by Ellle Parker
“All right.” I let him pull me to my feet. “Just…be gentle with me.”
The dance floor was actually pretty small, but it was packed with the same assortment of half naked guys and drag queens that filled the other rooms. The music was louder, but better, since there was a live DJ working this one. Strobe lights pulsed in time to the beat. So did the crowd.
Seth picked up the rhythm and started dancing as we worked our way through the throng of people. There was a low wall around the edge of the dance floor, and I found a place along it where I could lean and watch. Once he got onto the floor, Seth cut loose and I was surprised to find out he really could dance. He’s lean and coordinated, and he moved effortlessly.
He caught me staring and licked his lips, pouring it on thick for my benefit. I gave him an encouraging smile. I wasn’t the only one noticing him. A couple of the guys on the dance floor picked up on him, and started to do a seriously dirty bump and grind with him. Seth could put the hired dancers downstairs to shame. Even without the gold underwear.
Eventually, he came over and pulled me away from the wall, so he could use the same moves on me. I know I looked like an ass, completely out of place, but Seth’s energy was infectious, and his sex appeal was in full force. I wound up like several other guys in the room, willing to do just about anything to keep his interest fixed on me.
Tease definitely wasn’t my scene, but I do have moves, and I managed to modify what I knew into something more or less passable. Apparently, it was good enough for Seth, because he seemed to approve.
I held my own for a while, but I was starting to get a headache. I pulled him close and leaned down to his ear. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said.
He got a smoky look on his face and nodded, rubbing up against my hip one last time before making for the stairs.
The walk back to the hotel was as big a circus as the walk from it, only Seth was louder, ruder, and dirtier. That was all right, though, because so was the rest of the crowd. He was absolutely right—we could have had sex right there on the street and no one would have cared a bit.
“This is a side of you I don’t think I’ve seen before,” I told Seth, as he flirted outrageously with a group of guys who were hanging out on the sidewalk, teasing everyone who went by. He was silly and sultry, and fit in naturally with the people and the surroundings.
“Dino, you have no idea. I can be extremely gay when I want to be.”
He sounded extremely gay when he said it, and I was amazed at how that suited him just as well as the tough guy in a bar fight, or the hardworking mechanic, or the pig with the pizza and beer.
Once we hit the elevator, he turned all that silly, sultry attention back on me…and then cranked it up a notch. It was all I could do to keep him dressed until we got to the room.
Inside, he kicked off his shoes and jumped onto the bed, bouncing as he pulled his shirt off over his head. He twirled it around on one finger and danced like he had in the club, all thrusting pelvis and writhing body. I went over and turned on the radio on the bedside table, scanning the stations until I found one playing the same kind of techno-crap they had in the club.
“Come on,” I said, “let’s see you take it all off.”
He matched the beat of the music and treated me to a striptease far more interesting than the ones I’d seen earlier. When he unbuttoned his jeans and eased them down over the tops of his thighs, I saw he wasn’t wearing any underwear. My growing hard-on sprang to full attention, and I said, “I wish you would have told me that before.”
“Well, if you weren’t so uptight, you would have found out for yourself.”
“I am not—”
“Dino, don’t even try to argue it,” he said with a smile. He finished out the song, dancing with his jeans half off, then dropped down onto his butt so he could kick them the rest of the way off. “Your turn,” he said, giving me a wink.
“Oh, no. Not a chance,” I said, holding up my hands.
He shook his head and got off the bed, coming to undo my shirt buttons. “I just meant get naked, not the dancing part.”
“Ah,” I said, watching his hands as he took my shirt off.
I let him undress me while I looked him over. I’d never actually seen him completely naked before. Sure, I’d seen him shirtless plenty of times, and even wearing nothing but a towel. But I’d never seen that long stretch of pale skin, unbroken from his neck, down the angle of his hip bone and along his leg. He was gorgeous, but I felt bizarre, like I was out of line for looking.
