When the phone rang that day a couple of months ago, Nancy had heard the familiar voice and knew who it was immediately: Rita Colbert newly married and now Mrs. Tom Nelson. Nancy had laughed. Whatever her name now, it was good to hear from Rita. They had gone to college together and, after graduation, they had drifted apart and lost contact with one another. Nancy was genuinely glad to hear from Rita, for she had really liked her at school. Warm, tender, a bit wacky and rumored to be "racy"! Nancy found Rita more sinned against than sinning. Rita liked to stay out late and have a good time. She liked to drink a little too much, but she had a good heart and common sense. Besides, she was the one girl she knew at college that didn't resent her stunning beauty and the way men buzzed around her. "Hell," Rita had cracked, "it gives me a chance to meet a lot of groovy swingers."
"Nancy, how the hell are you and guess who this is?" The voice was gay and kind of brazen.
"Rita! Where are you?"
"Here in Chicago."
And that had been the start of it. Nancy didn't, at that time, suspect a thing. She never knew that Tom was checking her out from the bar, seeing if she was right. They met for lunch down on the busy loop. Rita had suggested a place which turned out to be an expensive bar with pine paneling and leather chairs studded with brass nails. It was darkly lighted and the lunch was expensive and tasteful and it was good to see Rita once more. Nancy had noticed that a lot of handsome men and attractive women were meeting one another. Also, a lot of men were openly staring at her ink-black hair and stunning sensually full lips that contrasted so wantonly with her delicately chiseled features.
And Rita. Rita had changed since college. She was flashier, more heavily made up and… with Nancy trying not to notice… she wasn't above flirting with complete strangers. Twice Nancy thought they were going to be joined by men and ruin their chance for woman-talk. Rita seemed to be inviting it the way she looked across the crowded room at the men with that almost brazen smile and the way she wore her dress cut low… cut almost indecently low… so that everyone could get a good look at her firmly swelling deep cleavage that quivered with her every movement.
But they weren't interrupted and they had a chance for long talk and catching up on one another. Rita had married Tom who was an up-and-coming young executive in public relations. Rita yakked a mile a minute, telling Nancy of all the young people they were meeting, of all the parties and celebrities she was meeting. "And what are you doing?"
Nancy felt almost embarrassed; her own life with Allan was so dull by comparison. She apologized and Rita waved a hand. "Listen, I'm fascinated. Tell me all about him, your Allan."
Nancy had! She told her friend almost everything, including the fact that Allan had to go out of town periodically, going to other branches. "He volunteers for a lot of it." She looked off, toying with her salad. "He wants so much to get ahead. I understand… still, I get lonely."
Rita was all enthusiasm, ordering another drink, another luncheon martini with a flourish. "Tell you what. Next time he goes out, you come with me. We'll make the rounds. You'll meet Tom. We'll have a blast. We'll do the town up and keep each other company. Tom will be all over the place, and won't have too much time for us. He'll be working actually. I swear to God, sometimes when I want to see my husband, I have to go to an opening or reception or some cocktail party. I swear, when I slow down, I'm going to pass out. What say, is it a deal?"
Nancy had smiled. A bit of partying and fun wouldn't be out of line. After all, it was boring being at home alone at night. How many nights could one girl spend cleaning and washing? How many nights watching idiots prance on Let's Make A Deal? How avidly could one read the Reader's Digest and TV Guide? A crooked incongruous grin split Nancy's classic good looks. Her mouth gave her away, for it was sensuously full and red. "Okay, if it all works out."
"If what works out?"
"If Allan is out of town on a night when you're doing something."
Rita laughed and cocked her head. "Where's Allan now?"
"He's in Cleveland. He'll be home tomorrow evening."
Rita made a face. "You're on. We're going to the premiere of some movie tonight. At least that's what I think is happening. I think Tom said something about a big party and then this premiere of a new movie."
The two girls looked at one another and laughed. "Okay!" Nancy said. Actually, she liked such sudden, improvisational happenings. To suddenly take the hunch of the moment… to accept a wild dare… to have fun… to run wild in an amusement park… that was Nancy's idea of having fun. Allan was always quietly amused by her antics and wild ideas. One day they had been quietly strolling in Lincoln Park when Nancy had paused on a bridge over a pond. "Listen, let's just jump in, huh?" she'd said seriously. Allan had quietly and patiently explained here and now wasn't such a good idea. He was always pointing out folly to her. He treated her as if she were addlepated and had to be protected from the world. "You trust everyone," he was fond of saying. "You never look before you leap."
