The Last Don - Mario Puzo [108]
Gronevelt noted that male gamblers called for hookers before they set out to gamble. Women, however, preferred sex after they gambled. Since the Hotel had to cater to the sexual needs of everyone and there were no male hookers, just gigolos, the Hotel used barmen croupiers and junior pit boys for the women, and that was their report. So Gronevelt made a jump. Males need sex to prepare them to go into battle with confidence. Women need sex to assuage the sorrow of losing or as part of the reward for their victory.
It was true that Big Tim called for a hooker an hour before his party and then went to bed with his two waitresses in the early morning after losing a big sum of money. They were reluctant, they were straight girls. Big Tim solved the problem in his own particular way. He put up ten thousand dollars worth of black chips and told them it was theirs if they spent the night with him. Accompanied with his usual vague promise of more if they had a really good night. He loved the way they studied the chips thoughtfully before agreeing. The joke was they got him so drunk that he fell asleep, gorged with food and drink, before he got past the fondling stage. He fell asleep between the two of them, his huge frame pushing them to the edges, both girls clinging to him until finally they fell on the floor to sleep.
Late that night Cross received a call from Claudia. “Athena disappeared,” she said. “The Studio is frantic and I’m worried. Except ever since I’ve known her Athena has disappeared at least one weekend a month. But this time I thought you should know. You better do something before she runs away forever.”
“It’s OK,” Cross said. He didn’t tell her he had his own men covering Skannet.
But that call focused his mind on Athena. That magical face, which seemed to show her every emotion; the long, beautiful stretch of her legs. And the intelligence of her eyes, the vibration from some invisible instrument of inner being.
He picked up the phone and called a chorus girl he sometimes dated called Tiffany.
Tiffany was the captain of the chorus line of the Xanadu’s big cabaret show. This entitled her to extra pay and perks for keeping discipline and preventing the usual quarrels and outright fights the girls fell into. She was a statuesque beauty who had failed screen tests because she simply was too big for celluloid. Where on the stage her beauty was commanding, on film she looked huge.
When she arrived, she was surprised at the quickness of Cross’s lovemaking. He simply grabbed her and stripped her of her clothes and then seemed to devour her body with kisses. He entered her quickly and came to a climax quickly. This was so different from his usual style that she said, almost ruefully, “This time it must be true love.”
“It sure is,” Cross said, and began to make love to her again.
“Not me, you dope,” Tiffany said. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
Cross was annoyed that he was so easy to