Author's note: This is a rare piece of erotica from me from the male perspective. The one I'm actually qualified to write from. It's semi-autobiographical, but the scene itself derives from a random comment born in the depths of my warped little mind, not an actual event, more's the pity.
#
It had been a while since I felt like dancing, but Stefan was in the right mood in his booth and a string of Sisters, Nephilim, Joy Division and New Order, Covenant and the odd Screaming Tribesmen meant I found my spot on the floor and kept it.
I had gone scruffy that night, staring at myself in the mirror and thinking I couldn't be bothered either shaving or running the trimmers over what was, to be perfectly honest, sharply outlined designer stubble.
So I hadn't brushed my hair before tying it back, and instead of my normal elaborate clothes and coat I had put one of my more piratical lace shirts over my laced pants, put on boots and left it at that.
I was through my third beer without noticing the alcohol, and sweating hard enough to pull the laced front of my shirt all the way open, when I noticed her noticing me.
The fact I noticed at all says something about how good I was feeling, but not even I can be self-conscious all the time and after I did a sly audit of the people around me and moved to see if she was tracking me, I had to admit it was probably me she was casting those calculating, up-and-down sideways glances at.
I had noticed her earlier, but then I had been admiring clothes and trying to spot friends, and she had merely passed by my radar as a tight body, charged with energy, wearing skin-tight patchwork black and grey jeans and a ripped band shirt over a long-sleeved fishnet top, a plain black bra seen at one edge of the T-shirt.
She was sexy, but not stylish compared to the corsets and leather I had been letting my gaze linger on.
Moving, however, she was a different matter, and moving in my direction made her a whole lot more noteworthy.
The next song picked up the rhythm a bit and she started dancing closer. We were half turned towards each other when I looked over at the bar to see what the wait was like, turned back and she was gone.
Well, shit. Score one for crushing disappointment.
I finished the rest of that song, then headed for another beer. I had to wait to get to the front, then suddenly there was a crowded feeling next to me.
"Buy me a beer?" She asked, leaning on the stainless steel and pressed against my arm by the crush of the crowd.
The bar-boy arrived before I could respond, so I just let actions speak for me.
I didn't give it to her until she told me her name was Ravyn. What the hell, I could go with that.
She lead me outside, to the smoker's balcony, taking a swig as she slipped through the crowd like an eel in painted-on denim.
We went right to the end before we found a free spot, and she leaned her back into the wrought-iron corner.
"You dance well, Ade," she said, giving me a frank, intense look as she took another swig of beer.
"It's a fluke, I haven't had enough practice to dance well. You're better at it than I am."
"You don't usually come here?"
"I don't usually dance when I come here."
She clicked her fingers. "I recognise you now! You're usually glammed up."
"I'll accept that as an uninformed description of my usual devastating style."
She laughed easily. "You need a shave."
"Which is why I'm not glammed up."
"You didn't have time to shave?"
"I couldn't be bothered shaving. I've had a very relaxed day."
She gave me a calculating look over the top of her beer. "Tell you what. You let me shave you, and I'll have wild sex with you."
I had another drink, to give my head time to settle around that one. "If you don't cut my hair," I said. "The hair stays. Facial hair is up for grabs."
"Done," she said, holding out her hand to shake. "Facial hair only. But you have to let me do it my way, as I wish."
I raised my eyebrows. "Okay. My safe-word is Bailey."
She grinned, a little fiercely. "Oh good, you know the rules. Fancy leaving now? I'm a little horny. I didn't drive, so I guess we're getting a taxi back to my place?"
She lived on the opposite side of town to me, so I had no idea where we were going until we got there.
The house was old, wooden, built in the fifties to a style that didn't quite fit because they were trying to be "modern," not intelligent. She had it to herself, and had stamped a casual, cheerfully messy and goth/punk persona on it.
"It's a bare-foot house," she said when she let me in without fumbling with the key at all. "And visiting boys have to go shirtless at all times."
I could hear the smirk in her voice even from behind her head.
I unzipped my boots and peeled them off, followed by my socks, faster than she could manage her laces, which gave me time to stand in front of her and peel off my sweat-soaked shirt.
Hitting 30 had not come with fat, and a figure that had always been wiry had even managed to put on some muscle lately, so I didn't look like a poorly padded skeleton.
"Hmm, I like a good hard man," she purred as she finished untying her boots by touch and kept her eyes on about the level of my sternum. "And piercings! You do know how to give a girl jewellery to play with."
"Turn about is fair play, Ravyn" I said as she finally stood up, peeling her socks off.
She just grinned at me and hauled her band shirt and her fishnet shirt over her head together, leaving her in the black bra I had glimpsed earlier, covering small but undeniably tight breasts on a torso even leaner than mine.
"Right," she said, her grin not fading, "bathroom. Now. Come on, you."
She grabbed my hand and lead me, her grip strong and sure, her hand warm and inviting.
The bathroom looked even older than the rest of the house, cycles of heat and humidity ruining the cheap wallpaper, vinyl floor and what was probably undisturbed asbestos sheeting.
But the light was strong and the room was clean, with the faded look of surfaces that have been bleached repeatedly because it's the only thing that'll work.
"Right," she said, grinning even wider, standing in the doorway. "Strip!"
"Did we just talk about my face? Because I've done the rest."
"Ooh, lucky me! I'm only doing your face, but you agreed to let me do as I wanted to, and I want you naked. Strip."
