An Idol for Others (34 page)

“Somebody who’s worked for us?”

“No, a friend of Sally’s, I think. I’ll remember his name in a minute.”

Clara shrugged and returned to the kitchen. He waited till she was gone and then went to the silver box where they usually kept a spare pack of cigarettes. He found the pack, removed it, and went to the bookshelves and dropped it behind some books. He listened for sounds of activities in the kitchen and, reassured, drew out the envelope and pulled a single sheet of paper from it.

“I want you, M,” he read, and an address that he knew must be right around the corner. He crumpled the envelope and threw it into the wastebasket and stuffed the paper back into his pocket. He was excited with the discovery that Mark was more openly appealing than the slightly forbidding image he had preserved in his mind’s eye. He must call Herbie tomorrow and find out how the pictures had turned out.

His excitement remained, underlying his evening with Clara. They were never at a loss for conversation, and they launched into a discussion of the coming season that carried them through dinner and coffee and, to Walter’s delight as he glanced at the clock and saw it was just after 9:30, through his last cigarette.

“Got any cigarettes, Clarry?” he asked as he stubbed it out.

“Of course, in that box where they always are,” she said.

“Oh, good.” He went on with the point he was making. “Thank God for an early evening occasionally,” he said, rising from the table. “Two in a row is too good to be true. I feel like a nightcap. How about you?”

“I wouldn’t mind a bit of whisky.” She rose, and they drifted into the living room, still talking. He went to the silver box and opened it.

“There aren’t any,” he said, holding it out to her.

“Cigarettes? That’s funny. I swear I put a pack in yesterday.”

“I must’ve smoked them.”

“You really ought to cut down, dearest. Let me think. Maybe …” She went to the desk and opened a black lacquer box. “No, I guess there aren’t any.”

“My fault. I’ll run out and get some. Fix yourself a drink. I’ll only be a second.”

“What a nuisance. Are you going out like that? I hope nobody sees you. People will think Walter Makin has had the flop of the century.”

“I think I’m rather fetching. The Bowery look.” He kept all his movements easy and relaxed, making it look as if he were hesitating about going rather than flinging himself at the door as he wanted to do. Once out, he ran down the stairs but slowed to a stroll on the street in case she were watching him. As soon as he was sure he was out of sight, he sped up and turned the corner and within moments had found a dingy doorway with the number he was looking for. Mark was a genius. He couldn’t have done better unless he had found a room in the Tenth Street building. Walter decided not to tell him about the weekend until he had had time to make sure he wanted further involvement. His being so close made it almost too easy for them to see each other. He pressed the bell of No. 3 as Mark’s note instructed, and as soon as the door was buzzed, he crumpled up the slip of paper and dropped it. He took the stairs two at a time and found Mark standing in the second-floor hall. Their arms were around each other before the door closed behind them, and then their mouths were devouring each other. Mark was wearing only a shirt and trousers, which made his body gloriously accessible. Walter yanked the shirttails free and ran one hand up over his shoulder blades, the other down inside the trousers over his buttocks. Mark clung to him and made the odd humming sound in his throat. Their mouths relinquished each other.

“Hi, kid,” Mark said.

“This is fabulous. You haven’t lost your looks overnight.”

“You haven’t aged much.”

“I haven’t got much time. I shouldn’t be here at all. I’ve got magnificent news. My wife’s going away tomorrow for the weekend. Can we be together?”

“We can be together whenever you say. Right now, I want us together in bed.”

“I swore to myself I wouldn’t tonight.” He was unbuttoning Mark’s shirt. Mark interrupted him to remove his smoking jacket. They stood together and continued to undress each other. “Do you smoke?”

“Yes. Why? Do I smell of cigarettes?”

“You smell gorgeous. That’s what I’m doing right now–getting cigarettes. If you have a spare pack, I won’t have to waste time buying them later.”

“Yeah, I have some.”

They bent to remove shoes and socks and dropped trousers and shorts and were naked in each other’s arms again. Walter experienced an eruption of sensuous delight unlike anything he had ever known. He warned himself not to attach any emotional importance to it. Repression had probably sharpened his special appetites. He was old enough to indulge them at last, sufficiently mature to take his pleasure where he found it, without worrying about its undermining his basic normalcy.

