romance, it was horror. And it was horrible horror at that.
Great. Just great.
At least I knew now why that was a genre I would never be venturing into. Choosing to focus on that silver lining that I’d actually managed to write something despite my frame of mind, I deleted what I’d written and tried again.
I was a lot of things, but I wasn’t a quitter. I also wasn’t a letdown.
Determined that I would get something that wasn’t horror written today, I opened one of the folders containing a manuscript I’d been working on before. Maybe today was the day I’d add another chapter to this story. And tomorrow? Tomorrow, I’d earn that hundred and fifty dollars with a smile on my face and a filter guarding my mouth.
I could do it all. Couldn’t I?
I snorted when I realized my inner pep talk was just being naïve now. There was no way I was going to make it through an entire day without saying something that offended one of his customers. All I could do was hope that I ended up offending someone who wouldn’t have to come back anyway.
An out-of-towner perhaps? It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was a lot more realistic than Rick’s.
Chapter 2
DANE
My mind was already on the day ahead when I strode out of the bathroom of my hotel room. I was fully dressed, packed, and ready to leave. A quick glance at my watch told me I had to be at the airport in just over an hour, which wouldn’t have been a problem if not for the overnight visitor still lying in my bed.
She patted the open space beside her, her blonde hair tousled and her lips swollen. “Are you sure you don’t want to come back for a few minutes?”
Her gaze drifted down from my face, raking across my shoulders and from my chest down to my crotch. With her eyes riveted on my package, she stuck her tongue out and licked her lips. “I’ll make it worth your while if you stay just a little while longer.”
“Regrettably, I really need to get going,” I said, clearing my throat as I pulled out the handle of my wheeled carry-on bag. “They serve breakfast until ten. Feel free to sign in under this room number. It’s not a bad buffet. Try the bacon.”
“The bacon?” She frowned deeply, blue eyes clouding over in confusion. “Why would I do that? Pigs have feelings too, you know?”
Oh, dear Lord. I slept with one of them. I wasn’t sure exactly which one of them she was, but as a red-blooded, red-meat eating, beer-drinking, sometimes-called-neanderthal of a man, I knew she wasn’t one of us.
Well, I’d known she wasn’t a man, of course. The vagina I’d spent the night buried in had given that part away, but I hadn’t known that she wasn’t part of the red-meat-eating clan. Thankfully, my chariot out of this city and away from this misstep was already awaiting my arrival.
“They have a great selection of fruit and muesli as well,” I said. “Or you could just have some coffee. If you want. Otherwise, you’re welcome to stay right here. Check out is in an hour.”
She pouted some more, lowering her voice to something of a purr. “You could spend the next hour until checkout with me, then.”
“I’ve got a flight to catch,” I said, walking backward toward the door with the handle of my suitcase in hand. “I’ll see you around, though, okay? Have a good one.”
“How will you see me around when you don’t have my number—” The door shut behind me before she could finish her sentence.
Maybe that made me an asshole. It probably did, but I really needed to get going and she’d known from the beginning I was only in town for one night.
Story of my life. I was almost always only in town for one night, and that was exactly the way I liked it. Plus, if I ever stuck around for a girl, it would be for one who ate steaks, and burgers, and all the fucking bacon.
When I stepped onto the elevator and jabbed the button for the lobby, my brain shifted gears. I was good at my job. Making money was what I did best.
My social skills were okay, but my dating ways? Fuck no.
I sucked at dating and relationships. Sex was usually a hit or a miss too. Not that I wasn’t good at it. I was. I just had a really big dick, which