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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 13:46:34 GMT -5
Rocky Horror was always brilliant fun. Adrienne couldn't have resisted those tickets even if Reed Armstrong had forced her to take him, she loved it. She did, however, elect not to go in full costume, largely because it was chilly outside, and it was Broadway, not the film, and finally... because she was inviting Kurt, who would enjoy it far too much. Kurtis Long was the front man for local unsigned band Sugar Sex. They sounded like screaming cats amplified, and Adrienne had only dated Kurt for about a month, but they had settled into an odd sort of routine, whereby they might occasionally run into one another (years on) and go drinking, clubbing, and then eventually have one night of extremely drunken, ill-judged sex before Adrienne remembered in the morning all the precise reasons they had never lasted. Sugar Sex had been playing free gigs for the better part of the five years Ade had lived in New York city. Kurtis was older than she was -- he had to be about thirty-five by now -- and showing no sign of ever settling down, or getting a day job. When he picked her up he was wearing more eye-liner than she was, and he expressed immediate dismay that she wasn't more scantily clad. She had chosen a strapless dress with a loose, flowing skirt. It was black and red, and she had dyed over her orange hair with bright, pillar box red. It cascaded over her shoulders -- usually she had it back, pinned up or untamed and curly, but on this occasion she had styled it properly, so it curled in the correct places and directions. Unable to resist the fishnets, she'd bought a new part and had added a pair of lacy, elasticated garter belts. They were almost entirely hidden by the length of the skirt, but Adrienne was no stranger to pretending they needed adjusting: the whole point was to pretend you didn't realise anybody was watching in the first place. They arrived at the theatre in plenty of time to get to the bar first, because Adrienne had quickly realised Kurt was only worthy company when she was tipsy. He paid through the nose for a glass of red wine, and then took her coat to the cloakroom, leaving her to hover in the foyer and resist the urge to chug the wine. It wasn't that she regretted bringing Kurt. He would be a good laugh, for the evening, and he would certainly scratch an itch afterwards; he was always a good fuck. It was just that the first hour or so tended to be a little awkward. They had dated when she was still a coffee girl. He had been the handsome rock star on the brink of success -- and now she had a career, and he... was no less on the brink than he had ever been, she was swiftly realising. Once they got beyond the awkward phase of reminiscing and asking 'what's new' everything would be fine. She took a sip of her wine. |
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 14:25:17 GMT -5
The clipped message that Adrienne Heart had sent back to Reed had challenged him yet again, and he was beginning to feel an unhealthy need to outdo each of her attempts to bait him. Which was subconsciously giving her just what she wanted in turn. Her message was met by an action of his however, as he summoned in his secretary, a long legged blonde with a thankful penchant for trashy musicals, much like Reed himself was. His love of Rocky Horror and things of that nature was an "unfortunate hobby" as his publicist had always put it, but Reed never really gave a damn.
And so he took to escorting Vivien Thatcher to the event, after making a few calls and arranging for those two tickets he'd saved to be used. Well, sue him for thinking the worst of Adrienne, especially since he was most liekly right. Vivien had mile long legs of a tanned color, and long blonde curls, her natural beauty augmented by the short red number she wore and the tall, black patent pumps that accompanied her outfit. Reed himself was in yet another suit, as he typically was, an all black suit with a dark green tie that happened to darken and sharpen the color of his eyes.
Vivien, his faithful secretary, had taken to the bathroom to 'freshen up' (whatever the hell that meant) and Reed himself took tot he bar to retrieve a gin and tonic for himself. Vivien and Reed had a fiery affair a few years past, but the pair of them were just as selfish and greedy as the other. And hence, they both tended to frequent one night stands and no hard feelings ever existed between them. Reed didn't really have girlfriends anyway. He had flings. Vivien just happened to be a recurring fling whenever they both felt bored. Or when Reed needed a sexy date.
Reed caught sight of Adrienne and he looked over her with a devilish gleam, watching as the skirt of her dress played with the edges of garters, the lace and fishnet peeking out when she turned a certain way. She was pure sexual desire and sensuality poured into that dress, and her bright locks of red hair seemed to draw Reed in as he sauntered up behind Adrienne, looking smooth as usual, his hair purposefully messy and his stubble purposefully carefree looking.
"Nice fishnets," Reed crooned out from behind her, his body quite nearly pressed to hers.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 15:14:34 GMT -5
"Nice fishnets."
Adrienne stiffened. She could feel his breath on her bare shoulder, and he was so close to her that her skirt had shifted to accommodate his presence. She took another small sip of her wine, and didn't bother to turn around before she replied coolly:
"And where are yours?"
She knew he wouldn't be wearing them. She'd had the distinct suspicion that he would be there, too. He wasn't the sort to back down, she supposed -- either way she would have been more surprised to spend her evening without seeing him.
