Moore to Lose (18 page)

In her best sulky voice she demanded, “Well, what kind is it?”

“Mushroom,” Nick smirked.

“Figures.” Mia laughed at the irony. “I need to change to go meet my friends, I’ll be over in a little bit.”

Mia sat next to Nick on the couch as she finished her second slice of John’s Pizza, washing it down with bottled water (that she brought with her and opened herself). She vaguely remembered Nick telling her something the night before about Lyle not wanting them together unless it was for his pleasure. So, while she felt more protected by sitting next to him, she was very conscious about not sitting “too close.” Trying to figure out the pecking order, if Nick worked for Lyle or if they were partners, she thought it best not to ask — the less she knew about their business — the better off she was.

Lyle picked up a joint that was sitting on the table and lit it. He held it out for Mia. “I don’t think so.” Mia shook her head.

Lyle laughed and Mia noticed his uneven teeth for the first time. “It’s just pot, Mia. You saw I just picked it up from the table.”

Mia sighed and took the joint from Lyle and dragged on it. She could immediately feel the glow throughout her body, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. It’s just really good shit from Hawaii so it gives you a different buzz than the Columbian that’s out there.”

Mia took another hit and it amplified the glow exponentially. She turned her body to Nick to hand him the joint, their fingers touched and she felt an instantaneous buzz in her nipples and pussy. She watched him inhale deeply, his full lips hugging the tip of the joint. After his third hit, he passed it back to Lyle, who took a couple of hits and handed it off to Mia. By this point, she didn’t care if it was laced, and she was assuming, from the glowing feeling throughout her body, that Lyle had lied to her. She took a few more hits.

Having Nick sitting next to her and not touching him was killing her. Mia wanted to unzip his pants and see if the beast was as mythical as she remembered. She started to giggle thinking his cock is of mythical proportions. He turned to her and smiled.

“What are you laughing about?” He looked as high as she felt.

“A mythical beast,” and she gave him a knowing devil grin.

“A mythical beast, eh?” And his smile was as devilish as hers.

“I gotta take a piss.” Lyle staggered out of the room, heading down the hall toward the bathroom.

Nick’s fingers were immediately threaded through Mia’s curls, pulling her head toward him. He lightly brushed his full lips on hers. “Mythical beast,” he said against her lips and she giggled. Her arms twined around his thick neck as he pulled her into his lap, straddling him. They kissed softly, rubbing noses and giggling, the sensation of their noses touching sent electric jolts through her body that coursed through her veins and dead-ended at her clit, which she was slowly rubbing on the extraordinarily large bulge in his pants.

Mia was fascinated by the sounds they were making — the mmmm’s and the oooo’s and ahhh’s and grunts and she whispered in his ear, “And the sounds we make together is the music to the story in your eyes.”
^vii
Nick pulled Mia’s head back, pondering her words for a moment and wrapped his chiseled arms around her, tightly crushing her against his massive, bodybuilder chest, his tongue deeply exploring the caverns of her mouth, their noises continuing as they kissed.

With a sharp pain to the back of her head, her mouth was yanked away from Nick’s, a clump of her hair feeling like it was being ripped from its follicles. Opening her mouth to scream, Lyle grabbed her head in a vice grip, ramming his cock down her throat. Still tightly surrounded by Nick’s arms, the dark specter of being held in place by one man while another had his way with her rapidly descended, enveloping her in fear. Her autonomic nervous system overrode her drug-fueled libido and fight or flight instinct snapped into high gear.

Mia bared down hard with her teeth on Lyle’s cock and instantaneously the metallic taste of blood washed over her taste buds. Lyle roared smacking Mia’s head back and she used the jolt to break free of Nick’s hold. Lyle was bent over, bloody cock in hand and Mia jumped out of Nick’s lap and grabbed her purse in one surprisingly smooth motion. She swung the heavy leather and brass outfitted Coach bag by its shoulder strap, smacking Lyle in the face and ran for the door, pulling it open with a jolt and hearing it slam behind her, the sound reverberating as an echo down the hallway.

