There was no answer, only a heavy stillness that seemed to press against him like a smothering blanket. He wanted to turn and go home, but a stubborn duality drew him to stay. He wanted to
“Who’s there,” he said, trying to keep a desperate quaver from his voice.
“Shhssssssssssssssssss,” something answered. It could have been a rattlesnake or a cat as easily as a human.
Something touched him, grabbed him at the waist. Tony froze, not knowing whether compliance was safest or if he should strike—and possibly risk getting stabbed or shot by his unseen assailant. Actually, he supposed the hands on his body couldn’t be accused of assault. He was the intruder here, after all.
The pressure on his left side abated and he felt a tickle at his crotch. His zipper protested in the dark, and then his belt loosened. Still he couldn’t move. He was so scared he wanted to scream, to run, but he could do neither, only stand flat against the wall in the groping night as his underwear dropped to his feet and something cold and smooth brushed against his cock—which completely ignored the paralyzed fear of the rest of him and responded with an instant erection.
Which was first gripped and tugged by a cold hardness,
When he opened them again, the hands had receded. He was sitting on the room’s short, sandpaper-rough carpet and could see now, sort of, in the darkness. There was no one else in the room.
“No names, no faces, no price,” the peep show graffiti had said. “Unspeakable pleasure.”
It delivered what it advertised, he thought, just as something small and hairy darted across his leg. Tony jumped up, ending his reverie with a shiver. Pulling up his pants, he left the room still buckling his belt.
* * *
“Tony? Tony?”
The vision of the blonde goddess from the peep show burying her head between his legs in a shadowy derelict hotel room vanished, replaced by the less welcome sight of his balding overweight boss, leaning over the desk and staring at him with a perplexed expression.
“Tony, you’ve been drooling into space for the past 15 minutes. Are you alright?”
Tony shook his head to clear away the stubborn ache of his daydream.
“Yeah, Bob. Sorry. I just … didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Why don’t you go lay down in the lounge for a few minutes?” Bob Mackenzie smiled. “I’d tell you to go on home, but I do need to have that Web report by the end of the week, you know.”
“I know. You’ll have it. I’m just having a little trouble concentrating today is all.”