The moment Ben Bailey opened the door of his apartment, three females nearly pushed him over as they burst inside. One of his decidedly unexpected guests slammed the door shut, automatically locking it.
"What the hell goes on here?" he blasted out angrily. He had always heartily disliked pushy babes and, at midnight on a Saturday night, he was in no mood to be shoved around by one, let alone three.
A tall blonde with deeply tanned, beautifully formed legs, wearing very short scarlet shorts, took it upon herself to answer his heated question.
"We're going to have a shag party in your apartment, tall, strong and handsome. We don't want your consent. We get a much bagger charge out of rape."
The forty-year-old Bailey could hardly believe his ears. Although he had been around plenty and more than frequently had tangled with the so-called weak sex, never before had three college-age girls practically broken into his place of residence and threatened to rape him. What was happening was so utterly fantastic that he was seriously tempted to pinch himself to see if this wasn't all a dream.
"You three kids are going to try to take it away from me?" he finally blurted out.
A five foot six redhead who wouldn't weigh more than a hundred pounds snapped, "Watch that kid stuff, bub! We're all at least twenty, we've all been around a lot and are experts with the chop-chop!"
Ben shook his very blond head. "So you three delinquents are going to cut me down and do criminal assault upon my body?" It was so incredible that he could barely refrain from bursting into derisive laughter.
The third member of the group, a statuesque, black-haired, brown-eyed beauty nodded emphatically. "Man, we're going to tear you to pieces, but you're going to love every minute of it!"
"You three cookies must be nuts!" Bailey retorted with great feeling. Thought he had felt a terrific yearning for young flesh for a couple of years now, or ever since he had neared the forty mark, he had no intention of letting three hot punks now knock him down and freely partake of his manhood. He added presently, "If you want a stabbing on my (terms, that's another matter. I can't remember when Ben Bailey has turned down any reasonable good looking broad. Now, if you screwy chicks, evidently out for a new kick, want to decide in what order you want to take me, I'll fully cooperate."
A rather wild look in her large, deep blue eyes, the leggy blonde moved warily toward him. "You don't take anyone, buster. You give-from flat on your back!"
While known to his friends as a good-natured individual, Ben could be quite stubborn. Even though be was beginning to experience that familiar yen for warm, tender feminine flesh, he wasn't about to be the victim of the young girls' lust for a man.
He said doggedly, "Okay, stuff, if you want to engage in a battle royal, come on and wade right in. I don't know either judo or karate, but you'll find out, the hard way, that I swing a mean set of fists. Believe me, sister blisters, I'll put plenty of lumps of the bunch of you."
While Bailey waited, his large hands knotted into hunks of steel, the three girls suddenly moved together and held a whispered consultation.
The muted conference of his unknown visitors gave him an opportunity to study them from a distance now of about ten feet. Though the girls each had a different colored tresses, they were attired alike-very brief scarlet shorts, halters and also sandals. This made him wonder if they belonged to the same club or sorority, like many young girls all over the nation and, many parts of the outside world, who were in revolt against parental authority.
Both his thoughts and sharp inspection of the three dolls, resulted in a powerful increase of his desire for sexual relations with a hot, young piece. He could almost feel himself deeply inside of one of the chicks in scarlet.
The continued whispering of the girls not only irritated him, it also prompted him to shout, "Cut the discussion, flowers of passion! You came here for action and that's what you'll get, in large doses. I told you before, I'll prod the very devil out of each of you if you'll come to your senses. I don't want to seem a braggard, but I've never had a complaint from that first female and I've done business with a considerable number. I'm also going to warn you that I'm a battler of the rugged, anything goes school. You're very lovely, each of you, but if we engage in some rough play, I won't hesitate to gouge out an eye or two, tear off some ears, maybe bite off a nose and, most certainly rip some soft, warm flesh to shreds. You'll be the ones to bleed, not me."
His grim words had one effect that he desired-the girls broke up their huddle.
Deeply tanned Blondie was evidently the leader of the group, because again she took over the floor, saying in a firm voice, "Big-mouth, we're going to take all the blow out of you. While you may be quite a blast-off king with some of the older dogs, in our book, you're a very small timer."
"How many times have you done it in one night?" out in the black-haired amazon.
"With one wren or a group?" he rejoined, his deep voice filling the room.
The blonde took command quickly. "Enough of this yap. The big bastard wouldn't tell the truth!
Before we leave here, we'll have found out how many shots are dn his gun. Let's go get him, girls!"
Assuming the crouch of a pro fighter, Ben waited eagerly for the hot-blooded trio to make their move. He was confident of his ability to light and left hook the entire group into oblivion.
The three strangers didn't come at him in the manner he had expected. Instead of advancing in a single way, they suddenly hurled themselves upon him. The abrupt charge of more than three hundred pounds of surprisingly strong female bodies enabled them to get inside his tremendous, direct punching fists, tie up his powerful arms and bear his two hundred pounds of hard hulk to the floor.
Bailey had boasted that, in a tussle, anything went with him. Now that he was down, he soon found out that his adversaries were as ruthless as he, if not more so. Employing hands, feet and even tongues, lips and teeth, the passionate trio worked him over, but good. In the long run, he was bothered by the hands and feet more than the other weapons used by the girls.
Tongue kissing was fine with him, but never in his life had the inside of his forced open mouth been blasted so heatedly. Nor had so many teeth ever feasted upon his face, neck and ears.
After a considerable period of time, the female attackers shifted their scene of operation from his head. The PJs he wore torn from him, permitting the lusty girls to devote their united attention to all portions of his body below the neck. Absolutely no section of his flesh escaped their blistering assault. Ben couldn't imagine a strange doll wanting to kiss some of the places they kissed. To his amazement, almost disbelief, a broad's tongue and lips directed urgently to his pubis jolted him up considerably.
Despite the more than three hundred pounds of lush humanity bearing down upon him, he was still going strong until a sharp, well directed chop to his Adam's apple brought excruciating pain and sickness in the pit of his belly.
He was struggling mightly not to vomit and then blackout completely, when someone made sexual contact and began rocking back and forth afainst his swollen manhood.
"Please don't! I'll throw up all over you!" he sputtered between dry lips, the pain in his throat barely permitting him to speak at all.
Whoever was riding him, didn't get off, but she did cease the movements of her demanding body.
"I think he's kidding," said a voice, as if from a great distance.
A huskier feminine voice continued, "His face is completely colorless except for the green around his gills. Don't bet that he won't puke."
Then another voice said, "He's like a stallion. He will recover if we give him a bit of time."
Someone uttered hoarsely, "You're going to come and so am I, if I have to stay here all night, big boy. So you'd better get that pipe smoking."
After what seemed to him more than an hour, Ben began to feel like living. His eyes also cleared up sufficiently for him to see that the tall blonde was sitting on him while her companions, one at his feet, the other at his head, were holding him down.
"All right, bitch!" he hissed up at the blonde, noticing for the first time that she was now naked, "Get your pound of flesh, but remember that I'll track you down, wherever you live and give you the damnedest, roughest, most violent sacking you've ever had!"
Without bothering to answer him, the blonde went at him with a vengeance. She was like a professional auto racer-quick start, then top speed all the way.
In the beginning, Bailey vowed that he would give Blondie a hard way to go, but her rapid, erotic rocking, plunging and twisting of buttocks would either have put life in a feeble old man or would have killed him off quickly. There was no way that Ben could have held back the ocean tide as it came in, nor was it in his power to prevent the orgasm that the hot blonde ground out of him. It irked him sorely that she was in the world of ecstasy three times to his once.
"Greedy nymph!" he yelled up into her rosy face. "I hope you're satisfied!"
Before getting up from him, she slapped both sides of his face hard with the palms of her hands. "Don't call me names, you son-of-a-bitch!"
He was allowed five minutes while the other two hot bloods gave him the treatment necessary to get him ready again.
The statuesque, very black-haired girl was next in the saddle. Bailey was aware of her great beauty, both of face and body. Her tremendous breasts, firm and proudly erect, prompted him to involuntarily put out his hands to sieze the marvelous globes. To his chagrin, he discovered that the blonde, in back of him now, had pinned down his arms with her knees.
"So you want to feel them? Huh, lover boy?" said the brunette. "Maybe kiss them, take a nipple at a time between your teeth?"
He opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it and clamped his lips tightly together.
The blonde chipped in tauntingly, "You didn't manhandle my hubbies and they're as good as hers. So no feeling of the milk bags."
The magnificiently stacked amazon employed a lot of the same technique on him as her predecessor, up to a certain point, then as he he was about to climax, she abruptly slowed her hard pushes against his throbbing erection and nearly stopped all together.
"What's the matter?" Ben asked, almost without realizing that he had put the question into words.
"This is too good to hurry," murmured the girl who had delayed his dramatic spasm.
"Slow poke! I never will get my ashes hauled!" snorted the redhead. "We should have made you go last. By the way, why don't you get off and let me finish him? I'm a bang, bang boom girl."
The brunette stayed right where she was, only her hips moving a bit now. "You're a fool, Red! You haven't learned how to get the most out of anything-especially a man. And whale this one may be old enough to be your father, he's the best ding-dong daddy you'll meet up with like this." . "Take your time. You will anyway," said the girl that had been addressed as Red. "You're like all the Scotch. You want the most of everything you can get of everything, damn the length of the effort!"
"I'll not only do more for him than you will, sister, I'll also leave some money when we exit."
Though Ben knew his hands weren't free to fondle the black-haired girl's breasts, his eyes could have their fill and did. The feast of his orbs on her swollen, firm, upright, brownish-red nipples made him burn and he yearned to help his lovely companion with a much needed journey into joyland.
"Hey, you're getting bigger and harder! Something is going to have to give!" exclaimed the brunette, her breathing becoming heavy and the movements of her buttocks suddenly quite pronounced.
Trembling as the ecstasy built and burned in him, Bailey continued to look at her large breasts, wishing that he could get his teeth into them. Some men, pinned down as he was, might have stared up at the ceiling, but to him, there were many more lovely sights to enjoy. Despite the fact that her features were now distorted by passion, hers was still an exceedingly beautiful face. Seldom had he gazed, at such close range, upon a more sensuous face.
His inspection of the now very hot and active brunette was cut off by a face that abruptly swooped down upon his, plastering a pair of burning lips against his mouth.
He was starting to choke when his lips were freed and a hoarse voice said, "You two need a push, toward the cliff and I'm going to supply it!"
Ben knew that the voice was that of the impatient redhead and, while in a way, he resented her intrusion, he had to admit to himself that her long, torrid kiss had added considerably to the fire threatening to consume his entire body. There was no denying that carrot-top knew how to smooth.
The hard working, dark-haired beauty screamed out suddenly, "Come now chum! Shoot it big and hard to baby!"
Her pleading, yet commanding words acted upon him as a lighted short fuse does to a keg of dynamite. Bowie! His prolonged ejaculation immediately caused the frantic pumping girl to fire back at him a couple of times, prompting in him a sweet agony that made him to cry aloud. There was a clapping of hands from the other two girls as the black-tressed lovely dismounted.
The first to speak was the redhead. "Good show, Scotty. You made him cry out, but he'll scream when I drain him out."
Bailey had quite enough for one night and he wouldn't have cared if the boasting speaker had suddenly become so sick that all thoughts of sex were completely washed from her mind.
But no such luck. The female rapist who hadn't yet been serviced already was prodding the most responsive of his sexual parts with hot, damp hands.
"Better get some life into the brute, crud! Red isn't leaving until we've bombed each other. You can't, but you're going to try your damnedest to knock me up."
"I thought I wasn't to give, that you would just take," he retorted, his temper beginning to break out of the restraining cage.
Her playing became much more urgent. "Up, you beast, and take the beating that hot mama is going to give you!"
Gritting his teeth, Ben hissed, "I have news for you, obnoxious one, you're not taking anything from me. I've closed the meat shop and you'll have to get your jollies from some else. You're probably a Lesbian anyway, so if you can't find a man, take on one of your girl friends."
It was soon evident that what he had said did nothing toward cooling off the demanding redhead. Slapping and squeezing the most vulnerable part of his well put together structure, she became more persistent. His organ wasn't going to play dead for long in her presence.
When she did try for a connection, she encountered difficulty. He was determined that she would learn that certain things can not be done.
Still vigorously persisting, the redhead roared into his set face, "If I have to use vaseline and a shoe horn, I'm going to have you, hard head! Be smart and make it easier on yourself!"
"I'm finished!" he snapped up at her angrily.
"Oh no, you're not, mister! You're getting no rest until I take you over the highest mountain!"
To Ben's chagrin, the redhead got him into first base, then second, third and on the way home as she quickly demonstrated that she was one of the rare females that arrive at the critical stage within a couple of minutes. In a way, he didn't want to join in her bumping, humping celebration, yet he was definitely piqued at her and himself, too, for missing out on his denouement.
The unknown three had gone and he was still on the floor, trying to find the strength to get to his feet, when he heard the sound of a key being turned in the lock of his front door.
CHAPTER TWO
Ben sat up very abruptly when he saw the tiny brown-haired woman coming through the doorway of his apartment.
"This is a surprise, Edith!" he blurted out awkwardly. "I didn't know you had a key!"
A pair of remarkably large, gray eyes swept briefly over him, then the room. There was a hint of amusement in the eyes as she returned her gaze to him.
"Have you taken up Yogi, Ben, or been taking women?" She added quickly, "You needn't answer. I just saw what's been going on. I might warn you, though, that the rug is wrong for you. The color doesn't go well with your character and it also spots easily."
He shrugged his shoulders. "You won't believe this, Edith, but three nutty dolls came here tonight and raped me. It's my guess that they were college chicks charged up on some kind of a drug. Couldn't smell any hootch on their breaths."
Going to a large leather chair a few feet away from where he sat, the very small woman dropped into it. "Oh, come now, Ben, you can do better than that" said Edith Bailey evenly. "And in case you've had a slip of memory, we've been divorced ten years."
He gave her a weak grin. "Well, we still live together, Ede. I only took this place so I could sort of work in peace."
"Corrections, Wolfie. We stay in the same house and you rented this apartment to work on a piece."
He felt his face redden. "Damn it, woman, why must you always think the worst of me?"
A mischievious twinkle in her eyes, she crossed her legs and leaned black in the large chair. "Be cause you're a confirmed chaser, big boy."
Bailey began to burn in more ways than one. In his opinion, his former wife, despite her tininess, had the sharpest pair of gams it had ever been his great pleasure to ogle or feel.
His voice thick, he retorted, "I can remember when you were hot as a mink and I laid it into you hard and often! Mark my words, teaser, I'll give you the treatment damnedest jazzing you've ever had one of these days!"
Her laughter, surprisingly strong for one so small, filled the room. "Ooh, you scare me, bad man. See how pale and trembling I am?"
He didn't answer, his mind was busy now reviewing the past-He had just turned sixteen when the twenty-six year old Edith Sample had come into his life. Their first meeting had taken place at the huge stone mansion in Bexley where she had been born and lived with her parents until their untimely death in a plane crash. That day, when Ben had seen the diminutive brunette for the first time, her folks had been dead for two years. He had gone to the Sample home to solicit money for a high school project that the Board of Education had refused to finance. The very pretty Edith had looked about his age when she came to the front door of the palatial residence in answer to his ring. Despite the fact that he had been intimate with girls for the past three years and had a number of high school pushovers on the string, one deep look into Edith's large gray eyes had been sufficient to cause him to flip completely. He had forgotten, right off, that he had come for a donation of money. Instead of getting dough, after the tiny beauty had admitted him he had promptly decided to try to score with her.
The results of his decision caused him to blurt out now, "I laid you the day we met!"
Her lovely face didn't even color up. "So?" she said coolly.
His eyes focused upon her crossed legs. The very short green skirt she wore, allowed him to see up quite a way. In spite of having been already ravish-ed by three steaming demons that most surprising night, desire for his ex-wife was being expressed in his entire body. He would have crossed his legs, too, so that she wouldn't see what had happened to him, but damned if he could.
"So without my knowing even your age, we eloped to Kentucky," he reminisced, breaking the silence in the apartment. "We were hitched at four in the afternoon and twenty minutes later, we were in a hotel bed tearing off one. I might add that we had a hard, hot honeymoon night and didn't get up until noon to start back home."
Edith made a wry face. "Sexually, I was well taken care of throughout our marriage. I'm sure you set some kind of a record in that fourteen year period. You wouldn't quit, even on the days a woman expects to be let alone."
Stung by her words, he popped to his feet. "Don't tell me you weren't joy crazy every minute that I was in you, bed bug! Absolutely no husband ever got the grinding like you gave me, day after day, night after night."
A hint of a smile played momentarily about her small, red ripe mouth. "You know the old saying, sonny, about fighting fire with fire. I had to battle for my life. If I hadn't responded adequately to you, I'd have been killed in bed."
"You've divorced me, chicken, but you'll never get me out of your blood."
She pointed a forefinger toward the black leather davenport that matched the chair she sat upon. "Put down the bottom before you fall over, Benny. And I'm definitely not impressed by the show you're putting on. You could do that good at sixteen. All these rough whores you've been shacking with have worn you down."
Angry, Bailey strode stiff-legged to the davenport and sat down gingerly. In a rasping voice, he said, "Suppose you tell me where you got that key to my apartment and what the hell you want here?"
Edith smiled much too sweetly to suit him. "The key came to me through the mail, wrapped in a piece of notepaper upon which was typed this address and a request that I drop in."
He frowned darkly. "I don't get it."
"Not from me, you don't, but then you've been more than well taken care of. That show you put on for my benefit was as real as the actions of a female going through false pregnancy."
Though his anger grew, he ignored her sarcastic words. 'The key," he muttered. "That's crazy!"
"To me, it's a very simple deduction. You had a lot of keys made and gave or sent one to several of your chippies. Out of this group, there had to be a lay that didn't want any part of you or had too much and was fed up."
"I might as well try to batter down the walls as make an effort-to convince you that I've given no one a key to this apartment. Some stinkin' fink had a locksmith come here and make a key!"
"That's your story, ex-daddy, so stick to it. You're a free man and what you do is no concern to me."
Bailey shot to his feet again, propelled by his hot head. "You rub me the wrong way all the time anymore!"
"Put the butt back down," Edith commanded, a sharp note in her surprisingly strong voice. "I don't rub even your back any more. Now that I've seen your cat house, as someone evidently wished me to do, I may as well go home." She gianced at her wristwatch, a creation of white gold and diamonds. "Five past three! I won't be able to get out of bed, once I get there, and go to work'"
The word "work" coming from her mouth, always set him off because it reminded him that while her company built five hundred houses a year, his small crew of employees were putting up but five in the same period of time.
"My homes are quality ones!" he blurted out defensively.
A puzzled look came to Edith's pretty face.
At fifty, she still looked twenty-five. "Who said anything about homes?" she inquired.
He pushed out his powerful chest at her. "You like to lord over me the fact that you build five hundred to my five!" His desire for her was very much in evidence yet.
The tiny woman gracefully got to her feet.
"I'll handle my business in my own way and never meddle in how you operate yours. And quit trying to scare me with an unloaded weapon."
He said swiftly, desire much stronger than anger, 'You have a reputation as a gambler. Maintain it by taking me up on a bet. Game?"
"Let's hear what you'd like to bet on," she said in a most business like voice.
"Five to one that I can make you say uncle."
Her slightly pug nose went up. "Uncle to what? Of course, by five to one, you mean thousand?"
"Bed romp and naturally, thousand," he said recklessly.
Looking him up and down with critical gray eyes, she shook her brown head. "Five thousand for the rump you've already torn into at least that many times? You've been out in the sun too long."
Stunned by her loveliness, as he had been so many times, his flesh calling out for her in an agony of desire, he moved grimly toward her. Edith's sporting instinct had broken down ten years of resistance to his advances. She wasn't about to decline a bet when the odds were so greatly in her favor. In his condition, she would probably win his five thousand dollars, which though he could ill afford to lose, would be paid by check as soon as she had thoroughly robbed him of passion.
The pint-sized brunette stood her ground, neither moving from or toward him. He was so glad that his ex-wife never ran from anyone or anything. She had plenty of guts, because of which she had been so successful in everything she undertook, especially in the field of building.
