Night Angels Ch. 2

Chapter 2: The Republic of Desire

The Republic of Desire was located behind a small, nondescript door hidden in a side-street not fifty yards from my favourite coffee shop. It was so obscure and unobtrusive that I missed it the first time, and I had to backtrack before I found it. I pushed it open and found myself in a little alleyway – hardly more than a crack between two buildings – with an uneven pavement and rough walls. Ten yards or so along, set in the wall on the right, was a heavy iron security gate. It was immovable. I stood around uncertainly, looking for the doorbell. There was none. Though I did not see any cameras, I had a distinct sense of being observed. After a moment there was a dim buzzing, and the gate clicked softly. Now it swung open easily, if ponderously. Inside, I was standing at the top of a short flight of stairs. The stairs were dark, but there was a faint glow emanating from another door down below. I thought I could just barely hear the muffled drone of music. I hesitated a moment, and took the next step down the road that would utterly change my life.

Below I was in a small, dimly lit space. It was simply but carefully furnished. The floor was wooden and highly polished. Two couches stood at right angles to each other. There were some artefacts on the wall: what looked like a Congolese cloth sewn with minute cowry shells- expensive, I thought, if it was genuine - and some Dogon woodwork. Sparse, simple good taste. A lounge? A waiting room? Except that at one end of the room, behind in a glass-fronted booth, sat a stunningly beautiful and statuesque woman. Waiting room receptionists could be as beautiful, but none of them, I was sure, came to work in a complex leather halter which cupped and all but exposed the breasts. Behind her in the shadows stood another, completely bare-breasted girl, whose long - nailed left hand was draped over the leather clad woman's bare right shoulder

"Membership number," the first woman said in a cool melodious voice.

"I - er - am not a member. Can I join?" I stuttered, feeling foolish.

"Sorry, sweetie," she smiled, friendly and regretful, "Membership is by recommendation only. And if you're not a member, entrance is by invitation only. Except if - do you have a comp in your hand?" She had spotted the by now rather crumpled bit of red paper.

I handed it to her - indeed, it seemed to be a kind of ticket, I now realised. She looked at it, noticing, I saw, the writing on the back.

"You can come in, love. This is your raffle ticket. Keep it with you. I will collect it from you later." She handed the paper back to me, and now I noticed the number 459 printed twice on the end, separated by a line of perforations. "But because you are not a member you have to pay a small entrance fee." She mentioned a figure which could certainly not be described as "small" and which was way beyond the cover charge of most ordinary clubs. I hauled out my wallet and began counting out bills. "Thank you. This here is Selma. She will now take you downstairs. Enjoy yourself, love." Selma disappeared into the back, and within a moment, with a buzzing sound, the door next to the booth opened. She was waiting inside, and stood aside to let me in, shutting the door behind me. It was almost completely dark, the darkness lit only by occasional candle flames.

"This way," said her voice in the gloom. I followed the half-naked girl down a flight of steep stairs. The muffled music grew more distinct. We stopped outside a large heavy door that seemed to be thickly padded. She turned to face me. She was not a young girl, I realised. Though her trim figure had given me the impression she was barely out of her teens, she must have been about twenty-eight or thirty.

"Before you enter, one thing," said Selma. "This is the Republic of Desire. Will you be true to yours?"

"Mine?" I asked stupidly.

"Your desire! Do you have desire?" she asked me fiercely. I stared at her blankly, not quite certain how to respond. "I mean this," she said, and reached forward to grab my half-tumescent member through the fabric of my pants. "Do you have desire!?" Her body was suddenly pressed up close against me, her hand massaging my cock, her mouth against mine. Her tongue was warm and insistent in my mouth. The skin of the small of her back was soft under my hand. My erection stiffened. "There!. Desire! Do you feel it? Will you be true to it?" She stared into my eyes for a long moment. I was overwhelmed with the urge to take her then and there. But she was already standing back, and she was not who I was there for.

"That's why I am here" I heard myself say. There was a roaring in my ears, and my heart was pounding like a trip hammer. She nodded approvingly. And opened the door.

