Angel Dust

A/N: I feel like I have a hundred things to say before this chapter, but I guess it's only a few. First of all, this chapter is dedicated to Katy, who pointed out long ago that Nitro had the perfect abs for body shots. I promised her that Courtney would do one at some point in the story, and this chapter is me delivering on that promise. Enjoy it, Chica!

Also, to those of you who are wondering how Dave has been feeling recently, never fear - I haven't forgotten him. He'll let you all know just how much he enjoys the Courtney/Nitro union in the next chapter. And to viper-sa, pat yourself on the back guessing this one before it happened. I hate feeling like my story is predictable, but you were thinking ahead. Gold star!

Finally, I have to say "thanks" to everyone who has reviewed this story. It has been a departure, I know, from what most of you are used to reading from me, and the fact that it's my first story to reach 200 reviews had be doing the fucking happy dance. Literally. So to everyone who has helped make this story my most popular to date, at least in terms of reviews, THANK YOU A MILLION FUCKING TIMES! I've said it before, and I'll say it again every chance I get - I have the best fucking readers in the whole fucking world!

Enjoy!

"To the average American, the health of our planet seems secure, I'm sure. But to those of us who spend our days immersed in issues of environmentalism and preservation. . ."

As the spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency trudged through her post- dinner thank-you speech, Courtney leaned to her left. "You still awake?" she whispered.

Nitro turned his head slightly, a smile playing on his lips as he continued doodling the outline of a woman on his napkin. "Barely," he responded playfully.

Flashbulbs had been going crazy when they arrived, and Courtney found herself explaining that Randy was still overseas, and that she was accompanied by a friend, more times than she wanted to count. Throughout the evening, she had been careful to keep her hands to herself, smile politely, and make sure that everyone who asked knew that she and Nitro were just friends.

Her parents had seemed slightly concerned when their daughter showed up to a public affair on the arm of someone other than her well-publicized boyfriend. But his long hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, and the tux he wore seemed legit enough. He seemed cultured enough and was easily able to keep up with their friends in conversations about political platforms. Though Courtney's mother continued to shoot her warning gazes, her father seemed to warm up to the young man fairly quickly.

All in all, the night was going extremely well. Masking her true feelings was a skill she had mastered early in life, and to see that Nitro had the same talent made her smile. She knew he was uncomfortable in the limo, but once they stepped out of the car, he seemed as though he had been raised right alongside Courtney into this world of power and prestige.

But as the woman at the podium droned on, Courtney found her own attention wavering and her eyes beginning to drift. Maybe she'd just had too much wine with dinner, but this party was really boring. More so than usual.

Reaching her hand to Nitro's thigh under the table, she leaned toward him again. "You wanna get outta here for awhile?"

He looked at her curiously. "Can you do that?"

With a smile, she nodded. "Go to the bar, order champagne for the organizing committee," she instructed, just as Dave had taught her a few years earlier. "I'm going to the restroom. After you pay, meet me by the back door," she instructed.

"Can't we just walk out?" When Courtney rolled her eyes, Nitro smiled. "I'm kidding."

Nitro took the folded bills she offered him as payment for the drinks and headed for the bar. Courtney waited until he was placing his order to quietly let her mother know she was heading to the restroom. Within ten minutes, they were sneaking out the back door.

As Courtney gripped his hand and led him around the building to a nearly-deserted backstreet, Nitro laughed. "I feel like we're being all kinds of deviant," he teased.

Rolling her eyes, Courtney looked up and down the street to gather her bearings. Smiling, she tightened her grasp on his hand. "Oh, I'll show you Deviant," she smiled, nodding toward a neon sign boasting the same word. "Come on."

Though dressed in formal attire, Nitro in his tuxedo and Courtney in a knee-length, blush-colored cocktail dress, they folded in with the patrons of Deviant fairly easily. Probably because most of the patrons were already drunk off their asses when the couple pushed through the front door. "I want a Screaming Orgasm. How 'bout you?" Courtney asked, winking at the man who was now holding her hips as they moved toward the bar.

After fifteen minutes of drinking and dancing, Nitro's shirt was untucked and unbuttoned, his hands on Courtney's ass as she grinded hard against him. Though he knew they should be getting back to her party soon, Nitro couldn't bring himself to suggest they head back. Not with Courtney smiling like she was having the time of her life.

It felt like forever since she had sneaked out of a stuffy fund raiser and danced like the twenty-something she was with reckless abandon. She and Dave had done it all of the time, but those days seemed like a lifetime ago now. As Nitro held her hips and moved with the ease of a professional, she shook her hair and allowed herself to return to those days again. She was really, truly, honestly having fun for the first time in a long time.

"We need to get back," Nitro finally reminded, after nearly an hour of dancing, sweating, and drinking.

She knew he was right. But she wasn't ready yet. Not quite. Summoning the bartender, she ordered a tequila shot and found Nitro in the middle of the floor. With a precocious smile, she handed Nitro the shot glass and stuck a lime wedge between his teeth. Raising an eyebrow, she crouched low and held onto the waist band of his pants to keep from falling over.

His shirt was already open, the hard lines of his stomach exposed to her tongue as she dragged it from his belly button and up about four inches. Sprinkling a mound of salt from the shaker in her hand, Coutney looked up at Nitro to find him grinning back and shaking his head. Both were thinking of the last time she had been on her knees in front of him.

Following the same path her tongue had just taken, Courtney rubbed the handful of salt down his sculpted abs and then listened as the crowd cheered for her to do the body shot she had prepared. She took her time in licking every grain of salt from the ridges of his jumping muscles, her eyes dancing with laughter as she held his gaze, daring him to look away.

Nitro couldn't wipe the smile from his lips as Courtney carefully stood to her feet and trailed her fingers up his sides. Before he could process what she was doing, her lips were on his, her teeth sinking into the lime wedge between his teeth and sucking the juice from it with a vigor. She spit the rind onto the floor and took the tequila shot from his hand, throwing her head back as she slammed the liquor down her throat.

The people around them erupted into catcalls and whistles as she winked and wiped a dribbling remain of the alcohol from the side of her mouth. "We better go," she mouthed before he grabbed the back of her head and kissed her hard, tasting the tartness of the tequila on her lips.

As they stepped out of the club, Nitro busied himself with fixing his ponytail while Courtney buttoned his shirt. As he tucked the shirt in and straightened his tie, Courtney smoothed her hands over her dress and fluffed her hair. Though the smell of sweat and cigarette smoke whispered around them, they seemed content with their appearances as the re-entered the back door of the ballroom where the benefit was being held.

The speech long over, Courtney and Nitro were able to easily assimilate back into the room as though they had never been gone. Until Courtney heard her mother's voice. "Dammit," she whispered, turning with the biggest, most genuine-looking smile she could muster.

"Courtney, Sweetheart," Alissa Lane's voice was dripping with saccharine as she approached her daughter with outstretched arms. "I've been looking for you everywhere, Dear. There's someone here who is dying to see you."

Nitro followed at a comfortable distance as Courtney's mother led her by the hand through the crowd. Both mother and daughter smiled and waved at faces they recognized, but Nitro stopped cold when he saw who was waiting for Courtney.

Courtney took a breath and shook her head, a sarcastic response to her mother's enthusiasm on her tongue when Alissa finally stopped dragging her across the room. But all words were gone when she looked up and saw the person who was "dying to see" her.

"Surprise, Baby."

The only person she could think of was the one standing behind her, helplessly watching this all unfold. Her voice was barely a whisper when she met the twinkling, crystal stare of the man before her. "Randy."