Chapter 1
There’s a big difference between fame and infamy.
I placed my arm on the back of the booth. The pretty redhead next to me looked up and batted her eyelashes a little before tilting her head and sticking the tip of the straw in her mouth. Her fingers wrapped around the glass and made patterns in the condensation. I wasn’t really sure how many Long Island Iced Teas I was going to have to buy this little soon-to-be notch on my bedpost, but watching her take that straw in her mouth was heating me up.
“I have an early morning, love,” I said in an absolutely perfect and totally fake British accent. With practiced ease, I glanced down at my illuminated phone to get the time but then quickly turned my focus back to her bright green eyes. “I think it just might be time to pay the tab and think about heading back to the hotel room.”
It’s just about time to get you on your knees and up close and personal with my cock.
From across the bar, Lee gave me a wave and pointed towards the smoking patio. I gave him a slight nod but mostly kept my attention on the chick next to me in the booth as she slurped on her drink. Keeping your attention someplace other than on the girl you’re with is a surefire way of not getting laid, and I intended to get laid.
My heart thumped a little faster when I thought about the pink-coated lips currently wrapped around a straw wrapped around my dick instead.
Getting laid was the only reason I even agreed to split a hotel room with Lee in the first place – the dude was married, and though he talked a bunch about hooking up when he was away from the family, he’d never actually do it. He was far too devoted. Otherwise, I would have just shown up for the parties at the science-fiction themed convention being held in Rosemont and gone home when everything tapered off. The con was a bit outside of Chicago, but I still would have taken a taxi or whatever back home if it wasn’t for the likelihood of available pussy.
Maybe I was a man-whore – I didn’t know.
Maybe I was just bored.
It’s not that I didn’t respect women – I do. It was expected of me though, and I guess that’s where the fame versus infamy came in. Everyone in Chicago seemed to know who I was, or at least figured it out pretty quickly. I’m not a celebrity or anything – I don’t act on film. I can’t sing for shit, and I don’t play an instrument.
Well, not the musical kind.
“Did you finish all the treatments for that horribly contagious disease you picked up?” Kimberly asked as she smirked at me from the other side of the table. One of Lee’s friends, Chris, covered his mouth up to keep from laughing out loud.
Lovely.
“The what?” the chick next to me asked, tilting her head.
Think quick, Nick.
I wasn’t going to be cockblocked that easily.
“Have you heard of the bird flu?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Well, when I was on a missionary trip to Asia, I visited this little village far away from any of the cities. I was warned not to go, but I knew there were children suffering there and I couldn’t just leave them to rot now, could I?”
It was total bullshit, but her wide eyes told me she was eating it up.
“The conditions there were terrible, and though I had brought nutritious food, clean water, and medicine, it wasn’t enough. So, I gave them all of what I had as well – my whole group did. Sure, we went hungry for a couple of days, but they lived like that all the time.”
“And that made you sick?” she asked as she blinked.
“No, but on the final day, I was so thirsty, and I walked by a little flowing brook on the far side of the village. I knew it wasn’t safe drinking water, but I couldn’t help myself. I contracted a form of virus similar to the bird flu and ended up in the hospital in Singapore for a month before the quarantine was lifted, and I could finally return to Chi…London.”
Damn. Almost slipped.
“O.M.G., that's terrible!”
“Barely survived.” I let the edge of my index finger lightly brush against the skin of her neck. I could feel her shiver in her thigh.
Kimberly rolled her eyes, and Chris snickered.
“The doctors said it was my stamina that saved me.”
More eye rolling – from both Kim and Chris this time.
The chick next to me just beamed.
I'm so in there.
There was nothing that was going to stop me from taking this girl back to my hotel room and fucking her into oblivion. Absolutely nothing. It was a good thing, too – I had just spent the last week trying to ditch a local girl who didn’t seem to understand the meaning of a one-night-stand. It even got to the point where I had to block her number from my phone, and she still kept finding ways to reach me. I’d half considered getting one of my dad’s goons to scare her into leaving me alone, but the only one who might have done it would have been Evan Arden, Dad’s favorite hit man and preferred son. He’s not actually related to us or anything; Dad just wishes he was. I’m not jealous. It’s just that Evan…well…I’d be afraid he’d end up doing more than just scaring her. I didn’t want her dead, just out of my way.
Right now, I wanted to find a nice out-of-town girl to get my rocks off. That way, I would be able to get rid of her shortly afterwards, and even though my place was only a short ride on the Chicago L train or in a taxi, I’d rather make this a convenient hotel-room lay, and the chick next to me was exactly what I needed.
“It’s not that late,” she purred over her straw.
“This pub’s about to close, love.”
“I bet there are other parties still going on,” she said with a bit of a smile and a flutter of her eyelashes.
You don’t have to convince me, baby.
There was always a party going on. Out here in the burbs, Lincoln Park, downtown, any of the hundred clubs and bars around – whatever you wanted, the city was sure to have it somewhere if you looked hard enough. I’d been a Chicagoan most of my life, so I knew all the best spots. Hell, I knew the shitty spots as well – I liked to party.
Chicago is a great place to live, even if you aren’t connected to a family known for various illegal activities. Oh, I know – Chicago, right? Chicago and the mafia – how fucking cliché is that? Well, it is cliché. I can’t help that – I didn’t marry the mob; I was born into it.