Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 73: brought to you by club'n

You can run you can hide and I'll be with you! Time after time. --And update, I shook my piggy bank out and got the money for that cinnamon roll. >} dun dun dun MONEY! And I WILL BE WAITING! Time after time.

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Shay had never been in a club before. Sure she'd seen lots of movies, mainly Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that had the club scene going down, along with other more risky scenes that she had skipped out of embarrassment. But the whole let's get drunk and make fools of ourselves had never really appealed to her. Yeah, she could bust a good dance move, but that had been to more...tasteful music with actual depth, not this repeating DADADADADADA monstrosity. The school dances she went to had been enough.

And right then, standing in the club, fog machine rolling, epilepsy-inducing lights swimming about, bodies bouncing, she'd rather be back home with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa.

Gal, it's been forever since I've been able to read, let alone taste chocolate.

That thought confused her. Where else would she have been?

So she stepped towards the softer lights of the bar hoping to find the exit. Something told her Neara had been dragged along with her, probably by one of their old high school mates. Some last hurrah before college.

The stools at the bar were empty, with green, leather tops.

"Hey, uh, bartender? I know this is going to sound stupid, but where's the exit? These lights and fog are getting me turned around."

As she spoke, she couldn't help but admire the fine angular shape the bartender made with his broad shoulders and narrow waist. Not many grown men had that anymore. Fat was in high supply and muscle not so much.

When he turned to answer her with a half-cocked grin, her jaw dropped.

"Ryan? Since when do you work here?"

Looking ever like a dark prince from Arabian Nights, Ryan leaned a hand onto the bar, cocking his hips out. Her gaze followed his shoulder down to the chocolate, well-muscled forearm revealed by his rolled-up sleeves.

"Since forever," he said, his low voice richer than the heartbeat of the room. "You never asked where I worked."

"I...I find that hard to believe..."

They lived together, after all.

His grin widened, flashing straight, white teeth.

"What I should be asking is what my little lady is doing in this scene." He lifted his hand off the bar to reach underneath it, bringing up a clear bottle of even clearer liquid. As he talked, his hands moved on their own, pulling out fruity mixes and a stainless steel shaker. "Surely it wasn't because you wanted to get laid."

"People go to clubs for other reasons than that," she said flatly. "Though that's yet one more reason why I've never gone to one. My chastity happens to be important to me, you know."

"Oh, I know. I only tease. Maybe." He pulled a clear case of strawberries from a little black fridge. "Though I can't say the same for the men in this joint. If you had wanted to go out dancing, I would have been happy to oblige you." He dropped the strawberries into the pretty glass he'd been working on and topped it with a gorgeous blue daylily that he somehow pulled out of nowhere.

"I came over here asking for the exit, should that tell you enough?"

He slid the drink before her.

"For you, my sweetling."

"I don't drink."

"This is very sweet and light. It's practically just juice. Come on, I know my wife's tastes, and you could use some help calming down. I won't let anything happen to you."