Bailey was reaching out for her, his heart hammering hard and the turbulent blood pounding in his brain, when a nude redhead came running out of the bedroom.
"Out, bitch!" she screamed at Edith. "I haven't had nearly enough of Big Johnny." She held up in her hand a gadget that looked like a pea shooter. "I'm an expert with this little blow gun, folks, and the dart I'll put into your hide is heavily loaded with a powerful tranquilizer. It'll really knock you out for a while. Are you going to blow, small fry, or do I?" She put what she had said was a blow gun into her mouth and took aim at the brown-haired woman.
Edith said cuttingly, "You're not running me off, Red. I was going anyway. You're quite welcome to this whoremaster I was once married to."
Ben was still in a surprised stupor when realization came that he was alone with the naked carrot-top.
"Where in the devil did you come from?" he demanded, anger building up within him again. The girl winked. "Heaven, sugar pie, and we're going right back there together."
"Heaven, hell! I saw you come from the bedroom. How did you get in there? I saw you go out the front door once."
Her laughter was ribald. "I took a course in breaking and entering from a pro burglar. Opening your back door was a very simple matter." She put the blow gun to her very pretty red lips again. "And now, prick, in a few minutes, you'll be lying helpless on the floor and I'll be helping myself to a body-yours."
He made a leap toward the redhead, hoping to catch her off guard, but as he left his feet, he felt a sharp sting, something like that inflicted by a Yellow Jacket, and he was on the floor, although not completely out.
It seemed to Bailey that almost by the time he had stretched out on his back to rest before making an effort to get up, a furious bundle of body topped by a very red head, was upon him, desperately seeking in many ways to get him ready for the slaughter. As in their previous engagement, he was determined that he would not respond to her, regardless of what she did to him.
Shortly, he discovered that the young sex fiend would stop at absolutely nothing in order to get what she desired. The soft, wet kisses, as well as the harder ones, that she spread over his face, neck and chest, didn't do much toward exciting him, but when the insistent hot lips found their way to his navel, then lower, and a torrid tongue flicked out, up and down and up it's target, he suddenly was intensely ready.
"Ha! Ha!" she exclaimed. "You see, big poke! Red knows what makes you burn! Now, I'll wrap a red hot poultice around your throbbing boil and draw out the inflamation! Every last bit of it!"
The tranquilizer had done more than merely flatten him. It had softened his powers of resistance. Her hot young body, so soft, tender and yet surprisingly firm against his, helped bring about his complete demoralization.
Then when her hands brought about his entrance into that wonderful, burning chasm and her taut, fanny began wiggling provocatingly, it was all over but the climax and the shouting.
"Damn you!" he exploded. "I'll teach you a lesson so you'll know there's a difference in men! I didn't want to do this, but you forced me, so now, you're going to get all you deserve!"
He was really proud of himself for the way he took all that she gave. Not even when she had finished and cried out did he let her up. It was his show now. His fingernails buried into her heated buttocks, he brought himself up against her flat belly time and time again. She was whimpering and her tears were falling upon his chest when he savagely sprayed into her and viciously beat upon her back with his fists.
CHAPTER THREE
Sunday afternoon, quite alone in the twenty room stone home where Edith had lived all her life, Ben sat on a red leather davenport in the rec room and watched a baseball game on the color TV.
The Chicago Cubs were batting in the last of the ninth inning when Edith entered and dropped wear-ly into an old fashioned rocking chair.
"You look beat," he commented drily. "I usually spend a few hours at the office on Sunday, too, but I draw the line when it comes to using up the entire day there."
She replied very evenly, "Speaking of looking beat, I see before me a forty-year-old man who could pass for a hundred. That young stuff is too much for you. Senior Citizen. If you want to be around a while, better lay off those kid lays."
"You saw what happened, Ede. It wasn't my fault. I was powerless after the redhead shot that dart into me."
The tiny brunette laughed. "Yeah! So helpless that the bitch's insides must still be burning from the blistering you gave her at the end. Oh, yes, I came back to see how well you could operate and I must admit that you surprised me."
Ben said defensively. "There was more in that dart I took in my hide than a tranquilizing agent."
"Maybe STP," said a voice from the doorway. Bailey's startled eyes went to the newcomer, a six foot platinum blonde of about twenty-five.
"Who're you?" he blurted out involuntarily.
"Daisy Watson," announced Edith. "She's a recent addition to my staff. One of the finest young architects in the city. Come on in, Daisy, and make yourself comfortable. You may even sit by my ex of ten years. He was the happy victim of a blow gun assault early this morning and is pretty much hung over yet."
The tall new comer, in a sharp, all white outfit, promptly accepted her employer's invitation and seated herself on the davenport.
"Hi, Daisy," Ben greeted cordially. "Pardon my ignorance, but what is STP?"
The girl in white gave him a look from a pair of remarkably black eyes. "Serenity, Tranquility and Peace, a new "hippie" mind drug that probably contains Peyote."
"That's a new one on me," he murmured. "What will the swingers come up with next?"
Edith said lightly, "My former hubby thinks he's hep, Daisy, but the younger generation could teach him plenty. That is, if he weren't too old to learn. Now there's a man that's been much used by youth recently. His story is that three young babes really robbed him of his manhood."
Daisy Watson gave him a questioning look. "If it's any of my business, what happened to you, Mr. Bailey?"
He shrugged. Since his ex-mate had brought it up, he might as well talk about his strange, unusual experience. "Raped by three young sluts. From the way they carried on, they had to have been loaded up on some dope."
"And so you see before you a broken shell of a man," laughed Edith. "Can you imagine him wanting to bet me five thousand dollars to one that he could wear me down?"
The platinum blonde giggled. "Most men have an exaggerated idea of how good they are."
The small brunette got to her feet. "I'll go fix us a snack, Daisy. If you wish, you may explain to Cocky Charlie the facts of modern day life."
Edith had scarcely let the rec room before he said, "Edith's a great kidder. One never knows when she's serious."
"I like her very much," said Daisy frankly. "Though I haven't been with her long, I've noticed that she possesses a delightful sense Of humor."
He inclined his blond head. "I suppose that's the only reason she can even stand me."
Again the attractive young architect giggled. "Speaking of standing, were you really criminally assaulted by three young tramps, like you said?"
Ben chuckled. "Yep, these hot chicks burst into my apartment last night around midnight and announced that they were going to have a shag party."
"Oh, heavenly days!" exclaimed Daisy, her black eyes very bright. "You were the victim of one of those girl mobs roaming the city."
"You know about them?"
"Don't spread this around, but I used to belong to a high boots, lace bra, mini skirt crowd. That was when I was at the university, and you didn't count there unless you were a member of a love club. I'll bet you wouldn't believe it, looking at me now, that I also was a Honda fiend."
He shook his head vigorously. "You sure don't look the type, Miss Watson ... Daisy. Not that you are not awfully ... sexy looking ... I mean cool."
"I prefer the sexy looking," she contributed, the black eyes pregnant with mischief. "A girl doesn't want to be thought cool nowadays. Hot-yes."
After a long minute of thought, he said, 'Those rape-minded maids that got me last night were steaming plenty. Could be that you might know them. I had them pegged as college queens."
"It's doubtful that I'd know them now. I've been out of the university five years and a new crop of coeds have taken over the sex thrill clubs."
Ben asked boldly, "And you're no longer a member?"
A little smile covered her pretty face for a couple of seconds, then was gone. "I don't mind levelling with you. I acquired a love for ail aspects of sex in college, but when I went into the business world.
I was ready for something more mature than coed love organizations."
"Then you've joined a more progressive club?"
"Yes," she said very simply.
"Tell me about it," he urged, his curosity aroused.
The platinum blonde laughed merrily. "You're a digger, Mr. Bailey. You should have been a news hound. Well, here's the dirt. A group of working girls purchased a large farm home. It has three stories and eighteen rooms. The place was a real bargain at eighteen thousand. Of course, we had to add a swimming pool and combination game room and saloon."
"How many bedrooms, Daisy?" asked Ben pointedly.
His direct question got him more laughter. "You have a practical mind. Thirteen. One for each member of the Free Lovers."
Bailey whistled sharply. "What a layout!"
Her black eyes seemed to be boring into his very brain now. "What're you thinking-Bailey?"
"That I'd like to work my way from bedroom to bedroom."
Daisy shook her platinum blonde head. "You'd never make it. Not even if you were twenty again."
"Love is every night at this country shacking station?"
"Naturally some of the group are always entertaining."
"Invite me for a night, Daisy," he said abruptly.
Her look was full of doubt. "Wouldn't Mrs. Bailey be furious if you were to sleep with me?"
"The ex-wife doesn't give a damn where I get my kicks."
A hungry look came into her black eyes. He also saw her tongue run over her very generous, scarlet mouth.
She seemed to be tasting something especially delicious. "In that case, I might be persuaded to give you a trial run. But I still think it wise not to let Mrs. Bailey know. I like my position too much to risk getting canned."
He said, trying to keep the eagerness he felt out of his voice, "When may I joy hop with you, baby?"
Daisy smiled and shrugged. "With all this raping you've been involved in, I'd suggest that you save up for next Saturday night. How does that strike you?"
"I'll be ready," Ben replied, the old familiar taste of sex beginning to build up in his mouth.
She went on, her voice soft, "Life is a wonderful, mysterious adventure into the unknown. I came here to discuss a design of a new type of home I'm working on with Mrs. Bailey and here, I haven't even mentioned house to her. In view of our date, it would seem that the only plan in my head was for your seduction. I could lie and say that I didn't expect to meet you, but being the frank person that I am, I was curious. After all I've heard, I wanted to know what you're like."
"Tell me then, how do I impress you?" he asked.
"I agreed to go to bed with you. Isn't that answer enough?"
"No."
"Okay. I'll spill if you'll do the same.
He inclined his blond head. "You've got yourself a deal, baby."
Daisy immediately said, "I don't want you to get a severe case of head swelling, but you have the rugged type of good looks that gets to me. Incidentally, I like blond men best."
Before Ben could tell Daisy how she struck him, Edith was back, bearing a large tray of food and drinks, which she placed on a small table.
"Well, when's it going to be?" she asked, a knowing smile on her face.
He gave his ex-wife a puzzled look. "I don't follow you, Edith."
"Oh, but you do, stud. But I'll spell it out for you if you insist. When's the breeding?"
Bailey felt his face become hot and surely red. "Cut it out, woman!"
The tiny brunette looked directly at the platinum blonde. "He has a certain animal charm, Daisy, that most women go for. At least, hundreds have had him and so you might as well, too. If he hasn't already fired too many torpedos, it could be, after a few days rest, he could open your black eyes very wide. In all fairness, I must admit that he puts all his heart, mind and body into his work."
Daisy Watson opened her mouth as if to speak then quickly closed it.
"Well' let's eat, what do you say?" Edith said in a matter-of-fact voice.
The six foot platinum blonde got up. "Thanks for the invitation, Mrs. Boiley. I came to discuss design with you, but I am hungry and you can see by my figure that I love to eat."
"As my ex-wresting partner would say, you have a stunning shape. Daisy, with your height, I can't see a pound of excess weight. Right, Benny?"
Not to be outdone by his former wife in frankness, he said deliberately, "The kind of a figure that's it's always a pleasure to climb."
"You'd also climb, if you could, the smallest female midget in the world!" retorted Edith. She looked toward her statuesque employee. "Poor little me. At least five thousand times I've been crushed by him."
Despite her tallness, Daisy now moved gracefully toward the tray with the food and drinks. Shooting up from the red leather davenport, Bailey followed. No one could admire beautiful legs and firm, nicely shaped buttocks more than he. Daisy sure had the works.
His admiration of the girl's stems and hips now prompted him to murmur as they came to the table, "Doll, it's going to be like eternity between now and Saturday night."
"You may come into my web sooner, if you're in shape." Daisy whispered back.
Speaking softly out of the side of his mouth, he replied, "I bounce back fast."
Less than an hour later, Bailey was back on the davenport and Edith had returned to her favorite rocking chair.
"Whistle bait, eh, Ben?" said the tiny brunette.
He hadn't pulled his punches with Edith since the divorce. "You said it, Ede, and I agree. By the way, why should you sneak around meeting men? You shed the handcuffs ten years ago."
"What makes you think I meet men?"
"I know how passionate you were, from the first night of our marriage to the last. So, it stand to reason that you'll be laying up with one or more bucks."
She flashed him a dark look. "I'm not a slave to anything. Food, drink or sex, especially."
"Slave or not, you ate, drink and lay."
"Correction. I lie, not lay, and sleep-alone."
"Nuts!" he said with considerable feeling.
"And not with nuts, ex-hubby. You're the one that shacks up with the mentally retarded."
"Mentally retarded!" Ben roared, his features screwed up.
"Then what is Sylvia Sanders doing in the booby-hatch?"
"I never shagged Sylvia!"
"That isn't what she told me when she came to my office and demanded ten thousand dollars to keep her trap shut."
Ben was on his feet now. "How long ago was that? And why haven't you told me before?"
Edith made a wry face. "Eleven years."
He practically shouted, "I may be many rotten things, but I'm not a liar! I reiterate that I never touched Sylvia!"
"Don't tell me that you never dated that goony?"
"I won't, Ede. I confess that I've had her down and almost ready to slip it in, but something always held me back. Maybe it was intuition."
When you get hot, big boy, cold feet wouldn't keep you from going all the way."
"Usually that's true," he openly admitted. "With Sylvia, everything was different. The last time I was with her, there was less than half an inch between us-Then-dropsy!"
Edith shook her head. 'That's almost incredible. For years I've heard that the thing has no conscience, especially in a certain condition."
He grinned at her. "Never did around you, did it?"
"Giving the devil his dues, I must say, no."
"This'll throw you. It does even me. But in spite of everything that happened yesterday, or early this morning, I could make you spin like a top right now."
She slowly arose from the rocking chair. "I'm going to my room and lie down. That's not an invitation to follow me, not even a dare, because if I were hurting for sex ever so badly, I wouldn't have anything to do with a man that got hot over one woman and when she left, wanted to cool himself off with me. While I think it's all in your head at the moment, if you want to gallop, go next door. It's common gossip that the Widow Hursh is taking on all comers-milkman, paper boy, mailman and everyone having something to deliver."
Miffed at Edith's words, he retorted, "I've always felt sorry for widows, so I just might saunter over next door and give Mrs. Hursh some good cheer."
As the small brunette was leaving the rec room, she said over her left shoulder, "And give her my regards."
His anger continued to grow. "Having a close, hot neighbor lady makes this stone morgue a more desirable place to live. Bye."
CHAPTER FOUR
The female that answered his back door ring a few minutes later, had very little in the looks department. Ben guess that the prematured gray-haired lady was about his age.
"Oh, hello, Mr. Bailey," she called out warmly. "Do come in and sit a while. I've only lived here a few months and I've been hoping to get acquainted with you folks. But, I guess both Mrs. Bailey and you are too busy with your work to talk to a lonely widow."
Very bluntly he said, "I didn't come here to chit-chat, Mrs. Hursh. Do you or don't you put out? I'm not asking out of curiosity. If you do, I'm in the mood."
First the widow's plain, round face turned red, then it was quickly drained of all color. "Mr. Bailey, what you said!" she gasped out.
"You're a widow! You know what it's all about! Do I come in or do I go back home?"
The woman mumbled, "Poor man. Mrs. Bailey won't let you have any and you've come to big beautiful me. I lived in a town where there was a big sporting house. The single men went in the front door and the married ones in the back. My Herman, rest his soul, never had to go there. Before I got married daddy took me aside and told me how to take care of my husband to be. Pa was a plain spoken man, never minced words and I can hear him yet, saying, if it can't get up when it goes out of the house, there's nothing to worry about."
"You chatter too much, widow!" he retorted, still very much put out with Edith. "I have a gift for a relatively new neighbor. Do you want it?"
She wouldn't or couldn't look at him now. "Come in, dear Mr. Bailey," she said in barely more than a whisper."
Inside the kitchen of the big brick house, he wasted no time in taking inventory of the furnishings.
"Where's the relief room?" he inquired shortly. "You want to go to the bathroom first?"
"Not unless there's where you want to do it."
"Oh, no!" cried out Mrs. Hursh. "My bedroom-upstairs."
He followed close on her heels as she went from the kitchen to the living room, then up the circular stairs. He bp rely noticed her legs as he tagged along behind her to the second floor. Her gams wouldn't have been too bad if they had been cushioned with a bit more meat.
In a huge, white bedroom, the widow finally faced him a light of expectancy in the pale blue eyes.
"Do you want me to undress, Mr. Bailey? One of the neighbors told me that your first name is Ben."
He glanced into her weak, watery eyes. "Do you bathe in your underwear?"
An uneasy laugh escaped her pale lips. "Well, no."
"Neither do I. Shuck."
She was on the over-sized bed first, but he had gotten undressed before she had.
His intentions were, as he joined her in the enormous bed, to pile on without the slightest love play and to induce the widow to hysterics as quickly as possible.
He made a savage entrance, that hurt him and had to do the same to the widow. Knowing, right off that he was more than she was accustomed to handling, Bailey reared and plunged as hard and rapidly as he ever had in his entire sexual life.
The beginning of a spasm was upon him within that first minute, then the cruelest thing that can happen to a man, did to him. He suddenly was in about the same condition as a frozen stick of butter taken from the freezer and placed in an extremely hot oven. But even though he didn't have what it took to finish, Mary Hursh was in a harsh, prolonged climax. In that ecstatic state she began yelling, screaming and crying. In order to muffle or completely stop her loud demonstration, Ben grabbed up a pillow and pressed it down into her face and mouth.
After he had gotten her quieted down, she said in a trembling voice, "Poor darling. You needed it so badly and I was much too quick. Take an hour, two hours; I can use a lot more and I wouldn't be a good neighbor if I sent you home unsatisfied. I know that if I did, you'd go to a cat house and you're much too handsome and wonderful to give yourself to a prostitute."
The anger at his ex-wife dissipated, he could cheerfully have gotten up, dressed and gone home. Only one thing prevented it. Stubborn pride. Too, he was afraid the widow could be the type that would spread the word that he was impotent. Ben Bailey not able to complete the sexual act! To save face, it had to be done somehow.
It was a hot day, the bedroom wasn't air conditioned, nor was there a fan on the go. He felt as if he might be sweating blood as he struggled, for the second time, to have a discharge.
There was a small cuckoo clock on the wall above the bed and his eyes were often drawn to its face and hands as he fought to release himself into his willing companion. No, he definitely could not lay 'his failure upon the widow. True, she was not a dream girl, but she did have very active, urgent buttocks and an inner fire that must have, many times, driven her deceased husband to hard orgasms.
To add insult to injury, the damned cuckoo in the clock came out a number of times and mocked him as he tried desperately to complete intercourse with Mary Hursh.
"Don't give up," said the woman beneath him, her words coming after the cuckoo had gone back into the clock for the umteenth time. "It's all my fault, honey. I used to do that to my poor Herman. Just when you're about to go, I flip everything, spoiling it for you."
At last, in his futility, he completely lost his temper. "Damn it all, woman, how many times are you going to do that?"
"I think it's fifteen now," she replied in an apologetic voice. "It's been such a long time."
"You pig!" Bailey roared.
"Darling, if there's any way I can help, just tell me." She began crying softly. "There were times I had to do things to Herman to speed him along."
Ben groaned inwardly. The woman pitied him. That was the last straw.
He yelled "Listen, you! I'm going to get up now and go to the toilet! You stay put! I'll be back and you're going to catch hell!"
"I'll be right here, sweetheart," she promised. "I won't even make a move until you get back."
Ben was gone from the hot bedroom over half an hour.
During that time, not only had he gone to the bathroom, he had slipped downstairs to make a search for liquor. When he did mount the steps to the second floor again, he was full of beer, whiskey and peach brandy.
Five minutes later, by cuckoo clock time, after reentering Mary Hursh, Bailey had a small, weak loss of semen.
Back home, he didn't have to go looking for Edith. She was sitting in the living room reading the Sunday paper. He thought she was going to ignore his return, but no such luck.
Lowering the newspaper a bit, she said, with sugar in her voice, "That bet you wanted to make yesterday, King Kong-I'll take you on."
"No!" he gasped out.
She dropped the paper on the floor. "You're not going to chicken out on me, I hope?"
