I unlatch the second helmet from the back. “Absolutely.”
Flying down the highway toward the Leaky Skull is the most exhilarating ride yet. I stretch out my arms, my knees clamping against Merrick’s thighs, and let out a long, happy, “Whoooooo!”
Then I press my face against his back, closing my eyes, arms around him.
This is happy. This is perfection. This is where I’m meant to be. I drink in the moment. I won’t get attached. It’s not safe to do that. But I will soak it all up.
When we arrive at the bar, it’s silent and still.
“When’s Diesel coming?” I ask.
“Not until it gets busy,” Merrick says. “Only one of us opens.”
We leave our jackets in his office. When he opens up the drawer to lock up my purse, one of those wild thrills passes through me.
“When will the rest of the staff come?”
He glances at the digital bar clock on the wall. “It’ll be a good hour until Scottie and Jake clock in to prep.”
I open my purse and extract the string of condoms. “So, we have time?”
His eyebrows lift. “I thought you were sore.”
I sit on the corner of the desk. “I was, but now …” I dangle the wrappers in front of him.
He jerks them out of my hands and draws my body against his. “Any preferences?” he asks. “I’d say on this desk, but I’m pretty sure Diesel and Symphony have soiled this one.”
That makes me laugh. “I think you’re right.” I take his hand and lead him out to the kitchen. Nothing here looks good among the stacked boxes and industrial sinks.
We move into the bar itself, dark and quiet, with only the glow of the neon lighting the space. It’s eerie and almost surreal, a glowing dreamscape.
“Out here, for sure,” I tell him. “The stage maybe. Or the bar.” Then I get a wild, wild idea. Maybe it’s too much. Maybe I shouldn’t mention it. But the thrill rushing through me makes me say the words, anyway. “Do you have security cameras?”
Even in the low blue haze of the sign on the wall behind us, I see his slow grin. “Sure. One on the entrance, one on the cash register, and one on the back door.”
I look up above the bar to find the one there, but it’s too dark to see. I flip on only the lights behind the bar, leaving the tables and chairs in the dark.
And I see it, the round half-globe above us. “What can it see?” I ask.
“I rarely look at the footage to see the range,” he says. “It deletes itself every thirty days unless you go in and save it.”
“You can save the footage?” Maybe I ask that with a little too much excitement.
This makes him chuckle. “My exhibitionist wants evidence of her lusty ways?” He pulls me close with a hand on my lower back.
I connect with the front of him and immediately know that my idea isn’t a bad one. He’s stiff in those jeans, ready for me to pull him out.
“Is that too much?” Our faces are only inches apart.
“Not if next time we get to watch it while we do it again.”
Oh my God. Fire licks through me. “We can make our own sex tape?”
“Fuck yeah.”
I glance up. “As long as we’re near the cash register, it can see us, though, right?”
He nods. “I’m going to strip you down for the cameras, little mouse. It’s going to record every inch.”
