Love Match

Short Story (Approx. 2800)

She was one of those shy girls, you know the type. The one in her group of friends who has to be cajoled into going out, who sits by herself, pretending to have fun, but who really can’t understand how this is supposed to be the epitome of youthful exuberance.

Not Eros’ type at all.

She was nursing a drink she probably hadn’t wanted, maybe hadn’t even bought and thought it rude to turn down. A man at the table over had attempted to do the old catch-her-eye trick to see if she might be adverse to his advances, but she’d either purposefully pretended not to notice or was simply that oblivious.

Eros thought she was simply that oblivious. He smiled to himself as he leaned on his elbow along the top of the banister railing above the dance floor, his legs kicked up and a foot touching the giant pole that extended into the ceiling but probably had nothing to do with actually supporting the building.

No one had come to tell him to come down. But then, he hadn’t let anyone see him yet either. He pushed himself into a sitting position, balancing on the railing as he twirled around to look at the dance floor itself with its writhing bodies. A group of girls here and there seemed to be having fun and in between couples grinded against one another. Sex, but not love.

Not his domain.

He looked further, finding the man he sought dancing awkwardly with a couple of friends. Another who had been dragged against his will. He seemed to be trying at least to fit in. Eros wasn’t sure if that made him better or worse than the girl behind him who didn’t seem to care that it was obvious she didn’t want to be here.

Now he simply had to figure out how to get them together from across the club. He looked at his phone. And he only had about half an hour before the club shut down. Casting a glance over his shoulder at the girl as she swallowed down the last of her drink, he amended that thought. Maybe he didn’t even have that long. And she was closer to the door. She’d never pass the man.

Hopping down off the railing, he morphed his clothes into something trendy, but not screaming of arrogance. Dark jeans and a tight black shirt. Simple, but still attractive. Then he leaned over the seat across from the girl and smiled.

“Mind if I sit here?”

She gave him a startled look, blinking rapidly, but nodded, gesturing in a way that told him she didn’t really care one way or another. So he sat and leaned his arms against the sticky surface of the table.

“What’s you name?”

She gave him that deer in headlights look again, as if it were impossible for someone to be asking her what her name might be. For a moment he thought maybe she’d forgotten it completely.

“Lilly.” Her voice had a quietness to it that made it hard to hear in the club.

“Lilly, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Ros. You don’t look like you’re enjoying yourself. Why’s that?”

She shrugged.

“The club scene not for you?”

She cocked her head, blond-streaked brown hair sliding off her shoulder, the straps of her blue tank and the lighter blue bra underneath becoming visible. Then she seemed to make some sort of decision. “The dance floor is coated with alcohol. The men are coated with sweat, most of them not bothering to even go wipe down in the bathroom. It stinks, some sort of unearthly combination of perfumes, colognes, sweat and alcohol. And do I really have to mention the music, because that DJ has yet to play more than a few bars of a single song since I’ve been here.”

Eros laughed. “You’re not drunk enough. The trick is to be plastered before you come in so that all those things cease caring.”

She eyed him skeptically. “You’re plastered?”

“No, not tonight.” Eros made a show of smelling his armpits. “Don’t think I’m sweaty either, but that’s probably because I haven’t been out on the floor. So here’s a question for you Lilly. Would you rather me buy you another of those overpriced well drinks or…would you mind taking a spin with me before this place shuts down?” He leaned in close and winked. “We can keep away from the spills.”

He watched her hesitate, her eyes traveling out towards the dance floor, obviously making a decision that had less to do with him and far more to do with the state of things out there. Then she nodded.

Eros guided her towards the edge of the dance floor, skirting around a mess before dragging her past the DJ’s riser in the pretext of getting out of the thick of things, but really got them situated closer to the man he’d eyed earlier. As he put his hands on her hips and slid a leg partially between hers and began to move, he cast a surreptitious look over his shoulder at the man. He could only see the man’s back, brown hair looking pink, then blue, in the light of the club. And he was dancing with someone else. That might be a problem.

The song did indeed change just about every ten seconds just as Lilly said, which made it hard to get a good rhythm going that made any semblance of sense. She wasn’t exactly stiff in his arms, but she wasn’t enjoying herself either, so he leaned in close to her ear to make conversation.

“Since you don’t like it here, why’d you come?”

“Friends,” she answered simply.

