Loving the stranger

By

Anna Daly-McCabe

The night was dark and the rain was pouring like a tap. The music was pulsating from the pub –Blues. The slow sexy strains of the guitar as the sound reached out to the passers-by on the wet cold streets outside. Calling to them with its seductive sound.

Opening the door with deliberate slowness, for the maximum entrance, Jenny stood just inside, her hair wet and falling down her back, her dark eyes shining like diamonds as she glanced around the bar. Looking at the half full pub as a cheetah surveys its prey just before it pounces for the kill.

Strutting over to the bar, like a supermodel on the catwalk, she raised her index finger to the barman to get his attention.  Smiling sweetly she ordered a Manhattan with an extra black olive. She turned her back to the bar and glanced around and smiled to herself at the attention she was attracting.

The barman put the napkin on the counter and carefully placed the triangular glass on it as Jenny turned around and taking the glass, slowly raised it to her lips in a gesture that suggested her inner feeling. Smiling he took the money, carefully counted and left on the counter and put it in the cash register.

With her foot tapping lightly and in time to the music that the band were playing, Jenny continued to observe the punters in the bar, there was a middle aged man, balding with more than a little middle-age spread, looking close at his clothing she decided they were two sizes too small and turned her attention to the tall young sailor that had just come into the bar. A stranger! A stranger from foreign shores, Jenny was getting excited as she looked him up and down.

He was easily over six feet tall, with a crisp white uniform and his ‘Popeye’ hat sitting on his shaven head. His tanned face handsome and his eyes dark as ebony. He was truly a fine specimen of manhood. Jenny felt herself tingle with excitement as she looked at him.

As he walked over to the bar and ordered a beer, she smiled at him and he returned it and asked in an accent she couldn’t place.

“Can I buy you a drink?” Jenny’s nostrils were assaulted by his scent; it had heady woodnotes with undertones of musk and bergamot mixed with wild berries.

“Manhattan extra black olive”. She said in her strong Eastern accent. Her heart pounding as she smelt the rain from the cotton of his uniform.

For over an hour they talked and he got her another drink. All the time he was getting closer to her, she looked at his chest; she could hear the sound of his heart beating. Jenny could tell from the beats he too was feeling the same rush that she was feeling. The rush of excitement that is felt only for the first time when one meets the handsome stranger by chance in the night and their hearts begin to beat in unison with the promise of the taste of the pleasure that awaits them. With the anticipation that only an encounter however brief, that can only be with a stranger.

For Jenny, this was the stranger she had been searching for all night. This was the stranger that would breathe life into her otherwise monochrome existence in a bland impersonal city with no soul.

This stranger would fill her body with life, with a lust, a passion unsurpassed by anything she had ever tasted before or ever would again. Jenny had a need to sample this handsome sailor; no she craved this sailor.

Jenny smiled sweetly at him and asked him if he would like to go for a walk along the promenade. He downed the last of his beer in one and putting an arm around her shoulder they left the bar, leaving the sensuous strains of the blues band behind. They walked along the deserted street as a wind suddenly began to blow and without warning blew Jenny into the sailor’s arms. They were strong and she felt safe in them. Looking up into his gorgeous dark eyes, she felt the first of the hunger pangs. Smiling she turned away and they walked arm around each other in the direction of the docks.

As they turned the corner, the sailor pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply. With a passion unknown even to Jenny, she responded to him. Her hunger rising as their kiss deepened and from deep inside her craving surfacing with a ferocity that she didn’t want to control. Jenny wanted to give herself over to the feeling, to taste him to satisfy the craving.

“You are so beautiful Jenny”. The sailor whispered huskily as he kissed her cheek and then moving his mouth seductively over to her neck, she heard his gasp as he breathed in her perfume, a perfume with the notes of lavender and rose, of purity of the earth and as heady and hypnotic as her beauty was. Jenny pulled away from him and taking his hand in her small slender hand. She led him down the dark alley and under the metal fire escape stairs she pushed him against the wall playfully and smiled as their eyes met and briefly, there was tenderness, softness as the sailor closed his eyes as his mouth met hers and Jenny felt his arms pull her close to him. Again the passion they were feeling enveloping each of them with a wanting never experienced by Jenny.

She felt the hunger rising deep from the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t eaten for days and she was feeling weak. She was sure he must have heard the noise that came from her insides. The pain became excruciating. Jenny pulled away from him as the pain in her stomach caused her to double over and weaken even more.

“Are you OK Jenny?” The sailor’s strong western accent called out into the night. She looked at him and she could hear the rhythmic beats of his heart, standing up straight she put her arms around his neck. Kissed him on the mouth passionately and gave in to the hunger that she was feeling for this handsome sailor.

The rain was torrential and walking slowly, her hips sashaying like a supermodel on a catwalk, purposely opening the door of the bar, looking around at the crowded bar, listening to the heart pounding strains of the hard rock band that was playing on the stage. Jenny walked up to the bar and asked the barman for a Manhattan with an extra black olive. He smiled as she licked her lips and turning to glance in the direction of the band her eyes met  with the young motorcyclist with the leather jacket with the words ‘ Harley Davidson’ on the front, his bandana black and white and his long dark hair loose, his handsome face smiling at her. She returned his smile as he walked over to her and asked if she would like a drink. She nodded and her eyes glanced over his shoulder to the TV and the news, the picture of a missing young sailor that had left for shore leave a month earlier but had never returned to join his ship, the authorities weren’t ruling out desertion.

Jenny turned back to the handsome stranger, she was feeling the hunger pangs again but tonight she would have to be careful as the rain was forecasted to clear and the harvest moon would be at its strongest and her secret would be revealed before she got the opportunity to love the stranger.

The End.