“You said it was business. You said I didn’t have anything to worry about. Can’t you see this is all horribly sordid?”
Raven sat on the bed. “I’ve brought you so far,” he said, “and I guess I’m entitled to a little consideration from you. But I won’t force myself on you. I’ll put it like this. If you want to go on with me you’ll stay here tonight and be nice. If you want either to stay in this burg an’ rot or walk back to St. Louis, then I’ll go off now an’ take the car an’ leave you to it. What’s it to be?”
She said, “Oh, all right. You’ve got me where you want me, haven’t you? I trade my body for the ride.
That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”
Raven’s face twitched. “I thought of lettin’ you down easy,” he said between his teeth, “but if you’re goin’
to swap smart cracks you’ll go the whole way.”
She sat on the other side of the bed away from him and began to cry. “My God!” she said. “I’ve been a fool.”
He suddenly lost patience with her and pushed her on to the bed. She saw the sudden lust that had come into his eyes and for a moment a scream hovered in her throat.
Raven said, “Don’t yell.” He pinched her jaw between two fingers. “Do you want to go through with this or shall I beat it?”
She lay flat on her back and looked up at him. She saw the blank lustful look that made him almost animal.