Out in the hall, an elderly couple was entering the elevator. “Hold that please.” Mia yelled and ran into the elevator. As the doors were closing, she heard Nick call her name. Close, please close, please close, please close, she silently begged but then realized it hadn’t been silent based on the perplexed looks from her elderly neighbors.

Pacing around the elevator, it stopped at the fourteenth floor and four people got in. Mia moved to the back of the elevator feeling trapped behind the people. The car slowly descended, coming to a jolting halt on the ninth floor. Two more people got in and Mia’s space continued to dwindle. She could feel her heart beating way too rapidly as the bodies were trapping her at the back of the elevator car. Please don’t stop again, she silently begged. Fearful that Lyle and Nick had gotten into another elevator and would be waiting for her, Mia started to plan her escape. But first she had to escape from the claustrophobic elevator.

She tried to steady her breathing and calm herself down. The sensations were crazy, she wanted to claw at her own skin, she wanted to bust out of herself and out of the cramped, human filled box. The elevator was packed and it was taking forever and ever just to get to the lobby. When they finally got to the first floor, Mia pushed her way past the other residents without even an “excuse me,” fleeing the elevator and running through the lobby, throwing open the glass door to the building, before the doorman could even get it for her, and fled at full speed out onto the sidewalk.

Out on the street she continued to run. The night air felt invigorating against her skin. As she moved up Sixth Avenue toward Limelight, all the street lights and store lights blurred together like colorful neon waves, a school of phosphorescent fish moving in and out on the tide.

Crossing Twentieth Street, Mia could already see the crowd a block away gathered outside The Limelight, a nineteenth century stone church turned nightclub. Approaching the entrance with its red velvet ropes, Mia saw several of Charles’ guys manning the door. Randy, the goon she had initially approached to get Charles’ attention on the night they met, smiled and opened the rope when he saw her.

“Charles will be here later.” Randy informed her.

“Cool. Will you let him know I’m here. My friends Seth and Rory will be here in a little while. Tell them I’m already inside, ok.”

As Mia passed into the vestibule of the church, the pulsating rhythm of the music coursed through her stoned out cells, making her feel like she was a part of the music. She began to move with the beat.

Brass plaques, with names and birth and death dates, lined the walls and Mia wondered if there were crypts in the walls. Were people buried in there? Passing into the main sanctuary, the dance floor was packed with wall-to-wall people; the strobe lights illuminated the stained glass windows, reds and blues and greens glowed in the night. Mia had never before noticed how intricate and beautiful they were.

Making her way through the crowd, she bellied up to the ornate wooden bar. Looking at her watch, it would be another thirty minutes until Seth and Rory got there. She ordered a Sea Breeze and leaned back against the bar to people watch. The alcohol added another layer to the high she was already feeling.

Lyle and Nick. Just the thought made her feel queasy. Not so much Nick. But he was holding her when Lyle grabbed her head. She was restrained. She had no control. They had taken her control. Two of them. She felt the fright that she had felt that night in the park. They had taken her control. Two of them.

She finished her drink and ordered another. As she started to sip the fresh drink, she heard a voice in her ear, “I would have been very happy to have bought that for you.”

He was seriously handsome — long and lean. Dimples when he smiled. The accent was classic New Jersey and he kind of had a Jon Bon Jovi thing going for him. Very nice, Mia thought.

“Well, then I’ll let you buy me my next one.” Mia hit him with a devil grin.

“I’m Paul,” he bent down to talk into her ear over the blare of music.

“Mia,” she yelled.

He put a hand on her shoulder as he spoke into her ear. His hand felt like it was melting into her. “Do you want to dance?”

Mia nodded and took his hand as he led her out onto the crowded dance floor. Her hand melted into his. She was loving this melting sensation. She felt like warm caramel.

Mia recognized the song, which was a rarity — since club music was not really her thing. But this was “
Smooth
” by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana and Carlos’ guitar playing was as unique as a thumbprint. Paul took her by the hands and twirled her around, causing all the lights to form celestial arcs before Mia’s eyes. She staggered and bumped into the girl dancing next to her, a girl with big Staten Island hair like Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl.” The girl sneered at Mia, giving her a dirty look.

