Welcome to Gaia! ::

Work Levi was a vastly different creature than fun Levi - he had traded vests and pressed slacks for a pair of dark skinnies and a soft, white button up with rolled up sleeves and a button left undone above his breastbone. He liked simplicity in clean cuts, from the lines of his shoulder seam to the fine side part of his hair where it had been measured and slicked down. He was used to not standing out in a crowd and that had been his aim, here, where he sat down at the bar and leaned his ribcage into it. It had taken no time to get an old-fashioned planted in his fingertips and his gaze had drifted out to the crowd, picking out figures as they twirled and writhed to the music blaring down through the speakers. Dancing wasn’t his forte but he did love to watch them move.

When the woman and her vibrant hair popped into his peripherals, his matching gaze drifted first across the wild tresses and then to her eyes. He had noticed her, moving in and out crowds, drifting from within his vision and out again. Someone so bright and full of life was hard to ignore, he had to admit, but he wasn’t prepared to be face to face with her - at least not without his own attempt to initiate it.

For a moment, he felt a small flash of guilt over her forwardness but then, in the end, simply reminded himself that Jade had been given a chance to be here tonight. He wasn’t always the one with other duties to attend to. It made him feel the balance in their relationship at times when he felt like he was neglectful but, too, he did miss her. This breath of life was entirely right.

He was lonely.

“One of those things is true,” he admitted with a sly smile, sliding his eyes away from her long enough to catch the bartender’s attention between flashes of a nearby laser. A small circular gesture with his finger and another drink was being processed without her input. That was generally the purpose of these approaches, especially if a girl was only opting to drink water on her own.

When his eyes fell back on hers, his attention was unwavering.

“Are you here to keep me company?”

The lanky man kept his smirk in place as Cass gave him glaring hint after glaring hint - in the way she assessed him approvingly and the feel of her more petite frame pressed into the line of his body, spurred by a boldness he found impossibly tantalizing. He obviously had no objections to his personal space being invaded, though he did raise both eyebrows in mocking question of her the moment she took his drink for her own. His tongue was poised on a quip but automatically paused when hers slipped out and ran the line of her lips instead, drawing his attention down to her mouth.

“I think you dance better alone,” he suggested, though he let her claim his hands and curl her fingers around the long, skinny digits regardless of his words. It sounded like an objection but he was sliding to the edge of his seat and unhooking his feet from the rungs of his barstool so that he could slide both long legs to bar either side of her. “But if you really want me too, I’ll try not to hold you back.”

The hand she hadn’t claimed slid up to brush away a lock of vibrant, lime-toned hair. Tucking it behind her ear let him draw the fingers back down along her jawline, ending with a brush of his thumb below her bottom lip. He still hadn’t forgotten that tempting little tongue.

Without another word, and a smirk still firmly on his lips, he stood to his full height so that he could look down at her expectantly. Somewhere behind them, the bartender made a tut sound - the second drink was nearly ready but Levi had all but forgotten it in the wake of his new companion. There was enough of a buzz in his veins already that the dance floor didn’t seem altogether too threatening - he’d learned that was the key to his social phobias thanks to one Ms. Jade Argent - and he held their conjoined hands out with an easy, silent message written on his face.

Lead the way.

"Levi," he managed in the spare seconds before they were deep in the shifting crowd he had been watching from the sidelines not moments before. Before he had really gotten his grip on the amount of people, her arms were sliding up around his neck and he had no choice but to look down into a set of alluring eyes. In an instant, his own sly grin was echoing hers.

There was no choice but to give a small bend to his knees as she pulled him in - it was always a disparity when dancing with women - but he did it with a fluid dip that brought his face closer to hers. At the same time, one arm slid up and pressed against the small of her back so that he could draw her into him without limiting her ability to move. He wanted to know what it felt like to have that same, entrancing body writhing against his skin. That was why he kept coming back to dancers, again and again, even though he couldn't keep up for s**t - there was just something awing about the way they translated song to movement. Levi was a man that adored anyone so in tune with their art.

