The girl didn't even remember coming down in the elevator or walking through the casino. She had crossed the crowded streets almost by instinct alone and it wasn't until she passed an all-night diner just before her corner and saw the clock inside that she realized it was almost two in the morning. God, she had spent hours there on that horrible bed… and, she vowed… "I'll never do it again!"
Occasionally a streetlight would reflect against the streaked tears on her face and the softness of her crying would hover in the night darkness.
She wondered if Johnny would be waiting up for her, and if he was, what she would be able to tell him. The whole thing seemed like a terrible, unreal nightmare that had been dreamed up by a mad man.
She stumbled along, her eyes half closed – the dark sides of her eyelids acting as a screen where she projected the terrible scenes of the night before.
Her mind was flooded with contrasting feelings of self-pity and anger. She tried to blank out the memories of Deke Vito and what she had done but they kept forcing themselves into her consciousness. The realization of everything that happened, the landlord, Deke Vito… Black Jack… the repulsive leering of the fat man… how had she done it? What had caused her to lose complete control of herself and accede to their wishes? Two days ago, she had been almost a virgin, untouched by anyone else but her husband, and now… now, she had taken on three other men in quick succession… three men she didn't even like. And they had fucked her, not made love to her, but fucked her like some whore off the streets, without love, without respect, with nothing but animal lust burning in their loins. God, where was it all going to end? tumbled through her tortured thoughts.
She opened the door into their apartment, hoping that her husband was asleep, and tried to still the soft sobbing that still shuddered her body.
She put her coat away quietly but the darkness was shattered by the click and sudden brightness of the lamp by the bed.
"Laura, honey, where have you been?" She turned to face Johnny who sat up in bed wide awake.
"Laura, are you crying? Darling, what's the matter… please, come here."
She moved awkwardly to the bed, to his outstretched arms, trying to brush away the tears on her cheeks.
"Oh, Johnny, it was so horrible… Ohhhh, Johnny!"
He jerked upright. "What…? Darling, what happened? Laura, what's the matter? Where have you been?"
"Oh, Johnny, it was Vito… I'm so ashamed," the words came out haltingly. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't know what to tell… Black Jack… he couldn't know about Black Jack!
He tried to calm her down, and after a few moments the words poured forth in a broken, husky stream…
"Johnny, you don't know what he did… I tried to get the contract for you… Oh my God! It was so horrible…!"
He waited for her to catch her breath and as he did his mind whirled with what she had just said. She hadn't gotten the contract after all. All of his acting that morning, and she hadn't gotten it! He tried to remain sympathetic as she continued, but all the time he wondered what he was going to do now.
"Johnny, we… we gambled for it… and I lost. At least… I lost the bet about going to bed with…" She started crying again, in great heaving sobs.
Finally, she told him the whole story. At least it seemed like the whole story, about Vito and what they had done, and about Harry Goldman. Johnny had no way of knowing that she had left out the part with Black Jack.
As she spoke, describing everything that had happened between her and Vito, her husband wondered why he didn't feel more. He tried to picture his lovely wife in bed with her naked legs wrapped around that slimy gambler at the casino, but nothing seemed to happen. Just a heavy dull sensation, he barely heard what she was saying and it didn't seem to matter so much.
He'd been drinking heavily before she came home, anticipating his delight when she would hand him the contract that meant so much to him. He had known before when he had told her to see Vito that the gambler wouldn't be satisfied with just words, but he had been able to close his mind to any of the consequences and think only of his future and what that contract would mean. Now, it was all gone. It hadn't worked! Goddamn it! What was he supposed to do now?
Wait. What was she saying now? Something about Goldman?
"… and they told me if I'd spend the night with him, I could have what I wanted… Oh, Johnny, I can't… I can't… I just can't!"
He was alive again! There was still a chance. He could feel the lightness again. He could still get that contract, go to San Francisco. God! Once he made it in the Fairmount, he'd never have to worry again. If he just played it right, could get her to do it…
She lay there in his arms, waiting for him to hold her – waiting for his anger at Deke Vito – waiting for him to hold her and tell he'd take her away, that she'd never have to do anything like that again.
