Little Birds Read Online Free PDF Page B

minutes after he had. You asked for violence. I didn't know you were asking me to surpass Robert, to try to efface him from your body. I thought you were merely in a frenzy of desire. So I responded. You know how I made love to you, I cracked your bones, I bent you, twisted you. Once I made you bleed. Then from me you would take a taxi and go to him. And you told me that after lovemaking you didn't wash because you liked the smell that went through your clothes, you liked the smells that followed you for a day after. I nearly went crazy when I discovered all this, I wanted to kill you."
    "I have been sufficiently punished," said Dorothy violently.
    Donald looked at her. "What do you mean?"
    "Ever since I married Robert I have been frigid."
    Donald's eyebrows lifted. Then his face set in an ironical expression. "And why do you tell me this? Do you expect me to make you bleed again? So that you can go back to your Robert all wet between the legs, and enjoy him at last? God knows I still love you. But my life is changed. I do not go in for love anymore."
    "How do you live?"
    "I have my little pleasures. I invite certain choice friends; I offer them drinks; they sit in my room—where you are sitting. Then I go into the kitchen to mix more drinks, and give them a little time alone. They already know my taste, my little predilections.
    "When I come back ... well, she may be sitting in your armchair with her skirt lifted, and he kneeling before her looking at her or kissing her, or he may be sitting in the chair and she...
    "What I like is the surprise, and seeing them. They do not notice me. In a way, that is how it would have been with you and Robert if I could have witnessed your little scenes. Possibly a remembrance of some kind. Now if you like, you can wait for a few minutes. There is a friend coming. He is exceptionally attractive."
    Dorothy wanted to leave. Then she observed something that made her stop. The door of Donald's bathroom was open. It was covered with a mirror. She turned to Donald and said: "Listen, I'll stay, but can I express a whim, too? One that will not in the least alter the satisfaction of yours."
    "What is it?"
    "Instead of going into the kitchen when you leave us, will you go into the bathroom for a while, and look at the mirror?"
    Donald consented. His friend, John, arrived. He was a magnificent man physically, but in his face there was a strange quality of decadence, a laxity about the eyes and mouth, something on the verge of perverseness, which fascinated Dorothy. It was as if none of the ordinary pleasures of love could satisfy him. In his face there was a peculiar insatiability, curiosity—he had something of the animal. His lips bared his teeth. He seemed startled at the sight of Dorothy.
    "I like women of fine breed," he said immediately and looked gratefully at Donald for the gift, the surprise of her presence.
    Dorothy was all in fur from head to toe—hat, muff, gloves, even fur on her shoes. Her perfume had already filled the room.
    John stood above her, smiling. His gestures were growing more festive. Suddenly he bent forward like some stage director and said: "I have something to ask you. You are so beautiful. I hate the clothes which conceal a woman. Yet I hate to take them off. Will you do something for me, something exceptionally wonderful? Please take your clothes off in the other room and come back here in only your furs. Will you? I'll tell you why I ask you this. Only thoroughbred women look beautiful in furs, and you are a thoroughbred."
    Dorothy went into the bathroom, slipped out of her clothes and returned in her furs, keeping on only her stockings and little fur-trimmed shoes.
    John's eyes glittered with pleasure. He could only sit and look at her. His excitement was so strong and contagious that Dorothy began to feel her breasts growing sensitive at the tips. She had a feeling that she wanted to expose them, that she wanted to open the fur and watch John's pleasure.