Poker Face (Chimera Club Stories) Read online

  “I’m sorry,” she said, so low I could barely hear her over the buzz of voices around us. “I’m never like this. You’ve met me on a very strange day.”

  “What are you usually like?” I asked, trying to find the rhythm of conversation with her again, instead of the rhythm I’d been thinking about. She shrugged, drawing invisible circles on the table with her finger.

  “I think I’m usually contained and restrained.”

  “Sounds like something that you might need to have checked.” I was teasing her, but it bothered me that she kept herself closed off. She seemed brave and insightful. Like the kind friend most people would love to have in their lives. Like the kind I would love to have in mine. Her brow slightly furrowed from my teasing, and I wanted smooth it away with my finger.

  “Maybe so. I grew up believing that I needed to keep my emotions safe and tucked away to protect myself. That if I let people see how I’m feeling it would come to no good.” She stopped drawing and looked at me. “Truth is, I have a helluva temper.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh, yeah. At least a dozen times a day I want to punch something or someone, but I never show it.”

  “Why?”

  “If they know how much they bother you they never stop.” I thought that over for a minute.

  “It might be a good thing to not punch things or people, but always being contained and restrained, doesn’t that deny you other emotions as well? Good ones?”

  “I really couldn’t say.” I thought I heard regret in her tone, but maybe I just imagined it. “What about you?”

  “Oh, I wore my heart on my sleeve until it was so damaged I didn’t think it would recover.”

  “Where do you keep it now?”

  “I’m really not sure. It’s been awhile since I even looked for it.” That was more honesty than I was expecting, but she was as disarming as she was beautiful.

  “You should find it. You might need it someday.” Before I could say anything to that, she pushed back breaking the spell around us. I wanted to bring it back, and learn more about her, but she stood up before I could find the words to make her stay.

  “And on that note, handsome stranger, I have to go. I have to do something extremely unpleasant, and putting it off won’t change it a bit.” She stepped in close to me, leaning down as she pinned me to the seat with her penetrating green gaze. “But this might make it bearable.” She hesitated a second, giving me time to wave her off if I wasn’t interested.

  My hand reached up to her face, caressing her softly as she closed the distance between my lips and hers. I’d kissed more women than I could count, in every way known to man, but when her soft lips brushed mine, lingering for just a second before sliding off to my cheek, where they pressed for another brief moment, I felt as if I had never been kissed at all in return.

  “Thank you,” she whispered in my ear, and then she disappeared into the crowded coffee shop. By the time I found my feet, and chased her out onto the street she was gone.

  4- The Details

  Camille

  I threw up when I got back to my small apartment after meeting with Thomas Meenan. Every single moment from the time I dialed his number until our meeting ended was torture. I managed to make it to the couch where I collapsed, unable to stop the replay of our conversation from playing over in my head.

  “It’s really quite simple, Miss Jones. I will pay you the sum of one hundred thousand dollars to participate in a onetime poker game sponsored by The Chimera Club.”

  “Yeah, I got that, but you still haven’t told me how I would be participating. I can’t imagine I’m slinging drinks for that kind of cash.” We’d met at a ritzy restaurant he picked, assuring me that he would cover the bill, but I had no appetite. I’d thought he was the Devil at the motel, here in the middle of glitz I was sure of it. He slipped a contract over the table to me.

  “The details are all in here.” My eyes skimmed it, my face growing redder by the second with each word.

  Poker partner. Allowing penetration to distract and arouse. Breaks for “relief” of my partner between hands. In addition to payment another fifty thousand if my partner wins the game. Additional twenty five thousand if I am a virgin at the beginning of play.

  “I need to know within twenty-four hours if you are interested. I have others more than willing to take a seat at the table for that kind of money.”

  I forced my eyes open to look at the contract where I had dropped it on my coffee table. One hundred and seventy five thousand dollars to fuck a guy while he plays poker. One night, all night, as long as he’s hard he’s inside me, and I get a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.

  If he wins, I reminded myself, sitting up to pick up the contract and scan it again, but even if he loses, I still get one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. I could go back to school, and take care of Mama with that kind of money. I could have a real shot at my dreams if I did this.

  “How do I know you will pay me?” I’d asked him, before leaving the restaurant.

  “You will receive the funds before the game begins. You can confirm it before you do anything. If your partner wins the additional fifty thousand will be transferred immediately. I’ll just need your bank information to complete the transfer. There’s a place for that on page five of the contract. Also, there is a non-disclosure clause. If you tell anyone you will be disqualified, and if you speak of it after the fact your funds will be revoked. The Chimera Club is a private group, and they want to remain that way.”

  “Not that I would, because let’s face it, this isn’t a shining moment for me, but how would you revoke the funds?”

  “We have our ways. Best not test them.” Fuck, they’ll send the boys around to break my knees, and steal the silver. Got it. No talking. No problem.

  “Will he be using a condom?”

