Read Lovers in Their Fashion for Free Online Page B

Tucker.
    No-one could expect John, unattached as he was, to walk away from every advance by every pretty girl until he found another he could love as he loved Alice. And John wasn’t going to.
    ‘I love Manhattan,’ John said. ‘It’s possibly my favourite place on the whole planet. I like to stand on the sidewalk at eight in the morning and feel the buzz of people going to work. You could run a space station on that energy.’
    Cathy smiled and hugged his arm. ‘Everywhere looks good when you’re having fun,’ she said.
    ‘What fun would you like to have now?’
    ‘Well, I don’t know. I guess we’re both in New York quite often, so maybe sight-seeing isn’t a good use of our time.’ She grinned lasciviously. ‘Bearing in mind that I have to leave this evening. On the other hand, I could use a coffee. What would you like to do?’
    ‘I’d like to examine those garters in more detail.’
    Cathy’s laugh was an earthy affair, good-humoured and lecherous. ‘Right answer!’
    ‘And I’m sure they’d serve coffee in my room.’
    Cathy turned up her face to be kissed. ‘Why don’t you hail a cab and let’s find out?’
    A little later, John and Cathy lay tightly held in each other’s arms, their clothes scattered across the large bedroom. Suddenly, John shuddered.
    ‘What is it, love?’ asked Cathy.
    ‘I don’t know. It was as though…as though something horrible had happened.’
    Cathy sat up and took his head onto her breast. ‘My poor darling. Is it all right now?’
    ‘It was the strangest feeling,’ John said. ‘As though someone were crying out for help. And I couldn’t get to them.’
    I t was, of course, coincidence that John experienced this shivery feeling at the exact moment that Martin Planer was peeling off his jacket and loosening his tie in preparation for his assault on Alice’s celibacy. It must have been coincidence, because we all know that those things don’t really happen. Nevertheless, it is true that it came to him at exactly the moment of Alice’s greatest need.
    Alice stared up at Planer from the sofa. His eyes were the eyes of a crazy man. Hurriedly stripped to his underpants, he had hurled himself upon her, kneeling between her thighs, her skirt pushed up to her waist. His hands reached for the waist band of her panties. She knew that the flimsy garment would not detain him long.
    Where did the strength come from? It is not, of course, possible that she received it from an ex-lover thousands of miles away in New York because, as we have said, those things don’t really happen. Be that as it may, strength came from somewhere.
    Alice hurled herself upwards, scratching and slapping at Planer’s face. ‘Get off me,’ she screamed. ‘You filthy pig, get off me.’
    Planer raised his hand to beat her into submission – and, as the blow was about to fall, the key turned in the lock and Merrill burst into the room, followed closely by Ben and another man in similar uniform.
    The two men seized Planer by the shoulders. It took both of them to subdue him, heaving him backwards and slamming him against the wall until the breath was knocked out of him and he sank to the floor. Merrill rushed forward to take the sobbing Alice in her arms.
    ‘I heard you,’ she gabbled, ‘But I had to get reinforcements. Ben was just coming on duty, so I brought them both. Did he…?’
    Alice shook her head. ‘You were just in time,’ she sobbed.
    ‘The bastard,’ said Merrill. She stood up, seizing the trousers Planer had cast off in his lust-fuelled frenzy. His wallet, stuffed with cards, was in the pocket. Merrill pulled out the driving license and studied it carefully, noting the name and address. She threw it across the room to lie on the floor beside Planer.
    ‘Do you want to press charges, Miss Stringer?’ asked Ben.
    Hugging her slip to her, Alice shook her head. ‘Please. Just get him out of here.’
    ‘We have your picture on CCTV,’ Ben told Planer. ‘We’ll be