Riding Tall Read Free Page B

here.”
    The kid raised his eyebrow. “New York is all about irony. You know?”
    “Nope,” Mackenzie said blithely. He was too old for this nonsense, too old to be worried about what some punk kid thought about him. But there was something depressing about the thought of going back to his hotel room all alone, and so early. “We can get something to eat, if you want. Maybe downtown. There’s a pretty good gay village. You’ll find lots of places to have fun down there.”
    “And I’ll persuade you to stay and have fun with me,” the kid promised.
    They were out in the suburbs and had to phone for a cab. Mackenzie almost called the whole adventure off right there. He wasn’t making that much money from this shoot, and now he was going to blow some of it on cab fare downtown, spend more on a meal and at least one drink while he was down there, and then pay for cab fare right back to the burbs for his stupid hotel room. It wasn’t a good idea.
    But as the cab made its way down the Don Valley Parkway, his attitude started to change. By the time they got off the DVP and started working their way through the crowded streets, he was feeling energized again. The tall buildings, the crowds, the sense of being in the center of things, where anything could happen… he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it all.
    He directed the cab to stop outside one of the places he’d used to go when Nathan wasn’t with him. Nathan hadn’t really appreciated the more alternative styling of the place, and the conceited waiters, merely annoying to most people, had enraged Nathan. He wasn’t a man who’d tolerated any challenges to his own dominance. Mackenzie smiled as he thought of bringing Joe there. Joe wouldn’t love it, maybe, but he’d be a good sport. And he’d probably think the waiters were hilarious. Joe was confident enough in himself not to let someone else’s perceptions affect him.
    The vampire had been looking out the window with interest, and when he turned back to Mackenzie, his eyes were bright. “Yeah,” he said with satisfaction. “ This is what I was looking for!” He jumped out of the cab like Griffin chasing a ball, and Mackenzie was left to pay the fare.
    By the time he was done with that, the vampire was already posing by the window of the bar, looking for and receiving admiration. Yeah, the kid was good-looking. Mackenzie wasn’t going to argue with that. But he wished Joe was there instead. Damn, that’d give people something to look at. Joe’s shoulders alone were enough that Mackenzie could probably make back his cab fare by offering five-second looks for ten bucks a pop. And there’d be repeat customers even at that price, because five seconds really wouldn’t be enough to appreciate all that soft skin and hard muscle.
    But Joe probably wouldn’t be a big fan of the idea. Spoilsport. Mackenzie was smiling as he pulled the door open for the vampire.
    The waiter came, and Mackenzie was about to order a beer when he remembered that he’d never really liked beer when he lived in the city. He’d developed a taste for it since it was all Joe ever seemed to have in the fridge, but it wasn’t his traditional preference. He’d drunk vodka martinis with Nathan, but he hadn’t really loved those, either. “I’m looking for a new favorite drink,” he told the waiter. “Can you bring me something I might like?”
    The vampire looked horrified at Mackenzie’s lack of trend sensitivity, but the server was obviously pleased to have yet another opportunity to demonstrate his superiority. And that proved to be Mackenzie’s downfall.
    It was a Tuesday, and one of the first really cold days of the year, so the bar wasn’t as busy as usual, and apparently the servers and the bartender seized on Mackenzie’s innocent question as a challenge. Instead of coming back to the table with one full-sized drink, the server brought a tray of shot glasses, each filled with a different-colored liquid.