Buy Me, Sir

I shake my head. “I’ll handle it.”

She looks taken aback.

I raise an eyebrow. “You think I’ve never propositioned a guy before?”

She squeezes aside to let me pass, and I angle her face up to mine for a kiss as I go. My eyes meet his as I leave her, and seeing me with Amy does little to dent his interest.

So far so fucking good.

He clears a spot at the bar for me as I make my way over, and he’s taller than I expect up close. He smells fresh. He smells like he wants my cock in his ass.

“I’m Dean,” he says.

I take out a twenty from my wallet to pay for his drink.

“The name’s Ted,” I say.MelissaI can hardly watch. My knees are shaking under the table as Alexander pays for Dean’s drink at the bar.

My heart is a panicked mess as they talk.

I force a smile as Alexander looks in my direction. His mouth is by Dean’s ear, and I wish to God I knew what he was saying.

I also wish Dean and I had sorted out a bail-out word, because I’d be so close to using it right now. So close to blowing this whole crazy thing off.

Downing my wine doesn’t make the nerves any easier. I can hardly sit still as Alexander brings me another and brings Dean along with him.

“Amy, this is Dean,” he tells me, and I’m sure my smile is fake enough to cringe as I say hello. “Dean’s coming back with us,” Alexander tells me, and my stomach drops through the floor.

I grip his hand under the table and he runs a thumb across my knuckles.

My silly fantasies about this evening were ridiculous, I know that now.

This is Dean. My friend Dean. Pretending to be some random in some London pub in order to take Alexander’s dick up his ass.

But he doesn’t need to, because Alexander said all he needed to say already. He’s asked me to go away with him, and I’m still reeling. I need a way out of this hole I’m in, not a sure way of digging it all the deeper.

I’m digging it way too deep.

It’s in Dean’s eyes as he stares at Alexander. It’s in the way I know he must be so nervous. The way I know he must be as terrified as I am of blowing our cover.

“We should drink up,” Alexander says and my heart pounds.

Dean drinks up, downs his beer in one.

I have to take mine back in three long swigs, and my legs feel bandy as Alexander takes my hand and leads me out of this place. I can barely speak as we leave the pub with Dean in tow.

Alexander pulls me into the doorway of the very first hotel we pass. It’s nothing special, nothing like Delaney’s, and that makes it seem so much more real somehow. Three of us in some regular hotel room, where the man I adore is going to pound my best friend’s ass.

I can’t believe I set this up.

I can’t believe this is really happening.

“I’ll get us a room,” Alexander says, and I’m left with Dean as he heads on in.

“You can go,” I hiss. “This was a crazy idea, I’m sorry.”

“Too fucking late for that,” Dean hisses back. “It’s gonna look real fucking suss if I suddenly make a fucking dash for it.”

Alexander beckons us inside and I take a breath.

“You want to do this?” I ask before we go.

Dean looks at Alexander and his eyes darken. “Yeah, I wanna do this.”

Fuck.

“He’s rough,” I say, like he doesn’t know that already, but he isn’t even listening, he’s already swinging the door open.

I feel like a prostitute all over again as we head up to the second floor. I pretend it’s taking the stairs in my heels that leaves me breathless, but that’s not the half of it. I’m on the edge of panic. My ears are ringing and my head feels light as Alexander finds our room and opens the door.

Dean brushes past him on the way in, and Alexander grabs my arm before I can join him.

“Are you alright?”

I nod. Smile. “Sure.”

“Don’t want to call this off?”

I look into the hotel room and Dean’s already perched on the bed.

He wants this.

They both do.

I shake my head. “No,” I say. “I don’t want to call this off.”

He closes the door behind us, and the click of the lock sends shivers down my spine.AlexanderMy delicious little Amy has underestimated me.

That’s no real surprise, she simply has no comprehension of how astute I have to be in my line of work. My entire career has hinged on my ability to read people – the things they don’t want to tell me, the subtle little inferences of their body language, the little facts between their lines.

I wasn’t sure, not until we left the tavern.