The bedroom was completely black and deathly quiet, but Edyth woke in a cold sweat and a spinning room. Her dreams or mind had been filled with a kaleidoscope of bright flashing lights and all too real images of leering faces and groping hands. Gripped with panic and a sudden nauseous, she could only hope to make it to the bathroom before she would throw up. As she sat up in the bed and pulled back the quilt, a sickening feeling washed over her as she saw multiple bruises and welts all over her naked body.
Her body started to shake and the need to throw up forced her from the bed and into the bathroom. After what seemed like an eternity of emptying her stomach, which was the followed by a bad case of dry heaves she was finally able to compose herself.
As her mind frantically searched for pieces from last night, she remembered, being with her neighbour, Bev. With both their husbands out of town she had agreed to go out for dinner and movie with her. She remembered eating at Delvechio's, and then going for a drink because the movie wasn't starting until later in the evening.
They had gone to the Palamino for just a couple of drinks, but a couple turned into a few and within a couple of hours they were beginning to feel the effect of the drinks. Then the afternoon turned in evening and they decided to stay at the bar for a while and then call it a night.
At some point, the time or leaving hadn't been an issue as both women were having a good time. It had been interesting and entertaining, especially when men kept coming over to the table, supplying them with drinks as they flirted with them.
At first, she had been flattered and pleased with all the attention she was getting; but as the evening wore on and the more drinks were consumed she found the attention and conversation was becoming rough around the edges. Especially when a man slid next to her in the booth, he was big, older, with a gruff voice, and had put his sweaty hand on her thigh and squeezed it, "Let's you and me go have some action."
She remembered smiling over at him and saying, "I beg your pardon?"
"Let's fuck," he whispered in her ear.
Even though she was feeling the drinks, she had reacted as if punched hit in the face. She looked at the man, astonished, not believing if she had heard him right.
"Let's fuck!" He man repeated. "I'd like to fuck you to within an inch of your life. I'd like to fuck you until you beg me to stop."
As best she could, she turned him down and had been called a bitch before he stormed off. No sooner had he left when he was replaced with someone new and the flow of men around their table suddenly increased.
As more men arrived at the table, so did the flow of drinks and she knew she was getting drunker by the minute, and at one point had pushed her drink away and upset several others. Everyone laughed and no one seemed to mind, instead the men kept ordering more drinks for her.
As the evening dragged on, she had surprised by herself when she started looking around the bar, trying to find the man who had whispered in her ear. Even though he had been crude and vulgar, his words kept echoing inside her mind, creating lewd visions of a couple, naked, fucking in a hotel room. She had been totally shocked and indignant by what he had whispered in her ear, but... had been totally aroused! No one had ever dared talked to her like that before ... ever! The more she thought about his suggestion, how obscene and insulting it had been, a little smile played about her sensuous lips.
She never did see the man again. Apparently he had left, lost in the darkness. Even so, the words of the stranger growled in her ear stayed in her head. The very audacity of it! He had suggested they go off somewhere and do obscene things together, and she didn't even know his name! For the first time in her life, she felt her body racked with an emotion that hit her with a fury and intensity she had never even dreamed of before. She found every single nerve in her body tingling with arousal.
She sat in the booth as if in a trance, her eyes looking far off and slightly glazed, her lips slightly parted as she felt a lewdness throbbing in her pulse as she wondered: Could I do that, with a stranger?
Although men were talking to her, she had been oblivious to what they were saying. Instead, she just sat there feeling a creeping tingle rhythmically pounding throughout her aroused body. For a few reckless moments, she allowed herself to imagine what it would be like to be naked and alone with a strange man. She let herself think about what it would be like to be naked and drinking with a stranger. More than that, to be naked and vulnerable in front of a stranger like the one who whispered in her ear! To be totally naked and at the mercy of someone who was coarse and vulgar and used her like a whore! To have some hairy man manhandle her soft naked body, to do obscene things, be forced to do things!
Her daydreaming was broken when a drink was shoved in her hand, and Bev was shouting in her ear. "Hey, this is CJ; I want you to meet Edyth."
Bev explained that CJ was a friend and was going to join them for a drink. She had looked into the sweating face of a man who was in good shape. When he looked at her face, and then looked up and down her body, had been unnerving, for it was almost as if he had guessed what she had been thinking. He almost made her feel naked the way he looked at her breasts and then downward to the "v" where her vagina nestled behind her dress.
Normally her instinct was to distrust and avoid people like him, but she was feeling no pain and was completely swept up in the excitement and fun of the night: This was going to be something she would remember for a long while. She giggled, realizing there were already things that she didn't dare tell her husband about, especially about the foul-mouthed man.
She shook her head again, more to get the images out of her mind only to be faced by the red sweating face of CJ. He had a drink in either hand. He looked at Edythe and held out a glass. "Here, looks like you could use this."
Dumbly, she nodded. Still feeling guilty and embarrassed by her reaction to what the man had said to her. More, she felt guilty about what she had felt.
She wasn't sure why she told Bev and CJ what the man had said to her earlier, but she remembered regretting it after, totally surprised by Bev's reaction.
Bev's eyebrows lifted. "I wish someone would say that to me! I'm not so sure I would have minded." Then, pointing a finger at her. "Listen, don't try and tell me you weren't excited."
She couldn't admit the feeling that was still churning in her. "You mean you'd like to do that?"
"Like it? I don't think that's the word," Bev said. "The point is it's exciting as hell."
"Exciting?" pretending to be shocked.
"God, yes. Listen! There isn't a woman alive who hasn't, at one time or another, wondered about a scene like that."
"Do you mean to imply you have?" she was still acting shocked. In fact, she really was. She never suspected that Bev would be so honest.
"Sure. Every woman has wondered what it would be like to be a whore! Every woman has wanted to be treated like that! Just once! Admit it, haven't you?" Bev smiled.
Both CJ and Bev looked at her face, waiting for an answer, and she felt it turn crimson and hastily drained her glass. CJ had instantly waved for another round at the waiter.
The conversation died out as they sat and drank, each with their thoughts. It wasn't lost on either CJ or Bev that she had failed to answer Bev's question.
They continued to drink, until Bev said excitedly. "I'm too excited to call it a night. Let's do something exciting?"
"Like what?" she had been grateful for the conversation as it stopped her from thinking about the man. In fact, she had thought with considerable excitement about what it would be like to be treated so obscenely and roughly. Another involuntary shudder went through her, and she hoped that neither noticed.
"I don't feel like calling it a night, either," she said, surprising herself.
Bev playfully punched CJ on the arm. "Amuse us. What would you do? Where would you take us?"
CJ smiled and drained his glass, ordering still another round. "Well, last week I took some clients to Alto's." They wanted to go slumming."