Ingenue's Choice (3 page)

18

Gracie C. McKeever

Patryk chuckled as Chaz left the table, wiggling his hips to the spirited salsa song the DJ spun on his turntables.

He watched Chaz make contact and join the muscular, leather-clad pair who seemed more than happy to play the bread to his meat.

Soon, his gaze was drawn across the room to where Dharma made conversation with the bartender, curious to see whether the man
was
gay and whether someone like him had a chance.

Who was he kidding? There was no way he would make a move to find out. Unlike Chaz and Dharma, Patryk wasn’t one to grab the bull by the horns, except where his career was concerned. Socially, he was as inept as a virgin.

Derek had taken full advantage of his shyness, inexperience, and youth throughout their relationship, too, walking over Patryk and claiming Patryk not only liked being bossed around, treated rough, and taken advantage of, but also that he deserved and needed it.

After a long time Patryk figured out that he didn’t like the emotional and physical abuse and didn’t deserve it, though he did enjoy a firm hand and domineering manner.

Would the bartender master him if he asked him to? He looked more than capable of mastering anyone and anything, but question was, would he want to?

Patryk gasped and closed his eyes at the sudden image of himself spread-eagle on a bed, arms and legs bound to the head and foot posts, and beside the bed stood the bartender, his large, dark cock jutting from his chiseled body.

Patryk licked his lips, could almost taste the pearl of pre-come gathered in the slit of the dick of the bartender in his fantasy.

When he opened his eyes and glanced across the room, the sight that met him did just as well as his fantasy at making his cock pulse.

God, he had a gorgeous smile. The straight brilliance of it penetrated the dimly lit hall like a strobe light effect as he threw back his head and laughed at something Dharma said.

Patryk’s stomach dipped at how well they were getting along, and he wondered where his sudden feelings of betrayal and jealousy came from. Dharma was just being her flirtatious and fun-loving self. And the bartender responded in kind, doing his job of servicing a customer. Simple.

Ingenue’s Choice

19

What wasn’t so simple was the flood of possession that continued to inundate Patryk.

He didn’t even know the man!

Not yet
.

Patryk jerked his head around at the voice but saw no one who might have spoken. Everyone was too busy getting their groove on one way or another.

Had he only imagined hearing the voice?

You didn’t imagine anything.

He glanced around, noticed the couple at the next table so thoroughly into each other they didn’t have the time or inclination to throw their voices. Everyone else in the immediate area was either dancing or raucously ragging each other the way he, Chaz, and Dharma had been.

So, who was playing mind games?

You’ll meet me soon enough.

Oh shit. His parents were right. Homosexuality had finally sent him over the edge into insanity. Or was that masturbation that drove one blind and mad?

Whatever the adage, Patryk needed to get some air and fast. All the do-ghosts-exist talk had gotten to him.

He sprang to his feet and stumbled from the table, drawing raised-brow looks from several of the club patrons before he went in search of the bathroom.

20

Gracie C. McKeever

He was shier than Zack before he and Quincy got together.

Zara had thought her assignment halfway done when Patryk walked in with his two boisterous, flirtatious friends who almost immediately homed in on Keir. But it seemed Mr. Andrews needed a little more cajoling than what Dharma and Chaz were providing.

She smiled, remembering the lively banter the pair engaged in, thinking of how much Dharma reminded her of herself—uninhibited, frivolous, and highly sensual. Zara liked her, thought Dharma and Chaz would have been her friends in her previous life, a life that seemed so many miles away and eons ago from the here and now.

Here and now, Zara felt like an old woman who had experienced and seen so much more than Dharma, Chaz or Patryk would ever see. She had done the ultimate, died and come back…twice. Except now she was an angel, here to see that Patryk benefited from her hard-earned wisdom and expertise.

So now you are Yoda? Get in there and do your job, human!

“I’m going, I’m going!” Zara threw up her hands at Micah’s grumbling and followed Patryk into the bathroom.

