Hard to Change

David Baker nodded at Colin, the bouncer at The Vault, as he walked through the entrance. The music was loud and the lighting was dim, with strobes and spotlights creating the perfect intriguing atmosphere he had been striving for. He and his best friend, Andrew Carter, bought the Lower East Side club with only their own preferences to guide them in making this happen, and fortunately, those preferences resonated with the nightlife crowd in New York City.

Andrew was in charge of managing the bar, making sure the place was staffed and stocked and ran like clockwork, while David took ownership of booking acts, dancers, DJs, and all promotion to keep the club the hottest most popular club in the city. It was the perfect division of labour and landed them at the top spot for nightlife entertainment almost since they opened five years ago.

There was a queue outside the door every night, to the point where Andrew had really been pushing for them to make the club members only, but David wasn't sure it was the right choice. He was worried that would limit their intake, while Andrew insisted it would make them the most in demand club in the city.

David scanned the dance floor as he walked through the bar area. It was the usual Saturday night crowd of scantily clad women dancing to the music like a flock of birds sending out signals, and the suited men dancing back trying to hit the beat and respond.

One red head who was in the middle of the dancefloor caught his eye, but he couldn’t get distracted. At least not yet. He needed to get to the office and check in with Andrew. He walked around to the side of the bar, through an employee’s entrance and up the dimly lit stairs, taking them two at a time to get to the top. He pushed open the door to the office he shared with his friend and business partner and found him sitting in his usual position.

Despite accommodating two desks, the office’s most striking feature was a one-way window onto the club. Before it, two tall burgundy leather wingback chairs and matching footstools presented a comfortable space for observation. Andrew was sitting in his customary seat, his feet crossed at the ankle in the middle of his footstool with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a fat lit Cuban cigar in the other.

He wore the same thing he did almost every day, mostly because he knew it made him look good tailored trousers, a fitted shirt, and waistcoat. David knew the tie and jacket would be hanging in the small closet behind Andrew's desk, but he only wore those pieces to a meeting. This look he preferred for the club.

“Andy!” David said as he closed the door and crossed the room to take his own seat next to Andrew’s.

“Dave!” Andrew responded and lifted his glass in salute.

From this vantage point, they could see the whole dancefloor and most of the bar area. During the day David used this office to make calls and book acts, but at night while the club was hopping, he sat here and watched all his hard work come to fruition. Tonight, unsurprisingly, his eyes immediately found the redhead from moments ago and watched as she ignored or rebuffed advances from whichever men had the balls to approach her. She wore a shimmering cocktail dress that caught the lights, and heels that seemed impossibly high for the dancing she was doing but she made it look effortless.

“Good crowd tonight,” he said, and Andrew hummed in response but didn’t say anything else, or take his eyes off the dancefloor.

David glanced at his friend then followed his eyes and knew he was looking at the same woman. Redheads were definitely Andrew’s type and when they lived together during university he often found them in the kitchen the morning after a night out. David didn’t think he had a type himself. He enjoyed all shapes and sizes, he just wanted them to be willing and able. Sure he enjoyed some women more than others, but that had more to do with their adventurous desire than the size of their tits or the colour of their hair.

“You seein’ this?” Andrew asked without taking his eyes off the dancefloor.

“Yeah. Spotted her when I walked into the club.”

Andrew scoffed and barely held back a roll of his eyes, but David caught it and smiled. Neither of them would call ownership on any woman they both spotted. That wasn’t how they worked. If they were both interested, they would both shoot their shot, and the winner would take all. They had never shared and only one drunken night came close, but in the end David wasn’t interested in crossing swords, as he put it, and left Andrew to enjoy his spoils of war.

“Haven’t seen her here before,” Andrew said.

“Me neither.”

“It’s a downside to turning this place into a members only club,” Andrew muttered before taking a sip of his whiskey.

David nodded his head and crossed his legs, one ankle on the opposite knee. “We should start with one night a week,” he said. “And one night a month members can bring a guest for free.”

Andrew took his eyes off the redhead on the dancefloor and looked at David with both eyebrows raised in surprise. His dirty blonde hair had been neatly combed earlier in the day but now was a little unkempt and hung over his forehead.

David smiled as Andrew combed it back and leaned towards him, his blue eyes bright with excitement. They had been tossing the "members only" idea back and forth for so long, with David always being the one to shut it down. It was clear Andrew didn’t expect him to switch sides at all.

“You serious?” Andrew asked with a growing smile.

“I’m serious about expanding this club, making it the only club worth going to, the only club worth joining and this is a good test.”

“A test for what?” Andrew asked and leaned in a little closer, the dancing redhead forgotten.

