The Rooster Club

by N. M. Catalano

  The shock on Johnny’s face was priceless. Vinnie and Natalie couldn’t help but laugh at his expression as he looked back and forth between them.

  “You’re kidding me?!” Johnny asked.

  They must’ve looked like they’d just played a huge practical joke on him and were enjoying every moment of the reveal. Once Natalie figured out what Vinnie was doing, it was too irresistible not to join in.

  “Nope,” Vinnie and Natalie answered him simultaneously.

  Sensing their amusement, Johnny laughed and she felt him relax. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to keep her company for a while, you guys go ahead.”

  “Alright, see you later,” Vinnie said and walked away, still laughing at his prank.

  Johnny turned to the girl in his arms with a smile spread across his face.

  “So, you guys know each other?” she asked him, still chuckling.

  “Yeah, we’ve been hanging out with him for a few weeks. He’s a really cool guy.”

  ‘Yeah,’ Natalie thought. ‘If you were his friend, and not the little sister he ignored because he was too busy being cool.’

  “He never mentioned you to me,” she told him.

  Johnny laughed.

  “Because he was probably trying to protect you.”

  Natalie would realize later on just how true that statement was.

  The smooth, sweet lyrics of Abba’s Dancing Queen filled the club as Natalie saw Lisa running over to them from corner of her eye. This was her favorite song.

  “Sorry Johnny, she’s mine for this one,” Lisa told him as she grabbed Natalie’s arm, pulling her away from him so they could dance.

  Johnny stayed with Natalie in the club all night, dancing, flirting, stealing gentle kisses, and when he walked her outside after last call at the end of the night, he kissed her. It was a nice kiss, long, deep and almost sensual. It gave her something to look back on fondly, and something maybe to look forward to.

  ***

  It was almost dawn.

  Johnny’s dorm room was lined with slumbering bodies, all in various stages of undress. If anyone walked in, they’d think an orgy had just finished. The smell of sweat, cheap perfume, and sex filled the 10x10 cinder block space. There were four men and two women, one of them was Johnny’s roommate, and he was pissed. Every weekend it was the same thing, these guys from the city picked-up the college girls, and he still wasn’t getting laid.

  Michael was missing. He’d gone home with the blonde with the big tits.

  It didn’t really matter, though. Tomorrow night would be different women, just like last weekend, and next weekend. Elise, Lisa’s sister, told the guys they’d better not screw all her friends and leave her to clean up the mess. But what could they do if the women practically shoved their tits in their face and asked for it?

  One of the girls who was laid out on the floor lifted her head, looked around, then woke her friend.

  “We’ve got to get out of here before they catch us.”

  They shuffled through the minefield of arms and legs and scattered clothes until they found enough to cover themselves with, not caring that they were bare-ass naked.

  “Baby, I hate that you’ve got to leave,” a sleepy man’s voice said as he reached out and grabbed one girl’s hand.

  “Kiss me goodbye,” another said quietly, wrapping his hand around the other girl’s calf.

  They always made the women feel wanted and appreciated. Because they were, each and every one of them. At least for the moment.

  The girls chuckled and lowered to their knees for what would be their last taste of these men. They were their last night’s meal. Tomorrow and next week would be someone else.

  ***

  Present day…

  Natalie’s eyes were crossing from staring at the computer screen for four hours straight. She had to cram a full day’s work into that time because the kids had half a day of school today. It was hard to get any work done when they were home. And to be honest, it was difficult for her to concentrate when they were. She felt like she was ignoring them, and it made her feel guilty.

  Her phone vibrated next to her on the desk and she jumped. Her breath hitched when she saw it was Michael.

  “Hi,” she answered it, surprised to hear from him. She’d left him two days ago, sleeping in his hotel suite.

  “You took off. Why?” he got right to the point.

  Natalie sighed, “Do you want me to be honest?”

  “Of course I want you to be honest. Why did you leave without even saying goodbye?”