They somehow found themselves locked together in a wide bed. Walter had been determined to go slow, to learn every part of Mark with his eyes and hands and mouth, but urgency drove them again. A lubricant passed between them. Walter blindly grappled the beautiful body to him and took possession of it. They thrashed about together, laughing and shouting. Their orgasms were simultaneous and violent. Walter lay on him until stillness settled over them.

“You feel hard again already,” Mark said.

“I am. You make it like that permanently.”

“Do you have time to do it again?”

“I don’t know about time. I’m going to.”

“Please do. I can’t get enough of you.”

“Does my having you like this make you want to try it this way with other guys?”

“No.”

“That’s one of the things I’ve thought about–along with thinking how damn beautiful you are.”

“Jealous?” Mark’s body stirred briefly with laughter. “Me too. Knowing there haven’t been many guys in your life is a big comfort. Oh, yes! Do that. That’s an even bigger comfort. Oh, Walter! God, yes!”

Walter washed himself in the basin in the bathroom. In spite of his dismissive reference to time, his inner clock was working with precision. He hadn’t been there for more than half an hour. He had run into–who should he say? He chose a newspaperman who worked in the theater department of the
Post
whom Clara scarcely knew. He wouldn’t put a name to him unless she insisted. They had had a drink together.

He dried himself and returned to the room. He had given little attention to his surroundings but had registered that it was a pleasantly big room, rather bare, but clean and with nothing conspicuously ugly in it. He liked the bed’s being a bed and not a contraption that turned into something else. A towel on the floor beside it was the only evidence remaining of what had just taken place.

Mark turned from a desk and approached him and dropped some keys into a palm. “Those are yours,” he said. “There’s a phone in the hall, but we can’t be calling each other all the time. You can come in whenever you feel like it.” His lips twitched with a small smile. “You’ll also know I can’t have anybody else here with me. This place is ours. I’m so glad you made it tonight. There’ve been moments when I’ve felt slightly nutty moving down here. It makes complete sense now. I know you want to get home. You better dress.”

Walter moved his hands through his hair and down his neck and chest, beginning to feel familiar with him. He dropped his hands to his waist and pulled him closer, and they kissed. Their cocks stirred against each other. They drew their heads back.

“All right,” Walter said. “Tomorrow–isn’t it marvelous?–tomorrow I’m going to spend all day just drinking in your beauty. Do you have a lot to do?”

“I’ve got a few appointments. What time did you want to begin?”

“About 11? As soon as I know Clara’s gone.”

“Fine. I’ll cancel everything after 11. Come when you can. If I’m not here, I won’t be long.” He put his arm around his waist and walked him to his clothes.

Walter bent to pick up his socks. As he did so, he paused experimentally to kiss his cock. Mark took a step back. “You don’t have to do that. I know you don’t like it.”

Walter straightened and looked into the grave eyes under the strong level brows. “That’s not true. It’s not as simple as that. It’s all still a bit strange for me. I mean, in theory I don’t go in for that sort of thing. The faithful husband and so forth. That part of you makes it impossible for me to kid myself about it. You’re a guy. You have a cock. I want to know it, along with the rest of you.”

“All right, but don’t push it. I don’t expect you to turn into something you’re not. You’re fabulous in bed the way you are. You don’t have to add any trimmings.”

“I don’t feel as if I’ve been to bed with you at all yet. Just a few wild convulsions of wanting you madly. I told you I want time with you–all tomorrow and tomorrow night and the next and all that night and the day after that.”

Mark’s face broke into his sweet guileless smile. “If we aren’t sick of each other after that, maybe we’ll really have something.”

“I love having the keys,” Walter said, staying close to him as he dressed. “If I wake up in the middle of the night, you may find me back in bed with you.”

“I’ll try to pretend you’re here, whether it happens or not.”

