As I stepped around the front fender of the car, I felt the quick surge of dizziness. The next moment I bounced against it, my hand gripping the rear view mirror. She was at my side, gripping my arm, holding me and steadying me.
“Are you all right?” she asked. I caught the note of concern in her voice. Even with the frown on her face she was cute.
I was honestly all right, the wave of dizziness having passed but I decided to fake it. “Oh, sure,” I said. “I think I’ll be able to make it.”
Shoving myself away from the side of the car I began to walk unsteadily. She remained at my side, with her hands grimly holding my arm. I liked that. I liked the way she was repeatedly glancing up at me as we headed for the elevator. I liked the smell of her perfume. It was an expensive scent, with just enough spice in it to tingle my nostrils.
After the elevator doors closed and we began to ascend, she finally let go of my arm. “There,” she said. “Just lean up against the wall.”
“Oh, yes,” I agreed. “That’s much better.”
Her glance locked on mine. “I think you’ve been faking it ever since I told you that I was Lee Harmon’s wife.”
“Let’s forget about him. What’s your name?”
“Bonnie.”
The elevator had stopped, and now she was stepping out into the hallway. She walked to a door a short distance from the elevator and dug a key from her coat pocket. While I was brushing some of the parking lot dust off my clothes I told her my name. The lock clicked and she shoved the door open. “I don’t remember his ever mentioning your name, Lincoln.”
“He will,” I said.
After I’d followed her inside the apartment, she closed the door. “He never discusses his business problems with me.”
“I didn’t realize I was a problem.”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” she said. “Please take off your coat.”
While I shrugged out of it she asked, “What do you take with your aspirin?
Water, or something stronger?” Her hand came out to take my trench coat. Again the humor was visible, little sparks dancing in her dark eyes.
I decided to play it straight. “Whenever I take scotch, the aspirin doesn’t upset my stomach.”
“You should write copy for aspirin ads.” She took my coat and headed out of the room. “Be a dear and light the fireplace will you?”
I didn’t do it immediately. First I glanced about, noting that the apartment was furnished in ultramodern. Apparently Lee Harmon had a few bucks. The view to the south was excellent, I was sure, had it not been raining. As it was, the darkness and rain clouds had closed in, moving the mists into the streets and there weren’t any lights visible. It was a good night to spend by the fire.
The gas fireplace was huge, with three large fake logs. In front of it was a polar bear rug. The real McCoy. That figured. I could just imagine Harmon up in the Artic, stalking the beast at temperatures of about, eighty below. But somehow I couldn’t imagine him married to either Sarah or Bonnie. But you never know.
After I’d touched the match to the gas and adjusted the flame so that the tips were curling around the logs, I straightened up again. I’d noted that the fireplace had been hot, as though the gas had been turned off recently.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Bonnie said.
I turned around and saw her coming towards me. She’d taken off her hat and rain coat and she was now wearing a coolie-type jacket and a pair of silver capris.
With high-heeled pumps. She was carrying two glasses in her right hand. Her left hand was closed in a fist.
She’d remarked that I should write copy for aspirin ads. I told her, “You should model capris, Bonnie. On you they’re delightful.”
She smiled as she held out her left hand. “Thank you. Care for an aspirin?”
“Thanks.” I let her dump them into my hand and then I took one of the glasses of scotch. She kicked off her pumps. In her bare feet she was about four inches shorter but still tall and very slender. Not too much weight at her chest, but all of her was supple and there were a lot of curves.
While I was popping the aspirins into my mouth and washing them down with scotch, she settled down on the bear rug. Her hand patted the spot next to her.
“Come on, there’s lots of room.”
After I’d settled down beside her and we were both sitting on the rug and facing the fireplace, I said, “I feel better already, Bonnie.”
“You can be honest with me, Lincoln. I don’t think he hurt you that badly.”
There was still a little pain at the back of my head.
“All right. Let us bare our souls.”
“Bare,” she said.
“Where’s Lee?”
“By now he should be in San Francisco. I already told you that he won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“How did it happen that you found me, down on the cement floor, inspecting the treads on those front tires?”
“I was on my way out. I saw you snuggled up against the wall, in front of my car.”
“Don’t let me keep you from your appointment.”
“I had nothing planned. I was going to a movie. By the way, your shoes need a shine.”
“I never get a shoeshine when it’s raining.”
She turned her head to look at me. Her lovely face was relaxed, and the eyes were twinkling. “I suppose you think that I pickup every man that comes along.”
“No. Only those that need shoe shines.”
“I like you, Lincoln. You’re exactly what I need on a lonely and dreary rainy night.”
She set down her glass; and then she stood up in one smooth and fluid motion.
She went to the couch, picked up two of the pillows and tossed one down to me.
“Live,” she said.