Allan was out of town, far away, unable to advise her or ask her to think when Rita invited her along. No one was there to stop or even warn her. Indeed, there was nothing to worry about. Ahead lay a party and a movie… a premiere. Nancy grinned and felt a giddy recklessness. "Okay, let's go on the town!"
It turned out to be an exciting afternoon and early evening. Nancy slipped right into Rita's mood which was one of mock boredom. They laughed a great deal and shopped in the better downtown Chicago stores. It was a beautiful summer day, not too hot or windy, and the girls enjoyed themselves hugely, leaving a wake of turned male heads wherever they went.
In the late afternoon it grew hotter and Rita suggested killing some time in a bar before it was time to go to the party. They found a fashionable bar which Rita said was frequented by lawyers. Some of them knew Rita… rather intimately, it seemed. Men came up to her and put their arms around her, grinning in a way that Nancy didn't approve. She also didn't like the way they looked at her and her figure, and asked about her… it was like she was… something to be bought and sold… something to be used.
"You got to get used to this kind of life, honey," Rita said, rolling her eyes as if she were bored and disgusted with the whole thing. "I mean, everybody is informal and friendly. One gets used to such things."
"I bet."
"Hey, drink up, you're lagging behind." Rita jiggled the ice cubes in her empty glass and ordered another round with a nod to the waiter.
Nancy noted how hard and fast Rita was drinking. She never used to back in her college days. At lunch, she had downed three big martinis with no visible effect. Now, they were drinking more, and Nancy was beginning to feel the effect of her cocktails. At home, Allan never allowed more than once cocktail before dinner. He frowned on people who drank too much. But… Nancy smiled to herself… Allan was out of town and wouldn't be back until late tomorrow. She grinned at Rita. She was feeling no pain and just a little wicked. It was fun, doing something different, meeting people who seemed just a little bit disreputable and racy. It was exciting and just enough irresponsible to feel glamorous and jet-set-type, drinking the afternoon away in a downtown Chicago bar.
They sat, two extremely attractive women, drinking with men coming over and buying them drinks and flirting with both of them… they flirted with Rita because of her deep cleavage. Her breasts seemed high and firm, and men were constantly peering down at them. They flirted with Nancy because of her incredibly good looks. She sat smiling, looking fresh and clean, her voluptuously supple body barely hidden beneath her clothes. She sat with her long tapering legs crossed at the knee, showing a flash of sheathed thigh all firm and white. Invariably, when men came over to their table, they ended up flirting with Nancy.
At first, she was flattered and pleased with all the attention she was getting; but as the long afternoon wore on and more drinks were consumed and cocktails began to stock up in front of her, she found the conversation getting rough. One man whose name she didn't catch, was sitting next to her. He was a big man, older, with a gruff voice. He put a sweaty hand on her thigh and squeezed it, hoarsely whispering, "Let's you and me go have some action."
Nancy smiled at him with her elegant features serene and composed. "I beg your pardon?"
"Fuck," the man whispered in her ear.
Nancy reacted as if hit in the face by a wet towel. She looked at the man, astonished. Surely she hadn't heard right.
"Fuck," the man repeated. "Get a couple of bottles and a hotel room and fuck. I'd like to fuck you to within an inch of your life. I'd like to fuck you until you beg me to stop."
The flow and company around their table suddenly shifted, everybody moving like they all were in a kaleidoscope. Nancy suddenly realized she was getting drunk, and she pushed her drink away and upset several drinks. Everyone laughed and no one seemed to mind. Several men ordered more drinks as Nancy looked around, trying to find the man who had whispered in her ear.
His words burned in her brain like acid sears through steel. He had been crude and vulgar and… filthy. His words had sounded lewd and visions of a couple… naked… in a hotel room was in her mind. She was shocked and indignant by what the man had so lasciviously whispered in her ear… and… Oh God, she was oddly aroused. No one… ever… had ever dared talked to her like that before… no one! His suggestion was obscene and insulting and yet, yet, she found a little smile playing about her sensuously pulpy lips. "No more for Nancy, she's smashed!"
Nancy peered across the table to see a man pawing Rita rather boldly, as Rita laughed and pointed at her. "She's my friend and I gotta take her to the party and the premiere!" Rita called out.
