The New Sexual Underground: Crossing the Last Boundaries (John Warren Wells on Sexual Behavior Book 10)

by Lawrence Block

  JWW: How did you feel about it?

  FLOYD: It was pretty weird, actually. First off, you’ve got to remember that Rita wasn’t exactly a virgin. By this time we were both veteran swingers, and the thought of her with another man, or seeing her with another man, never bugged me bit. As a matter of fact, it’s always turned me on to watch her making it with somebody else. But this was little different because I wasn’t doing anything myself, except watching the idiot tube and knocking back the suds. I guess I was sort of excited. I wanted Gary to hurry up and go home so that I could talk to Rita and find out how it went.

  JWW: And how did it go?

  RITA: Very well, thank you. I was very coy at first, leading him to the bedroom and wiggling my rump and telling him to put the money on the dresser, lines like that. But then I realized that he didn’t want me to act like a whore. He was willing to pay, but he wanted what he couldn’t get with prostitutes—he wanted us both to have a good time. So I just let myself go the way I normally would on a swinging evening. To be perfectly honest, I forgot about the money by the time we got started. We kissed and petted each other the way any two people would, and he went down on me and in no time at all brought me to a fantastic orgasm. He did analingus, too, which is something most men aren’t that crazy to do, but I guess he liked it because he was good enough at it to make me come that way, which I almost never do. Then we made it, and for a grand finale I gave him a long slow job of frenching that had him screaming by the time I was done.

  FLOYD: I can believe it. She’s a talented girl.

  RITA: Will you give me an endorsement for my next advertisement? Anyway, I guess we must have been together for around two hours. When it was over he got dressed and it came back to me, the whole bit with the money. I tried to make him take it back but he absolutely refused. I asked him if he had really gotten his money’s worth. I knew he enjoyed it, but somehow deep down inside guess I couldn’t believe that as an amateur I could be as good as a professional. He told me he had never had that good a time with any pro, and that this included girls he had paid up to a hundred dollars.

  JWW: How did this make you feel?

  RITA: Like a million dollars. Like a hundred, anyway. I showed him to the door and then went downstairs and told Floyd all about it, and we both got quite excited during the telling and wound up in the hay. We reenacted the whole thing, pretending about the money and everything. It was pretty spectacular, wasn’t it?

  FLOYD: Damn right it was.

  RITA: Afterwards I strictly thought of it as a one-time thing. Like once or twice at couple parties I’ve had lesbian things going, mostly because the men enjoy watching—

  FLOYD: Try telling me you don’t like it!

  RITA: Of course I do, but it doesn’t do all that much for me. Anyway, it’s something I only go for if the other girl really wants to very much, and if she appeals to me, too. Some girls do and most don’t. I thought this was a one-time thing the same way. Then less than a week later Gary called one afternoon when Floyd was out and asked me if he could see me the following afternoon. I told him I didn’t date without Floyd and he said it would be the same as before, he would pay me. I talked it over with Floyd and he said to do as I pleased, and the following afternoon Gary was with me for three hours.

  FLOYD: Well, the two of us talked it over at great length. We went on about the number of single guys who were looking for girls, and we figured there were plenty of them in the New York area who would pay fifty dollars for a couple of hours with a girl like Rita. And we figured that if she went with one of them a week it would mean an extra $2500 a year for us, and no taxes to pay out of that. I make damned good dough at my job, but you know the way people live these days. You can’t save a penny, you spend every dime as soon as you get it. On top of that, I don’t make so much money that an extra $2500 a year wouldn’t come in handy.

  RITA: Actually that makes it sound kind of cold-blooded, as though Floyd put me up to it because of the money, and it was the other way around if anything. I kept pointing out that it would certainly help us make ends meet—no pun intended, incidentally. And Floyd wanted to make sure that I never went with man who I didn’t find appealing, or ever did anything in bed that I didn’t want to do. So we ran an ad, and that’s how it started.

  JWW: How did the ad read?

