Nine Ten Begin Again: A Grasshopper Lawns affair by EJ Lamprey Page A

someone to lift you down. Gets embarrassing if no-one tries, eh?’
    ‘And then? When she gets lifted down?’ She was fascinated and his eyes closed briefly behind the mask.
    ‘What do you think happens next, Edge?’
    ‘I don’t know. That’s why I asked,’ she pointed out reasonably and his mouth twisted ruefully.
    ‘Oh, Miss Prim. I thought you understood. This is a place where people come for sex. Either they leave together or they go up the stairs to one of the rooms.’ He gestured at the video screen. ‘If they’re exhibitionists, they go to the video room, and switch on the screen.’
    Edge gasped and took a hurried gulp of her drink, then realized something.
    ‘Oh heavens, am I cramping your style tonight? But Donald, don’t you dare leave me!’
    ‘Of course not,’ he said absently, then tapped her arm and nodded across the room. ‘I think she’s going to try it. Doing a Rapunzel, they call it.’
    Edge watched, fascinated, as a hard-faced blonde in skin-tight white leather deftly swung herself up into the high seat, then challenged the room with a haughty stare and a flick of her long blonde hair. A smallish Roman gladiator wearing a leather kilt, cloak, and full hood went over and turned his head up to the blonde, one hand on her ankle.
    ‘Is he kidding? He’s smaller than she is! He’ll never be able to lift her!’ Edge could feel her eyes rounding with astonishment as she watched.
    ‘That’s Sputnik, he’s a regular at my usual.’ Donald was amused and faintly contemptuous. ‘He’s a lunatic. He also challenges for women, and wins more often than you’d think. He does get a surprising amount of action. Persistence pays off.’
    Not this time. The blonde flicked Sputnik’s hand off her ankle disdainfully and looked speculatively at Donald, who half-shook his head. Her gaze moved to a tall and very well-muscled man leaning against the wall, his ankles crossed. He shrugged and lifted his glass to drink, keeping eye-contact, and Edge drew a deep and slightly shaky breath.
    ‘This is definitely the “something out of the way” that I was looking for. I don’t even care that I’m spoiling your evening, this is fun .’
    Donald didn’t answer, although his mouth twisted slightly in a smile. He had looked away to watch two men who had just strutted into the room, and Edge, following his gaze, felt a slight stab of disappointment. Was that the sort of man he found attractive? She didn’t like the look of them at all. Unlike the other patrons who were fully clad, albeit with the occasional cut-out or swooping neckline to expose bosom or hairy chest, the newcomers looked more like the ones on the websites, close to naked with cross-straps, bicep and calf bands, and overlarge G-strings protecting what they would no doubt scorn to call their modesty.
    Donald swivelled to stand in front of her, his blue eyes glinting through his half-mask.
    ‘Give me the collar, Edge.’ He took it from her as she obediently produced it, and clipped it into place, lifting her heavy false hair free. Then he leaned up against her knees, his face inches from hers.
    ‘Put an arm round my neck, don’t look around, don’t make eye-contact. Look besotted, if you can.’
    She laced her fingers loosely behind his head and smiled nervously into his eyes.
    ’Is it those guys? Do we need to get out of here?’
    ‘Play it by ear. You’re doing fine. I think they’re mainly bluster, but I could wish Angie hadn’t made you look quite so tempting.’
    ‘This is a hell of a time to finally come up with a compliment,’ she complained through stiffly-smiling lips and felt him shake with laughter against her knees.
    ‘Believe me, if you looked a little more like the resident in a retirement village, I’d be a lot happier right now. Did I not tell you how good you looked?’
    ‘No, you didn’t. I don’t count expensive hooker as a compliment.’
    She tried to watch the newcomers from the corner of her eye, as four