That was the morning he found out it took Paulette. two hours to put on her mask. He waited and smoked coffin nails, one right after the other; He checked the maps. For a while the booklets on the resort held bis interest. He wondered if Paulette was really serious about building a house out there. No doubt she had the money.
He wanted a cup of coffee. "Look here,
Empress, he called out to her; "I'm going for a cup of coffee, I'll bring you one if you like."
"I don't want to stay alone, she said, her voice full of petulance.
Well, a man had to take a stand sometime, Nathan decided.
"Sugar, I didn't ask you if you wanted to stay alone. I asked you did you want a cup of coffee?"
"No!" Short and sweet.
"When you finish, come to the restaurant and get me and I'll put the bags in the car."
No reply.
"Do you think you can get the waxworks on before noon?" he called back sarcastically. He knew he shouldn't have said that, but she was acting like a big baby. He heard the washbasin water go on full flow. Funny how women could use such subtleties to voice their emotions rather than spoken words, he thought, glad that she couldn't hear him now. He slammed the door and went for coffee.
While he sat in the small restaurant watching the time pass and people come and go, lie got to thinking about the money he had remaining. He hopped up and bought one of those laugh cards because it had art envelope. He winked at. the cashier and asked her to do him a favor. He got her to address the card for him… to hiniseif at Nancy's apartment.
Then he went back to his bar stool and slipped one hundred dollars into the fold-over of the. card inside. He sealed it. Nancy would get it and take it to be just a card from somebody to him. She'd probably figure somebody was sending him money
owed him. He couldn't lose. He bought two thirteen-cent stamps from the machine, pasted them on, and gave the letter to the cashier to mail for him.
"You only need one stamp, sir," she said.
"I know. Just putting the other one on for insurance," he replied.
It got to be twelve o'clock, and Nathan paid his coffee tab. He left the cashier a fifty-cent tip. She learned he walked back over to the motel ready to hop all over Paulette. Rich woman or not, she could act a little less like a bitch. He found her sitting in the front seat of the black caddy, all sweetness and smiling. The bags were already in the car.
"I've been waiting," she said.
"Why didn't you call me?"
"It is not feminine to impose upon a man besides, you were busy talking to the cashier."
Be bitchy, damn you, he wanted to say. But what the hell? He leaned ever and gently pinched her chin, wondering how much she'd seen. "Lovely, love1y, he said. "How sweet you are. A real queen!" He got in and headed the big Detroit chariot toward Phoenix; He tramped on the gas, anxious to get there.
Paulette had not forgotten ter dug. It was flashing in his eyes. All the way to Phoenix taking the remainder of the afternoon, she sat well over on her portion of the front seat. She was mostly silent, looking at the changing terrain, and once.
dozing in the sun. Her lips were still pouty. But each time Nathan started to say something to her, he would glance down at the ring and think twice.
But he kept thinking about Nancy and the deal she might get him with Weindorf, the producer. Just one good role was all he needed. Just one good role, and his own good looks would do. the rest.
An empty, nagging feeling settled itt the pit of his stomach; it told him he should be there with Nancy, coaching and directing her in the part she had to play with Weindorf. The more he thought about it the more he realized he was creating doubts in his own mind that weren't there before. Nancy had done a great job so far, and he wasn't even aware of what she was doing. She'd do all right on her own, he decided. After all, wasn't she in love with him?
Then he felt Paulette's hand come to rest on his leg and he snapped out of his private thoughts. He was back to the Empress and the here and now of her teasing fingers, as they strummed a tune on his inner thigh just below his cock. When he felt her fingers working at the zipper to his pants, his foot eased off the gas to bring the Caddy back to the legal speed limit and he fixed his eyes on the road, pretending not to notice. It didn't bother him that his cock sprang out of his pants stiff and hard, contradicting his indifferent attitude.
Paulette stroked the big prick that jutted out of his pants. She, too, remained silent, but she had a devilish grin on her face. And after a few more
strokes she loweredher lips to tlw purplish knob of his cock and sipped at the drop of cream oozing from the eye of it. By the time they got to Phoenix, she was sucking the last of his cum from his cock.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Nathan Warner sat propped up in bed on new pillows, sipping a bourbon and soda, and he laughed all to himself. Oh, but it was great! Carefree Inn, Arizona; the sun by day, whiskey unlimited by night and day; Paulette's petulance now and then; and tape on the wrists and ankles anytime.
Nathan had never asked questions. He accepted whatever she wanted to dish out in the way of information. This was the way he had decided to play the game. But she had not broken and he still knew damn little. However, halfway through the two-pound Arizona cut, he decided to break his own rule. He decided to do some asking for a change.
"Empress, sweetheart," he said, while she nibbled at her steak. "I'm a wage earning man, and you know there are things like rent, utilities, etc., back in Hollywood to be met. Who sends back the bacon?"
She looked at him for a moment, getting it all settled. "Do you need some money, darling?" she asked, all sweetness., her voice tinged with the right amount of disdain for the subject of money.
"I didn't want to trouble you, darling!" he said, just as sweet.
"How much money do. you need?" Just like that.
"How much am. I allowed?"
"Dear, do you have an apartment alone?"
He saw that coming. What did she take him for anyway? He knew better than to stand up in a canoe, or tell one woman he was shacking with another.
"I have to share my apartment with an old Army buddy. We split the rent in order to get by. I'd be ashamed for you to see it."
"Don't you have a girl?" she asked softly.
"You know me better than that. Sure I do. You,
Empress."
She started looking all twinkly and happy. There was no difference in women, Nathan thought. They would believe what they wanted you to tell them.
"Is your mind made up to become an actor?" she asked
"I don't mind being your driver, Empress."
"Please do not say so unless you mean it" There was something, strange and hard about her words.
"I mean it,"The said without flinching.
She sat there toying with the steak, her eyes downcast. The widow was almost beautiful there in the dim light of the steak place. She must have really been sharp when she was young But he kept remembering her in the morning without her wax face.
She raised her eyes and looked at hint. "I want you, Nathan."
"You have me, sweetheart."
"No I don't," she said. "But I will." There went that chill down his.sprne. He now knew something he had been putting off; Paulette had gone for him hard. He could tell she was
serious; yet he wanted to play it coot and right. He needed the dough, and to him, Paulette was no different from any other broad he'd slept with except in termsof cash.