  Michael couldn’t hide his frustration. He didn’t want to. He wanted to hold her, and make love to her again when they’d woken up, hear her soft moans and whimpers. It was food for his soul.

  She wanted to laugh at him as she thought, ‘You did.’

  “Because I didn’t want it to be weird. I didn’t want to ruin it,” she told him hesitantly.

  He took a deep breath.

  “Ok,” he paused. He knew he had to win her trust. And he knew it was going to take time. He was going to do whatever it took. “It was really great to see you. I was thinking about you, what are you doing right now?”

  “I’m working. I have to pick-up the kids, they’re getting out of school early today. What about you?”

  Natalie smiled to herself, remembering their night together. Heat flashed within her, but she reigned it back. Now was not the time for self-indulgences.

  “I was trying to put together a presentation but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And the other night.” His voice was low and husky.

  Her body heated with another wave of fire as she listened to him.

  “It was really nice, thank you for such a great night.” Natalie had to keep things directed towards a safe place, she couldn’t afford to go there now.

  “I’m going to see you again. Don’t think because you snuck out that you’re getting away that easily.” Michael was determined to let Natalie know exactly what his intentions were. It might take some time, but that he had a little of.

  Natalie knew when she’d agreed to meet Michael again, nothing was going to be easy.

  ***

  1985…

  “Did you have a nice time at Joe’s?” Lisa asked Natalie with a sly look in school on Monday.

  “Yeah, a really nice time.” The smile on Natalie’s face split it in two. She was in a good mood for once.

  Natalie tolerated school, and was good at it, but she couldn’t wait to get out and start her life. Her plan was to move to the city as soon as she graduated from high school. But in the meantime, the cafeteria was the cellblock they were able to hang out in. Every day was the same; she got a brownie, a bag of Nacho’s, and milk. She and Lisa always sat at the first table by the front doors, and all the cool kids sat in the back, where her brother sat with his friends. He was the most popular kid in school, and voted the best-dressed male of his senior class. He was well liked, and Natalie was well known by association of her siblings. Their sister had been the most popular when she was here before them.

  Natalie turned to Lisa and asked while she munched on her brownie, “How do you know Johnny?”

  “Just from Joe’s. I met him and his friends while I was out with my sister a couple of weeks ago. He goes to school with Elise.”

  Lisa’s sister Elise is arrestingly beautiful. If Lisa’s smile was dazzling, Elise’s is a bolt of lightning. She has striking good-looks with chiseled features. It’s their Puerto Rican heritage that gives them their unique beauty.

  When Lisa told Natalie her sister Elise knew Johnny and his friends too, she felt her happy bubble suddenly implode.

  “Elise is dating one of his crew,” Lisa continued.

  Natalie’s happy bubble just got a fresh burst of air.

  ***

  “I’m going out!” Natalie argued with her brother Vinnie.

  She thought, ‘This really sucks having to rely on other people.’

  It was Friday night again
, and it hadn’t come fast enough for Natalie. It wasn’t because she was totally in to Johnny. He was cute and a good kisser. It was because meeting him had brought a little excitement to her boring life in the tiny town full of country bumpkins she thought she lived in.

  “Fuck, Natalie!” he shouted back at her. “Fine, just don’t bother me.”

  “I never do,” Natalie almost squealed with delight as she ran off to get ready.

  When they got to Joe’s, Vinnie went his way and she went hers, as usual. She’d made her normal trek to the bar and ordered the usual Screwdriver. Natalie stood there for a little while until her nerves settled down, then she began to make rounds through the crowd downstairs. She found a spot out of the way and watched the slideshow of flashing images of customers projected on the huge screen, slideshow was Joe’s East West trademark. A lot of people got busted for cheating after being caught on camera and getting their indiscretions publicized for everyone in their small town to see, her sister being one of them.

  That’s when Natalie saw them in the center of the crowd. The crew. The Rooster Club they would later be known as, The Best Cocks in Town.

