Because of him...

Cognac diamonds lit with passion's fire
Yours is the touch that ignites my desire
Dreams of tomorrow built today
Bring perfect images to guide our way
A yearning that burns brighter than stars above
You've taught me the real meaning of love.

Free Write - A "Slice of Life"

An assignation at midnight, shadows wavering like black flames coming on a warm, flower-scented breeze. His laughter was rich and thick as chocolate – as if you could pull it from the air and eat it. His voice slithered into the room, low and full of promise… silken whispers in the small hours of the night. He walked into the room, as if the air boiled invisibly around him.

She stood there at the window, beautifully silhouetted in that pure white light spreading like ice over the darkness. Not beautiful and not supremely brilliant, she was filled with something that took the place of both qualities – something best described as a profound vivacity… a continual and sincere response to all that she encountered in her path through life. She was a sexual dessert of curves and points.

She whispered a greeting, a voice so close to silence that one must strain to hear it. That whisper hovered around his body like a line of warmth, a whisper of ghostly electricity.

He went to her, filled with images of his dreams. Dreams of kissing her so hard his mouth hurt; so soft his heart hurt; so long his neck hurt; so deep his throat hurt; and so completely that nothing hurts.

Standing behind her, nuzzling into her neck, this was a nocturnal visit filled with the promise of delicious physical intimacy. He savored the very sweet taste of saliva mixed with skin – skin unnaturally soft, like living velvet. She glowed like there was an ethereal light inside of her… a light only lit by the spark of his touch.

Turning to face him, her eyes drank him down like a parched man eyes a glass of water – eyes flaming with hunger, desire, and truth. Moving to his face, her eyes softened and grew liquid, a fervent passion flaring to life.

He kissed her, his lips soft as silk; gentle as rose petals; hot as the noonday sun. His tongue was a quick wetness exploring the inner reaches of her honeyed mouth. Passion roared in his ears like great waves that crash up and over the beach, never receding but only building more with each tick of the bright night’s clock.

Something inside him melted that hurt in an exquisite way. All his longings; all his dreams and sweet anguish; all the secrets held asleep within him came to life. At once everything was transformed and everything made sense. That first kiss united their souls, the spirits entwining in the very breath they breathed. And each exhalation was a baptism in fire.

He always knew that she could change minds and alter moods with just a touch, but now he knew that she could instantly take possession of a soul with just a kiss. For in that kiss, he lost his very existence.

With a voice soft, low, and more private than the setting, he whispered that he loved her. He stroked her face softly, knowing what his mother had meant when she had told his sister that love and electricity were one in the same. With every kiss, he felt a jolt in his soul; with every whisper and touch, he felt as if he’d been shocked into life.

They sighed together, an air of breathless intensity as the night turned to dawn. The coming sun was the first blue gaze of the day. This love they shared was much like a wild rose – beautiful and calm but willing to draw blood in its defense. Tested once by a merciless man to whom she’d been betrothed, he’d already shed that blood to keep her safe. Now, as they watched the sun spread its warming fingers across the sky like pale pastel ribbons, he knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do to ensure they would be together.

Aengus and Caer Ibormeith

(Celtic Mythology)


A lovely maiden, fair of face
And silent, ghostly form
Doth snuck into Aengus’s room
Until unrequited love hath born.
He dreamt of her nightly –
In dreams he wished to stay –
And rued the sun’s dawning
With the passing of every day.
Illness took hold of the man
And throughout body and mind did spread
Until a power physician was summoned
In fear he’d soon be dead.

A search was called –
Looking high, looking low –
But years did pass without avail
While Aengus’s love did grow.
Finally love and luck, it seems,
Met to quench his lonely thirst.
But travel to Loch Bel Dracon
Was the journey to make first.
Upon the quiet, rocky shores,
Aengus did find silver maidens fair
Surrounding his love, Caer Ibormeith,
Whose visage at his heart did tear.

Trying to secure her for our hero,
His people did plead in vain.
So upon the lands came a shower of blood
To help quell his eternal pain.
Her father begged for sweet mercy,
His anguish echoing in his word.
He could not promise the fair maiden
For on even years, she doth become a bird.
So upon the next year, taking great haste,
Aengus traveled to win the girl’s heart.
The pair of swans sealed their love with a swim
And vowed never again to part.