Her crying finally stopped and she felt hot and sticky. Dry and empty. Why didn't he say something? It couldn't be that he…
He thought quickly. He had to say something, he could feel her shoulders stiffening in his arms.
"Laura, darling," he forced as much emotion as he could into his voice, "Laura, baby…"
"Don't call me baby!" she screamed. "You're just like Vito!"
"Laura… I don't understand… I didn't mean anything…"
"Oh, Johnny, I'm sorry, it's what he always calls me… I just can't stand to hear it."
He held her a little closer, stroking her hair. "Laura, it's all my fault. I'm the one that forced you to do it. I didn't mean for anything like this to happen." There, that's more like it, he thought. "I though maybe he'd listen to you. I didn't mean for you to go to bed with him."
She lay there, feeling him stroking her tenderly, but she knew that there was something forced in his actions, in his words. It was like the morning before when she had felt that he was just acting when he had cried on her shoulder. She felt a chill run through her and she extricated herself from his arms and stood up.
"I'm going to get undressed, Johnny," she said. "I'll be back in just a minute."
He watched her walk into the bathroom, knowing that he'd done something wrong. She's probably too upset, he thought, I know I was pretty convincing. What the hell, all she has to do is lie on her back for a few minutes and it'll be the answer to all our problems. It wasn't like she was losing her virginity or anything! The old man can't hurt her. Shit! She can just close her eyes and pretend it's me. Fifteen minutes; and it's worth five thousand dollars and a contract that'll put us on easy street for the rest of our lives. All I've got to do is handle her right. He turned off the light waiting for her to come back into the room, and trying furiously to think of the right things to say to her when she returned.
When Laura came back out of the bathroom she'd decided to talk again to Johnny. She could easily have misunderstood the inflection in his voice. After all, he'd probably been as upset as she was, and she shouldn't have expected him to act naturally. She knew he loved her. She'd just made a mistake, that's all.
She'd purposely left off her nightgown, and she stood there silhouetted by the light behind her waiting for her to call her to him. We can make gentle love, our kind of love, she thought, and wipe away all this dirtiness I feel.
She could just barely see him there in the darkness as he slid up in the bed, and she stood there posing – her breasts high and thrusting.
Then he called out to her, and she could hear the desire in his voice. If he only knew, she thought, as she walked slowly toward the bed, how wonderful the change in his voice makes me feel. I love him so much.
She stopped several feet from the bed waiting for him. He got up and came to her, taking her gently in his arms. As he spoke to her she slowly undid the buttons of his pajama top.
"Laura, I feel so terrible. Darling, I love you so much, I never meant for anything like that to happen to you. I'll make it up, I promise. We'll go away, nothing or no one will ever come between us again."
She felt the happiness sweeping through her and held him against her as tightly as she could. Then she stood back to tug the pajamas from his shoulders before she pulled the drawstring on the bottoms.
Laura watched the pants fall to the floor. Shivers ran through her as he ran his fingers lightly across the sensitive hardness of her nipples, and she saw the swelling fullness of his penis as it pointed up at her.
He pulled her fiercely against him, crushing her breasts against his chest, and scraping his fingernails across the tingling surface of her back. The great hardness between his thighs restricting them from getting any closer.
She reached down, laughing, and grasped the swollen shaft in both hands and using it as a handle pulled him toward the bed.
"Come, slave," she laughed, "I have plans for you."
The light happiness in her voice was unmistakable and he knew that everything would work out just as he wanted. As long as he made this little session in bed something she'd never forget. Johnny knew the immense appetite for sex Laura possessed, once she got started, and this wouldn't he the first time he'd used it to his advantage. When he made love with a purpose he could make himself last as long as he wanted – he knew he was well endowed – and he also knew that when he made himself wait and expended all his efforts solely on the satisfaction of the woman that there were few that could resist his talents.