I put my hands on his shoulders and ran them down his arms, tracing the muscles with my thumbs. He was hot and a little sweaty, and I could smell it on him, earthy and raw, mixed with aftershave and cigarette smoke and the scent of arousal.
He was working on my belt buckle, but I sat down on the edge of the bed so I could study him closer, trailing my fingers down his smooth torso. He went still and let me explore, resting a hand lightly on the back of my neck. When I pressed my mouth to his stomach, he moaned and leaned into me.
This I could do. I’d spent the better part of the evening feeling awkward, but this I could do. I could stop thinking altogether and lose myself in the physical. I slid my arms around him and pulled him against my body, reveling in the feel of skin against skin, and the solid weight of him. He was hard, and excited, and I could feel his chest swell with each heavy breath. I ran my hand over his ass and down the back of his leg as far as I could reach.
“Oh man,” he said, kneading my shoulders with his fingers. “I really like this silent, intense thing you do. You have some serious focus goin’ on.”
“Yeah,” I said, kissing a slow path across his chest.
“Come on, stand up, I want you naked and on the bed, like…now.” He was breathless and getting more than a little intense himself.
I got up and dropped my pants, using my feet to pull my socks off. The second I was done, Seth pushed me onto my back and crawled up over me. I never got the chance to notice if I’d feel weird being naked in front of him. By that point, we were both so turned on, I didn’t care.
He straddled my hips and lay down on top of me, half kissing, half licking my neck. “Holy hell, Dino, you feel good.”
I agreed with him, but for the moment, I couldn’t speak. I was completely unprepared for the experience of being skin to skin, all over. “Holy hell” didn’t even come close to what I was feeling. All I managed was an inarticulate moan.
“That good, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.”
The hard length of Seth’s cock pressed into my belly, radiating heat. He pushed up onto his hands and knees and started to deliberately rub it against me, sliding over my skin in long, light strokes. A tease. An even bigger tease when he shifted so he was brushing against my cock, over and over. It was a hell of a sensation and sent shivers down my spine.
The light from the desk gave me a remarkable view of what he was doing, and I watched, mesmerized. When I glanced up at him, I saw he was just as taken with the sight as I was, which excited me even more.
“Jesus, Seth,” I moaned.
“No shit,” he said, panting. “You are fucking hot, Dino.”
So was he. His body was taut with the effort of controlling his motions, and his face and chest were flushed. His cock was making us both slick.
Things were moving fast, and I got nervous. “You gotta’ know that I’m not really sure what comes next, here, right?”
“Just follow my lead.” He spit into his hand and coated both our cocks with it.
“Classy,” I said, running my fingers along his thigh.
“When have you ever known me to be classy?” He lay back down on top of me, pushing one arm under my neck, and grasping my shoulder with his other hand. I liked that a lot, because I was able to touch him almost anywhere I wanted.
His face was mere inches from mine, and he flashed one of his dark looks, before he shoved down hard with his hips. Our cocks ground together, trapped in
the damp heat between us. He arched his back and did it again, which made my skin go hot and my spine tingle. My breath caught in my throat, and I could only stare at him with dumb pleasure.
When he did it a third time, I met him with a thrust of my own, and both of us moaned out loud. “Oh, shit, Dino, that’s the ticket. Keep it up.”
We found a rhythm that worked for us and rubbed against each other eagerly. It felt amazing, and I was desperate for more. I had to have him harder, closer, tighter. Anything to feed the desire he’d created. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down, planting a hand on his ass to hold him close as I drove hard against him.
“God, yeah,” he moaned, clutching my shoulders tighter. “This is one of my favorite ways to fuck.”
He writhed in my arms, reminding me of the way he danced. The hot rush of his breath warmed my neck, and his thighs squeezed me as he pumped his body, our cocks sliding together relentlessly. I braced my feet on the bed, straining upward each time he thrust against me. I still had a buzz from the drinks at the club, and it heightened the experience, making my head spin as waves of pleasure washed through me.
