Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(56)
Author: Gena Showalter

Right? Because I needed to…what? I wanted to…Shit! I couldn’t remember. And asking myself all these questions was –

Questions! Yes, that was it. I wanted to question them. "So. You boys come here a lot?" I propped my elbows on the table, hoping I looked like a rapt audience rather than the cheap drunk I was beginning to fear I was.

"Every weekend," Eleven said. "Now let’s talk about you, Pleasure Girl. Tell us about your man. How long have you guys been together?"

"Not long," I said, refusing to give a number. Even though our courtship had been a whirlwind, it felt like we’d been together forever.

"Do you love him? Does he love you?"

To keep from having to answer, I picked up one of the still-full glasses and pretended to sip. The others, not wanting to be left out, threw back their drinks and ordered another round. As they waited, they talked among themselves and I was thankfully forgotten – though I still seemed to be the subject of their conversation, along with the waitress and every other female in the place.

"She’s hot."

"I’d do her."

"What about her?"

I was getting whiplash looking from one to the other. A few times, their banter made me laugh out loud and I realized I liked them. They even reminded me a little of Tanner.

Two called Four a pu**y and dared him to ask the waitress for a blow job. Six dropped a pocketful of pennies on the floor and bent down to "pick them up," but used his vantage point to peer up a woman’s dress. Despite their antics, I didn’t sense anything menacing about them – but then, let’s face it, I was not always a great judge of character.

"Okay, stop," I said, and all of them faced me. "I can’t keep thinking of you as One, Two, Three and so on. What are your names?"

"Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Roman, Corinthian, Gala, Ephesian, Philip and Crunch." As their names were called, they raised their hands. I’d never remember all of them. Fine. I’d go back to numbers.

My brow furrowed as something occurred to me. All were Biblical names but one. "Why Crunch?" The guy across from me leaned forward, the candlelight stroking his face. I noticed nothing different about him to set him apart from the others. Same puppy-dog eyes, same pretty face. "That’s the sound bones make when I break them."

Ouch. My own bones ached in sympathy for his victims. "You do that a lot, then? Break bones, I mean?"

He smiled. "I was kidding. Just eat way too many Crunch bars."

"So back to that guy you were with. Delta. What’s his deal?" Eight asked.

Damn. I wanted to set them straight about who was supposed to interrogate whom at this table, but instead I forced myself to smile. "Him?" I waved a dismissive hand through the air, hoping the pulse hammering away in my neck didn’t give away my nervousness. "The truth is, I’m just using him for sex until I can find my real boyfriend." Wow. That was so close to reality, I could have laughed. Or cried.

All eleven guys leaned into the table.

Nine said, "Do tell!"

Six added, "Any girl who uses a man for sex is a girl I want to get to know better." My gaze continued to shift between them. God, I was dizzy. It took a conscious effort to pull an image of Cody into my mind. Wouldn’t hurt to use his face since I was looking for him. "My real boyfriend has white hair and these killer silver-purple eyes." I added a shiver for good measure. "He’s – "

"Friends with Candace Bright and dating her sister," Two interjected with a shudder of his own. "Kiss him goodbye forever, then, sweetheart. He’s not coming back to you."

"Not in one piece," Five added. "I heard the last few guys to travel that road were lifeless shells when the girls were done with them."

"What!" I sat up, my spine straight as a board. "You’ve seen him?" With Desert Gal/Candace Bright?

Suddenly the night was looking up.

One nodded. "His name’s Cody, right, and he’s got a thing for electricity? Well, he just started working for Big Rocky, where we work, and Candace, our boss, noticed him right away." Cody, huh? He’d used his real name, even though his message had said he was going in undercover. He could have changed his last name, I supposed, but how many electophiles with the first name Cody were out there? Not many. Dare I say just one?

With that small amount of info, Candace could easily learn he worked for PSI. If that happened…

"Candace called him into her office for a private meeting. Then she left and her sister showed up. They had a private meeting, too. But theirs didn’t just last an hour, if you know what I mean." At that, I forced myself to scowl. One question was now answered. Candace was passing Desert Gall off as her "sister." "So where is this Candace Bright? Where’s her sister? I’ll fight them both for him.

He’s my man, and I don’t give up what’s mine." A lesson Lexis really should have learned by now, I thought darkly.

Just like that, two of the guys disappeared.

"Trust me," Four said, patting me on the shoulder, "they’re bad news. Don’t mess with them. Forget you had a man."

Three others disappeared.

They were that scared of the woman? "Hey, don’t leave! I have more questions." Another vanished.

Number One leaned toward me, those freckles seemingly darker than before. "Meet me at the Holland Hotel. I’ll get a room. You just show up at nine tomorrow night and ask the front desk for Matthew Brooks. Maybe I can help."

"But I – "

"Just make sure you ditch your sex puppet. He comes, I’ll tell you nothing." With that, he pushed to his feet. The rest of the boys disappeared, too. Or rather, they got to their feet and walked into One’s body.

Without them surrounding me, I was suddenly given a clear view of Rome. He stalked to my table and glared down at me.

One saw him and beat a hasty retreat.

I didn’t apologize, didn’t explain my actions. And he didn’t immediately demand to know who I’d been talking to. Because he didn’t care? Because he was too pissed? I’d disobeyed his orders, after all.

"Where’s your blonde?"

He flashed his teeth as he fell into the seat beside me. His hair was mussed, I noticed, and his clothing wrinkled.

I gasped. "Have you – "

"No," he snapped. "I haven’t. Were you…drinking?" The last emerged incredulous.

"Yes. I caved under peer pressure, what can I say?"

"You’re sorry, to start." He scrubbed a hand down his face.

"I’m not the one who stomped away for a make-out session with the Fembot. What’s her power, anyway? Inducing sexual comas?"