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“Nope. I got better plans.”

He didn’t even blink, just grunted and waved a hand at me, already moving on to wiping down the bar. Bless him for never asking follow-up questions. “Be safe out there.”

“Will do.”

As soon as I was outside, I took a moment to make sure there wasn’t a dirty truck sitting out there waiting for me. Although, I supposed my trigger finger was getting a little itchy for my pepper spray. I had the good stuff too.

But I didn’t need it. Nobody was waiting for me or watching or being weird. In fact, everyone pretty much ignored me as I went to my car. As soon as I pulled out onto the road, I turned toward the warehouse district on the other side of town. That’s where the men-only bathhouse was, the one full of monsters and humans. There I could get what I wanted and it didn’t matter what their cars or apartments looked like. And there people were just… nicer I guess? Men went there for one thing. Fucking. And I knew I could get some good dick there, as much as I wanted, which was exactly what I needed right now.

The building itself didn’t look like much from the outside. It was just an unmarked steel door set into a plain metal building. I’d been there so many times that the silver-haired guy at the front desk didn’t even look up from his book as I stepped into the front lobby.

“Kit. Didn’t expect to see you on a Thursday.”

“Change of plans,” I said, sliding my card across the little counter for him to swipe. “Bad date.”

“Their loss.” He handed back my card along with a locker key on an elastic band. “Busy tonight. Lots of new faces. Maybe you’ll have better luck here.”

That was good to hear. I liked variety. “Oh, I plan on it.”

I stepped through the door behind the desk that led to the locker rooms. Inside, the air was already thick with steam and that low hum of music that always played just loud enough to cover the other sounds without actually being annoying. I stripped down fast, my work clothes stuffed into the locker, wrapped the towel low around my hips because I wanted to leave a little bit to the imagination.

However, that didn’t last long as I made my way toward the open plan showers. Now that my clothes were off, I could still smell the scent of stale beer and liquor clinging to me from the bar. I wanted it gone before I went through to the Roman-style bath.

The shower stalls were open and mostly empty this early in the night, just two guys down at the far end trading lazy conversation under the spray, their voices bouncing off tile that had probably seen more action than a Vegas hotel room. I picked a stall in the middle, turned the water up hot enough to sting, and let it sluice the smell of the bar off my skin.

I scrubbed harder than I needed to, like I could wash away the whole encounter with Brandon along with the beer smell. Stupid. I didn’t even know why I was still thinking about him. Guys like that were a dime a dozen. They had a pretty face, big muscles, and were absolutely fucking rotten once you got two words out of them. I’d learned my lesson on that one a long time ago, and yet here I was, still a little hung up on the dick I’d missed out on.

I tipped my head back under the spray until the thought rinsed out with the suds, and by the time I shut the water off, my skin pink and warm, I felt looser. Better. More like myself.

I wrapped the towel back around my hips, loose enough that it rode dangerously low when I walked, which was exactly the point. And then I padded out toward the main bath area. The steam hit me first, thick and warm, carrying the mingled scent of chlorine and eucalyptus. Beneath it was the muskier, animal smell that always seemed to cling to the air in places like this. Underneath the voices echoing around the pool I could hear water lapping against tile, low growls, and a moan somewhere off to my left that sounded like that guy was having the time of his life.

The lighting was low, amber, flattering in a deliberate way. I let my eyes adjust and took stock of the room. There were lounge chairs along one side, a few guys draped over each other in the shadows there, and the big communal bath itself, steam curling up off the water. Men were seated at the edge or wading in the pool itself. There were werewolves, vampires, humans, a minotaur, werebears, kraken, and just about everything else you could think of. And all of them, from their horns to their claws, were hot as hell.

There was a dragon-type man near the shallow end, scales dark green and glistening wet as he enjoyed the steam. Beside him, a broad-shouldered orc with tusks that caught the low light, laughing as he told a story. And tucked into the corner, half-submerged, a pair of golden eyes that made my pulse stutter for one humiliating second before I registered the guy had the wrong ear shape, wrong jaw. Not him. Of course not him. He was probably back at his trash apartment sulking into a beer right now and furiously jerking off.

Good. Let him sulk.

I dropped my towel onto the floor and stepped down into the water, the heat swallowing me up to my waist, and let out a long steady breath. This was better. This, I could work with.

A few heads turned as I waded in, the way they always did, and I let myself enjoy it, chin up, shoulders back, walking like I owned the place. Confidence was ninety percent of the game in life. The other ten percent was knowing which person in the room was actually worth your time.

I settled onto one of the submerged stone benches, water lapping just below my collarbones, and let my eyes drift lazily over the room again, cataloguing possibilities.

That was when I noticed him.

He was sitting near the far wall, half in shadow, one hairy arm stretched along the tile behind him. He wasn’t doing anything to draw attention, which was somehow exactly what drew mine. Through the steam, I couldn’t make out much about him besides the fact that he was big, easily seven feet tall or more. His forearms and fingers were thick, and from what I could tell, he seemed to be covered from head to toe in fur. And that, I was completely okay with.

It took me about two seconds to make up my mind before I stood up and headed over, ready to take my shot.

The water parted around my legs as I waded closer, and the closer I got, the less sense the shadows made.

Because it wasn’t one guy sitting against that tiled wall. It was two.

I stopped mid-step, water lapping at my thighs, and blinked through the steam like that would somehow rearrange what I was looking at into something that made more sense. It didn’t. There were definitely two massive, fur-covered bodies tucked into that corner, so close together that the low light and rising steam had blurred them into one impossibly large shape. Now that I was closer, I could pick out details. There were two sets of shoulders, two heads, four arms, one pair of hands braided together on the tile between them like it was just a normal way to sit.

My brain did a slow, stupid reboot. Huh.

I should have turned around right then. That would have been the smart move, the normal move, the move that didn’t involve me wading toward two enormous strangers because my curiosity had apparently overridden every ounce of good sense I had left tonight. But I’d already committed to walking over here with my hips swaying, my chin up, and my cock hanging out half-hard. Turning back now would just make it weird. Or weirder, I supposed, considering the circumstances. Besides, I wasn’t a quitter.