Page 152 of Easy
‘And therein lies the problem,’ I whisper, ‘because I think I actually do.’
What if, what if, what if?
Chapter Twenty
DAN
‘Hello, stranger!’ Kit’s hand claps me on the back, pulling my attention from the business article I’m currently reading. I place the newspaper down and stand to shake his hand.
‘A bit of an overstatement. I only saw you, what? Two weeks ago?’ I gesture in the vague direction of club Mede.
‘Try nearly four,’ he says disapprovingly. ‘Next door. We had a drink.’The night I met Louise.‘You haven’t been around The Den very much,’ he adds, adjusting the knife-sharp pleats on his suit pants, taking the seat across from me. ‘What gives?’
‘New suit?’ I goad, ignoring what seems like a slight.
Kit runs a chain of boutique hotels and works as hard has he plays. He’s also such a natty fucking dresser—tailor made all the way from his eight-hundred-pound shoes to his silk Windsor knotted tie—that his sense of dress makes him an easy target for piss taking. It’s all good-natured banter, of course, as we also happen to be friends.
‘Fuck off,’ he retorts immediately, removing a piece of invisible lint from his cuff. ‘And stop tryin’ to change the subject.’ Crossing one leg over the other, his brow furrows, his Scottish accent kicking in. Ordinarily, the brogue is barely discernible. Unless he’s annoyed. Or talking about his twin brother. Or playing football. Or fucking.Guess which it is now?‘Haven’t seen hide nor hair of you in the club for weeks.’ His words are as heavy as his brow.
‘I’ve been coming in during the day,’ I reply with a light shrug. ‘I get more done when it’s quiet.’
He makes a very Scottish sounding noise from the back of his throat. ‘You’re either avoiding pussy or gettin’ it someplace else.’
‘And that would be none of your business.’
‘Indeed!’
He sends me a lewd wink. Kit is bisexual, though the word really doesn’t encompass everything he is.Fucking filthy might. And coming from me, that’s a compliment. Though I’m pleased to say I’ve never had the pleasure. Threesomes no longer hold any interest for me, though there was a time in my marriage that... I brush the thought away immediately because Belle is a head fuck all of her own.
‘And that’s the way I like it. I can’t be doin’ with becoming friends with the people I fuck.’
‘And how’s it going with Simone and Greg? Still seeing them?’
‘Still fucking them. Well, her. He just likes to be manhandled a bit. And demeaned. But we all have our own little foibles.’
I burst out laughing, having said something similar to Louise myself.
‘That was funny?’
‘Inside joke,’ I answer dismissively.
‘What I want to know is, who’s taking care of your little foibles now? And by that, I mean your little cock.’
‘Christopher,’ I drawl using his full name. ‘You know better than to start with those kinds of insults. How many times must I tell you, it’s what you do with it that counts.’
‘One time,’ he says laughing and referring to a particularly embarrassing incident he’d had on the main floor. ‘It was the first time I’d been licked from both ends—’
I hold my hand up, warring off his words. And he stops, before returning to his previous line of questioning.
‘Which is it, then? You’re either avoiding pussy—though I don’t know how as I haven’t seen you with anyone at The Den lately—or else you’re getting it somewhere else. Come on, Master Daniel. Whose arse are you spankin’ these days?’
‘Not that it’s any of your business, but I have met someone.’ I gesture for the waitress and order us both a coffee, doing my best to ignore his delighted expression. I hadn’t meant to get into this. We’re here to talk business.Business in a sex club is still sex, though, I suppose.
‘Thank Christ for that. I was beginning to think you’d returned to your campanologist days.’ His words and expression are both heavy with meaning, but what that meaning is? No bloody idea. ‘Campanologist. You know, the study of bells? One in particular...’
‘Someone showed you the benefits of Google, then? I thought I’d heard screams last week,’ I say. ‘Was that you getting dragged into this century?’ Kit looks over at me, unimpressed. ‘And Belle, for fuck’s sake! If I even show theremotestsigns of interest in my ex-wife, you have permission to book me a bed in Broadmoor hospital.’
‘Good. Glad to hear it. Also that your needs are being met.’
