Now it was her turn to frown slightly. She had always heard voices inside her head-she guessed everyone did, although people usually didn’t talk about them, any more than they talked about their bowel functions-and most of them were old friends, as comfortable as bedroom slippers. This one, however, was new… and there was nothing comfortable about it. It was a strong voice, one that sounded young and vigorous. It also sounded impatient. Now it spoke again, answering its own question.

It isn’t that he can’t read you; it’s just that sometimes, toots, he doesn’twant to.

“Gerald, really-I don’t feet like it. Bring the keys back and unlock me. We’ll do something else. I’ll get on top, if you want. Or you can just lie there with your hands behind your head and I’ll do you, you know, the other way.”

Are you sure you want to do that? the new voice asked. Are youreally sure you want to have any sex with this man?

Jessie closed her eyes, as if she could make the voice shut up by doing that. When she opened them again, Gerald was standing at the foot of the bed, the front of his shorts jutting like the prow of a ship. Well… some kid’s toy boat, maybe. His grin had widened further, exposing the last few teeth-the ones with the gold fillings-on both sides. She didn’t just dislike that dumb grin, she realized; she despised it.

“I will let you up… if you’re very, very good. Can you be very, very good, Jessie?”

Corny, the new no-bullshit voice commented. Tres corny.

He hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his underpants like some absurd gunslinger. The jockeys went down pretty fast once they got past his not-inconsiderable love handles. And there it was, exposed. Not the formidable engine of love she had first encountered as a teenager in the pages of Fanny Hill but something meek and pink and circumcised; five inches of completely unremarkable erection. Two or three years ago, on one of her infrequent trips to Boston, she had seen a movie called The Belly of an Architect. She thought, Right. And now I’m looking at The Penis of anAttorney. She had to bite the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing. Laughing at this point would be impolitic.