Ingenue's Choice (2 page)

Quincy looked at him with a mysterious smile on his face that had Keir wondering about the man’s sanity until the thought struck him. “Zara Benjamin is the ghost in question?”

“I’m not saying yea or nay, but people talk, and before you start this weekend, I just wanted you to be prepared for…anything.”

“Anything like séances and hauntings?”

Quincy laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

Keir shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t have a problem with ghosts. I don’t believe in them, to tell you the truth.” Despite his artistic, creative background, Keir was a pragmatist at heart, didn’t have time to entertain such whimsy as ghosts and the afterlife. If he couldn’t see or touch it, it wasn’t real to him.

He often wondered whether Elijah had taken away his spark and faith along with everything else when he died.

Quincy just looked at Keir and grinned as he reached for the doorknob.

Before he could turn it, however, the door swung inward.

“Oh! I didn’t know you were busy.”

“We were just finishing up.” Quincy wrapped an arm around the newcomer’s shoulder and bent his head for a slow deep kiss on the lips that had Keir salivating. He hadn’t been in a serious relationship since Elijah three years ago, and the few dates and encounters he’d had since were mostly forgettable except for the hot sex here and there. But gay man could not live on sex alone, especially not this gay man.

Ingenue’s Choice

11

When Quincy came up for air, he pulled the young, caramel-haired guy to his side to make the introductions. “This is Zack, Zara’s twin brother and my partner. Zack, this is Keir Monroe, our newest bartender.”

“Keir Monroe, my savior!” Zack ignored Keir’s outstretched hand and instead threw his arms around Keir.

Keir laughed, thinking
Zara’s
owners had no problem with public displays of affection. He liked that because he didn’t either. He hugged Zack back right before the smaller man pulled away to stare up at him.

“Where have you been all my life?”

Quincy chuckled. “Zack has been filling in at the main bar since Seal jumped ship,” he explained his partner’s exuberance.

“And here I thought he was coming onto me,” Keir teased.

“He’s a big flirt so you never can tell. It’s why I keep him on a short leash around here.” Quincy slid an arm around Zack’s back easing a hand down to squeeze one round, tight ass cheek.

Zack squeaked, stood up on his tiptoes, and gave Quincy a peck on the lips before turning back to Keir, blushing cutely. “So, when do you start?”

“This weekend,” Keir said.

“Quincy warned you about—”

“He knows all about your sister.”

“All the employees know that the club is haunted?” Keir asked.

“I wouldn’t call it haunted,” Zack said. “But there’s definitely an otherworldly presence.”

“And the patrons?”

“Some come for a hot night out and others come out of morbid curiosity,”

Quincy said.

“Part of the club’s mystique,” Zack put in.

“Oh, I get it.” Short of actually advertising the club as some haunted and trendy hangout, the partners did nothing to discourage the ghost rumors, probably encouraged them. “Hey, whatever works.”

“That’s the way we see it,” Quincy and Zack said in chorus.

12

Gracie C. McKeever

Keir laughed, thinking he was going to like working at
Zara’s
, ghosts notwithstanding.

* * * *

“You’re going and we’re not taking no for an answer.”

Patryk Andrews glanced up from the quarterly report he was reviewing to see Dharma Michaels and Chaz Palmetto filling his doorway, each with a big grin and each looking ready to burst. The grins and the enthusiasm flowing off them in waves made him leery of responding, but he did nonetheless. “I’m sorry, where am I going?”

“Out for your birthday.” Dharma plopped her shapely fanny on top of his desk. She crossed one thigh over the other, leaned forward, plucked the report out of his hands, and passed it back to Chaz who had come in behind her.

“Hey, I’ve been working all day on that report! Be careful with it.”

“No harm will come to it as long as you do what we say. Otherwise…”

Dharma paused to meaningfully slice a forefinger across her throat. “It’s curtains for your little report.”

He glanced up at her and Chaz, who looked as menacing as a Secret Service agent in his dark shades while he nodded in agreement.

Patryk suddenly burst out laughing, couldn’t help it. Dharma and Chaz,
Presidio and Hall’s
resident tag-team morale boosters invariably brought out the lighthearted side of everyone at the accounting firm.

