Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 16084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
I look over my shoulder, eagerly. Searching for a place in this club that might give us proper reprieve from the thunderous booming. There aren’t any.
“Doesn’t look like there’s anywhere to go.” Doubt she has any intention of going outside again. And although I’ve tickled her interest, I doubt she’s ready to get out of here so soon with a man she doesn’t know.
“Ah, should’ve guessed you weren’t a regular.” Launching out of her chair, she grabs my hand.
Before I know what’s happening, she’s dragging me through the club again. Over the dancefloor, up a short flight of stairs, and to a door that is so well hidden against the black backdrop on the wall, I’d have never spotted it.
We enter, and though it’s a wall away from the main room, this place might as well be a world apart.
Old rock songs play at lower volumes from four cheap speakers in the corners. Posters of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix are strewn across the walls. The patrons up here have had their fill for the night, found their mates, and are settling as they come down from their highs.
A small bar on one end serves the stragglers who find themselves up here. The barman is older, mean looking, the no-nonsense type who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.
This suits my needs. Our needs. Calm, soothing, tranquil. A better place to decompress than being among the screaming horde back down there.
We approach the bar and I expect Taylor to let go of my hand. She doesn’t, rubbing my knuckles with her thumb while I order our beers.
It’s pleasant. I like it.
“Just realized something,” Taylor says, when the barman delivers our drinks. I pay him with a twenty, tell him to keep the change, and give her my undivided attention. “I never said thank you for what you did out there.”
“And you never have to.” Clinking the long necks of our bottles together, I give her the most charming smile I can force on my face. Only then realizing, she can’t even see it. “Can’t have folks like that walking around, thinking they rule this world.”
Playing into the hero fantasy is an added bonus. If anyone should be giving thanks, it’s me. To the prick I left in a messy puddle outside. He made the task of winning Taylor’s favor a breeze. Saving her from whatever dark intentions he had, left her floating gleefully in the palm of my hand.
All that’s left to do is snatch her. Make her mine before she comes to her senses.
“It’s more than just him. You’ve done a lot more than you know.”
We walk, hand in hand, to a booth in a distant corner. I fall in first and Taylor joins at my side.
“Tonight’s been strange. From good, to bad, to great, to worse, to . . .” she pauses, sucking in a few short, sharp breaths. Fiddling with a bottle cap between four slender fingers, she sighs, relieved. “This.”
“This?” I rest my back against the wall, keeping my eyes glued to hers. They’re my only window to her emotions. Seeing them glow with joy is wonderful, but that can flip on a dime.
If it happens, I need to know the second it does. Adjust course and change tactics. I’m not wasting this opportunity.
“Yes. Whatever it is. Long time, good time, doesn’t matter. Just this.” She waggles the bottlecap between us to ensure her message is clear.
“I could make an exception in this case.” Getting more comfortable, I kick one leg over the other. “Have it be a good time and a long time.”
“Gosh, you really do have all the answers, don’t you?” She drops the bottle cap and places her hand on my ankle.
“Not all of them,” I say. “Still can’t figure out what you’re supposed to be dressed as.”
Taylor laughs at my sudden left turn from the mountain of tension.
It’s a push and pull sort of dance. Give a lot, but bring it back down here and there. I’m not gonna win her over if all I do is insist this ends in my king size bed. As much as I want it, showing her there’s more to my wants than sex, will keep her hooked for longer.
Hell, if I’m lucky, forever.
“So, you’re saying it doesn’t land?” She looks down at the outfit. Tits squeezed so tightly out the top, she might as well take it off. Not much left to the imagination. And I’ve got a feeling that it’s by design, since when I arrived tonight they were barely visible. “I’m a baby doll. Y’know? A baby’s doll in the literal sense but Baby Doll if you’re looking at it in the naughtier way.”
She has to be blushing with the way her pitch and tempo shifts. What I wouldn’t give to see it.