"Hey, the party! The premiere!" The call went up around the table, and Nancy found herself being helped to her feet. Everyone was talking at once as the men settled the bill among themselves, and it appeared to Nancy that everyone was talking at once… and she really couldn't understand what anyone was saying. She let herself guided among the tables and led along as Rita laughed and shouted something to her, and they were suddenly out on the street where Nancy found herself gulping in hot night air and her face felt the sultry heat of a Chicago summer night. They were out of the cooling air conditioning, and it was dark outside. The loop was awash in light from cars and taxis and the great office buildings that towered over them. Nancy stood a little tipsy, feeling strong men's hands holding her up, as she realized it was night! She wondered how long they had been in the bar?
Laughing, shouting, jostling, they all crammed into a cab. Nancy couldn't see the man who had whispered in her ear. Apparently he was gone, lost in the semi-drunken shuffle. The cab lurched along and Nancy found herself crammed between two men. She felt their strong warmth engulfing her, and she laughed at jokes and said senseless things.
Her mind was miles away.
The words of the stranger growled in her ear were still ringing in her head. The very audacity of it! He had suggested they go off somewhere and do obscene things together, and she didn't even know his name! Her mind mused on all the hotel rooms in Chicago and, perhaps, in some of them, there were men and women in them; strangers, just meeting and getting together and stripping naked and drinking too much and doing obscene things together.
For the first time in her life, Nancy felt her body racked with an emotion that hit her with a fury and intensity she had never even dreamed of before.
She found every single nerve in her body tingling with a supreme lust. She sat in the crowded cab as if in a trance, her eyes looking far off and slightly glazed, her red fulsome lips slightly parted and gleaming wetly, as she felt a lewdness throbbing in her pulse as she wondered: Could I do that? Could I have gone off with that stranger?
The answer was yes! Nancy sat, feeling a massive throbbing pound rhythmically through her sensually aroused body as she sat and allowed herself, for a few reckless moments, to imagine… daydream… about what it would be like to be naked and alone with a strange man. The drinks were beginning to have an effect on her, and she still felt as if she were on a holiday. Wildly smiling, she let herself think about what it would be like to be naked and drinking with a stranger. More than that… to be naked and enticing in front of a stranger like the one who whispered in her ear! To be totally naked and at the mercy of someone who was coarse and vulgar and used her like a whore! To have some hairy man paw her soft naked body… to have them do obscene things to her… to be forced to do… things… to him! Oh God! It was all so… so exciting!
"Hey, what's the matter, baby?"
Nancy turned, startled, to see the man crammed against her was talking to her. "Oh. Nothing. Why?"
"You looked funny."
"Did I?"
"Hell, yes. No private thoughts on this party. Everybody sticks together. Hey, here we are!"
They piled out of the cab in a strange part of Chicago, a section that was away from everything Nancy knew. They fled their way into a brownstone house. It was one of those brownstones that are completely gutted inside and re-done in modern taste. It was also obvious that a large noisy party was going on inside. Speakers carried the sound of a jazz combo playing somewhere in the depths of the house. Nancy hesitated at the crowd around the door, but found herself propelled forward from all sides as they waded into the din of laughter and conversation and people standing elbow to elbow.
The whole house was packed with people as they inched their way deeper into the party. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and everyone seemed to be drinking. Nancy, still shaken from her lewd daydreaming, tried hard to get her bearings. A drink was shoved in her hand, and Rita was shouting in her ear.
"Hey, this is Tom. My Tom. Tom, baby, I want you to meet Nancy Dodge. Remember the Nancy I talked about? This is her."
Nancy looked into the sweating face of a handsome man who was just beginning to get a little fat. He looked at her face, and then looked up and down her body, un-nerving Nancy, for it was almost as if he had guessed what she had been thinking in the cab. He almost made her feel naked the brash way he looked at her breasts and the brazen way he looked at the fertile and velvety "vee" where her vagina nestled behind her dress. She felt she really didn't like him as he let out a low long wolf-whistle and said, "Hi, Nancy, welcome aboard."
Her instinct was to distrust and avoid him, yet she was feeling absolutely no pain and was completely swept up in the excitement and fun of the night: this was going to be something she would remember for a long while. She giggled, realizing there were already things that she didn't dare tell Allan about. She felt a little wicked when she thought about telling Allan about the obscene stranger. She could never tell him about the foul-mouthed man. She looked around her at the room packed with people. People were pressed tightly together and talking and laughing and drinking and smoking. A regular din of laughter and shouted conversations fell on her ears. She looked about, seeing people touching one another, kissing one another. Nancy watched with a strange kind of hunger in her as a couple kissed with their mouths wide open, their tongues wetly thrusting in and out of each other's mouths.