* * * *

Patryk immediately checked beneath the several stalls in the bathroom before he went to one of the black marble sinks lining a brightly lit, mirrored wall and splashed cool water on his face from the tap. He grabbed a couple of paper
Ingenue’s Choice

21

towels from the dispenser and was in the midst of drying his face when he heard a woman clear her throat.

Had he missed one of the stalls or had someone come in behind him?

He removed the towel from his face and opened his eyes with a start when he saw a young woman sitting on the marble countertop, smiling and swinging her legs.

“Hiya, Patryk.”

“Hiy—how do you know my name?”

“A little birdy told me.” She hopped down from the sink and strolled over to him.

Patryk hadn’t realized he was backing up until he bumped into the slim divider between one of the stalls. “You know I’m gay, right?”

She nodded. “Like most everyone in the club.”

“Look, I don’t know why you’re here, but I’m not interested in what you’re offering.”

“How do you know?”

“First of all, you’re not my type, and second and third of all, I’m not into drugs or kinky sex in public.”

“How about kinky sex in private?” She moved closer until she stood within an inch of him, sharing his personal space in a mean way.

Patryk gaped, then narrowed his gaze on her as a thought occurred to him.

“Did Dharma send you in here?”

“Why would she? She knows what team you play for.”

“Good. I’m glad we’ve established that. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

Patryk prepared to walk around her, but she stepped in his path, and instead of bouncing off her solid flesh, he went right through her. “Oh...shit…This can’t be…it can’t…” He slid to the floor, gasping for air.

Zara rushed to crouch by his side, patting his back. “I’m sorry. I’m still getting the hang of this otherworldly, spirit thing, if you know what I mean.

Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Patryk just gawked at her and shook his head.

22

Gracie C. McKeever

“I know you probably have a lot of questions, and I’m ready to answer them, but you have to promise me that you’ll breathe. C’mon, Pat! Breathe!”

It wasn’t until she shouted and slapped him on the back a couple of times that he realized he
wasn’t
breathing. He exhaled the breath he had been holding and coughed spasmodically while she palmed his forehead like she was taking his temperature.

Patryk found the strength to jerk away from her and immediately regretted it when he saw her wounded expression. “I’m fine. You don’t have to do that.”

“Can you stand?”

“Yeah.” He grabbed the side of the marble countertop to pull himself up, and the strange woman, or whatever the hell she was, grabbed his other arm to help. Once he got to his feet, Patryk turned and looked at her, surprised at her solidity. “What are you?”

“An angel.” She said it like it was a surprise, and he guessed she must be a new one. She confirmed this when she added, “Actually, I guess you could call me an angel-in-training.”

“Haven’t earned your wings yet, huh?”

“Not yet.”

“So you’re not a ghost or some other mythological spirit or being?”

“Well, in the sense that angels are mythological and spiritual beings, I suppose I’m all of the above. It’s complicated.”

“So that’s why I was able to walk through you before?”

She shrugged, frowning. “Like I said, I’m still getting the hang of this. Not everything comes naturally, you know.”

“Oh yeah, sure I know. Been there, done that, got a T-shirt to prove it.”

“Your sarcasm is understandable, but can we just drop it? It’s not like I’m any happier about this situation than you are.”

“You mean you don’t want to be here?”

“I’m not saying that. But if I had my druthers, I could think of a lot of other places I’d rather be and a lot of other things I’d rather do.”

Ingenue’s Choice

23

Patryk burst out laughing at the thought that he was standing in a bathroom in a gay club talking to a freaking resentful angel! “Do you have a name?”

She grinned. “You need to ask?”

“You’re
Zara?
”

“You catch on quick.”

He shook his head, stared at her, and wondered what Dharma and Chaz would say when he told them.

Wait, what was he thinking? He couldn’t tell them, couldn’t tell anyone.

They’d have him committed. The same way his parents had threatened to have him committed when he had told them he’d seen his dead grandfather’s ghost.

Patryk had been fifteen and from that point on decided it was better to err on the side of caution and not mention any more sightings. Not that it mattered, since a few months after Patryk came out to his parents at sixteen, his grandfather’s ghost stopped visiting him altogether.