“I checked out that location in the Meatpacking district, and I think it’s got a huge amount of potential.”

Andrew’s eyes got big and his smile widened and David couldn’t help but respond with his own smile. They had been running the numbers and looking for a place to expand for so long, David was pretty sure Andrew thought it was never going to happen, but David never let the idea drop. He had alerts set up with multiple real estate agents and visited three or four locations a week until finally a warehouse came on the market that fit their requirements perfectly.

“Which place?”

“Corner of 14th and 9th.”

“The old fruit market?”

David nodded his head. The fruit market had been closed for almost a decade, but when it was open the sprawling warehouse took up almost half a block and was a major hub of activity for the whole city.

“That place was huge!” Andrew said and his previously pleased face, turned to something more skeptical.

“Yeah,” David said and slowly nodded his head. “Front house for regular walk-ins, back of house for members only, upstairs for VIPs, basement for closed room activities.”

Andrew snorted and sat back in his chair and looked out at the dancefloor where the redhead was commanding even more attention than before. “Sex rooms?” he joked and David smiled.

“I was thinking more along the lines of high stakes poker, blackjack, craps.”

“You want us to get a gambling license too?” Andrew asked, surprised and unable to keep it out of his voice.

“Look, if we’re going to do this, we need to do it right. There is nowhere in Manhattan that offers what we could offer in that building. No where that will equal the high calibre entertainment that we’d make available, all under one roof, and we will have them begging for membership!”

Andrew turned back to look at David as if he wanted to check if he was joking but David looked fully serious and Andrew’s smile grew to almost sinister levels.

“In the meatpacking district?”

“It’s a growing neighbourhood. With all the tech companies moving into the area they have more disposable cash than any other group other than the brokers, but they are young and dumb enough to want to spend it.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Andrew said and David let himself smile, then slowly nodded and Andrew cheered.

He jumped out of his chair and grabbed David’s shoulders to shake him with excitement. David pushed him away, laughing, and straightened his shirt then ran a hand through his tousled hair. Andrew walked across the office to a small bar cabinet and poured himself another drink. David watched him pour a second glass then turned his attention back to the redhead and realised he had a different way in mind of celebrating this milestone.

He pushed up out of his chair and fastened his suit jacket then took the glass from Andrew that he held out after crossing back to his side.

“To strike,” Andrew said and lifted his own drink.

“To seek,” David said and lifted his drink too.

“To find,” Andrew responded and smiled.

“And never to yield,” David finished the line from their favourite poem, a line they always quoted when taking new steps, when trying new adventures, like a verbal contract to always push the boundaries.

They both downed the mouthful of whiskey then David pushed his glass against Andrews chest, who caught it with one hand.

“And on that note, I’ve got a redhead out there begging for some real attention.”

Andrew chuckled and walked towards the window. “When you wash out, I’ll come down and give her what we both know you can’t.”

David didn’t reply with anything other than a smile as he left the room and worked his way back down to the club. Sometimes he won, sometimes Andrew won. There was no animosity or rivalry when it came to sex, but that didn’t mean he would step aside without giving it his best attempt to win.

The music in the club thrummed through his chest as he wove his way through the crowd at the bar then onto the dancefloor. His eyes were fixed on the redhead the whole time, but she only noticed him when he was a few feet away. He took a small measure of pleasure in the way her rhythm faltered when she watched him get closer and she brushed a hand over and down her hair then stopped dancing when he stood in front of her.

He was about to say something but then he saw her eyes roam down his face and land on his mouth and her tongue appeared to run along her upper lip before she smiled and raised one brow. David lifted one hand, palm up in invitation and waited. He barely completed two heartbeats before she took his hand and he pulled her in closer. Her other hand landed on his chest and he moved his arms around her, holding her hand against the top of her ass. He leaned in, rested his temple against hers and his mouth was right by her ear when he spoke and he felt a tremble rattle through her as her fingers tightened on his chest, gripping his shirt in a fist.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said with a heavy pant.

That was it, that was all he needed to say, and all he needed to hear. He turned around and pulled her after him through the club, pausing only long enough to look up at the window where he knew Andrew was looking.

He felt ten foot tall and invincible as he passed the queue at the entrance. He moved beyond the crowned vying to get into his club, and opened the back door to a town car and ushered her in. He climbed in after her, opened his suit jacket and turned to look at her with a smile. Fuck he loved his life. He loved everything about it and wanted to squeeze every ounce of joy he could from it.

“Where do you live?” he asked her.

“Brooklyn.”

“What street?”

“Clinton and Montague.”

