Sweet Lorraine's, in the Big Easy, was smokey and dimly lit, but the beer was cold and the music was hot. It was a little off the beaten 'tourist' track, and that meant the audience was mostly locals.
He sat on a chair, half-curled around the guitar. Malik on the trumpet and Big Boy E making musical love to the sax, stood a step or two to his right. Finger snaps of approval vibrated sharply in the air of the club at the end of each tune.
He was halfway through the last set when she walked in. The soft lighting tangled in the red of her hair, and his eyes were irresistibly drawn to the flame-like curls. His fingers never missed a note, but his attention was definitely not on the tune.
She skirted a table and took a seat in the only empty chair close to his side of the raised platform that served as a stage. He continued to play as a server stopped and took her drink order, came back and placed a glass on her table, then moved on.
He played, and watched, as she took the first tentative sip. He was still playing when she looked up and met his gaze. It was then, for the first time in a long time, his fingers faltered.
Blue-green eyes met brown, and he forgot to breathe. A shiver crawled down his back, as the tip of her little pink tongue slid wetly across a full bottom lip, and he couldn't look away. The unexpected image of that tongue licking hotly over his skin caused a full body reaction, and he was suddenly glad for the instrument resting against his thigh.
As the last note faded away, he set the guitar in it's upright stand, stood to dip his head in acknowledgement to the finger snaps of applause. Thankful the aroused state of his body had settled down enough for him not to be completely embarrassed. She was still there, sitting in the same chair, at the same table, sipping the same drink.
The other players stepped down off the platform, and he took this as an opportunity to make his way to the table where the object of his interest sat watching him with a smile lifting one corner of her mouth. Someone behind the bar hit a switch and music swelled slow and sexy in the room, muting the voices that talked back and forth across the tables.
He held out one hand, she placed hers in it without hesitation, and rose to slide into his arms. With one smooth turn they were pressed body to body on the dance floor. At first, he wondered if she could feel the evidence of his desire for her, but it didn't show in her eyes.
They moved as if they were locked together, and never broke the intense gaze that had started the moment she first sat down. They moved, swaying, lost in the moment to the point that the end of the song came and it didn't register with either of them. The rhythm picked up a little and someone bumped into his back, finally succeeding in waking them up, and he grinned. "Let's get out of here", he said.
Her only response was to tighten the hold she had on his hand, and follow his lead. They slipped through the musician's entrance door that led to the back alley where he'd parked his 'stang. He probably should have wondered why she went without a question, but he honestly didn't care. The feel of her warm curves moving against his in the slow undulating motion of the dance, made him hungry to see if she was as good as he thought she was.
The day time heat had cooled down to a humid level that one only finds in New Orleans at night. His one bedroom apartment was 6 blocks over and three down from Sweet's. He wasn't in any hurry, because he planned for this to take all night long.
So, they drove with the windows rolled down, and the air played with the long curling strands of her hair the way he wanted to, planned to, just as soon as he got her in his bed. As he pulled into the diagonal parking spot in front of the building, she looked at him and spoke for the first time.
"I've been to the club before, but this is the first time I had the courage to get close enough to actually let you see me."
It wasn't the words she spoke, although they would have piqued his ego all on their own. It was the soft, silky, southern drawl that seemed to wrap itself around his neck and slither down to settle in his lap. Being a southern boy, born and raised, he could appreciate the subtle undertones of a 'belle', but her voice had a vague whiskey huskiness that urged a man to kiss her breathless, and he wanted to be the one to do it.
He led her through the doorway of his place without flipping the switch that would flood the room with light. There was no need, the room at the end of the hall was where he wanted to see her in the soft glow of candlelight.
"Don't move", he said softly. A scratch of match against the striker strip, the hiss of a flame touching the wick, and a tall pillar candle flared to life, casting a faint light across to the doorway.