  FLOYD: Something like this—Young blonde housewife, late 20s, has husband’s permission for afternoon dates in NYC vicinity with generous business executives. Send photo, detailed letter and phone. As I’m sure you know, the word generous was the tip-off in this case. It clued them in that Rita expected payment for her services. We wanted the photo so that she wouldn’t wind up going with anyone unappealing.

  JWW: How did the ad pull?

  RITA: You wouldn’t believe it. I think we got seventy replies to the first insertion. Some of them were from men in other parts of the country who said they got into New York now and then and wanted to plan dates. These we threw away because we decided we didn’t want to send out any correspondence at all. We would just stick to the telephone. There were also some crank letters, and some from men who turned me off completely. I picked the best letter and photo and called the fellow. I told him the price right away, and that I wouldn’t do anything physically painful to me. That was all right with him, and I went into the city the next day and met him at hotel room be had taken for the occasion. He was nothing special, but I enjoyed myself and afterward stopped at Lord and Taylor’s and bought a sixty-five dollar dress, so you could say that the first date had cost me money—

  • • •

  The economics of prostitution are such that Rita Polk has been earning substantial money in the two and a half years of her new career. Her price has remained steady at fifty dollars, although she knows that many men are prepared to pay her more than that. However, the frequency of her contacts has greatly exceeded the original plan of one per week. She drives to Manhattan on the average of three afternoons per week to have sexual relations with men in their hotel rooms.

  She does adhere to several rules. She will not arrange more than one date in the course of a single day, nor will she have a date during the evening.

  “I spend my nights with Floyd, whether we’re swinging on a particular evening or whether we just stay home together. That’s standard.” On occasion, however, she has been with more than one man in an afternoon. Now and then a client will ask if he may bring friend along, and she will sometimes permit this and will then collect fifty dollars from each of the men involved. She says that she prefers not to do this as a general thing because it makes her feel more like a prostitute, but adds that sometimes she enjoys this feeling. “Every woman has a certain yen for an occasional gangbang,” she explains.

  Her sexual acts are confined to those practices which do not repel her, and she has turned down any number of clients who want to engage in acts which do not meet her standards. However, she says that she is willing to do several things which do not appeal to her, such as spanking male masochists, etc. “I prefer it if can get pleasure out of it too, but I’ll do anything that doesn’t actually turn my stomach. But if don’t enjoy myself with a man I won’t meet him a second time.”

  The average professional call girl does not provide nearly the service that Rita offers. The fact that she genuinely enjoys her work and almost always reaches orgasm with her clients is a feature which sets her far apart from full-time prostitutes, who rarely enjoy their work as she does. An added bonus lies in the fact that she does not operate on a strict schedule. While many of her clients leave after the initial performance of the sex act, either because of their own schedules or because they are unable to perform a second time, Rita is willing to spend several hours earning her fifty dollars. In most cases, she says, she prefers to spend a long time with a client and make love to the point of mutual exhaustion.

  In the past year, her earnings from prostitution slightly exceeded eight thousand dollars.

  When I learned this, the
luxurious furnishings of the Polk house shone in new light. Floyd and Rita led me around the place, pointing out various items which had been purchased wholly or in part with her prostitution earnings. I was suddenly reminded of that television commercial—Look what I got free with Raleigh coupons!

  • • •

  While I had previously interviewed several single swingers who had had relations with prostitutes contacted through the correspondence clubs, it struck me that an actual interview with one of Rita’s clients would serve to balance this chapter quite neatly. I suggested as much to Floyd and Rita, who were adamant in their refusal to divulge the names of any of her clients.

  “If you want to find out what I’m like on date,” Rita said, grinning, “there’s a much easier way for you to find out. But I’m afraid it’ll cost you fifty dollars.”

  I suggested, then, that she have one or more of her clients call me if he was willing to grant me an interview. This method satisfied Rita’s sense of professional discretion, and she agreed to do so. A little over two weeks later I received a telephone call from a man who identified himself only as Robert. He said that he was a friend of Rita’s and that he had read an early book of mine and was willing to let me interview him as long as his anonymity would be strictly preserved. I of course agreed, and made arrangements to meet him for lunch at a midtown restaurant.

