"Enter the gentlemen's club where the waiters are on the menu"
Reviewed by Clare O'Beara
Posted June 9, 2015
Romance Erotica Sensual | Romance LGBTQ | LGBTQ
Jeremy Longden is working towards his PhD in molecular biology, paying bills by part-time teaching. California is a nice place to live, but the Bay Area is expensive. Which is the only reason why Jeremy considers a dining club's offer to pay him for something unconventional. DIRTY DINING is on the cards. Having checked Jeremy out at the gym, a gay club rep tells him there's good money in taking his clothes off for entertainment. Well. Jeremy is not that kind of guy. Good money though. Worth thinking twice. I was amused by the changeover from the usual viewpoint of a girl being obliged to strip for money, to a young man being a table waiter and doing the same. The other waiters are upfront and casual about sometimes being asked for more personal services, which they may offer as individuals but the club cannot. Jeremy isn't keen on being used for pay, but a new diner, younger than the ogling old men, might be just his cup of tea if they met casually. Brice Martin doesn't know what to expect, as a guest of a regular, but he is promised that anything must occur by mutual agreement. How far will the two newcomers be prepared to go? While this is definitely an adult erotic tale, I liked that Brice makes up his mind immediately that paying a man for sex off a menu, just like ordering a pizza, would be disrespectful. As the story progresses however, we see that corporate entertainment can be corrupting, while I was early wondering how long it would be before Jeremy's teaching work or grant was in jeopardy. Amusingly we're told that businesswomen don't want adult entertainment; they're all business. In between nights, we get a convincing look at the worlds in which the men earn their living. I thought Jeremy's vocabulary was too scanty for such an educated person; maybe he was just trying to fit in at the club. EM Lynley has spent over a decade working in the area of finance, and in DIRTY DINING she tries to show how funding for medical research is being reduced in many countries. That's the serious side. The moral dilemmas posed by the gay club and the balance of power between partners also make interesting reading. But the focus of the story is repeatedly and unashamedly on DIRTY DINING so be ready for strong language and adult behaviour throughout. SUMMARYJeremy Lindenโs a PhD student researching an HIV vaccine.
Heโs always short of money, and when biotech startup
PharmaTek reduces funding for his fellowship, heโs tempted
to take a job at a menโs dining club as a serving boy. The
uniforms are skimpy, and heโs expected to remove an item
of
clothing after each course. He can handle that, but he
soon
discovers thereโs more on the menu here than fine cuisine.
How far will he go to pay his tuition, and will money get
in
the way when he realizes heโs interested in more from one
of
his gentlemen?
Brice Martin is an attorney for a Silicon Valley venture
capital firm. When heโs asked to take a client to the
infamous Dinner Club, he finds himself unexpectedly turned
on by the atmosphere and especially by his server, Remy.
He
senses thereโs more to the sexy young man than meets the
eye. The paradox fascinates him, and he canโt get enough
of
Remy.
Their relationship quickly extends beyond the club and
sex.
But the trust and affection theyโve worked to achieve may
crumble when Jeremy discovers Briceโs VC firm is the one
that pulled the plug on PharmaTekโand Jeremyโs research
grant.
EXCERPTChapter ONE
โYOU EVER do any modeling?โ The guy came up to Jeremy
Linden in the gym locker room while Jeremy was drying off
after his shower. Jeremy had noticed him checking out a few
other men in the weight room and even at the pool while
Jeremy was taking a breather from laps.
โIโm not interested in whatever it is youโre offering.โ
Jeremy had heard these kinds of offers before. Friends had
taken the bait, and it never ended well. No way heโd fall
for the scam. It was never just โmodeling.โ
โYou could make some easy dough.โ
โI donโt need easy dough.โ Jeremy opened his locker, but
he didnโt want to take the towel off in front of this guy.
โSure you do. Iโve seen your car. Someone smashed into
the side of it and you havenโt fixed it yet.โ
โToo busy,โ Jeremy lied. Truth was he used the insurance
money for bills, but heโd never admit as much to this guy.
