NightWhere by John Everson Read Free Book Online Page B

men from the toys,” Kendrick winked. Then he made a big show of peering over Mark’s shoulders and looking beneath his bar stool. “Huh. Looks like I’m too late here. Someone’s already   cucked your goose?”
    “I told you she wasn’t normally shy,” Mark said.
    Sin-D pushed Kendrick’s shoulder away from the bar. “Git!” she said. “Can’t you see this boy needs a stiff drink from a soft bartendress?”
    Mark smiled. “How about just a Jack and Coke for now?”
    “You want Jack’s Cock? Has this place turned you that fast?” She exaggerated a roll of her eyes. “How disappointing.”
    Mark rolled his eyes. “Liquor?” he pleaded.
    “Ah, so easily swayed. Now he wants to lick her.” Sin-D reached down and lifted her skirt, unveiling the smooth-shaven bronze skin he still remembered very clearly from the last time. Sin-D was hotter than hell. Mark wasn’t embarrassed easily, but Sin-D’s completely overt sexuality made his face warm.
    Kendrick laughed and shook his head. He clapped Mark on the shoulder. “Take a flashlight if you hit that, so you don’t get lost.” He held a drink up in the air in Sin-D’s direction before walking off towards the dance floor. Sin-D flipped him off and then rested her head on her elbows on the bar, blinking doe-eyed at Mark. When he didn’t react to the innocent pose, she slid one finger down the front of her tank top until a nipple popped free.
    “How ’bout a li’l nip of a nip?” she offered.
    “How about you just pour me a drink from the bottle for now?” he suggested with a smile.
    “I was good enough for you last time,” she pouted. “Fuck ’em and leave ’em, I get it.” She poured a long stream of Jack and then squirted a shot of cola on top. “I like the fuck ’em part though, you know?”
    “I do know,” Mark grinned.
    Sin-D pushed the long-discussed drink across the bar just as a couple came up, hands groping each other with almost embarrassing freedom. Sin-D moved down the bar to help them, and Mark took his Jack and Coke with a smile, pulling himself up on a stool. He turned to look at the band, who, beneath the fog and the blue-green lights, seemed to be channeling something from an early Cure album. The keyboards hummed beneath a dark but steadily moving bass.
    “So, do you cum here often?” the woman on the stool next to him asked. Mark turned to take her in and was struck by the intensity of her ice-blonde hair and pale, high cheeks. She was stunning and delicate, in a Nordic kind of way. If she’d been lying on a white sheet, he thought she might have looked the lighter.
    “And I meant cum with a U ,” she added.
    “That’s kind of a personal question, isn’t it?” Mark smiled.
    “No, it’s kind of a bad cliché,” she answered. “But that’s what you’re supposed to do here, right?”
    “Speak in clichés?” Mark asked.
    “More like cum in clichés, I think,” she mused. “Look at them.” She waved a hand at the girls on the dance floor. The band had revved into “Blue Monday” and the black fishnet and teased hair of the women in the crowd moved faster, the sexy goth trappings just window dressing; they all knew they’d be nude in one corner or another of this place within the hour.
    “They’re just having fun,” Mark answered.
    “It’s always fun until somebody loses an eye.”
    Mark cleared his throat. “Ahem…I think you’re the one with all the clichés.”
    She didn’t answer him right away. Instead she took a long drink on a glass filled with something clear…and ice. Mark didn’t believe that it was water. He stared at her fingers circling the glass. They were long and creamy white, with unpainted nails. The soft look of her skin made him yearn to reach out. As soon as he looked at her, he ached to touch her. She looked as naturally beautiful as anyone could. Her eyes flickered wider then and met his own over the top of the glass. Still, she sipped. Finally, she set the glass down and