"Go to hell!" In the years of their marriage, this was the first time he wanted to use, in her presence, all the cuss words he knew.
Edith laughed mockingly. "So you dined on the poor widow next door? The bony hen sure took the rooster out of you, didn't she?"
Without replying, he grabbed up the newspaper she had dropped to the floor and started noisily downstairs to the rec room.By accident, just as he was about to plop down on the red leather davenport, he saw himself in a floor to ceiling mirror.
"Damn fool! You look like a hunted, exhausted animal!" he shouted at his image. "Why did you come back here anyway? Go over to your own apartment and hide your silly face!"
CHAPTER FIVE
At twelve minutes past eight, Ben's doorbell rang. In view of his desire to be left strictly alone and the crazy happenings of Saturday night and Sunday morning, he seriously thought of pretending that he wasn't there. Finally, out of curiosity and because the bell ringer's persistency, he got up and went to see who his visitor could be.
Six foot eight of skinny manhood stood just outride Bailey's door.
"Dave Lewis!" he exclaimed in a relieved voice.
The string bean's freckled face beamed. "I hoped to find you here, Ben. Missed you out at the Bexley marble mansion. Mrs. Bailey said you might be nere."
"Come in," Ben invited, wondering, as he spoke, what was on the red-headed man's mind.
Lewis lumbered awkwardly in. He had always had trouble with his big feet. The shoes he wore now were size eighteen.
After his guest was seated and Bailey had spread out on the davenport, he said, "Haven't seen you for some time, Dave. Keeping busy at your law office, I suppose."
Hollow-cheeked Lewis shrugged narrow shoulders. "I make a living. Never was a fireball at anything. Second string everything. Even basketball. Iheard you got raped. That's why I wanted to see you."
Ben frowned. The word had sure gotten around fast. "Where'd you hear that?" he demanded irritably.
'Barber school where I get my hair cut. It seems that some college frail told this fellow." Dave Lewis shuffled his big feet around nervously. "Is it true that you were raped three times?"
"Well-yes." If the story was out, there was little use denying it.
A big grin came over Lewis' homely face. "Man do I envy you! Poor as I am, I'd give five hundred bucks to have that happen to me. I'm ashamed to confess it, but I never had but one lousy piece and that was with a sixty year old bag when I was fifteen. She was ugly as sin, all laused up with cheap wine and filthy dirty. I've still got the quarter she gave me to do it in the alley behind the Wool-worth store."
"This is a world of too little or too much," Bailey commented evenly. "Never just enough."
"You know, I've often read where pretty girls go for ugly men. And if I'm not a scarecrow, nobody is. How do I get raped by a young chick, Ben?"
Bailey considered his lanky companion's question for a couple of minutes, then said, "I've been told that there are gangs of sexy-hungry college wrens grabbing off men wherever they can find them. I would say a good place to be found would be the campus of most any college. Or any of the many parks around town should be an ideal spot for a bunch of female savages to knock over and take a guy."
"Sounds like pretty good advice," said Dave very quickly, licking his lips like a Tom cat that has just caught a hot Pussy.
Ben went on presently, "If you'd wear a white shirt and white pants, it would make it easier for the passion dollies to see you in the dark. Your height would help, too."
Lewis actually giggled. "Yeah, and plenty of Come Get Me perfume sprayed all over me would help them find me."
"Now you're usin' the old noodle, Dave. Warning-whatever pants you wear, make sure that the zipper works easily. Backing in my own college days, I lost a chance to whack a hot looking coed simply because of a rusty zipper that stuck on me at the critical moment."
Dave inclined his flaming red head. "Glad you warned me, Benny. Man, you can just bet that I'll be on the prowl tomorrow night. Some piece of sugar could get almost a virgin, if she got me."
Bailey gave the bean pole a look full of sympathy. "I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that at least five or six sex pots jump you the first night out. After all this time without honey, you should be able to take on a young army of stuff. The way you're built, you should have what it takes to make the girls scream."
Dave almost blushed. "I don't like to brag, but I'm sure I could surprise a lot of tail waggers."
"If a tall, lean gal can make a preacher lay his bible down, I don't know why a long guy like you couldn't make a coed burn up all her text books."
Lewis began panting. "Would I ever love to get a big helping of educated bottom! And I can promise that no gang of biddies would ever find a bull that would rape easier." He awkwardly got to his huge feet. "Thanks for everything, Benny. You were my favorite guy, even back in high school days, and you're more than ever tops with me now. Listen, if those three Go-Go girls that raped you show up again, beg them to see me. Will you do that?"
Bailey nodded vigorously. "I don't want that bunch, or any part of it, back here. You're doubly welcome to the lot."
At the door, Dave Lewis stopped, turned and looked toward Ben. "They didn't do a good job on you?"
"I wouldn't say that. But I prefer to pick out my own lay material." Mary Hursh popped into his mind. "If you don't do any good within a couple of weeks, come back and see me. There's a possibility that I might arrange something for you, if you're not too particular."
Lewis said eagerly, "You've had someone that wasn't too hot?"
"She's hot enough, but she doesn't look like much."
"I wouldn't care about that, Benny. I've got to have some nookie before I go off my rocker."
"As I said if you don't do any good within a reasonable length of time, come back and we'll talk about a connection for you."
Dave Lewis left then and Ben decided, despite the earliness of the hour, to get some much needed shuteye. He had a stiff snort of Vodka before showering and going to bed.
Before he went to sleep, he promised himself that he would lead the life of a monk, so far as sex was concerned, until he was in shape to batter away at the voluptuous Daisy Watson. From her looks, she deserved the best that he could give her. Unless he had been deceived by her sensual appearance, she would almost make him forget that he had banged the Widow Hursh.
For five days Ben kept that promise he had made Sunday evening. His small work crew was in the process of building an eight room house in the fifty thousand dollar bracket for a wealthy cigar, cigarette and candy wholesaler. It wasn't often that he latched onto such an expensive construction project and he spent a great portion of that five days of abstention from the flesh pots, overseeing the finishing of the rich man's home.
At five P.M. Friday afternoon, Ben telephoned his ex-wife's office and asked to speak to Daisy Watson. Knowing the long working hours that Edith kept, he was fairly certain that the six foot platinum blonde would still be on the job.
His deduction was correct. Daisy came on the wire in about a half minute after he asked for her.
"Hello, Delilah," he said lightly into the mouthpiece of the phone. "I need a hair cut, shampoo, close have, and massage from head to foot. In fact, the works."
Her laughter filled his ears and even spilled over. "Yes, sir," she said. "I had expected to hear from you before this. Unless you've been to some other barber shop since I saw you, there should be doubt about you needing all that I can throw at you."
"I know that our date was for tomorrow night, but you also said that in a hardship case, it might be possible to set it up, so do you have anything on this evening?"
"I've had my nose to the drafting board all week and have made no dates at all. No kidding, I'm ready to cut loose tonight. You'll be able to stay it out, I hope?"
He chuckled. "Baby doll, I'm no hit and runner. I'm there to the very end. What time shall I sow?"
"Since we're practically strangers and we'll need time to become fully acquainted, I'd suggest about eight. By that time in the morning, we should know what makes each other tick."
"Where do I bring the body and leave part of it?"
"I'll find you," he said grimly. "It won't be dark, but even if it were black as pitch male instinct would lead me to my mate."
Daisy said softly, "You travel a fast road, handsome. A woman has a right to change her mind and if the chemistry turns out wrong, I might decide not to sleep with you."
"I'll take that chance. Anything you'd like me to bring, Daisy?"
"No flowers, candy, diamonds or pearls-only flowering-passion. Don't get tanked. Sorry, but I don't care for the taste of booze on a man's lips."
"Just for you, I'll rub chocolate over my kisser. Do I boldly come to the front door or sneak around back? What are the rules of the house?"
The girl at the other end of the line was again in laughter. When she had gotten hold of herself, she said, "You have a station wagon. I heard your wife mention it. So, to add spice to our clandestine romance, why don't you bring a ladder and mount to my window? My room is in the rear and I'll get a red lantern somewhere and set it in the window sill."
"Must get my nose back to the grind if I want to get out of here at a decent time. See you at eight, on ladder, with your best clicking machinery. Bye, bye, Ben."
Long after the connection had been cut and he was getting himself ready for the sweet clash with the platinum blonde Venus' he was still bubbling with excitement from the phone conversation with her. Nothing thrilled him more than the prospect of the successful conquest of a lovely, amply stacked doll.
Whistling part of the time, singing the rest, he took an hour and a half making sure that he would look and smell good to Daisy Watson.
Ladder in the rear of the almost new Oldsmobile station wagon, he was speeding toward the rendevous with the lush beauty when he remembered that he hadn't had dinner.
"What the hell does it matter?" he muttered under his breath. "I'd skip a week of meals for a go at that sexy-looking piece."
Though it was somewhat dark back in the woods where the large farm house was situated, he could still see quite well as he drove his car around to a parking lot in the rear, already almost filled to capacity with automobiles of different, types, makes and colors.
Bailey felt rather foolish as he got the ladder out of the station wagon and went looking for a window with a red lantern. As he walked, he prayed that he wouldn't be seen by anyone except his quarry.
Daisy wanted new kicks, so after putting the ladder in place, he took a rubber Satan mask from a hip pocket and slid it over his head and face.
The platinum haired girl was waiting in a chair near the window and as soon as his head appeared, she removed the red lantern from the sill.
"I know you well, Devil," she called out "Come into the fire and get hot"
When she stood up, he received the biggest jolt he had had in a long time. Daisy's nude loveliness would have driven a photographer completely batty.
"What breasts!" Ben cried out and quickly entered through the wide open window. In order that he might better see the picture she presented, he swiftly peeled off the mask and stuck it back in the pocket from which it had come.
Pouting prettily, Daisy retorted, "I have a face, in case you're interested. How would you feel if you undressed for me and all I looked at was your-your whip?"
"I'd be proud for you to admire anything about me, marm," he said in mock seriousness.
"How do I know that you have admirable qualities in quantity?"
He came further into the bedroom. "I take that as an invitation to strip."
"Do you dance as you strip, honey bunch?"
"Naturally. I also sing that great and popular ballad, "I'm Going To Get Under Your Skin, Sugar."
Daisy giggled. "Never heard it. Who wrote it?"
"I did. Words and music." While getting out of his two hundred dollar suit and the rest of the trappings, he took his eyes from the six foot amazon long enough to inspect her bedroom. All the furnishings were gray and scarlet.
Her gaze following his, Daisy said "And what do you think of my man trap?"
"Without turning on the sweet music and the seductive perfume sprayer, you can seduce me without any trouble."
A little whistle brought his eyes back to her. Her black, smoky orbs were focused upon his nakedness. He was glad that he had a good body. Girls had been telling him so for years. In one manner or another.
"You could do a lot of damage, sweetie," she announced, her eyes still taking intensive inventory.
"You have it all wrong, big sister. I'm not a destroyer. I'm a do-gooder with a heart full of love."
Going over to the bed, she sat upon the edge of it, spreading apart her long, slender, beautiful legs. "Before we really get serious, do-gooder, you can go in a ways and feel your way around."
"We haven't kissed, baby."
That got him going toward her and the bed. It had been some time since he had taken a woman in that position, but it wasn't a bad wav to start off.
"Give me an inch and I'll go for a mile," he said thickly as he got to her and made contact.
"Mile, nothing!" exclaimed Daisy. "I don't want to end up with curvature of the spine!" Her warm, sweet arms slid about his waist. "Right off, I'd say that this is the beginning of an endearing' friendship."
His voice hoarse, he replied, "Deep and long lasting, would be my judgment."
She burned his lips for a couple of minutes with her hot mouth. She finally had to break off the torrid kiss. "You'd better come on in before you get too big," she announced thickly.
Ben gladly did as she asked, but making the grade wasn't at all easy. "That's snug, chick," he murmured.
"I like it that way, don't you?"
"Love it."
"I'll never understand why Edith divorced you. Of, course, she's a tiny thing. Maybe that's the answer."
He made no comment. Discussing the sex he had shared with his ex-wife was out. He hoped that Edith had had the decency not to spill about their love life to others.
"So, that's a touchy subject, er, Ben?"
He winced inwardly. "I don't intend to advertise for you and, if I'm satisfactory or not, I hope that you won't rattle to your friends and associates."
"Do I resemble a rattlesnake in any manner? You may start shoving any time now. Man, that needs no advertising."
He loved to shove and from past results, figured that he was a very good operator. It would be a damn shame to like to do something so well and not be able to come through.
Her face and eyes revealing the passion already surging through her manificient body, Daisy did a fingernail job on his back. "Faster!" she urged.
Again, he joyfully did as she wished. The time off he had taken from sexual relations with females would stand him in good stead now. Unless he was badly mistaken, he had already wormed his way into her heart. If nothing went sour on him, in the long night ahead, hours before the coming of morning he would have exhausted both their mighty lusts.
"You've got it all, lover," Daisy spoke out, her voice huskier than it had been before.
"Not yet, by several long shots, but I'm going for it with everything at my command."
"And how plenty it is! Aren't you going to come soon? I want us to do it together." ' "I'm waiting for you, hot one."
"Noble man. But let it flicker-please!" As a private obeys the order of his commanding officer to begin firing, so did Ben, wishing all the while that he could discharge in the manner of a machine gun.
It was a good one. Hell, that was an understatement! Only a great release could have torn him so apart and set off a series of climaxes that nearly shook the platinum blonde to pieces.
Long ago, he had learned that it was nearly always the woman that spoke out, regardless of the situation, and it was Daisy who first found voice. "Satyr!" she said accusingly. Bailey was about to retort in kind when the door of the bedroom opened and a small, pixie-faced girl, with generously frosted hair, came in. She was bearing a motion picture camera
"What a show! Even some of the plaster fell off the ceiling!" exclaimed the smiling newcomer. "When you two tie into each other, somethin' has to give!"
CHAPTER SIX
Furious as a lion, Ben blasted Daisy Watson with profane, ugly words. He only did stopped when he ran out of breath.
"Now that you've used all the foul words that never made a dictionary, I have quite a bit to say myself," she retorted, her face everything but pleasant and impassive. "I knew that there were peepholes in most of the bedrooms, but I wasn't aware that one of the bitches was going to catch the action with a motion picture camera."
"But you didn't give a damn!" he cut in hotly. "There's no doubt in my mind but that this thing happens here all the time!"
Daisy nodded. "This is called the Kick Palace by many of the girls. But, I didn't set up this deal tonight. Never did I mention to anyone that I was having a date. You looked very special to me when we met for the first time Sunday and I intended to keep you under cover."
He wasn't convinced. "Bull! And even now, this slut is planning to show our love making to the rest of the gang as soon as possible."
"Vi will do that very thing," she said evenly. "But I'm innocent of any complicity."
"You've done this to others and don't tell me you haven't!"
She shook her platinum blonde head. "Not here. In my coed days, at the sorority, yes."
"If you wanted to, you could make that little blister destroy the film."
"No one make the Imp, that's what we call her, do anything. She's as stubborn as any German you will ever meet. Besides, her old man owns half the steel mills in the East. Vi is loaded in her own name. Got it from her grandmother."
He got to his feet with some effort. "I'm getting dressed and I order you to do the same. Then you're going to find and bring the Imp here, with her stinking camera and film. If you don't do it, I'm going to wreck the entire joint. In the process, I'm sure to beat hell out of some of your snooky playmates."
Shaking her head, Daisy got up from the bed, went to the closet, took down some clothing and began dressing. "It's no use, Ben," she announced, even before she was completely attired. "The Imp knows that you're burning and she's not going to wait around. She'll jump into her car and take off. I may not see her now for days. She doesn't have to work. She has a studio in town and plays artist."
"Maybe you can't get hold of her, but I will," Bailey said coldly. "Where's her studio? I'll get her eventually either here or there and she isn't going to be good to look at when I'm finished."
"You wouldn't slug Vi? If she were a man, yes. But you surely don't go around laying the fist to women?"
He groaned just under his breath. The statuesque platinum blonde had him pegged. Even if he went berserk, he wouldn't swing on a girl.
"I don't know just how yet, but I'll catch up with the Imp sooner or later. Then I'll get what I want!"
Daisy gave him a look of sympathy. "If it's the film that you're determined to get, your chances are practically nil. Vi will make sure that it's never where you can get your hands on it. If you'll settle for a romp in the way, I have a hunch that after seeing you in action, she would let you have it a hundred times or more."
Ben retorted harshly, "I'd tear that little strumpet apart!"
"I'll grant that you'd prod her deeper than anyone ever has, but judging form what I've heard, she'll love every minute of it. One of the girls she used to room with at the university claims that one night after a football victory fifteen of the biggest players on our team took turns laying the Imp."
That pice of information didn't erase his desire to teach the girl a lesson she would never forget, "If I don't get that film, Hot Panty Vi pays plenty for it!"
Daisy's black eyes began to gleam again. "Come back to bed, Ben and I'll exhaust your anger in me. I'll gladly take all of it. In a way, I'm responsible for what happened and I'm so willing to pay. I did ask you to come here, thereby giving the Imp an opportunity to take the pictures. I never knew anyone that gets such a big bang out of so called stag films. She has sent all over the world for them."
"And the bunch of you here undoubtedly get quite a charge out of her films, too," he accused hotly.
"Not this chick," sine hastily denied. "I never was one to watch a couple making love. It takes the real thing to satisfy me. Please undress and literally raise hell inside of me. You're the most, darling. If you go away from me now, I'll spend an awful miserable night here alone."
His was a disagreeable laugh. "When I leave, you will only call up some other stud and have him come and deliver the goods."
Daisy shook her head most vigorously. "I will not!" She raised her right hand. "I swear it! If you're afraid to stay here and make love the way I like it, I'll go with you-anywhere."
Bailey was at the window, ready to go down the ladder he had brought, when his wrath began to dissolve into thin air. He had saved for nearly a week so that he would be in condition to give the sexy-looking Daisy all that she could take, and here he was, about to beat it after just one plunging into her passionate sweetness. He should have his head examined. No man in his right mind would leave this sex-pot until they were both unable to climax together again.
His decision to leave Daisy gone by the wayside, he turned from the window and to his surprise, discovered that she was already stripped and lying upon the bed.
"Turn out the light, honey," she directed softly. "I'm positive that the Imp won't return to her bedroom tonight. That was where she took the pictures. Anyway, in the darkness, no one could use peep holes to see what we're doing."
Ben was getting out of his clothes as he went to the light switch.
The girl's strong arms enfolded him the moment he joined her. "How good it feels to have you close again." she murmured, her lips very near to his face.
The pressure of her hard, very full breasts against his chest immediately inspired such tremendous desire within him that up popped the sensation organ.
"What a man!" exclaimed Daisy, in a voice full of both surprise and happiness.
"You asked for it," he retorted thickly.
"And how you responded! What a kick I get out of seeing all of you, honey, but since we're forced to be in darkness now, I still get a tremendous thrill just feeling you against me."
"I'm at my best inside, Daisy."
"How well I know that, just from one time. You know, we didn't kiss much the other time. Let's have a prolonged lip to lip, tongue to tongue session before you enter this time."
Ben agreed ardently.
Without further words, he began shooting the fire inside her furnace-like mouth. Then it was her turn to try out her lip and tongue skill. He loved it and, from her reactions, he knew that she did too.
Not until he was in danger of a pre-mature expulsion did he take complete charge of her body.
"Man, am I in for it this time!" she cried out happily.
"If you don't want it, I'll removed myself," he teased, knowing that she wouldn't let him out yet.
"Just do your damnedest! That's all I ask of you!"
No woman had ever challenged him like that without getting all he could give. "Here we go, bill doll!" he snapped, eager to comply with her request for his damnedest doing.
It had been somewhat cool in the bedroom when he first poked into her burning, yearning flesh, but within seconds, everything got hot.
Sometimes he spoke endearing words to his sex partners, but now he wasn't about to waste an ounce of his strength in speech. Every bit of the power he could muster must be expended inside the magnif-icient body, doing a remendous job on him with lips, teeth, breasts and hips. As his plunging increased in speed and savagery, her buttocks responded with movements that nothing invented by man could begin to match. The most modern washer couldn't have begun to do the job on a bundle of dirty clothing that the platinum blonde was doing on him.
