Passion After Dark Page 2

  Cassie shook her head, tossing her riotous blonde curls around. Her hair was short, just touching her shoulders, but naturally curly. The style suited the shape of her face, the curls framing her cheeks and long enough on top that a few wavy lengths hung into her eyes. She tossed her head, throwing the curls off her face so her brilliant blue eyes could be seen properly. I couldn’t help but envy her for having eyes like that, so blue they sucked you in looking into them and they certainly sucked the men in too. Cassie never had any shortage of men chasing after her.

  “You know me Allie, I’m such a short ass I need my heels and I got everything done ahead of schedule so my boss gave me an early mark.” She grinned at me.

  “Well, you are that I guess, a short ass.” I laughed. She was too, only 5 foot 2 and as thin as a reed. I always joked that one decent gust of wind and she’d blow right over.

  “I’m going out to the club tonight, come with me.” Cassie said.

  I groaned, not again. “Oh Cass, I have to get some more of my book written, Frank’s on my case and he’ll rope me to my laptop if I don’t have a couple more chapters for him soon.” I said smiling to myself as I got distracted with the scary image of my editor tying me up like a scene from a BDSM club. Now the whole being tied up thing wasn’t scary, that was kind of hot but with Frank? Hell no, that’s where the nightmare began. I loved Frank, well sometimes I hated him, but he was like a father to me so Frank and BDSM was a thought that could potentially scar me for life.

  “Oh pfft to Frank, you told me you’re suffering from writer’s block, just one night, come on, Frank doesn’t need to know…….please?” She held her hands up in front of her like she was praying.

  I sighed. “Well….” I started to say but Cassie squealed, leaping up to throw her arms around me and hug me with a surprisingly firm grip for someone of such a petite build.

  “Thank you, thank you, you won’t regret it.” She gushed in my ear.

  “Hang on Cass, I didn’t say I’d go, I really should write.” I started protesting, but Cassie wouldn’t listen, she started chattering away excitedly about what she was going to wear and I gave up and tuned her out while I ate my sandwiches.

  “Do you want something to eat?” I asked her. “I went shopping today.”

  Cassie raised her eyes to the ceiling and clasped her hands together. “Praise be.” She joked. “I was wondering when you would, I thought you were going to have to start on Salem or Beau’s food, the way you were going. Does that mean the scary looking things growing in the fridge are gone?”

  “They weren’t scary Cass, I was conducting a scientific experiment.” I told her.

  “Sure you were Allie, what were you hoping to achieve? See how much bacteria you can grow on food and how quickly you can give someone a fatal case of food poisoning?” She smirked.

  I gave her a withering look. “Yeah, something like that. So, do you want to eat or not?” I asked her again, but Cassie shook her head.

  “Nah, I went to an early dinner with a couple of the ladies from work, just a pub dinner at that one near the office, but not bad and it should have put enough heavy food in my stomach to soak up the alcohol for later.” She grinned.

  I finished eating my sandwiches and rinsed off my few dishes, loading them into the dishwasher. Cassie watched me and then hit me with the question I just knew was coming. “So what are you going to wear tonight?”

  I groaned to myself. Cassie never approved of the clothes I wore out they weren’t ‘sexy’ enough in her opinion.

  “Oh I don’t know, probably just jeans and a top or…..” I started saying before Cassie interrupted and vehemently spat out.

  “Oh no you’re not. You’re going to dress sexy, look like a woman and show of that killer body of yours.”

  “Cassie.” I began wearily. “I’m not wearing some miniscule skirt or something that is so short if I bend over, everyone is going to know what I had for breakfast.” I looked at her, waiting to be shot down in flames at the mere suggestion that I wasn’t interested in dressing like I was a ‘pay by the hour’ gal.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Cassie scoffed. “And besides, what does that silly saying mean anyway?” She asked. “How can anyone possibly see what you’ve had for breakfast when you bend over?” Cassie continued and I couldn’t help but smile. When Cassie got wound up and passionate about something, she was like a runaway train. Nothing you can do to stop it.

