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They’d had a nu Usually, she hated men who snored But this kid probably was barely twenty-one He had long dark hair that fell over his forehead and eyes now as he slept, and he was kind of cute He’d actually been fun, too No finesse, but he could fuck like the proverbial bunny She hadn’t even been teain It had been fantastic Most of the tied drunk asshole into getting it up

Ah, the kid was cute Thanks to him and his room, she’d eluded all the cops

A smile curved into her features A few of theo on purpose They really wouldn’t want to have her talking to theathered her clothing quickly-she was just as good at dressing quickly as she was at undressing slowly His wallet was sitting on the dresser, and she had to pause She wouldn’t take all his money Just fifty-the kid would still have over a hundred bucks on him He probably had no idea of how much money he had left anyway She also took his credit card She saw his ID She s He was an art major at U of M Silly kids They caet down to the decadence of Duval Street It was such a bizarre place She worked one of the strip clubs Eighteen-year-olds could walk into any strip club They couldn’t drink, which o into a few of the bars that offered karaoke Stella found that ironic Kids could watch strippers, but they couldn’t sing Well, it worked for her

She counted the ht before It had been so easy to lift the wallet off that big bruiser-and funny, too, to see the idiot attack the guys walking behind him What an oaf

But, thanks to the oaf and the kid, she’d had one hell of a good night She counted her hundreds, s at one of the inns right off Duval that had a back entrance There was a stone wall, but it was low, and she scra the sidewalk, she turned onto Duval Street

There were a couple of mounted cops down the street, so she slid into a bar She ordered a beer quickly, and turned her back to the street

The mounted cops went by

Stella finished her beer, paid and tipped-she always tipped well-and started out on Duval again

She shen she walked right into him

"Stella," he said

He was one of her few johns asn’t married He was a creep She knew it Maybe other people didn’t

"Hey"

"You smell like stale sex, Stella Bad booze, bad money and stinky, old sex"

"Fuck you," she said, and pushed by his if he wanted But it was broad daylight Hell, it didn’t ht was

She quickened her pace, but when she turned around, he wasn’t there She kept on , and passed the church

She heard the sound of a siren Daht ahead

She ran inside it, her back to the street

She winced Danny, yeah, Danny was supposed to be here!

It didn’t matter; she just needed to stand here for a minute She set her hands on the counter It was sticky She shoved her hands into her pockets,

Then Danny was back With that way that he looked at her

"Ice cream? Really, Stella?"

The way that he looked at her…

He was sad, he was angry

"Danny-"

The cop car was gone

"Danny-oh, whatever!" she said

She turned away, and decided that she really had to get off the main streets She hurried outside and around the church She could hear a car, and she started running, paranoid now

She cut through one of the yards Damn it-she knew too many men in this town Knew theotten his car, and he could be following her in it now

No Why on earth would he do that?

To harass her

He was a creep

She cut into a yard and crawled through palrew heavily there She looked at the street No car

She started to turn around, aware of a sound behind her