This Is War - Chapter 11 – Thirty Seconds of Pure Hell
I rolled over and pressed my pillow against my pounding head. It felt like I’d been run over by a dump truck. And then it had dumped its entire load right onto my temples.
“I’m never drinking again,” I groaned. Not that the ridiculous amount of alcohol I’d consumed was my fault. It was Tanner’s. Seeing him had made one of my wine bottles magically disappear down my gullet on top of everything I’d already had to drink last night.
How dare he show up and mess with my life after ignoring me for months? He was the absolute worst. Or was I overreacting? Stop it. There was no point in analyzing this. Especially because Chastity would know what to do.
I grabbed my phone to text her. The screen was about a million times too bright, but turning it down to the lowest setting and squinting made it somewhat bearable.
I had three texts from Chastity. But none from Tanner. Which was good. Because I was done with him. So why am I even thinking about him?
Chastity : Hey girl, how you feeling?
Chastity : Wanna grab lunch and game plan for tonight?
Chastity : I’ll be over in 10 with some salads.
I checked the time stamp on the last one. It was from ten minutes ago. Right on cue, I heard a knock on the door.
“Why are you knocking so loud?!” I yelled as I rolled out of bed. If she knocked one more time I was pretty sure my brain would literally explode.
Chastity cringed at the sight of me when I opened the door. “You look like hell,” she said way too loudly.
“How much did I drink?” I whispered, hoping she’d get the hint that my head was throbbing.
“A lot,” she whispered back. “Did you black out?”
I rubbed my head. “I wish. Because then I wouldn’t remember Tanner coming to visit.”
“Tanner came back?!”
“Sssshhh!” I hissed.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “Tanner came back?”
I nodded.
“Well I need to hear this entire story immediately.” She tossed me the takeout bag from Salad Central and made herself comfy on my couch.
I got about three sentences in before Chastity interrupted.
“That. Freaking. Asshole.” She looked like she was ready to flip my coffee table. If not for our salads and drinks, she might have.
“Tell me about it,” I agreed.
“How dare he come back after three months and mess with your love life.”
“That’s what I said to him. Among other things.”
“Please tell me you told him off.”
I thought back to the conversation. It was all kind of foggy, but I was pretty sure I hadn’t been very nice to him. “I think I told him to stay out of my life. And that I love gambling my body.”
Chastity gave me a high five. “So what are you gonna do now?”
“I’m gonna go back to Club Onyx. And I’m going to do whatever I damn well please.” There was a high probability that I was still drunk. “I’m done thinking about Tanner. I’m officially single and ready to mingle.” As soon as I get rid of this wicked hangover.
***
“Remind me not to drink as much tonight,” I said as we waited for the elevator in the lobby of the Caldwell Hotel. It had taken three cups of coffee and two naps to get my hangover to subside. I wasn’t about to go and give myself another one.
“Will do,” said Chastity. “But it probably won’t be necessary. I mean…it’ll be hard for you to drink too much when you have Cole’s cock jammed down your throat.”
I laughed and then nervously looked around to make sure no one else had heard her.
Was that where tonight was headed? I decided to change the subject, especially since the elevator doors could open at any second.
And I was pretty sure Cole would be inside.
“What about you?” I asked. “Will you be going to the sky box with your mysterious gentleman suitor?”
She shook her head. “Not tonight. He canceled during your last nap.”
“Darn. I’m so curious about what the sky box is.”
“Me too. But it’s okay. Because this means that I can devote my entire night to being the best wing woman you’ve ever had.”
Ding.
The elevator doors slid open and Cole greeted us with his signature cocky smirk. “Good evening, ladies,” he said, holding the door open for us.
We walked in. I’d come up with a million sexy things to say to him. But the sight of him in his fitted liftman uniform made me forget half of my pickup lines. And the half that I did remember suddenly seemed horribly corny. Luckily Cole did the talking.
“What floor?” he asked.
“Club Onyx, please,” I said.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Floor 62,” said Chastity.
“Ah, why of course.” Cole hit a button and off we went.
Oh, right. We were supposed to talk in code. But he didn’t have to be an ass about it.
“Does your presence here mean that you enjoyed yourselves last night?” he asked.
“We did,” I said.
“It was quite the evening,” agreed Chastity. “One of the high rollers was so impressed with Raven’s poker skills that he invited her to the sky box tonight.” She flashed him the key that she’d been given.
Cole’s eyes darkened. “Oh really?”
“Yup,” she said, nudging me in the ribs.
“Yes indeed,” I agreed. Making guys jealous wasn’t my usual MO, but I kind of loved that possessive look in his eyes. And it had worked with Tanner… Gah, why did I always start thinking about Tanner at the worst times?!
“Sounds fun,” said Cole dismissively. His possessiveness had vanished in the blink of an eye.
No! Be jealous! I didn’t want some made-up high roller. I wanted Cole. “It will be. And I definitely won’t be needing this,” I said, stripping off my dress. I shoved the thin fabric into his arms. Jealous now?
A smile played on his lips as he took the dress from me. The doors dinged open. “Welcome to Club Onyx.” He held the door to allow us to exit.