He knew, as the end came nearer and nearer, that this sexy Daisy was about to force him to strike with the fierceness of unleashed lightning during a mad storm.
She hadn't spoken either, while he bombarded her fortress in a gigantic effort to force unconditional surrender. But now digging long, sharp fingernails into his back, she cried out, "Strike, darling! Mama is going to blister everything in sight. Not only you, but the paint on the walls-everything!"
"Ask and you shall receive, baby!" he yelled and shot the works.
Receiving with a vicious bumping of her flat, firm belly and thirty-eight inch buttocks, Daisy took him over a mountain that seemed to reach to the moon. While she was still in that ecstatic world lovers can't visit of en enough, he began floating back to earth on a beautiful magic carpet.
He had made a soft landing on a still hot mass of flesh when a much shaken up voice said into his ears, at once on fire, too, "That's one that'll fill several pages of my diary."
Despite his condition of extreme, blissful lassitude, her words caused him to gasp, "Diary! With names?"
CHAPTER SEVEN
"I shouldn't have said that," replied Daisy, a tone of regret in her still husky voice. "First, the Imp's motion picture camera, then my diary. Now, you'll be sure that your visit here will be made into a movie that talks."
Bailey said evenly. "I wouldn't advise anyone trying to blackmail me. I promise you, I'd deal pretty harshly with anyone trying to put the bite on me."
She sighed so deeply that he couldn't help but hear. "You're one very suspicious individual, Ben Bailey. If I didn't love so dearly what you do to me, I'd never let you put it in again."
He rolled over on his back. "I'm only letting you know how I'd react to a dirty attempt to squeeze me."
"The only way I'll ever squeeze you, sweetheart, will be with my arms and legs."
That got a little laugh out of him and did much toward releiving him of the anxiety he had been feeling, due to being on film and soon to be on the written page.
"That's good to know," he said lightly. "I really shouldn't wear out my welcome-and you-on the first night. I should get up and go right now."
"I don't want you to go, Ben. I come right back like a boomarang. Are you sure you're not the one that's pooped?"
He didn't put up an argument. "I have no illusions about my ability to wear you out in one night. I hate to admit it, but if I stay on here, I'm certain I'll be soft more than I'm hard."
"But from what I know of you already, you'll come up again before morning. I'll let you sleep until you wake on your own accord, with a burning desire to have me again. How does that sound to you, sugar?"
He wearily shook his head in the darkness. "If a man taps his savings, it isn't long before he's a pauper. I'll go before that happens to me."
"And you'll never come back to me," Daisy said with great earnestness.
"I may not return here, but I'm like a honey bee-crazy about flower pollen. Before long, I'll be asking you to give me a gob of sweetness for my hive."
"I'll hive up with you anywhere, any time, Ben. But again I beg you not to go. Sure you don't have someone waiting at your apartment to share the third trick with you?"
Bailey chuckled. "Hardly."
"Sunday, at the house in Bexley, I watched you look at Edith. You haven't gotten over her. I could tell. You'd love to have a generous helping of her, if she'd go for it."
He made no denial of her accusation. For ten long years, he had yearned to know Edith fully again.
The platinum-haired girl continued, "She's a cool little customer. I know I'm a lot hotter than she ever was or will be."
As if he hadn't heard her, he didn't reply.
"Okay, so you don't want to talk about it. I know that I shouldn't open old wounds. Forget that I opened my big yap. I won't do it again."
"Thanks." Slipping out of bed, he began a search, in the darkness, for his discarded clothing.
"Want a light, Ben?"
"Definitely not!" he retorted quickly. "I'll find my duds. I certainly appreacite the good time you've given me. I want to tell you that. A man is very lucky when he meets a girl of such sterling quality and assets. They're worth more than a bar of solid gold "
She laughed softly. "You make me feel so good. And, believe me, it was my pleasure to share with you all the ecstasy we have had tonight. Please give me a call tomorrow, dear. Just hearing your voice again will make my day complete."
"I'll do that little thing," he promised. After he was dressed, he went toward the open window.
He was on the first step of the ladder when a head was dimly revealed to him and a soft voice said, "A goodnight kiss, Ben. I need it to sleep well."
Never a piker where a lovely girl was concerned, he found her mouth with his and completed the transaction without falling from his precarious perch.
During the drive back to the city, an inner voice warned him not to go to his apartment to spend the rest of the night. The small, but urgent, voice suggested that he seek out a motel or hotel to park his much used body.
The Key Motel, being close to his apartment house, was most convenient, so he stopped there. In short order, he sought out the bed he had paid for.
At ten of two the next afternoon he entered his small, cheap rent office, located in a suburb of the city.
His Girl Friday, a mud-faced old maid of sixty years, who could turn out all the work he could scrape up for her, looked up from her secondhand desk to give him a smile.
"I didn't expect you, Mr. Bailey," she gushed in a baby voice that decidedly didn't go with the rest of her flat, bony body.
"Business deal, Miss Sexton," he announced, looking straight into her fish-like eyes.
"You closed it, I trust?"
"Made considerable progress, but there are final details to be worked out." He was thinking of Daisy Watson as he spoke to Do vie Sexton.
"Good! Another house to built this year?" The fish eyes had returned to the open ledger on the desk.
"I'm hoping," Ben answered evenly.
Dovie Sexton wouldn't let it drop. "A large house?"
Going to the most comfortable chair in the small office, he parked his behind. "The size and price aren't definite yet. If I'm lucky, it could bring me a sizable hunk of profit."
"You work so hard, Mr. Bailey. You deserve to prosper. Your wife-ex, I mean ... must have been born with a golden spoon in her mouth, the great success she's had, operating a man's business"
He nodded, never having been jealous of Edith's booming building enterprise. "She has a golden tongue, a tremendous amount of personality and more drive than a fullback."
Dovie Sexton shrugged practically meatless shoulders. "Modern women are getting into all lines of work that men once completely dominated."
"In my humble opinion, competition, between the sexes is good for the economy."
"But when members of my sex have financial independence, they frequently go high hat. I'd say that's why there are so many divorces between working couples."
"Could be, Miss Sexton."
The sharp-faced woman colored up profusely. "I'm sorry, Mr. Bailey. I apologize. It momentarily slipped my mind that Mrs. Bailey and you-"
"Divorced," he finished crisply. "Just one of those common things, I guess."
"It's none of my business, of course, but wouldn't it be best for you and Mrs. Bailey to remarry?"
"Each other or someone else, Miss Sexton?"
Her face became beet red now. "Each other, of course. I'm sure there must be considerable affection existing between you two."
Bailey smiled blandly. "Because we're continued to live in the same house for ten years? Neither of us gives a damn what the neighbors think or say."
She said hastily. "I'm sure there's no wrong doing, just because you live under the same roof."
"How true." He made an ugly face. "Don't blab this around, but if I had my way, I'd cross over from my side of the bed to Edith's."
The old maid's big mouth, untouched by lipstick, fell open. "You don't-?"
He came to her embarrassed aid. "You've heard of bundle beds, haven't you? Well, there are a lot of antiques in my ex-wife's house. She inherited them from her parents and grandparents. Believe it or not, we do use one of those old Colonial sparking beds."
"You're pulling my leg!" blurted out Dovie Sexton. "Oh, I didn't mean to say that? I get so confused sometimes, when I'm bring joshed."
The spinster had been with him five years and, in that time, she had unwittingly prompted him to laughter on several occasions. To him, there wasn't anyone much funnier than a prim, prissy female.
Hoping to add to her confusion, he said, "A fellow I knew in high school, about my own age, came to me the other day in dire need of a woman. Can you imagine, Dovie, a modern day man that hasn't indulged in twenty-five years?"
The deep red returned to the gray-haired woman's face. "I'd guess it's most unusual," she said her eyes intently fastened upon her ledger.
"And so he wants to be raped," Bailey went on, much to Miss Sexton's discomforture. "I advised him to spend his nights wandering around the parks and college grounds."
Dovie Sexton ventured timidly, "After Mon died, Dad went to a-a sporting house now and then.
If a man must, and that seems to be his nature, I don't believe in him running-young girls. Let him seek out a harlot and pay her for her services." Dovie's voice had risen in self-rightousness.
Bailey clapped his hands. "That's the spirit! Now, what would you say to do about females who must have a bang now and then? There are those, you know."
"This may come as a surprise to you, Mr. Bailey, but my favorite reading is the history of all ages. In many parts of Europe, now as well as centuries ago, naughty women who couldn't master their evil desires, went to houses where men lay in wait. Would you believe, they had to pay those men for what they wanted?" She was warming up to the subject.
"You wouldn't be interested in bringing soothing balm to a forty year old man, would you?"
Dovie Sexton half arose to her feet. "Mr. Bailey!" she exclaimed indignantly.
"No, you wouldn't! Forget it. Poor Dave!"
She settled back in her chair. "I shouldn't have exploded like that. I haven't worked for you all this time without finding out that you're just a big tease. David-who?"
He pointed a forefinger at his elderly employee. "You wouldn't help my friend out, but you're curious about him. There's some naughtiness in all women, Dovie, and I'm sure there've been times that you've regretted being a virgin."
This time, she didn't get fully to her feet. "Are not you assuming too much, Mr. Bailey?"
Ben pretended shock, but he actually was dumbfounded. "You're not pure?"
"Knock it off!" Dovie retorted, more than a hint of anger in her fish eyes. "Am I responsible if a drunk climbed into my bedroom window one dark night, put a long knife to my throat and threatened to kill me unless I gave in to his desires?"
He shook his head from side to side. 'This happened to you? How old were you at the time?"
"Thirty-three."
"Did you see the man's face?"
"It was the dark of the moon and I don't have cat eyes."
He said, still very much surprised at the old maid's abrupt disclosure of her rape. "The police never found him?"
"I didn't call in the police. When a girl reports a criminal assault, she's laughed at and made the butt of dirty gossip."
"The foul hound never came back, did he Dovie?"
She resumed her seat. "No. I was prepared for him, if he ever did. I bought a revolver and a repeating shotgun. I still have them both."
"Women that are raped, even virgins, sometimes get pregnant."
"I didn't," Dovie Sexton said hurriedly. "If it had happened to me there would have been a trip to a country where abortion is legal. I know it would have been costly, but, at that time, I had fifteen thousand dollars in the bank."
He grinned at her. "All that money then! You must have much more than that now. How would you like to buy a partnership in my company?"
She gave him an ugly little smile. "I'm too old for that now. Besides, you're not serious. Oh, my goodness, there was a gentleman here to see you this morning. He said he'd come back."
The front door opened as she ceased speaking. A very distinguished-looking, handsomely attired man entered. He looked to be about fifty year old.
"Mr. Bailey?" queried the tall, well-built stranger.
Nodding, Ben got up. "Yes."
The newcomer looked toward Dovie. "May I talk to you in private?"
Bailey shrugged. "I only have this small office, but I'm sure my assistant would like to do some shopping."
Dovie Sexton lost little time in jumping up and clearing out.
The front door had been fully closed when the unknown man began evenly, "I have reason to suspect that my head-strong daughter belongs to a gang of girls that are going about seeking thrills and kicks. It could be that she and two of her friends raped you."
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ben's brain required a couple of long minutes to absorb what the man had said. When full realiza-
"What's your name?" Bailey demanded.
The well-dressed strange shook his dark head, just beginning to be sprinkled with gray. "I'd rather not disclose who I am. I'm removing my daughter from the university. I'm going to take her home and see that she has psychiatric treatment. A friend of mine, an attorney, has made an investigation of my child's recent activities and, in his report to me, he stated that she is no more depraved than thousand of girls throughout the college world. Now, I realize that it's difficult to make payment for the crime committed upon your person, but I'm prepared to try to meet your demands."
Deciding that the man before him had suffered enough, Ben knew that he wouldn't create a scene. Although being raped by thrill-seeking coeds wasn't his idea of fun, it had been done and there was no way to get back what they had so ruthlessly taken from him. After all, it hadn't been his first sex experience.
"I'm not going to carry on, Mr. ... whatever your name," he said, keeping his voice steady. "When I was in college, I did some pretty crazy things. Soma with other fellows, so I realize what being one of a group may prompt one to do. My intimate exposure to girls came at a rather early age, so those girls that came to my apartment and forced me into intercourse, didn't ruin my life. While I'm not proud to confess that I've been involved in affairs that could have sent me to jail if I'd been caught, I'm opposed to being made to cohabit with any female, one or more. I prefer to select my own mates."
The distinguished looking gentleman nodded seriously. "My wife died in childbirth, so our daughter never had the benefit of a mother's love, care and direction. Because of this, I think my only child may have developed into a person easily led by others of her age. Now, I'm not saying that she's any better than the other two that were with her, could be she's even worse, but I do want you to know that she's never had a mother's guidance."
Ben indicated a chair near the one he always occupied. "We may as well sit down. I'm not going to rave and rant at you. At this late date, such action would be of no purpose."
After they were both seated, the still unidentified man said evenly, "I had hoped that you'd be reasonable. It's a great pleasure to meet someone who's big enough to accept what has happened without making a big thing out of it. I told you, I want to make whatever aniens that you suggest, Mr. Bailey."
"If you had been a victim of an attack, what sort of payment would you expect?"
The stranger frowned. "That's a most logical question for a business man to ask another, but I'm forced to admit that I don't have a ready answer."
"Would you ask for money?" Ben persisted.
"No."
"You would want kind of recompense, wouldn't you, sir?"
The unknown individual looked uncomfortable. "I still don't know what to say." His face brightened a bit. "You're a builder. Possible you could use additional contracts. Would you be interested in putting up several commercial structures?"
Bailey shrugged. "Would they be built in the Columbus, Franklin County area?"
"I'm sorry to say they're not, Mr. Bailey."
"I'm a small time builder, as you probably already know. It wouldn't be to my interest to go out of the county on construction work."
"I can understand your position."
Ben said impulsively, "I've just made a snap decision. I'm sure you're going to do everything you think best for your daughter, so I'm going to let you off the hook entirely. You owe me nothing."
The perplexed father immediately got to his feet, took a few steps to where Bailey sat and held out his hand. "You are a big man, Mr. Bailey. I want to shake your hand. Now, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Bob Barrows of Cleveland. I head a company of large drive-in restaurants there."
Getting up, Bailey took Barrow's large, strong hand in his own sizable, powerful one. "I'm glad to know you, Mr. Barrows. I admire you for having the courage to come here and confess that your only offspring was one of the trio that attacked me in my apartment."
A relieved smile upon his handsome features, Bob Barrows replied, "I would much rather have met you under different circumstances, Mr. Bailey, but I'll always be grateful for the manner in which you've received the most hateful confession I ever made. My daughter, Abby, is getting off far too easily. It's only fair to you that she be punished. I know what she needs. A damned good spanking. I failed in my duty as a father to do it before, but now, I'm going to lay it on her good. By all rights, this should be a public paddling. Better yet, I want you to do it!"
"Oh, no, Mr. Barrows, I'm not going to be the one to blister your daughter's behind, especially before curious onlookers!"
"Then at the sorority house where she's been living! That'll not only do more to shame Abby than any other punishment could, but it'll also serve as a warning to the girl's she's associated with. I'd guess that it was two of her sorority sisters who were in on your attack."
Bailey considered the other man's proposal for at least five minutes. Finally, he said, "It's possible that a whipping administered before her friends would get to the seat of your daughter's trouble."
"Then you'll do it?" said Mr. Barrows eagerly, though there was a distinct note of sadness in his deep voice.
"Yes, but not in the spirit of revenge. I'm only hoping that what I'll do will straighten out your Abby."
Bob Barrows said, "I'll phone you the time and place, Mr. Bailey."
Approximately ten minutes after the Cleveland man had departed, Dovie Sexton returned, a questioning look on her very plain face.
"New businesses, Mr. Bailey?" she queried hopefully.
"Nothing in my line, Dovie," he returned then shortly. "Too bad."
"Yeah, it is."
"Your visitor was a mighty distinguished looking man."
"That he was. Quite a gentleman, too. I'll see more of him-and his daughter."
Dovie Sexton exclaimed, "Daughter! Maybe you are going to find someone suite to you."
Her words prompted him to burst into laughter. Getting control of himself he said, "You'll never know how funny you're being."
"I'm glad that I'm good for more than office work around here."
"You missed your calling woman. That droll, serious-faced comedy of yours would have gone over big on the stage."
Going to her chair at the desk, she quickly seated herself. 'This laughter business hasn't been completely one-sided in the five years I've worked for you. My funny bone has been tickled more than once."
He grinned widely at her. "The woman you replaced was so ticklish that she couldn't sit on a cushion filled with feathers. When things got too dully around here, I could always liven up the place by tickling Mabel."
"I've talked to Mabel Able, Mr. Bailey. She warned me what to expect. Not only did you tickle her, you-you ."
"Goosed her," he finished. "Had to sometimes to keep her from going to sleep on the job."
"No wonder she was always sleepy. That woman was a rounder. Out nearly every night, dancing and boozing it up. You've never even seen me nod while I'm at work."
The ringing of the telephone interrupted what he was about to say. Though Dovie Sexton answered the phone, the call was for him.
"I'm Abigail Barrows," announced a crisp young voice. "My father has been to see you and I know what I'm to be humiliated before my sorority sisters. Perhaps I have that coming to me, but couldn't the punishment be just as severe if the three of us came to your apartment and had you whip us there? If you'll agree to that, I think it's possible that I can talk Daddy into going along."
"Not in my apartment, sister!" he retorted into the mouthpiece of the telephone. "Oh, no!"
"You're afraid of us! Get as many body guards as you wish, then."
That crack of hers inspired instant anger within him. "Okay' blister, bring your slut friends to my place tonight and I'll give the three of you something that's been needed for a long time-and in large doses!"
"Now, you're talking sense, sport," said she. "What time do you want us to come for our much deserved punishment?"
"Eight. And be sure to bring your father."
"If he agrees to the deal, Dad'll want to be on hand to see that you put your big hand where it belongs. If you don't hear any more from me, you may expect us at eight."
Though with the telephone receiver, he passed it back to Dovie. Her fish eyes regarded him with a question mark in each one.
Before she could speak out, he said, "A very confidential matter. It must be attended to tonight"
"That's nice," said Dovie, looking somewhat like an ugly toad about to swallow a fly.
"Guess there's no point in hanging around here and keeping you from your work. Hope to see you much earlier tomorrow."
"I'll be here on time, as always, Mr. Bailey."
"That I do'nt doubt."
CHAPTER NINE
Ben made a number of stops on his way to the apartment. He needed groceries, soft drinks, postage stamps and reading material.
It was a minute to eight when the doorbell rang.
Wondering, as he had ever since Bob Barrow's departure from his office, which one of the three attackers was the Cleveland man's daughter, he went to the door.
"Good evening, Mr. Bailey," Barrows and three young girls entered the apartment.
After the door was closed, the man said, "My daughter, Abby. She'll have to introduce her-her friends. She knows I most emphatically don't approve of them."
A tall blonde that Ben well remembered, stepped forward. "I'm the brat," she said coolly. A forefinger went to a redhead he wasn't likely to forget. "Babe Charles."
The redhead nodded. "Otherwise known as Screwy."
Abby's forefinger went to a statuesque, very black-haired, brown-eyes lovely. "Camelia Flower."
The brunette said evenly, "I wouldn't know why, but in my first year of high school, I was dubbed The Brain."
Bailey thought that, at least, one of the group would apologize for their determined assault upon his manhood, but none of the group never even as much as mentioned the episode.
Somewhat irked by the indifference of the trio, he said, "You may as well be seated while you're able to sit."
Going to the davenport, the three girls sat down. Bob Barrows took the large chair near the front door. After a moment of. indecision, Bailey returned to the chair he had been occupying when the doorbell rang.
An awkward silence prevailed for some minutes, then Barrows said sadly, "I hate to say it, Mr. Bailey, but it doesn't appear that my daughter and her associates are the least bit sorry for what they did to you. Now, more than ever, I want to give my daughter a bottom blistering that she'll never forget. I did intend to watch, but I'm afraid I'm going to chicken out and ask you to let me wait out in the car."
Ben gave the obviously much upset man a sympathetic look. "I'll excuse you, Mr. Barrows."
