Page 40 of The Photograph

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Before I can do anything, he’s grabbed my hand and placed it on the zipper of his jeans, and he’s rock hard underneath the denim. I jerk back a second time.

“Well, I …”

He runs the backs of his fingers down my face. “So very pretty. I want to look at this face when I fuck you.”

You should have left. You should have left. You had the chance. Fuck, Alex, you’re an idiot.

I press my lips together.Buy yourself some time.

“Let’s get a drink,” I say.

He studies me for a while, and sweat makes my shirt stick to my back under my suit jacket. Who is this guy? Is he dangerous? And what the hell was I thinking trusting a message on Grindr? Several guys start raucously yelling at a table on my right, and one of them shakes his fist, and my heart takes off like a jackrabbit. I swear if I get out of this alive, I’m deleting that fucking profile.

“What would you like to drink?” I say to Carlos.

“Heineken,” he says. And as I lean over to talk to the barman, his hand is on my ass, fingers pushing into my crease.

When I straighten, he leans into me, pressing his erection into my hip. “How about you give me a blowjob in the back right now? My friends are here.” He jerks his head behind him. “I need to talk to them about some business but we could take five minutes.”

I shift myself so my ass is against the bar, but all he does is trail his hand around to the front of my pants, stroking.

“You go and talk to your friends,” I say. “Let me finish my drink.”

The barman appears with his Heineken, and he jerks his chin at him and takes the drink squeezing me with the other hand, eyes narrowing. “I’ll be back in five.”

He pushes past a couple of people and returns to the table he was talking to when he first arrived, and I heave a shuddering breath into my lungs. Red flashing lights are cascading through my brain. I’ve got five minutes to get out of here, but his table and all his friends are between me and the door I came in through.

When I turn, the barman is still standing where he handed Carlos’s drink over. “What’s a guy like you doing with someone like Carlos?” he asks.

Being an idiot? “Grindr.”

He laughs. “That app is fucking dangerous.”

As I’m starting to realize. He leans over the bar and lowers his voice. “Be careful,” he says, frowning, his mouth a grim line, and I nod.

“Any trouble, shout for Leroy.” He gestures at a huge Black man at the end of the counter. “He’s our security. No one messes with him.”

For the first time this evening, my shoulders ease. “Good to know. And thanks. Where’s your restroom?”

He gestures beyond where Leroy is standing at the end of the bar farthest away from the door. And so I shuffle my way through the men and reach Leroy’s impassive face several feet above mine. He’s a man mountain.

“Is there a back exit to this place?” I ask him.

His face is expressionless as he shakes his head. “Off limits for customers,” he growls.

“But there’s a way out?”

He glowers at me. “You hear what I said?”

I give him a smile which is more like a grimace and nod. I suspect there’s a back door that I could sneak through, but could I do it without Leroy noticing? It’s worth a try. Okay. Restroom first.

The restroom is blissfully empty, and I unzip, relieving myself in the urinal. The door bounces against the wall suddenly and two guys lurch in hands all over each other. One guy is fused to the other’s mouth as he unzips him. They don’t even look at me as Unzipped Guy hitches himself onto the counter alongside the sinks and the other one leans in to kiss him putting his hands against the mirror on either side of his head. Then his jeans are pushed down to the tops of his thighs and I get a view of his backside as he groans, the other guy’s hand moving back and forward, presumably stroking him. I can’t really see but …holy shit.

“There you are!” a voice says. “And all ready for me, too.”

And suddenly Carlos is in my space, his hand latching over mine where I’m holding myself. I try and lurch away, but he hangs on and strokes me roughly up and down.

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