He had his teeth in her neck, and as he came he let out a grunting bark, like nothing she had ever heard before. He let her go, and she straightened up, flinging her pale hair off her face and stood looking at his face, then down at his thighs, the hairy thighs. She was not exactly unfamiliar with such hairiness — she had jested with Johnston that some of the men that came to her were like chimpanzees — but it was as if she were trying to find out from those strong furry legs just why this customer was so different. That query, that inspection, not hostile, had something in it that made him again grasp her, bend her over and begin again. He was starved for sex, had been hungry for it a long time, and just as if he had not so recently finished his first bout, his teeth went into her neck and she heard the triumphant grunting bark.

Just a minute,' she said. Just wait a minute.'

She pushed him so that he sat on the bed, and she sat on a chair opposite him. She needed time. This experience — a rape, that was what it amounted to — ought to be making her feel angry, and full of the contempt that she usually felt for her customers, but she had been thrilled by that double rape, the great powerful hands gripping her shoulders, the teeth in her neck, and, above all, the grunt like a roar. She was sitting feeling where his teeth had bitten, but could not find an abrasion. She took out a tiny mirror from her bag, and craned her neck to see — no, the skin was not broken, but it was bruised, and there would be questions from Johnston.

What Ben wanted was to lie on that narrow bed, beside her, and go to sleep. He was thinking hard. When he was the leader of the gang of boys, the bad boys that everyone was afraid of, there had been girls, and one liked him. She had tried to change him saying, 'But Ben, let's try it this way, turn round, it's not nice what you do, it's like animals.' And he had indeed tried, but could not do what she wanted, for when he was face to face with her the raging angry need to possess and dominate was silent.