She was back on the rug again, sliding down with her feet towards the fire while she shoved her pillow under the back of her head. I did the same and we were lying on our backs, on the white rug, looking at the flames curling around the logs. I could hear the ice cubes tinkling in her glass as she took a sip.
There wasn’t any music in the background and the apartment was very quiet. The wind must have shifted at that moment because I could now hear the rain splattering against the glass on the south side of the apartment. And Bonnie wasn’t saying a word as she kept sipping at her drink. It was a time for thoughts.
First of all, I thought about Lee Harmon. He’d jumped me without provocation, as the Russians say. He hadn’t even known my name. Nor had he known what I wanted to talk to him about. When I regained consciousness, his wife was there and she brought me up to her apartment. She’d made sure that I knew that he had gone to San Francisco and that he wouldn’t return until tomorrow. She’d also given me the impression that she’d found me after Lee had departed and that she’d been on her way to a movie. Conclusion: I was exactly what she needed on a lonely and dreary rainy night. As she’d told me.
Suddenly she said, “I thought this was a time for baring the soul.”
“It is.”
“No questions? No third degree? No pass at the hostess?”
“Which do you prefer?”
“A pass at the hostess.”
“How long have you been married to Lee?”
“Too long.”
“Why?”
She laughed softly. “The drive to make a buck. The nights without him. All alone. The nights with him.. When he plans his next hunting expedition. The smell of cigar smoke in his mouth, in his clothes. The way he coughs at night.”
“It’s a nice place you’ve got here, Bonnie.”
“I’m twenty-one years old. Maybe I wanted too much too soon.”
“I know a couple of dozen girls that would be eager to trade places with you, Bonnie.”
“Have them call him tomorrow night. He’ll be back by that time.”
“Did you know his first wife, Sarah?” I sneaked it in.
“No.”
“Did he ever talk about her?”
“Negative.” She sat up quickly and then her hand was extended. “You need another drink, Lincoln.”
She departed after I’d handed her my glass. Again the apartment was quiet with only the rain gushing against the window’s glass.
Next step. Lee was gone until tomorrow. Until them I wouldn’t be able to talk to him about Sarah. Apparently Bonnie knew nothing about Sarah or Lee’s relationship with her. Maybe Lee had killed Sarah, and at this moment be was getting out of town, out of the country. But that was Jenks’ job. My job was to take care of Bonnie.
At that moment she returned with two fresh glasses of scotch. After she’d handed me my drink she settled down onto the’ rug again, with her bare feet stretched out towards the fireplace.
“I love the rain,” she said.
“Then why were you leaving the apartment? I remember you said you were going to a movie.”
She didn’t answer for several seconds, and the rain beating against the windows was very loud.
Then she said, “Because the rain makes me sexy. It gets bad, I almost go out of my mind.”
“Well!
Now that I thought about it, it made me sexy, too. I turned my head so that I could look at her. She was holding her drink on her stomach, the fingers restlessly massaging the sides of the glass. My glance moved up to her chest, noting that the front of her coolie blouse was rounded up a bit, but nothing fantastic:
But her dark lashes were long and her face was very lovely. I remembered the way her eyes had sparkled, and the spray of freckles on her nose. I couldn’t knock it. I set my drink aside, off the rug and on the floor, so that it wouldn’t get knocked over when the action started. Then I turned onto my left side and took the glass from her hands. I placed it on the floor next to mine.
Bonnie hadn’t moved. Her hands were still resting on the flatness of her stomach. This time, when I rolled onto my left side, my hand reached out and went to the top button of her coolie blouse. Still no reaction from her. I opened the top button.
I moved onto the next one, the one after that; and a moment later I’d unbuttoned the front of the coolie blouse. I could see the dark strip of bare skin down the front of her; and then I flipped both sides apart, baring her from the waist to the chin.
Her breasts were dusky and the size of tea cups but they were poised defiantly, the dark-circled nipples like black ball bearings. She was beginning to breathe rapidly, her chest rising and falling spasmodically. The rest of her was still motionless.
Gently I placed the flatness of my right hand on the lower part of her rib cage, just below her breasts, wondering how she’d react to that. There was marked shuddering and her hands slid away from her stomach and dropped to her sides.
I slid my hand down the warm and soft flatness of• her stomach, until I’d reached the top of the capris that were snugged around her waist. As the side of my hand pressured against the tops, I saw her hand moved quickly at her side, followed by the purring sound of her zipper.
Now the tops of her capris were no longer snugged tightly around her waist.
She’d opened them up and there was a lot of room. A lot of room for my hand and I slid it down further, moving it under her waistband until I’d reached the soft and throbbing cushion.
I covered it, pressuring my hand and fingers against It. Then she turned onto her side so that she could face me. That put an end to my little project.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” she asked softly.