* * *

I found myself in a large, warm, dimly lit cave of a room, with a bar at one end next to a jutting stage surrounded by low tables. I peered around trying to get my bearings. The place seemed full of people - men and women. A good few of them seemed to be dressed in the same uniform as the woman upstairs, a complex leather harness. Some had their bodies covered; others wore it in such a way that their buttocks and genitals were bare, and their breasts supported but not covered. A few wore even less. A naked blonde woman with a leather collar around her neck was gyrating in what seemed to be a cage at the one end of the stage, and the petite young girl behind the bar seemed to be even without the leather collar. At a table near the bar, a stern-faced man sat on a bar stool with a girl's arm around him, her top covered but, as far as I could see, no clothes below the waist. He seemed to be idly fondling her labia. Her eyes were blissfully closed. This was clearly unlike any other place I had been at before.

Established in a seat near the bar, I made myself more comfortable and surveyed the place. I got a drink from the bar girl, who on closer inspection seemed to have a ring or stud through her clitoris, and wondered where Lucy was. She was nowhere to be seen.

On stage, the girl in the cage was no longer alone. She'd been joined by another one - I swear it was Star from Happy Joe's - with long brown limbs and long curly hair, who let her out of the cage. She danced around Star, slowly peeling off the black girl's clothes. They moved slowly, languorously, like seaweed swaying underwater. The music was deep, smooth, thunderous: a rolling, inevitable bass line weaving through long, cool, polished, shimmering keyboards. It sounded like something by Massive Attack, but deeper, rougher, darker. For some reason, I thought Star looked a bit nervous, even shy - which was most unlike her. I had watched her many times before, and she'd never seen unsure of herself before. Not, admittedly, that I had seen her being undressed by a tall blonde woman who was, I now saw, kissing her passionately on the lips. I forgot my drink as I watched the kisses being returned. The music deepened, swelled, became more urgent. Star sank gracefully down on one of the elegant black wooden chairs that was perched near the edge of the stage, and the blonde woman slowly knelt down before her. She started kissing Star's breasts. Star sighed and very slowly let her head drop backwards, exposing her long, slender neck and letting her frizzy curls cascade down behind her back. Soon the woman was lapping between her thighs, and Star's breathing was beginning to deepen.

"Enjoying the show?" Somebody was leaning against me, shouting into my ear. It was the leather-haltered girl from upstairs, an upturned hat in her hand, surveying me with amusement.

"It - it's unusual." I said.

She leaned into me again. I could feel the heat of her breath in my ear. "All the girls with leather collars belong to the club. They – we - are available, for a small fee. But only to members."

"Oh - I 'm really here to meet a friend," I said.

"Tonight we're raffling out some girls. Our three new ones. A special benefit promotion. You've got a ticket. You wanna play? Your friend who gave it to you is one of them."

This was news. "I guess I do," I said. I handed her the ticket and she tore it in half, handing one half back to me.

" You keep that. I will put this one in the hat. Remember your number!" she said. Did I see her palm the red ticket instead of dropping it in? I was not sure. "If you win, give your ticket to the bar lady here. You're not a member, so you'll only be winning a private dance, but if you manage to become a member, maybe you will play again next time?" She smiled and I nodded mutely.

On the stage, Star and the blonde woman had abandoned the chair. Star was lying flat on her back on the edge of the stage, her head, shoulders and arms hanging down over the edge. Her eyes were closed with pleasure. The cage girl's head was buried between her thighs. They writhed together languorously, abandoned to each other's bodies.

The music reached a crescendo. The pounding bass drum resonated through my body and all other noise was swallowed by the drone and throb of the guitars. My senses were overwhelmed. Everyone in the room was transfixed, utterly absorbed in the sight of the arched body of the beautiful young woman as she approached climax. At last she shuddered in orgasm. In the same moment the music crashed to a halt. A ringing silence followed, broken only by a series of passionate gasps, suddenly clearly audible. Her screams of pleasure seemed to continue for a long time, and then slowly subsided. At last, her frame relaxed. She curled up into a foetal position. The other girl tenderly took her in her arms and held her. She stroked Star's back. They seemed to be smiling at each other. The music and conversation started again. I returned to awareness of my surroundings. Lucy was still nowhere to be seen.

"You OK, sweetie?" It was the bar girl, her bare, pale skin eerily lit from below by the glow of the bar's under-counter lights. "You look like you lost someone. You're new here?"

