Innocent No More!

Even the Kinsey Reports and Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology had been published with lurid illustrations.

Abby walked sideways down a whole row, reading titles and drinking in the brightly colored covers. Almost every one had a gorgeous woman on it. Just change her clothes and she switched from Amazon Pagan Queen! to Sorority Sis Unleashed! The bookstore had been deserted when she came in, except for the guy behind the counter, so she almost dropped the small stack of paperbacks she'd picked out when she got to the end of the row and nearly bumped into a small, smiling woman, who stood as if waiting for Abby to reach her. A man stood behind her, smiling too.

"Oh! Excuse me!" gasped Abby. "I didn't see you there."

"I guess not," said the woman with a grin. Her sweater was buttoned tightly over curves. "You're the biggest bibliophile in town." She said it like it was a kind of tasty fetish.

"Yeah, we've seen you in the last three stores," said the man, who had on cuffed trousers and a vintage rayon shirt with a little tiki face embroidered where another shirt might have a pocket. Abby noticed disconcertedly that his nipples showed through the soft fabric.

"We're bibliophiles too." said the woman. "But we're taking a break and going over to North Beach now. Want to come along?"

Abby blinked. "Are you going to City Lights?"

"Nope, the Lusty Lady. You should go. You'll like it. I saw you snagged that excellent old stripper book down on Polk Street."

Abby flushed. "Have you guys been following me?"

"Oh, sorta," said the smiling girl. "I'm Lila, by the way. This is Daniel. C'mon, pay for your books. We'll get a cab."

Out on Post Street, a Veteran's taxi waited, with Lila seated inside and waving her in. Daniel held the door. Abby felt a little like she was heading through the looking glass, but they seemed okay. Actually, "okay" put it way too mildly—they were both really hot. Abby climbed in—once Daniel had seated himself, squeezing her against Lila, she told them her name.

"Want a drink first, Abby?" asked Lila. "We can take you to Spec's. Or Vesuvio! Kerouac's old hangout!"

"No," said Abby, feeling like she'd had a drink already. "Let's just go."

She expected a club with seats. But the Lusty Lady had nothing but booths. Abby looked around in confusion, but Lila took her hand and pulled her into a corner booth. Daniel followed them in and locked the door, then pulled out a ten and fed it into a machine on the wall. The kind they have at the Laundromat, thought Abby—but that thought seemed so incongruous here; she didn't say it out loud.

"It's a peep show," Lila explained. "We just watch through the window, see?" The window slid up with a whir when Daniel put the money in, and Lila pointed to the stage on the other side, where the women from the pulp covers seemed to have come to life—big hair, high heels, lingerie half-on, half-off. They sashayed around the stage just like the women on the books would do if they could move—like they owned the place! Some of them made slow, seductive dance moves, while one curvy blonde woman just stood and ran her hands across her pale skin.