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  Mel: No, just have fun. I found a corner to sit in.

  Layla: Nobody puts Baby in a corner. I’m coming for you.

  Mel actually laughed from the Dirty Dancing reference. She rubbed a hand over her face while taking a deep breath through her nose, then slipped her phone in her pocket.

  She really didn’t want to be a wet blanket and ruin the night. She had been looking forward to coming out dancing and blowing off some steam. But the bubbling cauldron of minor to major disappointments in her brain just kept stealing her attention.

  Mel wasn’t normally so sensitive, but the bartender’s attitude of superiority and arrogance really didn’t help with the storm she was dealing with inside. And even though she still thought it would be best for everyone’s mood if she was left alone for a while, the fact that Layla left the ogling bartender, who was clearly interested in her, and who Layla was clearly interested in, actually gave her a minor lift to her mood. It was nice to know she could always count on Layla to be there, even when she was being a major grouch.

  As she was leaning her head back to try to get a grip on herself and just relax, a woman walked up in front of her, and asked, “You mind if I sit here? I can’t find another seat and I just need to sit for a few minutes.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure.”

  Mel slid over as far as she could to the left and rested her arm on the slightly worn armrest of the loveseat. As the woman sat, the seat depressed significantly, causing their hips and shoulders to immediately press together because of the lack of adequate support.

  “Wow,” the woman released a small laugh and blushed as she continued, “this is not really meant for strangers to share, is it? I feel like I’m going to fall into your lap.”

  “That’s probably the exact intent of the design. Don’t worry, I won’t try anything.”

  “That’s one very devious designer. Or brilliant. Or both.”

  “Or none of the above and the damn thing is just broken.”

  The woman laughed again. And even over the loud music, talking, hollering, and laughing, Mel could hear the sweet laughter and it melted her insides like a hot knife cutting through butter.

  All of the stress of the week, especially today, slowly receded. She risked a full appraising glance of the woman sitting pressed against her, and her stomach fluttered when her eyes locked with the gray eyes watching her. Another flutter erupted at the way she lifted her long thin fingers to twirl a wisp of her shoulder length wavy brown hair behind her ear. An oval ear with a single ruby stud in the lobe.

  “I’m Katie.” Mel was slow to accept her hand to shake, a gesture that felt odd while sitting in a busy dance club.

  “Mel.”

  “Nice to meet you. Are you here alone?”

  She shook her head and took a gulp of whiskey to drown the anxious butterflies in her stomach. “No, I’m here with friends. I left them at the bar.”

  With a small laugh, Katie asked, “Not enjoying their company tonight?”

  “More like I’m the misfiring sparkplug in the party bus tonight. It’s been a long week. And today was a nightmare. I’m not exactly good company right now.”

  “I’d have to disagree. You promised not to grope me and you’ve entertained me with the image of a bus engine made entirely up of women. How would they measure the power in that? Twenty-lesbos?”

  Mel released a loud, surprised laugh, making Katie’s smile reach her eyes.

  “Twenty-lesbos. I love that. I don’t think I’ll ever use horsepower ever again.”

  “Are you a mechanic?”

  Mel groaned and rubbed a hand over her face, saying, “Not work. Anything but work.” She shook her head with a sharp exhale. “No, I’m not a mechanic. I work in an office, but work is kind of the reason for my mood tonight.”

  “No problem. We won’t talk about work. So, what do you think the seats on this lesbo-powered bus would be made of? Would they be heated and vibrate?”

  Mel released another laugh. The teasing glimmer in Katie’s eyes, the pearly white grin, and the way she engaged with a complete stranger with so much ease was very attractive. She loved Katie’s confidence to just come over and ask to sit down and then stir up a conversation. Most people would probably feel awkward and make it even more awkward about the seat forcing them to be pressed against each other. But Katie just laughed about it, which completely eliminated the awkwardness and made it a comfortable situation. Mel didn’t mind one bit that Katie’s thigh was joined with hers, or that their faces were only six inches apart.

  “You here alone tonight?”

