J.R. Ward the Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8 - J. R. Ward [165]
The first martini was good. His second was better.
As he drank, human women came up to the table. The first was a brunette, so that wasn’t happening. Too much like Bella. Next one was blond, which was good…but she was the short-haired one Z had once fed from, so that just felt wrong. Then there was another blond who looked so strung out she gave him the guilts, followed by a black-haired one who looked like Xena: Warrior Princess and kind of scared him.
But then…a redhead stopped in front of the table.
She was a tiny thing, no more than five-five even with her stripper stillies, but her hair was huge. Dressed in a bubblegum-pink bustier and micromini, she looked like a cartoon character.
“You looking for some play, daddy?”
He shifted in the seat and told himself to quit being picky and get it over with. It was just sex, for God’s sake. “Maybe. What’s a ticket on the fifty-yard line going to cost?”
She lifted up her hand and touched her lips with two fingers. “For a full game.”
Two hundred bucks to get rid of his virginity. Which boiled down to less than a dollar a year. What a steal.
Phury was half-dead as he got to his feet. “Sounds good.”
As he followed the prostitute to the back of the VIP area, he had some vague thought that in a parallel universe he would be doing this for the first time with someone he loved. Or cared about. Or at least knew. It wouldn’t be about a pair of Benjis and a public bathroom.
Unfortunately, he was where he was.
The woman opened a glossy black door and he went in behind her. As he shut them in together the techno music faded a little.
He was nervous as hell as he held out the money.
She smiled up at him as she took it. “I’m not going to mind this with you at all. God, that hair. Is it extensions?”
He shook his head.
When she reached for his belt he took a knee-jerk step back and banged into the damn door.
“Sorry,” he said.
She gave him a strange look. “No problem. This your first time with someone like me?”
Try anyone. “Yeah.”
“Well, I’m going to take good care of you.” She stepped in close to him, and her big breasts pressed into his belly. He glanced down at her head. She had dark roots that showed on top.
“You’re a big one,” she murmured, tucking one hand into his waistband and tugging him forward.
He went with her with the grace of a robot, all numbed out and unable to believe he was going to do this. But really, how else was it going to happen?
She backed up against the sink and in a quick, practiced hop got herself up on the counter. As she spread her legs, her skirt rose. Her black thigh-highs were topped with lace. She wasn’t wearing panties.
“No kissing, of course,” she murmured, dragging his fly down. “On the mouth, that is.”
He felt cool air slip inside then her hand went into his boxers. He flinched as she took hold of his cock.
This was what he came here for, he reminded himself. This was what he’d bought and paid for. He could do this.
It was time to move on. From Bella. From the celibacy.
“Relax, lover,” the woman said in a raspy voice. “Your wife is never going to know. My lipstick is eighteen-hour smudge-proof, and I don’t wear perfume. So you can just enjoy yourself.”
Phury swallowed. I can do this.
As John got out of the dark blue BMW, he was sporting a spanking-new pair of black trousers, a black silk shirt, and a cream suede jacket built on the lines of a blazer. They weren’t his clothes. Like the car that had driven both him and Qhuinn downtown, they were Blay’s.
“We are so ready for this,” Qhuinn said as they walked across the parking lot.
John glanced back at the place where he’d taken out those lessers. He remembered the power he’d felt, the conviction that he was a fighter, a warrior…a Brother. That was all gone now, as if something