David turned to the driver and leaned forward a little. “You get that, Matt?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Baker,” the driver said and the car started moving.

David leaned back on his seat and pressed a button on the door for the privacy screen to go up behind the driver’s seat before he turned to the redhead who was watching him, still unable to keep her eyes off his mouth. He smiled wider and licked his lips and loved how the apple of her cheeks flushed pink.

“C’mere,” he said and pulled her hand, but the woman didn’t need further encouragement.

She turned on her seat, put one knee on the soft leather, hiked up the slinky shimmering cocktail dress she was wearing and straddled his lap. His hands went right to her hips then round to her ass and he pulled her close. This close and in the dim light from the street through the tinted windows he thought her dress was navy, but he couldn't be sure and he didn't have the brain power to figure it out. He was half hard already, had been since he spotted her the second he walked into the club, and knew it would be no time before he was straining inside his trousers.

He pulled her in and ran one hand up her spine to grip the back of her neck then yanked her against him for a heated kiss. She matched him swipe for swipe, their tongues duelling for supremacy, but this wasn’t a battle David was going to lose. He combed his hand into her hair and gripped a fistful then tugged her head back and moved his kisses down her neck. She grabbed his shoulders and arched her back, presenting her breasts for his attention. He curled his fingers into the top of her dress and tugged it below her tits and smiled in triumph when he realised she wasn’t wearing a bra.

He lowered his head and lavished attention on each breast, licking sucking, biting every inch as her hips started to writhe and shift against his hard cock. Her hands roamed down his chest and she tugged on his belt and he pulled back from her tits to look down. Her nimble fingers opened his belt just enough to get to the fastening on his trousers and his zipper then opened that just enough to slip her hand in and grip his cock.

He watched her stroke him for a moment. The head of his cock peeking out as she turned her fist for a better grip and he looked up to see she was smiling as if this was a victory. He gripped her hair tighter and pulled her in for another kiss then grabbed her wrist and pulled her off his dick. He felt and heard her muffled whimper of annoyance, but that faded away when he slipped his hand up the inside of her dress, against her inner thighs to her pussy.

He wanted to toss his head back and bay at the moon when he felt her slick bare pussy waiting for him. She wasn’t a woman who bothered with underwear and he fully supported her decisions. He brushed his thumb against her clit, matching the rhythm of his tongue in her mouth until she was squirming in his hands and urging him to go in deeper, but he didn’t want to ruin the surprise for his cock by feeling her out too much with his fingers.

He pushed her back a little, ignored her protests as he got his cock out of his trousers and grabbed a condom from the small pocket on the door. She stopped protesting when he ripped the condom open with his teeth and she even took it out of his hands and slipped it onto his leaking cock with only a few tight strokes.

David clamped his teeth down on his lower lip as she held the base of his cock and shuffled forward on her knees to get into position. His hands were on her hips, fingers curled around to press on her ass and she had one on his shoulder as she dragged the head of his cock through her slick folds until it snagged on her entrance. She took him in a few inches, rocking back and forth on the tip of his cock then gripping the sides of his neck with both hands, her whole body went still.

He felt her go solid and waited for her to give him the signal, then her eyes flickered open and went right to his mouth and he pushed up into her. She tossed her head back over her shoulders with a guttural moan and David let her feel it, let her feel him, as he basked in her hot wet tight body. She surrounded him with white hot velvet and he wanted to remember this in great detail.

When she rolled her head forward with a crooked smile he was almost convinced she had already come then she started to rock and move and used her knees and hips to ride him into oblivion. David wasn’t used to being a passive player in any kind of sexual activity. Hell even when a woman was swallowing his cock he was holding her head, guiding her movements, pushing into her throat, but with this red head all he could do was hold on. Those moves she was showing off on the dancefloor, the moves that caught the attention of every man and woman in the club were manifesting now as she took him in, rocking and writhing around his cock, clenching and holding him in deep with every slow stroke.

He wanted to roll her onto her back and pound into her, but what she was making him feel was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. His hands tightened on her hips and he tried to help her but she pried his fingers off her body and pressed them to the seat either side of her knees.

David closed his eyes and tipped his head back to take it all in. He could feel her breasts moving against his chest, her pussy taking in his cock, and her soft moaning breaths when she had him right to the root were driving him wild.

“Fuck,” he cursed when he realised he was on the verge of coming.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to make her come first, maybe second too before he succumbed, but the blossom of pleasure that was building behind his balls wasn’t going anywhere. He tugged his hands out of her grip and covered one of her breasts as his other one moved to her clit and hurried her release on. He lifted her tit to his face, sucked on her peaked nipple and thrust his hips up to carry her over with him.

