“A few years past, I had the opportunity to view a private collection of erotica, known as the RCA collection, which consisted of hundreds of rare items and I recalled a theme in one of those books of a similar nature. This detail might have been responsible for giving my conduct a character of haste, totally out of keeping with my usual habits, and I thought it might be lacking in interest to my lovely Gertrude. It was not long, Marcia, before I began to think this might be so although almost from the first moment the young woman gave indications of pleasure and multiplied this evidence so convincingly, it was difficult for me to keep a cool head. Her apparent enjoyment might, of course, have been all a part of her code of good manners, which she was applying with the greatest care because I was, so to speak, a mere casual memory, possibly a one-night stand or, shall we say, a body guest? On the other hand, her seeming excitement might have been sincere though mainly cerebral and nourished by an idea that the roguish young beauty had formed of the situation. When we broke off for some twenty minutes in order to finish the excellent tokay, during which time we exchanged several quiet but exciting caresses, I tried to put into words my gratitude but, to my confusion, my charming visitor hinted that most of the pleasure had really been hers.” “The last spicy adventure, dearest?” “Very nearly, my adorable wanton-” “Then please hurry-” she whispered, “for I think I'm very much in love!”
“I will-I will-my sweet wanton virgin-my virginal wanton-darling!”
“I like that name, dearest, I want to be wanton with you-give you all-hold back nothing- so do hurry, dearest!” “Yes, yes, yes, of course.”
6. my sixth affair
“The last was in Vienna, six months or so later. I had taken a summer trip to Italy and through the Swiss Alps, but no amorous interlude presented itself and I was really in the mood for some love, or rather, the physical love which passes as infatuation and esthetic desire for the beautiful feminine body. I went to the Hotel Imperial where I always stay in Vienna, and was taken by a porter to my room. Another porter was in the lobby with a young woman and I found we were headed for the same floor. The woman had fair good looks, was very appetizing, about thirty or thirty-one, I'd judge, and had good manners.
She was elegantly dressed, wearing some fine jewelry. She was not too slim but strikingly voluptuous. She spoke to her porter in French with a slight accent, and I took from it she was a Czech or a Yugoslav, or even a Pole. I saw her taken to her room down one corridor while we went down another.
“Half an hour later, I phoned the porter and said in a confidential tone that I had come up with a young woman who was very pretty and I'd like her room number. He showed a certain hearty complicity so I phoned the woman and told her I'd come up in the elevator with her but that I felt shy and hoped that she wouldn't mind my saying I found her to be ravishing and also, if she wouldn't be angry, I suggested her coming round for a little talk as soon as she was settled. I gave her my room number and then said perhaps she'd prefer me to come to her.
“She laughed, hesitatingly, not a little surprised. We talked for a few more minutes, I keeping my voice light and ingratiating, to suggest a whimsical caprice on my part, something one did only once in a lifetime. She said in a voice broken by tiny gurgles of laughter, 'All right, then-I'll come to your room in about twenty minutes, but please open the door as soon as I knock-or, I know- I'll phone just before I start so you can leave the door ajar.'
“The ring came in less than twenty minutes. I half opened my door. A few moments later she slipped into the room wearing a silk dressing gown and mules. She thought, I assumed, if people saw her thus in a large hotel corridor they'd avert their gaze, but I confess I felt touched by her courage in setting just the right note to my suggestion. I felt there'd be no beating about the bush. I told her how sweet it was of her to come and how lovely she was, and began by kissing her lovely hands. Then I took her in my arms. I could see she had on next to nothing under her dressing gown. When I opened it, she stood revealed in no more than a shift, without either panties or bra, and her body smelled of bath salts and of scent. “I said to myself that here was an intelligent woman, with a proper feeling for a situation. She knew that if she had come along prepared to play the part of a woman of the world paying a casual visit with hat, suit and the lot, she would have been bogged down in an adventure in the same old rut. She saw that once she accepted the adventure in the spirit of my offer-and my cynicism left her no doubt about that-she must take a line of utter shamelessness and be prepared for the 'assault direct.' A minute later, stretched out on the divan, we were exchanging the most outrageous caresses. I chose now to omit all the usual transition and prelims; first I had to remove her gown. Cupping her breasts and kissing them through the shift, I carried her to the divan in my arms, trussed the shift, removed my own dressing robe, and mounted her naked, kissing her mouth and breasts and neck while my hands kept caressing her belly and thighs.
“She seemed prepared to second me quite admirably in this. She understood that my methods were not the results of a natural crudity, but dictated by a sense of style. I found out, during a pause, that she was Austrian living in Paris as the mistress of a rich Austrian banker. As she was about to return to her room, she said, giving me a hug, 'Perhaps we shall meet in Paris and if I'm not alone you can bow to me, but you won't kiss me on the lips, will you, or pinch my bottom as you're doing now?'
“And there, my love-ends my magic carpet's flight, being back in New York with you, the final woman of my most cherished dreams.”
7. the climax
“Darling-” Marcia's voice was very soft and muted, quivering with an intensity that enervated him.
“Yes, my dear one?”
“Please put out the light. I want you to sit here a moment just thinking about me, and making conjectures whether I'll be as nice for you as all those other lucky ones. I'll be back very soon. I want to get the taste of the cigarettes and champagne out of my mouth. I can't kiss you properly otherwise, you know.”
“As you wish. Yours to command, mine to obey,” he reached for the lamp cord and tugged it. The room was plunged into darkness.
He saw her in the shadows, nubile and fluid as a nymph, rise quickly to her feet and hasten silently out of the room.
He lit a last cigarette. The twinkling pinpoints of light alone illuminated the soft aura of shadows, the atmosphere of desire amid this luxury, the setting of worldly goods and magnificence which was to be their trysting place this night. It was a little past midnight.
He did not see her return, having closed his eyes. Only the intuition of her presence roused him.
Then he felt soft hands on his knee and felt softer, long and tapering fingers take gentle hold of the folds of his dressing robe, draw them apart and then slip to the belt of the robe, loosen it.
“Marcia-”
“No, don't move, my lover, let me be the priestess of ritual preparation now, please-no, my love.”