Chapter 17
JESSE
I’ve never craved something so much in my life. And I’m not talking about the cigar in my pocket.
Thirty minutes after leaving the hotel suite, thirty-five after hearing the shower water turn on and imagining Marilyn’s naked body beneath it, I head downstairs to the dining room of the Plaza Hotel’s Palm Court, my head hard…and c**k even harder.
Old habits do die hard. And while I’m resisting one familiar f****d-up desire, the second and equally deadly one is pulling back at an old need that I’ve been trying to get away from for years.
Smoking was just a salve, a way of escape for me when I’d grown old and jaded enough to need another taste with my whiskey.
After work. Post-f**k. Mid-drink.
That bitter taste was a small salvation, my sanctuary for the long nights und