  “No. If you are not already using birth control it will be provided. All participants will be tested, and you may review your partner’s medical file before the game begins.” He hesitated. “If your virginity is intact, we will provide a Plan B pill at the end of the game.” The look on my face told him I wasn’t following. “The twenty-five thousand is so that your partner can experience the sensation of breaking your hymen. If it’s there we want to allow him the distraction of that sensation. Every woman is different, so it’s possible that you don’t have a hymen to rupture with an IUD implantation, but if it’s there we don’t want to disturb it.”

  I wanted to slide under the table and die right there. The Devil was talking about my vagina like a rent controlled apartment. I’d beat a hasty retreat after that to come home and vomit up the three bites of twenty dollar salad I had managed to eat before I’d completely lost my appetite.

  Was I really going to do this? Yes, I was. I needed this money to help me make the life I was supposed to have. It made me sick to think of it, but I’d spent a lifetime mastering the art of hiding my emotions. If I could go all in, and make it count for just one night to have the life I deserved, then it would be more than worth it.

  I called the Devil, and told him I was in. He gave me an address, and time to be there for my exam.

  ***

  Brandon

  I woke up in the middle of the night hard and throbbing for a girl whose face filled my dreams, but whose name I’d never gotten. My leaking dick had made a wet spot on my sheet, all from dreaming about her legs wrapped around my waist as I fucked her sweet and hard to make her bad day go away.

  Awake now and needing a release, I stroked my cock slowly, imaging her slick and hot around me as she took me in over and over again. Would she like it rough or gentle? Would she sit on my face, and let me lick until her juices ran down my chin faster than I could swallow? Would she grab the headboard, and grind down on my tongue as I licked her?

  My cock jerked in my hand when I imagined sliding my thumb into her ass, pumping it slowly in and out while I sucked her clit, before teasing it with my tongue. I wanted to mak
e her legs shake when she exploded on my face. Her imagined cries of release filled my mind as I came in hot hard bursts across my chest and pillow. Even though she was just in my mind it was the best orgasm I’d had in years.

  I pulled off the soaked pillow case, and used it wipe my chest clean before throwing it on the floor and punching my pillow. I was angry that I didn’t have her name or her number, and that I’d let her slip away from me. I wanted her here beneath me, taking my come inside her while she moaned my name and squeezed me tightly with her slick pussy.

  I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but all I kept seeing was her face. I flopped over onto my back, covering my eyes with my arm. Why did I have to meet her now? No, that wasn’t the question to start with. The first question was, is she really what she seems to be? And if so, would she remain true to that once she found out who I was? Was being the operative word, because if I lost the game everything I am would fall neatly into was. I sat up in bed.

  Did Meenan send her to test me? To watch me? Was it really a coincidence that I saw her for the first time while I was putting my entire fortune into trust in preparation to play his game? The very idea that she was a plant infuriated me. Before I knew it, I was up pacing the floor.

  She’d seemed so real! Fuck, was I fooled again into seeing what I wanted to see instead of the truth? I poured myself a drink, and continued to pace as I worked through it all in my head, only to finally realize that it didn’t matter.

  I would never see her again, and with the decisions I had made in my life that would be for the best. I thought I had it resolved, but I didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night.

  ***

  Part of the agreement was a medical examination to verify that I was clean of STD’s, and any other at risk medical conditions. I’d been awake since three this morning, which made surly my middle name. Every time they poked and prodded me I growled at them. It was meaningless, and the staff at the medical clinic Meenan had sent me remained unperturbed. Evidently, at this stage of things it was common knowledge that I had no recourse but to let them do as they would with me.

  “Turn your head and cough, please,” the doctor said, keeping his head turned away, and I wondered if he stuck his hands in the freezer before coming in the check out my junk. “Again, please,” as he moved to the other side.

  “Are we about done here?”

  “Almost. The nurse will be in to take some blood next.”

  “Will she be using her fangs, or just a needle?” He ignored my savage critique of the treatment I’d gotten here as he made notes on my chart. I had an impulse to read it when he left the room, but like all supernatural cold blooded creatures he proved himself to be telepathic by taking the chart with him when he left.

  The blood sucking nurse came in a few minutes later, stopping for a second when she saw me in the paper dressing gown. To her credit, she regained her composure quickly. She was attractive, the kind of woman I once would have wined, dined and the other thing, in hopes of finding out that we were both more than just two pretty faces.

  “Now this won’t hurt a bit,” she drawled at me as she produced a needle that could best be described as the size of pain. I hated needles. I looked at her instead, letting my mind wander through several fantastic possibilities of how things might have been in another life.

  “Ow!” I jumped, dislodging the needle.

  “Now, be still darlin’. I’ve got to get this sample, or it’s my heiny.” I rolled my eyes and looked away. A poster on the wall caught my eye, something about regular checkups being the key to a long healthy life, and caught myself thinking how much the woman smiling at me looked like my Coffee Girl. I felt my jaw lock and my teeth grind together when I realized that she had snuck back into my thoughts again.