Free Write (08Jan09 02:58) - Rollerskating

I hadn't wanted to go. Roller skating was for the young, and besides - I hadn't been on a pair of skates in years. But, it was eighties night at the roller rink, and my friend had pulled me out of the house. She said it was because I needed to get out more, but I knew she just didn't want to look foolish by herself.

We arrived just after things had gotten underway. She paid our ways in, and we headed towards the skate counter. I chose skates over rollerblades because I just never got the hang of those damn blades. Finding a secluded corner, I watched the skate floor as I began to change into the skates.

The colourful lights, revolving disco ball, and music was like a time machine. Suddenly, it was 1984 and I was ten years old again. I sat there, letting the sounds of Raydio's You Can't Change That wash over me like a piece of watered silk and decided I had to get it over with.

Upon unsteady ankles, I skated my way to the floor. I took one tentative step and then another out onto the hard, polished wood... and immediately fell on my ass. Laughing to myself and glad to have gotten the night's first humiliation over with that quickly, I got up and brushed myself off. I hugged the wall for a bit until it started coming back and then made my way for the main floor area.

It was exhilarating - out there on the skate floor again, a gentle breeze flowing through my hair. And the music!!! I hadn't heard most of these songs since I was in elementary school. They were well loved old friends - ones that had whetted my taste for music as a young child and got me interested in all types of sound.

She waved at me from across the rink, already having found this cute blonde to skate with her. He was holding her steady, trying to keep her from falling, and they were laughing. Oh ho, I thought. She had an ulterior motive for wanting to come out tonight. Then I laughed because I would have done the same thing.

We had probably been there for forty-five minutes when the first slow song made an appearance. I was about to go sit down and take a breather when I saw you across the floor. You had this slightly puzzled look on your face, as if not quite sure how you had wound up at a roller rink on a Friday night.

I liked what I saw. Dark hair, tall but not too tall - nice body. I was intrigued but ignored the urge to go ask you to skate. Instead, I made my way to the snack bar. Buying a bottled water, I sat down in a horrid plastic seat and watched the cozy couples out on the floor. I sat there, waiting for the moment a faster song would come on and I could make my way to the floor again, but there was the most unsettling feeling of being watched from across the rink. I glanced about, but all I could see was you. Surely you weren't watching me, I told myself. Must just be my imagination.

Finally, Bon Jovi's You Give Love A Bad Name came on, and I skated out to the floor again, grateful that the romantic music was over with. Time seemed to fly as I rounded the rink that night, feeling like a child again. As Tainted Love began playing, I tripped over my own toe stop and went down on the floor, taking some poor soul along with me accidentally. I assessed my injuries, concluded all I had hurt was my pride, and went to get up. A hand appeared in front of me, and I accepted the offer of help. As I got up off the floor, I looked up at my rescuer - right into your eyes. I was stunned. From across the rink, those eyes had been interesting. Up close, they were deadly - the type of eyes you could fall into forever and not care.

"Sorry for the collision," I mumbled, quickly releasing your hand as soon as I was up. "And thanks for the help." Before you could answer, I was off skating again.

I turned on my skates, moving backwards for a bit and watching you out of the corner of my eye. My heart felt as if it was stuck in my throat, and there were butterflies churning in my stomach. Never had one touch so effected my senses. But I didn't even try to work up the courage to talk to you - my friend had always been the pretty one of the two of us. I had accepted that and knew the likelihood of some guy coming up to talk to me while she and I were out together was slim to none.

I kept to myself, skating until another slow number came on. As Double began singing about The Captain of Her Heart, I exited the floor and retired once again to the snack bar. I watched her out there on the floor with the blonde and felt a pang of jealousy that it wasn't me out there with you.

The music changed. Air Supply's Even The Nights Are Better - that definitive skating slow song - came on, and I looked up to find you. You had disappeared, and I sighed softly.

A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my gloom. "Excuse me, but would you like to skate?"

I looked up in surprise - and it was you, smiling at me. That smile filled those eyes, making me want to just stare into them all night.

"Huh? Me?" Yeah, real smooth, I told myself. "Uh, sure."

I took your hand, and we made our way to the floor. Getting out onto that rink, I felt as if my heart would slam right out of my chest. My palms were a little sweaty, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stay up on all eight wheels.

My friend saw us and winked at me.

We skated out there to that slow, sappy song - skated as if everyone else had disappeared into the night. I was reluctant to release your hand when the song ended. My grip began to relax, and you looked at me. "Want to go somewhere and talk," you asked.

