light. They made thick, heavy per-clink sounds as they fell into the coin box.
Davey squinted as a rectangular section of the wall before him began to slide up with a low hum, pouring gentle but sudden light into the dark booth.
He saw her calves and knees first, then her thighs: skin that looked as smooth as the finest silk, the color of rich cream, was stretched tautly over firm muscles and perfectly structured bones. Her left knee was bent ever so slightly and she seemed to be swaying from side to side. The graceful fingers of her right hand fluttered through a triangle of hair of blackest black, moving in gentle, small circles below the tiny navel that was centered in the middle of her flat, firm belly. Her left hand rested lightly on her tight hip, rising and falling as her pelvis moved around and around in slow, luxurious circles. Her small rib cage was lightly outlined against the skin below her firmly uplifted breasts, two scoops of vanilla flesh topped with generous dollops of rich chocolate that had hardened in the center. Above them, two sharp ridges of bone sloped slightly toward regal shoulders and a slender, tightly muscled neck curved into a finely chiseled jaw. Her lips were dark and full, glistening and wet, and her cheekbones were prominent beneath huge dark eyes that sparkled with pupils that seemed to descend into a comforting darkness into which one might fall forever without ever reaching bottom. Thin black brows arched over long, thick lashes and midnight fell in long shining waves over her head, resting gently on her shoulders and shifting with her gentle movements.
Everything seemed to stop as he stared up at the woman who stood behind the thick glass.
This was not what he'd expected. He'd pictured hardened, coarse runaways who had been picked up in bus stations upon arriving from Nebraska, used to their limit, then discarded like paper napkins after a birthday party, dirty and torn. This woman did not belong in this place with its shuffling, faceless men and its disinfectants and its artificial indoor twenty-four-hour-a-day night!
He gawked at her like a little boy seeing his first department-store Santa Claus, feeling a strange sense of ... comfort.
After a few moments had passed, he realized what was expected of him. Without taking his eyes from her, he reached around for his coat, groped for his pocket, found his wallet, and took it out. Still without looking away, he removed a bill from his wallet, stuffed the wallet into his back pocket, and carefully reached down, pushing the bill through the slot below the window.
Her delicious lips curled into an emotionless, but embracing, smile. She knelt down gracefully; her right hand wrapped around the bill, tugging it from Davey's hand while, at the same time, her left hand gently took Davey's wrist.
He started at her touch. It was smooth and cool.
Her right hand moved behind her, then returned smoothly, the bill gone, and without the slightest hint of effort, she pushed the sleeves of Davey's suitcoat and shirt up his arm, at the same time pulling his arm through the hole all the way up to his elbow.
The inside of Davey's mouth became moist felt and he slid his tongue back and forth over his lips as she began to lightly dance her fingers up and down his forearm.
She tilted her head back slightly, her eyelids lowered until they were almost completely covering her deep, dark eyes, and the smile grew to one of promise and anticipation, her lips almost, but not quite, parting. Then she moved forward, pulling his hand toward her and touching it to her left thigh.
Davey's heart skipped a beat; he did not move his hand, did not react, at first, to the touch of her velvety flesh. He just watched her as she moved his hand over her thigh, up and down, her smile never wavering. She brought his hand up as she straightened her back and moved her pelvis forward. His fingers brushed lightly over the black mound of hair.
She bent her upper