Ben Ryder - Side Line Page 4

  “Introducing… Emma!” Emma burst through the curtain in her cropped white cheerleading top and short white cheerleader’s skirt, both of which were edged with red piping and held the number ’97, the year the brewery had been established. She marched to the beat with her pom-poms held at her side, before giving a swift high kick that was just enough for the men to glimpse her tiny blue panties.

  “Oh, Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey, Mickey, hey, Mickey….”

  “Siobhan!” Siobhan ran to the front of the stage. Holding her pompoms up, she bounced while her ample chest received their applause.

  “Oh, Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey, Mickey, hey, Mickey….”

  “Tara!” Sliding out of the slit in the box, Tara walked the few steps like a supermodel before flipping her hair back like an Amazon warrior with a strong attitude but a cheeky smile.

  “Oh, Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey, Mickey, hey, Mickey….”

  “Leilana!” A head popped through the curtain. Lei held her hand up to her mouth and giggled like a geisha girl before walking on stage with her pom-poms held up to her chin, looking embarrassed and nervous. At the last second, she turned on her heels and flipped up the back of her skirt to expose her panty-covered ass.

  “Oh, Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey, Mickey, hey, Mickey….”

  “Double trouble, Nikki and Natasha!” A leg worthy of Jessica Rabbit was teased out of the curtain. As Nikki and her sister came through the curtain, they threw their pom-poms down to the ground and stood with their hands on their hips. Leaning over to expose the top part of their identical cleavage, they blew kisses into the crowd of American, British, Australian, and French infantry. Nikki batted a wink toward a particularly large group of Americans before joining her twin with her hands in the air. Their palms hit the floor and their legs whipped up behind them in the air. They remained in handstands, their skirts hanging down over their stomachs, before sliding down into the splits that sent the men over the edge.

  I watched as the girls banded back together and danced as a troop to the music. Their choreography was designed to titillate the men but was structured enough that they could pass for professional cheerleaders.

  As each following song played, I watched the men stir against each other a little more. The club, which only half an hour before seemed packed, now had an empty space at the back where hordes had moved closer and bunched up to the stage. I stood to one side to give the girls all the room they needed as they prepared for the finale. Tara, Nikki, and Siobhan took to their hands and knees in a tight line and faced away from the crowd toward the Beer Box. Emma and Natasha climbed on top, each with a knee balanced on the backs of two of the three girls underneath. Lei, the slightest of the girls, stepped up onto the small of Tara’s back and lifted herself onto Emma and Natasha, again with a knee on each of their backs. The result was a pyramid of girls, with their backs arched and pantied asses on display to the crowd.

  I looked out over the baying men’s reaction. I felt the blood begin to rush into my cock as I saw the familiar primal look of sexual want in their eyes, that intense stare of a man aroused like a starving predator watching its prey. Men tugged at their jean crotches as they tried to rearrange their hardening cocks into comfort. Hands slipped into pockets to try and pin down their erections. Belt buckles were pulled forward to make room for their stiff dicks, and T-shirts were pulled down to hide their shame. A couple of guys, who seemed hypnotized by the whole thing, simply stood cupping their crotches without any embarrassment at all. I steeled myself before any evidence of my own voyeuristic arousal was shown.

  “Let’s give it up for the Side Line cheerleaders!” I shouted, leading the applause. “Please say hello to them as they come around the bar and offer you free Side Line beer for the rest of the evening. That just leaves me to say a big thank-you to you all for coming out and supporting us this evening.”

  The yells and the hollers filled the room, drowning the clapping that wasn’t as loud as it had been, but mostly because they could only show their appreciation with one free hand slapping against their leg.

  I walked over to the bar to join Jackie, who I saw chatting with Ahmed. “You know you are going to have to go and join in,” she said to me as she tried to keep track of the girls, who were now running throughout the bar. “Try and get them all together again so I can keep a better eye on them.”