I looked into those eyes and couldn't say no. We exited the floor and found this little corner away from the speakers. We introduced ourselves and began talking. We talked the rest of the skate session, never quite making it out on the rink again. After the session had ended, we left for this little coffee place to continue our talk. Grabbing a table in the back, we drank coffee and talked the rest of the night. It was almost as if we had known each other for years.

As the sun came up, you drove me back to my place. We exchanged phone numbers and sat there, neither one of us knowing what to do next. I moved my hand to open the door, meaning to get out and go inside the small house I was renting. Throwing caution to the wind, I leaned over and kissed you - a soft first kiss in the pre-dawn blush of a steely sky.

"Call me later," I said and got out of the car. Smiling to myself and humming that Air Supply song, I let myself into the house and closed the door, collapsing against the back of it - a huge smile plastered on my face.

Passion Storm

Midnight. The sky is overcast, and the wind is howling wildly. The skeletal birch at my window taps an eerie rhythm on the glass.

My skin tingles, alive with the electricity in the air. There’s a feeling in the pit of my stomach, a feeling of an impending unknown, and I know I must move before I am consumed in the charged atmosphere.

I run from my room, robe flowing behind me, to the door. I throw it open just in time to see a lightning bolt, white-hot and alive, rip through the dark – charring the very edges of the night.

Running into the dark, a cacophonic crash of thunder deafens me, and my skin crawls with the electricity flowing all around me. I continue to run into the darkness, embracing the wildness and the aroma of fresh earth kicked up by my bare feet.

The sky opens up, and a torrent of warm autumnal rain washes over my body. I lift my face to the heavens, and my hair falls back, exposing what skin the robe does not cover. The stinging little drops pelt my face, neck, and chest, and I drop my robe to the cool ground.

Another flash of lightning brightens the dark, and I can see a meadow in the brief flash. I run across the wet grass to the meadow and stare up at the turbulent sky. The clouds are gun metal gray and thundering through the sky at their own pace. The wind picks up and blows an eerie, haunting scream through the trees, and my body responds to the charged air. I begin to dance and sway, letting the rain wash over my body.

Lightning tears through the sky again, and, across the meadow, I can see you. You are out, driven into the rain to revel in the electricity and power of the storm. You’re watching my rain dance with a gleam I’ve seen before. I cross to you, and, as thunder booms deep into the earth, we kiss. Lightning flashes again, and the intensity of the kiss grows, as if we are trying to devour one another.

We drop to the ground, the coolness of the rain-soaked earth yielding to our bodies as the rain threatens to drown us. Thunder booms and the only light is the lightning streaking across the sky. The fresh smell of the soil mingles with
the passion ignited by the electricity arching between our bodies.

As the storm intensifies, we make love – hard and fast – matching the rhythm set by nature’s cacophonic symphony. The frenzy builds and builds until the storm is right above us, tearing through the night like a demolition crew, urging us on and on.

At last, as the storm crescendos, our bodies join truly as one, riding wave after wave of electric passion. Our cries are drowned by the thunderous growls of mother nature, and, in that moment, our souls join – creating one where there once was two.

As suddenly as it began, the storm subsides. Clouds move on in the distance, revealing the perfection of a starry sky. Our bodies come down from this most natural of highs, and we lay there, wrapped in the embrace that only comes from the true joining of two people.

Dream Dance

“Last call,” the bartender shouted over the loud dance music. I looked down at the drink I had been nursing all night and sighed. Having been abandoned earlier by my friends for members of the opposite sex, I wasn’t quite ready to go home alone again.

I looked out on the dance floor, watching happy people moving to the pounding beat, and shook my head. Maybe one of these days that would be me out there. I wasn’t going to hold my breath, though.

I was almost to the door when the music changed. A soft slow song I hadn’t heard in years poured from the speakers, and I stopped… unable to move. I found the nearest bar stool and sat there, letting the melody wash over me and wishing somehow I was in someone’s arm. I closed my eyes, letting my imagination carry me away with the daydream.

“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said, a warm hand resting on my shoulder. “Would you care to dance?”

Startled out of a lovely daydream, I caught a faint smell above the tobacco and alcohol. After so many years, I’d know that smell anywhere. It was imprinted on me like my own DNA. Not quite sure to believe it, I looked up … right into your eyes. The smile on your face lit up your eyes, and I was stunned. Unable to do anything but nod, you grabbed my hand and led me to the dance floor.

