Two dark bodies moved on the bed in sensuous rhythm; hot skin over hot blood. Their silhouettes flickered and stretched along the red, streak painted walls, cast there by a couple lamps and rows of candles. Arms and legs clenched and slid up and down around one another but hardly ever apart, skin always in contact. The man rolled his hips, following the muted beat of heavy dance music emanating through the walls from the downstairs club. The woman, curled up, her legs wrapped around his waist and digging the heels of her feet into the small of his back, loosed soft, breathy gasps with each of his steady, gliding thrusts. His hands were constantly feeling their way around her dark olive-brown skin.
Their eyes never left one another's, linked by some invisible string, interrupted only with a dreamy blink or upward roll of the pupil. When they kissed, their lips barely dragged against one another, preferring to dart their tongues out to touch and to taste.
The woman arched her head back over the pillow, her long dark reddish-brunette hair splayed out like the rays of the sun, and groaned. She licked her lips and cooed his name, "Rev..."
Revish looked at her and smiled, never ceasing his motions. He never said her name though. He was looking past her beautiful emerald eyes, the sharp angled features of her face, her flowing locks of silken hair.
Revish was seeing another face even as he brought the expression on the one under him to the brink of ecstasy. He saw the face of someone very distinctly different of the woman he was making love to, distinctly different of all the women he had ever brought to his bed.
For the last two weeks he couldn't shake the image from his mind. Starting just as barely a passing thought, it had grown and breathed life into his increasingly jaded soul. He saw her face even when he was making love to another woman. Maybe even more so.
"Ahh! Rev," the woman he moved inside of now moaned.
He still couldn't think of her name as he kissed her.
**********
"So when is your man going to make his grand entrance tonight?" Nara asked her friend as the two women entered the club, arms linked together.
Rekha spun her small purse in her hand whimsically. "Oh he'll be here! He's always here," she said, then clutching at Nara's arm she added, "God I hope he's here!"
Nara laughed. She chided her friend, "You're so pathetic! When are you going to make a move on him already so I don't have to keep coming to this place with you?"
The two had been coming to Earthly Delights Nightclub almost every evening for the past two weeks since they had arrived in Kolkata. They had come to the city for a month on holiday from Canada keeping a promise to do so during the year after they had finished their undergraduate studies. They were staying at Rekha's uncle's one bedroom apartment while he was away on business until the day before they had to leave.
On the first day of their arrival, instead of trying to fight off jet lag, they sought out a nearby club, just a harrowing ten minute cab ride away through the winding, crowded streets. On that very first night, Rekha spotted "him" and from then on, she pleaded her case to her friend to go to the club each night and basically ogle him from across the bar or dance floor.
Nara only ever protested in jest. Truth was she really liked the place. It wasn't a large or a well known club, not found in the guide books and definitely for the locals. Yet, there was a sort of frenetic atmosphere that reminded her of the Bollywood movies her friend forced her to watch. She enjoyed the looping, heavy electro-beat, Hindi dance music, the smell of spice or floral scent in the air and some really grinding, body-bending moves happening on the dance floor. The club goers were not only attractive men and women but they had energy to spare and flaunt. She also never felt as self-conscious in the dark environment and that type of social gathering.
Out on the streets during the day, the young Korean-Canadian woman stood out. Her pale skin was all the more noticeable when she was surrounded on the street by the myriad of brown hues of the locals. The whites of their eyes were bright while hers were less evident through the narrower slender shape of her smooth eyelids. Even after her skin had tanned to a honey maple colour after two weeks and Rekha had introduced her to the people in the neighbourhood, she was still openly referred to as "the pale girl". However that was infinitely better than the "yellow girl".
Nara and Rekha settled into a lounge booth together and ordered a couple of drinks. Nara watched her friend with a knowing smile as Rekha anxiously scanned the club. Unable to locate her man, she pouted her lower lip. Nara rolled her eyes and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Come on, you," she said loudly over the noise of the club, "We're gonna go burn off some of that nervous energy!"
She pulled her friend off of the chair and led her to the dance floor. Soon the pair of them was caught up in the rave, waving their hands and swaying their bodies in tempo and rhythm with the masses.
*********
Revish pushed through the drapes covering the door that opened into the club's office. He held them aside as a striking woman followed him through primping her hair and wearing a subtly lurid smile on her face. She waved to him as she passed by and he offered a slight nod in return. Vishnu opened up the door on the other side of the office to the stairway that led down to the club. Both men watched as the woman proceeded out the door with a dainty tug at the bottom of her miniskirt.
Revish did up the bottom two buttons of his shirt, leaving his chest exposed between the folds. A quick run of his fingers through his neck length, slicked-back hair and he looked like he had just stepped outside to begin the day.
His friend Vishnu, shook his head and chuckled, "Too cool."
"That's the way to be, my friend," Revish replied, snapping his fingers and pointing at his friend. He strolled around behind the desk and sat down. He looked at a few ledgers, tapped something into the computer and then said, "How are we doing tonight?"
"Good," Vishnu nodded, sitting down in front of him, "Good crowd. Doing good business. Good women. Ha! But you know that first hand already."
Revish leaned back in his chair, rubbing his finger under his lip as he stared at the computer monitor. He tapped a few more keys and instantly the club's security camera windows appeared on the screen.
"Already on the prowl again," Vishnu commented. He always was in awe of his friend's voraciousness. Lately, he seemed even more intent than usual.
Revish winked at his compatriot then refocused his attention on the monitor. He rolled through the cameras, scanning the people in the club, his eyelids narrowing over grey-green pupils. After a moment, he paused and leaned forward spotting something, someone, in the picture. He tapped the screen then quickly stood up.
Vishnu looked at the screen. He couldn't see what or who had caught the man's attention. He just shook his head and then stood up, walked to the door and opened it.
As Revish walked past him and descended the stairs towards the beckoning crowd, music, and heat.
Vishnu grinned and remarked, "And the Prince descends from his heaven for the evening."
**********
"Okay it's been 20 minutes. Go already," Nara insisted.
She and Rekha were back in their booth. She had poured two glasses of "courage" into her increasingly nervous friend since they saw the manager of the nightclub make his customary appearance for the night. Now he was seated in a booth almost directly across from them.
"He's looking right at you!" Nara said.
"No he isn't!" Rekha said with a giddy smile. She blushed as she looked away.
