She was naked, and the sight of her body had always had a powerful effect on him. It came to him at that moment that he was lost; that she could, if she wished, lead him around by the cock for the rest of his life. So this is obsession, he thought, as she silently slid under the sheets and drew close to him. He gave himself to it.

*  *  *

“You know this was a completely disgusting and immoral thing to do, don’t you?” he asked when they had finished and lay panting in each other’s arms. He was not joking.

“Of course, my darling,” she replied. “That’s why it’s so much fun.”

“Has anyone ever completely satisfied you?”

“You satisfy me, for a time, but to answer your question honestly, no. At least, no man ever has. I knew a girl in college who could satisfy me longer than anyone. She was only twenty, but she knew everything about pleasing a woman, because she was a woman, I suppose.”

“Do you still see her?”

“No. She committed suicide our senior year, shot herself with a pistol borrowed from a boy we knew. She left a note saying she had done it for me, because she knew she could never have me, and she wanted to prove she really loved me. The housemother in the dorm found the note and showed it to me, then destroyed it.”

“How did you react to that?”

“I was elated. It did wonders for my self-esteem, that someone could love me so much. I never loved her, of course, I just liked having her make love to me.”

“You don’t make love, Cary. You merely fuck.”

Cary raised herself on an elbow and looked at him. “Do you really think so?” she asked wonderingly.

“Yes.”

She nodded. “You’re right, I think, but I do fuck surpassingly well, don’t I?”

“You do,” Stone said; then he fucked her again.

When they had exhausted each other, she lay on her back, her breasts pointing at the ceiling. “You think it’s terrible that I’m still fucking you, now that I’m married,” she said.

“Yes. And it’s just as bad that I’m still fucking you.”

“You wait. One of these days, perhaps before very long, you’ll get married, but you’ll still want to fuck me. And believe me, my darling, you will. Because I’ll never let go of you.”

“Yes,” he said, “I will.” Whenever she wanted him, for as long as she wanted him.