The mirror in the knotty pine frame glared back at Robert Blake as he sat up in his bed rubbing his eyes. He looked out the window and was glad to see the sunshine streaming through the blinds. He stretched his brown arms and the muscles in his biceps expanded as he bent his elbows, drawing his hands slowly down to his shoulders. He yawned deeply and raised his chest forward, stretching the skin under the brisk hair that seemed alive and springy. Then he fell back on his rumpled pillow.
"You little devil," he said to himself with a grin; his hand rubbed his cheek. "You're not as weak as I thought you were. I had no idea you had such a temper, you pretty little faggot."
Joy Clay had slapped his face once but it had felt like she hadn't really meant it. A sort of coy slap. His hands went down between his legs and rested there. Then, slowly, moved up and down … up … down … slowly. He could feel the warmth of Joy's body again … visualized the soft material that covered his fingers as they reached higher and higher until … and then the slap. He had barely felt it in his excitement.
"Please …" she had pleaded, snatching his hand away from the warmth that was beginning to burn his fingers, his mind, his body. Then she had cried and he had kissed her.
"All right, honey," he had said. "If you don't want to, we won't."
What a difference between Joy and the girl he had met in New Orleans. How utterly different and still, they were the same. He wondered how and why a girl could become so false. The large painted mouth, dark shadowed eyes, the straw-like hair … it was all false. Surely before she had become so, she had been a sweet girl like Joy … others … She was still young. Still youthful under the false veil that shrouded the sweetness that possibly could have been hers. He wondered if a man had been the cause of her downfall and was glad that Joy had protested. Glad that he had been man enough to obey her wishes even if he did feel that if he had tried a little harder he could have succeeded. There had been other girls that had given