  “Nope.” Katie pointed to a trio of one woman and two men dancing at the edge of the sea of bodies before them. “I came with friends as well. The one in the yellow 50’s style dress is Bianca. She’s my best friend. The two guys dancing on either side of her, they’re married – John and Dwayne.”

  “They can actually dance.”

  “John and Dwayne are dance instructors. They make sure all of their friends know how to dance. And how to dress. And how to cook. They’re just all around good at turning all of their friends into presentable, well rounded human beings.”

  Mel laughed, and teased, “Gotta love a gay guy with a disposition for style and the arts.”

  “Does a gay guy dress you too? He’s doing right by you, if he does.”

  The flutter erupted in Mel’s belly again, making her blush as she looked down at herself to appraise her outfit. She really didn’t want to come out tonight, so she felt like the weathered short-sleeve gray Henley and dark blue jeans had been a kind of lazy choice.

  “Uh, no, I dress myself.”

  “Like a proper adult. I like that.”

  She didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but it appeared that Katie’s eyes drifted down to the vicinity of her lips, which caused another flutter in her stomach. As she drank the last gulp of her whiskey, she noticed Layla and the rest of her friends standing at the edge of the dancefloor watching her with matching conspiratorial grins on their faces. Mel’s face blushed so deeply she could feel the heat coming off of her skin.

  “Hey, you okay or…?” Katie followed her gaze. “Your friends?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why do you look like you’ve just been caught with your hand down your own pants?”

  Mel laughed as she fell forward shaking her head. “Oh, my god.” She sat upright, and as she locked eyes with Layla, she laughed again. Layla was smiling like she couldn’t be happier. “You see the one smiling like a goober – the one in the middle in the cute blue summer dress?”

  “Yeah. She’s hot.”

  “She’s my best friend. But she’s a brat. She declared to half the bar that she brought me here to get me laid. That’s why I’m sitting over here.”

  Katie’s smile widened, then she teased, “Well, I’m not completely opposed to that, but I do feel kind of misled about your intentions to allow me to sit here.”

  “Whoa!” Mel jumped up from the loveseat. “Hey, I did not say that was my intention. That’s her plan, not mine. That’s why I was all the way over here minding my own business. You are the one that came over to me all pathetic like, ‘Please sir, can I have some more?’ How was I supposed to turn you away?”

  Katie fell forward laughing. “You are hilarious. Now, sit your ass down. Your friend looks terrified that something is seriously wrong over here.”

  “Good, she should be nervous.”

  As Mel sat down, falling back into Katie, completely unintentionally, she leaned forward some and stuck her tongue out at Layla, who quickly looked relieved again. Layla tugged on Gene’s arm and said something they couldn’t hear because they were too far away, then they were swallowed up in the crowd.

  “Why is your friend trying to get you laid?”

  “Oh, come on!” Katie raised her eyebrows with a grin, further pushing for details. “That’s not really fun dance club conversation.”

  “Depends on the reason. If you recently escaped a c
onvent that your parents convinced you to join when you were eighteen, that’s fantastic dance club conversation.”

  “And you know damn well that isn’t the reason.”

  “Yeah, but it sounds hot.” Katie grinned as she looked at the people dancing in front of them. “Who do you think looks like they could have been a nun?”

  “Is that your kink? Naughty jail-break nuns?”

  Katie made an all too realistic snarling big cat sound, causing a surprising reaction between Mel’s thighs and making her blush, which Katie noticed.

  Instead of teasing her for the visceral reaction, Katie asked, “How long ago did you get your heart broken?”

  “You guessed the reason correctly, but the length of time is embarrassing. Layla’s right – it’s time to move on. But it’s just…” She exhaled hard and lifted her glass to take a drink, but it was disappointingly empty. “It’s stupid.”

  “I highly doubt that, but you don’t have to explain. You want to go get a drink?”

  “You know if we leave this dilapidated loveseat, someone is going to steal it from us.”

  “I guess you’ll just have to dance with me then.”

