Part 2 The Mistress contd.
I finish my beer, grip the empty bottle, close my eyes and imagine waking up with you; your arms around me; your warm, naked body pressed against my bare back, your breath on my neck. I lean back against you now, because I need to feel you there. I need that contact with you, not just soul but body too. I crave it because I can't have it β you daren't offer and I daren't ask. But we understand each other. You support my weight as you have always done and I sigh, relaxing into you, my jealousy forgotten because I know that no one else has the part of you that I have. But we won't go into that. It's hardly the time or place for scruples. I bear the marks of youth and age even as you do, but not in any way that makes us equal.
And so I lay my head back, onto your shoulder, and move against your hips with the music, because I can. Because I want to. Because I'm through playing cat and mouse; and it's not even that much of a surprise when I feel your arms come around, encircling me, the touch of your hands on my waist, then my stomach, then the back of my thigh. And you're dancing with me, holding me close, pressing yourself to me, because you can't not. Because it feels right. It's started.
There's a sudden sound, an explosion somewhere down at my feet like glass shattering, and then I'm not holding anything anymore except you, my hands over yours as they move over me. And I feel your face nuzzling my neck and then you're kissing and biting my shoulder, and it's all like a dream, and when I open my eyes I spot the woman over at the bar, still staring open-mouthed at you. At us. I wonder if she'll enjoy the look in my eyes when you make me come as your fingers find their way beneath the hem of my short dress and past the top of my stocking.
I twist round in your arms, interrupting you, because I have to check something. I need to check that you are for real this time. And as we're hanging there, millimetres apart, with that wall still standing in between us, you have such fuck-me eyes it makes me smile. Your eyes say, "Which way now?" There's only one way left.
We swing the sledgehammer together. Let it all come down. My army is tired of fighting this losing battle and I cannot rouse it to defend my honour any more. The word "stop" never enters my head. The pull in my chest is painful and I need release. I slowly close my eyes and in the blackness I finally feel what it feels like to have your mouth on mine; and it's so beautiful that I scarcely hear the world crumbling around us. There's something happening inside me, in my stomach and behind my ribs, like a great flock of a thousand tiny birds all lifting off at once. A Kodak moment. I want it to last forever. If it never ends, there can't be any consequences.