“Where are they now?”

He felt her shoulder move against his chest in a shrug. “Who knows.”

Chuckling in her ear, he circled them closer to the man he wanted, moving them just a little further into the heart of the dance floor so he could get a better look at who he might be dealing with. Hopefully it was just one of the man’s friends, not some bombshell hottie who would probably be open to a one-nighter, because that would seriously cramp Eros’ style and the club might find itself with a short-circuit in its sound system because he wasn’t known to be all that happy when things failed on him.

“I don’t often come here either, to be honest. More of a spur of the moment thing tonight.”

Lilly wasn’t one for conversation it seemed because she only gave a half-hearted nod, her eyes widening a little in an attempt at faking interest. At least this type of conversation. Something probably stimulated her, just not something Eros could deliver even had he wanted to.

As he turned her around again, sending a glance towards the man, he couldn’t hold back his gasp of surprise when he caught sight of the curly black haired beauty rubbing up against Lilly’s love match. She was wearing a tight gold dress, the back scooped out practically all the way down to her very shapely ass and the hem stopping only inches from revealing everything he’d seen before and wouldn’t ever mind seeing again. Just not when he was working.

He glared at her. She caught his eye and smirked at him as she licked up the man’s earlobe.

Eris.

He wanted to strangle her for interfering, no matter how gorgeous she looked, dancing in a place that was far beneath her.

Since Lilly didn’t seem inclined to conversation, he turned her so that he was dancing back to back with Eris and said under his breath so only the goddess could hear, “What are you doing here?”

“Having fun,” she said back.

“Can’t you find another man to fondle?”

“Can’t you find another man to throw at that girl?”

“You know that’s not how it works.”

“Stop being such a perfectionist. Give her to that muscled guy next to you.”

Eros looked out of instinct and growled back, “She’s probably smart enough to ditch him and if she doesn’t because I strike her too hard, he’d probably beat her once his heart swallows the arrow and the work sets in.”

“Oh, and that wouldn’t be fun at all.”

“E-ris.”

“I love it when you say my name all angry, Eros.”

“Get out of the club.”

“Make me.”

“Is there a reason you’re being such a bitch?”

“Because I was bored. And when I sought you out, you were working, so I decided that I should too.”

“So go mess with the DJ’s sound board or clog the toilets.”

“But then I wouldn’t get to hear your annoyed voice.”

Lilly was starting to get restless, looking off into the crowd like she wanted to be anywhere else. Eros didn’t blame her, considering he wasn’t exactly paying her much attention. But her match was right there. Right behind him, practically in her arms.

Just not…because he was technically in Eris’ arms.

He backed up a little until he could feel Eris’ ass grinding a little against his own and suddenly his penis started to take note. He had to pull away from Lilly a little, giving her an apologetic smile as Eris continued moving against him, her nails digging into his flesh right below his ass and making him heady with want.

“Now you’re teasing me as well?” he asked.

“It’s only teasing if I don’t plan on following through, Cupid.” She stressed his name strangely, like she always did. Laughing at him when Eros flashed her a glance over his shoulder. Her hand moved up, the nails now finding his ass. She couldn’t get much purchase through the jeans, but he could feel where she touched as if her fingers were on fire, burning him.

The pounding of the song suddenly changed again, bringing with it a massive strobe light effect that turned the world around him into movie frames instead of fluidly shifting people. For a moment, he contemplated Lilly and her predicament. Of the man behind him whose name was still unknown. He could find them again. Figure out a way to get them to meet. But right now…

He pulled away from Lilly between one flash and the next, yanking Eris off of the other man and stepping them both away while pulling Lilly smoothly into the man’s arms. The whole process took less than a second or two and he whirled around, cloaking himself from human eyes once more as he gathered Eris in his arms and pulled her lithe body down on his erection.

“You do crazy things to me, Discord.”

She merely gave that insufferable smirk, the scent of golden apples filling his lungs as he bent to kiss her. He swept his tongue into her mouth, the couple he’d come to match abandoned to their own devices behind him. His hands grasped the skin on her back where the scoop of her dress dipped. Around them, people danced, giving them space though they didn’t know why. Eros tilted his head and deepened the kiss, pulling in her apple-flavored scent as he sucked upon her tongue. Her wicked tongue that twined with his and pushed back against him, shoving its way into his mouth.