She turned and glanced up at him, shifting to the side to create a little space between them. He looked as coiffed and tailored as ever, as though he were a ken doll somebody had dressed up.
There was absolutely no chance he would have ever worn the costume, she knew. More was the pity.
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 15:37:05 GMT -5
"Under my pants," he teased. Reed watched as she turned and looked up at him. There was an undeniably sultry look about her face, and Reed couldn't help himself as he leaned in and gave her an impulsive kiss. It was an outrageous thing, and Reed hoped that whoever her date was was watching the whole moment take place.
Her pouty lips tasted better than he thought they would, tinted by the taste of good wine on her pouty lips. He pulled back soon enough after the turbulent kiss, not wanting to risk his manhood much more. Reed took a sip of his drink, his green eyes twinkling as he looked at her.
"Bon jour, Miss Heart. I believe that's how the French say hello." Reed winked at her with a twisted, playful smile on his own thin lips, and he wondered for a moment how the lovely Miss Heart would react.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 16:02:31 GMT -5
"Liar -" Adrienne began, and then started backwards, as he pressed his impudent mouth against hers. What the fuck! When she pulled away from him she looked affronted, and it summed him up so easily: he wanted instant gratification. It wasn't enough to win just a little of her attention, he had to have it all, all the time, and straight away. He wasn't content to play the game by the rules, either, he cheated, played out of turn, and he thought he was exempt from reproach for it.
Ass.
She might have thrown her wine at him, if Kurtis hadn't finally managed to fight his way across the room. He was a simple man, and he was posturing plainly when he arrived, his arms looping around Adrienne with affection that could only have been borne of absolute jealousy. He gave her a squeeze, and made a point of brushing his lips against the line of her jaw.
"Who's your friend?" he asked in a low voice, though he never broke eye contact with Reed.
"I have no idea, he just grabbed me." Adrienne was unapologetically furious. She offered Reed an arch look, and smirked as Kurtis disengaged from her at once. He was an effeminate looking man, but she knew as well as he did that he was a scrappy little thing.
He had spent more nights in jail for fighting than either one of them cared to admit. He squared off immediately with Reed, stepping directly into his personal space.
"Who the fuck d'you think you are?"
The moment she was free of them both, Adrienne turned her back on them and headed directly for the foyer. She wasn't going to stay to watch them rolling around on the floor together. God. How dare he? Adrienne knew, in some distant place inside of her, that had she met Reed Armstrong under any other circumstances there would be little she hadn't done with him already.
It was his presumption on the subject that bothered her. The idea that she would be complicit, because he wanted it -- maybe she didn't. She needed a smoke.
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 16:21:24 GMT -5
Reed was suddenly surprised at Adrienne's response to his advances, though he didn't hardly have the time to react until some scrawny little man in a hideous white suit with disgustingly long hair wrapped his arm about her shoulders. She denied any knowledge of who he was in front of the man and Reed was suddenly angry with her all over again. He frowned as the silly looking guy squared off with him.
Reed's eyes were narrowed at the man who was maybe one inch or so under his own height, and far too scroppy looking and ready for a fight than anyone should have been. Reed, in his younger years, had never shied from a fight. But now he was older and with a reputation of a good sort, at least in most lawyer circles. Brawling lawyers were not respectable. Not to mention that he'd given Kelly enough to clean up for the week.
"Look here," Reed began in a warning tone. "I am Reed Armstrong. You've probably seen me in the papers. In any case, if you put one grubby hand on me, kid, I'll clean your ass of every penny you own. Clear?" Reed didn't wait for the silly looking guy to confirm Reed's words, but he went after Adrienne. He laid a hand on her shoulder, his careless and free smirk gone from his face, replaced by a healthy scowl.
"What the hell was that for?" he spat at her. He was ill with her now, quite certainly.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 17:13:32 GMT -5
"For assaulting me in public?" Adrienne phrased it as a question, but in such an incredulous, sarcastic tone it was apparent it wasn't meant to be answered as one. She snorted with derisive laughter, as she realised he was angry at her.
"Just admit that you don't know what to do with me, Mr Armstrong."
Adrienne doubted that had ever worked for him, but then she supposed he was used to women who wanted to latch on to his power or his wealth. Maybe he'd never met one who wasn't secretly hoping he would kiss her.
The difference was simple. Adrienne knew he wanted to kiss her. She knew she could put her arms around him whenever the notion struck her and he wouldn't say no. She would have been lying if she said she didn't enjoy their little e-mail exchange. She didn't have any trouble admitting that she found him attractive physically, either, however much his styling bothered her.
It was him that was the problem! He was so infuriatingly smug, he thought he knew her already. He thought she was going to be one of his conquests -- Adrienne didn't do conquests unless they were her own.