โDonโt you want to know what the job is?โ
โNo.โ Jeremy didnโt have time to waste. He grabbed his
boxers from the locker, turned away from the guy, and bent
down to step into them.
โThatโs all youโd have to do. Just take off your clothes
and let people look at you.โ
โI donโt strip. No thanks. Emphasis on the โno.โโ
โThree hundred bucks for about two hoursโ work, just to
take off your clothes. Not stripping. You just remove one
piece at a time. Five hundred if you let someone else take
your clothes off for you. No other touching or funny
business, unless you want. And that would pay extra.โ
โGet out of here before I call the front desk.โ
The guy held up his hands and backed out of Jeremyโs
personal space. โSure thing. Sorry.โ He slid a hand into his
jacket, and Jeremy braced for him to pull out some kind of
weapon. All he had was a business card. โIโll leave this,
and if you change your mind, call me. The jobโs on Friday
night.โ He put the card on the bench and left.
Jeremy finished dressing quickly before the guy came back
or followed someone else in from the gym. He was slinging
his backpack over his shoulder when he glanced down at the
card. More out of curiosity than anything else, he picked it
up.
ย
Thomas Jerrold
The Dinner Club
415-555-1087
ย
He flipped it over, but the back was blank. Just a simple
white card with raised black printing. For some reason the
simplicity intrigued Jeremy more than anything the guy had
said to him, so instead of tossing it, he jammed it into his
pocket and headed out. He tossed the pack into the passenger
side of his car, then walked around to look at the damage:
the whole right side of the car was scraped and dented from
someone opening their door as he drove by. He sure would
like to get the damage repaired. He could already see a tiny
telltale spot of oxidation, and even though the brutal
Northern California rainy season was at least a month or so
away, the exposed metal under the scraped paint would
certainly begin to rust before he could afford to fix it.
Maybe he could get more hours at the tutoring center.
Heโd ask about it tonight when he went to work.
ย
ย
BUT THE center didnโt have any more students for him.
They had plenty of kids who needed math or writing tutors,
but he only did biology and chemistry. He met with his one
scheduled pupil, then went home to the apartment he shared
with Doug, another grad student at Cal.
Jeremy was starting the fifth year of a PhD in molecular
biology, with a specialization in immunology. While other
students in his department had a free ride thanks to
government and NIH grants, Jeremyโs cutting edge research
had won him a coveted fellowship from PharmaTek, a Silicon
Valley biotech start-up working on an HIV vaccine. Jeremyโs
work on VLPโvirus-like particlesโwas potentially
revolutionary and would help to bring their product to the
testing phase and then to market more quickly than other
approaches.
He was proud to be part of such an important project.
While the funding covered his fees and a generous research
budget, his personal stipend barely covered the basics in
the expensive Bay Area. There wasnโt a spare dollar for the
unexpected, like a car accident.
Well, he could just ignore the car. As he stared at it
before going inside his apartment building, he thought he
could see the rust spot growing before his eyes. Maybe he
should just sell the damn thing and use his bike to get
around. Heโd long passed the point where he could ask his
family for money. At twenty-seven he was supposed to be
self-sufficient. He could try to get a loan from the
university, orโฆ he dug his hand into the front pocket of his
jeans and pulled out the little white business card.
Three hundred bucks just to take his clothes off? A
couple of hours of being naked didnโt really seem so bad. He
was in good shape. He cycled and swam. Heโd even done a
triathlon before his research ate into his training time.
Nothing wrong in just checking out this Dinner Club. He was
staring at the card when Doug, his roommate, came through
the front door with a pizza.
โLeftovers, want some?โ
Doug worked at one of the best pizza places in town, and
even their leftovers were better than fresh pizza from
almost anywhere else.
โSure.โ For the next thirty minutes, Jeremy forgot about
Thomas from the Dinner Club and concentrated on double-crust
pizza with chicken, tangy tomato sauce, and marinated
artichoke hearts. And they shared a few beers. By then
Jeremy had already started working on his reading for class
the following day and didnโt have time to google the Dinner
Club. Heโd research it tomorrow.
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