Phury finished his martini, he wanted to throw the glass into a wall. Shit, he
couldn't believe he'd even thought about paying for sex.
Desperate. Loser.
God, he wanted a blunt.
«Come on, Phury, you have to know that all the chicks here case you when you come. You
should just try one.»
Okay, way too many people were pushing him tonight. «No, thanks.»
«I'm just saying-«
«Fuck you and shut it.»
Butch cursed under his breath and didn't comment any further. Which made Phury feel like an
asshole. As he should. «I'm sorry.»
«Nah, it's cool.»
Phury waved down a waitress, who came right over. As his empty was taken away, he muttered,
«She tried to set me up with someone tonight.»
«Excuse me?»
«Bella.» Phury picked up a soggy cocktail napkin and started folding it up into squares. «Said
there was some social worker at Safe Place.»
«Rhym? Oh, she's very cool-«
«But I'm-«
«Not interested?» Butch shook his head. «Phury, man, I know you're probably going to bite my
head off again, but it's time for you to get interested. This shit with you and the females? Gotta
end.»
Phury had to laugh. «Be blunt, why don't you?»
«Look, you need to live a little.»
Phury nodded over at the bionic blonde. «And you think that buying sex constitutes living a
little?»
«With the way she's looking at you, you wouldn't have to pay,» Butch said dryly.
Phury forced his brain to try on the scenario. He pictured himself getting up and walking over to
the woman. Taking her by the arm and moving her into one of the private bathrooms. Maybe
she'd blow him. Maybe he'd prop her up on the sink and spread her legs and pump into her until
he came. Total elapsed time? Fifteen minutes, tops. After all, he might be a virgin, but the
mechanics of sex were pretty simple. All his body would need was a tight hold and some friction
and he'd be good to go.
Well, in theory. He was limp in his trousers right now. So even if he wanted to bust his cherry
tonight, it wasn't going to happen. At least, not with her.
«I'm good,» he said as his fresh martini arrived. After he swirled the olive around with a finger,
he popped it into his mouth. «Really. I'm good.»
The two of them went back to the silent routine, with nothing between them but the dim
thumping from the music on the other side of the waterfall wall. Phury was about to bring up
sports because he couldn't handle the quiet when Butch stiffened.
A female across the VIP area was staring their way. It was that security chief, the one who was
jacked like a male and had a male's haircut. Talk about a hard-ass. Phury had seen her cuff
drunken human men around like she was whapping dogs with a newspaper.
But wait, she wasn't looking at Phury. She was all about Butch.
«Whoa, you've had her,» Phury said. «Haven't you.»
Butch shrugged and swallowed the Lag in his glass. «Only once. And it was before Marissa.»
Phury glanced back at the female, and had to wonder what that sex had been like. She seemed
like the kind who could make a male see stars. And not necessarily in a fun way.
«Is anonymous sex any good?» he asked, feeling like he was twelve.
Butch's smile was slow. Secret. «I used to think it was. But when that's all you know, sure, you
think cold pizza is fantastic.»
Phury took a pull on his martini. Cold pizza, huh. So that's what was out there waiting for him.
How inspiring.
«Shit, I don't mean to be a buzz kill. It's just better with the right person.» Butch tossed back his
Lag. As a waitress headed over to pick up for a refill, he said, «Nah, I stop at two now. Thanks.»
«Wait!» Phury said, before the woman took off. «I'll have another one. Thanks.»
Vishous knew the dream had come to him, because he was happy in it. The nightmare always
started out with him in a state of bliss. He was, in the beginning, wholly happy, utterly complete,
a Rubik's Cube solved.
Then the gun went off. And a bright red stain bloomed on his shirt. And a scream sliced through
air that seemed dense as a solid.
Pain hit him like he'd been ripped into by bomb shrapnel, like he'd been doused in gasoline and
matched up, like his skin had been taken off in strips.
Oh, God, he was dying. No one lived through this kind of agony.
He fell to his knees and-
V shot up from the bed like he'd been boot-licked in the head.
In the penthouse's cage of black walls and night-backed glass, his breath sounded like a hacksaw
going through hardwood. Shit, his
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