JAPANESE NIGHTCLUB
It all started at a nightclub in Japan.
The lights were flashing bright green and hot pink, in spokes that reminded me of light sabers. The music boomed so loud I thought it was actually inside of my head instead of surrounding me. You could feel it in the floor, shaking like an earthquake. This was my element, a place where music controlled the senses. It was the sort of place that I’d always escaped to, even as a child, when my parents owned the Yankee Rebel in upstate New York.
I was single for the first time in awhile. I’d just broken off a long-term relationship the month before. And by long term, I mean long-term according to the world’s standards, not mine. It had been two years that I’d been with this one. It was the longest relationship I’d actually made it through, ever. The longest before that had been three months.
Sure, I missed Melody - that was her name - but things had gotten a little too serious between us. I guess you could say that I was a wild stallion, I wasn't ready to settle down just yet, and Melly - that was what I called her - was ready for the white picket fence and three babies in footie pajamas. I just wasn't there yet, so - as I usually did when I was nervous about something - I ran.
But I did miss her. A lot. Some part of me wondered what it would be like to have the picket fence and the babies. A little bit of me - the bit that watched AJ and Rochelle getting excited for their wedding in the Fall, the bit that saw Leigh kiss Howie on the ear, the bit that saw how Brian touched Leighanne's thigh during dinner when they laughed - wanted to call Melly up on the telephone, and tell her I made a mistake.
But still, despite that little bit, it felt good to be able to cut loose, and actually look at the women around me for a change. Japanese women, in my opinion, are among the sexiest in the world. I don’t know what it is about them, perhaps their confidence and utter inability to let what others think effect their fun, but they’re intoxicating. So I figured I'd be in for a fun night with the fellas, and maybe a couple ladies on the dance floor, but not much else. That little bit of me was still whispering in my ear that I'd call Melly when I got back to the United States.
That’s why it was shocking that, as the strobe lights scanned the dance floor, that my breath was taken away from me when my eyes locked on her. She was the only American woman in the nightclub. She was caught in the flashing, blinding lights, dancing languidly, like she was some substance other than human – smoke, water, wind, fire... perhaps an element all her own. Her eyes seemed to be looking directly into mine, even from across the room, her expression hungry, like a predator looking upon its prey. She licked her scarlet lips, and winked, and I felt myself break away from the pack that I’d entered in with… drawn to her, like a mouse into the hypnotic eyes of a viper.
“Where ya going, Nick?” AJ called, looking over his shoulder, but I didn’t answer him, and the other guys moved on toward the VIP lounge as I moved down, into the pit of dancers, my feet stumbling wildly over the steps that led to where she was standing.
I got to her, and suddenly felt inadequate, something that I hadn’t felt before. She was wearing a skin-tight black dress that just barely covered her body. Her brilliantly auburn hair – not quite red enough to be red, but not brown enough to be brown, just a color all its own – hung in loose waves around her face. A necklace, small rubies on a silver chain, hung close to her neck, resting on the place her jugular sat, just underneath the skin.
She leaned in to me, her breath hot on my neck, and whispered into my ear, “I was waiting for you.”
The next thing I knew, we were dancing, her body tight against mine, the music flowing between us like warm bathwater, and the world around us a blur of color and noise that I couldn’t quite comprehend. Every time I tried to make an effort to notice other things, other people, sounds, and sights, she was there, in front of me, a focal point from which I could not move my eyes again. Hypnotic... her eyes were as blue as the liquor that bore the adjective.
She knew how and when to touch me. She seemed to melt into me, like wax. I held onto her, but she slipped through my fingers, impossible to grasp, again like smoke. “What’s your name?” I asked at last, calling over the music that moved through every cell oh my body.
She had her face buried in my neck, smelling my temple. “Victoria,” she whispered huskily. Her voice tickled my sensitive skin, and I felt her nipping playfully against my pulse point. “Let’s get a room,” she whispered, sultry, and I followed, without a glance backward.
I was vaguely aware of glass smashing as we plowed into the bar cart in the corner of the room. Her clothes were almost completely gone, her lingerie, sexy and scarlet as her lips, was all that was between us. I was already naked, my chest heaving as I gasped for air, the erotic scene nearly too much for me to bear. My mouth was on the curve of her breasts, my hands grasping for the snap of her bra. My pulse seemed to throb with in me every time my mouth found her bare skin.
She wrapped her legs around me, her stiletto heels digging into the small of my back, pressing against me. She dug her nails into the skin of my shoulders, throwing her head back and gasping. I carried her like that to the bed, the hotel room a blur around us, and we fell into it, her hair flying out in a wide arch of color on the pure white bed. My hand ran down the length of her side to the curve of her hip, her thigh, around her bottom, and clutched her there, heaving her up further onto the bed. Her bra, strapless, had slipped away somewhere between the bar cart and the bed, and I could feel every detail of our chests rubbing together, turning the fire up between us.
"Nick," she moaned my name, and it was like setting off fireworks. I felt dizzy and hot, like I could scarcely breathe, and I pulled her body close to mine, frustrated by her tiny thong's presence. I reached down, trying to pull it off, and felt her legs twist beneath me. She leaned up and laid her mouth against my neck. "This is wonderful," she moaned.
"Yes," I groaned back.
"But are you sure..." she gasped into my neck, "That you want to do this with me?"
"Yes," I groaned again.
"I have to warn you," she said to me, her voice low and sexy, "Once you get me in your head... it's almost impossible to get me out."
I smiled, "Well, baby... Bring it on."
And we connected.
In that instant, the weirdest sensation came over me. It was like nothing I had ever felt before, like I was being burned alive from the inside out, like my heart had exploded in my chest. I lost all control, my senses spinning out in ridiculous directions... and my neck... a shooting, burning pain travelled through my body, from my neck through my veins, to my toes and fingers, to my head, to my heart... and I remembered nothing else until I woke up the next morning.
Bad Romance by Pengi
