If It Fornicates (Market Garden, #4)(36)

Talk about buzz. His trouser pocket buzzed, so he surreptitiously pulled out the phone. Just a text.

But a text from Spencer was never just any f*cking text.

Thinking of you has never been this uncomfortable.

Likewise, Nick thought, but for very different reasons.

But he’d had nights like this before. Everyone did. Didn’t mean he was off the hook for satisfying his clients and earning his keep. Especially since nights like this had been happening all too frequently lately.

He slid his phone back into his pocket, took a deep breath, and schooled his face into something that balanced devilishness with flirtation as the church mouse returned with a fresh cola. “Thank you.”

He got up to let the john sit, then sat beside him. “So tell me, what is it you’re looking for?”

The church mouse gulped. “I . . .” His eyes darted towards his friends. Then he picked up his drink and inhaled almost a third of it in a single gulp. He grimaced—Raoul always made them good and strong—and then pushed the glass away. “I’m not sure, to be honest.”

Nick gestured towards Alpha and Sleaze. “Their idea?”

Some colour crept into the church mouse’s cheeks, and he nodded sheepishly.

Nick sipped his own drink. “You like it kinky?”

Good thing the church mouse hadn’t been taking a drink just then. He’d have choked. In fact, he choked anyway, even though he wasn’t swallowing a damned thing. “Kinky?”

“You know.” Nick shrugged. “Handcuffs. Whips. Chains.” He grinned, but wasn’t feeling it. “Being told what to do.”

All that extra colour in the guy’s cheeks went away. “Um . . .”

“Hey, hey, hey,” said a loud, slimy voice, and Nick barely kept himself from rolling his eyes as he turned around. Sleaze smirked down at them. “You’ve already picked one out, eh?”

The church mouse cringed. “Um . . .”

“Actually,” Nick said, “I came to him.” He smiled as sweetly as . . . well, at least it wasn’t a smirk. Not much of one, anyway. “I always home in on the good-looking ones.”

Sleaze’s smirk evaporated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Nick batted his eyes. “That you have good taste in friends?”

Beside Sleaze, Alpha bristled, glaring at Nick. Then the two of them slid into the booth across from Nick and the bewildered fish out of water.

Nick turned and cupped the guy’s chin, kissed him lightly on the mouth, and paused long enough to watch the mix of horror, arousal, and what-the-f*ck on the guy’s face. Then he let him go. “Shall we go sit somewhere else?” He glanced at the others, then turned to his prey. “Somewhere more private?”

The church mouse gulped. “O-okay.”

The other two watched with slack jaws and wide eyes as Nick and their friend left the booth. The church mouse didn’t look at the others, but Nick made sure to offer them the most smug expression he could muster. And just to rub it in, he said, “Good night, lads. It was lovely meeting the two of you.”

He and his soon-to-be john found a booth on the opposite end of the room. The church mouse slid in first, and Nick sat beside him.

“You’ve got your hands full with those two, don’t you?” he asked.

The church mouse shrugged. “They’re not so bad. They’ve just done this sort of thing before. I haven’t.”

Nick arched an eyebrow. “You’re not a virgin, are you?”

“What?” The john laughed and shook his head. “No, no. I’ve just never, um, paid for it.”

Nick inched closer to him, ignoring the heavy, apathetic feeling in his gut. “There’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?”

“T-true.”

“So what is it you want? You just want to get f*cked for the night? Or do you want something a little . . . kinkier?”

“I’m not really sure, to be honest.”

Right then he reminded Nick of Spencer. Of the bewildered look on his face when he’d first wandered into Market Garden with a loud-mouthed friend of his own. He shook the thought away. “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done, then?”

“Craziest?” The church mouse’s eyebrows climbed his creased forehead. “What do you mean?”

“You know.” Nick shrugged with one shoulder. “You ever let someone tie you up and spank you? Ever blown someone on top of the Eiffel Tower? Anything?”

The church mouse laughed and held his drink tighter. Nick expected him to insist he’d never done such a thing, but, with a little colour rushing into his cheeks, the guy said, “I once begged my boyfriend to let me suck him off on the train.”

Nick blinked. “And did he let you?”

Laughing again, the guy shook his head. “No. But he liked watching me beg, so I did it again when we were home. Then he let me.”

“You like begging?”

The church mouse nodded.

“The submissive type, then.”

“Uh, yeah. I guess. But that’s all I’ve ever done.”

“You want to try more, though, don’t you?” Nick schooled his expression, keeping the Dom on his face and pretending that heaviness in his gut wasn’t sinking deeper. “Have someone order you around in the bedroom?”