Page 45 of Wilde's End
The only thing that will save tonight is a good fuck, and it’s not going to be pretty. Wayward isn’t exactly a huge queer town, but a lot of the people who come to the Peril matches tend to head there afterward. The bar we built in Wilde’s End, affectionately called the Cutty, isn’t set up for hundreds of people, and we keep its existence quiet from non-locals because it’s our little sanctuary. So the Wayward Traveler bar ends up filled to the brim,which draws in the locals on the third Saturday of the month to drink up a storm with us.
It also means I have a steady group of discreet men to choose from. We’re all good with doing the no names, just sex thing, and it’s what I need more than anything right now. Someone who will let me take this pent-up aggression out on them and then forget about them once we’re done.
I pull up in the already full parking lot and leave the paved parking spaces to find a place on the grass beside it. Inside is as busy as I’m expecting, and I order a beer to give myself something to do while I take stock of who’s here.
Foley and his friends are over in a corner, surrounded by a ring of hangers-on from some of the other towns. He likes attention—I’m assuming that’s the explanation for his face tattoos—whereas I’m happier to go unnoticed.
A few familiar faces pop up in the crowd that I recognize from Peril, and I turn my back on most of them. I’m not here to analyze the matches or talk favorites or to have people commiserate with my loss. Ishouldhave lost. I deserved it. My focus has been too split lately.
“Almost didn’t see you there.”
I nearly choke on the sip I’ve taken, but I refuse to turn toward the voice. There’s no fucking way Hudson is here, and even if he is, I’m not going to acknowledge it.
“Are we playing the quiet game again?” he asks. “It’s okay, you can give it up. I’m never going to win, so you might as well take pity on me.”
Eyes forward, eyes forward, eyes forward.
“So what were all those cars doing in Wilde’s End tonight? I know you had some kind of event on, and I’m a little offended that I wasn’t invited.”
I need strength. Unfortunately, after draining my drink, I canconfirm it isn’t in the bottom of the glass. “And why would you expect an invitation?”
“Good manners.”
“Not out here.” Before I’m even aware of it, I give in. I turn toward where Hudson is leaning, one elbow on the bar, his body turned toward me, and I’m caught off guard by how close he’s standing. He’s one inhumanly good-looking man, and I don’t need him in my line of sight when being in this place makes me horny enough as it is.
He doesn’t back up out of my space though.
“Go away.”
He grins, and I hate that by sitting on this stool, it makes him slightly taller than me. “I will once I have my answers.”
“You don’t need answers. You need?—”
“To leave. Uh-huh. Let’s pretend like that’s even a possibility and move on to something new.”
The way he so easily brushes me aside has my teeth on edge. “Why are you here?”
“I followed you.”
I’d assumed as much but didn’t think he’d admit it. “Why?”
“Because this is where you come to hook up, right?” He leans closer, that smug look turning to something hungrier. “Figured that’s enough incentive to trade for my answers.”
“What is?”
“The fact I’m going to cockblock you all night until you tell me what the event was.”
I’d call his bluff, but there’s nothing in his expression that would make me doubt him. He’s only a few inches away, holding my gaze, and so, instead of playing into his tantrum, I give him what he wants.
Because I’m not walking out of this place before I’ve had anorgasm, and the sooner he’s out of my way, the sooner I can make that happen.
“Fine. Once a month, we have our Peril matches. People come from out of town because it’s the largest illegal fighting event where we don’t have to deal with the authorities getting too nosy. And we make a lot of money out of it. It’s how we keep the town supplied with what we need.”
“And that’s where the skull face man was going?”
Skull face? “You saw Foley?”
“I dunno, did I?”