I explained that I was here for the raffle, and that I was indeed new.

"We're so glad to have you!" she smiled prettily, "You finished your drink. Let me fix you something on the house. Another beer?"

"I think I need something stronger. A double whiskey, maybe."

"Comin' right up. People explained how this place worked?"

"No, not really. Except that only members are allowed… to er, enjoy the staff girls. So as a non-member, I suppose I can only – "

"You can only watch, that's right. Though you seem to enjoy that, right?" She briskly and precisely poured off two measures of amber liquid. "I saw you looking at Star 'n Cosima. Ice?"

"No, thanks. Just neat, with… with a small jug of plain still water on the side. I did not realise I was that obvious."

"Hmm. You know what you like," she said, leaving me to wonder whether she was referring to my taste in whiskey or to my reaction to what had just happened on stage. "Many guys and girls just like to watch. But if you want more than that, you have to be a member. Or you can join as staff. Many girls do that. You don't get as much freedom, but you do get good money." She put the tumbler of whiskey down in front of me. "You look confused. OK. Let me explain." She quickly scanned the bar to see if anyone else was needing attention. "There are three kinds of people in the Republic of Desire. Members, pleasure staff, and outsiders. Members can do what they like with each other, as long as it's with consent. You can set up a fantasy, whatever you want, and the resources of the club are at your disposal. Hang on." She quickly busied herself with a drinks order brought by a waitress – it was the sleek-haired girl I had seen earlier – and returned to me a moment later. "If a member wants to, how did you put it, 'enjoy' a staff girl or boy, or have them as extras in a fantasy, they have to pay. Not a huge amount, since they are already paying membership fees. The money really goes to that person. And they have to want it too. That's what is different here. Both sides have to get their kicks. The difference is that… the power is with the member. It is their fantasy. They initiate, they propose, they want. They desire. It's like Star and Cosima. Cosima's been wanting to do Star for a long time, poor girl. But it was Star's choice to ask her, or not." She smiled and busied herself with wiping down the counter, her small, pretty breasts quivering distractingly in the blue and orange light. "You with me so far?

"I think I am. But what about non-members? "

"No privileges. Off limits. Members can't fuck'em, they can't fuck staff. Watching only."

"Uh, and how do you become a member?"

She stopped wiping and gave me a smile. "That's the million dollar question. And the answer is, by recommendation only."

"And how do you get a recommendation?"

"One person recommends. And that's the boss lady. And only one person considers the recommendations, and that's the boss lady. Judge, jury and do-mi-natrix. "

"And who's the boss lady?"

"Her. Right behind you. On the stage there."

I looked up. The lights were dimming and the music was fading. Onto the stage stepped a tall, slim, imperious looking woman. She was clad in slinky black from top to toe. She moved easily, sensuously, confidently. It was Selma.

"Good evening my friends. I am glad to see you are all enjoying yourselves." She seemed to have some sort of head-mounted microphone, since her voice was coming over the club PA. "I won't interrupt your pleasure for too long. I have a brief announcement to make, and a simple function to perform. " A hush fell over the half-darkened room. A male voice somewhere shouted "new girls!" Selma smiled. "Yes, that's right. It is indeed my pleasure to introduce you to three new… sweeties… three darling girls who have signed year-long contracts with our club. Please put your hands together for Jade, Aster, and Claudia!"

There was scattered applause and the music started up again – just the patter of percussion - and three slender forms appeared out of the darkness beyond the cage. All three of them were identically clad, in long simple shifts of some white material. They looked virginal, almost sacrificial, as though they were going to have their throats slit before some strange God right here in the middle of a twenty-first century city. Though they moved with slow, hip-swaying sensuousness their eyes were lowered and their faces still. The first was a petite Asian woman, her hair in a brief, 1920s' style cloche. The second was a comely, sensuous, brown skinned woman with a long mane of gold and russet ringlets. But for the hair, she looked like she could be Ethiopian or Somali – she had the desert beauty of an Iman or a Waris Dirie. The third, not the tallest of the three, but the most beautiful, came last. It was Lucy. She came to a standstill in front of Selma, her eyes still lowered. Her face seemed calm, impassive, serene, as if she were indeed the high priestess of some virgin cult. But I could see her nipples pressing clearly against the plain fabric of her dress, and her breathing was deeper and slightly faster than normal.

