Music thrums and thumps, filling the night air outside the club with seductive promise. If you were to stand outside in the crisp night air you would be able to feel it reverberate through the pavement as much as you are able to hear it. Doing so would make you one of the dozens that queue down the block just for a chance to get in. This isn't a club that earned its busy clientele through years of prestige, A-list DJ's or even cocktails to die for. No, you came here for it's reputation. The kind of reputation that brings to mind your every carnal desire held just out of reach. Of scantily dressed women so beautiful you would go to sleep later thinking of them, either dreaming you could look like them or whilst touching yourself.
Tonight was like every other, the main floor was filled with those either good-looking enough to get in or rich enough to bribe the bouncers. The back wall consisted of a black polished stage whose centre extended out halfway across the room towards the bar that took up the opposite wall. Littered around the floor closest to the bar were intimate round tables, at which patrons sat to watch the stage. Those that wished to be more active could move towards the stage where the tables thinned out to allow for dancing, grinding and surreptitious fucking.
The catalyst for this debauched atmosphere was what, or moreover who, made the stage their playground for the night. Six women who's angelic beauty juxtaposed perfectly with the devilish motion of their bodies. Five were arrayed along the back of the stage, dancing and gyrating in time with the pounding music. Glimpses of sweat sheened flesh, lips parted in mock ecstacy, their hands running over bodies the crowd craved to touch. The sixth was set apart from the others, both in looks and distance. Clad only in thigh high boots and a pair of black lace panties she was a sight to behold. Alabaster skin with short hair the same colour as the space between the stars in the night sky. Her body was toned to perfection, the marble sculpters of old would have sold their souls to create art that could imitate her. Tonight was like every other, and like every other night she was the one on the pole out on the stage's central arm with all eyes on her. Later the other girls would move to smaller rooms to give more intimate shows to smaller crowds. None of them would even come close to her earnings as the richest of patrons would enter a bidding war for who would get her single private dance of the night. The rest of the dancers would bitch about it behind her back, never to her face though. After all she might not have been the owner but she certainly ran the club.
Welcome to Aphrodite's Lounge.
Michelle sighed in bliss as the hot water of the shower scorched her shoulders and back. She would have a more thorough one when she got home but Michelle found that there were few pleasures in life that matched up to this blisteringly hot rain to rinse off the sweat and grime of a night at work. It was just a shame none of the other girls joined her in the communal showers, at least not in the way that Michelle wanted. They would chat, joking about odd patrons or bitching about how Nyx had once again got paid so much for doing so little. Never once would they include Michelle in these talks. In fact more often than not when Michelle entered the showers they would leave shortly after, giggling and whispering behind their hands.
Michelle could understand that she certainly didn't fit in with these women. In any other crowd with her blonde hair and blue eyes she would have been considered pretty. Compared to these temptresses though she was simply an average woman. Nothing special. It didn't help either that Michelle enjoyed pursuits outside of simply how she looked. Originally she had been using this job to support herself whilst she was waiting for her acting career to take off. Trying to bring this side of her into work she'd joked around by giving spot on impersonations of some of the women after work one night had landed her the label of "weirdo". A label she had not been able to shake.
In her mind it was certainly a shame, she would have loved to get closer to her colleagues. Watching them on stage dancing, seeing them wet and shining in the steamy showers after work, it ignited something within her. She'd lost track of how many nights at work had ended with her masturbating to the thought of one or more of her co-workers. Of course the walking goddess that was Nyx featured in these late night fantasies the most. Alas though, she knew she had no chance to get close enough to any of them now for that. Michelle let out a sigh and reluctantly turned the water off. Time to get her earnings for the night and head home.
The owner of Aphrodite's Lounge had, once upon a time, scared Michelle a little. Annika was a fierce looking woman with just the faintest trace of a Russian accent. She was by no means bulky but had a look of wirey strength about her that was rumoured to have come from years at the Royal Ballet Academy. Her career had been cut short thanks to the thin white line of a knife wound that split the right side of her lip. That and the bare handed killing of her assailant.
The stern boss who seemed to know everything had slowly ceased to be after Nyx had joined the club. Now the club basically ran itself and she spent the few days she was actually here drinking spirits in her office. It was here that Michelle was stood having a one sided argument with her.
"This is almost half what I got last shift! What the hell?" Michelle complained.
Annika sat back in her chair, flicking her platinum white ponytail back over her shoulder as she did.
"You get paid what you're
worth
and you are lucky I'm even going to pay you at all, your room brought in barely any guests once again," she paused in beretating Michelle to take a drink straight from the bottle of scotch on her desk, "then when I take look in your room to see why you doing so shit I find you doing Minty's routine. In her fucking costume too! No one want to see yesterday show again today."
Michelle stood for a moment clenching her fist in anger.
"Well Nyx took
my
costume so what was I supposed to do! Besides you're the one who tells us we need to try new dances, so I learned hers!"
"Bah," Annika waved her hand dismissively, "if she want your costume then she have. She bring in more money in one night than you in a month! You need to be more pretty, more slutty, dance better! Now take your pay and get out my office."
With that she withdrew a depressingly thin envelope of notes from her desk drawer and threw it on the edge closest to Michelle. Frustrated, Michelle snatched for the envelope but before she could take it Annika's hand shot out and grabbed her bare wrist. Her skin was cold as ice.
"Either you earn decent amount next time you dance, or it your last dance. Clear?"
Michelle slammed the door to her dingy little flat shut behind her. Then turned around to shut it properly as it inevitably bounced back open. The blasted landlord had been refusing to fix it until she caught up on her all rent, just another shitty thing to add to her day. Huffing and angry she threw her bag down on her couch before stalking off to the bathroom. As she went she stripped off her clothes. Her skin was pale but not perfect porcelain like Nyx, her breasts were larger than average but lacked the size appeal of Rhea's, even the petite Minty had better legs than her. She
had
to find a way out of this job but right now no one would hire a failed acctress. She cried out and punched the air in frustration.
