With a final smile, she pushed the panting man back away from her, then turned and started forward again, collecting the staring Ianna with a curt, yet somehow regal, nod.
The narrow hall opened out into a huge, multi-layered room. Directly in front of the two women, though against the opposite wall, was a very tall platform, atop which the DJ looked out like a ruler surveying his kingdom. Below him was the dance floor; a huge rectangular number lifted straight out of Saturday Night Fever, lighted floor tiles and all. The obligatory mirrored disco ball hung down from the high ceiling, reflecting the dancers below in hundreds of split-screen images.
Ignoring the insipid, crushing press of sweaty bodies, Kael made her way to the bar, which was on the third level of the discotheque. “Scotch. Neat.”
As the bartender nodded and bustled away to fix her drink, the American surveyed the rest of the bar. The top was mirrored, and reflected both the glasses hanging above, and the beams of light which shot through the disco in time to the beat of the music.
There were courtesy bowls every two feet or so, only instead of being filled with the usual pub fare of chips and pretzels, these bowls were filled with pills of every description and color of the rainbow. As she watched, hands dug into the myriad of pills like grandma’s Easter candy dish. Uppers and downers in dangerous mixes were all washed down with healthy swigs of alcohol.
Further down the bar, she saw lines of cocaine being cut and snorted through rolled bills or tiny silver spoons.
Nearby, the sweet smell of opium perfumed the air, and in an out of the way corner, a junkie was shooting heroin into an arm vein as her friends urged her on and laughed as she nodded off before she could undo the rigging.
“Oh, very nice,” Ianna murmured as she finally squeezed in beside Kael. After ordering her own drink, she handed Kael’s scotch to her, then turned and surveyed the crowd. “Very nice indeed.”
“What are we looking for?” Kael asked, sipping her drink.
“We’ll know him when we see him.” At the American’s questioning look, she continued. “Women’s fears are much closer to the surface. Easier to bring out. They’re good for a quick fix, as it were. But men … their fears are buried deep, hard to dig up. But the reward is well worth the effort.” Receiving her wine, she smiled and toasted her partner. “Besides, what is it you Americans say? Good things come to those who wait?”
Kael smiled into her drink. “Indeed.”
*******
“There he is,” Kael said softly, with surety, her eyes narrowed and pinned to the dance floor.
Ianna leaned closer, melding her body to the American’s delicious form and following her line of sight. A smile, dark, predatory, and extremely sensual, curved her full lips. “Oh yes,” she whispered, lips just touching the perfect shell of Kael’s ear. “Perfect.”
The man was tall, with a broad-shouldered, lean-hipped look that Kael favored in both men and women. With the expensive cut of his suit, so out of place here among the unwashed masses, and the thick, ebony fall of his hair tied back into a tight ponytail, Kael almost mistook him for Geraldo.
Until he turned and presented her with golden hazel eyes, full pouty lips, and a face pretty enough to belong to a woman. While on the surface those looks gave the man an air of almost innocent sensuality, it was the raw undercurrent of shimmering darkness that attracted the American’s notice.
Draining the last of her third glass of scotch in one easy mouthful, Kael set the glass down on the bar and stood. Her body was all fluid motion and feline grace as she left the bar area and began a slow, sure stalk of her intended victim.
Ianna was left behind without even a second glance, but she didn’t mind. She found herself to be a bit of a voyeur, after all, and there was no doubt in her mind that the woman she was watching was magnificence personified. It wouldn’t matter anyway, for by the end of the evening, the man would be so much rotting flesh, and Kael would be hers once again.
Grinning with an evil triumph which would have turned the heart of the bravest man to ice, she gracefully rose from her barstool and trailed after her American beauty, her mind already spinning with the evening’s possibilities.
Like a magnet which repelled as strongly as it attracted, Kael parted the hungry, writhing crowd before her and stepped easily up onto the dance floor.
Suddenly aware that he was being closely observed, the man finally lifted his head from the lips of one of the bevy of women adorning him like some living robe. Shaking the women from him like a dog shedding water, he placed his hands on his slim hips and leeringly appraised his new admirer.
Staring into pale, predatory eyes, his own widened, just slightly, before narrowing in speculation. The woman standing so casually before him possessed an exotic allure so unlike the common harlots who paraded around him, seeking even a split second of his attention as if he were an oasis in their parched and dusty lives.
Stepping up to the duo and standing more or less unobtrusively off to one side, Ianna watched the silent standoff with twinkling, amused eyes. She could feel the tension crackling around the pair, see the hunger as it rose from them, swirling over their still forms in a dark, iridescent glow only her gaze could detect.
The amusement in her eyes curved her lips, and she looked on, arms crossed over her breasts, as the man reached out toward Kael with a hand that was a hair less than steady.
Reaching up, Kael grasped his wrist and easily placed it on the curve of her hip, allowing the handsome stranger to pull her in close to his well-muscled body. Her lids were heavy and half lowered, and her lips parted, glistening in the whirling, frenetic lighting, as his head descended.
Their kiss was incendiary, rough, bordering on brutal. Kael felt the living heat of him blister through her body as she raised a hand teasingly up his abdomen and across his chest. She bit down with more than a hint of force on the tongue twisting within her mouth, darkly thrilled with the low moan sounding deep in his throat.
With a throaty, seductive laugh, she pulled away, nipping his bottom lip with sharp, white teeth.
His eyes were glassy, his stance unsteady, and he blinked rapidly, tongue running over his full lips.
Smirking, Ianna chose that moment to step forward and lay clasped hands over one of Kael’s broad shoulders. Sensitive nostrils flared as she scented the arousal coming off of both of them in waves. “Will he do?” she purred into the American’s ear.
Growling, Kael grasped Ianna around her trim waist, pulled the priestess in even closer against her, and turned her head, crushing the taller woman’s lips against hers for a timeless moment.
When she finally broke away, Ianna’s eyes were shining and her heart thundered forcefully in her chest. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Turning her head, she saw that the man’s unsteadiness had resolved, and he was gazing at them with frank, and aroused, speculation. Moving forward, she whispered a rather vulgar request in his ear, then straightened to watch as his chest expanded, then relaxed as he nodded his assent.
“Good,” she replied, a coy smile shaping her lips. “Shall we?”
*****
Ianna tried very hard to keep her eyes on the road, even as her body was strongly responding to the scene taking place scant inches away. The convertible’s top was down, allowing Kael to straddle the hips of their guest, who gave his name as Raphael. He’d pulled down the tight material of her dress and was feasting on her breasts, each in turn, as she tossed back her head and laughed in primal abandon, her hands strong on his broad, muscled shoulders.
Her nipples were so tight and so engorged with blood that every strong draw of his mouth gave as much pain as it did pleasure, and she relished it, mouth open wide as she drew sweet night air into her needy lungs.
Knowing well that the road ahead was flat, straight, and empty, Ianna took her eyes off that particular view and turned it to a much more pleasant one instead. She turned to look just as Kael’s strong, veined hands left Raphael’s shoulders to disappear between their bodies for a long moment.