Owning Corey (12 page)

A plan is developing in my mind, but I don’t even want to elaborate on it to myself yet. It’s going to be hard to pull it off with a hyper-observant guy like Corey, but I’m thinking it will be amusing for me.

When we return to the table, Allie is looking pretty uncomfortable. If I had to guess, I’d say she was about two minutes from bolting.

“Sorry about that, Allie.” I take her hand delicately in mine and playing with her fingers one at a time. “The smoke in this room was really getting to me. I’m not used to being around smoke.”

“I hate it, too,” she says emphatically, wrinkling her pert nose. “It burns my eyes and makes my clothes stink. And it gives me a terrible headache.”

Corey shrugs. “Apparently those are the official symptoms of cigarette smoke exposure. You should write a paper on it, Doc.”

“I think that one’s already been done. But I’d love to do one on the mating behavior of humans when there are three parties involved. What do you think?”

“Sounds brilliant, but won’t that take a lot of research?”

“Definitely. I’ll need an assistant, preferably one with medical training. Are you up for the task?”

Corey frowns and shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know, Ben. I don’t have much experience in that area. You know I just started.”

“Trust me, you’re a natural.” I’m assaulted by an uncomfortably lucid memory of the feel of his cock rubbing against mine through a thin wall of flesh, and I have to take a deep breath to keep from hyperventilating.

Jesus, don’t let me have any more thoughts like that.

Allie is smiling vacuously, and I’m positive this is all sailing right over her pretty little head. That’s okay, though. Corey understands where this is going, and that’s all that matters.

Our waitress returns after what feels like an eternal absence, and she has three Mojitos on her tray. “These are for you, from the guy over there.” She points at a man who looks to be in his late thirties, very fit, and very good-looking with blond hair and wire-rimmed glasses. He’s sitting alone, and when we glance at him, he raises his own Mojito in an understated toast.

He looks even more out of place than I do in his suit coat and crisp white button-down shirt. Probably a traveling businessman who discovered that the one decent hotel in town has no lounge.

“Don’t drink them,” Corey says quietly, and Allie and I both stare at him.

“Why not?” she asks. “It’s just a free drink. He looks like he’s got plenty of money to afford it.”

Corey sets his drink back on the tray. “We don’t know what he wants.”

“Maybe he likes me,” she says. “Guys buy me drinks all the time.”

Corey shoots me a hard look that makes me set my glass on the tray and put my hands in my lap.

Then he takes Allie’s drink and puts it on the tray and pushes it toward the waitress. “Send these back to him. Tell him thanks, but we can’t accept. And bring us six shots of tequila.”

“Whatever you say.” She picks the tray up and heads back over to the businessman’s table.

Allie pokes her lips out and crosses her arms like a child about to throw a tantrum. “There goes my free drink.”

“Corey is right, Allie. We shouldn’t accept drinks from a total stranger. What if he’s some serial killer? We can buy you drinks until you drink yourself into a coma if that’s what you want, so calm down.”

I glance toward our mysterious benefactor to see how he’s taking the brush-off, but he’s gone. The drinks are sitting untouched on his empty table, a stack of bills pinned beneath one of them.

For a while, we fall into light conversation, covering such topics as favorite pizza toppings, worst accidents we’ve ever rubbernecked on the highway, how many pairs of shoes we each have, best concert we’ve ever been to, and the importance of protein shakes after a workout. The drinks are going down way too easily, especially the tequila shots. After three, I’m pretty much toast.

“Ben wants to play a game,” Corey tells Allie. “I’m not sure what it is, though. Why don’t you tell us, Ben?”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I thought we might play a few rounds of Spin the Bottle.”

Both Corey’s and Allie’s brows shoot up in surprise. Allie starts laughing and clapping, obviously thrilled at the idea. Corey just looks stunned.

“Dr. Hardy,” Allie says, “I’m sure everyone in this bar would pay good money to see the three of us play a game of Spin the Bottle. I’d especially like to see it.”

