One: Darkest Fire.

She was a little afraid to pass by his table again. And if she was being honest with herself, it wasn’t just fear. There was a heat to him. The way his eyes locked on hers before travelling down her body and back up again. That heat rolled over her and collected in places that made her weaken. He was here almost every night and while she had never spoken to him, she felt as if he was looking inside her, to her core.

There was also a darkness to him, something just didn’t feel quite right. He was watching her now – she could see that whenever she slipped a glance his way, unconsciously biting her bottom lip and holding her breath. She felt so aware of herself as she saw his eyes flash with that heat, his knuckles whitening on his whisky glass as he slowly, deliberately, shifted in his seat.

Bending down to adjust her stocking, she thought about all the men she had worked with tonight. None of them had aroused her with their hands, their mouths, their breath, the way he did, just by watching her. She knew that fear was part of it – the danger in him excited her.

She looked up and he wasn’t hiding it now. She saw the attraction, she could feel that heat again. What the hell, she thought. I’m diving in.

…

He had been watching her for weeks, had noticed her the moment he walked into the club. The room was always dark, and heavy with smoke, but it all seemed to fade away when he saw her.

She was almost perfect. The tiny dimple in her chin, the loose waves that framed her face, the red lips that he longed to bite into as she was doing right now. She flaunted herself in front of the men in the club, degrading herself for money, all of that flesh on display. That was her flaw. No respect for herself. She would be the one to pay for that.

He shifted in his seat and drew in a sharp breath as he imagined his hands tightening around her neck.

Yes, she would pay. Soon. Not tonight, but soon.

You may already know that Julie is working on a photographic series called Dapper Rabbit. A couple of years ago, when I first started writing my Dark Side story, Julie asked me if I would write some short pieces to accompany her photos. I loved the idea, and this is the first one I wrote.

They get darker from here, I have three more that I can find, but I feel like I’ve written another one as well, on paper no less, which is probably why I can’t find it – oops!

Hope you liked it.

x desleyjane

PS a little bit about the photo – this is from our Paint Planets shoot from a while back. We squirted in some red food colouring, and I captured this while we swirled the red into the oil slick on top.