Ann Mayburn - Sodom and the Phoenix

Reality intruded in the form of his old friend Luke’s voice booming across the foyer. “Sarge, you made it.”

Bryan couldn’t help but smile as he spied Luke working his way through the crowd toward him. Their friendship went back to when they were both in the military and Bryan had been Luke’s drill sergeant. “Luke, good to see you.”

Dressed in an impeccable black suit with a pale blue tie that matched his eyes, Luke looked more like a blond GQ model than ever. His teeth flashed white in his tanned face as they shook hands. “Glad I found you in all this chaos. I was wondering if you would want to join me and my family for dinner tonight.”

Bryan glanced down at Luke’s hands and grinned. Luke wore a gold wedding band on each hand, one for his wife, Maeve, and the other for his husband, Angel. Not a conventional relationship by any means, but it worked for them, and Bryan envied their happiness. “I’m afraid I’ll have to pass tonight. I need to be there for the opening celebration at dinner. How about lunch tomorrow?”

“Sounds good.” Luke looked over Bryan’s shoulder at the ever growing line and frowned. “You checked in yet?”

“Not yet. Think you could pull some strings for me?”

Luke nodded as he removed his cell phone from his suit pocket and began to text into it. “So am I finally going to get you into a simulation this year? You’re the only guy I know that comes to the world’s best VR resort and never sets foot in a fantasy.”

Bryan rubbed his lips and considered the note in his hand before putting it in his pocket. “Actually I think I will see what all the VR fuss is about.”

The smile that lit up Luke’s face made him appear five years younger. “Fantastic! I know you think it can’t be as good as real life, but wait until you see the exotic zoo we have set up for your group in VR. It’s amazing. Over two hundred people sharing the same fantasy on a fifty-acre site complete with a hunting preserve. I guarantee you, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen. Took forever to get the network to handle the demand, but with the new—”

“Well”—he ran his hand over the pocket containing Tanwen’s note—“I have something of a more personal nature in mind. I need you to make sure that I get to be in a particular lady’s fantasies.”

The amusement fled Luke’s gaze, and his back stiffened. “Bryan, you know we keep everything strictly confidential. I wouldn’t feel right abusing our guests’ privacy like that, and I’m more than a little surprised you would even ask me to do that.”

Bryan had to rein in his temper. “I’m not talking about putting me in without her knowledge. That would be dishonorable and just flat-out wrong. If she puts out a—what do you guys call it?—an open invitation for others to join her VR fantasy, I just want first dibs. If her call is for girls or married couples or anything like that, I’ll bow out. But if it’s for a guy and I fit the criteria, I’m just asking for a chance to make her fantasy as amazing as possible.”

Luke considered him, and Bryan returned his gaze. Finally Luke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “All right. Give me her name, and I’ll give you first dibs on her fantasy if she wants anyone else to join her.”

“Thank you,” Bryan said, and a rush of excitement sent his pulse pounding like it hadn’t in years.

“You know I’m only doing this because I’m afraid if I don’t, you’ll use those dom superpowers on my employees in order to get your way.”

Bryan tried to fight a smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Luke shook his head and started for the front desk. “You are such a crappy liar. Let’s get you checked in, and I’ll see what I can do about making your wishes come true.”

Bryan couldn’t help but laugh. “What are you? My perverted fairy godmother?”

Luke snorted. “More like godfather. Be nice to me or I’ll make sure that in VR you have a two-inch dick and testicles the size of pimples.”

Tanwen pressed a five-dollar bill into the bellman’s hand and practically shoved him out the door of her hotel room and slammed it shut. Before she slumped against it, she made sure all the locks were engaged just in case Bryan somehow followed her. It was a futile effort because as soon as she looked through the peephole and saw him on the other side, her crazed hormones would take over her body, and she would throw open the door and throw up her skirt, demanding that he take her. Or since he was one of those master guys, begging him to take her.

Just the thought made her body flush, and she wondered if menopause was hitting her early. Instead of her hormones dwindling, they were having one last wild hurrah before they left the building. It was a more rational explanation than instant lust for a stranger. That kind of stuff just didn’t happen to her. She wasn’t that kind of girl.

Heck, the two guys she’d had sex with since her divorce hadn’t got her into bed until after months of dating. Even then she had been disappointed in the experiences. The first guy was a nice, respectable executive she had met through a mutual friend. He had been polite, refined, and utterly boring —inside the bedroom and out.

When that didn’t work out, she went the exact opposite direction and tried one of those online dating sites. She’d filled out the app and did everything she could to skew the results so she would get paired with someone daring and unconventional. After two months of dating Mr. Sensitive Ponytail Guy, she realized she was rather conservative and she would never understand or could ever see spending the rest of her life with a guy who cried more during chick flick movies than she did. And he made really weird faces when he orgasmed that made her want to giggle.

Before then she’d had her embarrassing rebound phase. Faced with the prospect of being single in the first time in forever, she’d dated anyone and everyone. She hadn’t had sex with any of them—her mind wasn’t that far gone—but she’d given more than one blowjob she’d regretted in the morning. In her eagerness to feel loved again, she’d gotten way too serious about total morons, making up excuses for their behavior just so she wouldn’t have to be alone. Sherry, her best friend since high school, had staged a dumb-ass intervention, and Tanwen had been humiliated when she realized what she’d been doing.

Which brought her back to the present and a phone call to Sherry, who had some ’splainin’ to do.

As she dug through her purse for her phone, she couldn’t help but admire the room. Decorated in soft shades of peach and chiffon yellow, it was a welcome surprise from the usual bland hotel-room beige she had come to expect. A white lace comforter lay over the brass-framed, king-size bed, and large peach silk throw pillows added a splash of color. Fresh flowers graced the dark walnut furniture, and a small sitting area looked out across the Detroit River and into Windsor, Canada.

She hit the speed dial and stood in front of the large window, admiring the setting sun throwing spangles of shimmering color on the river far below. It rang three times before Sherry answered in her perky office voice, “Dream Tripp’n Travel Agency, Sherry speaking.”

“You rotten, dirty, conniving—”

“Best friend in the whole entire world?” Sherry finished with snicker.

Tanwen scowled at the phone and held it to her ear with her shoulder while she took her sandals off. “You knew there was a whips-and-chains convention going on, didn’t you?”

“You can thank me later,” Sherry replied in a smug voice.

Tossing her shoes in the general direction of the closet, Tanwen prayed for patience. “Thank you for what? Sending me into a real-life dirty movie? I don’t belong with these people, Sherry. I’ll stick out like a sore thumb!”