Dharma, one of a handful of up-and-coming financial analysts at the firm, was as beautiful with her blonde-haired, blue-eyed looks as she was intelligent with her Ivy League business degree. But sitting there in her sexy designer threads with her playful, thousand-watt smile, she was as far away from the world of high finance as a toddler was from old age.

Too bad she wasn’t his type.

“So, you coming or do we send this little baby through the shredder?”

Chaz asked.

“That threat might carry a little more weight if I couldn’t just print up another copy.”

Ingenue’s Choice

13

“Hmmm. You know he’s right.” Dharma said to Chaz over her shoulder before turning back to menacingly looking over Patryk’s keyboard until he quickly saved and closed the document he was working in.

“All right, so where are you guys hijacking me to?”

“That hot new nightclub,
Zara’s
in the Village,” Chaz said.

“That’s a gay club.”

“Duh.”

Patryk stared up at Chaz, seeing him in a different light.

Chaz returned his look and grinned. “Didn’t know?”

“I never thought about it one way or the other.”

Chaz’s expression said he thought Patryk was lying.

Tall, broad-shouldered, and clad in flawless corporate gear, Chaz was more Patryk’s type than the buxom, leggy Dharma. Well at least he was the right sex. Patryk rarely hung out with the man except for a few business lunches, and he didn’t know all that much about him outside of work. But up until a few seconds ago, he would have at least sworn that Chaz was straight.

Damn, his gaydar had been completely skewed since his break-up with Derek a couple of years ago. Not like he would have done anything about it had he known Chaz was gay. Patryk hadn’t made the first move on anyone in all his time dating in high school or college.

“Okay, so now that we’ve got everyone’s orientation straight, no pun intended, can we be off for some hot and wild nightlife?”

Patryk stood and came out from behind his desk, rolling down his sleeves and then buttoning his cuffs. “How do you guys know I don’t already have plans?”

Dharma rolled her eyes and hopped off his desk and Chaz just grabbed Patryk’s suit jacket from the coat tree adjacent the desk and handed it to Patryk.

“Well, I could have. It is my twenty-fifth birthday after all.”

“
We
know that, but we figured it might have slipped
your
mind,” Chaz said.

“How could I forget my own birthday?”

14

Gracie C. McKeever

“We know how your type rolls,” Dharma said.

“My type?”

She counted the fingers on one hand. “Ambitious, workaholic, serious, unadventurous, no life…” She turned to Chaz. “Have I left anything out?”

“Nope. I think that about covers it.”

Patryk chuckled. “That’s harsh.”

“It’s called tough love.” Dharma draped an arm over his shoulder and walked him to the door, and Chaz followed. “And remember, we’re only doing this
because
we love you.”

“Speak for yourself. I want to scope the bursting male pulchritude at
Zara’s
.”

Patryk and Dharma both laughed as Chaz closed the door behind them, and they all headed for the lobby and elevators.

“I heard the place is haunted by the person it was named after,” Dharma said after pressing the “down” button and waiting. “Any truth to that?”

Just thinking about the possibility gave Patryk chill bumps, not out of any fear, but rather out of anticipation.

“That’s just a marketing ploy. Trust me,” Chaz said.

“You’re so sure?” Dharma asked.

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

“I’m keeping my options opened, just in case.”

Chaz laughed. “Don’t want to piss them off, huh?”

“My parents and God are already pissed off at me for being an agnostic.

Don’t want to piss anyone else off if I can help it.”

“Agnostic? What kind of Republican are you?”

“A rebellious one.”

Patryk laughed, thinking his parents would take the agnostic Dharma over their gay, liberal son any day.

Dharma turned to him as an elevator arrived and they all got on. “What about you? You’re pretty quiet over there.”

Ingenue’s Choice

15

“I’m with Chaz. I’m going to scope the bursting male pulchritude.”

“Yeah, but do you believe in ghosts?”

Patryk shrugged, holding his belief in the supernatural close to his chest like the cherished gift it was, and said, “I believe anything’s possible.”

* * * *

When the trio entered the club a little after eight, the spot was already jumping.

Patryk was impressed. Although he didn’t go to them often, he hadn’t ever seen a nightclub so lively before ten, even on a Friday night.