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 17:25:42 GMT -5
Reed's generally well tamed temper was leaking forth a little, and of all things, Reed had an awful temper, even though he kept it tightly reigned in most of the time.
"Oh, I know exactly what I would do with you, Miss Heart," Reed offered in a suggestive and low tone. He stepped into her personal space though his hands were still to himself, at least for the moment. He towered over her, and he was close enough to see the delectable curves of her chest peeking out over her dress. Reed reached for her face, but he didn't pull her into a kiss again. He held her firmly, but gently enough that should hse want to flee she could.
Reed was many things, but he was never violent. He closest to violent with women he got was some interesting lovemaking that more resembles animals fighting than sex, but he never hit a woman. Reed looked at her, his eyes black almost and brooding with the maintained fury.
"Let's face the facts: I don't know you and you sure as hell don't know me, doll. So we should stop pretending that we do." He was harsh with his words, his crooning voice taking on an almost tortured tone, but he didn't release her neck yet. Perhaps she was just another woman, or at least he told himself so. However he was slipping into an obsession with her quickly, quickly enough that he didn't realize it yet. He was drowning in the woman and she hardly had batted an eyelash in his direction.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 18:12:49 GMT -5
"You're the one who's been overly familiar. You can feel free to stop pretending any time you like."
Adrienne looked over his shoulder, at Kurt, and shook her head. He looked ready to dash towards them and attack Reed from behind. He threw his hands up and rolled his eyes at her obnoxiously, and she ignored him and moved her hand to swat Reed's away from her face. She didn't back away from him again, looking up at him with the same inscrutable expression she'd given him in her office, earlier that week.
It was then that Vivien reappeared, and slipped her arm through Reed's. Adrienne took in the leggy blonde with a single glance, and realised at once why she was so put off by him. It was like an epiphany. He didn't want her because he liked what he saw. He wanted to bed her because she had written about him, he wanted to sleep with her and then sneer at her hypocrisy. She was an oddity for him; he thought she had set herself apart from women like his date, and he wanted to prove that she was as weak to his alleged charms as she was.
She shook her head.
"Let's pretend we never met," she suggested bluntly. "And then it won't matter who knows whom."
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 18:42:44 GMT -5
"I suppose you're used to faking it, my dear," Reed spat back at her, his smooth self back to the surface. He felt Vivien slip her arm through his, and automatically there seemed to be a coloring in Adrienne's fac,e whether he imagined it or not. Vivien had a knack for appearing when she needed to, and now was one of those times.
"Come on darling, it's time for the show to begin," Viv crooned out in her sultry voice, and Reed turned from Adrienne and her date, leading them both into the auditorium. They settled in their seats (which would be inconspicuously nestled beside Adrienne's own), and he felt Viv's hand on his thigh.
"Reed darling, she is hardly your typical catch," Viv whispered to him in a hushed tone. She then smirked. "I should warn you to be careful too. She's already making you to act love stupid, Reed. Imagine if she actually made you fall in love." Vivien smirked as Reed scowled. Reed was hardly as selfish and misogynistic as he came off to people. A woman just needed to know the right buttons to push. And it seemed that this Adrienne woman was pushing all the right buttons, on purpose or not.
Reed settled into a stretched out, arrogant countenance, and he decided not to let his mind dwell on Vivien's decision. Instead, he thought of the much more interesting thoughhts of discovering which mental picture of naked Adrienne he liked best.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 19:23:27 GMT -5
Adrienne didn't know whether it was proper jealousy, or just her own insecurity playing up, but she felt strangely deflated. Kurtis made his way over and tried another overt display of affection, but she shrugged him off too. There wasn't a shred of fairness in it. He didn't get to offend her, insult, objectify, and degrade her, and then make her feel as though she was imperfect.
"I'm leaving," she said, and tugged vaguely at Kurt's tie. It was an invitation for him to join her, and make her feel better. He was a more delicate soul than she gave him credit for, however. He had a pout and a wounded look on his face.
"Did you know he was here?" he asked, knitting his brow. Adrienne rolled her eyes, but didn't bother to lie to him. She looked away and then looked up at him, and shrugged, irritably.
"Oh, for God's sake, Kurt, you're not serious."
"You would've let me fight him! You said you didn't know him! One strike, Ade! I could do hard time!"
Adrienne squirmed. That was true. She was vindictive and selfish at her worst, and she hadn't even thought about Kurtis at all before she had set him on Reed. It was just how she was. She shook her head, then drained the glass one wine in one swig. She couldn't stay there, not now -- the only way she could confront shame was at home, alone, with something enormous and chocolate.