He reached down, finding the bottom of her dress and slipping his hand underneath. Smooth skin, firm with muscle, soft with womanly curves. He curled his fingers around her ass, nothing blocking his groping, no cloth, not even a thong. He broke the kiss with a groan, dropping his head into her shoulder, want causing him to shudder as she licked against his neck, all the way up to his ear, before slowly working her tongue back down.

“Your tongue is the worst of you,” Eros rasped. “You could cause wars with it.”

“I have caused wars with it,” she breathed into his ear.

He groaned again, grinding her roughly against his achingly hard dick. She threw her head back and laughed, black curls flashing in the strobe light, her teeth bright and her leg coming up around his thigh, rubbing sensually in time with the pulsing bass pouring into the club.

Eris leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his middle, her mouth finding his again. He pulled up her dress, getting a hold of her tightly as he fumbled with his jeans, pushing them down just enough to let his cock free.

It was Eris who reached down between them, pushing up until her breasts were pressing against his face, to stroke him into her. Eros grabbed her, yanking her down hard, his shaft entering into warmth and wetness, proof that Eris had had a ulterior motive after all.

In the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by mortal men and women drowning their short lives in drink and music, Eros made love while Eris fucked.

Someone spilled their drink, the cup splashing to the floor and spreading a mass of stickiness that spread around Eros’ feet, but didn’t touch him. Space opened around them, wider and wider as the humans took unconscious note of the gods.

Eros buried his face into Eris’ chest and shouted as he came, his arms crushing her against him. She grinded, flexing her muscles to prolong his orgasm and as he crashed down from the high, she threw her head back and moaned, the sound long and drawn-out, blending with the obnoxious beat of the club music.

And then they were still, gasping shallowly. The club came back into focus around Eros, the match he’d come to connect niggling at his mind for him to complete. He shouldn’t have lost his concentration like that. Shouldn’t have let Eris pull him away from duty as she was always wont to do.

Blinking, he lifted his head off of Eris’s shoulder, already starting to slide her off of his cock to let her back down on the floor. Before he could, Eris gave an annoyed huff of air that breezed past his cheek right before she arched her back, both arms going straight into the air as if she were letting the music flow through her.

Eros knew her better than that, already wincing.

Buzz! Pop!

The swirling disco balls exploded in showers of sparks. People screamed, pulled from their dancing and started running for the doors as a fire caught at the corner of the DJ’s riser. Bulky men in bouncer shirts shouted orders that were ignored in the ensuing panic.

Eris’ manic laughter rose above it all. She continued to sit upon his still hard dick, legs wrapped around his waist, arms spread wide, her expression full of ecstasy that had nothing to do with the orgasm that had so recently rushed through her system.

Eros watched her in fascination, loving her even more as people raced around them, still giving them a wide berth.

A familiar voice let out a shriek off to his side and Eros found his instincts firing up, needing him to save Lilly from the stampede, but when he turned, the man he’d intended for her was already there, pulling her to her feet and wrapping an arm about her shoulders protectively as they pushed through the crowd towards the exit.

Eros watched them go, noting the easy way Lilly leaned into him, the way her fingers had looped into his belt in a motion of overt familiarity.

“Hmm, that was an unintended side effect,” said Eris as she finally slid off of him.

Laughing a little, Eros grinned down at her. “Thanks for the help.”

The club emptied around them, the fire still smoldering up on the DJ’s riser, the far-off siren of a fire engine coming closer. They walked up the steps out of the club, Eris tugging her dress into place as Eros tucked himself into his pants. Outside, he felt the need to turn right, ignoring Eris’ confused question.

Two blocks down, he saw his love match sitting at a table in a coffee shop. They were talking animatedly, Lilly’s face lighting up in excitement over her topic in a way that the club hadn’t been able to reproduce.

With subtle movements, he called his bow, took aim and let loose two arrows. They split as they crested the glass window and both of the two sitting at the table paused as the arrows slammed home. Then they laughed at each other as if nothing at all had happened.

Eros smiled to himself. A moment later, Eris ducked under his arm. She flicked her hand out to their left and the traffic light went dead. The cars merely slowed, turning the intersection into a four-way stop.

She gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment and leaned her head on his shoulder. He patted her in consolation and then turned them down the street, figuring he should put some space between Eris and the new match, just in case Eris became bored again.

The End