Page 30 of Nothing But the Night (Basic Instincts 2)

He sipped the whisky and nodded. “A long time ago. When I first came back to Blyham, I had a few dates with a guy who was a regular. He talked me into going with him.”

“How bad is it?”

“It’s not bad, at all. It’s just intense, and it’s not really what I’m into. I don’t judge anyone who enjoys it. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t choose to go there for any other reason than an investigation.”

“The council keep trying to close it down, right?”

“They would if they could. But after the botched police work on the Blyham Strangler, they can’t afford to piss off the gay community any more than they have. I’ve no doubt it will be back on the agenda soon enough. Once they think the dust has settled.” He emptied his glass. “I really don’t think it’s your kind of place though. It shouldn’t take me long to find our guy and speak to him. If you want to wait here, I could be back within an hour.”

“No,” Marc said, with more force than he intended. “I asked for this and want to come with you.”

“Okay,” Jason said, reaching for his coat. “We might as well get started.” Then he put his hand on Marc’s arm and added, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Chapter Twelve

Darkness in The Viaduct

The man on the door at The Viaduct gave them wristbands, a drinks token and a clear plastic bag for their clothes. “You can undress in there,” he said with a turn of the mouth that was part friendly, part lascivious.

Marc and Jason stepped through a doorway into a tiny changing area. It had a low ceiling and two wooden benches. The floors were bare. The maximum dress code for the night was underwear, but the two men in front of them who handed their clothes bag over to the attendant were naked apart from their shoes. One of them looked around twenty, with a slim, pale-skinned body and a flat arse. The other was stocky, fiftyish and balding. His cock was on the small side but when he turned around he had an attractively huge backside.

Jason gave Marc a gentle nudge. “It’s not too late to go back and I’ll catch up with you later.”

Marc ignored the remark. He took off his jacket and pulled his T-shirt straight over his head. He might benaïve about the world of sex clubs and exhibitionism, but he was no prude. Besides, he exercised enough to keep himself in shape. Better than the average man his age. He wasn’t about to go naked like those other men, but he wouldn’t shirk away either.

“Okay, then.” Jason took off his own jacket and sat to remove his shoes.

Marc stripped to his briefs and put his shoes back on. He was pleased with the underwear he’d chosen, they fit well and supported him in all the right places, but when Jason took off his jeans to reveal a black jockstrap with red piping around the groin, Marc suddenly felt very overdressed.

Jason stooped to stuff his clothes in the bag, giving Marc a pleasing view of his fulsome arse.Fuck. Marc’s pulse raced again. No wonder Jason liked to wear jockstraps so much. With a butt like that, Marc would show it off as much as he could too. Jason straightened and caught him looking. Their gazes locked and held for a moment.

Marc swallowed and found his voice. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it.”

They checked in their clothes and headed into the main bar.

The Viaduct was situated in the cellars beneath Old Elvet Bridge. It was a network of vaulted rooms that had been used as warehouses before being turned into a club. Marc remembered reading an article from when it had first opened. The vaults had stood idle for decades, used only for tourist ghost walks, before they’d been repurposed ten or eleven years ago. There were three levels to the building, but as he walked into the ground floor bar, Marc struggled to imagine what must go on in the upper rooms.

Though it wasn’t yet packed, he figured it would be soon. Low blue lighting illuminated a horde of bodies, most of whom had flouted the underwear code in favour of going fully naked. A lot of the men were on their own, though some pairings had already occurred on the edges of the room. The stocky guy who had arrived before them had already struck lucky with a younger black man who had the frame of a rugby player. He had his tongue down the throat of the older man and both of his hands clamped firmly on those wonderful buttocks. The men who had attained erections already made no attempt to conceal them. There were screens on the walls, playing porn, though no one paid them much attention. Why would they, with so much beautiful raw flesh all around?

Techno music blasted throughout.

Jason put his hand on Marc’s waist. The touch sent sparks all through his body. Jason leaned into him. “You okay?” he had to talk straight into Marc’s ear to be heard.

“I think so. Maybe we should get a drink and find this guy Tyrone.” With so many men in here, he wondered how they would ever find anyone.

“Come on then.”

Jason edged them towards the bar. Marc was glad that Jason didn’t take his hand away from his waist until they were in position. The entry fee had included a drink. Jason took Marc’s token and caught the eye of a bartender. He was a man in his late twenties, white, blond and heavily tattooed. Not Tyrone. Jason had shown Marc a screen shot of the man they were looking for before they arrived. He was younger, around twenty-four, with dark hair and a mean expression. The bartender wore a black G-string. Marc wondered at thehygiene of such an outfit when Jason asked him for two beers.

There was another man working the bar, but he was older. A heavy-set bear in backless trunks. He had a grizzly paw tattoo on his bare arse.

The bartender returned with the drinks. Before handing over the tokens, Jason leaned across the bar and yelled, “Is Tyrone working tonight?”

The bartender looked confused. “Who?”

“Tyrone Lucas.”

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