Chapter 1

The first day I saw her was a Tuesday. The day had been going well. Work was good because no pissed-off clients rang me up with complaints and that always signifies a good day. After work I went to the gym for a vigorous workout, then I swam a few laps in the pool to cool down, followed by a heart-attack grill at the nearby diner. Finally, out of my business suit and into smart casual, I hit Joe's Bar.

Everyone in town knows what Joe's Bar is all about. It's for hooking up. Joe tolerates a few working girls provided they conducted their business discreetly, but you have to be a pretty sad case not to be able to get any for free if you're sufficiently flexible about your standards. I was a regular visitor there and I liked to think none of the women I'd picked up thought they'd been short-changed.

The bar wasn't very busy when I arrived so I noticed the stranger sitting at the bar right away. She was a bit skinnier than my ideal, with a very pretty but rather angular face. Others might call her hair mousey, but it was lustrous and glossy and on her it looked good, even with the librarian 'glasses and ponytail' look she cultivated. Except that she was clearly no librarian - she wore a matching pinstripe jacket and knee-length pencil skirt which emphasised the long, nicely toned legs covered in flesh-coloured hose, her slender ankles leading the eye to her sensible but chic 2" kitten heels. Everything about her screamed 'class'.

She noticed me staring at her and responded with an enigmatic look from her steel-grey eyes, not overtly hostile but not encouraging either. Gary, the barman, leaned over and said something to her, presumably about me because she pursed her lips into a faint smile. Then she turned her attention back to her e-reader.

I was hooked. I made my way over to the next stool and sat down.

"Hi," I said. "My name's Dave Rawson. Would you like to buy me a drink?"

She looked up from her e-reader and gave me a half smile. "Now why would I want to do a thing like that?" she asked, her voice husky and sensuous.

"Because I'm worth it?"

"Is he worth it, Gary?" she asked the barman.

"Hell, no! He's a no good bum. Even a starving dog wouldn't touch him." Gary was only joking, but it wasn't helping my case.

"Tell you what, buy me a drink and if I don't turn out to be worth it, I'll give you a refund," I persisted.

"Are you too poor to buy your own drinks? That's not a terribly good advertisement."

"Okay, let me buy you a drink then."

"Hey Gary, am I missing something here? Is it two drinks for the price of one?"

"No miss, not that I know of," Gary replied, totally deadpan.

I was losing this battle of wits and getting frustrated.

"Do you know what sort of bar this is?" I asked.

"No, I'm new in town. Can't a bar just be a bar if that's what the customer wants it to be."

"Okay, I get the message." I turned to the barman, "The usual please, Gary."

Gary poured me a beer and I took it over to the widescreen to watch the ballgame, even though it held little interest for me. I usually sat at the bar but I didn't want to be near the ice maiden, as I decided to call her.

A few minutes later, although it seemed more like a lifetime, a nice, brown pair of arms wrapped themselves around me from behind, and a pair of large, soft mounds pressed into my back.

"Hi Dave, struck out tonight?"

"Hi Gorgeous. I think my night just staged a dramatic recovery. How's things?"

"Likewise."

Luisa Sanchez had the perfect latina body, with curves in all the right places and nowhere else. And she was a sure thing. She wanted a good, no-strings fucking and I had frequently provided it for her. We often ended together by default if we both struck out. She wasn't perfect though, in my eyes. The dyed-blonde hair and cherry red lipstick looked trashy. And I don't think she enjoyed her perfect body to the greatest effect. She liked her fucking hard and fast; she wasn't the least bit sensuous.