The Cleveland man had been gone a few minutes when his blonde daughter said brazenly, "I was the one that put the finger on you for a good lay. Saturday night. I first saw you at a swimming pool It wasn't just sudden impulse that brought us here near Westerville, admired you in swimming trunks and made up my mind that you were fair game. I took my car and followed you to your apartment house. Learning all that I needed to know about you, from that point, was simple."
"So I should feel flattered that you wanted to use my body? Brat!" the palm of his right hand itched to make frequent and violent contact with her buttocks.
Abby Barrows rose to her feet. "Most men your age would be. I assume you want me over your knees, my bare up?" She and her companions were again wearing very short scarlet shorts and also halters.
Getting up, he moved to a straight backed chair. "The better to whack you!" he said, looking coldly at the blonde. "Drop those shorts and come take what's coming to you!"
The tall Abby Barrows removed her bra as well as her shorts, strutted over to him, her large breasts bouncing, and lay across his lap. "You're an utter fool if there isn't something else you'd rather do than spank me," she murmured, her face down. "Perhaps the paddling will make you hot and you'll want to meet me some place later on. My car has seats that make into a bed."
Her words really riled Ben and he applied the palm of his right hand to her full buttocks with all the vigor in his arm and that was considerable. But he couldn't make her cry out and was nearly exhausted when he finally let her up.
Stripped down, too, the statuesque brunette came forward eagerly, it appeared to him, to take her turn over his knees.
"Do your damnedest, big boy," she ordered in a sultry voice.
Due to the great amount of punishment he had given the Barrows brat, he was unable to strike Camelia Flowers, The Brain, nearly as hard and as long as he longed to.
Making a face and sticking out an impudent rec tongue at him, the nude redhead actually trotted over to get her bottom medicine. Her giggling and laughter, as he pounded on her, made him see red. That's what her butt was, too, when he had finished and let her up.
The trio laughed together as they dressed.
The blonde Abby was the last to go out the door In the hallway, she called back, "At midnight, you'll hear a car horn. I'll wait five minutes, no longer in my car. If you're not chicken and want what's coming to you. I'll see you within one minute after I toot my horn."
"Get lost, Brat!" Ben called out sharply.
After the teasing blonde baggage closed his door, he went back to the Sporting News. To his disgust, he promptly discovered that his interest in basebal had died.
There were certain TV programs that he enjoyed, so he discarded the sports paper and went to dial in a weekly murder mystery. That was no good either. Tonight, he didn't give a damn who got killed on the screen, nor why.
He told himself that after last night's bust with Daisy Watson, the thing he needed most was more rest and sleep.
To his intense disgust, he soon learned that something had happened to his bed since he had last been in it. Somehow, it had acquired a rockiness that wouldn't permit him to keep his eyes closed in slumber. He had to admit, under his breath, that the only hardness might be in him.
Getting up from the bed, Ben went to the bathroom muttering, "How in the devil can a normal man be expected to paddle three pairs of young buckets without going crazy?"
The cold shower he took failed to remove the heat from his body. The hot he felt would stand up beneath even icy water.
He wasn't sure how long he paced the floor of the living room, his ears straining for the sound of an automobile horn.
The long listened for short toot came at two minutes past midnight. Some time before he had called and received the correct time and he was positive that his wrist watch was exactly right.
There was a long, red sedan, motor running, front and rear lights on, parked in front of his apartment house. He didn't want to appear too eager, but almost unconsciously, his long legs hurried him along to the flashy car.
He was within a foot of the sedan when all lights were doused. Bailey stopped abruptly, wondering if the horn he had heard had been set off by Abby Barrows.
While he was standing there, unsure of what to do next, a soft voice called out, "Come on in. You weren't chicken, after all. The bed is ready and so am I."
Knowing now that the blonde was inside the parked auto, he went to it, opened the rear door and nearly fell inside.
Laughing lightly, Abby said, "Careful, Benny, honey. Please don't break anything I might want to use for a long time."
Regardless of the darkness inside the long sedan, he was drawn to the feminine occupant as a piece of steel is drawn to a magnet.
His searching hands quickly encountered lots of warm flesh.
"You drove here naked!" he gasped, his voice already unsteady.
"I wanted to, but I drive like a fire engine going to a four alarm blaze and I wouldn't want the speed cops to pick me up in the total raw. No, I wore a light weight raincoat, easy to get out of. Now, take your time with me, but hurry. Sleuth Papa could be on my trail and that would be awful if he found me before you tailed me."
"I'm a damned fool for coming out of my apartment!" he blurted out, realizing what could happen if Bob Barrows found him within his daughter.
She giggled for a long minute. "You'd have always hated yourself if you hadn't. You've never had me at your mercy. It's been the other way around. In spite of a still stinging, burning bottom, I want you on me. I've read about girls whom paddling made crazy with passion, but this is my first experience, and, honest to gosh, I've never been so infernally, internally hot. Get naked and do your duty by me."
"Not here, Abby. We could get caught."
"Oh, come on now, hot stuff, you know that you like to live dangerously. And there's nothing more dangerous than being inside of me, the way I'm seething."
"Let's drive on out into the country. I know some safe spots," he urged.
"No! That's as foolish as taking a basket of cold grub up along the river when there's a delicious five course dinner on the table. Take me or I'm liable to start screaming Rape."
"And you'd do just that, Brat!" he retorted hotly.
"Get into me and make with the potent sacrifice," she commanded, her voice rising.
Bailey removed his pants. Against his better judgment.
Even in the darkness, the passionate blonde seemed to know when his trousers were off and found, with her warm, slightly damp hands, the peace maker.
"That big baby needs a hot home," Abby announced, an unsteadiness in her voice. "Sock it in all the way and get all that sweet lovin' Mama has for it."
Still knowing that he was taking a great risk, maybe in more ways than one, he got poised and went inside to collect on the promise she had made.
The delicate, perfumed blonde got to work with her firm, round hips at his first plunge and on his third, had him gasping and holding.
"Let's ride the waves right off," she pleased, her buttocks grinding demandingly. "Next time, there will be a thousand foot high breaker to mount and drop over."
Usually, Ben had very good control of his desire but like a pro baseball pitcher, who sometimes had trouble putting the ball where he wanted it, he was so wild, due mostly to the girl's frantic wiggling, that holding back his pitch was an absolute impossibility.
While still in terrific climax, the Brat screamed, "That's the stuff I need! Flood me, darling!"
It wasn't only the powerful twitching of her muscles that rendered him limp, her sudden scream helped take the desire from him. The combination of the two also brought him to his senses and she could fight and protest all she wanted to, but he was getting off her hot, lush body, putting on his pants and quickly as possible, returning to his apartment.
Big surprise! Bob Barrows was ringing his doorbell.
CHAPTER TEN
Barrow's only reaction to Bailey's appearance was, "Hi. Let's go inside. We must talk again."
At that moment, there were millions of men Ben would rather engage in conversation than Barrows. With difficulty, because of his trembling hands, he unlocked the door of the apartment and wondered how much Abby's father knew.
It wasn't until they were seated on the davenport that Bob Barrows said very emphatically, "I want you to marry my daughter!"
The man's announcement set Bailey's head to spinning. His heart seemed to find a resting place in the pit of his stomach. "Why?" he gulped.
"Because I think you can do something with her. She's stubborn, high spirited and often loud of mouth, but I believe you can tame her like a cowboy tames a mean, unridden colt."
"I'm too old for her, Mr. Barrows."
"Not according to the present day dictates of society. Older men seem to be very good for girls, even as young as seventeen and eighteen."
Still worried about how much knowledge Barrows had of his relationship with Abby, Bailey was at a loss for words.
Bob Barrows finally continued, "Abby was quite defiantly frank with me after you spanked her. She said that I might as well realize that she needed and intended to have sex relations and that you were the only man she knew that might satisfy her. It would grieve me sorely for her to become the property of one or more of these stinking characters around, so it would please me greatly if you would make her your wife. I have considerable wealth and my daughter has a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, however, I won't insult you by offering you money to wed Abby. If you wished to incorporate your building company and sell me stock, that would suit me just fine. If you wouldn't consider doing that, I could make loans whenever they were needed."
Heartened by the fact that the chain restaurant operator hadn't demanded that he marry his blonde daughter, Ben said, "What makes you think that Abby would consider me as her prospective husband?"
Barrows smiled knowingly. "In telling me off tonight, she said there could be a shotgun wedding in the family."
Suddenly there was a most ugly taste in Bailey's mouth. "I hope not."
"Saturday night, when my daughter and the other two girls attacked you, there would be no opportunity for you to be prepared. Abby stated very emphatically that she took no precautions then or later. So you see, something could have happened."
"And what, heaven forbid! if I made three strikes that night? I assure you that no one man can be part of three shotgun weddings. That's fortunately, against the law."
"It possible could be to your best interest to marry Abby as soon as possible."
"No!" Bailey retorted abruptly. "Three young girls came here, overpowered me, one used a karate chop to my throat and I was taken over the hill by each one. If any or all of the trio got pregnant, I'm just sorry. I'm not interested in double harness with anyone. If my ex-wife would take me back as her husband, then I'd give the idea serious thought."
Bob Barrows got up from the davenport. "I'm not trying to pressure you, Bailey. I know how determined my Abby can be, once she sets her mind to something and, unless someone else comes along and sweeps her off her feet, you're in for a persistent wooing."
"Wooing is my department, Barrows."
"Women used to try to make me think men were the pursuers, but that wasn't so then and it isn't now. Well, it's past my bedtime and I won't keep you up any longer. Good night, Ben."
He let the blonde's father go without a good night in return. His body was screaming out to him to be put to bed and that was where it was going just as quickly as he could get it there.
The alarm clock on the stand by his bed indicated that the hour of twelve was but a few minutes away when he opened his eyes. Yawning, he made a face at the black-faced time piece. Ben knew of no reason why he should get up. Sunday should always be a day of rest for a hard working man, even if the most arduous part of his labors had been over a hot female.
The doorbell and the telephone had fits at the same time.
Grumbling as he rolled out of bed, he decided to answer the doorbell first, then take care of the phone, if it was still ringing, after he had disposed of his visitor.
To Bailey's disgust, his caller was none other than the long, lean Dave Lewis. A baboon would have been as welcome
"Hi," said the red-headed attorney. "Sorry to barge in on you on a Sunday like this, but I've got news that I've got to get off my chest."
Not wanting to get trampled beneath Lewis' size eighteen feet, Ben gave ground and in came the string bean.
They both were seated on the much-used davenport when Dave said, "I got you out of bed, didn't I?"
Ben noted that the telephone has ceased it's clamor as his eyes went to the bottoms of the dark blue pajamas, concealing a portion of his body.
"You're sharp this day, counselor. What, besides hair, is on your chest?"
Lewis grinned, then frowned. "Rape!"
Judging by what had happened to the homely critter's face, Bailey said, "You were, but didn't Kke it as much as you thought you would. That it?"
The man of law wriggled on the davenport. "It's like this, Benny. Figuring that Saturday night would be an ideal time for the girl gangs to be on the prowl, I took myself a stroll through Franklin Park. After walking around for hours with nothing happening, I flopped down on the grass under a big oak tree and fell asleep. When I go under, it practically takes an earthquake to waken me. I was really in the land of Nod when I was shaken out of it I'll bet you've guessed already. I was being raped."
"And of course, you didn't fight it. After all, you'd gone to the park for that very purpose."
"Hell, no! I helped all I could."
Ben couldn't hold back his laughter. "And I'll bet when you went, the girl landed up in the oak tree."
A frown Was back on Dave's hatchet-shaped features. "The creature on top of me wasn't a girl! A nearby street light cut the darkness just enough so that I could see that the face above me that of a mature woman."
"How old do you think she was, Dave?"
"Fifty, or maybe a few years older."
"Of course, that would make her beyond the chicken stage, but I've had some mighty good runs with women older than I." He was thinking of Edith. And to him, she wasn't to be considered old. "Was the hen alone or did she have reinforcemeats?"
Lewis came up with a weak grin. "There was another woman."
"And she rattled your bones, too?"
"Yeah, but she insulted me first, Ben."
"How could she? What did she say?"
"Well, after that one hen got off me, the other one came and stood over me. Damn it! She had the gall to turn a small flashlight on me and snort out how ugly I was, and that beggars couldn't be choosers."
Ben said, "But then she rode the peg to a satisfactory conclusion, didn't she?"
"You can say that again! She was hotter and more demanding than the first one. Boy, I got a priming and pumping that made my head spin like a crazy top!"
"And now, I suppose you feel better than you have in years. Right?"
"That's for sure," said Dave in a voice laden with enthusiasm. "But I'll never be really satisfied until I prong some young stuff like you do all the time"
"Now that you've started, you'll eventually work your way into some college-age swingers. If I were you, I'd spend tonight in the university area, I'd say that the outskirts of the campus would be the most likely place for a gang of coed thrill-seekers to grab and down you. They could even take what you're so willing to give away."
Lewis eagerly nodded his bright red head. "That's what I'll do, Benny. I'll be forever indebted to you if I can get it tonight. If you ever need legal advice, I'll give it to you free."
His mind going to a certain blonde and her father, Bailey said, "I just could need the service of an attorney most any time."
"You couldn't be thinking of taking action against those babes that came here and took it away from you? No man in his right mind could do that. Did you ever find out who they were?"
"Yeah, I know."
Lewis' homely face lighted up. "You've met them again? Face to face?"
"I have."
"But not belly to belly, I guess?"
"No." Ben wasn't about to confess that he had been intimate with Abby Barrows.
Dave wouldn't give it up. "But you do intend to?"
"No indeed. There are certain risks involved that I don't care to take"
"Wouldn't it be something if one of those bags I was with last night got knocked up? Or maybe both of 'em?"
"It would, but if they're as old as you say, there's not much chance. Besides, no one could press a paternity charge against you, under the circumstances. Anyway, how could they know who you are?"
Lewis looked disappointed. "I wouldn't mind, too much, being arrested and arraigned on a bastardy charge. It would prove to a lot of people who sneer at me, that I'm a man, not a queer."
"That's where we differ," Ben said drily.
"You mean, you wouldn't want to be accused of being a daddy?"
"Only unless I marry again. If I make eighty, I might want that just to see how much manhood I still had, I might persuade some young swinger to marry me, then I'd make a valiant attempt to plant a seed that would grow."
Dave Lewis got up. "Sorry to have broken in upon your sleep, but I just had to brag to someone of my experience. You're the only one that would give a damn. I'll see you again before long-sooner, if I get some of that young, hot stuff."
The telephone went at it again while the angular attorney was still in the doorway. He hesitated momentarily, then went on his way.
Waiting only until he had closed his front door, Ben went to the telephone, took up the receiver and said cautiously, "Hello?"
"Hello, Ben," said a very feminine voice. "I know this is Sunday, but if you're willing, I want to talk business."
"Who are you? What kind of business?"
"I hardly expected you to recognize my voice, although I've been told it's realy sultry. I'm the Brain. Remember? You see, I want to have a play house built on a secluded, wooded tract I have at Buckeye Lake. Are you interested?"
He knew that he should hang up immediately, but never having been a sensible person, he stayed on the wire. "If you're serious, Miss Flowers, how much you plan to invest in your summer home?"
Camelia Flowers replied, "Twenty to twenty-five thousand. Maybe more."
He was surprised at her answer. The statuesque, black-haired girl must have money to burn. Undoubtedly, she also wanted secluded house whew she and her friends could set fire to each other.
"I shouldn't even be talking to you," he finally brought himself to say coldly.
"You weren't hard at all on the Brat, in one way that is, so why not be friendly with me? I have more sane moments than not and you could make a tidy profit on a house you'd build for me.
I wouldn't scream to the Better Business Bureau if you gouged me too much."
Ben gave her words a minute or so of brain inspection. A decision was made. There was no point in turning down the opportunity of building the house for Camelia Flowers, especially when he needed contracts so badly.
"Do you have any plans? Do you know what you want in a playhouse, as you call it?" he asked now crisply intending to keep his voice business-like and impersonal.
"I bought a book of designs and I've picked out three that I like-with certain changes."
"That's a good start."
The brunette went on, "I could come over to your place now and bring the plans."
Bailey wasn't going to go for a suggestion like that, until and if, there came a time that he was desperately in need of business.
"I must go out, Miss Flowers. I'll be in my office at nine tomorrow morning. May I expect to see you?"
"I'm a graduate student at the university and could get by skipping a couple of classes, but I'd rather not, Mr. Bailey. Will you be free after one tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"I'll see you then," she replied evenly. "Bye."
The telephone receiver back in its place, Ben decided not to clean up or dress. He'd bring the Sunday paper in from the hall and spend a couple of hours on the davenport with it, catching up with the news. After the past midnight session in Abby Barrows' car bed!, he was again interested in sports other than the one started by Adam and Eve in the Garden.
To his frustrated surprise, the paper wasn't in the hallway when he looked. Either the delivery boy hadn't been around or someone had cabbaged onto his newspaper. If he wanted one, he would have to slip into some duds and go out to a nearby drugstore.
"To hell with it!" he exclaimed presently. "I'll finish the Sporting News."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ben was stretched out on the divan, doing what he had resolved to do, when his front door opened and Edith peered in.
"You are here," she called out. "As you see, I used that key again. The one I got in the mail. Are you decent?"
"Decent!" he exploded in sudden anger. "Hell, woman, I haven't sprouted anything new! Come in and close the door! I feel a draft!"
The trim, brown-haired woman did as he directed, then she sat down in a chair near the door. Her gray eyes searched his face and seemed to him to be boring into his interior.
"Well?" Bailey demanded irritably. His ex-wife's smooth, girlish face was to him like a red flag to a bull.
She leaned far back in the big chair, looking like a doll, a not too large one at that. "Why don't you get married, Ben, and get some rest? You're killing yourself by inches."
Her words brought about a change in his mod. "How about giving you several of those inches?"
"I doubt that you could today, even if I were to let you try."
"Don't let my exterior fool you, Ede. Inside dwells the most ferocious beast in captivity."
There was sympathy riding on her smile. "For twenty-seven years, you've been letting the terrible animal out to roam here and there, but the time is drawing near when you'll have nothing to release but a feeble, old mouse."
He vigorously cast the Sporting News aside. "That'll be the day, wise cracker!"
Merry laughter came from her small, red mouth. "I can see a lean, hungry old pussy pouncing on poor, feeble mousy. You'll sure be a sorry looking, impotent has been, with nothing left except memories."
"Is that all you came here for, midget? You should have learned a long time ago that I don't scare easily."
"Some folk don't have sense enough to know fear. But, I didn't come here for the sole reason of hanging you over a barbed wire fence. There was some redheaded minx at the house this morning, bragging how she was going to put a collar on you and lead you around like a puppy dog."
"Screwy Charles!" he blatted out involuntarily.
"One of your rape friends maybe?"
"And an up and down fiend!"
Edith said coolly, "Kitten with a hot tail, my darling?"
"You have the knack of hitting the nail on the head. That explains why you've been so successful in the building game."
"From what I read," continued she calmly, "the hard riding young generation is spreading social diseases all over the world. A lighted torch can get out of hand and beginning blazing, you know. Your social life could be seriously blighted and curtailed by-by-well, a dose."
"No more needles, smart lady. My arms have so many prick marks now, I don't know where you could put another one."
She shook her pert little brown head. "Why not in your setter?"
He forced sardonic laughter. "You're funny today. If I had a Sunday paper, I wouldn't have to look at the comics."
"I haven't said anything that wasn't for your own good."
Ben patted a spot below his navel. "I have something that would be awfully good for you. If you don't get yourself laid soon, you'll have to have an operation before taking on a man."
Her pretty face colored up. Her neck also became red. "I've had plenty of chances since our divorce. Even before. How do you know, smarty, that I haven't been getting my diddling?"
"Not you!" he retorted quickly. "You have some scruples. If you don't have, it's because I cooled you off so thoroughly when we were married, that your desire is dead."
She got up hurriedly. "Before you become really nasty, I'll go."
Edith did just that-rushed to the front door, opened it and disappeared. He had to laugh at her obvious haste to get out of his sight.
In her hurry, she hadn't closed his door. He was on his way to do it, when a redhead, wearing a scarlet bikini, shot in and closed the door for him.
