Once Forbidden

[Trillian]

SHE ENTERED THE NIGHTCLUB without any trouble, marvelling at how the demonic bouncers knew to let her pass this time.  One of them recognised her and offered her a nod of acknowledgement while the other stood stoicly on the other side of the doorway.  She nodded back as she passed him, realising that they\'d read her mind in order to know what she knew, and she hadn\'t felt a thing.  It was somewhat worrying that she could still be so ignorant, even in her knowledge.

She\'d dressed herself in club attire once again, with a shape hugging royal blue dress with a hem that ended ten centimetres above her knees.  The chinese collar kept her a little modest, though there was an almond shaped hole vertically cut from below the collar to the beginning of her cleavage.  Without sleeves and wearing flats, and with her dark hair pulled up and back into a bun, she looked like she was imitating the modern-traditional chinese look.

The pulse of the music was overpowering, even in the corridor.  She read each pinned notice, aware that others that had entered the club after her were moving past.  There were lists of Oligarchy rules for each species, as well as a notice about the club.  Mortals were to enter at their own risk, the risk being potential death.  There was no protective cloak for human beings, and there was no representative for humans on the Oligarchy either.  A tattoo marking (with an illustration on the sheet) upon a human\'s wrist meant they were protected by the club and no longer at risk.  She took a deep breath before leaving the corridor and entering the nightclub proper, having to remind herself that she wasn\'t an ordinary human being, she had the heritage of a fire demon.

She\'d wanted to call up Kerr fairly soon after their meeting, but had held off for a couple of nights.  She planned on calling him tonight, after spending a couple of hours at Risk, so that their conversation could be extended.  She wondered if she was mad, wanting to spend time bonding with a vampire.  A gentleman was a gentleman though, and Kerr had been nothing less.  After moving intot he club proper, she spent a short moment sweeping the floor with her gaze, getting herself orientated, and headed for the bar where she intended on having a gentle cocktail, something fruity perhaps.

[Existentially Odd]

Leaning back against the bar on his elbows, Kerr was idly surveying the room when Jenna walked in and stopped.  He noticed her immediately, his gaze drawn to her observant form; she looked around, he looked her over.  Her dress matched her lovely eyes, he noticed, and drew attention to a figure that he\'d not really paid attention to when last they\'d met, but looking at her now and remembering the way she smelled

like sex, sex in the sun, slow and slick

had his attention alright.  A few others\' too, he observed as she began walking towards the bar.

Not really towards him, as it happened, for he was tucked into the corner, on the last stool at the short end of the bar.  There were two free seats beside him (though he\'d been trading stares with a boy in a booth across the room that he\'d believed might fill one of them soon) and his booted foot was hooked on the foot rung on the closest.  He straightened up, suddenly conscious of the lazy way he was sprawled over two stools, simply because he\'d been sitting and drinking casually from the glass of blood on the bar at his elbow, happy to be left to his own devices in the corner until he was ready to make a move.

"Jenna!" he called as she came even with him, seeming to be heading for the long side of the bar, where there were also free seats - the club was fairly quiet tonight, as far as crowds went, only minimal shoulder bumping as one made their way somewhere, and most of those sitting were populating the booths and tables close to the floor.  It was a dancing night, rather than a hunting one, it seemed.  A good night for a newly-discovered demon to be out perhaps, since the majority of club goers were here for a good time.

Almost the second her name left his mouth, Kerr had second thoughts about whether she\'d recognise him.  He was wearing black leather pants and chunky boots below a tucked-in shirt that was certainly not for business.  It was a coppery chocolate colour, similar to his eyes, made of satin with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.  The top three buttons of the shirt were undone, highlighting a simple necklace around his throat that consisted of six black leather strings (on a woman, it would have been flirting with being called a choker).  He\'d also lined his eyes lightly with some dark eyeliner; he was still not very confident with wearing the makeup, however, and wondered if he should swipe at it before Jenna came his way.

A smile instinctively lit his face as he realised it was too late for such things, she was already coming.

[Trillian]

She heard her name as she closed in on the seat she\'d wanted.  It had come from her right and she turned to look that way, pausing in her steps.  Her gaze sorted through the crowd, dismissing those she didn\'t recognise.  When she stopped looking at those standing and began to look at those who were already seated at the bar, she noticed Kerr, thinking he looked very familiar (and they were making eye contact so he must\'ve been the one to call her name), before she recognised him a second later.  Moving towards him now, his face lit up with a smile and she found herself responding in kind, feeling relieved that she had a familiar face in here as well as a little guilty for not calling him sooner.

"Kerr," she bid, her voice lost in the music but she supposed he could hear her well enough.  She moved in for a very natural kiss upon his cheek, as one would greet a friend.

[Existentially Odd]

He turned to look at her, surprised because she was leaning towards him, and realised belatedly what she was doing.  His mouth snapped closed an instant before she made contact - on his cheek, yes, but very close to the corner of his mouth, like he\'d been about to kiss her lips but had not quite made it.