  Johnny was with them, standing with his friends from the city, along with Vinnie and his friend Joey from school. But it wasn’t Johnny that sucked the air from Natalie’s lungs and made the ground open up under her feet. All the guys were very good looking and very well dressed, but what made them stand out amongst all the other men was their cool, relaxed confidence, with just a hint of arrogance. They had the carefree attitude that said ‘I can do what I want, I’m young, I’m hot, and I know you want me. I’ve got the world by the balls, and I fucking love it!’

  This was their dominion, the seeds of ownership had already been laid and was evident in how the crowds parted for their passing, how the bartender ran to get them their drinks, and by the looks everyone around was giving them. The men shot them daggers from their eyes, and the women practically laid down at their feet.

  But it was him. He was the king and this was his court. His power was as clear as the clothes he wore on his perfect body. It surrounded him like an aura that could not be penetrated. He moved with grace and confidence. He had a savage intensity to him, with strong features, chiseled cheekbones and a forehead that met arrogant eyebrows. His eyes lit up when he smiled, with a hint of mischief and mystery. He was a dark and dangerous angel. And he was beautiful.

  Natalie began to sweat and she knew her mouth was hanging open. That’s when he saw her. Their eyes locked and she was instantly mesmerized. Raw, sensual power emanated from him, Natalie could feel it from where she stood, tantalizing her even more. A slow and gradual smile lifted the corners of his lusciously full lips.

  Natalie’s world just exploded and had completely been rocked.

  ‘She’s an angel, pure and innocent, and intoxicating. How did I get so lucky?’ Michael mused, studying the angelic goddess standing before him. She was completely stunning in an ethereal, otherworldly way, untouched and beautiful. Something inside him stirred, pulling Michael to her. Her eyes held him, bewitching him with their gaze, searing into a place inside him he didn’t know existed. A place screaming, ‘Possess, claim, own!’

  He moved towards her. She had never seen a man move as smoothly as he did. He was a shark, gliding perfectly, hypnotically dangerous and intimidating, and he was coming in for the kill.

  She was so screwed.

  “Hi.”

  One word. One tiny, simple word and the world fell away. Natalie was spellbound, captivated by him, and she felt privileged that he noticed her. Her mind was too shocked to think.

  “Hi,” the word slipped from her lips.

  The world was suddenly only made up of this beautiful creature in front of Michael and himself.

  “Michael, this is my sister Natalie,” Vinnie said.

  Natalie’s brothers words penetrated her dementia, forcing her to remember there were other people around.

  Michael was nudged back to reality with Vinnie’s words. “Your sister? You’ve been holding out on me, Vin. Where have you been hiding her?”

  ‘Yeah, where have you been hiding these guys?!’ Natalie thought as the dream man looked only at her.

  His arrogant confidence sent a new wave of shock through her in the way he answered her brother. There was no condescension, no insult to him. It was just him. He saw what he wanted and he didn’t give a damn about anything else, or what anyone thought.

  “She doesn’t come out often,” Vinnie answered him a little hesitantly.

  He at least had the decency not to embarrass Natalie and not announce she was sixteen and didn’t drive unless he brought her.

  Natalie had never loved her brother more than she did at that moment.

  Joey, Vinnie’s friend from school, said, “She’s fine, isn’t she?”

  Natalie’s eyes shot to him, wide with surprise. ‘He did NOT just say that?’ she thought.

  What is this, come on to Natalie night?

  Vinnie glared at Joey as if saying, ‘Don’t you start that shit too.’

  “Yes she is,” Michael purred as his eyes bore into Natalie. He arched a brow as a slow smile curved his sinful mouth.

  Natalie’s mouth went dry and she gasped. A million things were said with that one heated look.

  That was the beginning of the end. From that moment he owned her. She’d already cut her heart out and handed it to him, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

  Vinnie introduced the couple of other guys from the crew; Alex, a wiry man who had too much energy, it made you exhausted just watching him, and Tony, the guy Lisa’s sister Elise was dating. There were six of them in all, including her brother and Joey. But none of the others, not one, came close to Michael.