"Oh, no, not you!" Bailey exclaimed. "You would not dare to appear on the street in those two Bandaids!"
Babe Charles slowly turned around on bare feet, several times. "Feast your hot, bedroom eyes, big boy," she directed. Now she took the chair Edith had vacated and went on, "Wow! Some hot ass has just been sitting here!"
"Get out, Screwy! You're not welcome! And stay away from my ex-wife's home!"
The flamboyant redhead made not the slightest move to get up. "I've rejoined the PIECE Corps, old hotsy, and have come to bring peace and contentment to your turbulent body. Your ex-ball and chain came and told you about my visit to her and that set you thinking about me, as I knew it would. Why, this very moment, you're starting to bloom for me-and pant, too."
"On your way, Red!" Ben thundered. "I'm the guy that'll pick you up, carry you to a garbage can and throw you in!"
From her serene face, he gathered that his threat hadn't fazed her. "I've raped you, long John. Now, I think it's your turn to do the same to me."
He knew it would be the best for him if he didn't touch her tempting, almost nude body, so he went to the telephone and took up the receiver.
"If you intend to call the bulls, request a couple of good ones to help you out," said Babe Charles tauntingly. "I didn't get the nickname, Screwy, because there're termite in my bonnet. This is my time of the month to howl and if you don't collaborate, I'll want one or two stiffs that will."
Knowing that it would be foolish for him to call the police to come and take away a twenty year old nymph, Ben's right forefinger froze in the dial of the telephone. Then suddenly, like a bolt of lightning striking, the perfect solution to his problem hit him.
Grabbing up the telephone directory, he swiftly found the desired number and then he was dialing, desperately hoping that he would get an answer. He heard three long rings, then a receiver being lifted.
He said rapidly into the mouthpiece, "Ben Bailey. No questions. Just come to my place at once. Trouble. The kind you're looking for. Hurry!" Before the individual to whom he spoke could reply, he had chopped the connection.
He had returned to the davenport before the bikini-clad redhead said, "While you're waiting for whoever you called, why don't you try your hand at punishing me? You've paddled me once, so why not again and get yourself fired up?"
"You'll have to be patient until your surprise arrives," he replied in a steady voice. "It shouldn't take long."
"You laid it into the Brat last night Why not me this afternoon? I can do anything that she can do, better and more often."
While he didn't intend to let her know that her knowledge of the mating between him and Abby had caused him disagreeable concern, he couldn't help but say, "I much prefer Abby to you."
His barb didn't seem to bother Babe Charles. "I'll change your mind about that," she said shortly.
He shut his mouth, realizing that he was only wasting his breath on the hard-headed Screwy.
Less than fifteen minutes after he had made his phone call, the doorbell rang and Ben went to let in lanky Dave Lewis.
At his entrance, Babe Charles popped up. "Who's that goon?" she srieked.
Chuckling in great amusement, Bailey said now, "Screwy, meet Gorilla."
The redheaded lawyer's eyes were popping and his mouth was wide open when he saw the girl in the red bikini that almost wasn't there.
"I'm not going to have sex with that!" Babe snapped angrily.
"But he's dying for you to take him like you did me that night," Ben announced.
She shook her red head. "I'm not getting on top of something that doesn't even look human!"
"I can't force you to do that, but I sure as hell can hold you down while Gorilla gets on you and sends a hot message your way."
Babe made a sudden break for the front door and had her hand on the knob when Bailey grabbed her from behind, carried her to the davenport, slammed her upon it, ripped both portions of the scarlet bikini from the young, nicely fixtured body and sat down upon her firm belly.
To the astounded long lawyer, he called out, "Get with it, Charley! You wanted to be raped by some young stuff, but that'll have to wait. Right now, you'll do the raping. She may protest at first, but that good old feeling will slip up on her as you dig in, and she'll give you all the help you'll need."
The redhead soon demonstrated that she wasn't going to be easy to hold down, let alone lay. In spite of his weight and strength he was hard put to maintain his seat until Dave Lewis timidly approached, clad only in shorts.
"Take off those damned shorts!" Ben roared at Lewis.
Dave's face turned almost chalk white. "You'll both laugh at me."
"I sure won't and when you slap it to Screwy here, she won't be able to laugh. I'm not going to sit on her all day. I can see that you're ready. Charge! On and in!"
Lewis didn't make anything that resembled a charge, but he did edge over to the davenport and look down upon the struggling, very red-faced girl. Ben eased off Babe's bare belly and used his hands to pin her arms down. He couldn't do much about her feet and knees. He waited for the legal beaver to take over.
The sight of the girl's beautifully constructed body, close up, did to Dave Lewis what women's adorable flesh has been doing to men for many, many years. Lust gave the red-topped attorney a new character and he became anxious to get between Babe's thrashing legs.
As soon as Dave was on, Bailey backed away from the davenport and shouted, "Ride, cowboy, ride! Make her moan, cry tears and scream! You can do it, big boy!"
Watching intently, Ben had to admit, that for the greenest of greenhorns, Lewis made up in determination what he lacked in finesse. It was obvious that the old bags that had taken him in the park, had only wheted his appetite for more of the same.
Bailey knew, by unmistakable signs, when the lean attorney reached a climax. A few seconds later his eyes saw and his ears heard Screwey join in her partner's prolonged ecstasy.
"My good deed for the day," Ben said out loud, doubting seriously that he was heard.
"Are you waiting for firsts or seconds?" inquired a much too sweet voice. "And don't turn your eyes on me. I'm sure they'd bum holes right through my body."
CHAPTER TWELVE
Even before he turned toward the front door, Bailey knew that he would find his ex-wife just inside.
He said to her "The CIA could use you, Ede. You come and go with hardly a sound. That is, on oot. If you'll come with me to the bedroom, I'll change all that."
"I'm not spying on you," said Edith swiftly, her face revealing a bit of color. "When I got to my car, there was a girl waiting for me. She urged me bo come to your apartment. She said that something awful was going to happen to you. I was home before her words began to seriously bother me. As you see, I returned at a most awkward time."
"How much did you see of the drama being enacted on the davenport, dear ex-wifey?"
She shrugged. "Only the finish. I'll go now, so you may show your pal how the master operates. It's quite obvious what's going to happen to you."
"Stick around for the next show," he invited. "Those two hot ones won't mind and the sight of what you've been missing may cause a heat wave to rise up in you. In that case, I'd help you end your ten years' frustration."
An uneasy little laugh escaped her. "You have such a big heart, ex-hubby."
"Right you are, but I'm sure you'll remember that I'm not all heart."
"I'm going," she said firmly.
The couple on the davenport hadn't made a sound since Edith spoke out, but Ben heard a noise, now, of movement and, sure enough when he looked, Dave Lewis had come to life and was shoving into the redhead.
"You can't go now, Ede," Ben protested, moving toward her. "It isn't polite to take off when a new show is in progress." He shoved his way between his ex-wife and the door. "Of course, if you'd like to go into the bedroom and get in on the action, I'm sure those two wouldn't miss us."
She made no attempt to escape from the room. Facing Bailey squarely, she said, "You may as well quit trying to make me. When I got the divorce, I swore that never again would I have sexual relations with you. You seemed to want to stay on at the house. I did think you'd move out, under the circumstances, but you didn't so I made no fuss about it. In a way, you served a purpose."
"A purpose? What kind of a purpose?"
"Simply that your presence in the house helped keep away burglars and fortune hunting suitors."
"Is that all?" he asked, an irritable note in his deep voice. "I thought that I, at least, provided charming companionship. I know damned well that I kept you on your toes, that you were afraid to go to sleep without locking and bolting your bedroom door."
Edith shook her small, brown head. "I've never been afraid of you, so quit patting yourself on the back."
"Ha! Ha! Now, the cat's out of the bag. You were afraid of yourself. You were pretty sure that I'd never come to your room, but you couldn't trust yourself not to come to mine. So you locked your door every night, huh? Maybe you even handcuffed yourself to the bed." From where he stood, he could easily see what was going on between the couple on the davenport-and that was plenty. It was quite obvious that the young coed no longer found the hard plunging Lewis obnoxious. Maybe still ugly, but not so much that she couldn't take him.
The tiny woman's gaze had also gone to the struggling pair. She said, "If you'd let me go about my business, I'm sure you'd get your chance at the redhtad before too long." Her cool gray eyes returned to Ben. "And don't tell me that you aren't aching to get into that slut and pitch."
Her accusation struck home. He had never been one to stand by, unmoved, while a male popped it to a female. To him, the desire that he felt now, was as normal as that of a hungry man watching another bolt down a plate full of steak, mashed potatoes and gravy.
When he didn't speak out, his ex-wife continued, "That must be the redhead that was in on that attack of you."
"I never described the gang to you!" he retorted. "There they blow! Why don't you give them a hand, Ede? I doubt if you've seen a single feature, let alone a double, in years. You should show your appreciation."
"Now, may I go?" she said very simply. "I can see that you're bursting with energy and quite anxious to take Red on, now that she's well heated up."
He held out his hand. "I want the key that lets you in here. If you can't get a kick watching a good show, you don't deserve a place on the sidelines."
Edith promptly opened up a beautiful black leather handbag, came up with a key and deposited it in his outstretched hand. "Give this to some bitch that likes sexual exhibitions."
Now that he had the key she claimed to have received through the mail-and he didn't exactly doubt her word-Bailey opened the door for his ex-mate.
When Edith had gone and he had closed the door, he looked back toward the davenport. Dave Lewis was getting up.
"Thanks awfully, Benny," said the lawyer. "I've never had anything like that. I'd like to lay into something like that a couple of times a day until I made up for the lost, miserable years."
"You're welcome, fellow," Bailey replied. "I'm sorry for the interruption, but Ede did have a key. I wasn't expecting her."
Lewis grinned. "Man, I had both courage and strength. If the room had been filled with people, I'd have had that second go at the young stuff. I'll get dressed and blow now."
Babe Charles sat up on the davenport as Dave was going out the door. The look that she gave Ben should have made him wither up.
"Why didn't you invite in the public and charge admission?" she asked cuttingly.
He retorted, "All I have to say to you, Red, is, Go!"
The girl made no move to get up. "I'm giving you a choice, wise guy. You take me until I'm completely satisfied or I'll sic at least five hundred girls on you. Don't you dare snicker at me! I know even more chicks than that on the sex thrill circuit."
Ben, gave the redhead a look of contempt. "On your way, blister!"
"Those had better not be your final words!" Her face had turned ugly with anger. "Those mad, and swinging mobs that I'll set on you will not only wreck you, but your apartment, your office and any homes you might be building. You have no idea how ruthless they are. Believe me, they play for keeps. I'm giving you a last chance. Come ride me now or face destruction!"
"Now you sound like a fool. Since you've threatened me, I think I'll do some of the same to you. There's a hobo jungle, not far from the edge of Columbus and if you don't beat it this minute, I'll take you out there and dump you. And sister, I guarantee that plenty of smelly, whiskey-filled, sexhungry bums will be pumping into you even after you lose consciousness."
Babe Charles slowly got to her feet and started toward the front door. Almost there, she stopped abruptly, turned and headed for the bathroom.
Surprised and dismayed, he yelled out, "You can't go in there!"
"I can and I will!" retorted the redhead fiercely. "There are a number of things I'm going to do before I leave here and you can't prevent me from doing them!"
Her defiant words spurred him to action, but she was inside the bathroom and the door was locked by the time he had crossed the room.
Nearly angry enough to attempt to kick in the door, he was standing there trying to decide what to do when the doorbell came alive.
"Not that!" he exclaimed involuntarily. "I've had more than enough for today!" Even though he couldn't decide what to do about the redhead using the bathroom, he did make up his mind not to answer the bell.
Not only did the doorbell go on clamoring for attention, a fist began beating on the door and then there was the calling out of a muffled voice.
Curiosity got the better of him. He had to know who was the owner of that voice, so he went to the door, finally, and jerked it open.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Hi, dere!" called out Daisy Watson. "I could say that I just happened to be in the vicinity and decided to drop in, but I'll tell the truth. I came into Columbus and drove clear across town to see you. I hope you're not presently engaged."
Looking at the beautifully proportioned platinum blonde, he hoped that the smile he gave her wasn't too sickly.
"Come in and sit, please," he got out somehow.
The statuesque beauty entered, laughing. "Sit? Oh, come now, darling, you can do better than that!"
He closed the door. "Maybe not, after last night. Put those lovely hips down anywhere. I'll chase down something to drink."
He would rather that she had chosen a chair, but no, she went directly to the much-used davenport and planked her bucket down there. Her very short, lilac colored dress, already a couple of inches above the knees when she stood, went up much higher when she seated herself.
"Comfy place you have here, Ben," she commented softly.
His eyes had automatically gone to the exposure of golden flesh and remained there. "Thanks, Daisy. You have brightened up my apartment so much that it's as if there's no roof above and the sun is shining right in."
The platinum blonde shook her head. "Hoople, my dear, but it's the kind I love. Don't bother to get me anything to drink. I wouldn't expect Coke from you and I always get too high on any kind of liquor." She patted a place on the davenport to her immediate left. "Come sit with me. And while you're feeling where your eyes have been, tell me all your troubles-the little ones and the-big ones."
After a moment's hesitation, he went and sat where she had indicated. He kept his hands to himself. Ben said evenly, "I might as well tell you something before you hear sounds coming from the bathroom. I have unwelcome, uninvited company in there. There was this fellow I knew in high school. Well, he came to roll her a couple of times, but afterwards, she wouldn't get out. She locked herself there in the bathroom."
His companion's eyes made a minute inspection of his scanty apparel. "You wouldn't be hard to get at. It's easy to see that you slept late and didn't intend to go out."
"A person needs a restful Sunday now and then."
"True, but I think there're things you'd rather do than loll around. Isn't there a lock on your bedroom door?"
Without thinking, he inclined his head. "Sure."
She laughed. "And the Imp isn't going to take pictures of anyone for a few days. She's safe in the pokey for reckless driving while hung over."
Ben snapped, "No more than she deserves! I'd sure like to get my hands on that film of us that she ground out!"
Daisy shrugged and he wouldn't have been surprised to see a large breast pop out of her tremendously low-cut dress and bang him on the chin. "Forget the movie shots. They could catch just a little of me and only your rear and back. We could have been two other people."
She laughed merrily. "Your sense of humor will carry through any of your trials and tribulations, my sweet man."
"Thanks for the assurance, but I'm not sure about that. Take it from me, I've been sorely tried these past few days."
That set her off again. "And savage me-wasn't much help, was I?"
He came up with a small smile. "You fully demonstrated your ability to get the most out of a man."
"It's sweet of you to say that, Ben. Oh, by the way, I wonder if you know that your ex-wife has a new love-light?"
"Ede! A fellow!" Bailey exclaimed.
"Why not? She's still very attractive and has more going for her than most women half her age."
"That's right, but since our divorce, she hasn't shown any interest in men."
"The flesh of woman, as well as man, becomes so demanding sometimes that a form of insanity sets in and wonderful relief is imperative."
"Who's the man?"
"Tom Carpenter."
"Never heard the name. Tell me more about the rat fink."
"He's fair and handsome, like you. Almost your height and weight and he's a suave, sugar-tongued, highly successful salesman of building supplies."
"Who's he work for? Since I've been in the building racket, if his outfit is local, he has to be someone I know."
"Tom works for a Zanesville concern."
"I don't know any Zanesville building supply firm. Do you think Carpenter's making any headway with Ede?"
Another shrug and both her firm, high breasts nearly found freedom. "I won't even hazard a guess."
"Has he been dating her?"
"I don't know, but he's been trying like the devil, when he comes to the office. I see signs of weakening in the boss, if she hasn't already been out with him."
Ben said shortly, "Of course, it's none of my business, but I wouldn't want to see her victimized by some snake decked out like a harmless wooly worm. Ede deserves the best, believe me."
A discreet, short ring of the doorbell sounded.
Disappointment clouded the lovely platinum blonde's face. "You are in demand, aren't you, Ben?"
He slowly got up. "My landlady comes for the rent even on Sunday," he quipped.
"Cash, script or barter?" asked Daisy lightly.
"If I'm short of dough, I do odd jobs around the apartment house. You'd be surprised how handy I am with tools."
"Vividly remembering last night, I'd say that you're an expert with tools."
Worrying about who might be at his door this time, he went to have a look.
One person who hadn't entered his mind, Camelia "The Brain" Flowers, awaited his pleasure.
"Oh, you?" Ben blurted out. "I was supposed to see you at the office tomorrow afternoon."
The stacked, black-haired girl replied, "I much go to a funeral tomorrow afternoon. I really am anxious for you to see my book of house plans, so I decided to bring it over today."
"I'm-rather-tied up," he stammered, knowing full well that Daisy was listening in.
"I'll be running along now, Handsome," said a voice at his shoulder, nearly startling him out of his skin.
Turning quickly, he looked into the platinum blonde's black eyes.
"A lady just wants me to build her a play house." He immediately felt like a damned fool.
"How cute and droll," said Daisy, a hint of sarcasm in her rich voice. "Bye."
A couple of minutes later, Camelia Flowers had taken the spot on the davenport vacated by Daisy Watson.
"Did I keep you from transacting business?" she queried, the Mack eyes dancing with mirth.
"I wasn't after anything!" he retorted sulkily.
"Please don't get cross at me, Mr. Bailey. I wouldn't want to interrupt something important to you for the world, I might want to get in on it, but not interrupt it."
Bailey didn't sit down. "If I wanted to lay somebody, there's one of your gang in the bathroom right now."
"Screwy or Brat?" Her black eyes were very wide. "Yes."
"Well, which one?"
"If you have put a ring in my nose, I don't feel it," he retorted roughly.
The brunette held up a book of house plans. "These are not entirely an excuse to see you. I really do want you to build me a place at Buckeye Lake. Have you played house with-with who-ever's in the bathroom?"
"Not that it concerns you-but no, I haven't!"
Camelia Flowers suddenly looked as happy as a bride, eager for the honeymoon bed. "Come sit beside me, Ben. I won't say that I won't bite, because there are occasions when I love to use my teeth. But I will promise that, for the present, no monkey business. Of course, if you should want to get fresh, that would be another matter entirely."
Deciding that he was acting like a scared schoolboy he went and sat on the davenport. Not too dose to the dark-haired girl, but not too far away either.
Camelia reached out the book of plans to him.
"I've turned down the pages on the three I liked best."
It was while he was perusing the plans that his mind involuntarily shifted to the girl in his bathroom and Dave Lewis.
"Any good hunting these days, Brain?" he inquired.
She made a wry face "After the stink Mr. Barrows raised and that beating you gave us, our group hasn't been stirring around much at night. But that doesn't mean that we won't take up the prowl again."
"And this place you want built over at the lake will be the ideal spot for parties, as well as giving you girls a rest from your arduous night riding?"
"You're so clever."
"Thanks. I guess I may as well tell you that it's Screwy in there. After she came today, I invited an old acquaintance of mine into work on her fire pit"
Camelia's eyebrows went up. "You're a real lovable guy. Did she appreciate what you did for her?"
"Not at first, but eventually she screamed her appreciation."
'You stayed out of the action?"
He inclined his blond head. "I have my own friends. It wouldn't be fair to them for me to exhaust myself in the wrong foundry."
"If I know Babe, and I'm sure I do, she was furious at you for not giving her a tumble."
Ben laughed. "She only threatened to have the mob destroy everything I have."
"A thousand crazy sex fiends could easily do just that, Ben."
"Don't make me tremble with fear."
"Please don't joke about it. You have no idea what our night riders could do to you or any man. We've had a taste of blood and, just like animals, when we start on male flesh, there's no stopping us. But enough of that. Will you help me decided upon a house plan, then build it for me as soon as possible?"
"I'm only in business to make money. I have health-at least at present. I've had a lot of years experience as a builder and I've learned that everyone who talks house isn't necessarily going to have one built."
She cut in coolly, "Getting down to brass tacks and bare facts, you'd like to see the color of my green? Frankly, I have only a little cash upon my person, less than a hundred dollars, but I'll write you a check for five thousand in token of my good faith and intentions." She found a check book and a ballpoint pen in her handbag. "Shall we talk house turkey?"
"I'm ready for turkey talk," he replied smoothly. "I'm sure you're not going to give me a rubber check."