Against his will and completely out of character, he blushed, feeling awkward about his idiocy and lack of societal confidence.  In his head, he could hear Ash cackling at him for making such a gauche mistake - he certainly would\'ve known what was happening and suavely kissed Jenna\'s other cheek - and he tried to squash it.  The fact that he and Jenna had parted in his office with very similar actions only exacerbated his embarrassment, but he did his best to cover it up.

"Would you sit with me?" he asked, wriggling even farther back on his minimalistic stool to gesture at the one beside him.  He\'d swung to face it, his leather-clad knees spread wide so that she could neatly manoeuvre onto the seat, not thinking about the subconscious signals his body would be sending her when she sat there.

[Trillian]

She didn\'t realise he felt awkward and embarrassed, and only had a smile for him when she pulled back.  When invited to sit, she bid him a thank you and primly maneouvred herself atop it, crossing her legs towards him and having to rest her higher foot against the back of his calf.

She leant forward to talk to him, her left arm on the edge of the bar to support her, not used to the fact he had superior hearing.

"I was going to call you tonight," she confessed with a smile.  "I thought it would be interesting to also talk about the club."  She knew he\'d get the idea that was why she was here, to see what it was about so she could comment on it to him.

[Existentially Odd]

He laughed good-naturedly and also leaned towards her, knowing he would have to project his voice properly to have her hear him.  "I was going to call you tomorrow night, to see how your meeting with your Oligarch went and ask if you\'d had any lessons yet!" he grinned, feeling a glow in his chest that had nothing to do with the blood he\'d ingested and everything to do with the fact that she\'d told him she was going to call him.

It was a courtesy, no doubt, since he technically no longer had anything to do with her professionally, but it was a lovely gesture anyway.  It showed that she was thinking of him as much as he\'d been thinking of her (though she\'d gone the extra step of coming to Risk so that they\'d have something else to talk about... which really intrigued him).

"How\'s everything been going?" he asked, his smile warmer as he touched the arm she had resting on the bar, her skin hot to his cold.  He left his fingers resting against her rather than moving them away when he\'d finished speaking, figuring that her foot against his leg was already contact so it wouldn\'t matter (though she could move away with a little nudge of her arm, if she wished).

[Trillian]

She noticed the touch on her arm but didn\'t pull away, still leaning forward so she could hear him talk and finding herself charmed by his softly lilting accent.

"No lessons," she said, "but the meeting went well.  He\'s quite gruff, but I think good natured.  He shared a lot of information with me," she explained.  "He told me he\'ll supply me a tutor, so that I can learn more about my... species."  She looked away to half roll her eyes before looking back at him.  "It\'s strange, but I still can\'t think of myself as anything except human."

Her smile was fixed on her face.  She hadn\'t stopped smiling, in fact, since she\'d lain eyes on him, and liked that he was the same to her.

[Existentially Odd]

Again, he chuckled.  "Well, I guess there\'s not much of a call for fires to be started, so that you could be validated as a demon," he teased, his eyes twinkling as he waited for her reaction, hoping she would laugh with him.  It was ironic on some levels, because many of the demons he communicated with never bothered to master the english language to the point that they would even understand the words he was using, let alone understand his humour.
 
"If I weren\'t supernatural, I wouldn\'t think of you as anything but human," he then assured her, glancing down at where his fingers were touching her arm and stroking her skin softly.  "Because I\'m not, though, I can\'t think of you as human, not when you smell like you do."  He inwardly blushed as he thought he probably shouldn\'t have started down that track, for how would he explain the sensuous impression of her he had?

[Trillian]

She laughed appropriately, a soft laugh because it wasn\'t the kind of comment that would force gut-wrenching guffaws out of her (not that she\'d had the pleasure of laughing that hard, ever)
 
Her laugh left naturally and the smile broadened at the extra touch on her arm.  When he looked down at his hand, so did she, and it entered her consciousness that they were flirting.  She lifted her stare to meet his then, semi-surprised that he\'d instigated the quiet flirt with his touch, when he spoke of her smell.  She blinked her surprise at such a statement, thinking of the scent of her soap (milk and honey) and her perfume (jasmine), before she realised he meant her.
 
"How do I smell?" she asked, innocently enough, though once it was out of her lips, she realised how affronting such a question could be, but she wasn\'t self-conscious enough to blush.

[Existentially Odd]

Instinctively, he licked his lips and his gaze danced between her eyes, taking in their beauty.  He wanted to tell her, he really did, but he dared not be so confronting, not with her.  Instead, he smiled and leaned right over to her, placing his own mouth right beside her ear so that he could whisper to her.
 
"Without going into details that I fear would offend you, let me say that you remind me of being young and mortal and that I haven\'t smelled anyone as intoxicating as you in all my centuries."  His voice stopped on an unusually high note, for he wanted to say more but he knew he shouldn\'t - it left his sentence sounding unfinished, though.
 
Despite this, he pulled back so that he was able to look at her comfortably (but their heads were still closer together than they had been when she\'d first sat down), smiling cheekily.

