Candy

behind her to hunt for the zipper and the movement served to emphasize her breasts by pulling the sheath dress even tighter over them. Breasts like hers don’t need any emphasis. They’re emphatic enough just by themselves.

The hunt took awhile—I think she made it take longer than necessary to prolong the suspense—but finally she located the zipper and started to tug it downward. She took her time doing that, too, and I must have looked like a statue of Don Juan as I stood there with my eyes following her every inch of the way.

When the thing was unzipped, she shrugged. That’s the only word for it. She shrugged—then the sheath dress fell away from her and there was nothing there but Candy.

No bra. I don’t think this girl owned a bra.

No slip.

No panties.

No stockings—and nobody goes without stockings in the Astor Bar.

Nobody but Candy.

Then she kicked off her shoes and there was nothing but blonde hair and smooth skin and more blonde hair and more smooth skin. I had to catch my breath. It was as if I was seeing her for the first time, as if I had never seen a naked woman before in my entire life.

It was quite a sight.

“Jeff—”

When I took her in my arms the contact of our naked bodies nearly killed me. It was that exciting. I couldn’t stand up and if the bed hadn’t been next to us we would have wound up on the floor.

We tumbled onto the bed. I heaved myself on top of her and her arms were locked around my neck. We kissed and it was as though a volcano had erupted in the neighborhood. That’s how it was.

“Jeff—”

For a minute I remembered what she and Caroline had done but now it didn’t sicken me any longer. Now it didn’t matter. It was as though it had never happened.

“Jeff—”

Then I remembered what I had done with Caroline. This also passed away from me. There was nothing but Candy and myself and the mutual passion that enveloped us and drove through us.

For just an instant the dream came to me. I saw myself alone and proud and independent, alone on an island in the Florida Keys getting back in shape and learning how to be a man again. The dream came and the dream was suddenly gone. It was a good dream, a beautiful dream, and if I had never met Candy I might someday have realized that dream.

Now it was gone forever.

“Jeff—”

I planted little kisses all over that face. I kissed her throat and the nape of her neck and the softness of her skin drove me out of my mind.

It was a time of discovery, of rediscovery. It was as if I was finding and falling in love with every curve and valley of that perfect body for the first time; simultaneously it was a return to a body I had known and loved as no man had ever known and loved the body of any woman.

“Jeff!”

“You like this, don’t you?”

“Make it last forever …”

Kisses and caresses and a whirling world. Make it last forever.

I could neither see nor hear nor smell or taste nor feel. I could do nothing but love her with all the strength of my being.

Her nails raked my back and drew blood. My teeth sank into the lobe of her ear; they also drew blood.

She screamed once shrilly. I do not know what word she screamed or if she screamed any word at all.

The scream was very loud in my ears.

Then it was over.

It was over and we lay side by side, our bodies touching, our breathing loud in the silence of the room.

I felt half-dead, weak and drained and empty, used up and ready for the incinerator.

I also felt alive, fully alive for the first time in an eternity.

I had her now. She was mine and I swore to myself that I would never let her go. The time without her, the overwhelming emptiness of life without her, vanished and ceased to be. We were together now and we would be together until death, and whether we were bound by love or hate or hunger ceased to matter.

“Jeff—”

I broke off my thoughts and listened to her.

“I’m glad you did it, Jeff. For that it was worth it. That was wonderful, Jeff.”

I smiled gently at the ceiling.

“It’ll be tough, Jeff. You did a horrible thing but we’ll get away and everything’ll be all right.”

Something was out of focus.

“I still don’t see how you did it, Jeff. I can understand why you would want to do it, but I can’t see a man like you doing a thing like that. It just isn’t the sort of thing you would do.”

“What?”

“What you did.”

I was lost.

“What are you talking about, honey?”

“You know.”

“If I knew I wouldn’t ask. I’m afraid you’ve got me running around in circles.”

She shook her head and I leaned over her on one elbow, looking down at her and thinking what a beautiful woman she was. There was a clock in the room somewhere and I could hear it ticking loud and strong, hear it beating out a rhythm as primitive as the one Candy and I had just finished.

I put out a hand and cupped one of her perfect breasts. I stroked the nipple and Candy purred at me soulfully.

“Honey,” I said again, “what were you talking about?”

She pulled me down on top of her and bruised my mouth with a kiss. I returned the kiss and we worked that one out for a while.

“You know,” she said after a while.

“But I don’t know.”

“Caroline.”

“Your lessie girl friend?”

She nodded.

“Hell,” I said. “I thought we were over and done with that little episode. It happened and it’s finished. That’s all there is to it. I’m sorry about it and all but it just happened and I couldn’t help it.”

She had a very strange look in her eye.

“Jeff—”

She paused and I got the feeling that the two of us were talking on two entirely different levels of meaning. It was a very strange feeling and, I’ll admit, an eminently distressing one.

I banished it by devoting renewed attention to her breasts, but she didn’t let herself get carried away. She pushed me away and looked deeply into my eyes.

“Jeff,” she said, “either you’re the coldest man I ever met or you’ve got things mixed up.”

“Cold?”

She nodded soberly.

I did something to prove that I wasn’t cold and she giggled. Then she seemed to remember what we had been talking about and the giggle broke off sharply.

“Jeff,” she said, “about Caroline—”

“To hell with Caroline. She should drop dead.”

“Oh, God.”

“What’s the matter?”