“I thought it was,” I said.
“I’m glad.”
She got to her feet again in that same easy and fluid motion, shrugging out of the coolie blouse and letting it drop away from her shoulders. And then she’d hooked her thumbs into her waistband of her capris, and as she bent forward, she wriggled her hips as her hands shoved the capris down her long slender legs.
Abruptly she sat down on the rug, skinning the legs of the capris off. She pulled them free of her and tossed them aside. On her knees, she turned to look down at me, resembling the girl on her knees in the soft drink ad.
“Now you’ve started something,” she said throatily, “that I’ll have to finish.”
She was leaning over me, her hands loosening my tie, getting rid of it. Then she was moving swiftly down the front of my shirt, opening it up the way I’d opened up her coolie blouse. Except she had a lot of little extras. Like sliding her hands under the shirt and against my chest, rubbing my chest and nipples and letting her fingers tug and stroke my hair.
When she reached my waist, where the waistband of my slacks was snugged a little tight, I opened it up the way she’d helped me. A moment later one hand was inside, sliding down the front of me, the other one tugging at the tops of my slacks. I was up on my heels, lifting my butt off the rug so that the slacks and the rest of my clothing would slip off easily.
With both of her hands stroking and caressing the front of me, I kicked off my shoes, using my stocking feet to work the slacks down off my legs and feet.
Quickly I sat up and peeled off my socks, feeling the heat from the fireplace warming my chest.
“All right,” I said. “Now we’re on equal footing.”
She was giggling as my arms went around her bare back and pulled her down on top of me.
“You really swing,” she said, sliding across the top of me, her mouth settling onto mine.
It was heavenly, having her stretched out full length on top of me, her weight no more than a light blanket. Her hard and heated nipples were digging into my chest while her urgent tongue drilled repeatedly into my mouth. Down below I could feel her shoving and grinding herself against me and I was shifting and shoving right back, wanting to appease the hunger that throbbed within her.
Suddenly she ripped her mouth away from mine. With soft and passionate whimpering, her lips were at the sides of my neck, then my chest. Her tongue was a heated and moist feather that moved erratically across my chest and then traveled down my stomach.
I was trying to hold onto her, grasping at her arms and shoulders but she was damp and slippery as an eel as she continued to slither down the front of me.
“The rain,” she said urgently, and then I could here her panting. “It shouldn’t do this to me but it does. And I love it!”
I could feel the touch of her tongue and lips, along with the heat from the fireplace. It was burning my stomach and thighs and groin. And then it seemed as though the gas jet must have been turned up high because the lower part of me seared with the heat.
“Bonnie!” I said sharply. I was murmuring her name repeatedly because she was there and everywhere and she was bringing me more heat and delights than the fireplace.
“Bonnie!”
It came out very loudly because I couldn’t control myself and then I was fighting the ecstasy, but only for a few seconds, immediately giving in to it and finding that I was squirming across the rug’s softness, shoving myself towards her and the heat of the fireplace, and letting the heat and the touch of both envelop me and wrap me in their completeness.
There were a few jabs of pain at the back of my head where the headache had been before, but at the same time there were the jabs of exotic pain below, and I was completely overwhelmed by her smothering heat and voracious hunger.
Vaguely I heard the wind lashing the rain against the windows. I thought I felt the flames in the fireplace surge upward as though they meant to break out of their confines. Just as quickly there was glowing warmth and completeness. I was sinking down into the softness of the white rug and I was happy and contented that I’d started something that she’d had to finish.
It took us a while to cool off again but finally we were slipping into our clothes. Then, as before, we were sitting side by side on the huge bearskin. We sipped at the scotch, well watered because the ice had melted long ago.
“Well,” I said, “I’d better be going.”
“So glad you came,” she said.
I got to my feet. “Don’t get up. I can find my way out, if you’ll reveal where you put my trench coat.”
“It’s in my bedroom.”
I went in the same direction she’d gone when she’d taken it from me, and before long I’d located the bedroom. I picked my coat off the bed, tucked it under my arm, and came out again.
She was still stretched out on her back in front of the fireplace, smiling up at me. “You’re a doll, Lincoln.”
“Thanks. Take care, Bonnie.”
As I opened the apartment door I heard the doorbell ring. Framed in the doorway was the most exciting girl I’d ever seen.
She was as tall as Bonnie, slender and lithe, but the curves were more pronounced. She wasn’t wearing a raincoat. Just a pair of capris and a sweater.
Her breasts were proud and large, almost unbelievable. High-heeled pumps.
“Well, if It isn’t my little sister,” I heard Bonnie remarking behind me.
Bonnie continued, “Come in, Honey. Meet Lincoln.”
As Honey smiled at me and stepped into the apartment, Bonnie came to her feet.
“Lincoln, this is my sister, Honey.”