[Trillian]

When he loomed closer, her lids fluttered before she offered him her ear, turning her head a little to present herself. Her initial thought was that he was going for her neck, which was a ridiculous thought and had perished fairly quickly once her logic came to the fore. Listening to his whisper sent a chill up her spine, thinking about his cool breath, so strange in a warm building like Risk, as though he\'d just stepped in from the cold.
 
She\'d expected to hear more, but he pulled back and smiled at her charmingly, like he\'d somehow transformed into the mortal youth he\'d just reminisced of. She looked at him with a kind of transfixed surprise before she grinned back, not quite sure how he could\'ve offended her and preferring not to know, if he didn\'t want her to.
 
Their stares held for a short moment while she struggled for something to say, feeling like nothing was quite right, when they were interrupted by the barman.
 
"Want anything?" he asked, drawing her to look over at him and realising she was his focus, because Kerr had a glass near him (of blood, she supposed, and though she believed she really should be bothered by that, she wasn\'t in the slightest) and she had nothing.
 
"Oh! Yes," she blinked and shook her head as if to clear it, remembering that she\'d been heading for the bar initially before bumping into Kerr, to order herself a drink. What had she wanted? She usually wasn\'t this flustered. "A cocktail. Something fruity." She searched above the bar for a kind of menu, but saw nothing. Obviously she didn\'t need to clarify herself further because the barman grunted and moved away, supposedly to fill her order. She looked back at Kerr, the reason for her being flustered, and for some reason unbeknownst to her, she laughed.

[Existentially Odd]

His smile broadened and it felt for all the world as if they were sharing an intimate joke, when nothing had really been said and oh, he hadn\'t been this giddy in a long time.  It wasn\'t good but it was grand and he decided not to dwell on it just yet, for it was harmless and fun and she was beautiful and interesting and he really should just worry about her having a good time.
 
"It\'s a good thing you have family money behind you," he told her mildly, "the cocktails and the alcohol here are exhorbitantly priced because they\'re not the most common beverage served.  But I suppose you\'ll learn that, if you like the place enough to return - tell me what you think of it so far?" he requested, raising his eyebrows and looking keen to hear her opinion.

[Trillian]

She had nothing but smiles for him and his smooth humour that continually poured out of his mouth.  He was quite witty, she found, and upon the request for her opinion, she didn\'t even give the club a quick glance, maintaining her eye contact with Kerr instead.
 
"It looks like any other nightclub," she said, "but I haven\'t really looked around," she admitted additionally, and it was Kerr\'s fault that she hadn\'t, for since she\'d sat down on the stool next to him, the club had become a loud blur and he\'d been her entire focus.  She was enjoying herself though, and wasn\'t that what going to a club was supposed to be about?
 
A yellow and orange cocktail in a flowering glass was presented to her elbow and she turned to look at it, seeing the cherry on a toothpick balancing on the edge and smelling the strong aroma of pineapple already.  When the barman mentioned the price was thirty five dollars, she didn\'t know the difference between this exhorbitantly priced drink and others from other clubs.  Instead of saying anything, she reached into the diamond cutout of her dress (at the front) and pulled her credit card out from its position between herself and her bra strap, handing it over to him for processing.
 
Her left arm hadn\'t moved from its position, not wanting to pull away from Kerr\'s friendly touch, but she expected that she would have to move at one point.

[Existentially Odd]

"Would you like me to show you around?" he asked, the question asked in a leading manner, as if it would be a daring adventure for him to show her about the club.
 
The innuendo that he could show her things that others couldn\'t was also naturally there, because of his access to the V.I.P. lounge... he wasn\'t sure he should show her the feeding rooms.  He\'d never thought of them as seedy (though Ben always had), just exotic and naughty, but picturing Jenna in one (even if it was with him)... well, he would admit to leaning definitely towards the former, rather than either of the latters.
 
"I could take you to a more... exclusive area, upstairs, that most can\'t get into - if you\'d like to try somewhere you can actually hear yourself think," he joked, glancing over her shoulder at the dancefloor.  It didn\'t matter how many people were in attendance, the music always seemed to be at the one (LOUD!) volume.

[Trillian]

"Certainly," she accepted, turning and then forced to break away from Kerr in order to sign the credit card docket presented to her.  The barman offered her the customer copy of the slip but she declined, watching him crumple it up and toss it somewhere underneath the bar (where she supposed must be a bin).  She picked up her drink, took a smell of it (and could feel the waft of alcohol more than actually scenting it, but there was a nice hot feeling to it that appealed - perhaps vodka?) and then suckled on the straw while Kerr told her about an exclusive part of the club that was on offer if she would like to see it.  She made a small noise after pulling away from her drink, holding it in her left hand and gesturing to Kerr with her right.  "Lead away, sir.  I\'m at your mercy."
 
She gave him a brilliant smile, her eyes dancing merrily.  It was a cheeky statement she thought nothing of, playing on words at the fact he was a vampire and she could end up being his victim.  She felt in no danger of it, trusting him as completely as she had when he\'d taken her to his very private quarters at the Oligarchy building.