  Natalie said the obligatory ‘Nice to meet you’s,’ barely registering the other men’s names. She felt a twang of guilt for being swept away by Michael after kissing Johnny last weekend, but her attraction to Michael erased everything else. She had no control over the intensity of what washed over her. And didn’t want to.

  He slipped his hand onto the curve of her back and began to lead her away from everyone. That touch claimed her, possessed her, pulled her completely to him. He didn’t ask her to go with him, he took her, and she gladly went, already enchanted by him.

  The crowd was thicker around the dancefloor, so he slid his hand from Natalie’s back, then down her arm to clasp her hand, his touch leaving a fiery trail over her skin in its wake. He led her onto the floor, then pulled her close, pressing her entire body against his hard warmth.

  He was the most tempting sin all wrapped up in deliciously sensual male. The bow that topped the present that was him was his scent, sexy, virile, and irresistible.

  The erotic beat of the song wrapped itself around them. They began to move together, his hands sliding over her body, burning and owning her. Her soul melted into him, drugged by the trance of the spell taking them over. Their bodies clung to each other, yearning and hungry for more. Natalie slowly turned in his arms, pressing her back into him, as her arms reached up to pull his face to her. He buried himself in the warmth of her neck. His lips grazed her hot flesh as his hands gripped her hips and pulled her closer. She could hear the unintelligible murmurings of desire escape his lips.

  Michael breathed deeply and filled his lungs with her. She smelled inviting, tantalizing and completely addictive. A low rumble formed deep in his chest, hungry for more of her. She was heaven in his hands, and she ignited something within him that was primitive, selfish and purely dominating.

  That fueled the fire burning inside Natalie. Her head fell back against his chest as she let herself go. He was making love to her, right here, right now. She felt it penetrating the deepest parts of her. It was hot and sultry, the way he moved her against him, with him, seeping inside of her, putting her right where she needed to be to feel him completely as he consumed her with his hands, his mouth, and his body. This was bliss, and she wanted it
all.

  The night was a dream she never wanted to end. Being with him was mesmerizing to Natalie, with his attention focused only on her, his laugh, his smile, his touch, sucking her in further. And when he finally wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, his tongue snaking with hers, stroking her, melting her into him, he was savoring her. She knew she wanted this man.

  Natalie was given a gift at the end of the night. Vinnie had invited Michael to stay at their house for the weekend so he wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor in Johnny’s dorm room. Natalie had to hide her excitement because Vinnie probably wanted to kick himself, bringing her out, after Michael and Natalie had met. He knew what he and his friends were about, and thought Michael was only looking for tonight’s lay.

  This was the beginning to a sequence of events that couldn’t be stopped.

  ***

  “Michael, check you out!” Johnny shouted, laughing, the next night at Joe’s Bar.

  Michael turned and looked up at the slideshow on the screen.

  “Son of a bitch!” Michael laughed.

  There he was, bigger than life, dancing with some woman whose tits were spilling out of her shirt. And his eyes were glued to them with a sly grin curving his lips.

  “What was her name again?” Joey asked him, slobbering like a hungry puppy.

  “Sarah, and those were Thing 1 and Thing 2,” Michael tried to joke.

  In truth, Michael didn’t like his personal life spread out for the entire world to see. Some things took a huge chunk out when they came and bit you in the ass later on. He fucked her that night, along with her tits, and hoped it wouldn’t come back to haunt him, especially now that he’d met Natalie.

  The next slide came up and it was Johnny. He had a big girl pressed up against the wall. She towered over him and looked like she was going to eat him alive, as he smiled into her face.

  “Fuck!” Johnny exclaimed.

  “Who’s that, man? King Kong?” Michael laughed.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Johnny lowered his head and shook it, as he laughed in embarrassment.

  The next slide was Joey on the dance floor. The shot captured his ‘dance moves’ perfectly, and all the guys busted out laughing at his Chicken Dance.