Read Online American Sextet by Warren Adler - Free Book Online Page A

Jane,
the loss of his son--a litany of outrageous self-pity. His earlier success at
the paper had made the pain recede, and he had hoped he could put those
thoughts out of his mind forever.
    But things had changed around him. There was no more oxygen
for the pure blue flame of indignation that he thrived on. They were getting
into trivia, sex as substantive newsworthiness, scandal-mongering. How could he
explain to this flower of the slag heap what it all meant?
    "You've been good to me, Jason."
    "That's it? That's the criterion?" He corrected
himself, knowing that she wouldn't comprehend. "Am I the missing
father?"
    "What?"
    She had told him that she had only known her father
briefly, a miner crushed in a cave-in when she was three. Psychological
implications were Jane's bag. Raking up those coals wouldn't help here.
    "Never mind."
    "I'll do anything to help." She traced his lips
with her fingers. "To get a little smile."
    Miraculously, he'd actually smiled.
    "I'd like to show that bastard," he muttered.
Webster, he knew, was at the heart of the problem--he alone was setting the
tone of the paper, approving every story down to the last word. "I'll come
up with something that'll blow his mind."
    She giggled suddenly, her implication clear.
    "I said his mind."
    He slapped her playfully on a bare buttock, and the idea
had come fully formed, screaming into his consciousness. Hadn't it been there
all along?
    "Suppose it was important to me. To us..." He
paused, watching her calm face, assessing her, sensing the living idea as it
sculpted itself in his mind, wondering how deep an explanation would be
required.
    Her eyelids flickered, long dark lashes brushing her
cheeks, as if in consent.
    "You're my man now," she assured him, patting him
possessively.
    "...you know," he stammered, hating the empty
words, the flotsam of the inarticulate. "It's a lot to ask."
    She shrugged. Perhaps she already knew what was coming. Her
face was placid, unalarmed.
    "Like having relations with other men," he said,
averting his eyes, but adding quickly, "Not for money." Too late, he
realized his error. She would have understood money.
    Her expression when he turned to watch her again seemed
confused. But he didn't find panic there. He felt self-righteous about not
saying "make love," certain that those words would profane the thing
between them.
    "Would you do that?" he pressed. "For
me?"
    He held his breath as she retreated inside herself, her
eyes glazed with deep inner thoughts. He did not deny to himself his own shame
in making the demand, nor the violation to all his past ethics. But
circumstances were forcing him to chart new ground, find new rules, explore a
new landscape of morality.
    "It wouldn't turn out like with Jimbo?" she
whispered tentatively, revealing her consent. He wondered if it were out of
loyalty or survival or even love.
    "Of course not," he said with exaggerated
indignation, the plan emerging now clearly shaped.
    "I wouldn't want anything to come between us,
Jason," she said firmly, as if to recapture her dignity.
    "Between us?" He kissed her deeply.
"Never." He searched his mind for some disarming illustration.
"It will be like play-acting. That's all."
    "Acting?" She shook her head. "I don't know,
Jason. I'm a bad liar. I always get found out."
    "Acting isn't lying. It's a game. And it could do
great things for us. For what I've got in mind." He checked himself,
unsure about how far he could explain it. "Trust me, baby. It could be
very important."
    "Important?"
    "I mean the men would be important. Powerful."
    "Powerful?"
    He was sure he was only confusing her now. This was not
within the parameters of her understanding. Men were men in physical terms
only. Old and young, big and small. Gradations of power seemed out of her frame
of reference.
    "And you wouldn't get mad or jealous?"
    "Not if you were true to me in your heart."
    In the half-light, her body was as smooth as alabaster, her
features soft.
    "You're a beautiful