The brush of fingertips… the turn of her head… meeting her eyes… watching her dance…

The lights of the club spun and pulsed, constantly changing color, and threatened to drive Kyle out of his mind. He already had a headache from the noise of the crowd, the thrum of the bass and the three vodkas he’d consumed while watching Kara dance with her three single girlfriends. This kind of thing had always been more up her alley than his, but he put up with it because of the look of undeniable happiness and invigoration on her face each time they went.

It was also undeniable that he loved her. Everything about her set his heart to pounding, his fingertips to tingling, his spine to shivering. Sometimes he felt like a magnet – as if he was irrevocably linked to her on a level that even he could not fathom, her every movement causing him to mirror her.

She was his life, and she knew it. But he didn’t know if it was the same for her. She was an expert at teasing him, and she was a master conversationalist – if she didn’t want to answer a question, or if she was unwilling to continue discussing one topic or another, she could manipulate her words and the direction of the conversation with such skill that nobody except Kyle knew what she had done and how.

He adored her. He watched as something one of her girlfriends said made her laugh, and his own lips twitched upward in a wry smile. Watch out for the smile, his father had told him long enough ago that the memory was fuzzy and indistinct. The smile – and the laugh – will hook you… or kill you.

He understood that now. He understood that he loved her for everything she was, inside and out. And yet, he never completely understood her. He knew she would like that – if he told her. A woman should always be somewhat of a mystery to her man, she would say. He was sure of it. He could almost hear the words leaving her perfect lips.

Suddenly she was looking around for him, and their eyes met. Her sparkling, emerald green met his bright, amber brown. It was only an instant, but he felt her glance like a physical touch. Maybe it was the vodka…

--

Kara glanced down the short flight of three stairs that elevated the lounge area from the main bar and over to the stool where she knew Kyle would be sitting. She felt a little guilty when she looked around to meet his gaze, but when she saw that he was staring at her with an intensity that clearly showed his adoration for her, she felt even more guilty. She knew the club wasn’t one of his favorite date ideas, and she felt bad that she always seemed to end up here – surrounded by her old college dorm-mates, talking and drinking dry martinis – while he felt so out of place and sat at the bar, drinking his vodka alone. Whenever she apologized, however, he would stop her with a kiss, and, when they had regained their breath enough to speak, he would whisper, being near you is a privilege in and of itself. Don’t feel bad – I’m just happy to watch over you and know you’re having fun. She smiled to herself now, letting the other three girls chatter on about the next time the four of them were going to hang out. She felt her heart warm, remembering those moments with Kyle.

She knew he loved her, and she loved him back – with all her heart. But she knew Kyle often struggled with his self-image, imagining he was far more worthless than she knew and believed him to be.

Suddenly it was too much. She quickly excused herself from her friends and gathered up her purse and coat in preparation to leave. They shot knowing, forgiving smiles at her as she made her excuses and left. He deserved her attention, and he had waited long enough. She valued him too much for his own thoughts of self-worthlessness to get the better of him, and she knew they would eventually… they had before, and the result had not been an easy thing to work through.

She smiled at him as she approached, leaning forward to kiss him lightly as he stood up from his barstool.

“Ready to leave?” he asked, eyeing her coat and purse in hand.

“Mhmm.” She smiled and kissed him again. “But-” and she looked up through her long, black eyelashes to meet his gaze with a sultry, flirtatious gleam in her eyes “-will you give me one little dance before we leave?” She placed one hand softly on his stomach, taking a little handful of his shirt and pulling him closer as she spoke, putting her coat and purse on the stool he had been occupying.

He grinned as he looked down at her. “It would be an honor, my lady,” he said, leaning in close as if to kiss her, and then stepping back and pulling her onto the dance floor. She laughed and flung herself into his arms as the next song began.

The lights now served another purpose that Kyle didn’t mind so much – rather than hurting his head and confusing his eyes, they rendered his world in a riot of color and flashing glimpses of his beautiful girlfriend as she moved and swayed and danced in time to the driving rhythm of the music. His brief glimpses of her and the lingering touch of her hands and curvy body on his as they danced made his skin tingle and burn. The energy she always gave him thrummed through his body, and he felt as though her touch would actually ignite sparks at any moment between her fingers and his.

Kara saw the smile – in brief, indistinct, but undeniable flashes – on Kyle’s face as they danced, and she smiled back, laughing as the energy of the crowd rose with the swell of the song. She felt his warm, strong hands on her hips as they danced, and felt his touch linger longer than they needed to.

A shiver ran up her spine when she realized what he was doing, and she responded instantly when the crowd squished them closer together. Placing her hands on his chest, she looked up at him as she felt his hands encircle her tighter than before. Her breasts were squished to his chest, and their hips, still moving in time to the music even though they could barely move in the hot press of dancers, ground together. They were breathing hard from the dancing, and their heaving chests rose and fell as one, making both feel as though they were one being, moulded together with the heat around them and the love they shared.

Each flash of the strobe lights gave her glimpses of Kyle’s face, and the look in his eyes made her body shiver as their hips continued to grind.