  Robert was a well-dressed, heavyset man in his late forties, with iron-gray hair and the slightest touch of a Middle European accent. I explained that I would like to know anything he cared to tell me about himself, but that I was most interested in a report of his initial date with Rita, so as to provide a more comprehensive picture of her.

  I learned that Robert had been married for a little over twenty years to a woman who had long since ceased to attract him sexually. He had had intermittent love affairs for the past decade but generally preferred to avoid affairs because one had nearly destroyed his marriage.

  • • •

  ROBERT: I am by temperament a swinger, Mr. Wells. The freedom which these modern couples enjoy, the trading of partners, I am all for it. But I have three teenage children and am a firm believer in providing for them a stable home environment until they are adults. It is only this which keeps me from the divorce courts. When they are grown, then perhaps I will divorce my wife and find a woman who feels as I do and become a true swinger. In the meantime, I find it most convenient to have a pleasant afternoon now and then with Rita or someone similar to her.

  JWW: You don’t object to paying for sexual pleasure?

  ROBERT: What could one buy with money that would be of greater value? To be more serious, to be sure I have an objection to making of sex a commercial transaction. But one always pays, Mr. Wells. In one coin or another, one pays for whatever one receives in this life. If I have an affair with a girl from the office I pay twice, in emotional involvement and in money, for of course I will buy for her presents and will wine her and dine her and so forth. And there is the danger that she may fall in love with me or I with her, and while it is true that no one ever died of a broken heart, yet such situations are never pleasant, are they? No, I would say that I much prefer to pay only in dollars. It is what I would be inclined to call a great bargain.

  JWW: I take it you began with professional call girls?

  ROBERT: Of course. And let me say that these professional call girls, as you say it, are by no means the sterile proposition you may think. I know full well that they do not find sexual relations with Johns thrilling, except on rare occasions, and perhaps when one of them has my penis in her mouth she is thinking about her next beauty parlor appointment, or about the movie she saw last night on television. Since I cannot read her mind anyway, why should this concern me? They are beautiful girls, they are clean, they are polite, they are skilled in giving pleasure to man. So. When I drink California wine I do not concentrate on the fact that it is not vintage champagne. I instead enjoy it for what it is rather than dwell upon what it is not. And so it is with girls. They are not love, they are not miraculous afternoons of mutual fulfillment, they are not vintage champagne. But they are robust with good body and pleasant bouquet, and they are better by far than no wine at all.

  JWW: How did you begin contacting girls through the swinger bulletins?

  ROBERT: I had known for some time of these publications, and had on occasion managed to meet single girls this way. Not prostitutes but girls for ordinary dates. These dates were quite enjoyable but very difficult to arrange. As I am sure you know, there are far more unattached males than females involved in swinging. Then I noticed that several call girls were beginning to advertise, and made contact with a few of them, and went with them.

  JWW: How did they compare with your earlier experiences with call girls?

  ROBERT: They were identical, because these were the same sort of girls. It was only that they were using the swinger publications to obtain business. Then I did meet what you would call a part-time call girl, not Rita but another one, and was sufficiently pleased to try to see her again, but this particular girl would not go with the same man twice. She was doing all of this for the thrills, of course, and would not repeat with a man. Still, I was sufficiently pleased to seek out other girls like her, and it was in this manner that I wrote to Rita. I was most interested that she required a photograph, which is unusual. I sent one, and shortly thereafter had a telephone call from her.

  JWW: Would you tell me about the first meeting?