Seth looked as turned on as I was. Soon he was moaning steadily, and the bliss turned into a look of deep concentration, eyes squeezed shut and brows furrowed. His hips jerked erratically, and he clawed at my shoulders with his fingers.
“Come on, Seth,” I whispered, butting my head against his lightly. “Come for me. I wanna see you lose it, right here.”
“Fuck, Dino, I’m about to,” he groaned.
The hard, wet slide of his body reached a fever pitch, and he cried out, holding on tightly as he rode it through. The effort he put into it, and the sudden warmth of his climax, was enough to pull me right along with him. I came hard, grinding my cock against him with fierce need.
When it was all over, we lay in a tangle, panting hard, but grinning stupidly. I hooked an arm around his neck and pulled him close so I could plant a kiss on his forehead. “I can see why you like that so much,” I said. “It was incredible.”
“Yes, it was.” He rolled over onto his back and stretched with a satisfied hum. “You want to shower off with me and get some sleep?”
“Sure, just as soon as I can move.”
He got off the bed and grabbed my ankle. “Come on, ya big dinosaur, you can make it.”
I did, just barely, and when we fell back in bed, I was out like a light.
Chapter 16
I woke up the next morning, disoriented by the unfamiliar room. Reality returned in the form of Seth snoring from the other side of the bed. I pulled one of the pillows out from under my head and tossed it at him, bouncing it off his face. The snoring stopped, and the pillow came flying back.
“It’s too early for that kind of shit,” he groaned, rolling over.
I looked at the beside clock. “It’s eight-thirty. Time to get moving. We have a lot of work to do today.”
“Nrrgmmph.”
I crawled out of bed and went to peer through the window. It looked like another bright and pleasant day in Florida, so I went to start a pot of coffee and take a shower.
When I got done, Seth was just coming in the door with a fistful of loose change and a bottle of something bright blue. He was half naked and his hair was a bigger mess than usual. I wasn’t sure he was entirely awake yet.
“You went out in the hall in your underwear?” I asked him.
“All the X-rated junk is covered,” he said, squinting. “Are you done in the shower?”
“Yeah, it’s all yours.”
While he got into functional shape, I poured myself a cup of coffee, dried off and got dressed. I grabbed my computer bag from the corner of the closet and unzipped it, setting up my laptop on the table.
Seth finished his shower and came out wrapped in a towel, chugging the last of his blue stuff. He paused by me, bumping my arm with his hip, then rummaged around in his duffel bag and disappeared again with his shaving kit.
My stomach growled at me, unhappy about the assorted kinds of weird alcohol I’d poured into it. I went to the nightstand and dug out the room service menu.
When Seth came back, he looked over my shoulder. “What’cha got there?”
“Breakfast.” I stuffed the menu into his hand. “Order me the vegetable omelet.”
“Jesus,” he said, reading it. “Do they come and spoon feed you? For six bucks these pancakes better suck me off before I eat them.”
“McCann’s footin’ the bill, I don’t plan on starving.” I sat down at the table and started to leaf through Serrano’s notebook while my web browser loaded.
Seth picked up the phone and dialed room service. He ordered my omelet, a pot of coffee, steak and eggs, two pancakes, and a large glass of milk, then gave them our room number. Afterward, he grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. “So what’s the game plan for this morning?” he asked.
“I’m gonna run these VIN numbers, see if any of them are legit. If they are, maybe they can tell us something.”
“Shit, I hope so,” Seth said, perching himself on the end of the bed.
He clicked through the channels erratically, rejecting each one in turn. A random assortment of words spilled from the TV—partly sunny, recommended daily amount, checked into rehab, coming up next. It was enough to drive me crazy.
“Would you pick something, already? Or you could help, you know.”
“There’s not a lot I can do right now, Dino.”
“Get a pad of paper out of my briefcase, you can take notes.”
He nodded, but couldn’t resist clicking the remote a couple more times. The shrill sound of a woman screaming erupted from the TV, followed by gunfire. I rolled my eyes.