  “Oh, now, it’s not that bad,” Nurse Ratched scolded me flirtatiously, as she took the needle out of my arm. “All done.” She was so pleased with herself I wished I had a lollipop for her. “You can get dressed now, and we’ll call you sometime in the next twenty four hours with your results.”

  I dressed in record time, glancing at my watch. I was supposed to meet Meenan for details on the next step in twenty minutes. They might be vampires, but the people who worked here were efficient, I had to give them that.

  As I came out, I caught a glimpse of a young woman with long wavy dark hair and a luscious ass turning the corner at the end of the hall. My heart did a double beat. Coffee Girl?

  My feet were moving before my brain caught up, probably trying to make up for being frozen the day before when I lost her in the crowd. I turned the corner and ran smack into the doctor who had given me the hernia exam, knocking him back a step.

  Frantically, I looked down the hall behind him, but there was no one else in sight. “Is there a problem Mr. Davies?” he asked, his tone as cold as his hands.

  “There was a young woman here just a second ago. Did you see her?”

  “No.”

  “She must be in one of these rooms. Please, help me find her.”

  “I’m sorry, but patient confidentiality is a top priority for us.”

  “I’ll pay you. Anything. Whatever you want. Please.” I was begging, but I didn’t care.

  “I’ve already been paid, quite well by Mr. Meenan, and I have no intention of endangering our lucrative agreement to accommodate your shenanigans.” A flash of rage hit me, making my vision go red. My fists clenched in preparation for rearranging his patrician face. “I will call security if I have to, Mr. Davies, and remove you from the property by force. Then I will call Mr. Meenan. I’m confident my report would have some impact in whatever arrangement you have with him.”

  I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. Dr. Cold Hands was right. Meenan could use it to leverage me, perhaps even disqualify me before I even got to the game. Besides, the odds that the mystery woman was actually Coffee Girl were fucking astronomical. I’d been seeing her everywhere. This was just my imagination in overdrive again.

  I raised my hands in surrender, and turned back down the hall. When I got to my car I took a few deep breaths and punched the steering wheel. As I pulled out to head to my meeting with Meenan I wondered if this is what it felt like to be alive, and if so, had I been right to wish for it?

  ***

  “Once we have confirmation of your health, and the health of your partner, we will move on to the next phase in preparation for the game.” Meenan took a sip of his martini, pausing for dramatic effect. I swore to myself that when this was over, win or lose, I was going to break his fucking nose.

  “And what is the next phase, exactly?”

  “The Rendezvous.” He paused again, picking some imaginary lint off his spotless sleeve. “We’ve found that a meeting between partners before the game begins is conducive to forming bonds that connect them in a sense of togetherness while in play.” He smiled at me, letting me see how much he was enjoying this. “There are rules of course.”

  “Of course.” I didn’t bother to hide my sarcasm.

  “You and your partner will be picked up, blindfolded and taken to a nondisclosed location for one night. While you are together, you will keep your blind fold on, and have your hands restrained. She will be wearing a ball gag that will prevent her from speaking, but her hands will be free. You may do anything and everything together that you desire, except penetration. Penetration, in any form, results in immediate disqualification.”

  “So, you’ll be watching?”

  “Heavens no, not me, Brandon, but someone will be, yes.” I thought over the scenario he described. I couldn’t see her or touch her, but I could talk to her. She could touch me, and see me, but would be unable to speak.

  “And to be clear, if she unbinds you, or the blindfold or the ball gag is removed immediate disqualification will occur, and your fortune and her payments will forfeit.”

  “And that’s the real point of this right? A chance for us to fuck up and lose before we even get a chance to play?”

 
“You should choose to see this more as a chance to get comfortable with each other, perhaps get to know each other’s bodies and desires. A chance to get an edge on the other players.”

  “A chance to frustrate the hell out of us,” I growled, sloshing my whiskey as I jerked up my glass to take huge swallow. His face showed his amusement.

  “There is that, but the innocent will be more receptive if she meets you before you take her virginity in a room of strangers while your lives hangs in the balance, don’t you think?” As soon as he said the words a wave of revulsion hit me, followed by a near overwhelming sense of nausea.

  What the fuck was I doing? Imaging some poor young girl framed up in those circumstances turned what had been an erotic adventure into something darker and more twisted than I had realized. As I gulped the rest of my drink I thought of backing out of this deal.

  “She will be taken, even if you give up a fortune to save her,” Meenan told me gleefully, reading my face and anticipating my thoughts. “Perhaps by someone with far less sympathy than yourself.” I leaned in closer to him, my face showing exactly how much I hated him.

  “She could back out, too.”

  “Of course she could, but she won’t. She needs the money. Desperately.” A thousand scenarios for why she would need cash ran through my mind, followed by the thought that if I hadn’t gotten into this mess, I could have helped her. I had more money than I could spend in two lifetimes. Had being the operative word.

  I wasn’t a good man. I didn’t fool myself about that, but until now I hadn’t realized I was a bad one. There was a world of people I could have helped, just like this girl who was so desperate she agreed to play this game, but I’d been too wrapped up in myself to realize it until it was too late.