Damn, Patryk missed that old man. He was the only one who ever really supported Patryk in anything he did—even after his death—and didn’t care whether Patryk was gay or straight, just loved him for who he was.

“Before we go any further, you have to know that you’re the only one who can see me,” Zara said as if reading his mind.

“Is that by choice or divine decree?”

“A little of both. Like I said—”

“I know, I know. You’re still getting the hang of this.”

“So, Pat, why are you hanging out in the bathroom instead of getting down to the music out there with a hotty or two?”

“Are you sure Dharma didn’t send you in here?”

“I don’t need her to tell me that you’re not a social butterfly or that you’re anxious about venturing beyond your comfort zone.”

“How do you know so much about me?”

“You’re pretty transparent.”

24

Gracie C. McKeever

Damn, that hurt. Here he thought playing it low-key and keeping a low profile made him less transparent. He wondered what else about him was transparent besides his anxiety.

“You’re an overthinker, aren’t you?” Zara asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“You dissect a situation or people from every angle.”

“I like to be prepared.”

“You’re also reliable and don’t like to disappoint people.” Zara nodded, grinning as if she knew a secret. “You’re like my brother. He didn’t know how to say no or be spontaneous either until Quincy. Now he’s a regular party animal.”

“Look, Zara, I appreciate your psychoanalysis I really do, but I’ve got to be on my way.” He moved to pass her, and this time she let him.

Patryk made it all the way to the door and had his hand on the handle before her next words stopped him cold.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here, Pat?”

“Will you stop calling me ‘Pat’?”

“Why? It’s your name.”

“I prefer Patryk.”

Zara shivered with histrionics. “Oooh, so formal.”

He stomped back to her and planted his fists on his hips before glaring down at her. “Okay, you got my attention. Why are you here?”

“To hook you up with your soul mate, of course.”

* * * *

Were he straight, Keir was pretty sure the girl sitting at the bar flirting with him would have been his type. Hell, she was most men’s—white or black—

type, beautiful, intelligent, with a gift for gab and well-informed about sports.

Gay or not, Keir could respect a woman who knew a field goal from a slam dunk and who could spout baseball stats like a seasoned sports commentator.

Ingenue’s Choice

25

Problem was, Dharma Michaels wasn’t his type, not by a long shot, and he had a feeling that she wasn’t as interested in him for herself as she was for someone else. Keir could tell, had been “pre-screened” before by women who came with their gay friends to the clubs he worked in.

Keir brought her Mojito #2 to the bar, his gaze drifting from Dharma’s face past her shoulder. He noticed a dark blond weaving through the crowd and toward the bar with a purpose. At least in the dim light of the club, his hair looked dark blond, not that it mattered to Keir as the rest of the package already had him transfixed enough to want to find out for sure one way or the other.

He caught himself staring when he noticed the woman walking beside the cutie, an attractive caramel-haired woman who looked exactly like Zack Benjamin!

Not possible. It had to be the dim lighting. Just to prove it to himself, Keir shook his head and briefly closed his eyes. Didn’t do any good. She was still there when he opened them.

Damn. He would pick the moment he was about to meet the hottest guy in the city to start losing his mind.

Dharma put her drink on the bar after taking a sip and daintily patted dry her mouth with her napkin before following Keir’s gaze. “Oh, you caught sight of my friend.”

Keir almost asked her if she was talking about the man or the woman but instead blurted, “What’s his name?”

Dharma smiled. “Why don’t I let him tell you when he makes it over?”

The guy made it to the bar a moment later, and Dharma leaned in to kiss his cheek.

For a hot second, Keir felt jealousy and longing welling in places they shouldn’t have been—his heart throbbing and his dick swelling in concert.

Dharma put her hand on the cutie’s shoulder. “What’s the matter, hun?”

“Have you seen Chaz?”

“No why?”

“I’m ready to go.”

“But it’s your birthday! And the party’s just beginning.”

26

Gracie C. McKeever

“I’m not feeling too well.”

Come home with me, and I’ll make you feel all better
.