“We can’t very well be spinning a glass bottle in this fine establishment and risk it smashing into a million pieces on the floor, so I have an alternative method. I call it Flip the Quarter. We used to play it in college.” I fish a quarter out of my pocket and hold it in the air. “I’ll be the coin flipper, and turns will move counter-clockwise. Heads means you kiss the person to your right, and tails means you kiss the person to your left. So Allie, say it’s your turn, and I flip the coin. If it lands on tails, you kiss Corey. If it lands on heads, you kiss me.”

“I have a question, Doc,” Corey says, raising his hand like a school kid. “What happens if it’s my turn, and you flip heads?”

“Then you have to kiss me.” I smile innocently. “Are you okay with that?”

He swallows hard. I can see his Adam’s apple working, and his jaw is tight. He looks almost angry, and I wonder if I’ve already gone too far with my game.

I move on before he can answer. “How about you, Allie? Are you okay with it?”

“Hell, yes,” she cries loudly. “I told you I’d pay good money.”

I push forward, gauging both of their reactions. “It wouldn’t make you uncomfortable seeing two guys kissing?” I lean back in my seat, and I’m beginning to realize I’ve had way the fuck too much to drink.

“Dr. Hardy, I would love to kiss either one of you. A lot.” She smiles, and her tongue darts out to touch her bottom lip seductively. “But if two guys as hot as you and Corey were to kiss each other right in front of me, like a real kiss with tongues and everything… I think I’d probably pass out. You’d have to do CPR on me.”

I don’t bother to correct her on the purpose of CPR. Instead, I turn my attention to Corey. “I never got your answer.”

“Sure, I’ll kiss you, Ben.” He smiles and winks at Allie. “With tongue.”

Allie looks like she might combust on the spot, but I’m sure the tightening I get in the pit of my stomach when he says that… when he winks… is much stronger than anything she’s feeling.

I cover my face with my hands. “I’ve had way to much to drink.”

“Yeah, I know you have,” Corey says, and I swear he’s reprimanding me with his voice, and with his eyes. “Maybe we should call it a night.” He starts to push back from the table, but I halt him with my hand.

“Just a few rounds of the game, okay?” I’m definitely slurring. “Why aren’t you as drunk as I am?”

“I quit drinking a while back. Someone has to make sure we get home in one piece.”

“How very responsible of you.” I flip the coin for Allie’s turn and display it on the back of my hand for her to inspect.

“Tails,” she says. “But this is an old quarter, with an eagle on the back. Shouldn’t we say heads or wings?”

I laugh, wondering if she thinks newer coins have a picture of a tail on the back side. “Okay, I’m just drunk enough for that to make sense. Wings it is. Which means… you kiss Corey.”

He glares at me through slotted eyelids. Either his signals are screwed up, or my sensor is, because I don’t have a clue why he would be cross with me for getting him some make-out time with an attractive woman.

Allie leans over, and Corey bends down, and their lips come together in a lukewarm kiss. Hell, they don’t even use any tongue, which disappoints me. “Boo…” I say. “Can’t you two do any better than that? I’d like to see a little tongue action, too.”

Allie blushes and smiles. Corey leans against the back of his chair. “Your turn,” he says to me, and it sounds like a dare.

I flip the coin and slap it onto the back of my hand, never looking at it, but feeling the ridges with my fingers. I show them the coin, already knowing what it will be. I never lose a coin toss as long as I’m the one doing the flipping.

“It’s wings,” Allie cries, clapping and bouncing in her seat. “Wait till I tell my mama I kissed her doctor! She’s going to lose it!”

I lean toward her and let her lay one on me. Only I’m determined to put on a better show than Corey did, so I snake my tongue out and slide it between Allie’s soft lips. She sighs against me, obviously surprised and pleased. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her close, crushing her to my chest and invading her mouth with an aggression that is fifty percent liquor, fifty percent bravado. There is no passion involved, because to be honest, I’m just not interested in her.

When I release her and sit back, I think she’s going to topple. Her eyes are still half closed, and her lips are slightly swollen and smeared. She glances at Corey as if to gloat, and I almost laugh.

