I’ll admit, I melted a little. “Oh my gods, you’re adorable and—”
Ryan pulled me in through the door, his grip tight on my arm. The door closed behind us, the long windowless hallway dark in front of us. Mama said it was for ambience. I chose to believe her.
“What the hell was that?” Ryan demanded.
I showed him the disc. “Mama’s medallion. Very rare. I think only three or four people have one. It means I can come and go whenever I please.”
“You can come and go to a whorehouse whenever you please,” he said flatly.
I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Well, maybe not that kind of coming and going.”
He groaned. “I walked right into that one.”
“With no hesitation,” I agreed. “But no. I’m not one to partake in the services offered. Mama and I have an understanding.”
“And what would that be?”
I shrugged. “She met me when I was seventeen. She wanted me to come work for her when I was eighteen. I told her I wanted to wait to have sex until I was with someone I loved. She told me that was foolish. I told her she was an old jaded cow for thinking so. Then we laughed and got drunk and she made me meatloaf and I brought her wigs and now I have her medallion.”
He stared at me.
“What? It’s the truth!”
“I know,” he said. “I no longer question the things that happen to you. It makes everything easier.”
I grinned at him. “That’s the best way to go through life. Believing everything I say and not questioning it at all. If Gary tells you otherwise, it’s because he’s jealous and a liar, so ignore him.”
“So you’re a virgin, then?”
“Uh. What?”
“You said you’re not having sex until you’re in love. You’re a virgin.”
“Who says I haven’t been in love?” My voice was level, almost cool, but the back of my neck felt sweaty and I really didn’t want to be having this conversation with him.
He frowned. “Have you?”
“Let’s pretend this conversation isn’t happening,” I said quickly. “That would be awesome.”
His frown deepened.
I went to put the medallion back in my pocket only to see he was still holding on to my arm and didn’t seem inclined to let it go. I rolled my eyes at him and led us from the hallway into the Tilted Cross.
The tavern itself had another entrance on the west end of the building, and the thunder of voices and music bled through closed doors to our left, even though it was the middle of the day in the middle of the week.
Directly in front of us was a grand staircase with a gaudy chandelier hanging over it, the crystals hanging from it large and uncut. The carpet was red and the staircase a deep, darkened hardwood from the middle of the Dark Woods. Couches lined the walls. There were doors on either side of the branching hallways. Some were closed. Others were empty, revealing rooms with made-up beds and vanities. These rooms were the vanilla rooms, I knew. You had to go down to the basement if you wanted flogs and plugs. Mama made sure I stayed out of the basement, given my propensity for wanting to see and feel everything. She’d told me she didn’t want me to be corrupted so quickly. I told her I was just fine with corruption. Then she showed me a thin wooden device that was meant to be inserted into a penis and I advised her that I was in complete agreement to avoid any and all corruption for as long as humanly possible. She had just laughed and laughed and laughed.
And all the boys! And the men! They prowled around, some in suits, some in absolutely nothing at all. They were young and old, skinny and fat, and cut and everything in between because Mama knew that tastes were varied. Some wanted a hairy daddy. Others wanted a smooth boy. Still others wanted both at the same time. “I give people happiness,” she’d told me. “Even if it’s just for an hour. Because there is happiness in release.”
And they watched us with interested eyes. Calculating. Planning. Wondering who we’d come here for. Who we’d pick. If we were a couple that needed a third or if we’d go into separate rooms.
Moishe stood at the front desk. He was a tall, wispy man with almost colorless skin. He was achingly beautiful, his yellow hair falling down around his shoulders. I was convinced that he wasn’t completely human, that he had to have some elf in there somewhere, but neither he nor Mama would ever say.
“Sam,” he said, his voice light and musical. I should have know
n the hood wouldn’t fool him. “How wonderful it is to see you again. Have you returned to take me up on my offer?”
Yeah, Moishe wanted to fuck me. He’d made that much clear repeatedly. He wouldn’t even charge me, though he really didn’t do that anymore. Only on special occasions for the most esteemed clients. But for me, he just wanted to taste my skin.