Prologue
It was dark the night I laid eyes upon her for the first time. I remember seeing her dance, lights flashing around her, music thumping through the large room. She was beautiful, eyes like shining emeralds, hair like a midnight wave of the sea, too dark at the time to tell its true color. Her skin was the color of butterscotch, warm and glowing with the sheen of sweat glimmering across her skin. Everything about her pulled me in, every piece of my soul called me to her. It didn't matter that I too was a woman, or that I was engaged to be married. This woman was above all earthly constrictions of commitment. If I had known then how drastically my life would change by approaching her, I don't know if I still would have approached her all those years ago.
Chapter 1
My friends had wanted to go to the club that night, saying I needed a last hoorah before I tied the knot. They suggested a strip club of all places, if I had known it would be a female one, maybe I wouldn't have gone, knowing my, er, lack of resilience to the female gender. The moment we walked in, I could smell the scent of sweat and arousal, as if it was tickling my nose, pulling me in. My friends laugh and we grab a table closest to the main stage. A woman is dancing, slowly gyrating her hips against the pole as she goes lower and lower, her legs spreading wider as she finally sits on her heels and places her hands on her knees and spreads her legs farther apart. I try not to look, instead turning my eyes towards the other stages. None of the women appeal to me though and I eventually look down at the table. A waitress comes over and gets our orders. I ask for a Shirley Temple with cherry shnopps added to it to try and take the edge off my nerves at being back in a place like this. I look back up at the main stage to see that the woman who had been dancing had left. The already dim lights dimmed further and smoke started to pour through the room.
An exotic sounding beat started up as a man's voice called, "From the depths of the amazons comes a woman unknown to any man or woman, please welcome, Valentina."