  Katie took Mel’s hand, sending an electrical charge shooting up both of their arms, and pulled her up from the soft velvet cushion. While she followed Katie’s lead through the bumping and grinding sweaty bodies, her heartrate increased and she struggled to tear her eyes off of the way Katie’s jeans hugged her hips and framed her small round ass.

  When they reached the bar, the same butch who had served her before walked over with a smug grin. “Hey, Melrose. That whiskey working on you yet?”

  “It’s Mel. Can I get a refill, and whatever she’s having?”

  “Does she have a name?”

  “Katie.”

  The bartender’s eyes slid to Katie, looking her up and down with her smile widening. “Hello, Katie. What can I get for you?”

  “A Long Island Sunset, please.”

  “Sexy. Coming right up.”

  She winked at Katie, then gave Mel another smug grin before walking away to make their drinks.

  While still holding Mel’s hand, Katie grazed her fingertips over the inside of her wrist, sending a shiver through Mel’s arm and causing a spark to erupt between her thighs.

  “You know the bartender?”

  “No. She hit on Layla when we got here, even though she thought we were together. She’s just trying to fuck with me because she’s a quote, hard-butch and I’m a soft-butch.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Fuck if I know.”

  Katie’s fingers slid further up the inside of Mel’s arm with the slightest hint of contact and the effect was more powerful than if she had literally grabbed her crotch. Mel’s breath caught in her chest and her mouth suddenly became parched, as if all of the moisture in her body had just drained to the space between her thighs.

  “Here you go, Melrose and Katie. That’ll be nineteen dollars, before tip of course.”

  Katie didn’t release her hand, causing Mel to have to fumble one-handed with her wallet to pull the cash out. Which, of course, the bartender had to draw attention to by asking, “You need some help there, Melrose? You forget how to count?”

  “You know, for someone who thinks she should get a tip, you’re being pretty obnoxious.” Mel slapped thirty dollars on the bar.

  The hard-butch picked it up, rubbing the bills together with a cocky grin, and countered, “It works. You’re one of the best tippers in here tonight. Come back again soon, Melrose.”

  With a farewell wink at Katie, she walked away from them to help another customer. Katie licked her lips with a laugh, then used the tip of her tongue to draw her straw into her mouth to take a sip of her drink.

  “Thanks for the drink. It’s great. Do you want a taste?”

  “Oh, uh,” Mel cleared her throat as she peeled her eyes off of Katie’s mouth, “No, that’s okay.”

  Quieter, and with a deeper timbre, Katie asked, “You sure?” She took a step closer to Mel, causing her breast to slightly brush against Mel’s arm.

  “Okay.”

  Katie lifted her glass so Mel could take the straw into her mouth, and as she sucked up a modest sip, Katie dragged her eyes up to meet Mel’s beautiful, kind of nervous looking, hazel eyes.

  “You like that, don’t you, Melrose?”

  Mel exhaled hard as she threw a glare at the annoying bartender. “What the hell is your name?”

  “For you, my name is The Duke.”

  “I’m not fucking calling you that.”

  “Guess you don’t get to call me anything then.” She grinned again, then walked away with another wink at Katie.

  “Why the hell does she do that? She winked like that at Layla too, every fucking time. Why does she…?”

  Katie placed a hand on her cheek, turning Mel’s attention away from watching The Duke. “Come dance with me.”

  Chapter Six

  Long after finishing their drinks and discarding the empty glasses on a table, Mel and Katie were still dancing together in the thick of the crowd. Their bodies were pressed close, grinding and gliding with hands tentatively gripping each other’s hips and backs. Their breathing was heavy, their eyes were glossy, and their groins were pulsing with desire.

  It had been so long since Mel felt such an intense electrical charge burning up her nerves and making her head feel fuzzy. She was drawn to Katie like a moth to the only light in the dark of night. Her body, her voice, her laugh, her personality. Everything about her that she knew so far was captivating.

  Someone bumped into Mel’s elbow, which caused her hand to slide off of Katie’s hip and land on her ass. Instinctively, she gripped her small round cheek, pulling her in closer, and as their torsos and groins pressed together, Katie finally leaned in and kissed her.