Bailey was silent until his pretty companion had written the check and handed it to him. "Nice figure and handwriting," he commented. "I'll give you a receipt."
"That won't be necessary, Ben. I'll have the cancelled check from the bank later on."
His attention returned to the book of plans in his hands. The three she had selected showed that she had a good eye for modernistic houses.
"You're on the right track, Miss Flowers," he announced.
"Camelia or The Brain," she corrected. "Why be so formal now? After all, I have raped you and gathered in your seed."
He was seized by a fit of coughing. "So you have," he muttered.
"I'm still trying. Instead of fixing me a stiff drink in honor of the deal, I'd much rather have a stiff you."
Wishing that gorgeous girls wouldn't offer themselves when he was trying to resist temptation, he hopped up and went toward the small portable bar between the kitchen and the living room. "If you won't have one, I will."
A note of triumph in her voice, she said, "By all means, do. Liquor will help you realize that you'd be awfully silly to turn down my request for love."
Fortified with three, quick shots, Ben returned to the davenport, reached down and easily grabbed the girl up in his arms. As he carried her to the bedroom, kicking the door shut with his right foot, he said, "Old fashioned or French?"
She giggled. "Since you put it to me to decide, let's do it like the Arabs do."
"So you're a hesitation Go-Go girl?"
"Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Not a damned thing!" He dumped his burden upon the bed.
"Whoops!" Camelia exclaimed. "Haven't you forgotten something?"
Already in the process of slipping off the bottoms of his PJs, he said, "Tell me."
"I'm your guest and resemble a lady in looks, so shouldn't you undress me? I'd do that to you in my home-the one you're going to build for me."
"Excuse my manners, Brain Beautiful. I'm a crude boar at times like this." Bailey knew little about helping girls dress, but he could strip one as fast as a St. Bernard could unwrap a beef roast someone had lost and he had found.
A minute of looking at the magnificent body he had unveiled, then he was hungry to taste her breasts, lips and neck.
The fusing of his lips against her mouth resulted in the same kind of shock that he had so often received from members of her sex. Camelia gave him plenty of assistance in his fire building with her tongue, which seemed to him to be filled with electricity. Her hands were all over his body and his fondled hers. Especially did he put his heart into the hand that fingered her nipples, stiff with desire and excitement.
Thought she had expressed a desire to be taken in the hesitation method, she soon was trying to coax him to come in and enjoy the flatness of her belly, the silken softness of her thighs and the wiggling of the smooth, firmly packed buttocks.
"Might as well dig myself a deep well," he muttered thickly into her face.
"The well has been driven. All it needs is plenty of pipe," she rejoined unsteadily.
"No one is any more prompt in making delivery honey. In I go."
"I'm so ready, darling! Unload!"
"Now, there was no hesitation on his part. The black-haired vixen was suffering, as was he, and he had the medicine that would temporarily cure what ailed them.
All too soon he was going and being joined, within seconds, by a fierce, scratching and biting she-devil, intent upon leaving him weak and bloody. He knew, as her long fingernails raked his back, that he might carry scars for months.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The bedroom was quite dark when Ben opened his eyes. Remembering that Camelia Flowers had been very much in his bed when he went to sleep, his hands felt around for her. He was quite alone, which, under the circumstances, was all right with him.
Now that he had discovered that the passionate brunette had gotten up and departed, his mind went to the almost nightmarish dream that had awakened him.
Since his divorce from Edith he had frequently dreamed of her and had possessed her many times. But, until now, he had never dreamed of her being brutally ravished by another man, a three hundred pound ugly demon by the name of Tom Carpenter.
"I'll personally kill the sonofabitch!" he exclaimed out loud. Laughing uneasily, he added, "What're you talking about, kook? It was only a dream. And even if Ede has been seeing Tom Carpenter, it isn't at all likely that he's a fat slob of three hundred pounds. She'd never have anything to do with a flab like that."
Though his words helped allay his fears that his tiny ex-wife was in danger of bring crushed to a pulp by a hefty dragon, his mind didn't take kindly to the idea of Ede being possessed by any man other than himself.
Suddenly drawn to give his former mate a call he got out of bed and went hurrying into the living room to the telephone.
Edith promptly came on the line, saying in a curious voice, "Hello?"
"Your old lover," he said lightly into the mouthpiece. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, it's you, horny!" she exclaimed into his ear. "Of course, I'm all right. Why your concern?"
He hesitated for a couple of seconds, not wanting to confess that a dream had upset him. "Most anything could happen to a defenseless woman alone in a big house. A small one, for that matter."
Her amused laughter reached over the distance into his telephone ear. "I seem to recall that a certain male acquaintance of mine was easily raped in his apartment."
Her words caused Bailey to regret having called his ex-wife. "At least, it took three to do it!" he retorted, anger beginning to build within him.
"Perhaps the first time, but it looks like any one little blister can come to your apartment at any time for an orgy. Which one is in your bed now?"
He ignored her question. "Maybe I interrupted something?
"I don't follow you, Benny."
"I'm sure you wouldn't want to be disturbed if Tom Carpenter should happen to be there."
"So there's been a leak? Actually I'm surprised that the news of my boy friend hasn't reached you long ago."
"Then you admit it?" He tried hard to keep the thunder out of his voice, but it was there
"Of course," she replied, very matter-of-factly. "I've mourned for a dead marriage much too long. I know of no good reason why I shouldn't live a little."
"And become a sack tramp?" Ben put a considerable amount of venom in his question.
"I should remind a shack bum living in a glass house not to throw stones. One might boomarang and smash up your play pen."
"I'm going to check this Tom Carpenter out, old girl, and if he's the louse that I suspect, I'll swat him."
Again her laughter came over the wire. "I would not advise a gone-soft man of forty to start swinging on one of twenty-five, weighing two hundred and twenty and in the pink of condition. Tom could half kill you with only one fist working."
"We'll see about that!" he roared into the mouthpiece of the telephone. "Soft? Hell! I can still dish it out! Besides, I'm going into training tomorrow!"
Edith's maddening giggle bounced against his ear drums. "Training for running or self defense? Let's be realistic, Benny. You're way over the hill and I don't have a black dress suitable to wear to a funeral."
Not only was he irked, he was puzzled. Edith had never talked to him as she was doing now. "I'm getting dressed, coming over and we're going to talk this out."
"No! I have to work tomorrow and so should you!"
"Woman, I'm coming!"
"If you do, better bring your feathered head gear. This long pow-wow could end up in a war
"Cool the tongue, midget!" he yelled hotly. "I'll be on your back in twenty minutes!"
"Not on my back-yours!" she returned coldly. "I'm getting out the electric insect sprayer."
The telephone put aside, Ben hurried back to the bedroom and quickly covered his nakedness with pants, short sleeved sport shirt and socks and shoes. In his heated condition, he saw no need for the shorts and athletic shirt he usually wore when he went out.
He had threatened to be at his ex-wife's house in twenty minutes and it didn't take him any longer than that to travel there in his speedy car.
The little brown-haired woman was sitting in the living room watching TV when he burst in upon her.
"The program will be over in five minutes. It's one of my favorites, so, please, no yapping until if s finished," she said coolly, barely looking at him.
To his disgust, he meekly complied with her request, dropping down into the chair he liked best in the room.
Five minutes after his arrival, Edith got to her feet, crossed over to the TV and switched it off. She had returned to her vacated chair before she said, in a very impersonal voice, "Now, unburden your mind quickly so I may go to bed."
"I won't have it!" he retorted violently.
"So far as I'm concerned, Benny, you don't have it You'd better concentrate on building houses, not vainly trying to break down women. Your wrecking equipment is ready for the scrap heap. What you should do is to marry some wealthy, elderly woman, who's a good cook and housekeeper. Putting it right on the line, Bailey, you need a mother, not a goddess of love."
Ben shouted, "If you're finished, I have plenty to say!"
She shrugged. "Let's have the something that you feel must be said, but don't have a stroke trying! You're not going to get anywhere, so be calm, if that's possible for you."
Much of the heated air went out of him as realization came that the woman sitting across from him was practically a stranger. "You've changed, Ede." He hardly recognized his own voice.
"If coming to my senses is a change, it should have happened ten years ago. I would appreciate it a lot, if you'd move everything out of here that you own-tomorrow!"
Bailey found his voice after a long silence. "I'll do that little thing, Mrs. Bailey." He got up and went toward the front door.
Edith also arose. "I thought you had so much to say to me."
Without turning-to look at her, he shook his head. "I was under that impression, too, when I came here, but suddenly I realize I might as well try to talk to a mute. It isn't easy to say Good Luck, but I do hope you prosper in every way, Edith."
He was in his car and had the motor going before the realization came to him that he was not alone.
"Surprise, dear!" said a warm, feminine voice. "I arrived at your apartment house just as you were pulling away and I followed in my buggy. I'm glad you weren't inside long. I wouldn't have waited more than a couple of hours."
"What do you want, Abby?" he inquired in a lifeless voice.
The girl laughed softly. "Need you ask? You should get a kick out of taking me in the driveway of your ex-wife's home."
"Better get on your way and beat it. I'm not in the mood for kicks."
"You gave Camelia Flowers quite a shaking up this afternoon," Abby Barrows accused.
Ben replied, "Her telling you about it should make you understand why I'm interested now solely in getting home and to bed."
"I'll presuade Daddy to have you build me a play house at Buckeye Lake, if that's what it takes."
"So he told you that I was going to do some consturction work for her?"
"Naturally. Camelia and I are closed friends. You're not a one-girl man, so we've decided to share you."
"Oh, really? You'd leave Screwy out in the cold?"
Abby laughed again. "You did today. Of course, you did, big-heartedly, furnish a replacement."
"So you've also talked to Red?"
"Oh, my yes."
"While it was going on, Screwy seemed to like what my old school mate was doing to her. I have it! You and Camelia can share Dave! He's almost as good as new."
"Your suggestion is forthwith vetoed!" said the young blonde sharply. "I had no intention of getting tough with you and making threats like Babe did, but if you're not cooperative, you could be in for a rough go, my friend."
He said wearily, "Will you please get out, and back your car out of the driveway so I can be on my way?"
"So you're going to be obstinate, Benny Boy?"
"On the wagon," he corrected.
"Rather than start a nasty argument, I'll go. But I'm not giving you more than two days to fall of the wagon-onto me. Do I make myself clear, sugar lump?"
"Clear and tiresome. I'll not be scared into doing your bidding, young strumpet. I was going to be nice to you, but it seems as if you're determined to make that impossible. If I weren't so tired, I'd turn you over my knees and blister your bottom just as I did once before."
"I double dare you!"
"Go!"
"Bye, Bailey. See you Tuesday evening and you'd better have plenty for me."
"Wait!" he exclaimed as thought was born in his brain. "I have a check for five thousand dollars that Camelia gave me. I want you to return it to her."
"Sorry, chum. No will do. The Brain will be around and you may give her anything you wish that she'll take. Oh, by the way, I wasn't going to tell you if you'd been sweet to me, but since you weren't, here's the bad news. All of your tires were cut while you were inside with your former love life. I wouldn't have any idea who it was that rode up on a motorcycle and used a sharp knife so ruthlessly as to leave you with four flats. Nighty-night!"
After the tall blonde had gotten into her auto and taken off, a very angry Bailey jumped out of his and verified that his tires were completely flat. He went back toward the big house, using the key still had to let himself in.
Edith obviously had turned out all the lights and retired, so Ben, not wishing her to know that he intended to sleep there, made his way in the darkness of his bedroom. Here, he shucked off his clothes, without light, and fell into bed.
It was his night for disagreeable dreams. For a brief couple of minutes, he was in bed with his former wife, then a naked giant came into the room, beat him mercilessly, dumped him on the floor, then jumped on the tiny Edith.
The loathsome dream was broken finally and he was awake. But what a surprising awakening! Not only was he blindfolded and gagged, his wrists and ankles were strapped down to the bed.
While his fuzzy brain was trying to figure out how he came to be in such a predicament, hot hands began exploring his body and sharp teeth nipped at his ears. Though his eyes could not see, he knew beyond a shadow of doubt, that a female was taking advantage of his helplessness. Angry as the knowledge made him, all he could do in self defense was to swear to himself that his body would not respond to the urging of his unseen tormentor.
Soon, he learned that his unknown bed partner was as determined that he would heat up as he was that he wouldn't. As time passed, it became quite clear to him that the persistent girl would do anything to excite him. Upon other occasions, he had responded to the hands, lips and teeth of a steaming doll, but now realization came to him that he was in no position and had not the will power to deny what she evidently wanted.
Ben knew that he was plenty up in the air, in more ways than one, when a hot, slightly damp body was forcably pressed against his and he was being raped again.
He had to admit that the silent female was very expert in the act of inspiring fire and then fighting it with fire. Down and up she went, rolling hips at the conclusion of each stroke. She could and did wiggle her buttocks in such a manner that his passion was forced to grow.
His seething brain finally came up with a partial solution to his predicament. The only way in which he could possible thwart his tenacious rider's intentions was to climax before she was ready. Yes, that was what he would do. Then he could laugh inwardly at his unknown attacker.
Bailey heard her gasp as he violently released himself. Damnation! She had been nearer ready than he had suspected and a furious series of sexual movements on her part lighted the fire that brought about a tremendous explosion.
The female rapist had gone and he was half asleep when the blind fold, then the gag, were removed.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" said an amused voice.
In the not too strong light in the bedroom, Ben stared up into Edith's questioning gray eyes.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
For a long minute, Ben was unable to reply to Edith's question, then he blurted out angrily, "Don't stand there gloating, woman! Free my wrists and ankles!"
"You can sure get yourself into some of the screwiest situations," said Edith, undisguised mirth in her voice. "My, my, how the mighty has fallen."
"I want up!" he shouted hotly.
She shook her brown head. "I think I like you better where you are until I'm ready to leave for work in the morning. I know what I'll do. I'll wait until I get to the office, then I'll phone the kind widow next door and have her come over and release you. It could be that she'd see what she could stir up and take down again before freeing you."
"Damn you, Ede! This isn't funny!"
"To you, no. To me, yes."
Bailey roared, "I'm mad and you'd better get me out of this mess fast!"
"Your anger tells me most emphatically that I shouldn't release you. That would be as silly as me going to the zoo and opening the cage of a lion with an empty stomach. Nope. I'll leave the back door unlocked when I go to work and, later on, Mary Hursh will come over and rescue you. She's been asking me so many questions about you that I have a hunch that she'd like to go to the mat with you. I suppose I should tell her that you're always glad to bring cheer to a lovelorn lady."
"If you go away and leave me like this, I swear, that when I get free, you'll be mighty sorry!"
"Threats? Oh, you naughty boy. I should wash out your mouth with soap. Goodnight. Don't go anywhere, Benny."
Long after she had gone, Bailey cursed and fretted and struggled, to no avail. Whoever had fastened him to the bed had done a thorough job. He was a secure prisoner.
Shortly after he heard a downstairs hall clock strike three, he gave up the futile struggle, closed his tired eyes and fell into a restless slumber, accompanied by disgusting dreams.
He was snapped out of his sleep by a feminine voice calling out, "Mr. Bailey! Oh, Mr. Bailey!"
Opening his still weary dark eyes, he gazed up into the speaker's face. Edith had kept her promise. She had gone to her office and called for Mary Hursh to come to release him.
"Don't stand there gawking, woman!" he hotly directed. "You've seen naked men! If you have ideas, forget them!"
As if afraid of him, the widow continued to remain at a distance. "Mrs. Bailey didn't do this to you, did she?" she inquired timidly.
"Can the questions, chatter box, and free me! That's all I ask!"
Mary Hursh now cautiously came to the bed and, with fumbling hands, worked at the leather straps that held him captive.
She was already in flight before he could get the circulation in his body going sufficiently for him to arise.
He was dressing when he saw the folded sheet of white paper attached to one of the bed pillows with a safety pin.
Before he opened the note, he knew it would contain words in Edith's handwriting. He was fuming as he read: Hope Mary Hursh was treated nicely."
"She was laughing as she wrote that!" he exclaimed out loud. The irregularity of her writing was proof of that. Well, we'll see who has the last laugh, he told himself.
After a shave and shower, Ben went downstairs to the kitchen and fried up a half pound of bacon and three eggs. To go with that, he toasted four slices of bread and warmed up the glass pot of coffee sitting on the gas stove.
Fortified by food and the coffee, he entered his office shortly after nine.
From her desk, Dovie Sexton gave with a cheery, "Good morning, Mr. Bailey."
After depositing his still stiff body in the customary chair, he bleated, "You can have it, Dovie!"
"Saturday night and Sunday evidently weren't too much to your liking."
He grabbed the morning paper on his desk. "I've had better."
The sixty year old spinster went on lightly, "I spent a most enjoyable Sabbath at the art gallery."
"You would," he muttered, his eyes going to the headlines of the newspaper.
"You don't care for art?"
"Not the kind they have at the art gallery!"
"Arthur, that's my nephew, just came in over the week end from Florida. I think he spent his entire three week vacation at a cafe where they featured bare top Go-Go sluts."
"Smart boy, your nephew."
"I don't know what'll become of him, Mr. Bailey. He was pinching baby sitters when he was five and has been chasing girls since he was thirteen."
Ben nodded behind his paper. "I know his fate. Marriage, or bachelorhood, then old age."
"That was a very nice statement. How is Mrs. Bailey?"
"She stinks!" he retorted without thinking how his words would sound to his assistant.
That brought the elderly maiden's face up from her work. "Oh, my, did she displease you?"
"I could use stronger words than that!"
"Oh, you've quarrelled!"
"I would say so."
"I've thought, for a long time now, that you should move from her house and never return. It's not a healthy .situation, as well as a most unusual one, for a divorced couple to continue to reside in the same house. That's the same as two families attempting to live under the same roof."
Bailey attempting to go on reading, said curtly, "Now that you've uttered profound words of wisdom, Miss Solomon, will you shut your trap and work? I'm damned sick of females!"
Dovie immediately buried her face in her work again.
Ben had waded through the paper to the funnies when the office door opened and black-eyed, platinum-haired Daisy Watson entered.
"Good morning, Benny," she said. "I've left Mrs. Bailey and I want to work with you." Just like that. "And don't frown at me. I won't be a liability, I promise you, I'll be a valuable asset. There's a Julius Compton who owns a piece of property out east. He intends to build twenty apartment houses there. I'm to do the designs and I'll get you the contract to do the building. How does that sound to you?"
Her words prompted him to drop his paper.
"Go to the Post Office and get a five dollar roll of fives, Dovie," Bailey commanded, "and don't hurry back."
The spinster, considering her age, made a remarkable jump to her feet. "Yes, sir, Mr. Bailey."
He winked at Daisy Watson. "Take her chair, dear."
The statuesque platinum blonde gave him a warm smile and accepted his invitation.
"It's going to be great working for you, and under you, boss!" she said gaily.
"Maybe not. How do you know that I'm not a slave driver?"
"You're a driver, all right, and if you want a slave, I'm it." Daisy was smiling again.
He looked about the small office. "I'll have to make a place for you. Better come in tomorrow morning at eight. I'm in a pretty vile humor today."
She nodded her head. "Okay, boss. Has anything in particular upset you?"
Ben came up with a giant frown. "I had to ride the bus to work this morning. I'll have to call a service station and have them do some tire work for me."
"Oh. Flat tires are irritating. I know. I've had plenty."
He was on the point of telling the girl what had happened to his tires last night, but thought better of it. Nor did he intend to let her know that he had taken Camelia Flowers at his apartment later. And, most certainly, he wasn't about to bring up the details of his strange attack in his ex-wife's home.
Daisy got to her feet. "I'll go now, Benny, and I'll see you in the morning. Okay? Have a good day."
"Thanks," he replied. "Buy yourself a new hat and that'll make your day. Bye. See you."
While Daisy was going out the door, he was reaching for the telephone. He wanted his car ready to roll when he got back to Edith's palatial residence. He most definitely hadn't forgotten that she had ordered him to move all his things and he most certainly intended to do it that very evening.
