Come Closer

"I know... but I was hoping he'd pay attention to me tonight."

"You could always make him jealous..."

"Do you think that would work?"

"Men are like dogs—when they think someone else is pissing on their tree they get in a huff, if you'll pardon the analogy."

"You're lucky you're my favorite non-lesbian lesbian lover." Alyssa played with one of Jordan's curls.

"You know you wouldn't know what to do without me. Hey, look, he's looking over here." Jordan motioned with a slight nod of her head towards Xavier and whispered to Alyssa, "Kiss me."

"What? I'm not a rug muncher." Alyssa sounded shocked.

"You want him to be jealous?"

"Grrr, fine." Alyssa sighed dramatically and leaned in, pressing her lips to Jordan's.

Smiling against the kiss, Jordan pulled Alyssa a little closer to make it convincing. Her hand slipped up the more petite girl's thigh and pushed the hem of her dress up. Alyssa's arms came to wrap around her neck as the kiss deepened, her lips pressed more frantically to Jordan's. Jordan could practically hear Xavier's heart stopping despite his alcohol-induced stupidity. She drew the kiss out for a long moment and felt Alyssa flushing hotly against her as she broke the kiss and nipped at her friend's bottom lip. "Could've been worse, you could've been kissing Tom." Jordan whispered very softly under the loud thud of the music and cast a glance over at one of Xavier's drunken friends who was somewhere between drooling and puking on himself.

Jordan took a step away from Alyssa and smiled before going back to watching the crowd dance below her. Bodies writhed and undulated, giving the impression of a giant creature made up of a million parts in the throes of death. Seeing a couple particularly involved in the song that Jordan didn't know the name of, she laughed aloud, but suddenly stopped, seeing the familiar glint of silver eyes in the crowd. She felt her heart stop in her chest as she looked around desperately for those eyes in the crowd and found them gone. "Jord...Jordan...HEY!" Alyssa forcefully pulled Jordan away from the railing. "What's wrong? You look like you're going to faint." Alyssa had to yell this to Jordan as a particularly loud song came on.

"I'm fine. Just got too warm, I guess." Jordan tried to laugh it off.

Suddenly Alyssa's eyes got wide and a nervous smile crossed her face. Not turning around, Jordan could feel the slow painful beat of her heart in her chest long before she heard the achingly familiar voice, "Excuse me..."

Jordan stepped to the side and looked casually towards the source of the voice that had the ability to melt her senses to vapor and make her whole body tremble. It was growing harder to breathe. He was painfully beautiful, particularly in the lighting of the club that cast his strong features into shadow and made his eyes all that more luminous. He was dressed differently than he had been last night. He wore a simple black shirt that was ¾ buttoned, the top two buttons left undone to show the exquisite musculature of his chest. Jordan felt herself staring at the gap in the smooth black fabric, but she couldn't help it. Just under the collar of the shirt a mark, darker than the rest of his smooth skin, peeked out. Other than the deceptively casual shirt, he wore well-fitted jeans that accentuated the heavily muscled build of his lower body. Jordan found herself biting at her bottom lip, her desire rushing through her body and making the room impossibly hot. "Can we help you?" Alyssa piped up, slightly surprised by Jordan's silence.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I noticed you begging that gentleman on the couch to dance and couldn't help but come over... I've been watching you since you walked in and would love nothing more than to dance with you." Damien didn't even cast a glance in Jordan's direction, his eyes focused solely on Alyssa.

"Me? You want to dance with me?" Alyssa looked at Jordan, an expression of shock on her face.

"Yes, with you." He laughed in that way that made Jordan angry and exhilarated her all at once, his smile sending shivers of electricity through her veins.

"Sure! C'mon!" Alyssa didn't need to be asked twice.

Jordan watched as they walked away from her and down the stairs towards the dance floor. Not once did Damien look at her or acknowledge that she occupied the same space as Alyssa. Her cheeks flushed hotly as she walked forward and gripped the railing until her hands ached and her palms were bleached of blood. Xavier walked up beside her, suddenly painfully sober as he motioned with his hand towards Alyssa and Damien cutting through the crowd of bodies to find a place to dance. "Who the fuck is that guy?"