  ROBERT: I only hope I can do so without exceeding the bounds of good taste. How shall I begin? I went to a hotel near my office and engaged a room under the name I had given Rita. Perhaps sixth sense advised me that this would be different from the usual quickie, as it is called, and so I brought along a bottle of liquor and had the bellman bring ice and glasses. Rita came to the door at the agreed-upon hour. She is very lovely—oh, you have met her, have you not? So I shall not be required to describe her? Very well. We introduced ourselves. We chatted about the weather and the difficulties of driving into New York. I made drinks, and could see at once that she was quite pleased by my thoughtfulness. We drank our drinks and talked some more. I complimented her on her appearance, and she told me she had responded to my photograph and found me even more attractive in person. It was then that she told me she only went with men who attracted her, and that she intended to enjoy herself in the process of pleasing me. She confided that she was a swinger, that she and her husband changed partners with other couples. Although she would have to charge me money, she said it would be thrilling nevertheless for her. We discussed her sexual experiences somewhat, and then she stood up and put her glass down on the table. I also got to my feet, and she came into my arms and we kissed.

  JWW: I gather that this was unusual.

  ROBERT: Very much so. Most call girls will not do this. They will perform any act but an ordinary mouth-to-mouth kiss. I have been told that they equate this with love. Those who will kiss still hardly ever invite it, you understand. But Rita obviously expected as much, and this at once transformed the situation. The money was temporarily forgotten. We were two people making love, and while it was taken for granted that at the end I would give her an envelope with a fifty-dollar bill inside it, almost at once I forgot this fact, and believe she did also.

  We were a long time in what I believe is called necking. Lying fully clothed upon the bed, kissing and stroking one another. We undressed each other very slowly. Her breasts were magnificent, also her legs. I placed her on the bed and knelt before her and performed upon her in the French manner. I understand that it is not customary to do so with prostitutes, because of the thought of disease, or reluctance perhaps to kiss where another man has been. You are aware of this?

  JWW: Yes.

  ROBERT: I myself find this to be foolish. The better class of call girls are perhaps a thousand times cleaner than the average woman. So when I am with a girl who appeals to me more than ordinary, one to whom I respond in such manner that I am anxious to
provide her with pleasure, then I do thus. With Rita there was never any question in my mind. From the moment she walked into the room I desired to put my lips and tongue to her. Her own response was very obviously genuine. She was very excited, and I picked up the rhythm of her passion and brought her to climax. With the ordinary unresponsive call girl, of course, the act is simply preparation and they will pretend excitement but will not pretend orgasm. They will instead wait and pretend orgasm at the moment of one’s own orgasm during sexual intercourse. But Rita had her orgasm and then lay for several moments talking of how good she felt and how well I had performed upon her and so.

  Then she told me that she loved me and wished to return the favor. She had me lie down upon my back and began to stroke and kiss me all over my body. I reached to touch her but she asked that I lie still while she performed. Her kisses were exceptionally exciting, and by the time she actually reached my genitals I was at a peak of excitement.

  Perhaps you know that most prostitutes are accomplished at fellatio, just as most other women are not. I have been told by call girls that four out of five clients request this, and as I recall you made a similar observation in Eros and Capricorn, did you not?

  JWW: As I remember, I quoted a source which suggested a figure of 75%.

  ROBERT: So. I have found that most call girls prefer to do this than to have coitus, not because it gives them pleasure as much as that they may bring a man to climax very quickly in this manner. And usually this is what they try to do, to finish the act as rapidly as possible. This is not always the case, but most often. With Rita, she had excited me so much, it could have ended in a second. But—excuse me, perhaps I am going into embarrassing detail?

  JWW: I don’t embarrass easily, and the tape recorder is incapable of blushing.

  ROBERT: (Laughter.) So to continue. She is a most accomplished performer, and understands the rhythm of a man’s passion, not merely how to excite but how to control. She goes on in this fashion for an unbearable length of time. Finally I want to finish with her in coitus, to have my orgasm within her, and try to tell her this, but she tells me she cannot stop now, she wants to please me completely in this way. It is not that I do not wish this, you understand, but that I want her both ways. You follow me? It is in a way frustration, but she continues and it is so pleasurable that it can hardly be frustrating, such pleasure, and I climax, and she does not at once draw her mouth free as many do but stays with me to fulfillment. I learned another time that she often has a climax this way, by performing on a man. I had not known this was possible. One learns every day, as they say, in this life!