Excerpts

Chapter One: "When I was fifteen I was amazing, absolutely amazing! Dear Mummy wasterrified to let me out on my own; she felt I was bound to come home pregnant,or something silly like that." The speaker was Claudia Parker. The listener was David Cooper. Claudia was inbed. She was a very beautiful girl and she knew it, and David knew it, soeveryone was happy. She had long, shiny ash-blond hair, which fell thicklyaround her face, and deep bangs down to her eyebrows, which accentuated herenormous, slanty green eyes. The face was perfect, with a small straight nose,and luscious full lips. She wore no makeup and no clothes, and was covered byonly a thin silk sheet. David sat at the end of the bed. He was forty and looked it. He had black,slightly curly hair, and a well-lined strong face. His nose was ratherprominent, and he wore thick, horn rimmed glasses. He was a masculine-lookingman and enjoyed a great deal of success with the opposite sex. "So eventually I left home," continued Claudia. "I mean it was just all tooimpossible and dreary. One night I sneaked out, never to return. Actually, Imet this marvelous boy, an actor, and he brought me to London with him, whereI've been ever since." She sighed and wriggled around under the sheet. "Got acigarette, darling?" David produced a packet of filter-tips from his dressing-gown pocket and handedone to her. She took a long drag. "Want to hear more of my luridbackground?" "I want to hear everything about you." She smiled. "You're so sweet. Not at all dull. I thought when I first saw you,you would turn out to be an absolute bore. But how wrong I was. I'm mad aboutyou!" She leaned over to where he was sitting. The sheet was left behind as shewound her arms around his neck and started to nibble at his ear. She had aquite fabulous body. He pushed her back on the bed. "Want me, baby?" she whispered. "Want me badly?" He grunted his assent. Suddenly she twisted herself free, jumped off the bed, and ran to the door."You're too much," she said, "but not now, darling. Maybe you can do it againso soon, but I need a little rest." She giggled. "I'm going to have ashower, then perhaps we can get some lunch out; and then, baby, then wecan come back and make it all night long!" She vanished through the door, and David heard water running in thebathroom. He thought about Claudia, and the way they first met. Was it really only threeweeks ago? He had had a particularly hard day at the office, and Linda, hiswife, had been nagging him about all the extra work he seemed to be doing, andhow she never saw him anymore. It was nearly six, and he was just getting readyto leave, when Phillip Abbottson darted into his office. "Listen, Dave," Phillip said. "Do you have a spare moment to come down to thestudio and make a decision for us? We've got two girls testing for the BeautyMaid soap product, and it's a dead heat. We just can't decide." Reluctantly David went with Phillip to the ground-floor studio in the enormousCooper-Taylor advertising building. It was owned by his uncle, R. P. Cooper,who had two sons, and Sanford Taylor, who had no sons but who did have ason-in-law. David was sixth in line of importance, which in a business of sucha size was quite important, but not important enough as far as David wasconcerned. He was in charge of the television section, and since Beauty Maidsoap was to be featured quite heavily on Channel 9, it was necessary to pickthe right girl. They entered the studio, and David immediately spotted her. She was sprawled ina canvas chair, wearing a white terry-cloth robe. Her hair was piled high onher head, and she was eating an apple. The other girl came into focus next. Shewas chocolate-box pretty, prim, and virginal-looking. However, her figurebelied her face. She Excerpted from The World Is Full of Married Men by Jackie Collins All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.