“Sorry.” Mia yelled into her ear and surprised her with a kiss on the cheek. Staten Island turned to Mia, shocked, and Mia hit her with a devil grin and all the girl could do was smile back.

Feeling every beat of the music throughout her being, Mia thought her body had never moved so smoothly. The music changed and “
Mambo #5
” started playing. “I know this one too.” Mia thought, feeling proud of her current musical knowledge and closed her eyes as she felt the music stream through her. Paul’s arm wrapped around her waist and he drew her against him as they swayed together to the infectious tune. Mia could feel her pelvis melting against his and she wanted to sink further into him. With his leg between hers and his arm firmly around her waist, she bent the upper half of her body back, her curls whipping as he swayed her left to right and back again. With her eyes closed, tapping into the flowing sensation of the movement of their bodies, Mia pressed the lower half of her body against Paul. As she straightened up, his other arm came around her mid-back, pressing her full body to his.

Mia wrapped her hands around Paul’s ass and pressed him into her, feeling how ready he was. She wondered how many people had actually successfully had vertical sex on a packed dance floor without people knowing. The thought made her pull him in even tighter to her as they swayed together. The song changed again and he was singing along to it. She took one hand off his ass and ran it up and down the front of his jeans.

“You are so hot,” he moaned in her ear.

Smiling, she tugged the stiff zipper down past his even stiffer cock and inserted her hand into his jeans. With her body tight against his and blocking the view, she wrapped her hand around his hard cock and started squeezing it and stroking it to the beat of the music. His hand dropped from her waist to her ass and he started to knead her ass cheek, pulling at it, so it would spread her pussy.

With his lips next to her ear, he sang,

“They say around the way you’ve asked for me
There’s even talk about you wanting me
I must admit that’s what I want to hear
But that’s just talk until you take me there oh”
^viii

Mia wondered if those were the words to the song or if that was what he was saying to her. With her head nestled against his chest, she continued to fondle him, wondering if she could make him come on the dance floor and knowing that if he kept pulling at her ass that way, she was going to come, leaning against him, in no time.

“If it’s true don’t leave me all alone out here
Wondering if you’re ever gonna take me there
Tell me what you’re feeling cause I need to know
Girl you’ve gotta let me know which way to go”

She started to moan against his chest, his cock totally lubricated with pre-cum as she squeezed and twisted him. His grip on her ass became tighter, pulling the cheek in the palm of his hand as he crushed her against him.

Swaying, he continued to sing into her ear, his teeth grazing her lobe,

“Cause I need to know
I need to know
Tell me baby girl cause I need to know
I need to know
I need to know
Tell me baby girl cause I need to know”

Mia’s eyes shot open wide as she pulled her head away from his chest in a swift and jerking motion. Her hand was out of his pants with equal speed and for the second time in one night, she wrenched herself out of a man’s arms and fled. Pushing her way through the sardine-packed dance floor, much the way she had pushed her way out of the back of the elevator earlier in the evening, Mia got off the dance floor with lightning speed and frantically looked around for an escape.

Seeing a sign for the restrooms, Mia ran in that direction, pushing past people. The line for the ladies room was long, snaking around the corner along a wall. Mia went flying past the impatient line of women ignoring the nasty comments of the other patrons. Once inside, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, shocked to see the tears streaming down her face. She was crying. She didn’t know that she’d been crying. And looking at her tear stained face in the mirror she wondered how she could not have known that — and the question that formed in her mind, in the clearest thought pattern she’d ever experienced, was “Where is Mia?” followed by, “You’ve lost Mia.” Looking at her eyes in the mirror, all she could think was, they look like a flag hanging outside a restaurant in Little Italy … red, white and green.

She was dressed all in black and her hair was pink and spiky. Mia knew that she worked at Limelight. Over the winter she was in coat check and Mia was pretty sure that it was Charles that had introduced them.

“It’s Mia, right?”

Mia nodded. A new round of tears gushing down her face.

“Are you here with anyone?”