Page 23 of State of Ruin

SINCLAIR

Naturally, my friends spot the controversial stamp as quickly as if I’ve turned up at a frat-house traffic light party in head-to-toe red.

“One hour with his new conquest, and he’s officially off the market,” Felix says, looking positively gleeful as I raise my tumbler to my mouth. Kieran, our gym-empire buddy, looks low-key amused. They’ve been here for a while, whereas I just extricated myself from an industry mixer—and not a second too soon. Seeing Elyse dealing with those pains in the ass had my blood boiling, and sparring with her has other physiological effects happening. I purposely position my back to the bar so as not to give the guys any more ammo.

“It’s called being selective, asshole,” I explain to Felix. “Why gorge myself on fast food when I can hold off and anticipate savoring a delicacy properly?”

“Life’s about doing both,” Felix says.

I shake my head. If he thinks that, he’s enjoying the wrong kind of hookups. I had more fun with Elyse last night than I’ve had in months, and let me tell you, the bar is high when you’re an Alchemy member. Fun isn’t the right word. It was intense as fuck, charged in a way you don’t often get. I guess the stakes were higher, so the reward was bound to be higher, and it makes me reevaluate the reactive way I’ve been conducting my sex life, which is mainly showing up here and finding someone to fuck. In the Playroom, in a private room, whatever.

But last night was the culmination of a week of wanting Elyse. I had to form a proposal, get my hatchet man here to make it happen, and then wait. Wait for the yes from Katrin on Saturday. Wait for the night itself to come. All tedious. All frustrating. And all things I’d usually avoid. But I knew she’d be worth it. I spent every spare minute of this week fantasizing about just how worth it she’d be, in minute detail, and the little beauty somehow surpassed every single expectation I had.

She was clearly inexperienced, clearly nervous, neither of which were a problem and both a huge turn-on. I can honestly say that leading her through her journey from the ingenue who was almost as pale as her silk robe to the woman writhing wantonly around my cock as I fucked her against that cabinet was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.

“You’re missing out, buddy,” I tell Felix. “Anticipation is everything.”

“So you wanna hit that again?” Kieran asks. “That’s almost as hard to swallow as her wanting to hook up again.”

I glare at him. Kieran doesn’t say a huge amount. A former pro athlete, he’s used to letting his body do the communicating for him. But he really does choose his moments to pipe up. “A gentleman doesn’t tell.”

“There are none of those around here,” Felix says. “Besides, I like Elyse. She’s a lovely girl. I’m not about to disrespect her by asking you for details. But K’s right, mate. It’s not like you to go back for seconds.”

I don’t like that he’s right. “I had a great time. She’s a novelty. Why wouldn’t I? It’s efficient.”

Obviously, that’s bullshit. Efficient is going upstairs and getting laid without overthinking it, without learning the woman’s name or remembering her face or jumping through hoops to make it happen.

“You know what they say about novelties,” Kieran says, and he and Felix chuckle at each other like Beavis and fucking Butt-Head.

“Yeah, well, this one hasn’t worn off yet. It makes sense to see it to its logical conclusion.” I am supremely confident of that conclusion being another round with Elyse—possibly a couple more, if it feels easy, before moving on. “After all, I’ve laid the groundwork. I may as well amortize my investment.”

“Oh good,” Felix says. “He’s talking about her as if she’s an acquisition. KPIs and diminishing returns. For a sec there, I was worried he saw her as an actual human woman.”

“She is a woman,” I snap. And what a woman. A memory: running my mouth over her firm ass as she stood, bent over on that contraption for me. Sinking my teeth into her ass cheek. Every single thing we did was so fucking perfect. “But I had an hour with her. Believe me, that’s nothing.”

“But with your run rate”—Kieran holds up a hand and counts on his fingers—“that’s about twelve rounds, right?”

“Just the level of math skills I’d expect from a fucking jock,” I retort, conveniently ignoring the fact that K Klub hit a unicorn valuation without him breaking a sweat. His net worth and BMI are so inversely correlated it’s revolting. His heart rate probably stays below seventy when he fucks.

Come to think of it, he probably wears a chest monitor when he fucks. Probably bores his women stupid by pulling up his Oura ring sleep data the next morning. Wouldn’t put it past him.

“Deflection and no denial of his stamina levels. Interesting,” Wolff muses. He is, to use one of his favorite phrases, a smug twat.

“You know my stamina is legendary.” It honestly is, though it was a close fucking call a couple times yesterday. I was sweating with the effort of holding off.

He relents and slaps me on the shoulder. “Yeah, yeah. We all know. Far too many women in here have told me, and I wish I could un-hear them, but I can’t. So you found a nice girl, you’ve opened Pandora’s box, to use a deeply unfortunate turn of phrase in this instance, and you’ve piqued your own interest. That about right? If so, I’m happy for you, mate. Ride it out. Enjoy.”

“Thanks, man,” I say, narrowing my eyes. I don’t always get the British sense of humor. Can’t tell how much he’s fucking with me. “Yeah, sounds about right.” I like that phrase—piqued my interest. It’s a solid description of how I’m feeling. Like I said, an hour wasn’t enough. I was so fucking desperate to loosen her up, break her down—it all went by far too quickly. But her body is FAO fucking Schwarz, and there’s too much to see. Too much good stuff to explore, to play with. I meant it when I threatened her with stirrups next time. I want to stretch her open and enjoy her, and, most important, watch her face as I do. Bending her over was insane, fucking her from behind was insane, but when you get to fuck a woman with a face like that, it’s a waste not to make good use of it. She’s pretty implacable behind the bar, and I want to see just how placable she is when I’m working her.

See what I mean?

Too much to do and far too little time.

I’m definitely not done with her yet.

“What’s happening with his face right now?” Kieran wants to know.

“Happy sex dream,” Felix says. “He’s off with Elyse somewhere, buried balls-deep in her. So, when’s the next hookup?”