Comrade Charlie Read Online Free PDF

ocean nudging in against the beach. It was a grey, clouds-against-the-water sort of day that visitors didn’t expect at Malibu and felt cheated to find. There were the usual joggers and exercise freaks and owners walking dogs and scuffing sand over their crap instead of collecting it up, like they were supposed to. On balance Krogh decided the outlook from Barbara’s apartment in San Francisco was better, the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge and the higgledy-piggledy buildings clutching to the side of Nob Hill. He rinsed his mouth and found some mouthwash in the bathroom cabinet and tried that, too, smiling to himself through tight-together lips as the thought came to him. He’d set the day aside for Cindy. But they’d already been together for two celebratory days because of the customary time allowance he’d built in to the East Coast trip and the meetings in Washington DC and at the Pentagon, signing the formal, committing contracts. So why didn’t he move on, to celebrate some more? He could fly up to San Francisco in less than an hour: meet Barbara for lunch and spend the afternoon in the sack with another equally attractive and inventive girl. He’d done it before, quite a few times, going straight from one to the other, always managing to make it happen for both of them, proving himself. He’d need to phone Barbara, of course. Let her know he was coming. But not from here, because the number would be recorded on the bill and it would be a dumb thing to do even though he looked after all the bills, the telephone and the condo payments and all the charges, just like he did for Barbara. Have to make it before ten: Barbara left for art classes promptly at ten and it was difficult to get her to a telephone if she were posing. Eight fifteen, Krogh saw: still plenty of time.
    Cindy was awake when he went back into the bedroom. She’d pushed the sheet further off herself and brought one leg up so he could see better, and had her hand there although she wasn’t doing anything.
    â€˜I almost started without you,’ she said. She was blonde, naturally so and able to prove it lying like that, and brown-eyed and utterly uninhibited, enough to worry him sometimes with some of the things she wanted to do. They’d met a year before in San Diego, at a convention where she’d been one of the promotional girls for an aircraft interior accessory firm. He’d balled her that first night and set her up in the Malibu condominium a month later.
    â€˜It was good of you to wait.’
    â€˜I thought you’d like me to.’
    Krogh guessed she’d only just managed to hold back. Cindy devoured him, literally, not allowing him to lead in anything and he let her, doing what she guided him to do after she’d done what she wanted. He was finding it difficult to match her but she pulled away just at the right moment, cutting the lines on the little marble slab from the bedside drawer and taking two herself before offering him the chance. Krogh was frightened, although he was confident he was strong enough never to become addicted and so he’d done it with her a few times and he did it now, needing the help. It was good stuff and hit immediately and all their tiredness went and they did it all again, but longer this time.
    â€˜Jesus!’ gasped Krogh, when they finally parted. ‘Sweet Jesus!’
    â€˜You’re guaranteed the gold when fucking becomes an Olympic event,’ said Cindy. Always tell the guy it was the best it had ever been, she thought: worked every time. Actually it had been pretty terrific.
    â€˜At the moment I couldn’t get up on the rostrum to collect it,’ said Krogh.
    â€˜When are you leaving?’
    It was gone ten, he saw; too late for Barbara now. He was down from the coke and felt absolutely drained, like he’d been wrung out to dry, and didn’t think he could have managed it with Barbara anyway. He said: ‘Afternoon