"Want to hear my favorite song?"
The woman sitting across from me is practically a stranger, but I'm settled into a couch in her living room all the same, cradling a glass of red and appreciating the gentle light given off by her faux Tiffany lamps and flickering candles.
We'd met earlier in the evening at a songwriting class -- it was her voice that pulled me in. A soulful, raspy instrument that lends added depth to the folk songs she composes and plays on her worn acoustic. Well, to be truthful -- it was her talent that first caught my attention, but I must also admit how beautiful I find her to be. Thick, wavy red hair, deep brown eyes, a wide, easy smile... a moderately tall, curvaceous frame and smooth, tanned skin covered in freckles. Honestly, she's gorgeous.
And judging from the way she looks at me, eyes focused and shining, and how she talks about my work, my voice -- she doesn't find me lacking, either.
I tell her I'd love to hear whatever she feels like playing. There's something ... more ... to the smile she gives in return, but then she picks up her guitar and strums gently before I can put my finger on the emotion. And I'm pulled once more into her craft. The tune is gentle, simple -- by the second pass, I know it by heart. By the fourth, it feels as though that melody is all I can think about...
My host places her guitar on its stand when she finishes, then looks at me expectantly. I try to tell her how much I enjoyed it -- but find myself unable to say anything at all. "Cat got your tongue?" she laughs. I try again to reply, yet can't seem to compel my words to come out of my mouth. That's when I'm able to name the hidden emotion I saw in her smile earlier: mischief.
She moves to sit down next to me, takes my hands in hers once she's settled, then says: "Tell me what you thought." Instantly, I find myself able to compliment her at last. But after I do, I go back to being involuntarily silent and still. I look at her in confusion -- and she shocks me with her next command: "Kiss me."
I comply immediately -- because it's what I've wanted to do all evening, but also because I can't seem to help myself. Her lips are even softer against mine than I'd imagined, and they fit so perfectly against my own. She then winds her fingers into my own flowing mane of hair. I'm desperate to reciprocate, but once again find myself unable to do anything more than revel in her closeness and the feel of her massaging mouth against my own. She pulls away: "Touch me."