The young woman, somehow, felt more threatening still. Ray knew people. He had built his entire working life around being able to read them and predict their behavior. A nasty drunk wasn’t something you wanted roaming around in your establishment. The young woman wasn’t readable and it frightened him to his very core. He couldn’t predict what those dark, piercing eyes wanted and he had difficulty believing that her tender smiles carried benign intentions.
The odd pair sat silently at their table in the distant corner of his establishment. The black man slowly drank away at his beer, while the young woman hadn’t touched hers at all. They sat silently, and refused to look around them. Ray wondered very much what they were actually doing here.
Ray heard the door open to his left and, at that exact moment, the black man got up and walked over to the pool table.
Ray looked to his left and saw the very image of perfection standing in the doorway. She was stunning. No, beyond that even. She was flawless. Her golden curls framed a picture-perfect face, bringing out deep blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Her height should have been intimidating—she was taller than him—but somehow it only added to the amazing appeal she carried. An appeal emphasized by her perfectly proportionate chest that looked both firm and soft.
Margaret was dressed much better than last night, he realized, with her ass popping in tight jeans. The cleavage her low-cut shirt showed tonight was breathtaking and Ray found it difficult to steer his eyes in any other direction. A black leather jacket completed the picture of a gorgeous woman looking for a good time.
Ray watched as the perfect woman approached the bar and sat down. She gave him a friendly smile and he realized he would have killed to see it. Her lips were so beautiful, so perfect, that they warmed his heart in ways no woman ever had before. Ray knew for certain no other woman ever would.
Slightly to Ray’s right sat Jones. Jones always came to his establishment straight after work. There was no life for the older man beyond Brooks Mechanical and Ray’s Liquors.
Jones said, “Margaret! You devil! What did you do with Randall? Is he still tied to your bed or something? The bastard never showed up for work!”
Ray watched as Margaret turned toward the old drunk. Her movements were graceful and refined, and Ray felt at that moment that his place was nowhere near good enough for her.
“I don’t know, Jones,” she said with a playful smile. “He left last night a happy man.”
Ray interjected, “You know how Randall is. Probably drunk in a ditch somewhere. He’ll come back to work when he’s sober.
“Margaret, what can I get you sweetheart?”
Gold had seen the girl immediately when she entered the bar. She couldn’t explain it, but throughout the night she couldn’t stop looking at her. The girl’s presence was so strong that she had trouble focusing on the men that couldn’t help but circle around her. It was good to know that her power had returned to her in full form, but for some reason Gold didn’t care.
She cared only about the young girl in the corner of the room, sitting by herself while staring at the glass of beer she never touched. It was as if, somehow, the young girl had entered Gold’s mind and whispered to her. Look at me. I’m all by myself here. Wouldn’t you want to know more about me?
Those whispers led Gold now from her seat at the bar to the corner of the room. Before she knew it, Gold sat down and found two dark eyes staring at her. She almost drowned in those eyes. Dark eyes that belonged to a childlike face, crowned by beautiful mid-length hair.
The two sat across from each other, gazing at each other in what seemed like a private lover’s moment. Gold couldn’t be sure, but she thought the girl was falling for her.
“I’m G— Margaret.”
The girl’s lips curled in an eager smile as she answered, “Hi! I’m Jane!”
“Are you by yourself, Jane?”
The girl shook her head. “My friend is over by the pool table. He’s been at it for hours, can you believe that? I’m practically alone, I guess.”
Gold looked to her right and saw a big black man playing pool by himself. A half-full glass of beer stood on the edge of the table.
Then Gold returned her attention to the girl in front of her. Her young, dark eyes were zoomed in on Gold, as if they were looking for answers to questions Gold wasn’t aware of. The longer she looked into those eyes, the more lost she felt. Strangely, though, she had no desire to find her way back again.
Her way back to where, anyway? To her duty? To her father’s demands? The father she wanted to be perfect for. Somehow, drowning in the girl’s strange, dark gaze, none of that seemed to matter much.
She watched as Jane leaned over to her. The girl’s mouth drew into a wide grin.
“Gold? Have you ever eaten a girl before?”
Gold knew that the question should upset her. The girl wasn’t supposed to know her name was Gold. She wasn’t supposed to be aware of what Gold had done the night before. The fact that she knew these things was threatening, but her dark eyes were so warm and kind. Gold didn’t want to betray that beautiful stare.
“I…. No… I’ve never eaten a girl before.”
Jane’s grin seemed to grow even wider and excitement sounded through in her voice. “Can you just imagine? How much energy you could get from that?”
Jane rolled her eyes. “I mean… men are just men, right?”
They were. Gold knew the girl was right. Men were basic and weak and quite pitiful. Her mother had always said so, and Gold was certain she had been right.
Jane said, “Can you just imagine, Gold? You… eating me! Wouldn’t that make him happy?”
Caleb was really fucking sick of playing all this pool by himself. He felt like a social reject walking around the table by himself, waiting for his client’s cue.
That cue came half an hour after the stunning woman had joined Jane and a strange spectacle had unfolded in the bar. Nobody had wanted to stare at the two girls flirting with each other, yet none had been able to control their glances very well.
Not even Caleb had been able to look away for larger amounts of time. The woman had been so exquisitely beautiful that it was impossible to ignore her. Even now that he knew what she was and what she had done, part of him wanted to be with her. All throughout the night, discovering every little aspect of the woman’s impeccable body.
Caleb shook away those thoughts, or tried to, as soon as his client and the beautiful woman left the bar. He knew what he had to do now and there was no room for horniness. No time for the images that insisted on roaming inside his head. Showing him how he took the beautiful woman from behind. The beautiful woman on top of him. Him bringing the beautiful woman to a strong climax. The beautiful woman….
…Slashing your throat with the knife she keeps underneath the bed. Or mine, Caleb. Focus!
Jane’s voice echoing through his head was something Caleb thought he’d never be able to get used to. It was louder than it had ever been before, and Caleb knew his client was right. A dangerous situation was unfolding and he had to make sure Jane would be safe.
He put the pool cue on the table and started toward the door. He wasn’t sad to leave the depressing atmosphere of Ray’s Liquors behind him.
“Your girl left with our girl, man!” an old drunkard yelled at Caleb right before he opened the door. “Leave them be. Having a good old time, man!”
The bald owner of the bar said, “Shut up, Jones. Mind your own business.”
Caleb didn’t pay them any mind and opened the door. He stepped outside into the cool October night and immediately turned east. Jane had shown him where to go next before they had come to the bar.