Kyle replied, “I’m not sure what I expected.”

“Are you here by yourself, then?”

“Yes.”

“Well, from the looks of you, probably not for long.”

Kyle laughed. “I think for tonight I’m just watching.”

Chris shrugged. “Will you have another beer?” When Kyle nodded her assent, Chris ordered two and took a long pull on hers before speaking again. Finally, she said, “I’m not much on initiations, but I’ll tell you anything I can.”

Kyle nodded slowly as she sipped at her beer. “Well, I think I get the general idea, but I’m not real sure what the ground rules are.”

“It’s not much different than any other bar,” Chris replied. “It’s just that most of the women here have a certain kind of interest, if you know what I mean.”

“I think I understand that,” Kyle said. “A certain sexual interest.”

Chris continued rather hesitantly. “Well, I guess because of that, things kind of work out in a…a certain way,” she began. “If someone is interested in you, they’re not likely to come up and say, ‘Would you like to dance?’ More likely than not they’re going to stand next to you and maybe not say anything at all. Maybe they’re trying to find out how much you know about what’s going on.”

Kyle shook her head and said, “I don’t think I know exactly what you mean.”

Chris tried again. “Some of the women here will feel most comfortable if they take the lead and you follow. Others prefer it if they are told exactly what to do.”

“How do you know who wants to do what, then?” Kyle asked, genuinely unclear as to what Chris was trying to tell her.

Chris laughed a little and continued. “After a while it’s easy to tell what people are interested in. If you remember what it was like ten or fifteen years ago, it’s not all that different now. You probably remember what it was like when the ‘butches’ always asked the ‘femmes’ to dance. Even if the femmes did turn out to be butches in bed, they never let on in public.”

Kyle smiled as she recalled those times, not unfondly. There had been a certain security in knowing what was expected of you.

“Sure I remember, but it seems that things have changed in the last few years. After all, haven’t we been trying to get away from those old roles?”

“Well, things never change that much,” Chris replied. “The sort of thing that goes on in the leather scene doesn’t really have a lot to do with the old butch and femme roles, but it does have a lot to do with what these women want to express physically. It’s all more up front here.”

Okay,” Kyle said, definitely interested, “That’s clear enough. How do you tell someone else exactly what you’re in to?”

Chris surveyed the crowd before them, and said, “Look at that woman leaning against the pole over there.”

Kyle followed Chris direction and noticed a woman dressed predominantly in leather -leather pants with a wide, studded belt, heavy black motorcycle boots and a leather jacket covered with zippers. She appeared to be alone and yet she looked at no one.

Chris said, “Well, what do you think?”

“She looks pretty butch to me—like she’d be the one to call the shots,” Kyle replied.

“But she isn’t,” Chris said. “If you look more carefully, there’s a few things that tell you just what she’s looking for. For instance, her keys are on the right and she’s wearing a leather bracelet on her right wrist.”

Kyle nodded in agreement, as Chris continued. “She’s a bottom, not a top. That means she wants someone to approach her and to tell her exactly what they would like her to do. She wants someone else to take charge.”

“Does that mean she’s passive, then?” Kyle asked, with surprise in her voice.

“Not necessarily. It just means that in the beginning, at least, she’s willing to let someone else determine how things happen. You’d be surprised how often the bottom actually calls the entire scene.”

“What if someone approaches her that she’s not interested in?” Kyle asked. “Does that mean she has to go anyway?”

“No, not at all. She doesn’t reply with the correct answers or she just says, ‘No’.”

“So she does have something to say about it then?”

Chris appeared startled for a second. “Of course—if she doesn’t agree, nothing can happen.”

Kyle thought about it and then said, “What if I see someone I like and I want to go talk to her?”

“It depends on how you go about it,” Chris answered. “It could mean you just want to get to know them, or you might be letting them know you’re interested in them sexually. It’s all in how you present yourself.”

Kyle reached for a cigarette, slightly daunted. “Certainly seems like a complicated way to get to know people,” she said.

Chris nodded. “It seems strange at first, but I think you’ll find out it’s just another way of saying how you feel.” She finished her beer and turned to face Kyle. “I can’t stay, but I hope you do. Maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for.

Is that why I’m here? Am I looking for something?

Kyle returned her gaze intently. “I’ll be staying.”

As the night grew later, Kyle could more easily recognize the subtle signals passing between those around her. She was so involved in watching the others that she failed to notice the woman approaching until her vision was suddenly blocked by the figure before her.

Kyle was startled by the feeling of another body so close to hers. With a sharp intake of breath, she recognized the woman she had seen earlier at the jukebox. So close to her now, Kyle could see that her hair was indeed blond and her eyes a deep blue. Kyle found she had to look up at the woman, who was several inches taller. The stranger looked back at her intently, her hands thrust deep into the pockets of her jeans, her long legs nearly straddling Kyle’s. Kyle was at once uneasy and intrigued. When she glanced upward into the woman’s eyes she was amazed to see the insolent confidence there. Unaccountably, Kyle dropped her eyes. In that second, she fully realized that she did not know what to expect next.

“Have you figured it all out yet?” a cool voice questioned.

Kyle’s head snapped up, heat rising to her face. “I’m not a tourist!” she replied angrily. She might be out of her element here, but she certainly wasn’t a sightseer!

“Oh my! Touch a sore spot, did I?”

Kyle started to turn her back—she couldn’t believe this woman. Who did she think she was, coming up uninvited and giving Kyle a hard time? She would have told her to “fuck off,” but she had learned a little patience over the years and she knew it wasn’t worth it.

