Heat (52 page)

The couple exchanged a ‘look’. The man nodded once, somehow conveying a great depth of irony. “Quite,” he said, demonstrating with one word the kind of reverberating sexy growl of a man’s voice that could get any woman wet. He looked around—at the magazine shelves, the leather masks, the whips and paddles, the board games and inflatable demo-dolls—and he did not look a bit surprised at anything he saw. Not even when he saw the sheep. Clearly, a man who knew his way around a store like Luv-A-Lot’s.

The woman, on the other hand, was doing a pretty good beet impersonation. She, too, took a quick visual inspection of the merchandise, and then said, “I can explain this.” Her eye struck the inflatable sheep. “Most of this.”

“Ha.” It was not laughter, exactly, only a statement of dry humor. “We have porn on my planet, too.”

Or at least, that was sure what Janey thought he said. Maybe he was trying to be funny. Janey had once known a guy from Kansas who introduced himself as coming from another planet, and the big man
did
have a weird accent.

The women glanced at him, inched a little ways down the novelty aisle, and then came back to the counter. Her hands were wringing, and her face was practically in flames. “Can you tell me where, um, where you keep the, um…”

Janey grinned at her, leaning over the counter. “His or hers?” she asked.

“His,” the woman stammered. “The, um…the not gay…um…”

Janey pointed, and the woman grabbed her fella’s arm and ducked away. There was nothing else to do except watch, but at least Janey had the courtesy to use the mirrors.

The man was a great, broad-shouldered specimen in sunglasses. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall, but he was muscled all over, not lean-looking the way very tall guys tended to be, and not grotesquely pumped like a steroid freak. More like a well-built dude that had been magically blown up to slightly mammoth proportions. He was, in short, the kind of guy that looked like he could give a girl a real rodeo and not shag out after the first five minutes, and he moved in a careful, quiet, completely in-control way that made Janey think ‘cop’, even though he seemed pretty cool about browsing Luv-A-Lot’s.

His date, on the other hand, was completely average in every way, which made her appear positively petite next to her fella, and as always when she was bored, Janey found herself idly picturing the two of them in bed. The girl would have to be on top; either that, or doggie-style. Janey just couldn’t see him going at her missionary without smothering her.

Janey’s reflections were cut short as soon as the man reached the back wall where the His & Her toys were kept. He got one good look at the double-pronged foot-long black dildo on the top shelf, and all his been-here-done-that composure went right out the window. “What the tar?” he said, and that was probably the only time Janey had ever heard that particular exclamation.

“What? Oh.” The woman looked a little nonplussed. “I thought you said you had porn.”

“Yes, but you have
people
to do this!” The man swept his arm at all the rubber dicks. “Why would you…you…Is that a fish?”

The woman glanced back at the counter, caught her fella’s sleeve, and pulled him over to the Just for Guys section. Soon, they were standing together at the far end of the shelves, conferring in low voices as they looked at the toys. Janey couldn’t make out quite what they were looking at, but his attitude of quiet incredulity was only growing. Janey found that a little surprising; when they’d first walked it, she’d figured the girl for the vanilla, not him.

The girl was explaining something with her hands that could probably be explained better without clothes, standing back so that Janey could finally catch a peek at the merchandise. They were apparently considering a pussy-pump. The Pumpmaster 5000, it looked like, but it was hard to tell from here.

The man asked a question and the girl flipped the box over and read silently, then sent several hesitant glances in the direction of Janey’s back. Janey looked busy and approachable and not at all nosey.

“Um…miss? Hang on, Tagen.” The woman came over to the desk, holding the battery-operated pussy in both hands. “Look, I need a really…um,
really
good version of this. What can you, uh, recommend?”

“Well, it’s not exactly my thing, you know,” Janey said modestly, trying to put the customer at ease with a little humor.

The lady laughed, but it had a shrill, freaked-out quality that made Janey wonder if the girl was high.

“But okay, assuming sound and money ain’t an object, I’d have to recommend the Jenna Jamason model, which is over there on the wall, top shelf, in the silver box. See it?”

Girl and Guy both looked, and then the fella started over to have a closer look.