Jordan shook her head and shrugged her shoulders in response. If Damien wasn't going to acknowledge her, she wouldn't claim any association with him. Exhaling slowly through her teeth, she stood up straight as "Kissy Kissy" by The Kills came over the speakers. Her eyes were glued to the couple—her blonde friend like day and her tormentor like night—and she watched as the strong slam of the bass drum made their bodies come together in ways that made Jordan sick.

Xavier's territorial nature came out in broad strokes of color across his otherwise flushed face. He was pissed and wanted Alyssa to be back up on the balcony with him.

Jordan moved away from the balcony railing and found a place to sit in the shadows. Seeing Damien touching Alyssa put her out of humor. Crossing her legs, she listened to the song and relaxed in her seat, not even noticing when Alyssa returned, flushed and aroused, to find Xavier angrier than hell. She sighed dramatically and got up to go get some air. Grabbing a cigarette from Xavier's coat pocket, she wandered down the stairs of the club, weaving her way through the crowd to the exit door. Someone on their way in offered her a light.

Leaning against the wall outside of the club, Jordan closed her eyes as she inhaled only once every few minutes. It was more of the quiet that she needed than the smoke. Crushing the cigarette under the heel of her boot, she stepped back inside—back into the heat and arousal that flooded the club until it was almost something hanging in the air.

She moved over towards the bar, sandwiching herself between men she didn't know to try and blend in. She ordered a lemon drop and waited for her drink, not really paying attention to her surroundings. Paying for the shot when it arrived, she dumped the container of sugar on the lemon and picked up the wedge in one hand. She used the other hand to slam the shot back, quickly popping the lemon in her mouth and sucking on it.

"You know, you're much more difficult than most women to please or torment."

Jordan turned around slowly as she pulled the lemon rind from her mouth and licked a few crystals of sugar from her lips. Damien stood there with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his lips. "Am I?" Jordan put the lemon rind in the shot glass and leaned back against the bar.

"Certainly. Most women would have thrown themselves from the balcony if I had completely ignored them like that... it's a part of who I am, to cause such strong reactions. Not you, though... you're almost an ice queen."

"Did you enjoy your dance with Alyssa?" Jordan ignored his comments and feigned disinterest as she crossed her arms in front of her.

"To some extent. She's very pretty and a lot of fun...but she isn't who I wanted."

"Well, you just said you could get any woman you wanted, so I'm sure you won't be disappointed."

"Quit playing stupid, Jordan. You know very well that you're the one I wanted."

"So you show it by dancing with my best friend?"

"I wanted you to admit to how attached you are to me... I see it will take something more subtle to extract such a confession from you."

"I'll openly admit it if you ever give me reason to. As it stands? I don't see a very convincing reason to do any such thing."

Damien suddenly reached out and grabbed Jordan's arm, pulling her towards him and simultaneously pressing her back against a square column. All of the air rushed out of the room as he stepped very close to her, his face a scant few inches from her own. Jordan licked her lips and looked up into his face that was contorted into something resembling agony. "Do you have any idea what you do to me? The very fact that you breathe is enough to make my whole body crave you. Seeing you move and watching others—other men—watching you is enough to make me insane with jealousy. You have to be mine... I can't stand to think of the consequences if you reject me."

Jordan felt all of the words rush from her lips as she stood there, mesmerized by his gaze and held suggestively pinned to the wall by his body. "So, this needing to be with me is why the burn on my arm isn't a burn anymore, but a mark? I'm not your property." Jordan had to force the ice into her words as she watched the way his mouth turned into a wince.

"That wasn't my doing."

"The hell it wasn't."

"I had nothing to do with it. It would have happened with or without my presence in the chapel last night."

"I don't believe you. I'm no slave to fate."

"Even immortals are slaves to fate... that's why I can't go on without you. You're it. You're my last hope. Do you know how it feels to suddenly feel whole for the first time in eons upon eons and then to have that sensation torn from you with such violence it feels as if your heart was torn from your body? That's a fraction of what I feel when you reject me."

