Page 185 of The Doctors Will See You Now

“They opened nearly twenty years ago. Burlesque, drag, you name it, they were doing it. From the way I hear it, they used to open it up to pretty much anything and everything. The raunchier, the better.”

Her eyes lit with interest. “Really?”

“Oh yeah. Some of the performances are still pretty borderline when it comes to societal appropriateness.”

“That sounds like so much fun,” she breathed excitedly.

I laughed. “It does, doesn’t it? The couple of times I’ve been here, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself.”

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “A regular date spot?”

I shook my head with a smirk. “Never.” The truth was, both times I’d come, I’d been by myself. It’d never even occurred to me to bring a woman here before.

I pulled her toward a table in the back, still close to the stage since it wasn’t possible to be far away—the room itself was no more than fifty feet deep—and pulled out her chair for her.

She murmured her thanks and sat down quickly. I followed the line of her legs, hoping the hem of her skirt would fail to protect her. Unfortunately, it remained in place.

“I have to write a column about this place,” she mused.

“Feel free,” I offered magnanimously, even though I had no actual say in the matter. “But keep in mind that as soon as you’re writing about it, it’s bound to lose some of its mysterious allure.”

“Hmmm…” She frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe I won’t write about it.”

I shrugged. “Watch the show and decide. You’ve got to be getting pretty tired of writing about Dr. Erotic.” I rolled my eyes.

She laughed. “He has been pretty boring lately.”

“Really?” I teased. “I heard he’s sleeping with his inside source. Seems like a juicy story to me.”

“Ah, see. That’s…yeah. How do I put this?”

I looked on with wide eyes as she stuttered.

She took a deep breath and started again. “Let’s just say that story is a little too real for Gossip.” She lowered her voice to a mutter. “And me.”

I smiled. “What was that last bit?”

The house lights started to dim, and a spotlight shone on the stage. She winced and pointed to the stage. “Sorry. Can’t talk. The show’s starting.”

I shook my head but surrendered. That was fine with me. I didn’t really want to talk anyway.

Grabbing the side of her chair, I pulled her toward me with a rough yank, and she gasped.

I winked, draping my arm around the back of her chair to twirl her hair and then bringing it back so I could rest my hand on her thigh.

“Just wanted to sit close.”

“Why?”

I smiled. “It took a lot of work to get this date. You better believe I’m going to milk it.”

She rolled her eyes and sat back, facing the stage again. When the lights went out completely and the first note of music rang out as a woman in pasties and a G-string took the stage, I leaned over and whispered the rest.

“Plus, I’ll need to be close to finger your cunt. Tell me, Low. Are you wet for me already?”

She squirmed in her seat and crossed her legs, trapping my hand in between them. It took everything I had to follow through with the rest of my plan.

Just words, Scott. No touching.