"Here -- phone someone else, you must know someone who can be here in five minutes." Ade produced her ticket and handed it to him, her tone defensive even though she knew perfectly well he had every reason to be upset with her. She pressed her fingers to her lips and blew him a kiss before she turned and headed for the main foyer, breezing out the door as though she had never meant to be there in the first place.
---
It was just as they announced photographs and recordings were prohibited by law that Kurtis was shown to his seat by a rather beleaguered usher. He had called an old flame -- a groupie, who had always been keen. Kurt was the sort of man who didn't like to define himself. He'd had both men and women, and it was distinctly a young man he brought in to take Adrienne's place. It couldn't have been more plainly somebody else. He paused, as he realised he'd be sitting on Reed's arm, and allowed his replacement date to go in first.
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 19:40:19 GMT -5
Reed was vaguely aware that someone had occupied the seat next to him, and he didn't look over immediately. He was arrogantly certain that it would be Adrienne, and so he slipped his hand over to her thigh, only to be met with not a skirt or fishnets, but pants. Tight pants, but pants. Red retracted his hand quickly and looked at the man whom he startled, only to see that Adrienne's curvaceous figure had been replaced by a young man on Adrienne's date's arm. Reed paled.
He leaned over to Vivien, crooning into her ear. "Darling, I hate to cut the climax, but I have to run." Reed ran a hand along her thigh and squeezed it. "I'll take a raincheck." Reed heard Vivien's whispered, crude remark, but it held no deeper meaning than just a remark for them anymore. That was as good as a blessing from her. If he knew Vivien, she would scoot over to the two young men and convince them of a menage a trois before the intermission.
Reed fled the theatre, just quickly enough to catch sight of the flirty skirt of Adrienne, and he found himself following her, working to catch up with her by the time she reached what seemed to be her apartment complex. Reed milled about a group of people leaving, loud and rowdy and seeming to be going out for a good time, and he used them as cover to sneak across the foyer towards the dingy elevator of the low class complex. He stuck his foot out to stop the door, sliding inside smoothly before it shut on him.
"You bolted." His look was one unidentifiable it seemed, one of brooding masculinity and humor, as well as pure challenge.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 20:20:06 GMT -5
"You're stalking me."
Adrienne was not in the mood to play with him any more. She was tired, and fed up with herself, and she wanted to drop the façade, which she couldn't do, if he was there. Who the hell left a date to follow someone to their house, when the very last words she'd said to him were essentially pretend we never met?
She was taking the elevator expressly because she had realised he was following her. It was the only thing that could compel her to risk it, she had been stuck in it with her horrendous elderly neighbour Mr Kraut before.
She had hoped that if she got on the elevator before he could catch her, he wouldn't know which floor or apartment she was on. No such luck. She rolled her eyes irritably, and took up residence in the furthest corner of the small elevator from him.
"Just stop it, okay? Leave me alone."
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Post by mabs on Jan 21, 2011 20:27:45 GMT -5
Reed sighed and folded his arms for a moment looking at her. She looked tired and a little fed up with him, though maybe that would persuade her further. He was convinced he just needed to rid her of his system, to flush out the thoughts of her. And if being persistent enough with her would convince her to take a roll in the sheets with him, then perhaps he would have her out of his system for good. But he needed a new approach.
"I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot," he offered, charm steeping his voice. "Let's start over.
Reed slid over to her and offered his hand with a smirk of a smile, his green eyes tipped down to her. "Reed Armstrong. Total ass. But a charming ass, none the less." Reed wasn't obvlivious enough to think that he was anything but a selfishly charming fellow. He had few scruples and even fewer morals. But when it came to women, he loved everything about him. A mutual meeting of needs, was how he saw sex. Though many a women he'd slept with didn't see it as that. That was were he became selfish: in wanting to keep his life exactly how he had it. Carefree.
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Post by rocky on Jan 21, 2011 21:17:43 GMT -5
"I get to decide whether or not I find you charming," Adrienne said, but was a good sport, and shook his hand anyway. The contact was minimal, but enough to remind her she had left her coat at the theatre; a fact she had been so preoccupied she had missed on the journey back until she was more than halfway home. She wasn't going back to fetch it until the morning, not if it meant the possibility of running into Reed again. How little she had known.
The elevator door, unblocked, slid shut, and they began to move upwards towards her apartment. It wasn't the direction she wanted to be going in with him, and she sighed softly, through her nose.
She folded her arms, a little awkwardly. She had never been all that good at fending men off, it wasn't something she had much practise in. She had the sense she was somehow failing at womanhood, by not telling him she had asked him to leave her alone and he had best respect it, but Adrienne didn't always have the conviction or the energy to stick to her guns. She did was suited her, when it suited her, and little else.
It was an afterthought, anyway. She couldn't tell him to get out when the elevator was moving. Her gaze flitted up to the dial, as it inched towards the second floor.
"Why are you here?"
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