Free A Stranger in the Mirror by Sidney Sheldon

bars. Slowly, he unfastened her j|rter belt, all the time telling Alice of his love and his need tils her, and kissed his way down to the moist lips exposed before him. He carried her to the deep leather couch and made love to her. That evening, Toby moved in with Alice Tanner.
    In bed that night, Toby found that Alice Tanner was a pitifully lonely woman, desperate for someone to talk to, someone to love. She had been born in Boston. Her father was a wealthy manufacturer who had given her a large allowance and paid no further attention to her. Alice had loved the theater and had studied to be an actress, but in college she had contracted polio and that had put an end to her dream. She told Toby how it had affected her life. The boy she was engaged to had jilted her when he learned the news. Alice had left home and married a psychiatrist, who committed suicide ax months later. It was as though all her emotions had been bottled up inside her. Now they poured out in a violent eruption that left her feeling drained and peaceful and marvelously content. Toby made love to Alice until she almost fainted with ecstasy, filling her with his huge penis and making slow circles with his hips until he seemed to be touching every part of her body. She moaned, ^Ob, darling, I love you so much. Oh, God, how I love this!" But when it came to school, Toby found that he had no influence with Alice. He talked to her about putting him in the next Showcase play, introducing him to casting directors, speaking to important studio people about him, but she was firm. "You'll hurt yourself if you push too fast, darling. Rule one: &e first impression you make is the most important. If they don't like you the first time, they'll never go back to see you a second time. You've got to be ready." The instant the words were out, she became The Enemy. She was against him. Toby swallowed his fury and forced himself to smile at her. "Sure. It's just that I'm impatient. I want to make it for you as much as for me." "Do you? Oh, Toby, I love you so much!" "I love you, too, Alice." And he smiled into her adoring eyes. He knew he had to circumvent this bitch who was standing in the way of what he wanted. He hated her and he punished her. When they went to bed, he made her do things she had never done before, things he had never asked a whore to do; using her mouth and her fingers and her tongue. He pushed her further and further, forcing her into a series of humiliations. And each time he got her to do something more degrading, he would praise her, the way one praises a dog for learning a new trick, and she would he happy because she had pleased him. And the more he degraded her, the more degraded he felt. He was punishing himself, and he had not the faintest idea why. Toby had a plan in mind, and his chance to put it into action came sooner than he had anticipated. Alice Tanner announced that the Workshop class was going to put on a private show for the advanced classes and their guests on Ae following Friday. Each student could choose his own project. Toby prepared a monologue and rehearsed it over an dover. On the morning of the show, Toby waited until class was over and walked up to Karen, the fat actress who had sat next to him during the play. "Would you do me a favor?" he asked casually.
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    "Sure, Toby." Her voice was surprised and eager. Toby stepped back to gel away from her breath. "I'm gulling a g^ on an �^ friend of mine. I want you to telephone iQifton Lawrence's secretary and tell her you're Sam Goldwyn's ^ccretary, and that Mr. Goldwyn would like Mr. Lawrence :fa come to the show tonight to see a brilliant new comic. There'll be a ticket waiting for him at the box office." Karen stared at him. "Jesus, old lady Tanner would have my head. You know she never allows outsiders at the Workshop shows." "Believe me, it'll be all right." He took her arm and squeezed it. "You busy this afternoon?" She swallowed, her breath coming a little faster. "Not-- not