A little drunk, elated, excited with the heady party swirling around her, Nancy had a gut-feeling and knew, intuitively, that something was going to happen. She looked about her. This was no ordinary gathering. It was very subtle, but it was there.
It was the people. Nancy let herself be pushed by the crowd, feeling bodies all around her, seeing faces emerge from the swirl and disappear again. It was the people. All the women were young, her age, and all of them were attractive. The men were generally older, but still handsome. People were dressed just a trifle too stylishly, a little too loosely. One girl, wearing an Indian headband, was obviously not wearing a brassiere. Nancy took in her cool, wicked good looks as she went by.
"She's in the movie," a voice said in her ear. "I hear she's out of sight."
Nancy frowned. They way everyone was dressed and… more than that… the loose, almost insolent way so many people were acting… the way men and women pawed one another. She looked around her for a face she would recognize. "Say, what's the name of this film we're going to see?" she asked suddenly, her instincts coming to life under the constant barrage of suggestive sights.
A man, shouldering by with his hands full of drinks, paused and eyed Nancy before saying, "It's called, Scorpio Sex Rites."
Nancy opened her mouth to say something, anything, but the man was gone, already lost in the crowd. Nancy twisted around, feeling one of her breasts crushed against a man's arm. She couldn't see anyone she knew. She tried to go against the flow of the crowd and she saw she was working her way to where Rita stood laughing with several men. Tom, a drink in one hand, was a few feet away, shaking hands with someone who looked important. She got to Rita's side and leaned to talk in her ear. "Rita… I mean… what kind of a movie is this premiere we're going to see?"
Rita looked surprised. "Didn't I tell you? It's called, Scorpio Sex Rites."
Again, she leaned next to Rita's ear. "Is it a sex film?"
"Yeah, sure. Didn't I tell you?"
"A real one… a real sex film?"
Rita shouted back. "Yeah! It was made in San Francisco. Real hard-core. Tom's representing these people who are fronting a theater operation here. Big money."
Nancy was too stunned to say anything. She let the crowd gradually part them. She felt she had to get off somewhere… a bathroom or something… for awhile and be by herself and think. Should she be doing this? The question demanded answering. She was feeling good and had too much to drink, but… should she be doing this?
She had read enough in the papers and magazines and discussed it enough with Allan to have a good idea of what she was in for if she saw the movie. She imagined she knew what they were like. One night, Allan had talked about the two of them going to see one. Finally, he ruled against it, deciding it wasn't right. Nancy felt she had to agree with him, still… there was always that lingering longing… just once… just to see one and find out what it was about.
The temptation was too much. Nancy's face was flushed with excitement as she drained her glass and made her way to the nearest bar. After all… she always had a perfect out… she didn't know what she was seeing… besides, if it got too rough, she could always leave…
She found her pulse pounding in her wrist with an excitement so intense it almost made her giddy! With a blink of amazement, she realized she hadn't felt so alive in years. She threaded her way along with the crowd, tossing her mane of lamp-black hair, eagerly sipping at her drink. With the exception of Tom and Rita Nelson, she didn't know a soul at the party. They would never say anything.
On a wild impulse, she decided to see the movie. A drink in her hand, she avidly followed the flow of the crowd at the party. It seemed that everyone was mounting the stairs, heading to the upper floors. Eagerly, trying to be unobtrusive, Nancy went with them.
The top floor of the brownstone had been converted into one large room. All the walls had been knocked out and folding chairs had been lined up. The room filled rapidly and Nancy found a seat, looking around with a thrill going through her. In the back of the room was a projector, loaded with film and ready to go. The room filled quickly and people talking and drinking and smoking. Nancy caught a glimpse of Tom and Rita filing into the room with some other people.
The lights dimmed and the talking subsided. A young man stood up in front of a screen. "Here it is, what you've all been waiting for. Scorpio Sex Rites. It is a new breakthrough in experimental films."
A ripple of laughter and a few catcalls came from the crowd. The lights dimmed fast and the talking subsided and everyone, Nancy included, sat quiet and attentive, their eyes glued to the white screen that glowed slightly in the dark.