He looked at me with an expression of stunned surprise fluttering his almost-invisible eyelashes.
“I’m Alex. We have an appointment for this evening. You got my message, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but…” He poked his head out into the hallway and checked left and right; then he spoke to me with tight-jawed urgency. “You changed clothes.”
I looked down at my ensemble, a simple little black jersey dress and the obligatory high heels, a pair of strappy sandals. The outfit was more age-appropriate than the one I’d worn to the party in LA, and I thought it was perfectly acceptable for a faux date with a real john, and why did everyone feel obligated to comment on my clothing choices?
“Yes, I changed clothes. I also showered.”
“You weren’t supposed to change. That was my arrangement.”
Arrangement?“I wasn’t told of any special arrangements, but if you let me in, I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Like what? You’re wearing the wrong thing.”
Another door opened and closed a few rooms away. A woman with her two small children headed for the elevator. They were excited, going swimming in that chlorinated scum pond downstairs.
“Let’s talk about it inside, shall we?” I swept in, giving him no time to object. At least, if I was in the room, I had a chance of getting what I needed. Outside, I had none.
It was a standard hotel layout. The bathroom was a few feet inside the front door, which could be handy if a hasty escape was called for. The rest of the room was dominated by a bed that seemed gigantic, although I was pretty sure that was in my head, since it also resembled a large vat of quicksand.
When I turned back to find him, I saw that he was doing an inventory of his own, staring at my body in much the same way Tony the Actor had in LA. I was beginning to understand this cold and dispassionate precoital inspection was included in the purchase price. Still, I took his heavy sigh of disappointment personally. Couldn’t help it.
“You were supposed to come in uniform,” he whined. “You were supposed to come in the one you wore on the trip out. The one that smells like you.” He gestured with his hand, as if he could wipe me away. “This is not what I paid for.”
Great. A fetishist, and me here without the object of his fetish. Monica had not shared this crucial piece of information with me. “Look, I can’t give you the uniform, but I can give you anything else you might like.” I pulled the straps of my dress off my shoulders and tried to show a little cleavage as I posed for him. That’s exactly what I had-little cleavage. But I squeezed together and made the best of what was there. “After all, I wasn’t going to have the uniform on that long, anyway, was I?”
He stared for a long time. His thin lips parted enough that I could see the tip of his tongue playing across the edge of his straight white teeth. His eyes shone with a quavering anticipation, and when his weight shifted from one foot to the other, I knew I had him. Now, what to do with him?
I turned to drop my bag in the nearest chair. “So, you have a thing for flight attendants.” Before I could turn back, he was on me. He had slipped in and clamped his arms around me from behind, one arm pressed against my throat.
“Whoa-”
My first thought was that he wanted to hurt me. His arms were rigid and inflexible. But then I felt him awkwardly but persistently grinding his hips against me.
“I wanted to do it onboard the airplane,” he whispered. “I wanted to be in the Mile-High Club, but they said they didn’t sell those. They said I could get the uniform instead. They promised me that.”
He was much stronger than I would have guessed, and though he might not have wanted to hurt me, the faster he pumped, the tighter he squeezed my throat. I could feel his excitement mounting. I could feel his control slipping away and my head getting lighter. I reached up to pull on his arm, then thought of a more vulnerable target. I worked my arm around behind me, grabbed a handful of his most excited appendage, and squeezed through his pants. Hard.
“Owww!”When he released me, I released him. I spun out of his grasp and backed away, where I could observe from a safe distance.
He looked up, genuinely perplexed. “What was that?”
I rubbed my throat where his wristwatch had dug in. “I thought we were playing rough,” I said. My voice was squeaky from the pressure on my larynx. “Isn’t that what you were doing?”
“No. That hurt.”
“That’s the point, sweetie. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and powder my nose.”
As I headed for the bathroom, I spied the Spectravision tent card on top of the TV. Dirty movies. Perfect. “Hey…” I took the card and tossed it onto the bed. “Do you like to watch? Pick something to set the mood. I’ll be right back.”
I left him still holding his crotch and reaching for the remote.
There was no lock on the bathroom door, so I sat on the floor with my back against it and tried to calm down. My face felt hot, and the tiles were cold, and I closed my eyes and tried to split off, to make myself into two different people. That must have been what these women did, anyway, split off and disconnect from their bodies. How else could they do this night after night? One puny, horny guy had grabbed me from behind, and I was reeling.
I pulled my phone out of my bag and held it against my chest as though it could absorb the shuddering of my heart. I listened for the sound of the movie to begin on the other side of the door. For the first time, I began to really consider what Harvey had said about being in over my head.
The moment the cheap porno sound track kicked in, I flipped open the phone and called Harvey ’s number. This time, he picked up right away.
“Alex?”
“ Harvey, you were right. I shouldn’t have come here, but I did, and if you don’t give me something in the next thirty seconds that I can use, I’m in trouble. Please tell me you’ve been working on this. Please tell me you found something.”
“I was sitting down to call you. I think I have what you need.”
As I listened, I felt all the tension in my shoulders drain out. My core temperature came down from triple digits. After I hung up, I stood in front of the mirror and reorganized myself. I straightened my hair and smoothed my skirt. When I came out of the bathroom, my date was lying on the bed, staring at the small TV screen. Judging from the bulge under the sheet, he had started without me.
“I’ve been thinking about you,” he said.
“I can see that. I’ve been thinking about you, too…Reverend Cole.”
Chapter 22
I WAS OUT OF THE GOOD REVEREND’S HOTEL room in half an hour, which was not soon enough for him. He had readily agreed to vouch for me with the powers that be and insisted on making the required contact right in front of me so I would have no reason to doubt him. I insisted he do it with his pants on.
I tried to pry more information out of him, but he was a basket case. He had only the Web site we already knew about. His ID and password were temporary since he was new. My guess was, it had expired after he’d booked. Since this was his first time, that was all he had to offer. Judging by his horrified reaction, it would be his last.
Feeling good about the successful operation, I called Harvey on my way back to the crew hotel. He managed to act as excited as Harvey can, only once referring to the dangerous circumstances. He never mentioned our disagreement, but something had shifted in our relationship. I could feel it. He knew he could no longer trust me. I had meant what I said when I told him I wouldn’t go in unless we were both comfortable. In the end, I had done what I always did-exactly what I wanted. It had worked, but at what cost? I hadn’t meant for it to happen, which only proved something else. When it came down to it, maybe I couldn’t trust myself.