Max Harper lived for clients like Thompson Industries. The excitement was high and the thousand bucks an hour plus expenses paid the bills. It was chump change for any of his clients. When they called, he knew they were losing millions a day and they knew he always solved the problem. It was his first time working for Thompson Industries.
The automatic doors with the near black glass slid open and the bright sun and unusually high temperatures blasted him. It was in stark contrast to the refrigerated server room filled with racks of computers he had just left. It felt like days since he last had been outside. He had only seen a few employees.
"Checkout the Paradise, great bar, great food, great people," Frank Thompson yelled, waved, and then quickly ducked back inside the building.
Max remembered the walking past a sign on the way from the hotel. It pointed towards the boardwalk with something about paradise on it, but he had ignored it. He knew nothing about the town whose name loosely translated in English to Sandy Shores, an aging middle of nowhere Central American coastal town that seemed to be on the edge of civilization. Internet businesses had the luxury of being in such places. He didn't care as long as they could transfer money into his account.
He stood on the sidewalk along a street filled with closed businesses and boarded up storefronts. The exterior of Paradise was uninspired and the bouncer looked like a character from a gangster movie. Max tried to not catch his attention, but the man saw him and nodded. A woman without legs in a wheelchair rolled quickly along the sidewalk and through the wide doors of the club as they slid open. Max continued to look. As a man and woman left the club, the bouncer said something Max could not hear over the sudden roar of the ocean surf less than a block away. Maybe they were a couple, maybe they weren't together. The woman had one leg and walked on crutches. Max watched them as they moved along the sidewalk. Yes they were together he thought.
As Max approached, the bouncer held his hand up. "Members only." Up close, he looked even more threatening and sinister.
Max stopped and glanced at the sign on the wall and then at the man. "How do...?"
"Ya gotta know a member."
"Don't live around here. Frank at Thompson told me to come."
"You can get a one day pass for a grand."
Max laughed a nervous laugh. "What?"
"Hey, that's the way it works. It IS a special place." The same woman in the wheelchair silently rolled out the door and then in the direction she had come from.
"Are the women all like her?"
"Nah. Some are, some of the men too. We take AmEx. Talk to Georgia inside." He seemed to be a bouncer of few words. The doors slid open without Max moving. "Just inside." The doors closed behind Max and he looked around the small but pleasantly decorated entry room.
"Hello. You're new." The female voice softly came from behind him. He began to turn to see who had spoken, but now she stood in front of him. "I'm Georgia. I work with new members." It didn't take him long to size her up - tall, slim, older, maybe forty, long curly brown hair, and oh my god, bare breasts resting between the parted halves of the shear white blouse loosely fastened only at the bottom button. The fabric did little to hide anything under it. He had not recovered from the uniformly tanned breasts and pleasing nipples surrounded by slightly darker skin when he saw the empty long sleeve hanging down her left side.
She noticed his puzzlement. "Nice, isn't it? Let's sit over there." He watched her long bare tanned legs and black high-healed shoes move below the mid-thigh length black skirt and wondered if she wore anything under it.
She pulled one chair out and sat in the other, slowly crossing her legs and in the process briefly revealing more than she might have wished. He did not mind. By the time the lovely legs stopped moving, most of the upper thigh remained exposed. Her forearm lay on top of papers attached to a clipboard lying on the table, a pen rested in her hand. Her nipples grew slightly more erect from his stare. "What brings you to Paradise?"
The air again flowed into his lungs, but his heart continued to pound. "Finished a long few days fighting problems for a client who suggested I come here. Frank at Thompson."
"Good man. He likes his women young and with one leg. Same for you?"
Max wished Frank had told him about his interest in something he had kept to himself all his life. "What are my choices? I saw one without legs come in and then leave." Max had forever dreamed of women without legs, but had never been fortunate enough to share time, much less a bed with one. He reran a mental video of the woman without legs. Georgia's words shocked him back to reality.
"She's married to a guy. Maggie had that done recently and just had to see the doctor for a follow-up. Did you like the way she looked? The legless look is nice, at least I think so."
"Done?" He leaned back to better look at the whole woman sitting before him.
"Yeah, like I had my arm off, like that other woman with one leg with the man that just left here."
"Wow!" The word blew forever as he thought about what he had just heard. "Like the one without legs?"
She nodded and smiled.
Two women walked passed. One was missing most of both arms and wearing a halter-top and tight shorts. The other in a long thin dress rested an arm around the bare waist of the other as if she was guiding her. "Hey-y Georgia," the armless woman cooed and waved the remnant of an arm. They disappeared though a door.
"Julie and April met here a few years ago. We have quite a few gay and lesbian couples. Are you gay?"
"No."
"Too bad. I know a real hunk that is missing a leg. He'd really like the way you look. You're quite handsome." She smiled while undressing him in her mind. "Say! Are you interested in losing a limb? We have specials once a quarter. This is one of those weeks."
"You make it sound like getting a tattoo or a lip pierced."
She laughed and rubbed though the fabric of the blouse at the shoulder of the missing arm. "Good one. Yeah, I guess for some it is just a cosmetic thing. They just like the look." She paused and watched Max shift in the chair. "For others it is a lifelong need."
"What about for you?"
Her fingertip grazed a nipple making it grow slightly. He didn't think that possible. The contact remained for a moment and then she lowered the top of the blouse from her shoulder exposing the short rounded stump. "Don't ya just love it? I wanted it off, but I was indecisive about how much to have off. I just wanted it gone. The guy I was seeing wanted it this way."
