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“Of course not,” Valerie said in the flattest tone she could muster. “That’d be uncivilized.”
“Shush. You know what I mean.”
Valerie grated her teeth because shedidknow. She’d started going to clubs around D.C. in the first place because she couldn’t come straight out and ask a guy to get her hot and bothered and make her beg.
“I bet your sister would know,” Carine said. “In fact, she thought me bringing you here was a great idea.”
“What?” Valerie couldn’t even pretend to be calm, especially not with the high pitch of her voice giving her away.
Carine closed her eyes and nodded. “Yup. Her words were—and I quote—‘maybe if she got a good dicking down, she’d pull the stick out of her ass.’”
“She did not say that.”
“Hand to God, she did.” Carine put up a hand and turned her face heavenward again. “It’s in my Facebook inbox. I’ll show it to you at work on Monday.”
“That bitch.” Valerie fastened her seatbelt and folded her arms across her chest. “She was always trying to get me into trouble as a kid, and I guess she hasn’t grown out of that bratty habit yet.”
“She just wants you to have a little fun. She means well.”
“Funny way of showing it.”
Carine jiggled her keys and sighed. “If you want to go, we can go. I’ll come back in a couple of weeks. That’s how often Clay has these things. I’m a regular fixture. The newcomers only get the chance for a ticket twice per year, though, and that’s why I grabbed you one. Clay goes over the membership rolls and crunches the numbers to see how many folks he can let in.”
“I don’t want to think about specifics, but thank you. I don’t think this is for me.” Valerie had meant it the last time she’d walked out of a kink gathering and said, “Never again.”
“No worries. At least I can tell your sister that I tried. We’re still friends, right?”
“Ask me on Monday.”
“Shush.”
Carine pressed the key into the ignition and turned.
Nothing happened.
She jiggled the Miata’s gear shifter, pumped the clutch a couple of times, and tried again. “Damnit, not again.”
“Start the car, Carine,” Valerie spat. From where she sat, she could still make out Hal and Clay on the porch, looking on.
“I can’t.”
“Oh, you can. I’ll talk you through it. You let down the emergency brake, right? And make sure you’re in neutral, okay? Put your little foot on the clutch and push that while simultaneously pressing on the brake pedal. Then, you gently turn the key clockwise until something under that fucking hood ignites, do you understand me?”
“No, I mean, I literallycan’t.” Carine growled. “This has happened before. There’s something wrong with the transmission, I think? I mean, it’s to be expected. This is a ten-year-old car, and I don’t exactly use certified technicians to handle maintenance on it. That crap’s expensive.”
Valerie entwined her fingers atop her lap and ground her back molars a few seconds. She concentrated on breathing.
In, out. In, out.
“Say something, Val.”
Valerie gave her head the minutest shake. “You don’t want that. I promise you don’t want me to say what I think right now.”
“Yikes. Look, I can get us a ride back to Shora and send the wrecker out in the morning to tow the car to the shop. Maybe I’ll even let them keep it this time for scrap metal.”
“You really think you’ll be able to drag one of your fellow degenerates away? I mean, obviously, the party is just now getting started.” And from experience, Valerie knew the party would probably be going until early morning.
She didn’t need that kind of distraction in her life anymore, even if it feltsogood while she was in the thick of it. She missed the sense of community. Kinksters were good at that.
