I may have come into the bar with some questionable intentions. I may have made some terrible decisions already, and I knew I’d have to face myself in the mirror tomorrow for them. I may have been in a really bad place.
But I was not in such a bad place that I was going to be a whore to run a train on for the rest of the night with some dudes that I had never met before. I wanted to have fun with someone, not be something for some anonymous men.
“That sounds lovely,” I said, standing out of my seat. “But I think you’ll have better luck with someone else.”
But as I tried to leave, Rick put his hand on my stomach, holding me in place. It was too firm a grip for it to be an accident, and its intent was very clear. I was not going anywhere.
“On the contrary,” he said, smiling. “You are the first woman to walk in here that we didn’t know in ages. We’re tired of the other girls. And I’m sure you’re tired of whatever boys you’re seeing.”
I tried to ignore the fact I wasn’t seeing anyone, and the boy I did want to see wanted nothing to do with me.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said.
But then I felt someone grab my arm forcefully. Parker had stood up and was now towering over me. In the corner of the room, I could see the two guys who had played pool were watching. The man smoking the cigar, Lucius, however, had seemed to have departed, or maybe he’d just gone to the restroom.
“You want a good time, right?” Parker said. “A little girl like you, come in here all by yourself, stumbling to her seat? Admit it. You came here to get fucked by one of us, didn’t you?”
His hand tightened on my arm. I didn’t dare try to pull back, only because I knew it would ensure more violence.
“This is what’s going to happen,” Parker said. “You’re coming home with us. And we’re going to have our fun with you. And you’re going to keep your mouth shut about it. Isn’t that right?”
I looked to the bartender for the help she promised me, but by now, she was leaning back against the rear of the bar, her head down. I wasn’t sure she could have helped me even if she wanted to. She had offered me a life raft before, but she wasn’t going to drown herself to rescue me.
Who could blame her?
“Are we clear?” Parker said.
I gulped. I saw no avenue of escape. I was not getting out of this with my dignity intact. I was, to put it bluntly, about to be gang-raped. I had brought this on myself.Turns out, things can get worse. Disturbingly worse.
And then the door swung open behind me.
Axle
Aclub party was going down, and I could not have been more bored.
It was relatively early in the evening, maybe shortly after ten p.m., and the girls had just started to stream in. I had had one beer up to that point, but I really didn’t intend to have more. Even now, at my peak man-whore phase, I didn’t enjoy drinking a lot of alcohol. Frankly, I didn’t really need it to get the ball rolling. I had enough confidence in my game to make happen whatever I wanted to, and getting drunk was just a really fantastic way to ensure that I woke up feeling like shit the next day.
I typically hung out by the pool table by myself in the early going of these parties, waiting for a woman that interested me to come forward and make herself known. If none did, at some point, I would just bring one of the club members or prospects over for a game. None of the prospects dared lose to me, although that was actually something that pissed me off. I much preferred for people to play a real game against me.
And then came my worst fucking nightmare, walking right through that door.
Her high heels, completely unnecessary given her height, along with her button-down cowgirl look, immediately screamed “sex” in all caps, at the top of one’s lungs, with multiple exclamation marks. Given how easily she had come down to my place a couple of weeks earlier, it was no surprise that she had shown up this way. The look might have gotten the dicks up of some of the newer members, but knowing just how much bullshit was behind that exterior made it much easier for me to dismiss the look.
Unfortunately, Thea did not have the same reaction to me that I did to her.
“Hi, handsome,” she said.
She was far enough away from me that she could have been speaking to a few different people, but none of us could even pretend—much as we all wanted to, for very different reasons—that she was speaking to anyone other than me.Would be much nicer if it was Rose here.
You fucking kidding yourself? You’ve done so well avoiding her for two weeks. And now, suddenly, you want her here? You out of your goddamn mind?
“You know, you’ve been on my mind a lot the last two weeks,” Thea said as she closed the distance.
“How unfortunate,” I muttered, taking a sip of my beer.
“Unfortunate?” she said, pressing up on me. “Only unfortunate in that you’ve been on my mind and not on my body. How do you think I’ve been feeling without you, Axle? Do you know how—”
“Don’t care,” I said.