Waves of heat in ever strengthening waves rippled through her body, and she only had time to gasp before his mouth was moving on hers.

She lost herself in the sensations his body was evoking from her, and when he slipped his tongue into the kiss, she moaned with pleasure. The music and shouts of the crowd around them were too loud for him to hear her, but Kyle must have felt the vibration of her mouth with the sound, for his hands began to move on her body. They slid up and down her sides and hips, setting her skin on fire, and then reached up to cup a breast, gently kneading it through the thin material of her dress and bra as his mouth moved to kiss her slender neck.

She gasped in pleasure as her heartbeat quickened, and she reached up to throw her arms around his neck. The song had ended, but another was already starting with an even wilder rhythm than the last one. The bass rumbled and the lights changed their flashing to an even faster rhythm. Kara could feel Kyle’s chest heaving, and his breath was hot on her neck as she pressed herself even closer to him. One of his hands reached down to pull her ass towards him even harder, and she could very clearly feel his hard-on rubbing her through her dress. He moaned into her neck, and she gasped at the intensity of the sensations of hot pleasure rolling through her.

Suddenly, the sound of crashing wood and shattering glass erupted from the direction of the bar, and Kyle and Kara’s make-out session was rudely interrupted by the rush of dancers moving away from the developing fight by the bar. Kyle realized what was happening immediately and attempted to use his body to shield Kara from the flying elbows, pounding feet and pushing bodies as everybody rushed for the door. Kara just tried to hold onto Kyle’s hand as the flood of people streamed out the door and into the parking lot.

Once they were out in the cold night air, the couple looked back at the bar and watched the thick stream of frightened people fleeing the bar. As they turned away, however, their eyes met and fire seemed to once again inflame their bodies. A slight smile played at the corner of Kyle’s mouth as he grabbed Kara’s hand and led her into the dark shadows of the building’s shadow. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her again, pushing her up against the wall. She giggled at his playful roughness, and kissed him back just as eagerly, running her hands all over his chest, feeling his chest through his shirt.

The pressure of the hard wall to her back only made Kyle’s body against hers more of a thrill – she knew she had nowhere to go. A lustful, almost feral smile played over her lips as Kyle’s tongue danced with hers. Breathing hard, he broke off the kiss to gently bite her lip, then bite and kiss down her jaw and neck. She sighed in pleasure and wove her fingers through his thick hair, playing with the back of his neck.

As their hips again began to grind, Kyle reached up to cup Kara’s breasts, massaging and kneading them, and kissing them when his mouth reached her collarbone and chest. Reaching slowly up, he slipped the strap of her dress from her shoulder, allowing the thin material to slide down, revealing more of her body to him. Her chest was heaving from the arousal coursing through her, and his ministrations only drove her desire wilder.

She reached down and began to rub the large bulge in his pants, making sure to be gentle but insistent and teasing. He grunted and then moaned when her touch made the pleasure mount even higher, beginning to thrust his hips in time with her hand. His hand grazed down her side from where it had been cupping her breast, and traced a fiery trail down her hip and thigh. When he got to the hem of her dress, she gasped as she felt his fingers move up the inside of her thigh.

She was wearing black lace underwear with thigh-high lace net stockings, and his fingers found just where to tease her. She had gone still, feeling his fingers so close to her hot pussy, but as his fingers stopped moving only inches from her pussy, she began again to respond to his kisses, hoping to bribe him into doing more with her.

She began to do her own bit of foreplay, trying her best to be slow and teasing. She knew it would drive him crazy, but she also knew it would prompt him to do more to her, in the hopes that she’d give him more in return. Kissing his mouth and up his jawline, she licked his earlobe and felt him shiver, the hand he had on her breast tightening a little. She smiled, letting her teeth graze his ear too, making him shiver again, and kissed his mouth slowly, playing with his tongue.

As she kissed him, she ran her hand down his front and let her fingernails rake his muscular chest and stomach. He responded by pressing against her even more, and kissing her with an even greater intensity. As their kiss deepened, Kara let her hand rest lightly on his belt buckle for a moment before she lightly traced one fingernail slowly up and down the big bulge in his pants. Kyle broke off the kiss and glared into her eyes, almost hissing in frustration.

She stared back at him with a sly, lusty smile, not touching him for a moment. But as she held his gaze and the smile on her face, she began to use her whole hand to rub his hard-on through his pants. He moaned, and his eyes narrowed to lusty slits as he fought the overwhelming waves of pleasure. She knew he was close to giving up the game of foreplay they had been playing, so as she stroked him through his pants, she opened her still smiling mouth and let her tongue slide lazily over her lips.

That did it for him. He growled deep in his throat and kissed her hard as his hand went down to start caressing her pussy through the thin material of her panties. She gasped and moaned into the kiss as his fingers and mouth pleasured her.

A loud bang and the sound of a lock being turned made them freeze for a moment, and Kara, her eyes wide, looked at Kyle and whispered, “I think they’re closing up, but I left my purse and coat inside!”