'
'Yes,' Mara said.