She couldn't think of anything to say. His face was so pain-filled she felt as if she was killing him. Resting her head against the column, she broke his gaze, needing respite from the overwhelming emotions that flooded his eyes. Looking into the crowd of people laughing and talking on the outside of the dance floor, Jordan closed her eyes for a moment as "Satan's Seventh Bride" by Helicopter Girl began to play. Jordan shivered visibly as the shuddering sound of an electric guitar vibrated through the club. Turning her face back towards Damien, Jordan felt her lips brush against his. The hot silk of his mouth made something deep inside her body melt. It was like magnetism: once her lips touched his, the kiss couldn't be broken except by the most extreme exertion of will.

Damien's hands came to encase her wrists, slipping them up the wall and holding them there as his body pressed more insistently to hers, the kiss deepening as the opening words of the song echoed into the club. He all of a sudden pulled away from the wall, but didn't release her. Moving into the space on the dance floor that seemed to open for them, Damien turned Jordan to face away from him, causing her arms to cross her body. He used the position to hold her tenderly to him at first, his hands sliding down her arms gradually, his lips coming to press against the side of her neck as his hands ghosted over the sides of her breasts and slipped down her sides until they rested possessively on her hips.

"This thing is on. You're playing guitar, and suddenly I feel romantic..." The singer's voice rolled over the crowd on the dance floor like mist.

Shivering at the words mixing with the beat of the guitar, Jordan rocked her body back into Damien's, her arms coming up and slipping around his neck as she felt heat rush through her. Her eyes fluttered shut as she laced her fingers together and used the position to roll her hips into Damien's. She could feel him tensing under the slightest movement of her body. The press of his lips against her neck grew more impassioned, the grip of his hands more desperate as time slowed to a standstill.

Opening her eyes, Jordan let out the softest of moans as she felt Damien growl against the side of her neck. His body rocked into hers constantly, his hips pressed greedily against the round of her ass. The music made every movement a million times more tantalizing. The vibrating twang of plucked guitar strings matched the flooding heat that surged through Jordan's body.

"Say can I tempt you? Can you be tempted to pick up another string on your guitar? Hey, can I tempt you, or can you be tempted to play me like Satan's seventh bride?"

Damien spun Jordan around and pulled her body to his; the heat of her curves pressed to the hard lines of his frame was almost intolerable. It had been ages since he last felt what it was like to be an aroused human male and the restrictions it imposed made him weak. He bent his head and dragged his lips down the line of her throat. He counted each beat of the song like grains of sand trickling through an hourglass, counting down to the moment when he would have to relinquish her. He felt the thudding of her pulse under his lips and felt a new wave of desire take a hold of him. His hands slipped from her hips down to her thighs, sliding back up until they disappeared under the hem of her skirt. Clothing kept him from his real desire of feeling her flesh against his, from gaining the satisfaction of knowing she wasn't going to pull away and leave him.

Jordan trembled under his touch. The feel of his hands gripping at her thighs in a way only a lover would made her weak all over. She had to distract herself--he was pulling her in too deep. Suddenly he pulled her hips forward towards his and pressed the evidence of his desire against her. Jordan didn't even catch herself wrapping her leg around his waist until it was too late and he held her there, his hips grinding against hers temptingly. Each shift of his body and the press of warm denim against her was enough to make her blood boil violently. She leaned up and pressed her lips to his, needing the possessiveness of his kiss more than she needed air. Her left arm draped limply around his neck as her right hand pressed her nails into the side of his neck, making him hold her body that much harder to him. Jordan could think of nothing else but ache that ran through her when he proved, over and over again, how perfectly her body fit his.

The last few notes of the song faded and the spell was broken. Damien forced himself to release Jordan and take a step back, even though doing so was painful enough to bring tears to his eyes. Rubbing the back of his neck, he glanced at her and saw the way her body was flushed and shaking, her arousal almost too strong for her to control.

Jordan took a deep shuddering breath as she blushed and looked around her. The arousal she was experiencing was apparently contagious; throughout the club people were pulling apart from each other, redressing, and apologizing for their behavior. She almost felt the urge to laugh as she looked back to where Damien stood and saw he was gone. A shockwave of vertigo hit Jordan as she felt the separation more keenly for its suddenness. Exhaling with a sigh, she looked around the crowd of people, searching hopelessly for those silver eyes or that brooding brow. In the background the club's theme song if it had one, played. He was gone.

Jordan walked up the stairs towards the balcony, moving all the slower for the let down from her high.