Babe Charles rose disagreeably into his mind as he made arrangements, over the phone, to have his tires repaired, or replaced, if necessary. He had resolved, even before completing-the telephone call, that the redhead would pay dearly for cutting those tires, then later on, entering his room while he slept and forcing herself upon him. He licked his lips as he thought of all the bastardly means to wreck his vengeance upon Screwy. Yesterday he had threatened to drop her off at a hobo jungle and give her lustful body to all the bums that would relish a go at her flesh.
Dovie Sexton came in just as Bailey came to the conclusion that Babe justly deserved being violently taken by a bunch of sex-hungry hooboes.
"You're alone now, Mr. Bailey?" inquired the elderly office worker.
"Of course not!" he snapped back at her. "The office is full of little green women from Mars. Get to work and don't ask silly questions!"
Hurrying to her chair, Dovie slipped into it and got very busy with papers strewn over her desk.
There was very little conversation between Ben and his helper during the remainder of the work day. He was glad to get out of there at five and he was sure Dovie was too.
Half an hour after he left the office, he was confronting his ex-wife, who was already in the kitchen preparing dinner.
"I ought to wallop you good!" he told her angrily. "Thanks to you, I spent a most uncomfortable night."
Edith replied evenly, "You had it coming, smart guy-"
"As you requested, I'm moving everything out that I keep here. I'll leave my share of the termites that are devouring this crumbling mausoleum, tho."
Turning quickly from the stove, she exclaimed, "You have to be kidding about termites!"
He kept a straight face. "Lake hell! I've seen them around for months, but didn't say anything. Well, I'll get my things together and take them out of here."
"Just a minute, Benny. I'd like to know if you saw Daisy Watson today?"
He didn't hold back a reply. "Of course, I did. She's throwing in her lot with me."
The tiny brown-haired woman nodded. "So you have been laying her, too?"
Ben had no intention of giving her a simple yes or no. "She's bringing some business to me. I feel that she'll be a most valuable asset to my staff."
"If she hasn't already, she'll get stuck by your staff!"
He chuckled, immensely enjoying the discomforture of his pretty companion. "Inwardly you're burning because you've lost Daisy. You never did want to see me prosper in the building game. You're jealous because I'm now on my way to bigger and better contracts."
"That's not true!" said Edith hotly. "You've always thought little. You've been satisfied to build just a few houses a year."
"All that has been changed, hustler. From now on, my smoke is going to get into your eyes. I'm going to build, build, build!"
"Go right ahead!" she challenged. "Now that your sexual drive is nearly exhausted, you'll need another interest to keep you going."
That hurt. It was most unpleasant to contemplate a diminishing appetite for sex.
"If someone would publish a scandal sheet in Columbus, I'd have a delectable morsel for them.
Prominent builder blindfolded, gagged, bound and raped in Bexley home of ex-wife. Later released from bondage by beautiful next door widow."
"Beautiful? Mary Hursh?" Edith cried out. "Your eyesight, as well as your vim and vigor, is gone!"
He started to walk out of the kitchen, then stopped abruptly. "When you returned to my apartment to snoop yesterday, you claimed a girl was sitting in your car when you got there and that she advised you to come back to my place. If there was a girl, what did she look like?"
She promptly rattled off a description that would fit Abby Barrows. Then she asked, "Anyone you know?"
Ben shrugged. "Could be. As you know, I get around."
"And in," said Edith shortly.
Very tempting odors began an attack on his nose. "What you cookin'?"
"Steak, with onions and potatoes."
"I'm not so burned up that I wouldn't stay for dinner if invited."
She turned from her cooling to give him a dour look. "You have a great big fat nerve! But, I'll be civilized and ask you to share my dinner."
"Good! I'll wash up and be right back."
Bailey and his ex-wife faced each other across a breakfast table fifteen minutes later.
"You ever fed Carpenter?" he inquired flatly.
"Naturally. You know I always give handouts to bums that come to the back door."
"That was a nasty crack, midget."
"I didn't intend it to be. All of a sudden, you get huffy over anything I say. If you stayed on here, you'd be murdering me before long."
Bailey winced inwardly. "I'm a lover by nature. I used to think I knew you, but now, I realize that I never did. If I were to remain here, I'd probably end up with a knife or an ice pick in my back while I slept."
Her lovely face became scarlet. "We're both being childish, Benny. Let's cut it out and eat."
"Eating is the next best thing I do."
"You're bragging again."
Laughter suddenly burst from his lips. "Pass the steak, babe. I'm hungry enough to eat shoe leather."
They had finished dinner and were getting up from the table when a series of loud crashes shattered the silence in the big house.
Ben had reached the front door and was jerking it open when the roar of a speeding motorcycle blasted his ears. Edith joined him as he stood on the porch.
"The large windows in front are broken," she announced simply.
"Time for the police," he returned angrily. "Phone them."
"You know who's responsible?"
"Since whoever it was fled on motorcycles, I'd guess that we've been visited by the sex thrill set."
"If the police are brought in, will you be hurt in any way?"
"Red Charles swore yesterday that she would sic the love gangsters on me. Last night, all my tires were stabbed with a knife, then latter-well, you saw what happened to me. They've struck now, so now we put the law on them."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, friends," said a voice from the door way of the stone mansion.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The redhead that Ben whirled and faced was holding a buggy whip in her right hand.
"I'll make you eat that whip, blister!" he shouted at the sneering girl.
Her harsh laughter rang out. "You were also going to carry me off to a hobo jungle and let the bums ravish my lovely body."
"You've gone too far this time, hotsy! After I finish you off, I'll call in the cops."
She shook her head vigorously. "You're the goat, buster. The girls will be along in just a little bit. They're in an ambulance with drawn shades. They are going to take you for a long, long ride. Then tonight, you'll be privileged to watch us giving the bums rush to those tramps you treatened me with."
Bailey began to move toward the redhead, his face hard. "I've taken all I'm going to take from you, sex pot! It'll take more than you to stop me from working you over, then giving you to the bulls.'!
Babe Charles whistled shrilly, then yelled, "Come in, gang!"
He stopped dead in his tracks as a dozen or more young, shapely, lively breasted girls in mini-skirts, leather boots, knit sweaters, helmets and long white gloves moved in from the living room.
"Take him riding sisters!" directed Screwy. "Show him how rough we can play! No sex with him until after the show tonight, then we'll drain his crankcase!"
Anger getting the better of his good judgment, Bailey waded into the group of college-age girls. His flailing fists downed a couple of the swinging chicks before he was swarmed under. He continued to struggle, even after his hands were tied behind his back, his feet secured and a gag forced into his mouth.
Edith had recovered from his dismayed surprise and had begun to yell for help when the robust gang of thrill seeking girls grabbed her, giving her the same treatment they had given Bailey.
In less than twenty minutes after being rendered helpless, Ben and his ex-mate were carried through the house to the rear exit and from there to an old Cadillac hearse waiting, motor running, in the alley directly back of the stone house.
Bailey figured that the ancient vehicle was being driven rapidly, he couldn't see where, for fully two hours before it was brought to a squealing stop.
He never had seen anything like what happened after Edith and he were lifted from the hearse, carried to trees and propped up against them.
Hobo jungle and it's approximately fifty unkempt inhabitants of various ages quickly became the scene of a sex warfare that was as ferocious as that indulged in by any armed forces.
Armed with lengths of hard rubber hose and sections of lead pipe, the lovesick gang of girls mowed the bewildered denizens of the jungle down like a highway work crew would sythe large patches of weeds.
The majority of the tramps, seeming to the wide-eyed Ben, to be under the influence of cheap wine, resisted the onslaught on the steaming females, until realization finally came that they were being knocked down and stripped for a purpose that it was utterly foolish to fight.
Babe Charles appeared to be the commander of the sex charge and she screamed out, "Rape! Rape! Rape every man, girls! No matter how old and dirty, don't spare a single one!"
Having already removed mini-skirts, sweaters and helmets, the sex thrill gang, shouting and screaming, didn't need Screwy's commands to spur them on. With the same determination of a mob intent upon breaking into jail and taking out a prisoner for a necktie party, the energetic band of a hundred or more females, gave every hobo a going over not one would forget as long as he lived. Since there were about twice as many girls as bums, some had to impatiently wait to get in on the mob rape action.
Bailey judged that there wasn't one unsatisfied knight of the road when practically nude Babe Charles jogged over to him, her large breasts beating upon her chest.
Leering down at him, she said harshly, "Now I'll have my dessert, Mr. Hard Head!" Reaching over, she tore the gag from his mouth. "Start yelling before I'm ready for you to and I'll give you a rubber hose treatment! It's quite effective and leaves no incriminating bruises!"
"You're having nothing!" he retorted angrily.
Turning to the watching group of almost naked girls, the redhead said, "His stinger isn't what it used to be, gang. Too many brawls. About a half dozen of you come help me see what we can do about pooped Benny."
A tall, freckle-faced girl with multi-colored hair, came close and looked down at Bailey. She said to the redhead, "While some of the club is trying to get him up for you, how about me and his old lady? You know damned well that we're all Lesbians when we run out of proud male flesh."
Shrugging, Babe Charles replied, "There isn't much of her, but you're welcome to what you can get out of her, Liz."
"No!" Ben exclaimed in an alarmed voice. "Do with me whatever you wish, but let her alone! She's decent!"
The babe with the many freckles burst into ribald laughter. "She's decent, he sez! That the dirtiest of all words to me! Watch me make her filthy!"
Screwy and her rough, very determined six or more friends fell upon Bailey and he couldn't see what was happening to Edith. He didn't even fight the redhead and her group of enforcers. He was much too sick over what he had let his former wife in for to give a damn what Babe Charles did to him.
Even after he was stripped of clothing and was being woman handled by many, hot wet hands and teased by several lips and numerous sharp teeth, he only half-heartedly responded. The ejaculation that the persistent redhead wrung from him lasted less than a second and was almost devoid of the usual ecstasy.
After she had gotten up from him, she hissed contemptously, "You're a lousy lover, old man! From now on, you'd do better as a homo! That's your speed, no-sting bumblebee!"
When Bailey's head finally cleared, his eyes located Edith lying still upon .the ground nearby. He also observed that the fifty or more hoboes in the jungle were drinking wine again and looking at him with pitying eyes.
"Ede!" he cried in a hoarse voice. "A re you still alive?"
Stirring at his call, the small, brown-eyed woman struggled to a sitting position. She said coldly, "I came from hardy stock. I'll survive." She began to put on the clothing that had been torn from her body. "In these rags, I belong here in Hobo Jungle. Am I ever a mess!"
He found enough of his duds to cover his nakedness. "At least, they untied us."
Edith managed to get to her feet. "Do you know your way out of here, fellow bum?"
Ben nodded weakly. "I used to come here when I was a kid. In those days, it was a big thrill to eat goat meat stew and, with the box-car gently."
"How far from someplace where we can call a cab? I do hope you have some money left."
Her words prompted him to make a quick inventory. To his great relief, he still had his billfold and a couple of dollars in silver. "I was only rolled in one way. All she got was a dud then. Oh, we're about six miles from the nearest public phone." He pointed a forefinger toward the East. "The railroad's close by. Have you ever hopped a fright? They come in toward town every little while. Now, if we're lucky, there'll be a train along in a little while and it'll pass within a mile of your house."
"Let's go," said the woman shortly. "I haven't grabbed onto a box car since I was about fourteen, but I can do it if these rags don't beat me to death before we get to the railroad."
"I always knew that you had plenty of guts, Ede," he returned admiringly. "And a rare sense of humor."
"Less mouth, Benny, and more action. I hope we can get back to civilization without being picked up by a prowl car. I'm sure I wouldn't photograph well in this mess of shredded cloth."
He responded to her plea for action by putting his weary legs into motion. As he plodded doggedly along over rough terrain, there was the sound of her footsteps behind him.
They finally got to the four track railroad. A long, slow moving freight, pulled by two diesel engines came along within fifteen minutes, going in the direction of the city.
The tiny woman latched onto an empty flat car with much more dexterity than he did on the other end of it. He joined her shortly and they sat down close together.
She said thoughtfully, "I imagine that you realize now that you'll do most of your future love writing with a ball point pen?"
"I'm only forty!" he protested sharply.
"Speak the truth, Benny. How old do you feel at the moment?"
He made an ugly face she couldn't see. "One hundred and forty, at least. But, tomorrow is another day. I'm like a rubber ball. I bounce back."
"A ball without air doesn't do anything but go plunk!"
"Maybe it'll be a week before good old Nature pumps me up again this time."
"Dream on, ancient one."
Ben decided it would be best for him to change the subject. "The key to my apartment that supposedly came to you through the mail. Did it really?"
"Yes, but I just recently found out that your landlady sent it to me. She's a spinster, as you probably know, and she must have wanted me to walk in on you having a party for two. After you got the key from me, my curiosity got the better of me and I telephoned three prominent locksmiths and found one that the old biddie had paid to come to your apartment and make a couple of keys for your lock. It seems that nosey had only the key she gave you. I went to see her and she finally confessed that she had sent me the key-that she thought I was entitled to one. She claimed she didn't know we were divorced."
"That part was a likely story," he mumbled.
"That's one thing we've agreed on lately."
"I'll bet you'd be really upset if Carpenter was waiting when we got home?"
Edith made no reply.
A couple of minutes passed, then he said, "Hope this train isn't highballing it when we get to our dropping off place."
"I doubt if it'll be going any faster than it is now. It would have picked up speed before this if it could have."
"That's right. We should be ready to jump in about twenty minutes."
As if each Was drained of words, an awkward silence embraced them and it lasted until the train reached their getting off point. No broken legs.
Tom Carpenter wasn't waiting at Edith's home, but an insurance man and two policemen were.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
While her insurance man made an estimate of the damage the motorbike-riding girl hoods had done to the windows of her house, Edith made a report to the police. There were certain things she didn't tell the officers, but she did fully describe the dress of the thrill seeking gang. Ben ached to blow the whistle on the girl rapists, but he knew that if he did, a mighty ugly story would be unfolded. And there would undoubtedly be a kidnapping charge made against the hard-riding-in more ways than one-free-love organization.
When they were finally alone, he said flatly, "I'll load up and clear out, Edith."
She nodded. "And I think I'll get out my trusty shooting iron and stand guard over those glassless front windows."
Ben frowned. "That's right. Anybody could walk in here tonight. I'd better not move until morning. I'll be your burglar sitter. In my present mood, heaven help any thief that would come through there no!"
"That's good of you to offer to stay, Benny, but you should know how deadly I am with a gun. You have hunted with me enough."
"Yeah," he admitted. "In the good old days, you could shoot out a squirrel's eye with a rifle. You nearly always got more game than I did. Even when we went fishing, you caught more than I did."
A little laugh escaped her lips. "You made up-for all my triumphs by the number of girls you bagged."
Her words brought an ugly taste to his mouth. "It doesn't require much skill to bag bags. If you had wanted to, you could have come up with ten men to my one woman. I was jealous of Carpenter when I first heard about him, but you deserve a good man and I wish you luck, Ede."
Edith shook her small brown head. "There is no Tom Carpenter. That was just a yarn I persuaded Daisy Watson to feed you."
Her confession opened his tired eyes wide. "You, a fibber after all these years? That's hard to believe."
"Anyone is entitled to a little lie now and then."
"Well, I guess that's right," he agreed. "So you don't have a spare man up your sleeve?"
"Not even a midget, but there's an ancient saying to the effect that there's an old shoe for every old sock."
Bailey abruptly broke into hearty laughter. "This has been quite a day-and night!"
"That's for sure," she said softly.
He studied her thoughtfully. "Why are we standing up? You're fresh out of front windows, but the chairs and davenport are still in good condition. Old, but usable."
She laughed shortly. "You know the folks left me nearly everything in the house. Some of the furniture belonged to grandparents on each side of the family. I should have the Salvation Army come in and take all the old stuff away. New furnishings might do a great deal for this old mausoleum, as you call it."
He went to the davenport that always creaked when he sat upon it. She followed.
They were seated about as far apart as possible, when he said thoughtfully, "One big trouble with our married life was that we were always competitors."
A frown covered her pretty face. "I had never thought of it that way, but you're right. We should have been partners in business as well as in marriage."
He grinned. "Even thought we've been divorced for ten years, it isn't too late for a business merger. We could see how it goes. You're lots larger than I am, but believe you me, I'm going to grow plenty. I know Daisy Watson will be great asset to me."
"I could be nasty and say something-."
"Go ahead. I haven't ever pulled punches with you."
"Okay, here goes-and then I'll go wash out my mouth. You said Daisy could be an asset, and the first thing that came to my mind was that she had the ass for it."
Ben exclaimed, "You're not jealous of Daisy!"
"I sent her to you. She didn't leave my employ of her own accord.
"I never knew that you were sneaky, midget. Now that you've admitted placing Daisy in my office, that's more reason why it would be profitable to both of us to merge."
She looked thoughtful for several minutes, then said, "Okay, so we merge! Tomorrow morning, I'll have my lawyers arrange to meet with yours and work out a consolidation."
"Swell!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "That way, we won't have to split Daisy in two."
"I'm sure she wouldn't want to be split," said Edith lightly.
Ben got up, then abruptly dropped back down. "Since I intend to stay here tonight to keep away the bad men, you could be most appreciative and hospitable and lie down on the davenport with me. It does pull out and make a bed. Remember, we slept here once when there was a mess of company in from out of town."
"With all that's happened to you lately, you're suddenly feeling very cocky. I'd be a poor sport if I didn't give you even money on that bet you dared me to take. Five thousand to one is too great odds for you now, in your condition."
Sliding toward her, he said thickly, "Ede, baby, you don't know what you're letting yourself in for."
"Oh, don't I?" she mocked. "I handled you when you were a much better man than you are now."
He couldn't quite resist shooting a barb into her. "But you were much younger then, chick. Just let me pin you down and I'll have your head spinning on your shoulders."
She quickly got up. "Oh, will you now, Mr. Bailey?"
"You've chickened out," he said in a voice pregnant with disappointment.
"Not on your life, big boy! Don't just sit there! Get up and help me pull it out so we'll have plenty of room to operate."
If someone had jabbed him the seat with a hypo needle, he wouldn't have gotten up faster. "I'm with you, woman!"
They got the davenport made into a bed and Edith said, "I'm sure it won't take either of us long to undress."
"I know it won't take me long at all," he replied grimly. "If I expanded my lungs, suddenly I'd have only my shoes and socks to remove."
"Expand then," she challenged in an unsteady voice.
No honeymoon couple could have gotten ready for mating quicker than did she and Ben.
Stretched out on the converted bed, Edith said, "Don't I deserve some loving first? It's been a long time. Don't be such an eager beaver."
"I'll love you to distraction!" he threatened.
"Words! A business woman wants action."
Bailey promptly began to unleash every sex trick that he knew upon her nude, small but well stacked body. To his delighted surprise, his little ex-wife responded with an intense eagerness.
Despite the fire that was consuming him, he wouldn't begin to take her until she cried out, "What's holding you back, Benny dear?"
"Remember, you asked for it!" he retorted. "Make way for papa!" He was going strong when he added, "Does this merger mean that you'll remarry me, Ede?"
"If it's a good merger, we'll talk about marriage." Her voice was muffled. His hard driving was evidently interferring with her speech. To his disgust, the image of a statuesque platinum blonde came to his mind. She could present a problem to the proposed merger between Edith and him.
As if reading his mind, the tiny woman murmured, "Daisy has more men that some Mormons used to have wives. She probably won't decide on any single one for a long time."
"Why does her name come up at a time like this?" he rejoined, adding impetus to his plunges.
"What better time is there to clear the air, my darling?"
"I guess, none."
Edith, breathing hard, went on with considerable difficulty, "I wasn't going to tell you for a long time, but you're bating the truth out of me. That kooky sex thrill redhead didn't rape you in your room upstairs. I did."
If he had been in a position to be floored, her words would have done it. "You blindfolded, gagged and strapped me and had your way with me? All by yourself?"
"Yes!" Her voice was strong and defiant now "I had more right to you than those three slut kids did! Do you want to give me an argument?"
"What I'm going to give you, sweetie, won't be anything resembling an argument! Hard time, yes!"
"I take back what I said about you being like a rubber ball without air. You bounce amazingly well."
"An apology isn't going to get you out of this business deal."
"Come now, who wants out?"
"Flight to cloud nine now taking off!" he yelled. "Come along with me, darling!"
