He saw her first, across the dance floor, near the bar. Her hair dark and worn in a style which reminded him of movie stars from the 50's. It looked good on her, but made her seem just a little unreal. Her dress was black and followed closely the curves of her figure finishing in black lace around her knees; beneath she wore black stockings – he knew they would be stockings. She stood completely still as if in some way separate from everything around her and that seemed to throw some hypnotic effect upon him.
It was sometime before he became aware that he was looking, such was the power of entrancement. When he realised, he turned away, momentarily embarrassed though unsure exactly why. Perhaps it was that sensation of not being properly in control.
He had to meet her.
Somehow, his thoughts seemed to bring her to him. In an instant her eyes had found him and she started to move. His heart missed a beat when he realised she was moving towards him, to him.
She moved with a grace he had never seen before. Purposeful, her entire body swayed with a slow seductive power. Despite the black dress or maybe because of it and the way it clung and concealed, flowed and revealed, he was strangely aware of her naked body coming to him – the dress inhabited some other, unreal, dimension which both cloaked her and presented her to him.
He remembered, or thought he remembered, hearing that a snake can hypnotise its prey by the way it moves. He understood how that might be and felt a dryness in his throat.
Although she appeared to be seeking him out, as she approached she seemed to change direction. Spurred into action, not wishing to lose her now she was so close, he intercepted her with a clumsy request for a dance though he knew his vocabulary was not functioning properly. Afterwards, he could not remember if he had actually asked, but the fact that within a few seconds he had his arm around her on the dance floor, led him to assume that he must have done, though he could remember no spoken words.
A slow number. Ideal. He could not believe it had been so easy: the simple transition from strangers to a formal embrace on the dance floor. Like a gift, it seemed she had just given herself to him.
‘Maria’, she said and for a short while said nothing more. He assumed it was her name.
‘Daniel’, he said, leading the two of them. Only his mother had ever called him Daniel, and he was surprised that he had used the name now.
She felt soft and warm in his arms. Her perfume, hardly noticeable at first, slowly began to pervade his senses. She was breathing lightly; he could feel the gentle movement of breasts moving freely behind the thin fabric of her dress and he thought he could detect the harder texture of her nipples against his skin making their presence felt through her dress, through his shirt. His hand was on her waist and the warmth of her body felt good.
She moved closer to him. Deliberately using her body as an erotic challenge to him. He felt both aroused and threatened. The arousal was easily winning the battle though. Her head moved closer to his shoulder, her lips closer to his ear.