“Best suction, tight seal. Pricey as hell, but it ain’t too loud when it’s running. Want to reach it down for me, Highpockets? I’ll demonstrate.”

The man complied, and Janey, who was looking down for the battery box, thought for a second she’d seen something really bizarre about the dude’s hand, but when she straightened up and looked again, his hands were in his pockets and the girl was holding the pump.

Janey popped the seal on the box and fished out the pussy and the cellophane blanks it came packed in, slid in some batteries and unwound the remote cord. “You’re gonna want to use some lube,” she remarked, ducking under again. “We don’t recommend Vaseline, ‘cuz it eats latex, and don’t use any kind of cooking oil, ‘cuz it’ll go rancid and this piece of ass is a bitch to clean. But we have a good stock of flavored, scented, warming, etc, body oils, or you can use good old-fashioned K-Y. Anyway, give the mouth a good spurt and rub it on yourself.”

Janey held out the bottle of cinnamon musk, but it was the girl who took it, and who tentatively poked the pussy lips when Janey offered that, too.

“Feels…pretty normal.” The girl hesitated. “Cold.”

The guy frowned.

“It’ll warm up. Just get her going.” Janey thumbed the remote cord and a soft purring ground out of the device. “Stick your finger in there. Feel.”

Looking squeamish, the girl slipped two fingers into Jenna Jamason. Her face underwent a violent series of convulsions and she burst out into nervous giggles. “Ew!”

“It’s sucking,” Janey translated, for the benefit of the girl’s date, who had stopped looking intrigued in favor of looking alarmed.

“And it’s vibrating,” the girl informed, grinning. “And it is heating up,” she added with a schoolmarm’s nod of approval.

“Come on, play with it a little,” Janey prodded. “There’s no refunds, so you need to know what you’re buying. Work it a little. Feel what it can do.”

The lady was wiping her fingers on her shirt, shaking her head emphatically. “No, no. I think we’re good. We’ll get it.”

“Anything else? Something for you?” Janey winked. “What’s good for the gander is good for the goose.”

The man and woman avoided each other’s eyes. Bizarre.

“No, thanks,” said the lady. “That’s the lube aisle, Tagen. You better get some.”

And Janey, who had just about decided these two were some new breed of devout Catholic who were turning to hardcore masturbation in order to save themselves from the actual sin, got her mind half-blown when the man politely and extremely serenely turned to her and asked, “Do you have anything that is made from a woman’s natural oils?”

“I don’t think so, Tagen,” the lady said, before Janey could get her mouth back in working order. She didn’t look or sound the least bit shocked or scandalized by the question, either. “They might have some synthetic musk, though.”

“I do not think that will help.” The man frowned. “The stimulant is essential.”

“Try sniffing some of them. See if you get a reaction.” The woman turned back to Janey. “Do you have, like, a peppermint based one or something? That opens up the blood vessels pretty good, right?”

“Are you guys fucking with me?” Janey demanded, planting her hands on her hips.

Both man and woman looked at her with unfeigned surprise. “No,” they said, in unison.

Janey stared at both of them. “Okay,” she said at last, and shook her head as she walked around the counter and into the lube aisle. “Takes all kinds, I guess.” And she was going to have to invent some whole new kinds in order to make any damn sense of those two.

Janey and the big man headed into the land ‘o lube, leaving his girl at the counter. She found a few of the best-sellers in synthetic musk and passed them over, but the fella kept his hands in his pockets, obliging her to open the bottles herself and let him sniff them like a Frenchman with a wine cork. Up close, she realized he had to be wearing some fucked-up contact lenses, because he had the eyes of an eagle or a lion, a brilliant shade of burning gold, and practically no whites at all. Looking into those eyes almost made Janey forget just how weird the guy was and only remember how deep his voice was and how broad his chest was.

“You know,” she said, sotto voce in case the lady was listening and really was connected to this guy. “If you’re in the market for a girlfriend, you don’t have to settle for the ones that require batteries.” She winked.