  As I walked toward the girls, a huge figure brushed past me. I turned my head to see Damon making his way toward the bar. “Hey!” I called after him. He looked around. I thought I saw his eyes resting on me for a split second, but he quickly turned and continued to jostle his way through the crowd. As the place was so busy, I assumed that he hadn’t spotted or recognized me from the night before. I joined the girls, who were writhing with each other on the dance floor. Practically every man there was mesmerized. I walked between them as they closed in on me and began to dance up and down me like I was a human stripper pole. The faces that stared back were a mix of hateful envy and goodnatured jealousy. I encouraged a couple of the girls to pull lads out of the crowd until the dance floor was full, allowing me to go back to the bar to rescue a now half-drunk Jackie, who seemed to have attracted a crowd herself. The men seemed to have penned her in, isolating the cougar. They all had the military jarhead haircut and wore crisply ironed shirts and dark jeans.

  “Jay, come and meet these boys!” she said, waving me toward her. “They’re all US Marines! How marvelous!” I smiled and nodded at the glass Jackie held, acknowledging that it was empty and giving her the go-ahead to enjoy herself.

  The men she was entertaining all seemed to be in their late twenties and stood around the same build as myself, if not a little bigger. They each held a can of beer to their chest as if it was an excuse to flex their biceps. Each arm sported a tattoo with some sort of nautical theme and seemed designed to accentuate the curve of their muscles.

  Jackie introduced them, placing her hand on each of their chests as she went around the group. “This is Justin, Christopher, Devin, and Scott.” Each one extended a hand and closed their grip around my own in an obvious show of strength. “And this big chap over here is Damon.” Jackie turned and tapped the shoulder of a man with his back turned to us as he stood facing the bar ordering a vodka. He turned at the touch, looked at me, and gave a casual, unbothered nod of his suede head before turning to face the bar again.

  While Jackie was asking the guys how long they had been in Bahrain and where they were heading next, I nodded with interest at their responses, but couldn’t help looking over at Damon. I could now see that he stood at least five inches taller than me. He wore the same dark, dirty-greencolored T-shirt he’d worn the night before that seemed to cascade off every muscle on his V-shaped back. He collected his change from the barman with a smile and a grateful nod.

  “Hey, we met last night,” I said, putting my hand forward to shake. Damon seemed momentarily reluctant to shake it, but when he finally did, it was short and light and without eye contact.

  “Are you having a good time?” I asked, attempting to keep his attention long enough that I could have another look into the eyes that had taken me so the night before. Damon shrugged and looked over at his friends.

  I tried again. “So what’s fun to do here in Bahrain?” Damon shrugged again and spoke over my shoulder, as if he was looking for someone that could appear behind me any moment. “Not a great deal, buddy.”

  One of his friends said something that caused everyone to laugh, including Emma, Natasha, and Lei, who had joined Jackie in the group. Damon laughed at whatever it was I missed.

  “Well, enjoy your night,” I said with a forced cheeriness to my voice. Damon gave me a smile and a nod, as if excusing himself from the conversation, and took just one step away from me to join the group that he had made clear was more entertaining to him. I stood feeling foolish
and uninteresting. But what did I expect? He was obviously straight, and the girls were there. I had never given the fact that the girls got all the attention a second thought. That’s why I hired them. It was their job, and they did it well. Not once had it bothered me before. But in that moment, it irked the hell out of me. I stood alone outside the group just long enough to recognize the bubble of jealousy growing that I felt toward Emma, Lei, and Natasha, who could easily hold the interest of this man I found so unbelievably attractive. And if they wanted to, they could have him without any effort whatsoever. I looked at Damon and silently cursed him for being so nice the evening before, but virtually ignoring me now.

  Just as I was about to head back behind the bar, I heard my name over the noise. “So, Jay, which one of these girls are you with?” asked the nearest guy, who seemed concerned that he could be treading on my feet with his pursuit of one of the girls.