When he had pulled on his jacket, Walter stepped up behind him and held his naked body against his chest and lingeringly caressed his chest and abdomen and thighs with his fingertips. Mark kissed the side of his face, and Walter saw his cock swing out and lift in front of him. It was esthetically jarring because of the refined perfection of the rest of him. He couldn’t deny he liked the feel of its hard thickness, if only because it told him Mark wanted him.

“I hate to leave you with this. I’ll do something about it in the morning.” He gave it a squeeze and kissed his ear and released him. He turned back at the door. Mark stood where he had left him. He surveyed him from head to foot. “I wish we’d had you photographed like that.” He started to open the door.

“My God, the cigarettes,” Mark exclaimed. He turned and strode to the desk. Walter watched the play of muscles as he reached into an open carton and returned with a pack.

“Thanks, beautiful. We make a good team.” He allowed himself a final caress and touched his chin and let himself out while Mark moved around behind the door.

Clara left in a whirl of brisk efficiency in the morning. He waited until 15 minutes after her plane was due to leave and called the airline to make sure there had been no hitches. He called the office and told Alice to cancel his appointments. “And, Alice, you’ll see me coming in and out during the day, won’t you?”

“What? Oh. Oh, yes, of course. As a matter of fact, I just saw you go through a minute ago.”

“You’ve got the idea. See you on Monday.” He put on casual clothes and went out and around the corner and in less than three minutes was letting himself into Mark’s room. He called out as he entered and was met with silence. He closed the door behind him and looked around. In the daylight the room was till pleasant, immaculate if spartan. The bed had been made but not covered. Walter smiled to himself and undressed and hung his clothes in the closet where there was an array of suits. He went to the bathroom and collected a towel and put it on the bedside stand.

As soon as he stretched out on the bed, thoughts of Mark’s lying beside him gave him an immediate erection. He laughed and lay on his back with his arms and legs flung out and waited for his lover. His mind drifted. He hadn’t taken a working day off since he could remember, perhaps never. He realized how much he longed for a rest. He would like to go off somewhere with Mark and just lie around and make love.

His eye was caught by a pile of books on the desk. There was another pile of books beside it. He couldn’t see what any of them were, but they were real books. He would look through them later. Mark was a mystery that was about to unfold. He hadn’t been able to place him in any way. He had an individual style, but most actors (or models) did. There was more to him than that. His commanding air suggested inner resources of cultivation and serious interests. He hoped that they would become friends.

It was a luxury not to have to think about time, but he knew only five or ten minutes had passed when he heard footsteps and a key rattling in the door. His sex gave a little leap on his belly, growing more rigid. He smiled and could almost feel his eyes slanting upward. Mark entered and saw him and remained motionless for a moment. He looked paralyzed with astonishment and delight. He pushed the door closed, moved forward slowly and stood looking down at him from the foot of the bed.

“My, oh, my. Imagine coming home to this. You look 18. I’m sure I’ll be arrested for seducing a minor.”

“Not if you stay there all dressed up, you won’t.”

He was as impeccably groomed as ever, freshly shaved, his hair meticulously combed except for the slight shagginess around the edges. His fingernails shone. Walter watched him strip quickly and arrange his clothes with sure, spare gestures. He crossed the room with the assured step Walter had admired from the start. When he reached the bed, Walter surged up and pulled him down to his knees on the bed with him and took a nipple in his mouth. Mark gasped as Walter darted his tongue over his chest and up into his armpit.

They sank down together and moved over and under and around each other in a balletic mime of passion. They were wrestlers and acrobats as well as lovers. They were brought up to their knees over each other and sank into each other’s arms, moaning. Their mouths were everywhere on each other. They met from time to time for long enthralled minutes while their tongues drank from each other. Walter forced himself to learn the taste and texture of Mark’s cock with his lips and tongue, and the last small resistance to his lover vanished.

He learned how to make Mark’s body leap about with arms and legs flailing. He laughed with triumph when Mark cried out ecstatically. Their intent eyes told each other when they were close to orgasm, and they eased pressures to prolong the voluptuous interplay of their bodies. Mark came with a sudden shout when Walter’s mouth was once more on his buttocks. He pulled the towel out from under him and made Walter lie back and gave him an orgasm with his mouth.