  Finally I sighed. “Ok, you win, I’ll come out with you tonight and let you dress me, but don’t you dare turn me into some street corner hooker.” I warned her. Cassie just gave a whoop in response and I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. I had to give Cassie ten out of ten for trying. She was prepared to go to any lengths to try and secure me a man. Hell, I’d love a man but no man wanted to love me and any boyfriends in the past never worked out as I was too much of a head in the clouds kind of girl which was probably a fairly common condition amongst authors, given we made our living from make believe situations.

  “You won’t regret it Allie I promise.” Cassie danced around and I watched her performance with a mix of amusement and sheer terror because I knew what she was like. If she didn’t try and dress me in clothes that looked like half the fabric was missing I was going to eat my hat. If I had a figure like hers then maybe I wouldn’t mind, but I was what some might call the more full figured kind of gal. Generous boobs an abundance of curves whether I wanted them or not. Some called it the hour glass figure but mine was more the hourglass on steroids.

  “I’m going to have a look through my wardrobe and see if I can find something that would look great on you and I’ll have a look through your clothes too Allie but I doubt you’ll have anything suitable.” She grimaced when she looked at me and I frowned. Seriously was my wardrobe that bad?

  She danced over to me and gave me a hug again with that grip of hers that was surprisingly strong for someone so tiny. “l’ll see what I can come up with.” She grinned and with a toss of her head, she danced her way out of the kitchen until I could hear the sound of her footsteps on the stairs as she ran up to start searching for the outfit that was probably going to lead to me wishing I’d never agreed to go out with her.

  Chapter Two.

  I stared at my reflection in the mirror with horrified eyes. “I can’t wear this Cassie. You told me you wouldn’t do this to me, remember?”

  “Please Allie, you look stunning, please wear it, please….for me?” She implored, her eyes begging with me and her hands held before her like she was praying.

  My gaze shifted off my house mate who right now I was secretly plotting the death of, to my image in the mirror. Seriously she had to see I couldn’t wear this. There was too much fabric missing. There were patches of skin showing everywhere. I was more than half naked the very thing I’d tried to tell Cassie I didn’t want.

  I reluctantly looked at my image in the mirror again trying to see what she was seeing. All I could see was a woman who was way too curvy for the dress she had squeezed her way into. To be fair, it was a nice dress, blood red in colour with a plunging neckline and I’m talking plunging. Much lower and that sucker was going to fail and my girls would be out there for all to see.

  It clung to me like a second skin, showing off every imperfection as far as I was concerned although Cassie argued that it was showing off my killer curves. Not sure if they could be described as killer curves but the shock might kill some people in the night club if the dress failed, that’s for sure.

  The back of the dress was…well….none existent. A narrow strip of fabric joined with a clasp at the back of my neck but below it was nothing until just above the curve of my ass. The dress was sleeveless and the length of it was almost indecent, well it was on me anyway. It would have been longer on Cassie since she was considerably shorter than me but her dress on me bordered on me potentially being arrested for indecent exposure. It just curved its way over my ass. I suppose I was lucky it fitted like it was painted on
because that was all that kept it from riding up and flashing parts of me I don’t normally show to just anyone. How the hell I was going to sit down in this dress I don’t know and heaven help me if I had to bend over. Anyone behind me would get more of an eye full than they’d ever want to see.

  I turned from my reflection again and met Cassie’s expectant gaze. “Come on Allie, you look amazing, trust me. Wear the dress, please.”

  I sighed and something in my expression must have shown my capitulation because Cassie squealed and threw her arms around me.

  “Come on we need to find you shoes and I’ll do your hair and make up.” She took my arm and started dragging me towards my bedroom obviously so we or more precisely she, could check out my shoes situation.

  After fossicking around in my walk in robe she emerged with a pair of high heeled shoes I’d forgotten I owned. I looked at them in horror. What on earth had possessed me to buy them in the first place? They were higher than anything I’d ever worn before.