We danced out there, swaying to the music and not saying anything. I looked up into your eyes and saw you smiling. The smile was breath-taking, and it was all I could do to make myself look away.

The music changed – another slow song coming on – and I was about to walk away when you pulled me tighter to you. I smiled softly and rested my head on your chest while we danced, sighing to myself about how short-lived some dreams are meant to be.

The rhythm washed over us smooth as a piece of watered silk, and I couldn’t help but look up at your face. You were smiling down at me – one of those thousand watt smiles that I feel all the way to my toes – and leaned down, barely brushing your lips with mine.

I could not believe it! I had just been daydreaming this exact moment minutes earlier, and here you were, kissing me on the dance floor. My pulse raced, and I lost myself in thought on the dance floor.

As the song faded, you brushed your lips to mine again. I smiled at you and sighed, turning to go grab my coat. The look on my face was on of utter defeat, and I made my way towards the door – dreams of what the night might have been flashing through my mind.

Your hand on my shoulder, spinning me around to face you, brought me back to that moment. “How are you going to get home?”

I started to answer and then remembered my ride home had left. “I don’t know. I’ll probably take a cab.”

You smiled again – damn it, why did your smile effect me this way – and said, “Would the lady allow a gentleman to escort her home on such a chilly night?”

I looked around and chuckled. “Lady?” I smiled at you and nodded. “This lady would love for the gentleman to escort her home.”

We went out to your car and headed for my place. Upon arriving, you hurried around to the passenger door and opened it for me, allowing me to exit easily. Holding out your hand, you walked me to the front door.

As I fumbled with my keys – god, I was so nervous – I tried not to look at you. Just one look would belie what I was feeling. I located the keys in the bottom of my purse – of course, they would have to be hidden under everything else – and as I was pulling them out, the contents of my purse spilled onto the porch.

Mortified, I quickly knelt down to pick up the various bits of clutter that always seem to accumulate in a woman’s purse. You bent down to help me, smiling and chuckling as you did.

I went to grab my hairbrush, and my hand brushed yours. I inhaled deeply and looked up… right into your intense gaze. I stared for only a moment, but it was one moment too long. I had fallen right there and then – fallen into those deep pools and knew there was no rescue.

“Uh, um,” I stammered as I stood again, unlocking the door. “Would you like to come in for a drink or something?” I gazed down, not daring to look you in the eyes.

“I would love that.”

We went inside, and I closed the door behind us, locking it out of habit. “Name your poison.”

“Do you have any coffee, actually?”

I grinned. “One cup of coffee coming up. You take anything in it?”

“Just black.”

I set about making a pot of coffee, the familiar routine settling my nerves a bit. Once it was percolating, filling the small house with its inviting aroma, I went back out into the living room with you, sitting across from you on the couch.

Silence settled in the room, like the chill of an autumn fog. Deafening as it was, I just could not bring myself to speak. My pulse was racing, and my blood was pounding in my ears. The one question I wanted to ask – what about her? – would not come to my lips.

“So, uh – uh, what brought you out there tonight?” I gazed at the wall behind you, knowing one look in your eyes would be my undoing.

“I ran into your friend. She said you were still there by yourself, and I thought you might need a friendly face after they had all deserted you.”

Defeated, I sighed, allowing my shoulders to slump forward a bit. So that was it. He only came out because I might need a friendly face. “Well, thank you. I do appreciate it.”

Silence came once again, as if neither of us trusted to say anything. What seemed like an eternity passed, just the two of us sitting across from one another without saying a word, before you moved over to sit beside me.

My heart skipped a beat. What were you doing? I couldn’t quite figure it out because I knew you had feelings for someone else – we had discussed it many a time before.

“What do you…” my voice trailed off as I looked into your eyes. They were intense and unguarded. The look was too inviting to resist.

I leaned forward, placing my hand on your cheek, and kissed you. At first it was just the barest brush of my lips but soon it deepened into something raw and passionate.

When I finally realized you were returning my kiss, I sat up. I looked at you, why already poised on my lips to ask, and suddenly knew. There had been no one else – you had been trying to find a way of telling me without knowing how.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I didn’t know how,” was followed by a soft, shy smile. Your gaze came up to meet mine, and I was gone – lost forever in the depths of those pools.