Page 3 of Purchase Power
Chapter 2
If Noah Gabriel could be anywhere else but here, he would gladly take the exit, stage left.
But, no. He had been dragged here, most unwillingly, by the supposed best friend he needed to dump as soon as he drummed up the will to do it. Sure, him and David Hayes went all the way back to St. Xavier’s School for Boys, where they were as likely to blow up chemicals in the science lab as they were to go joyriding in one of the campus golf carts, but that was fifteen years ago. Back when they were unruly teenagers too privileged to have real problems beyond Daddy’s new mistress and Mommy’s Xanax addiction. When life was so boring, a young man made do before his brain fully developed.
It had been fully developed by about five years, Noah surmised. More than enough time for a thirty-one-year-old like him to spend his days anywhere else in the private back rooms of a New York City sex club on a cold Friday night.
David always had plans, though. Especially when he was put in charge of a certain someone’s birthday celebrations, which had to be thedumbestthing Noah had ever let David do. Really, what had he been thinking?
Silly Noah, assuming that his birthday weekend in New York City would be spent having flashy cocktails at a trendy bar, taking in a Broadway show, or sampling the latest in French-Russian fusion cuisine he had been hearing about for months. A cultured man came to New York to sample the finest offerings from around the world, after all. With so much good food and high-brow entertainment at a privileged man’s fingertips, it stood to reason that he could look forward to only the finest in birthday celebrations.
Except he had to go and putDavidin charge of it, huh? The man who regularly went on party cruises on the weekends and still attended spring breaks across the country, all in the hopes of scoring as many women at one time? Of course they were in an upscale sex club the night before Noah’s official birthday. Why the hell wouldn’t they be? It was almost like Noah subconsciously wanted this to happen.
“Nowthatwas a woman.” David rubbed his chin as he sank farther into the large, plush chair near the window looking into the other room. The lights were dimmed enough on their end that they could barely make out each other’s faces, but David was such a known quantity by that point in their lives that Noah could “see” every old acne scar medically touched up by the finest plastic surgeons that side of the Mississippi. “Can you imagine hiring a Domme for a whole month, man? They said she would provide any experience you wanted, as long as she was the one in charge. I bet it was Frederickson who bought her. That guy is super into financial domination. I hear he spends thousands a month on online Dommes who will straight up hijack his computer and hold his nudes for ransom. Can you fucking believe it? Love it.”
“Are you trying to tell me what you want foryourbirthday?”
“Not even. At the end of the day, I always want to be on top, never mind for the whole month.”
Noah could agree to that. This was a man who craved control like the average man craved orgasm. Sometimes, those things didn’t always have to go together, but for Noah Gabriel, they were one in the same. He wasn’t as hardcore into the BDSM scene as some of his contemporaries, but he appreciated the appeal to the point that he occasionally indulged with retrofitting his bedroom with built-in chains and chests full of toys, but these days, he rarely had the chance to invite a lady friend over. Not one he just met, anyway.
“This whole setup is so crass,” Noah said. “Buying women for a month.”
“Aw, come on. Here I was, totally prepared to get you one.”
“Yeah, right.” Noah kept further comments to himself while a waitress slid open the door to their tiny private room and cleared away their empty glasses. David ordered a fresh bottle of beer. Noah needed a scotch to nurse if he was going to get through this. “More like buy yourself one. That last woman went for seventy-fucking-grand.”
“That’s what happens when you’re an experienced woman who offers a fantastic niche for a month.”
“The more you talk, the more I think you want a forty-five-year-old Morticia Addams lookalike to step on your dick and spit on your face.”
“Be still, my dear dick.”
Noah may have sighed and turned himself away in his seat, but deep down, the juvenile inside of him snickered. That was the power David had over him. No wonder they were still friends after all these years.He’s the only reason I go out and have any “fun” at all.Noah was a homebody through and through. If it wasn’t a new drama on TV convincing him to stay home all weekend, it was family matters that were on perpetual loop. His parents may have been separated and his mother nursing her wounds from her second divorce, but the drama never stopped.
David caught the look on Noah’s face and said, “It’s your birthday weekend, Gabriel. For the love of God, get some.”
An exasperated look blasted in David’s direction. “That’s up to me, now isn’t it?”
“When’s the last time you got to bust a nut? That wasn’t in the shower?By yourself?”
“Bold of you to assume it was in the shower.”
“Uh huh. I know you. Fastidious to the point the shower is most efficient. Goes down the drain without any effort on your part.”
“Boy, you sure do know me.”
David shook his head. “I love you, Gabriel. That’s why I do this for you. As soon as I heard this was happening when we were in town for your birthday, I knew we had to come. Come on. Consider putting in a couple of bids, huh? I know you’ve got that nice investment money burning holes in your accounts. It’s not going to do you any good when you’re dead. The least you could do is throw some money a nice young lady’s way and have fun for a whole month. A month! It’s an outrageously good deal if you think about it.”
“That doesn’t factor in the costs to put them up for that month.” Noah may have never participated in this event before, but he knew how it worked. Whatever hotel suite or Manhattan one-bedroom he secured for his beloved of the month had to be up to enough snuff that she wouldn’t talk shit to whatever agency she worked for. That could spell trouble for outfits like this club, and that spelled trouble for Noah and any acquaintances who wanted to maintain pleasant relationships.That’s the thing about women, whether you hire them or seduce them organically. So much money. So much effort.
Noah loved women, of course. Well, he loved the concept of them, not that he could ever say he felt anything beyond yearning, burning, and lousy-ass lust. His sexual partners had been numerous, especially in his younger years, but these days he preferred clandestine affairs in hotel rooms and the occasional club like this one.On any regular club night, that is.Hooking up with a woman looking for a good time or outright hiring an escort to discreetly keep him company was definitely his style. He simply didn’t want to put one up in a hotel.
“If I bought a woman at auction,” Noah mused, “I’d have to put her up in the guest wing at my house. That’s more trouble than it’s worth.”
For the first time in much too long, David considered his friend’s words with genuine thought. “Perhaps you’re right. Although, with your level of security, you could easily draw up a contract that keeps her confined to that wing for the entirety of her stay. Make sure she’s got enough to keep her amused, and she won’t care as long as you’re throwing money at her and slipping that good dick between her legs.”
“Don’t talk about my dick like that. Please.”
