Incite Me

Chapter 5

It was warm and sunny outside, with a gentle breeze faintly whistling through tall bushes next to a sidewalk. Carrying my jacket over one hand, I pressed my small clutch to the chest. Dorian strode next to me, guiding the way to the bar in the area I've only been on several occasions before. His hand kept reaching out for the small of my back but he kept his urges to himself. With commercial offices on one side and small antique shop on the other, a bar called Knight's Tale stood right in between in a long street. Inside, the place looked fairly quiet and we were greeted by a warm smile of an old man standing behind the bar.

"Hi, Dorian." He bowed his head slightly, "Nice to see you again."

"Likewise, Vince." Dorian replied quickly with a tense pitch in his voice. Perhaps I wasn't the first girl he brought here? Of course I wasn't! He must have taken the blonde model to this bar too. Serial gigolo...

"Pick a table, I'll come right over." Vince nodded and carried on circling a tea-towel inside one of the wine glasses.

"No need, we'll be at the back." Dorian announced and walked in front of me, guiding our way to the far end of the room.

Not thinking much of it, I looked around a quite worn and torn room and couldn't understand why did we, wearing our best set of clothing, end up here, in this more or less shithole with caving ceiling fixtures, windowless, mouldy, chipped walls and a distinct stench of piss and spilled beer. Walking few feet behind Dorian and trying not to trip on my extremely uncomfortable wedges, I caught up with him and couldn't help but ask, "Can't we go somewhere else?"

Slowly, he turned at me and raised his thick dark eyebrows with confidence, then pointed at a small door frame in front of us. "There's private bar area, just behind this wall."

The doors were almost invisible in the same worn-out dark wallpaper as the rest of the walls. I halted astonished, "You've got to be kidding me." Something inside me whispered that it was a bad idea to proceed further although my curiosity blazed high.

"Not at all." Said Dorian with a snide smile curving his lips, "After you."

 

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Dorian asked with a cheeky grin, encouraging me to enter through the door.

"I'm not sure." I shook my head and locked my gaze onto him. I searched his bright face for a second. "Ok..."

Taking a deep breath, I lowered the handle and a dark narrow corridor sprung into view. I could hear a muted chatter, glasses clattering and music playing in an entwined buzz at the end of the dark confined space.

"The room is across that bend." Dorian said and pointed to my right where the dim light was coming from at the very end.

Stepping into a cold and rather scary corridor, I kept turning back to see if Dorian was behind me. I was petrified of not knowing what I'm getting myself into.

"I'm right here." He reassured, feeling my anxiety growing from the distance. I must have radiated fear. "You've got nothing to be afraid of as long as I'm with you."