He, Dharma, and Chaz threaded their way through the growing throngs to get a table. Because most of the crowd was up and dancing, a number of tables were empty.

Dharma found them one not too far from the dance floor, a good spot to watch the main action but not too far from the main bar.

She slid her jacket off and neatly draped it over the back of her chair, then leaned toward the center of the table until Patryk and Chaz met her halfway. “So, do you think the employees are gay too?”

“More than likely,” Chaz said.

“If not all, then most of them are,” Patryk added.

Dharma snapped her fingers. “Damn. And I caught a couple of cuties on the way in.”

“Where?” Chaz lifted his head to look around.

“I’m not giving up my sources. Besides, you might get to them first and steal them away before I even have a chance to make a play.”

“Honey, it’s not like I can turn anyone. If he’s straight, then swinging my cute little ass in his face isn’t going to distract him from your very feminine and, I might add, sexy wiles.”

“You are quite the smooth talker.”

“We do try.”

16

Gracie C. McKeever

“And you succeed.”

“Why thank you, fine lady.”

“No, thank
you
, fine sir.”

“I’m just curious,” Patryk interrupted their Chip-’n-Dale, Heckle-and-Jeckle moment, and Dharma and Chaz turned to him. “Did Dharma know you were gay?”

“She suspected. One day
her
curiosity got the best of her and she asked me.”

“Good strategy.” Patryk nodded.

“Why? You interested?”

Patryk felt his cheeks quickly heat, and when Dharma and Chaz laughed, he knew his face was crimson.

“It’s all right. Don’t be embarrassed.” Chaz pat him on the shoulder.

“You’re not my type, and I know I’m not yours.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t be insulted. I just know. We’re too much alike to ever get along sexually.”

Tempted to ask, Patryk bit his bottom lip. But Chaz seemed to know him too well and he was afraid of the answer he would get. Instead he said, “Okay then, I’ll bite. What’s my type, Mr. Palmetto?”

“Hmm, let’s see.…” Chaz sat up in his chair searching the floor, his gaze touching and discounting all the young twinkies, body builders, and surfer bois to home in on the main bar.

Patryk heard Dharma gasp as his own gaze found the object of her and Chaz’s attention.

The bartender’s movements were smooth and graceful even engaged in a mundane task like mixing popular drinks of the day. Standing at least half-a-foot taller than Patryk’s 5-feet-10, with milk chocolate skin and long, copper cornrows that capped his head like an intricately designed crown, the man looked like visiting royalty instead of an employee of a hip, upscale nightclub.

He took Patryk’s breath away.

“I rest my case,” Chaz said and laughed.

Ingenue’s Choice

17

Patryk licked his lips and shook himself to turn back to his friends.

“Damn, he was one of my cuties too, but I guess I should just quit while the getting’s good,” Dharma said.

“No, don’t do that. Who says I’m right?” Chaz said. “After all, my gaydar could be just as off as our friend’s here.”

“You’re not suggesting we make a contest of it?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

“Hey, wait.” Patryk put his hands together in the universal time-out sign.

“What are you two talking about?”

“That you both go over there, each of you make a play, and see who he goes for.”

“Personally, I think I’m out of the running, but what did I expect coming to a gay club with two gay guys?”

“So, you in?” Chaz asked.

“I don’t think so,” Patryk said.

“C’mon. It’s your birthday. Live a little!”

The very idea of getting up and walking across the room to talk to someone so thoroughly hot and out of his league brought the butterflies to life in Patryk’s stomach, complementing the rock-hard erection he was sporting behind his slacks. “I’ll pass.”

Dharma stood, shaking and shimmying as she smoothed the front of her pink silk skirt. “Suit yourself, but I’m going over to chat. Even if he’s gay, he’s damn sure finer and more interesting than you two ugly ’mos.”

“Your mother!” Chaz laughed as Dharma wound her way around the dancers and gave him the finger over a shoulder. “So, what’s it going to be? Sit here all night like a wallflower or get up and mingle?”

“I’m going to sit for a while and get a feel for the terrain before I make a move.”

Standing, Chaz looked at him doubtfully. “Suit yourself. But I’ve spotted a couple of prime hotties in the middle of the dance floor. Think I’m going over there to be the meat in their buffed sandwich.”