"Aw, I was only kidding, honey. Come on now, don't be such a baby," he said between breaths in an irritated tone of voice, struggling to spread wider her now tightly-clenched thighs and continue his lurid tonguing of her still visibly throbbing vagina. Then, mustering all of her female strength, she jerked violently away from him and rose to stumble to the other side of the room, trembling from head to foot with rage as she pushed her rumpled skirt back down over her whitely exposed hips. Bill remained a few moments longer in his kneeling position on the floor, then sighed heavily and climbed up to seat himself in the place on the couch that she had vacated. He stared wordlessly down at his trousers where, beneath a dark wet stain of seminal fluid, his erect penis was rapidly deflating, finally curling up limply in his trouser crotch like a small wounded creature. After what seemed an eternity, he raised his head and opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing and lowered his eyes again in an attitude of distant thought.

From where she stood stiffly near the far wall of the living room, staring out miserably at the steady autumn drizzle outside, Diane began to feel the first stirrings of real guilt, and she imagined how painfully humiliated Bill must feel after her indignant outburst and the abrupt halt she had brought to their love-making. Despite the annoyance she had often felt at his coarse, thoughtless comments during sex acts, she had never actually dared to follow her immediate impulse and walk away from him in plain disgust. But now that she had done it, she felt her heart swell with pity for the young, dark-haired man whom she really did love with all her being. She ransacked her unsettled mind for something comforting to say to him.

"I… I'm sorry, darling. I guess I'm just not in the right mood today," she finally said, her honeyed voice gently breaking the long embarrassing silence between them. But he seemed not to hear her and continued to peer down disconsolately between his legs, his gaze fixed on something secret and known only to him. Then, without warning, he straightened up with a wry, almost sardonic smile illuminating his face.