Hard Bastard(13)

“Enjoy yourself in there,” Tommy the bouncer said. I smiled at him as we passed and went in through the front door.

Heavy music blasted through my chest as we stepped into the dimly lit club. Ahead, there was a large bar, with another bar at the far end of the room. The place was packed, absolutely mobbed, and the dance floor was going crazy. There was a DJ at the far end, and more couches and seating scattered all over.

Gage took my hand and led me into the mob. I kept up, marveling at the place. It was modern and nice, an expensive-looking club with attractive waitresses and bartenders spinning bottles in their hands. I couldn’t believe a place like this existed in Ashertown. It was basically impossible to believe that an amazing club was somehow flourishing in a nowhere town like Ashertown, but there it was, packed and exciting.

Suddenly, a cute waitress approached. She said something to Gage, speaking into his ear. He smiled and nodded. “The usual spot,” he yelled over the music.

We followed her through the crowd and to an empty booth in the back corner. It was a little quieter as we slipped in and she shut the rope behind us. Gage ordered drinks and the waitress disappeared.

“I can’t believe this place,” I said to him.

“I know, right? A friend of mine opened it.”

“That explains how you can walk right in here like that.”

“Well, that and a few well-placed bribes.”

I laughed. “I noticed.”

“I wasn’t trying to hide it.”

“Trying to show off for me?”

He shrugged. “Does that sort of thing impress you?”

“No. It doesn’t.”

“Good. I like that you’re not easily impressed.”

“Takes more than some flash to win me over.”

“Oh, I know. I remember very well.”

“We were kids back then, you know. We were different.”

He shrugged. “Not so different. But you’re definitely not a kid anymore.”

I blushed, feeling so out of my league. I’d never been in a club like this before, let alone sitting in a private booth. The waitress returned with our drinks a minute later and Gage slipped her some cash. He sipped his whisky and I sipped my gin and tonic, happy to have it.

The alcohol loosened me up a little bit. I didn’t want to get drunk, since I had work in the morning, but I also knew that I needed a little something to make me feel more comfortable. I took another sip and looked at Gage.

He smirked at me and knocked his drink back. He leaned in toward me, and for a second I thought he was trying to kiss me.

I didn’t move. I thought I should pull away, but I stayed right there, waiting for his lips.

Instead, his moved toward my ear. “What do you think?”

“It’s nice,” I said.

“Nice? Not the word I’d use.”

“What’s the word you’d use?”

He thought for a second then leaned toward me again. “Dirty.”

“Dirty? It looks really clean in here.”

“That’s not the kind of dirty I mean.”

I laughed, shaking my head. He was unbelievable. “Is that all you think about?”

“Maybe,” he said, moving closer. “At least it’s all I think about when around a girl like you.”

Suddenly, the waitress appeared at the side of our booth. She leaned over and said something to Gage, but he barely seemed to notice her. I noticed that she had a low-cut top and was clearly flirting with him, but that didn’t seem to faze Gage. He ordered two more drinks for us and she went off.

“It’s not just you,” he said when she was gone. “It’s this place, this atmosphere. Look around us. Is there anywhere else in Ashertown that screams sex like this club?”

I had to admit, he was right. The whole place was filled to the brim with half-naked people dancing against each other, drinking and having a good time. On the surface it was all good clean club fun, but underneath it all there was the implication of sex in everything people did. That implication was always there, whether in a bar or in a club, but this place seemed to heighten it all. Sex seemed to be in the air, a charged electricity sparking between people, arcing between bodies.

“I don’t see it,” I lied to him, not wanting to give in. I didn’t want to play his game and admit that I was feeling the same thing. I could see how dangerous that would be. Admitting that I sensed the charged intensity was basically admitting that I was feeling that way, and it was only make him bolder.

Although I didn’t know how you could be bolder than Gage. He didn’t hold back in anything, and clearly he wanted me again. He wasn’t trying to hide that fact, and frankly I liked that about him. I was so tired of men that couldn’t say what they wanted or were too nervous to say what they were thinking. Gage had never been that way, and clearly time hadn’t changed that aspect of his personality.