“Hey! Check it,” Seth said, standing up and pointing at the screen. “It’s James Bond. Speak of the devil.”
I looked over, and sure enough, a good-looking man with a handgun was chasing some arch villain through the streets of a dated looking European city. I was about to comment on the coincidence, when there was a knock at the door and the muffled call of “Room Service.”
Seth opened the door and led two waiters in, each one carrying a tray holding silver topped plates. I was especially interested in the one who had my pot of coffee, and I went to snatch it while he unloaded the food on the dresser. Seth signed the room charge and tipped them, then quickly flipped up all the tops to find his food.
I took my omelet and went to make room for it on the table, while Seth grabbed his plate and sat down in front of the TV.
“You’re actually going to watch that?” I asked.
“I’m doing research.”
“Right.”
I sliced off a bite of egg with my fork and ate it while I pulled up the AutoSafe website I use to trace VIN numbers. It’s one of about a dozen websites designed to help the average used car buyer avoid getting stuck with a lemon. For thirty bucks, you can plug in the VIN of the car you want to buy and find out about nearly every accident and repair job it’s been through. You also get a report of each time the car changed hands officially. All this information comes in pretty handy for private eyes too, and I buy the unlimited account.
The first one I ran came up invalid. I reached into my briefcase for a pad of paper and a pen and tossed them at Seth. “I thought you were takin’ notes for me,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, wedging a forkful of pancakes into his mouth.
While he chewed, he set down his plate and picked up the paper. He looked like a chipmunk when he turned to me and raised his eyebrows.
“First page is a bust,” I told him. “The VIN’s no good.”
He jotted that down and went back to watching Bond.
I flipped the page and entered the next VIN number. This time, I got a hit on a 1996 Chevy Caprice. “Hey, here we go,” I said to Seth, poking him with my foot.
He put his empty plate on the dresser and came to read over my shoulder. The car had been registered in Georgia, sold twice, been re
ported in a minor accident, sold again and reregistered in Florida, and finally listed as salvage. Not surprisingly, the final location was Miami.
“Want me to write all that down?” Seth asked, reaching for the pad.
I shook my head. “Not yet. I can save this to a file until I run the rest of them, if even half of these are for real, there’s going to be a lot of information. It would be better to sort it out when I’m done.”
He looked relieved and put the paper and pen on the table. Then he went back to watching the movie. Calling it research wasn’t all that dumb under the circumstances, and I said so, telling him to pay attention for anything about Bond that might actually give us a clue.
“Well,” Seth said, “I bet if we asked any of the chicks Serrano knew, they’d tell us he thought he was some kind of player.”
“I could say the same thing about you,” I said as I typed in the next set of digits.
Seth smirked. “No. If you asked about me, they would tell you that I am a player.”
I smiled, because from what little I knew, he was right. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know a whole lot more.
The next VIN was a hit too, and I scanned the report, looking for similarities. The only thing I could find was this car ended up salvaged in Miami also. I saved it and ran the next one. It was a dud.
On the TV, some blonde was being fragile and irritating, and giving Bond a hard time about something. He was trying to explain the situation to her, but she, of course, was having none of it.
I stood up and watched as Timothy Dalton chewed up the scenery, trying to act as though he’d been drugged. “Let’s hope he didn’t get his inspiration from the worst Bond ever.”
Seth snorted and turned back to the TV. I finished running the VIN numbers.
At the end of an hour and a half, I had a list of a dozen bogus numbers and four real ones. The movie ended before I was done, and Seth prowled around, alternating between watching me, making faces out the window, and juggling his tennis shoes.
“Okay, that’s the last one.” I pulled a fresh sheet of paper off the pad and copied down the codes for each of the VIN numbers that led to an actual car. I also copied the one page that didn’t fit the pattern of the rest of them. It had no VIN, and I was reasonably sure it had a real purpose. I got up to stretch and use the bathroom.