"Was I your first choice?" He asked, playful, once she began to move. Talking was a good way to distract from his flaws but, too, a good tool for deciphering who she was and exactly what she wanted. "Or plan B?"

Levi's lips parted in the wake of Cassedega's as they brushed by and he was aware, immediately, of a longing the little minx left behind. That ghost of a kiss ate away at his playfulness, turning a smug grin into a lecherous smirk, and by the time she pulled back to look at him again he was staring at through predator's eyes. They were drawn immediately to the lip ring she toyed with, just as she meant for them to be, and he had to laugh.

"You're good at this."

In the space of a breath, she had thoroughly put every inch of his focus where she wanted it. Lustful, hormone filled boy that he was, he was still capable of assessing a woman's skills. It was part of his job, after all.

Convinced that she wasn't the type of woman to give him idle threats, he roused himself from the still she had induced and forced himself to stop watching the way her words pouted her lips. Instead, he brought his gaze up to meet a matching pair and settled his free hand on the curve of her waist. It let his thumb dip into the hollow of hip and he took advantage of that, pressing against the fabric of her shorts to draw her attention to the strength of his hands.

As his smirk settled to a simper, he offered her a small sway of his hips to prove he was paying attention now.

"Take the lead, Cass."

Levi would have been lying if he said knowing what to expect removed some of her charm - he was thoroughly spell bound by the way her hips rocked into his and the roll of her spine each time she writhed against his core. With half his thoughts on the beat he was meant to keep and half on the small strip of skin that flashed between her shorts and knee-highs, it was a wonder he managed to move at all.

"Nah, that's just my natural state," he offered with a wry smirk of his lips, bringing up one hand so that he could catch her by the chin and hold her eyes on his, "especially when I'm so outclassed."

His thumb and forefinger pressed a gentle pressure on the grip he held before he released it with a chuckle, meeting the sway of her hips with his at the same time that he tried to make sure he didn't trip over his own feet - or hers. The bright, lime eyes were smoldering with each brush of her warm skin and the pressure she exerted in playful little sways. It drove him mad, if he were being honest, but some part of Levi refused to let her win at her game without at least a little effort. He knew he was easy in the face of someone equally as bold as they were appealing but there was always that small, competitive part of him that wanted to see her really put the effort into getting what she wanted.

Both of his arms caught her by the hips and turned her, dragging her back and against him so that the line of her spine met the strength of his abs. One hand remained at her hips while the other slid up her side and shoulder in a long, teasing sweep that finally came to rest with his fingers nestled in her hair. The pressure wasn't much, but he tugged gently at the same time that his lips dipped and spoke low to her ear.

"But I don't mind a little biting."

The more he pushed, the more she pulled, and Levi found himself enthralled with her ability to adapt to him without missing a beat. He caught her hips and mimicked the sway and roll even as his eyes stared down the long line of her exposed throat and the hollow just above her breasts which, really, only further complicated his divided attention.

"You're doing a good job already," he answered, trailing it into a laugh that rumbled deep in his chest. The hand at her hips slid along the hem of her shorts, down along the hollow of her hip in a swift tease, and then back up until he could press his palm on the curve of her hip and hook one of his fingers in the belt loop closest to him. It let him test where her hips were swaying before she dipped and though it wasn't quite 'loose', he did seem to be paying a little more attention to what she was doing.

His lips next to her ear brushed the cuff of it lightly before he pulled away, trying to find a peace in the music that would distract him from all of the things he actually wanted to be doing more than dancing. She was good at this art, even if it wasn't exactly marketable in the way others were that he appreciated so deeply. The fact that he could tell she liked his admiration, too, was making it all the harder to resist her wicked charms - her fingers held him close even if he wasn't trying to stay and one of her hands curled into his shirt like she could still feel the bare skin beneath it. <********, he didn't like to admit he could be bested by pretty lips and the roll of hips but he was. Absolutely and completely.

"You've got me out of my element right now, Cass. Just wait." Because she had the upper hand went it came to temptation but there was always a round two.