[[[ LIV ]]]
This shitty club wasn't worth the time I'd wasted getting here. It hadn't even taken that long either- just sucked that much.
I'd promised my roommate I would come see her band play, even though her overbearing enthusiasm for togetherness was an incessantly frustrating wet towel on my sex drive. They'd opened and I could probably leave now without causing any tension but seeing her band hadn't truly ever been the motivation for this excursion.
I swirled the straw in my drink again, glancing down the length of the bar for a willing victim once more but only finding disappointment. I sighed, resigned to unlikely failure and settling in to wait for the show to end so I could go home and try to take the edge off this madness myself I had to do something about the mounting tension and aggression stirring in me. I could give in to the trouble that beckoned, and dance with the danger always tempting me. Trouble I was too happy to make if I couldn't find it.
Or I could find a willing body to share their bed with me. Either way, a divey music club that straddled the hip side of town and the questionable one seemed like just the answer I'd hoped for and was the only reason I'd agreed to come. To quiet the lust inside me. Violence or sex, I wanted my fill. It usually didn't matter to me if I spent my energy on a man or a woman as long as they were willing to worship my body the way I craved. But tonight I wanted something specific.
Tonight, I craved a careful balance of danger and sex. Tonight, I needed power and strength.
Tonight, I needed-
I needed the gorgeous man two tables away from the bar who had somehow escaped my notice until now. But now that I was noticing him, I couldn't stop. I couldn't figure out how I'd missed him before.
I zeroed in on him. My prey. But this man did not look like prey- he looked like sex.
His leather jacket looked soft and buttery from this distance, smooth and poured for a perfect fit over his broad shoulders and hugging biceps that seemed impossibly defined through the material. The profile of his face was silhouetted in the dim light and though I couldn't make out his features clearly, his prominent jawline and nose cut elegant shadows into the light around him and I wanted to chase them as they danced across his stubble and dark brow.
I got to my feet, throwing back my drink and my shoulders in one fluid motion, and moved down the bar toward him. He seemed absorbed in his own mind, something brooding and intense in the way he held his full mouth against the rim of his glass as he drank. I watched the slide of amber liquid until it disappeared past wet pink lips. I couldn't have torn my gaze from the rhythmic way he swallowed if the club was on fire. It wasn't, but I might be. The burn of him went straight through me like flames, settling in a roiling burn between my thighs that reignited my determination.
"This seat taken?" I asked him, allowing the fire inside me to show in my slow, appreciative assessment of his now-defined features as he met my gaze. Dark, brooding eyes with thick lashes that didn't miss the way I studied him. Lips so full my mouth practically watered. High cheekbones and a broad nose carved from honey skin and that jaw. The sharpness of it was only muted by a sprinkling of stubble along his chin. He took me in for a moment, curiosity and wariness fighting for dominance in his features for a moment before he shook his head once to indicate it wasn't. He gestured to the empty chair and I sat without further invitation.
"This band sucks," I offered bluntly, watching amusement spark in those dark eyes as he smiled vaguely.
"They do," his voice was deep and melodic, an accent I couldn't place adding to the flames inside me that turned into a raging wildfire when a wry smile quirked his full lips, "but the next one won't."
"Is that so?" I turned to face him fully, making no attempt to disguise the way my gaze travelled over his face and broad chest, pausing briefly on the hint of tattoos at the hem of his tank top. He nodded but didn't elaborate, just folded his hands together protectively around his mostly empty glass and watched me until my unbreakable confidence began to waver. His gaze didn't travel my face, or my mostly on display body. The leather leggings I'd chosen were practically painted on and the plain black tank top flowed over my chest like silk. Fitting, since it was silk. I called it my cat suit and it never failed me when I went on the prowl. A choker and black booties with silver studs and chains completed the look, my silvery blonde hair offering contrast to the moody outfit. I was dressed to kill and his laser focus on my face instead of that fact would maybe kill me instead. I waited a beat longer for him to speak before relenting to his silence, "I'm Liv."
"Colin."
His name was almost as sexy as he was. Though it appeared he wasn't an overly talkative dude since we lapsed into silence once more as we both sipped our drinks and listened to the shitty band while I thought about how to break the tension. His large hands dwarfed the glass between them, and I mentally mapped the thick veins that ran across them and up his muscular forearms until they disappeared beneath his pushed-up jacket sleeves. I noted more tattoos peeking there as well.
This man was a treasure map I wanted to memorize. I bit my lip as I imagined doing just that. Committing him to memory with my mouth, my touch.
"Do you wanna dance?" I blurted. I'm not usually much of a dancer but the drive to get my hands on this man ran so deep I didn't care. Besides, dancing is just fucking with music and clothes on right?
I hoped, at least.
He watched me steadily for a moment, his face still and dark eyes unreadable until I thought he was going to say no. Then he shrugged and got to his feet, smiling the first real smile I'd seen from him yet. We danced a few feet apart for the last couple of songs and when the shitty band finally left the stage, I offered to get us a drink. A flicker of surprise crossed his face and he nodded, leaning close to my ear to say, "I'll have whatever you're having."
I ordered us each a shot of top shelf scotch, guessing that was the amber liquid in his glass when I'd first approached him. I took a deep breath and nodded a thanks to the bartender, collecting my rampant lust and nerves before returning to Colin on the dance floor.
[[[ COLIN ]]]