"My dears. Look at me." The three girls lifted their eyes and looked up at Selma standing poised and tall before them. "Welcome. Are you willing and ready to join us here as staff?"

The three girls nodded, once. The music faded away to silence.

"Do you know that this means that you will be available for the sexual use of members of this club? "

Again they nodded. I saw the Somali-looking woman swallowing.

Selma turned to the audience. "Be aware of one thing. These girls are not hookers. They are not there to be used and discarded just for your enjoyment. They, too, have a right to pleasure. In fact, it is because they want to be pleasured that they have joined us in this way. Isn't that right, my treasures?"

The girls nodded mute assent.

"For just this reason, my girls, you also have the right to refuse any person or any request." Selma was moving around the stage now, and paused next to the Asian girl, running her hand gently through the girl's hair and along her bare neck and shoulder. The Asian girl submitted mutely to her touch. "Though you would not have joined us had it not been your intention to… put yourself in the way of others' advances. And if you had not wanted to give up a certain amount of control."

Selma's right hand stayed delicately poised on the girl's right shoulder, and she moved around so she was standing behind and slightly to the left of her. With the other hand she gently and sensuously caressed the girl, letting her fingers briefly touch the girl's buttock, her flank, her breast, and then her wrist, the inside of her elbow, her upper arm. The girl had lowered her eyes again. She took a long shuddering breath and stood absolutely still. Now her nipples too were pressing hard against the fabric of her dress. It was utterly quiet. Selma's voice had dropped almost to a whisper.

"So are you ready, my dear?"

The Asian girl nodded again.

With the gentlest flick of her fingers, Selma slid the straps of the shift from the girl's shoulders. It fell gently as gossamer to the floor. The naked girl stood mute under the flare of the stage lights, her pale skin glowing bright and defenceless against the dark stage background. A tattoo of some kind – a thorned rose – curled around her navel, the stem trailing across her loins, pointing towards the lips of her sex. I took a sip of whiskey. It burned like fire in my mouth. I realised that my heart was pounding and my hands were trembling. I realised truly how I had kept myself numb, year in and year out, trying not to want anything, trying not to feel anything, trying to pretend that I could live without desire. Now I it felt to me as if I had been living half awake, in a bland, safe world defined by work and apathy. I was aware of wanting this girl, wanting to know what her mouth would taste like, what her sex would taste like, wanting to feel her pliant, youthful body against mine.

"Look up my dear. Look up proudly. See how they admire you. See how they want you!" Selma was still speaking in a low, gentle voice. Slowly Jade raised her face and stared out at the silent crowd sitting half invisible in the darkness below the stage. I realised she was blushing. But she kept her head high, and squared her delicate shoulders. She had such spirit! I thought to start applauding, and soon I was joined by everyone in the club. The girl stood stark naked, listening to the applause rise and die away in the dark around her.

Selma turned around. "Aster? Claudia?" she murmured, and the other two girls, with a twitch of their shoulders and a shake of their slender frames, allowed their dresses to fall to the ground as well. For a long moment, nothing happened, and the audience gazed at them – the small, fine boned Oriental girl, the sensuous Saharan woman, and the tall, slender black-haired girl in the middle. Again I marvelled at Lucy/Claudia's pause, and the way she could stand naked in the centre of a crowded room as if there was no-one around her and she was alone with her thoughts. Selma walked around them, letting her hands trail down the spine of one, graze the breasts of another. Then she paused at the edge of the stage.

"In a moment now, Holly will appear – Holly, you can come to the stage my dear. She will be bringing the collars each of these girls have to wear whenever they are in the club until they leave – or until they become members themselves. Thank you my dear." Holly was the leather-collared girl from upstairs. She was giving Selma the hat in which she had put the tickets (what had she done with my ticket??) "And then, in celebration of their joining, one of these beautiful girls will be made available to each of the three lucky men or woman who has the ticket number corresponding to the one we draw." Holly was gently putting a narrow, black leather band round the throat of each of the naked girls. These bands were not all the same, I saw. Holly's, for instance, was set with three small white stones – perhaps pearls. Other girls had one, or two, and some had more. The collars given to the new girls were completely plain.