A hand closed firmly on her upper arm.

“Wait a minute! We’re still talking.” There was just a hint of laughter in the voice, as if at a private joke that Kyle had missed.

“I don’t think we have anything to say. Do you?” Kyle answered, reaching for a cigarette. She felt a little cornered, with her back to the bar, and she needed the ritual of lighting a cigarette to give herself time to think. As she pushed her hand into her pocket for her lighter, a match flared before her.

“That’s up to you, isn’t it?” the woman said softly, cupping the flame in her long tapering fingers.

Kyle frowned slightly as she pulled on her cigarette, drawing the smoke deeply into her chest. She exhaled slowly, searching the perfectly sculpted, perfectly remote face. “Somehow I thought you were the one calling the shots.”

The blond nodded, touching the match to her own cigarette. “Very good - but only if you want me to. Only if you let me—understand?”

Kyle sighed, looking directly into the blue eyes that were calmly searching her face. “I’m afraid that I’m going to disappoint you.”

Suddenly the woman smiled, a flickering luminescence that dispelled the aura of aloofness surrounding her until now. Just as quickly, it was gone. “I don’t think so.”

Kyle felt foolish. This was a woman like her, a woman in a bar filled with other women, all of them linked by a single common bond. What had she been expecting, she wondered, that these women would be so different from all the other lesbians she had known? She had been so caught up in the mystique of the dress and the attitude of these leather-clad figures that she failed to recognize the women beneath the costumes. Her body relaxed as her old confidence returned.

“My name is Kyle,” she said.

“I know.”

Kyle raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Chris informed me.”

“I’m slow tonight,” Kyle said, shaking her head.

The woman was standing only inches away from Kyle, and her next words were spoken so softly only Kyle could hear them. “I’m not rushing you.” She had not changed her stance, still standing boldly in Kyle’s view. Kyle realized that this stranger was presenting herself to her, a gesture at once arrogant and vulnerable.

Kyle took advantage of the moment and appraised the figure before her. She had the lean look of a runner as opposed to her own more muscular build. The blond hair which had first caught Kyle’s eye was subtly layered and fell naturally back from her forehead, outlining the clean lines of her face. Her cheekbones were sharply sculpted, accentuating her nearly perfect features. Her blue eyes returned Kyle’s gaze with penetrating directness.

Kyle forced herself to continue her slow survey, despite her natural urge to look away when she found the stranger watching her. The woman’s slim torso was covered in faded denim, her collar and the first several buttons opened to reveal her upper chest. The merest suggestion of breasts pushed against the worn fabric. The shirt molded to her slim waist and her jeans outlined her hips and slender thighs. A well-worn black leather belt rode low over her pelvis. Kyle took note of the few keys hanging from a leather strap on her left hip and a leather band buckled around her left wrist. Kyle’s study was interrupted by the woman’s steady voice.

“Like what you see?” Her voice was low, intense, intimate.

“Yes,” Kyle answered honestly.

“Come dance with me then.” It was not a request.

The room came sharply into focus as a low, pulsating beat filled the air. This is it, Kyle. Do you really want to do this?

Without a word, she followed the woman onto the dance floor. There were other couples there, but they quickly faded from Kyle’s awareness as the stranger stepped close, taking Kyle firmly into her arms. As they moved easily together in the crowded space, Kyle felt for the first time the strength contained in her companion’s deceptively lithe body. The sheer physicalness of the other woman’s embrace awakened her desire. The hand in the curve of her back held her confidently while the woman insinuated one tight thigh securely between Kyle’s own. As they danced, the woman’s breasts molded to hers, the nipples hard beneath the fabric of her shirt. Kyle’s nipples stiffened in response, painfully taut and aching. The hand on her spine pressed Kyle’s hips rhythmically against that slow-moving thigh, seemingly focusing all the heat of their two bodies into one point between Kyle’s legs. She moaned without meaning to. Kyle could almost feel those long fingers on her skin. Never had she responded so quickly nor so certainly to another’s touch. Her mind lost contact with the sounds and forms around her as their bodies sought to fuse, pulsating inwardly to the beat of the music. As Kyle slid her hands down to the woman’s hips, striving to pull her closer, hoping to ease the aching pressure, the woman’s voice penetrated her swirling thoughts.

“You don’t get it for free,” the denim-clad stranger whispered. Her breath was hot against Kyle’s ear.

“Tell me the price then,” Kyle responded instantly, wanting only for the exquisite torment not to end.

“Later,” came the reply. The woman reached one hand up into the hair at Kyle’s neck and spread her fingers in the soft curls there. “Come home with me. Now.”

For an instant reality intruded. Kyle knew nothing of this woman except the sensations her presence instilled in her body. The blond slipped a hand between them, grasping Kyle’s nipple, sending a flood of arousal directly to her clitoris. Oh, Jesus, god! Kyle’s eyes nearly closed with the sweet torture. The demands of her body obliterated any thought of caution, and she answered to it.

“Yes.”

Kyle allowed herself to be led from the bar by the woman’s touch on her back. She followed her out into the night on shaky legs.

“What about my bike?” Kyle asked hoarsely as they reached the street.

“We’ll take it. I’ll tell you where to go,” the woman said.

Kyle took a deep breath of the cool night air, hoping to clear her head for the drive. She was uncomfortably swollen inside her tight leather pants. She unlocked both helmets and handed one to the woman.