He was on the verge of thinking he was going to fuck this up when her pussy got so fucking tight. She was flooded with slick hot pleasure and he stopped trying to hold back. He pulled her against him, dropped his face into her throat and rode her to completion, only a few strokes after her own release.

David fell back against the seat with her draped over his chest. They were both breathing heavily and he dropped his hands from around her body. They fell loose on the car seat as he tried to get enough oxygen into his brain to figure out what had just happened. He had meant to fuck her, not get fucked, but he was deep inside her right now and wasn't sure he wanted to pull out. This was a foreign feeling for him and he couldn’t even fathom what it even meant.

She didn’t seem to have the same dilemma as she pressed her hands on the seat by his shoulders and lifted herself off him. She sat back on her own side and he rolled his head against the seat to look at her as she shuffled around to fix her dress. She finger combed her hair, scooped her breasts into place back under her dress and ran one finger tip along her lip then looked at him and smiled.

David felt like he had been punched in the chest and opened his mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out, not even the breath he was holding. She reached over and he watched her hand close the distance between them and land on his knee with a couple of gentle pats.

Then he saw his flaccid cock, still covered in a filled condom which was shiny with her release and he quickly pulled it off. He heard her chuckle and glanced at her as he wrapped the condom in a tissue and put it in the door pocket. He pulled up his trousers, tucked in his shirt, and fastened his belt. He ran a hand through his hair then brushed both hands down the front of his shirt but felt like he was on the back foot.

He wasn’t sure what had happened to turn the tables, but she definitely had the upper hand in this exchange and he didn't know what to think about that. This was the part where he usually had to pry the lady off his chest, or his cock. Where he had to casually mention he was travelling for work and wouldn’t be available for any other follow up dates. Where he carefully dropped into the conversation about other women he was casually dating. But this redhead was looking out the window as if waiting for a red light so she could hop out.

It was only then he realised he didn’t even know her name. Did he remember the names of other women he had fucked? No, definitely not. But he knew their name at some stage during the proceedings.

“Oh, here, this is good,” she said and he watched her hand move to the door handle and he realised she actually was about to hop out of the car.

“Wait,” David said and reached out to grab her arm. He pressed the button on the door again and the privacy screen went down. “Are we there, Matt?” he asked and the driver glanced back through the rear view mirror.

“A couple of blocks away, sir,” Matt said.

“This is fine,” she said and her hand moved against the handle on the door.

“Careful!” David said and held her arm tighter. “Can you pull up anywhere here, Matt?”

“One second…” The car slowed down and then came to a stop and David could tell they were outside a bank and a strip of stores. Not an area where he thought there would be any apartments. He looked at the redhead who had the door half open and one foot out on the street, though she was looking back at him with a smile.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said, and he knew she meant more ways than one.

“Can I call you?” he blurted out, the words sounded like a foreign language on his tongue and he almost looked around to see if someone else had uttered them.

“No, thank you.”

Her voice was calm and sweet as if he was offering her a snack she didn’t want and he almost didn’t understand what was happening. She pushed the door open further, climbed out fully and he was forced to release her arm. Then with one hand on the door and the other on the roof of the car she leaned in low, giving him a delicious last look at her breasts as they hung loose inside her low cut dress. He wondered if she had been messing with him and now was about to invite him in for a proverbial nightcap and he felt his dick twitch in his trousers. But she just smiled, winked and said “Bye!”

Then she stepped back, slammed the door closed, and walked away. David watched her for a minute until she turned a corner and he lost sight of her then rested back in his seat and released a heavy breath.

“Back to the Vault, sir?” Matt said and looked at him through the rear view mirror.

“No, home. Bring me home.”

“Yes, sir.”

The car pulled away from the curb and David couldn’t help looking over his shoulder in the direction the redhead had walked, but there was nothing to see anymore so he turned away. He closed his eyes and tried not to revel in the sensations he could still feel rattling through his body.

His cock was half hard again and he wondered if she would still be by his side if he had taken her back to his place instead of to Brooklyn. But he quickly pushed that thought away. He never brought women back to his apartment. That was his only sanctuary. He barely even invited Andrew around and he’d known him for over two decades.

No, now was not the time to change things. He was happy with what he had achieved and how he had achieved it, so pining after some random pussy wasn’t going to be his downfall. This city had about four and a half million people. That was more than enough pussy for him. He didn’t need to double dip.

He chuckled to himself and caught Matt’s amused glance in the mirror. He smiled back and looked out the window as the low rise Brooklyn buildings became the high rise Manhattan skyline and treated himself to a quick memory reel of what had just happened, that he knew he would revisit time and time again.