He’s leaned back in his chair, looking intently at me with those arresting blue eyes. The look on his face almost has me ready to back down.

“Are you mad?”

“My turn.” He ignores the question, but his expression eases.

“You sure you want to chance it?” I don’t know why I’m goading him, and taking such perverse pleasure in this game. I already know the outcome, so there’s no risk for me, but I seem to have an uncontrollable urge to mess with his head.

“Oh, yeah,” he says. “Bring it on.”

“I don’t know. I think we should bet on it. Allie, do you think Corey will go through with it, if it happens to land on tails?”

“Tails,” Corey mutters. “How appropriate.”

Allie slaps a ten dollar bill on the table. “I think he’ll do it.”

I fish a twenty out of my pocket. “I don’t have a ten, but I’ve got twenty that says he won’t.”

Corey smiles evilly and pulls a twenty out of his own pocket. “I’m doing it, Ben. You can bet your sweet ass on that.”

The way Allie’s gaze swings from one to the other of us, you’d think she was watching a tennis match.

My eyes are glued to his as I flip the coin, feeling for the familiar roughness of the eagle, manipulating the coin with a quick sleight of hand that puts it right where I want it. Heads.

I reveal the head of the coin to him with a dramatic flourish, but he doesn’t even look down at it. Instead he leans over and gives Allie a chaste peck on the lips. “It’s been nice, Allie,” he says in a quiet voice. “Maybe we’ll see you again sometime.”

He gets up from his chair and stalks around to mine with a murderous look on his face. He’s always so good-natured. I’ve never seen him like this. He leans low over my chair, puts his big hands on my shoulders, and kisses me. On the lips. With his mouth slanted over mine, he forces his tongue roughly between my lips and kisses me repeatedly, devouring me with his bruising lips and deep licks of his tongue. With every invasive plunge, I feel completely taken by him. He sucks my bottom lip so hard it aches as he pulls away, and in that moment he has owned me.

I’m breathless and bewildered, my mouth hanging open. The kiss I gave Allie was nothing compared to the mouth raping he just laid on me. He took every thought I had left in my head, and now I’m nothing but a drunken shell wobbling on my seat.

“That’s for cheating on the coin toss, asshole.” He looks at Allie, and his face softens. “And the young lady wanted a show. Was that entertaining enough for you, darlin’?”

She nods, her mouth hanging open just like mine. I don’t think she’s any more capable of speech than I am.

He grabs me roughly by the arm and pulls me to my feet, then he slides the bet money over to Allie. “Dr. Hardy isn’t usually like this. He doesn’t drink often, and he’s totally blitzed tonight. Please don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“I won’t. But I might tell my mom he kissed me.” She shrugs apologetically. “She’ll get a kick out of it.”

He laughs mildly. “Okay. See you around. Tell your mom he said hi.”

When we pass through the front door, the night air shocks me. It’s a different world out here now. There are still guys hanging around on the sidewalks and on the corners. I don’t know how to act in this world, so I just try to keep steady on my feet and let Corey lead. Even though he’s pissed at me right now, I feel safe with him. I know he’d never let anything happen to me.

I pull my jacket close, trying in vain to get warmer. “Jeez, it’s freezing out here.” Corey doesn’t reply.

At the corner just before we cross the tracks, a man approaches us. He leans in close to Corey and says something near his ear, but I can’t hear what it is.

Corey shakes his head. “Nah, man. Maybe later.”

“What did he want?” I ask when the man has rejoined his friends on the corner.

“Wanted to know if we needed anything. You know, drugs.”

We continue on across the tracks and up a low grade hill three blocks to my house. For the first time, it strikes me how close my world is to the strange, dark world across the tracks, yet they might as well be on separate planets.

“You’re so worldly,” I slur. “And I’m so sheltered. I wish I could be more like you. You can handle anything.”

He laughs, but it’s a bitter sound. “I think you’ve got that backwards, Ben. And if you don’t quit fucking with me…”