She was the tallest woman in the dark and crowded club, full-figured and older, and her bearing bespoke an overshadow of strength that impressed itself outward with a calm, almost casual authority. I was certain that she was of the breed Dominant. Her effect was so startling I expected the entire room to turn in her direction, but that did not happen. It was as if I alone was aware of her being and of her nature.

     I belonged to her before she knew I was even there, yet in my deepest heart I knew she always knew I was there -- I was her prey, had always been her prey, and her eyes scColletted the room with efficient dispatch, looking for the one she knew would be there. These were the earliest preliminaries, a brief time of incognito, deliciously covert and full of sweet and near-to helpless anticipation . . .

    The air of inevitability was exquisite as I attempted to anticipate the impact of her gaze. I set myself to avert my eyes in the expectation that such a woman would not only scan each man present, but she would also register what each man watched, and just how avidly each man watched whatever he was watching ... as I felt her gaze coming close to me, I would cause myself to look toward some other female, so that she would at least register my watching of a female and know that, yes, I was a man interested in women of a certain kind . . .

    So I looked sidelong at another full-figured female, some stranger who did not interest me at all, except in that she could serve as pretext for my display of stealthy adoration and longing. It was my intention to announce myself through indirection. To let my eyes linger down upon in worship of the abundant wonders of another . . .

    Of a sudden the sense of the Dominant bearing witness washed over me like a wave ... my eyes swung up to see her frankly taking me in, with a look of pitiless recognition. As I'd known she would, she saw thru the weak duplicity my ploy effortlessly, her gaze stripping me of my cunning.

    A flush in grateful shame, I could not even hazard, in that terribly brief moment, to lift my glass to my lips. The thirst I experienced drained me. Her frankly taking me in had entered my viscera unimpeded, churning and emptying my vanity. I was by rapid turns possessed, and bereft.

    When her eyes left me, they left with such deft and sudden certainty the effect was of my having been dropped from a great height. Although it had lasted no longer than a glance, her quick appraisal both claimed and isolated me. More alone than I had ever been, I yet felt surrounded and exposed. For an indeterminate time my vision seemed occluded. I could not focus, nor even hear the sounds in the crowded club.

    Coming back to my wits finally, the din of the club's tumult assaulted my ears. Desperately, I searched after the Dominant thru the shattering shadowy chaos of many aimlessly jostling bodies. But I could not find her.  The crowd pressed close and frantically I stared past them. Sagging with a sense of unworthiness, grief-stricken at having been so soon abandoned so immediately upon having been so thoroughly claimed, I was breathless with despair.

    When I felt the hand at my hip and the heat of her form close behind me, it was not necessary to turn around. Exhaling, I closed my eyes and lowered my head and awaited her guidance. Nameless to one another, the conditions of our relation were already crystal clear.