  As their tongues slipped along each other’s full length, they inhaled deeply through their noses and pulled each other in tighter, wrapping their arms around each other’s waists. And with a twist and a flick, the entire world fell away and they were lifted high on the breath of their desires.

  Katie shuddered against Mel as a spark of pleasure ignited in her clit and pulsed through her body. She released Mel’s mouth with a sucking nip, then gasped for air while looking into Mel’s beautiful soft hazel eyes.

  “Are you completely against getting laid tonight?”

  Mel swallowed hard and took a few short, hard breaths, trying to get some sort of grasp on her situation, but she was too revved up. She was ready to burst.

  “No.”

  “Good. Let’s get out of here.”

  She started pulling Mel off of the dancefloor in the direction of the exit, making her stumble in her weakened state, but as she gained her balance, Mel said, “Wait. I drove Layla and Alice. I need to…”

  She startled as Layla threw her arms around her, kissed her cheek, and whispered, “Go. Gene will bring us home.”

  Before Mel could respond, Layla pushed her away and Katie waved with a friendly smile as she began leading Mel towards the exit again.

  The fresh air cleared the haze from Mel’s eyes and her ears hummed with the residual bass from the loud music inside the club. But the feeling of Katie’s hand entwined with hers and the arousal pulsing inside her remained just as strong as ever.

  “Where’s your car?”

  It took Mel a moment to get her bearings, but once she remembered where she parked, they practically ran to the car. As soon as they closed their doors, they met in the center of the car, and with their hands holding each other’s faces their mouths locked in a fervent kiss. Katie ran her hands through Mel’s short hair, scraping her fingernails over her scalp, eliciting a burring moan from deep in Mel’s core.

  Katie pulled away with a grin, and softly said, “Take me to your place.”

  “What about your friends?”

  “They drove. I’ll text them that I left.”

  Before she could chicken
out, Mel started the car and put it in gear. But not even two intersections away from the club, her mind and heart started racing. She hasn’t had sex in two years. What if she doesn’t do it right? What if she cums the instant Katie touches her? What if she can’t get Katie to cum because she only knows how to touch herself anymore?

  But when Katie placed a hand on the inside of her thigh, her thoughts came to a shrieking halt and were replaced with an internal sigh of pleasure.

  “You’re a great dancer. Did a gay guy teach you your moves?”

  Some levity returned air to Mel’s lungs and her shoulders relaxed. “Nope. I was in dance from the age of eight to eighteen.”

  “Nice. Do you still have your tutu?”

  “No.” Mel laughed and glanced over to see Katie also looked a little less certain and confident than she did at the club. “Is that one of your kinks too. Ballerinas?”

  “Maybe.” She brushed her thumb over the top of Mel’s thigh, and asked, “Are you really okay with this?”

  “Well, I’ve never, uh,” she cleared a lump from her throat. “I’ve never had sex with someone I’ve just met. But,” Katie’s fingers dug a little deeper into her thigh, causing a gripping sensation in Mel’s clit and eliciting a quiet gasp. “I’m okay with this.”

  They rode in silence for a couple of blocks, then Mel quietly stuttered, “You, uh… I mean, you don’t have any, uh…?”

  “I don’t have any STDs or STIs, if that’s what you’re trying to ask.”

  “Okay. Me either. Sorry.”

  “You don’t need to apologize for that. I should have asked as well so I’d know if there are any precautions I’d need to take.”

  It has been so long since Mel has been with someone that she nearly forgot to ask. Of course, there was a chance Katie was lying. Only a test would tell her for sure. But they could still safely have sex without the test and without a risk of contracting something. The more she thought about it, the more nervous she became, so Mel shoved the thoughts out of her head before she talked herself out of doing this. She wanted to do this. She wanted to move on.

  When they got to her apartment, Mel’s heart was racing and her hands were slightly shaking. And because she had never been in her current situation before, she didn’t know what she should do. So, she resorted to hostess mode – a safety net she desperately needed right now.