“That was awesome,” whispered Chastity as we strutted off the elevator. “There’s no way he won’t come find…” She stopped mid-sentence.
“What?” I asked. But before she could answer, I followed her gaze to the center of the foyer.
A bunch of teens in blazers and khakis were staring at me. In my super sexy lingerie. Push-up bra, garter belt, thong, stockings, heels. The whole nine yards. The set even came with some weird harness that went over my bra to push my boobs up even more.
I froze. They froze.
What the hell are a bunch of high school kids doing here?!
The woman with the students - a librarian-looking type with a severe bun, horn-rimmed glasses, and a pencil skirt - glared at me and tried to block the view of her students.
“Sorry, wrong floor,” I said. I slowly backed up towards the elevator. I was devastated when my bare ass hit the cold marble of the closed elevator door.
“Hit the button!” I hissed at Chastity.
The next thirty seconds were pure hell. The librarian told her students to ignore the “perverted lady,” but telling a bunch of horny teenage boys to not look at a woman in lingerie was never going to work.
I considered covering myself, but that seemed like it would make it more obscene. So instead I just stood there.
Every second felt like an eternity until the elevator doors dinged open. I backed on and, for a reason that I will never be able to explain, waved goodbye to the kids.
Cole smirked at me as the doors slid shut. “So I take it you didn’t realize that tonight was take your kids to Club Onyx night?”
“Who the hell thought it was a good idea to invite kids to a sex club?! And give me that!” I snatched my dress out of his hands and pulled it over my head.
“It’s actually a great idea,” said Cole.
“A lot of our members have kids. And those kids wonder where their parents go all the time. So once a year, we make the place kid friendly and frankly quite boring. Then they come, see it, and never ask to come back. Or at least…that was how it was supposed to go until you decided to give them an eyeful. You, Miss Raven Black, are going to be the talk of Empire High on Monday. It’s not every day those kids get to see a California 10 half-naked. ”
I really wanted to slap him. “You didn’t think it was worth warning me that I was about to flash a group of horny teens? God, I’m a child predator!”
“So you’re saying you liked it?” asked Cole.
“What? No! I hated it.”
“Then I think technically that would make you more of a flasher than a predator. Although the sex offender registry probably won’t specify that when they add your name…”
“What?!”
Chastity laughed. “Relax. He’s joking.”
Is he? I turned to see the smile on his face. “Ha ha. Very funny, pal.” I punched him in the arm playfully, but all I did was hurt my own hand thanks to his rock-hard bicep.
The elevator came to a halt. I yanked Chastity off the elevator the second the doors were open.
“Have a great evening,” called Cole. “Always a pleasure.”
“That was amazing!” said Chastity when we were safely out of the Caldwell Hotel.
“What are you talking about? That was literally the most mortifying moment of my entire life.”
“Who cares? Cole thinks you’re a #California10.”
“What parallel universe are you in? He doesn’t think I’m a 10. He thinks I’m a child molester.”
A guy passing us on the sidewalk gave me a weird look.
“He was joking about that. But he wasn’t joking when he said, ‘It’s not every day those kids get to see a California 10 half-naked.’ ”
“He didn’t say…” Wait a second. I replayed the scene in my mind.
Usually my memory wasn’t so vivid. But the past five minutes had been so horrifying that I would forever remember them in perfect detail.
Fuck. I’d remember it forever? Noooo. That meant it was Incident #7, right after my last incident of face-planting Xander Frost’s penis.
Shit! I thought I’d repressed that! But apparently it wasn’t going anywhere.
Which meant the penis grab was officially Incident #7.
And this was #8. I was almost into double digits.
I stood there reliving the horrors of the high schoolers staring at me.
And Cole’s cocky smile. As the scene unfolded in my mind, I realized that he had in fact called me a California 10. “He was just messing with me.” Right?
“No way. He’s so into you.”
“Complimenting people is probably just part of his job. It’s like how doormen always act excited to see you and hand you packages. You know they’re just faking it.”
“Oh, I bet Cole would be more than happy to hand you his package,” said Chastity.
“Well I can never show my face in that building again, so he’ll never get the chance. And anyway, I’m officially done with men. They’re all assholes.”
“We’ve been over this,” said Chastity. “They aren’t all assholes. And as your wing woman, I think you should give Cole another chance. You two are totes adorbs together. You totally owned him in poker, and tonight he got you back by having you flash a few schoolboys.”
“Ew, don’t call them that.”
“So now that you’ve calmed down, should we go back in?”
“I told you. I’m never going back.”
“Not even to mess with Cole?”
“Nope. But if I happened to change my mind, how would you suggest we do it?”
Chastity scrunched her mouth to the side in the way she always did when she was thinking hard. “I don’t know.”
“Well…when you think of something, I’ll be happy to come back.”
“Promise?”
I nodded. But the sinister look on Chastity’s face made me immediately regret it. She would stop at nothing to try to get me a new boyfriend. Or boy toy. Or whatever weird relationship Chastity was trying to get me into.