His eagle eyes fixed on her in an instant, although his expression never changed. There was a heat there, a real burning hunger that went way beyond a man’s natural appreciation for the goodies a gal like Janey had to offer and into the realm so purely physical it was almost an abstraction. He didn’t know her, didn’t like her, didn’t not like her, and didn’t need to. He’d just take her. Thoroughly. Repeatedly. Fantastically. Looking up at him, Janey had the dizzying sensation that sex with this man would be a tantric phenomenon. It would be sex for the sake of pure, animal sex.

“I’m off at five,” she heard herself say. “You can meet me here. I’ll take you back to my place and we’ll take turns blowing each other’s minds.”

His nostrils flared. The heat in his amazing eyes smoldered. Still, he did not speak.

“This is a come-on, Jack,” she said, a little curtly. She’d never propositioned a customer before. She couldn’t believe she was doing it now, but here it was and he was giving her no clue at all. “What do you say? I’m covered, so you don’t have to wear a skin. I’ll let you feel the wonders of the modern world. If your girl weren’t here, I’d let you do me right now on the floor.”

He glanced down at the carpet and then up at her again, proving that the barrier wasn’t English, at least. And when he’d broken their mutual stare, however briefly, Janey had clearly seen that her words were having a sizeable impression on the man, so it wasn’t like he needed a pill.

“Come on, sport,” she whispered urgently. “I ain’t embarrassing myself by asking again. If you want to fuck me, say so now.”

He closed his eyes and his face was stone for several seconds. When he opened them again, he was looking past her to the lady still waiting by the counter. He sighed. “I’ll take what you have in your hand,” he said, and walked away.

Janey stared at the open bottle of lube she held and slowly capped it. She could feel her cheeks flaming, but she wasn’t sure exactly why. She was frustrated, yes. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d come on so strong to anyone, and God knew, all most guys needed was a wink and a smile and they had their pants flying in the air. But if she was surprised by anything, it was that she’d practically flashed the guy right here in the store, right in front of his girlfriend, without even knowing his name. And he’d turned her down? Naw, really?! God, he probably thought she was some psycho-chick fresh from prison.

She got an unopened bottle of lube and went back behind the counter to ring him up. The lady paid and the fella just stood there, staring into the ceiling tiles with that tight, sizzling look in his eyes. They left. The fella opened and held the door for his girl, and while he did, he glanced back and pinned Janey with his burning eyes just briefly.

The bones went out of her legs and she stared back at him, dry-mouthed with excitement. In his eyes, she could see him taking her. She could goddamn
feel
it! She could feel the wall at her back and his hands on her thighs, that first phenomenal thrust and then the crush of every thrust that followed. The man didn’t just
want
, he
needed
! He needed fucking like he needed air and Janey was there, Janey was willing, Janey was wet and wanting him. He could have her if he so much as snapped his fingers for her.

He left.

Janey sagged into the countertop, breathless, but only for a minute. Then she grabbed Contestant Number Five for the Vibrator Races, flipped the lock on the door and ran into the stock room for yet another first in her illustrious career at Luv-A-Lot’s. And a second. And a third.

His eyes. The burning, brilliant hunger in his eyes…

S
ue-Eye rode in the backseat of the sedan next to the man-shaped thing called Kane. She was calm. She had watched him shoot down sixteen people. She’d watched him butcher twenty more, breaking open their skulls with his bare hands. She knew those people; had rode with them, denned with them, fucked and been fucked by them. She had always known the lives of those in the Pack were short and damned to end badly, but at the same time, she’d never believed the man existed who could put the Dawg down.

But Kane had done it. Not just Dawg, but all of them. Cammy was out there somewhere, probably walking her way back home to find Jesus and forget about the last five years of her life. There were a few dogs in jail (including Johnny Lobo, who had the distinction of putting a collar on Sue-Eye once upon a time, after taking her away from that truck stop in San Diego, after letting her spread her goods for every dick that had the urge, after letting Top Dawg piss in her hair), and maybe one or two more that were sleeping off a drunk in the trash-cluttered campsite that passed for home these days, but for all intents and purposes, Kane had killed them all. He’d wiped the Pack off the face of the Earth like a smear of bug guts off a windshield.