"There you are," I said, working the stuff off her shoulders. I couldn't help noticing that these were strong but nicely rounded, and freckled like her face. "It's legitimate to hang it up neatly at this stage of the proceedings," I said as, having stepped out of the dress and slipped her arms out of the blouse, she stood holding the garments a little uncertainly. "Later, of course, we'll be scattering things around in an uninhibited way… What's the matter?"
She'd swung back to face me. "You might at least take off your coat," she said with some resentment. "I feel awfully bare like this, with you standing there with coat and tie on. Here, I'll help you."
I watched her step up to me, in her high-heeled pumps and a white slip with a lot of finely pleated stuff at top and bottom, that rippled as she moved. They can do some very pretty things with pleats these days. She was a tall girl and she moved nicely. Well, I'd noticed that before.
I said, "Irish."
Her fingers were busy with the knot of my tie. She didn't look up. "Yes?"
"This is a lousy game, Irish. What are you hoping to win by it?"
The direct question startled her. Her fingers stopped working, and she had to grab at the dress and blouse draped over her arm, to keep them from sliding off to the floor, but she still didn't look up. When she spoke, her voice was expressionless.
"I don't know what you mean."
"You're batting in the wrong league, doll," I said, making my voice hard. "I've had this one pulled on me before."
She said lightly, "Well, we're getting somewhere! At least you aren't calling me ma'am any more."
I said, "Okay, have it your way."
She yanked my tie free and looked up at last. "I told you-"
"I know. When the showdown comes, you want a friend in your corner at any cost. Okay, let's be friends. Here, take my coat, too. You can be hanging things up while I freshen the drinks." There was a little pause while she moved away and came back. Busy with the bottle, I glanced at her over my shoulder. "Now you can start moving in on one of the beds, Irish. Don't be obvious about it. Just act as if that happened to be the handiest place to sit."
"Like this?"
I went over and looked down at her sitting there. I didn't want to like her, and I didn't. It's hard to feel tenderness for a lady who keeps vitriol in the pantry. I didn't want to be attracted to her, either, but a goodlooking woman with her dress off is always attractive to a certain type of lewd male mind, and I'm afraid my mind happens to be just that type… I shoved one glass into her hand, and took a drink from the other one.
"Hell, you're much too ladylike, even in your underwear, Drilling," I said. "You're supposed to be getting tight, remember? Shove your legs out straight and let them wander well apart; let that slip ride up… That's better. Now muss your hair a little and drop a strap off your shoulder. Lick your lips. That's the girl. A little pouty now, kind of sleepily provocative I stepped back and surveyed the effect like a photographer posing a fashion model, with my head cocked to the side. "Very good, Irish. We'll make a tart of you yet."
She tossed the displaced lock of hair out of her eyes and looked up at me reproachfully. "You're making fun of me, aren't you?"
"Sure," I said. "Aren't you making fun of me, doll? Aren't you laughing silently at the stupid man who'd fall for a corny gag like this?" I made a face and mimicked: "Please show me how to seduce you, Mister Clevenger, 'cause I'm just a little girl and don't know how."
She made no response to this. She just watched me sit down beside her. Then she asked quietly, "What have you had pulled on you before, Dave? What did you mean by that?"
"You know what I meant," I said. "If you want the details, there was a girl in… Well, never mind where." Actually, it had happened in Kiruna, Sweden, but Jenny'd want to know what a Denver private detective had been doing up there above the Arctic Circle and it was too late at night to figure out a plausible lie. I went on: "This girl had some friends. The friends wanted something from my hotel room. Her job was to keep me busy and interested while they got it. Like you're keeping me busy and interested now. What's happening in your hotel room, Irish?"
It was a long shot, but a faint narrowing of her eyes told me it had hit close. "Did she get it?" Jenny asked quickly. "I mean, did her friends get it?"
"Sure they got it," I said. "I wanted them to get it. It was a plant, but they didn't know that."
I used the word deliberately, to see what reaction I would get. The result was satisfactory. I might have been talking about an aspidistra for all the sign she gave. She wasn't concerned about plants. She had no suspicion she was part of one, a very elaborate one-that we all were. All she cared about was steering the conversation away from her room and what might be taking place there.
"You're very clever, aren't you Dave?" she said smoothly. "And what happened to the girl?"
I looked at her for a moment longer. I needed very much to know what kind of a woman this really was, and I'd had enough of her acting. I had to shake her up a bit, for my own satisfaction.
"I'll show you what happened to the girl," I said, and her eyes widened slightly at the tone of my voice. I took the glass from her hand, set it on the floor, and placed mine carefully beside it. "This is what happened to that girl," I said, and I grabbed her and pulled her to me roughly.
I heard her startled gasp. "Dave, please-"
Then I was kissing her hard, and forcing her down on the bed. I guess I wanted to see if she'd panic, and for a moment I thought she had. There was a second or two of desperate resistance, or so I thought; then I heard something fall to the rug-two objects-and realized that she'd just been holding me off while she kicked off her shoes. She made a funny little triumphant sound in her throat and came to me as if she'd been waiting all her life for some man to realize she wasn't made of glass and wouldn't break-or as if she'd just been waiting all night for me to make the tactical mistake of laying rough hands on her.
I felt her fingernails dig through my shirt, and her mouth was warm and responsive despite my violence. I found my clever plans and sentimental reservations quickly becoming unimportant. I even found myself forgetting, more or less, that I was supposed to be a dedicated public servant on an important mission. I soothed my conscience with the thought that I wasn't really supposed to care what might be happening in her room. As a tough private eye, I was reacting the way I was supposed to. You might even say I was tending strictly to business.
There were those first frantic seconds-maybe minutes- of exploration and discovery; then we lay quite still in each other's arms, breathing hard. It was no time for jokes, perhaps, but suddenly I knew this woman well enough to try one even though I didn't know her at all.
"Here's your moment, Jenny O'Brien."
"Moment?"
"The critical moment," I whispered in her ear. "When you get it off with reasonable dignity. Don't forget the dignity. This I want to see."
She laughed softly, lying close to me. "Clothes!" she murmured. "Why do we have to wear them? Just pull it off me, darling. Skin me like a rabbit. Peel me like an eel, stockings and all."
"Do eels wear stockings?"
"Stop being silly and finish undressing me, damn you. You started it. You said the man liked to do the work. Dave?"
"Yes?"
"Do you love me?"