Page:Bad Girl (1929).pdf/62

 Perhaps Dot suddenly raised her lips, or maybe Eddie stooped to them. It was a long kiss. It ended with both his arms around her and Dot's weight heavy against him.

"Getting hot in here," he remarked as they separated.

Dot giggled. Eddie always said that after the first lingering kiss, and Dot always giggled.

"Where's that cigarette you so rashly offered me?" she asked.

"Oh, I forgot." Eddie produced a package of Lucky Strikes and Dot took a cigarette. Eddie watched her as she lighted it.

"You'll choke to death," he said.

She was painfully conscious that he continued to watch her as she made a brave effort to inhale the smoke. Gee, let's see now, how did Maude do it?

"Here, quit torturing that cigarette." Eddie was grinding the sparks into the carpet, and Dot's objections counted for little.

"You don't know how to smoke, and there ain't no sense in learning, but there are some things come natural." He smiled at her and kissed her lips.

Dot's arms, so young and so pitiably anxious, despite her inner knowledge of what that night might mean, curled eagerly about his neck. His mouth was warm against hers. His face could be no closer to her; yet she had the sensation that he was drawing nearer, nearer. It was only when the kiss was over, that she found he had gently forced her head down on the pillow. She knew that she ought to sit up and pull the new blue dress with all its yards of braid down over her bare knees. She knew she ought to. She knew she ought to.

Another kiss, hot and heedless, made her breath come faster. She saw Eddie's eyes blue and narrow close to her, a vein in his temple throbbing spasmodically. He closed his eyes. To shut out the sight of her? Was he trying to