  They were black, a velvety black with heels that had to be at least 6 inches tall and a strap that wrapped around my ankle to hold them in place. Reluctantly I lowered myself to my bed, trying to keep the dress from ending up around my waist and watched as Cassie slipped the shoes on. As I watched her I felt like Cinderella and she was Prince Charming but when I attempted to stand with Cassie’s help and teetered there like a fragile sapling swaying in the wind I realised that there was very little similarity between myself and Cinderella.

  “Walk around a bit and see if you’re ok in the heels Allie.” Cassie’s voice dragged my mind back to the predicament I was facing, walking. Something I took for granted everyday but with the addition of these killer heels and killer being the operative word, I suspected that walking and in these heels was something I was going to have to learn how to do all over again. Well, either that or end up flat on my face and I didn’t relish that potential scenario much at all. Unless of course I fell into the arms of some sexy man in the club.

  Tentatively I took my first steps while Cassie watched and when I managed to make it to the other side of the room with my house mate applauding me, I grinned before groaning at myself. We were both excited that I’d managed to traverse the length of my room without breaking my ankle, hardly some monumental achievement. Well for someone like me who was prone to being vertically challenged at times, I guess it was an achievement.

  “Ok, now your shoes are sorted, we need a bag. What do you have? Something compact I think.”

  I watched as Cassie disappeared back into my walk in robe to look for a suitable bag. I rolled my eyes. This was getting out of hand. We were going to a night club and it would no doubt end as it had any other time. Loud music, screaming at one another in an effort to be heard, men thinking I was coming on to them when I was just trying to tell them politely that I wasn’t interested by yelling at them in an effort to be heard. I’d drink too much, look bored and finally stagger home to bed wondering why the hell I’d bothered in the first place.

  Cassie emerged with some tiny little black bag that was sequined and pretty but for someone like me who went everywhere looking like I was moving in, then this bag if it could be called that fell under the category of pretty useless. Still I smiled encouragingly at my house mate, reluctant to spoil her enthusiasm by looking less than impressed with my bag that might hold a lipstick and some carefully folded money and that was about it.

  With the dress, shoes and bag sorted as far as Cassie was concerned, I was ordered to sit by my dressing table mirror while she started making me up in such a way that I would look a ‘million dollars’ apparently. I doubted that somehow, maybe $2.50, but although I knew I wasn’t horrific to look at, compared with Cassie’s flawless, natural beauty, I was like the beast.

  My best feature was my hair despite Cassie’s desire to see me get it all cut off and my eyes were a nice shade of a greenish brown. Hazel I guess some would call them but they were more green than brown and I had been told by a couple of men that I had bedroom eyes, whatever that meant.

  I wasn’t wafer thin like Cassie but I wasn’t overweight either. I was somewhere in the middle, small waist, biggish boobs and more curvy through the hips. Good child baring hips my Grandmother would have said. “Got to find the man to make the babies with to use those child bearing hips.” I muttered to myself.

  I sat back and left myself at the mercy of Cass and I had to admit when she finished, I barely recognised the woman staring back at me in the mirror. My eyelids were shaded a deep chocolate brown, my lashes coated with mascara that seemed to make them look so much longer than they really were. My cheeks bore a subtle colour of blush and my full lips were painted a glistening red giving them a pouty wet look. I couldn’t believe it, I looked almost sexy. She had straightened my hair which was no easy feat given the length of it but it hung straight down and with no curls and actually settled midway over the curve of my ass now. Somehow Cassie had sprayed it and added gel to it so it had volume to it despite being straight and it looked wild and dare I say it, it was like a mane around me, strands caressing my breasts before falling to the tops of my thighs. It gleamed under the lights of my dressing table mirror and I had to concede she had done an impressive job on me.

