Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [296]
“Oh, Elvis,” she laughed. “I’ve only been gone for a day.”
“Yeah, well, it feels like you’ve been gone for days!” His voice was teasing, sexy. Then he turned serious. “I’d like to see you again. When can you come back?”
She was in the middle of shooting a film, Pretty Maids All in a Row, with Rock Hudson. She couldn’t get away for a week. Still, he persisted. What about the weekend? She had plans with James, but she didn’t want to tell him that. Finally they settled on Thursday, but she’d have to be back Friday.
When Joe picked her up at the airport, he informed her that she couldn’t attend the first show: Jim Aubrey was there with actress Jo Ann Pflug. Barbara had no right to be angry—she was doing the same thing he was—but she was still fuming when Joe took her to the suite Elvis kept specifically for his ladies-in-waiting, which had a round pink bed atop deep, pink carpeting. She assumed it was a dais of seduction, but Elvis would make love to her in his own suite, “where all his stuff was. He needed to be around his medications and his books and the boys.”
Until then, she cooled her heels, watched TV, called her answering service, thought about what she was doing there, and tried to shore up her flagging spirits. Finally Charlie Hodge arrived and escorted her upstairs to the penthouse. Elvis took her hands and kissed her softly, yet quickly.
“I melted.”
She was surprised to find that the entourage never disappeared, and that the suite was filled with gorgeous women, all competing for Elvis’s affections. Since Elvis had invited her there, Barbara didn’t think she should have to do the same, but he had distinct expectations.
“Elvis wanted a woman’s undivided attention. He wanted his woman to wait on him and take care of him, and be right there next to him. One had to ask permission to go to the bathroom, because he wanted to know where his woman was at all times.”
She leveled with him that she didn’t appreciate all the other girls around, that it was exhausting and a little demeaning. He said he understood, but she also knew that she had to either accept it or leave, and it was a difficult toss of the coin.
At 3 A.M., he took her to his bedroom, and this time the pajamas were red, not black, and offered instead of thrown. They carried the vague scent of what Barbara thought was Old Spice. He showed her the guest bathroom, and then retired to his, and when she came out, he was waiting for her. She sat at the foot of the mammoth bed, and then Elvis held out a surprise for her.
“I’d like you to have this,” he said, producing a gold medallion of Jesus.
A Jesus charm might have been a mood killer for a dazzling actress who had come to Las Vegas to spend the night with rock’s reigning sex god. But Barbara had relied on faith to get her through the worst of her childhood, and now Elvis was sharing a part of his. God, Jesus, the Bible became the basis for their relationship. In time, they would get down on their knees and pray together, and the most vulnerable she ever saw him was when he was on his bed reading scripture and talking about what God meant to him. But in just that moment, a tear came to her eye, and she leaned over and kissed him.
That first night, the kissing was the foreplay. “His mouth was round, full, and soft.” But during lovemaking, he reminded her a bit of his character from Jailhouse Rock. He kissed her over and over, eventually finding his way to the back of her neck. It sent chills through her. Then he kissed his way downward, touching and kissing her breasts, and working his way down her arm to the back of her hand. There, he briefly stopped, and they both broke out in laughter.
He grabbed her again, and then they kissed harder, more passionately, almost frantically. “He was spontaneous, hungry, and made love with the enthusiasm of a teenager. It was a dream to be with him, to kiss him, to smell him, to taste him, and finally to feel him inside of me.”
An hour later, they made love again. And then he started