I nod towards her. “Kim. Can I sit?”
She shrugs and scoots over, turning her attention to me when I sit down. Her eyes don’t have a glossy sheen this time, and I think she’s fully sober. “Hey.”
Frowning, I eye her. “I don’t think anything’s changed between us unless you want it to. You’ve slept with people here and it hasn’t made it awkward, has it?”
“I didn’t say I feel awkward,” she snaps, and I fight back a grin. There’s that spicy attitude I like about her. “I just don’t know what to say to you now.”
I click my tongue. “So… awkward?”
Kim groans, leaning back on the dias. “It’s not the sex, Rich. The sex was…”
She bites her lip, and I can’t help but chuckle. Leaning a little closer, I let my breath dance across her ear. “Fantastic.”
“Don’t gloat,” she scoffs.
“Orgasmic,” I continue, turning to run my nose down the side of her face. She shudders. “You came… how many times again?”
Kim swallows, squeezing the life out of that damn can. I reach across and grab it, setting it on the floor between us before turning to rest my chin on her shoulder. Her voice is less steady when she responds. “I don’t remember. A ridiculous amount I think. Or something like that.”
“You know…” I let my voice trail, her eyes darting towards me as the quiet drags on. “If you hadn’t run out after your phone call that morning, I could’ve shown you what toy I used. It’s still at my house. It’s yours if you want it.”
She frowns, turning to fully face me as I pull away from her shoulder. “Don’t you need it for your next date?”
“I don’t bring dates home,” I tell her honestly. “That’s what the clubs are for.”
“Then why do you have toys in your room if you never bring home partners?”
I snort, laughing. She wrinkles her nose and leans away, so I reach out and catch her arm before she can ice me out again. “Sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you. I keep things my partners will appreciate at the house in case I do bring someone home. It’s rare but it happens every once in a while. No one recently, so it’s been sitting in the packaging until now.”
Kimber studies me, lifting one of her brows. “So what was it?”
“A rose. I stock them here in the shop but you can have the one at my house if you come back.”
She flushes, dropping her gaze. I use the moment to let her think it over, peering around. The clubs filled up a bit in the last few minutes, and I can see a sea of green lanyards again. When I was talking to Tyson he mentioned that they’re letting new members join in waves so it’s not a whole club of newbies all in one night. Right now it looks like a bunch of new people have walked in, and one girl skips over towards us.
I do mean skip. She’s wearing flats and has a spiky haircut, leaning to press her hands to her knees so she can talk to us. “Hi!”
She’s got on the green lanyard, so another new person. I can’t see too many staff members from here, and I wonder if she’s here alone.
Kimber clears her throat. “I don’t swing for girls.”
The new girl makes a face, angling her brown eyes towards me. “I wasn’t talking to you. Hey, where’s your lanyard?They gave me a card but I don’t remember all the colors. Kinda wild, there's so many different kinks!”
I raise a brow and study her harder than I glared at Kim. She’s very young, probably just scraping the twenty-one plus age limit, and her eyelashes are bright blue. The color matches her dress, which is littered with what I assume are fashionable holes. I hope she brought a coat.
“No lanyard,” I tell her, standing up. She backs away and flutters her lashes at me, and I just stare right back. “I work here. Go find someone with a badge and learn how to act at the club.”
“There’s rules?” she asks dryly.
“Standards,” I correct, grabbing my bag off the floor before turning my back to her. Kim is scowling, but her eyes shift to me when I hold out a hand. “Coming?”
It’s a spur of the moment idea, because I shouldn’t be offering anything. She eyes me, probably thinking of how things might go if she leaves with me, and takes my hand. “Absolutely.”
~~~
“Is there a reason you don’t have a car?”
Kim scowls as we get into my car, the dash lighting up and highlighting the way her nose wrinkles at the question before I start the engine. “I don’t need one. I don’t go to a ton of different places so I sold it. Rideshares and the Amtrak service give me enough options.”
