Free (1987) The Celestial Bed by Irving Wallace Page B

off, as she felt her nipples harden and allowed him to pull her atop him. ‘Chet …’ Then she felt his erection against her thigh and emitted a little moan.
    He was taking off her blouse. ‘We can talk later, honey. I want to go to bed. This time we’ll be great. Come on, honey.’
    Her resistance had gone, along with her blouse. Her brassiere
    came loose and she staggered to her feet, unzipping her dirndl skirt. As her skirt dropped to the floor, she whispered, ‘All right, darling. Let’s.’
    She rolled down her panty hose as he quickly undressed.
    A minute later she was on the bed, on her back, her legs wide apart. She watched as he knelt on the bed beside her. She could see that he was ready and her excitement grew.
    She reached up for him, and he moved quickly between her fleshy thighs.
    ‘Put it in, darling,’ she called up breathlessly.
    He was bending over her, feeling for the mark, and then he found it and she groaned again.
    He began to enter her when suddenly he choked, almost convulsively, and began to have an orgasm.
    ‘Oh, God!’ he exclaimed.
    Suzy lay there, helplessly, eyes fixed on his tortured face.
    Premature ejaculation.
    Again.
    A minute later he fell back on his haunches ready to weep. Suzy crawled off the bed, rubbed his head and walked out of the room. He heard the sound of the shower and when she returned she settled down near him.
    ‘Jesus, I’m sorry,’ he croaked. ‘I’m real sorry. I apologise. I’m as sick of myself as you must be of me.’
    She placed an arm around his hunched naked shoulders. ‘I’m not sick of you, darling. I love you as much as ever.’
    ‘How can you?’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me.’
    ‘Maybe I do,’ she said, trying to console him. ‘Maybe I know what’s wrong. I know somebody who knows what can be done, somebody who can help. That’s really why I came over tonight. To tell you I have somebody who can help us both.’
    He met her eyes, discouraged. ‘How? How can anyone?’
    ‘Please hear me out, Chet. You know I took a new job as a secretary a short time ago - a medical secretary …’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Maybe I told you who it was with or maybe I didn’t because of confidentiality. Anyway, the man I went to work for is Dr Arnold Freeberg. Ring a bell?’
    ‘Faintly. Seems like I read — ’
    ‘He opened the Freeberg Clinic downtown not long ago. He’s a bona fide sex therapist. He’s trained six sex surrogates to start working for him, with him.’
    Hunter wrinkled his brow. ‘Sex surrogates? Youmean the ones who pitch in to help men - men in - in trouble?’
    ‘Exactly. Dr Freeberg has just accepted four or five patients. He and his surrogates are going to try to cure them. I know all about it. I was transcribing the patients’ case histories today.’
    She began to tell Hunter about the cases, one in particular with a problem precisely like Chet Hunter’s own.
    ‘Premature ejaculation,’ Suzy said. ‘Dr Freeberg told the surrogate who will work on it, “That should be easy. Those are the easiest to set right.” His surrogate is going to put the patient through exercises that should cure him.’
    For the first time Hunter had straightened up on the bed. ‘Sex surrogates,’ he murmured, ‘right here in Hillsdale, actual sex surrogates in sweet little Hillsdale.’
    Suzy was puzzled. ‘What’s so unusual about that?’
    Hunter reacted surprised. Obviously, his mind was racing. ‘Don’t you see, honey? Your run-of-the-mill conservative American family city doesn’t have sex surrogates on its premises. It just doesn’t. That’s unheard of.’
    ‘I still don’t understand.’
    Hunter jumped off the bed and began to pull on his shorts. ‘Suzy, it’s a story, a big story. If I gave Otto Ferguson at the Chronicle a tip like this, he could put me on the story. And it could lead to my big break, to the job on the newspaper I’ve always wanted.’
    Suzy was on her feet. ‘Forget it,