Thrill City Read Online Free Page B

terrifying. She’d always been on the busty side, but now her nipples were the size of saucers and her breasts practically blocked out the sun. She looked so rampantly fecund she reminded me of an ancient fertility symbol, although I doubted the Venus of Willendorf had ever been depicted slick with coconut oil, wearing a pink G-string and clear perspex stripper heels.
    I pulled up a matching pink lounge and lay back, a pleasant little buzz on after the drinks at the pub. It was five o’clock and the sun was still quite high in the sky but the worst of the heat was gone. The smell of coconut oil made me think of cocktails and tropical holidays, and I wondered if, when Sean came back, we could take some sort of break at the beach, just for a few days. I closed my eyes, imagining salty, sweaty sex in a hotel room under a slow-moving fan. Meanwhile Chloe was on the phone, reciting the spiel she knew off by heart.
    ‘G-string strip’s a hundred, full nude a hundred and twenty, and raunchy—that’s open leg work, darl—hundred and seventy-five. Any extras, say, strawberries and cream, vibes, pearls, or fruit and veggies? That’s two fifty. What’s a fruit and veg strip? Use your imagination, hon. Bi twin’s three fifty, five hundred if you want the whole lezzo shebang. You got internet access? Check out the girls on our website. We also run Chloe’s Boob Cruises—very popular for a work do—and we have state-of-the-art jelly-wrestling facilities. You’ll have to book early though. Coming up to Christmas is a very busy time of year.’ She hung up and had just drawn a breath to talk to me when the phone rang again. She rolled her eyes and answered.
    ‘Chloe’s Elite Strippers, Chloe speaking. Hi, Tiara, what’s up?’ A pause, then: ‘You’re fucking kidding me. Listen, if you don’t wanna work, I can just take you off the books.’
    Soon as she’d said that I heard tinny shrieking, and Chloe winced and held the handset away from her ear. I didn’t envy her having to organise a bunch of strippers, most of whom were even crazier than she was.
    ‘Fuck’s sake, Tiara. Call back when you’ve straightened out. Yes you are, you’re off your tits. Wake up to yourself. Take a fucking Valium and take the next week off. I’ve had it. This is your last chance.’
    She hung up and I raised my eyebrows. ‘ Tiara ? Is it just me or are the names getting stupider?’
    ‘The names and the fucking girls.’ A midge adhered itself to one oil-basted breast and she flicked it off. ‘This one started out okay until she got a new boyfriend and got into ice. Lost a ton of weight and now she’s losing the plot. I’d fire her but she’s good, when she actually shows up.’
    ‘Isn’t ice just like speed?’
    ‘No, mate, it’s ten times as strong. I mean, we always did a bit of coke or Louie to keep us awake and give us a bit of energy for the shows, but this stuff ’s fucked up. They smoke the shit through crack pipes, don’t sleep for three days, and it sends them mental. You don’t wanna do her show, do you?’
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘Just raunchy. You won’t have to stick anything up your clacker.’
    ‘Sure.’ I was trying to wean myself off stripping, but with all my debts I needed every cent I could get.
    Chloe made a note in her Hello Kitty diary and looked pleased. ‘Thanks, Simone. You may not be the best stripper in the world, but you are the most reliable.’
    I gave her a look.
    ‘Hey,’ she said. ‘How’d the thing with the crime writer go? I checked out his website. You never let on he was hot.
    Gonna shag him?’
    ‘Chloe. Sean’s coming back in a couple of days.’
    ‘You haven’t seen him for six months. How do you know you still like him? How do you know he still likes you and hasn’t been boffing some Asian chick?’
    ‘I don’t. I guess I’ll find out. I guess we’ll both find out.’
    ‘And what about Alex?’
    Alex Christakos was in the Fraud Squad and he was gorgeous: tall and