  “None of us have hairy enough chests for Jay!” Emma shouted over the group. I felt my flesh begin to burn as my entire body flushed. The Marine looked at me with emerging realization. I shot daggers at Emma, who seemed to get the message instantly. Thankfully, Jackie stepped in.

  “That’s true. None of us have heavy enough chests for Jay. He likes ladies of the big-breasted variety.” She punctuated her statement by holding cupped hands a foot away from her chest and pulsating them. The guy didn’t look entirely convinced that he had misheard what Emma said, but soon turned away and joined in the banter between Lei and the rest of the girls.

  I watched as Damon’s head turned away. I had no idea how much he’d heard.

  I returned to behind the bar and handed out drinks again for the next hour. “Jay, we’re almost out of beer, and the crowd isn’t thinning out. I think we should head back,” Jackie said as the night began to wrap up. The girls had found another crowd of guys to entertain, and Damon and his friends had left sometime before last orders were called at the bar.

  “Okay, I’ll get Ahmed to grab a couple of taxis. You guys go ahead. I have to finish up here and sort everything out so it can be shipped off to the next place.” Jackie gave me a look of concern. “I’ll be fine, Jacks. Get them together and have a drink in my room. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

  Jackie didn’t look too happy about it, but she took my key card and gathered the girls to take the back exit of the club. This would avoid any last minute Hail Marys from the guys wanting to show their intentions.

  ONCE everyone left the club, I stepped out of the front door holding a box of wine that a grateful Ahmed had given as a gift to the girls and me. Exhausted and still feeling a little punch-drunk from the night’s work and the remnants of jet lag, I walked out into the heat of the night and peered down the road to see if I could spot a taxi.

  “You’ve had a long night, buddy.” I was surprised to turn around and see Damon sitting on the hood of a battered-looking, old-style Dodge. He was on his own.

  “You’re a great group of lads,” I said politely. “I hope you ended up enjoying yourselves.” “It was okay, I guess,” he replied as he slid his ass off the end of the hood, causing his jeans to tighten around his impressive crotch. I couldn’t help stealing a look, regardless of my acceptance that I had no chance with the guy. “Where are you heading?”

  “I’m whacked, so I’m heading back to the hotel,” I said as I held my arm out in the road, hoping that one of the cars passing was a cab.

  Damon walked over to me and slid his hand under the box of wine balanced in my other arm. He took it from me like it was light as a feather and walked to the trunk of his car, which popped open.

  “Jump in. I’ll take you back,” he said, pointing toward the front passenger door.

  “You own a car out here?”

  “No, it’s a friend’s car. He’s an administrator, so he won’t be deployed. He let me borrow it tonight.”

  “There’s really no need to go out of your way. Thanks for the offer, though.” He pulled open the passenger door, then walked around the car, jumped behind the wheel, and started the engine before leaning out the window and telling me, “It’s on my way back to base.”

  I took one last look down the street but couldn’t see any cars that looked like taxis. “Jump in,” he said over the engine.

  “Honestly, it’s no problem, I can catch a cab.”

  “Take it as a thanks for the beer, buddy.” He waved his hand, beckoning me toward the passenger door that was still open. Slowly, I walked over and got in.

  The moment I closed the door, I regretted my decision, and panic started to set in. Through my fatigue, I hadn’t realized that there was no way he could have known that my hotel was on the way back to his base, since he had no idea what hotel I was staying at. I clicked the handle to reopen the door, only to have it to clunk onto the first safety lock. Before I could pull the handle a second time to get the door wide enough to get out, the car had already started to move on the road at speed. I pulled the door for it to relock completely.

  For the first couple of blocks, Damon remained silent. It wasn’t until we rounded a corner and hit a wider, open road that he spoke.

  “So, what that blonde chick said back there, about you liking hairy chests. What was that all about?” His tone was dangerously even.

