In the doorway, Natalie lightly applauded. "Interesting," she said, "very interesting. I might even try it sometime for a kick."
Then she crossed the trailer to her own room and surprised Ellie by throwing her on the bed and straddling her face. Roughly, she jammed her juicy pussy down over Ellie's mouth.
"I just saw something that really turned me on," Natalie said. "Eat me… eat me real good and then I'll tell you about it."
So everyone got their share; in fact, more than their share. Everyone, that is, except Ellie. For her it got worse and worse. She devised scheme after scheme to find a place and the time to be alone with Barry. She was almost sure she didn't love him. She never thought she had. But she also knew for sure that she didn't love Natalie. And, sexually, she wanted Barry at that time in her life much more than she wanted her female lover.
The tension was bound to break, and it did after an especially long and rowdy show for a bunch of bathtub salesmen in Atlantic City.
Betty had been drinking and Ellie had refused to do her complete strip number.
Then three drunks had wandered onto the stage and tried to grab Chile. She had kicked one of them in the balls and scratched the second's face to a bloody pulp. The third beat a hasty retreat and the show had come to an abrupt end.
Barry pulled the car around to the stage entrance and waited while the girls got dressed and changed their makeup.
The girls came out and got in the car. For the first time since the tour started, Ellie and Natalie got in different seats. Natalie sat up front, Ellie sat in the back between Betty and Chile.
"What happened tonight?" he asked over his shoulder. "You didn't seem up to snuff."
"When did you add stripping to your list of dubious talents?" Chile snapped.
"That was uncalled for," Betty said, defending his feelings. "He had nothing to do with the fight between Nat and Eli."
"What fight?" Barry said, turning to look at Natalie out of the corner of his eye.
"None of your damned business," she growled, and squeezed herself as far away from him as possible.
"What did I do?" he asked. "All I did was ask a question."
"I'll tell you all about it later, handsome," Betty said.
"You'll tell him nothing later," Chile snapped at her. "You just keep your drunken body away from him."
Good God, Barry thought, the whole act is falling to pieces. They were at each other's throats like wildcats. All except Ellie. He looked at her in the rear-view mirror, saw her cradling her face in her hands and stifling her sobs.
When he pulled up at the trailer everyone got out but Ellie. Barry sat behind the wheel, watching them go inside. Then he turned to the crying girl.
"What happened?" he said quietly.
"Nat and I had an argument," she told him. "That is, Nat had an argument with me. All I did was stop into that stripper's dressing room for a minute to chat.
Nat came storming in a couple of minutes later, calling me all sorts of awful names. She wouldn't listen to me, or let me explain. She called me a flirt and a tease, told me if I ever looked at another woman she'd tear out all my hair."
Barry didn't know what to say. He slipped out from behind the wheel, reached in to help her out of the back seat. Her shoulders were still shaking with silent sobs. The touch of his hand seemed to calm her. But when she was standing on her feet beside the car door, she threw herself into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder.
"Everybody's pissed off at everybody," Barry said, as he heard the raised voices bellowing from the trailer.
"No… everybody's pissed off at me… and, I suppose, at you too… at little."
"Why, me?" Barry said, pulling away and looking into her face.
"Because, secretly, everybody wants your cock. You've got a bunch of frustrated females on your hands."
He thought for a moment, scowling. "How about you?" he said at last.
"Me what?"
"You want my cock?"
Ellie didn't hesitate. "Yes," she said, nodding, but averting her eyes from his.
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?"
Inside the trailer the three girls heard the car pull back out of the drive.
Chile ran to a window and parted the drape.
"Shit… that bastard," she cursed.
"Oh let him go," Natalie said to her. "You can miss a stiff dick for one night."
"Here, here," Betty said, lifting her glass in salute.
Chile whirled on her. "I'll give you here, here in a minute, you drunken tramp."
She glared at the other girl for a moment, then got to her feet and stamped off into her bedroom. Her exit seemed to release the others from their chairs.
Natalie stood up and looked over at Betty.
"How about switching bedrooms with Ellie?" she said. "At least, for tonight."
Betty gave her a wicked grin and a wink. "Only if you promise not to get fresh, darling."
Natalie reddened, then nodded.
Barry unlocked the door and stepped slightly to the side. "You sure you want to do this?"
Ellie stepped past him into, the motel room without answering.
He closed the door and, using only the shaft of light from the window, built two drinks and handed her one.
"I'd like to make a speech for a few minutes," he said.
"All right," she replied, sitting on the bed.
"I'm trying to find the right words. I want you to keep quiet until I finish talking. In the first place, I think you're nuts. Not crazy, or insane, just nuts, stupid nuts. You don't hate men, not really. And just because you get physical pleasure from the caresses of another woman, you call yourself a lesbian. If you were naked, and had your eyes closed, and a hand touched you, would you be able to tell if that hand belonged to a man or woman? And suppose it was a pair of lips instead of a hand? Would you be able to tell?"
"Are you trying to tell me I'm not what I know myself to be?"
"Then what the fuck are you doing here with me?"
"Because I want you! I want to fuck you!" she cried.
He smiled in the darkness and started removing his clothes. "All right," he said.
Betty sat cross-legged, on the big double bed in Natalie's room. She was stark naked, a little drunk, and getting drunker. She cradled a bottle of Scotch between her luscious breasts and a half-full glass in one hand.
Natalie was stretched out beside her, her head propped up on two pillows, her eyes roaming over the naked body of the drunken girl. She was dressed in a pair of silk pajamas, and, smoking a cigarette.
The lights were off but both bodies were illuminated by the light from the soundless television.
Betty sat with her shoulders dropping. Her breasts hung down like giant teardrops. They were wonderful breasts: white, soft and fragrant. Betty had a narrow waist and lean thighs, which made the curve of her hips and the jut of her ass all the more alluring.
With her knees pointed outward and her ankles crossed in front of her, Betty looked as though she were offering her cunt. Natalie felt a great urge to reach out, to drive her fingers deep into that lean and lovely body, to caress those nipples with her lips and tongue.
Each time the desire surged through her, she bit down harder on the cigarette.
Finally, Betty broke the silence. She was quite drunk but she managed to speak clearly. Her head was turned down and she looked up at Nat from under her brows.
"When you look at me like that, it makes me feel funny," she said.
Natalie flushed, guilty at being caught looking.
"I've always wondered if you see a woman the same way a man sees her," Betty said.
"I wouldn't know," Natalie said, trying to make her tone casual. "I have no idea how a man sees a woman."