The playlist was the perfect mix of music for this occasion and, she knew, it would get her into the right mindset.
As she thumbed through the selections looking to find a good starting point — which was crucial, she learned, because you have to set a strong tone right from the beginning when you’re giving a lap dance — Tony asked a simple question that Cassie had been dreading.
“So, uh, how do we do this?” he said.
Immediately, she was nervous again.
“Alright, ground rules,” she said. “Let’s try not to make this awkward.”
Easier said than done.
Even though Tony was on the couch in front of her and she was a good five or so feet away, she was already closer to him in an intimate setting than she ever planned on being. While she was in the bathroom, she told Tony to move the small wooden table that was in front of the couch and there was now nothing between the two of them but a couple of feet of space and uncomfortable, unspoken thoughts.
“Err, more awkward,” she corrected herself, steadying her voice so that what she said next sounded completely unemotional.
“So, I’m going to strip down to my lingerie first. I’ll do that from over here. You can watch me, you can stare but absolutely nothing more than that. If you feel things tightening up ‘down there,’ you can make adjustments but don’t be weird about it. What you do when I leave is your business, not mine and I don’t want to think about it.”
Cassie took a deep breath. Already these rules were helping her feel more in control and doing wonders for her confidence.
“When I’m down to my lingerie, I’ll dance for you for a little while and try to keep it sexy,” she said. “When I’m ready … and ONLY when I’m ready, I’ll give you your lap dance.”
Tony nervously nodded. Fuck. She might really do this.
“Nothing funny,” she warned. “If you make this weirder than it already is, I’m leaving. You can talk, you can ask questions, I won’t punish you for that. I get it. It’s strange. But don’t get pushy. Don’t make me feel weird, okay?”
Tony took a breath and nodded.
“And no touching,” she said. “Absolutely no touching. If I’m OK with you touching after we’ve started, I’ll tell you. If you’re not sure if you should, don’t. If you think you should, ask first. But I don’t want to ruin this and I don’t want it to get uncomfortable. Let’s just do the tease and the dance and call it a night. Are we clear?”
“Definitely,” Tony said. “I have one question though.”
“Okay?”
“Are you …” Tony really didn’t want to complete this next sentence but he had to know the answer. He had to. “It’s totally cool if you’re not going to but are you … are you planning to … will you … how much are you, uh, going to show?”
Cassie sighed. It was a perfectly reasonable question and one with an answer she didn’t want to verbalize.
“That depends on how this goes,” she said. “I really can’t say. I don’t know. I don’t want to think about that right now. I want to make this fun for you and maybe I’ll show a good amount but I’m not going to do anything I don’t want to do. Let’s just see how this goes. Okay?”