He reaches out audaciously with both arms and claps each of us on our shoulders. He’s lucky Cass doesn’t turn around and tie him in a knot like a Red Vine just on principle.
Cass unfolds a twenty-dollar bill on the table and slides it toward her, deliberately not looking the guy in the face. The woman squints at it, apparently not quite sure what to do with it.
“What the hell is that for, just standing there looking pretty?” the skinny man cackles. “Well, take it, girl! You got a couple of generous gentlemen, here. Why don’t you give them a little something to invest in!”
I see a flash of frustration cross her features. Impatience. Annoyance. The look of pleasure she had just moments ago seems to be fading quickly. I wish this guy would find someone else to annoy.
But she is a trouper. She leans toward me slowly, her eyes eager and determined. I am frozen in my chair, wondering what will happen next. How close is she going to get? What is the rule for this kind of performance?
To my utter surprise, she keeps coming. Slowly… Far too slowly... She reaches out and balances her hand on my thigh and leans in, her lips parting, her eyes closing. For a second there is only a few millimeters between us, her breath dancing over my lower lip, her eyes locked with mine.
Then, suddenly, she kisses me. Her sweetness is an explosion in my mouth. Her lips are impossibly soft, practically vibrating over mine as the tiny triangle of her kitten tongue pokes sweetly against mine. It takes everything I have not to wrap my arms around her and crush her against me. She’s like food. She is like a meal I have hungered for. She is honey to a starving man.
I force myself not to move. I force myself not to pull her onto my lap, though everything in my body wants me to do exactly that. The last shreds of caution and thoughtfulness somehow work together to keep me from doing what I want. But only barely.
Too soon, she releases me from the kiss. I see her nostrils flare as she breathes in, smiling incredulously. Then to my utter shock, she leans across the other side of the table and kisses my brother. Just before she does, he glances at me in shock and amazement.
But he does what I could not. As soon as her lips touch his, his arm circles her back, drawing her waist toward his, pulling her into the space between his open knees. Her hands skate over his shoulders and lock behind his neck as he kisses her back the way I wanted to kiss her back.
For a moment, I forget where we are, surrounded by people... in this shitty bar. I forget, but then the skinny man makes me remember.
“Yyyyyeaaaaahhhhhhh!” he brays, smacking me with his open palm.
It is everything I can do to keep from pounding him into the floor. That is not what my training was for, I know, but right now I am working on animal instinct.
“That is what I am talking about!” he yells out as the crowd begins to take notice.
People begin to clap, to yell out encouragement. Cass and the woman don’t seem to hear anything. I fight the urge to join them.
Finally she pulls back, staring deep into Cass’s eyes as she carefully separates from him. They have an instant connection. I can tell. A connection that is magnetic, that I should be part of. If there weren’t a table between us…
Suddenly there is a crack at the far end of the room, the sound of wood on wood like a pool stick hitting the wall. The skinny man startles and rushes off, leaving the woman alone with us.
For a few seconds we all look at each other, silently acknowledging that we have come to a fork in the road. We can separate here and go our individual ways. Or…
“Tammy? That’s your name?” I hear myself say.
I need to hear more. If not this, then something else. Anything. I just want to hear her voice again and know she is real. Curiosity opens up a void inside me. I want her to fall in.
After another moment’s consideration she looks at me directly. I can see she has asked herself some kind of silent question, and also given herself some kind of answer.
“Tammy,” she repeats. “Yes, that’s fine.”
“Tammy is not your real name,” Cass adds.
We all know it, but the question is so what? Does it matter? She can say she is anyone. It’s her prerogative.
Another song starts, this one a grinding, sweaty shuffle, the kind of song you would hear way out in the country in a roadhouse shanty, under string lights on a night with a full moon. Tammy lets her head fall back and sways from side to side gently as if in a dream. Cass and I watch her, rapt, unable to turn away from this mysterious creature.
Her hands float out from her sides, rising as her dance turns more sinuous, more determined. I’m not surprised when she wraps her fingers around the back of my neck, but I am surprised when she pulls me closer—and my brother along with me.
As soon as I get a whiff of her I’m turned on. Her scent is overwhelming, snaking into my lizard brain, switching every circuit to go. Again, her lips are impossibly sweet. Her fingers dig at the back of my neck, pulling me forward, practically to falling. Her tongue flutters against my teeth, pushing my mouth open, dragging me past my last shreds of self-control.
I want her. I’m going to have her. It may not make any sense at all, but she will be mine.
Chapter 8
Libby