Rachel could feel the room as she stepped into it. The lighting sucked for a good conversation, but the energy of it was titillating. She looked at her friend Latisha, wondering if this whole idea was a big mistake. She didn't really care for crowds like this. Latisha motioned with her head and took Rachel’s hand to lead her in.
Rachel could have stopped and looked for hours. People were everywhere. She saw a table where a man and a woman sat, each with a person kneeling at their feet. There was enough leather here to bind a thousand books. Black seemed the color of the evening and she realized that she stood out like a sore thumb in her pale blue dress. It was the sexiest thing owned and even then it was pretty demure. No, she didn't belong here. Latisha just kept pulling her along and Rachel couldn't get her attention. There were too many distractions.
She finally stopped at a table near some halfway decent lighting. It was near a wall and that made it better for her to see the room. Rachel sat, bouncing lightly in the chair to the heavy rhythm of the band, watching women and men gyrate across the floor. Latisha motioned she was going to the bar. Rachel nodded. Latisha knew what she liked.
A movement caught her eye and she looked up to a man in all black. How very original.
"Here...alone?" It was hard to catch all his words.
Rachel shook her head no. He said something that she didn't catch and walked off to find another victim.
Latisha came back with two drinks and plopped them down on the table. She had seen the man and mouthed, "Jerk?"
Rachel shrugged and sipped the coke, too nervous to chatter about a random stranger.
Latisha laughed, "Maybe you need some rum in that coke."
"No," Rachel smiled back. It wasn't that she had anything against alcohol; she just didn't care to drink. Maybe she was scared of giving up control, she wondered. That would be ironic. Latisha patted Rachel’s hand excitedly and pointed.
A man was making his way around the crowd of dancers, heading for the two women. He was average height, dark hair graying around the temples, better dressed than most of the crowd. Rachel was secretly grateful to see gray slacks and wine-colored dress shirt; not a spot of leather or black to be seen.
"Latisha? Rachel?" he asked.
They both nodded and he sat down. Latisha scooted her chair closer to him so Rachel could see both of them at the same time. He must have done his homework for he looked and spoke to Rachel and not to Latisha.
"I am very happy to get to meet you at last Rachel. You are much more lovely than your picture," he handed her a single deep red rose.
She could see his face and lips and also Latisha's hands moving. She liked Latisha as an interpreter, her face was animated and her signs were crisp and easy to read.
"Thank you, Sir" Rachel voiced back, wondering if he, like many other hearing, would find her voice odd. It was better than most deaf since she had been hearing until she was seven. Still, there would be that slightly flat tone that some people found annoying.
"Are you still comfortable with our plans for the evening?"
Rachel ignored the stares from the next table and concentrated on him. She guessed that deaf people didn't come to the club often. He seemed fairly easy to lip-read, but it was never perfect.
"Yes, Sir, if you are."
She saw his body laugh and the smile on his face crinkled his eyes in a very pleasant way, "I have never worked with a person who is deaf, so it will be new to me."
She shyly smiled back, "I have never done this sort of thing either, so it is new to me also."
He stood and held out his hand. This would be the hard part, leaving the safety of Latisha, her ears for the rest of the world, and give herself to Nicholas, a man who could not speak to her in her own language of sign. Did she trust him enough not to hurt her?
She knew that she wanted this. They had emailed for months before this night. She took his hand and rose for the chair, her eyes locked onto his. His touch was sure, confident, radiating strength. It made her tremble to think of what would come.
Latisha tapped Rachel on the shoulder to get her attention and signed, "Call me in the morning."
Rachel nodded to her and let Nicholas lead her out from the club. Stepping outside was like stepping into a new world. The visual silence of it after the club was wonderful.
It may seem strange to others to realize that even the deaf have silence. So much feeling, so many people, so many things to catch your attention and pull you from one thing to another in dizzying speed were noisy. The cool air and the presence of one person after that are near silence.
Nicholas led her to a car and opened the passenger door for her. She slid into the leather seats with a smile. Rachel loved how things felt and smelled. She relished in sensations. Tonight it seemed magnified.
He drove and she studied his profile. Attempts at conversation would be rather one sided in the darkness. She could feel the slight vibrations on the door indicating he had music on and wondered what it was. She trailed the velvet softness of the rose over her cheek and let her mind wander.
This would be their first night together, but they had been corresponding for almost six months. She had seen him in her college class on human sexuality. He was on a panel discussing alternative lifestyles. His email was on a handout along with the other panelists. Rachel had waited several weeks before she got the courage to send him the first email.
Over the six months, he had suggested books for her to read, they had discussed what she felt, her curiosity. She never mentioned her deafness until a month ago. Rachel was worried he would find it distasteful, but he rolled with it. She was the one to suggest that maybe she should dip her big toe into the waters. He asked to be the one to guide her.
He pulled into the driveway of a two-story craftsman house and helped her out of the car. Inside, he put his car keys in a bowl by the door and led her into the living room where a fire danced in the fireplace. He faced Rachel, his hand just touching her chin, "Are you sure you want to do this?" He spoke so she could read his lips.
"Yes, Sir."
He smiled, still holding her chin, exerting that little bit of early control, "Safe word?"
They had discussed that before. Rachel had daydreamed of things happening and then her calling out something. It all sounded silly but with this new territory for both of them, she knew the needed it. "Platypus"
He nodded, "Ready?"
"No. Yes. Please Sir, lead me."
He took the rose from her hand and placed it on an end table and then went around the room adjusting the drapes so they had privacy. He took a seat in a leather chair near the fireplace. He just looked at her standing there for some time.
"Blue is a good color for you."
She blushed, "Thank you, Sir."
"Take off your dress, Rachel," he made a motion to accompany his words.
So it would begin. She unzipped the dress and slid it off her body, stepping out of it, a bit unsure where she was supposed to put it. He motioned to another chair within arms reach. Carefully she laid it across the back and then looked back to him.
He had warned her in his email of several of the things that would happen tonight. She knew that undressing would be the first step. Perversely perhaps, she had worn a full slip. She supposed it would have been sexier to wear nothing at all underneath, but here she was in her white slip.
He let her stand for a while, and then made the motion again. Rachel pulled the slip over her head and added it to the dress on the chair. She tried to stand tall now, nervous about standing half naked in front of him. Her bra and panties were new. She had spent hours in the store trying to pick something beautiful. She had settled on white lace. The look on his face told her they were worth the price.
He stood now and walked over to her, around her. She moved her head to watch him, but he came back around and arranged her body to suit him, "Stand still, Rachel. I do not want to use the crop too early."
He moved behind her and ran his hands over her shoulders, down her back, unfastening her bra. Rachel shivered as he walked back in front of her, his hands never completely leaving her skin as he slid the straps down and then pulled the bra off her body.
Her breasts bounced slightly as they were freed and the nipples harden quickly. His hands caressed each one, thumbs teasing the nipples until she arched slightly at the soft pleasure of his touch. He smiled.
In a lazy enough movement, he knelt in front of her, his hands sliding down her sides, catching the lace of the panties and sliding them down. A slight pressure on her foot indicated she should step out of them. He left the panties on the floor and ran his hands back up her legs, around her hips, stroking the soft curves of her backside. Rachel kept her eyes on him as her body warmed and responded. His hands traveled back down and delicately he unbuckled each of her high-heeled sandals and helped her out of them.
He stood and gazed at the girl in front of him. Rachel felt a blush spreading from head to toe. She was really doing this. She was really naked in front of him.