  “She was just fucking around,” I said, trying to laugh it off. “Emma’s sense of humor is a little messed up.”

  He continued to concentrate on the road but had begun to nod his head slowly. I prepared myself to jump out at any stop sign or red traffic light that would cause him to stop or slow down enough for me to get out. I saw a Hilton sign running down the side of a building a few hundred yards ahead. I knew if I could get there, I could grab a cab from reception. The road lights beyond the hotel looked like they became more and more intermittent, and I could tell that we would soon be heading completely out of the city and onto some godforsaken desert road.

  “That’s my hotel over there. Thanks for the ride, I really appreciate it,” I said, pointing and unbuckling my seat belt to make it clear for him to stop.

  Damon’s head lowered, and he bit on his bottom lip as we drove straight past the hotel. “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve had a long day and need to get back and debrief the girls on the evening. They’re waiting for me in my hotel room.”

  He pulled his hand up to his face to wipe beads of sweat off his brow. The movement accentuated his bicep, and I was left trying to figure out the odds of me trying to overpower him. I knew I was in trouble.

  “I know, that’s why we’re not going back there,” he replied, his tone still dangerously even.

  “What the fuck is going on? I don’t know what you’re doing, mate, but I need you pull the car over now.” “Not much further, man. I got something I wanna show you.” Just after the closely positioned streetlights ran out and before only a few road lights trailed into the darkness, Damon slowed the car and turned into an alleyway between two white apartment buildings. At the end of the alley were two garages with their doors down. I began balling up my fists, still trying to figure out the best place to throw a punch that might disable him long enough for me to get out of the car. I looked over at the two garages, preparing for his friends to jump over and bundle toward the car. I heard the click of the ignition key and the engine die out.

  “So, you’re into dudes, huh?” “I am out of here,” I said as I reached for the door handle. He leaned over and grabbed my left arm to stop me. I raised my right arm, pulling it back so fast I almost smashed the car window with my elbow as I tried to get enough room to throw a punch. I aimed for his eye, but he dodged it with a sharp jerk of his neck, making me hit the side of his head. He looked stunned as he saw me pull my fist back to strike again. He launched forward onto me, grabbing my wrist with his hand and pushing me back with his forearm at my throat.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” he shouted, applying more pressure against my neck while he tried to immobilize my arm.

  “What, you think I’m
just going to sit here and let you and your mates beat the shit out of me?” I asked through clenched teeth. “You’re out of your fucking mind!”

  I stopped pulling at the arm that had me pinned to the window and grabbed his face, my fingers walking up his cheeks toward his eyes. If I had to blind him to get out of this, I would do it. But as I struggled, I saw a look of utter confusion in his eyes. He released my neck and grabbed my wrist, pulling it away from his face, but kept me pinned against the car window. My legs were at too awkward an angle to kick out.

  “Hey, buddy, calm down!” He shouted his demand as an order. I continued to struggle until I saw him coming toward me. I twisted my head around so my face didn’t get the brunt of the head-butt I was sure was coming in my direction. But it never came. Instead I felt his short stubble graze my exposed neck. It didn’t make sense. A guy this size, who could easily have taken me out with one punch, was going to bite me? I desperately looked around the car to find something to use as a weapon when the feeling of sandpaper parted, and I felt a warm, wet sensation. He wasn’t trying to bite me, after all. Instead, he was trying to kiss my neck.

  I stopped struggling. “What the fuck are you doing?” My astonished tone said it all. He released the vise-like grip on my wrist just enough to keep hold of me but allow me enough movement as he guided my hand down toward his crotch. My hand was still in a fist, but as my knuckles were held down against his crotch, I could tell he was aroused.

  “Fuck,” I half whispered. “These two apartment blocks are where officers stay. The rotations have ended, and they’re empty tonight until the new guys arrive tomorrow. No one can see us,” he said as I felt the pressure of his fingers ease on my wrists.

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?”