  “Now that you’re all done, I’m just going to go and get ready then we can head out.” Cassie grinned as she gave me one more satisfied glance before waltzing out of the room. She did waltz. Cassie had a habit of kind of dancing her way around rather than just walking like the rest of us did. In my case as I surveyed my scary heels again, it was more likely to end up with me staggering and falling everywhere for the evening.

  Very carefully I stood and slipped my lipstick into my miniscule bag with my credit card and enough money for the taxi. No point taking too much cash it would fill my tiny purse too quickly. The clutch purse didn’t allow for much besides the lipstick and card. I could just squeeze a couple of tissues into it and that was its limit. I staggered into the ensuite to touch a spray of Opium, my favourite perfume to my wrists and neck and I was about as ready as I was ever going to be.

  Carefully using the walls to support myself until I got to the stairs, then the handrails, I went down to the kitchen to get a drink while I waited for Cassie.

  I’d just finished a glass of ice cold water when she came half skipping in which impressed me how she did that balancing as she was on heels that topped mine for height. She was dressed in a silvery dress that shimmered and sparkled with every move of her petite frame. She looked gorgeous of course with her hair curled and fluffed up around her face, her make up perfect and I suddenly felt frumpy in comparison. On the plus side her dress was as short as the one I was wearing but somehow she got away with it so much better than I did.

  “Are you ready Allie? I’ve called a taxi. It should be here soon.” She asked me as she slipped her lipstick and blush into her purse which was no more practical than my one.

  “As ready as I’m ever going to be.” I muttered, feeling a flutter of nerves low in my stomach. God, but I was going out. Something I hadn’t done for a while but I was going out dressed in a far more revealing way than I was comfortable with.

  *********

  When the taxi pulled up outside Hobart’s Isobar, the night club positioned right by the water, which was considered ‘the place to be’ I climbed out of the car after paying the driver and took a moment to pull my dress back down to at least a token gesture of decent coverage and at Cassie’s instructions, I bent forward until my hair tumbled down almost sweeping the ground and then threw my head back since that was supposed to help give it that wild, untamed look.

  I hope that it achieved Cassie’s desired affect because the action of tossing my head back nearly knocked me off my high heels and I had to lunge and grab her arm to stop myself from hitting the concrete in a less than glamorous manner.

  “Give me your lipstick Allie so I can touch it up for you.” She held out her hand while I fumbled in my tiny bag for it and h
anded it over.

  She asked me to open my mouth while she fixed my lipstick and I had to pout for her for the finishing touch before obviously satisfied she handed it back to me and I put it away.

  I tossed my hair back from my face, peeling strands of hair from my freshly reapplied lipstick and suddenly I felt something, a sense that I was being watched. My eyes scanned the darkness around the nightclub but besides the concrete, some trees and the expanse of water that Isobar overlooked, I couldn’t see anyone or anything.

  “What are you looking at?” Cassie asked, her expression filled with curiosity.

  “Oh nothing.” I said. “I just felt like someone was watching us but it’s nothing.”

  She laughed. “Well there’s not a lot of places for someone to hang around out here Allie. Come on, we aren’t going to meet any hot men standing outside.” She tugged on my hand and together we headed for the entrance to the nightclub.

  The noise hit us as soon as we walked inside, the rhythmic boom, boom, boom of the music and I followed Cassie through the crowds of people to the bar where she ordered Baileys and ice for both of us.

  I didn’t waste time sitting on my drink purely in a figurative way of course and began to suck it up the straw like a woman with a desperate thirst. The truth was I needed this, I needed something to take my mind off my writer’s block and something to distract me from being self conscious about the extremely short, tight dress Cassie had squeezed me into.

  We found ourselves a couple of vacant bar stools and I placed my drink down while I gingerly tried to climb onto the stool as daintily as I could. Well if the truth be told, I was trying hard not to flash my panties to anyone in the room since the barely there hem of the dress didn’t allow for basic necessities like sitting down.

  Once I was seated, I sipped my drink and looked around the room at the crowds of people. Most were dancing of course and there were men circling the room, their expressions filled with hope as they approached various women.