Her Superhero Lover

Grady Voelker had that same sort of magnetism, she thought, watching him in the crowd. He could have held up his hand, circled it, and taken a third of the room with him, all women in tight skirts, sexy tops, or dresses that showed a ton of leg. What surprised her was that he didn’t. Instead, he kept circling, like a satiated lion just patrolling his savanna, relaxing the whole time. He stopped by the bar and spoke to Lin, who was behind the counter at the time, and while Renee couldn’t hear what was being said due to her headphones, she could see Lin point towards her, and then say a few more things. Grady nodded his thanks and made his way back into the crowd. She watched him make his way towards the front of the room, people parting for him like he had an invisible force field that just gently moved others aside at about a foot away. Soon, he was at the front of the room, almost within touching distance of her table on stage. Renee was glad the speakers in Bang Bang were in the ceiling, or else Grady would have been deaf by the end of the set.

Checking the clock on her laptop, she saw that it was time for one last song. She pulled out one of her favorites for Bang Bang, a remix of LMFAO cross mixed with the South Korean group Bangtan Boys. The familiar beat caused a few of the Bang Bang regulars to cheer loudly, and she threw herself into it, letting it all go. Using her controls expertly, she blended the two songs for the next eight minutes, until her fingers were tingling and her forearms ached from the quick changes of her switches. Wrapping it up with a clash of drums, she brought the lights up to the applause of the crowd. “All right Bang Bang, the party’s not done, but this DJ’s going to need to get some refreshments. So hang tight, cause in thirty minutes, it’s Litezout one more time.”

Switching it over to a standard dance playlist she used for her break periods, she made her way off stage, where the manager was waiting for her in the back with a bottle of cold water. “You’re perhaps the only DJ I know who doesn’t take advantage of our free drink policy,” the manager said as Renee sipped at the Evian. “Why is that?”

“I want the second and third sets to be just as good as the first,” Renee replied. “And I don’t handle alcohol very well. Unless you don’t mind a third set filled with junior high love ballads.”

The manager laughed, his laughter dying off as he looked behind Renee. She turned, and saw Grady standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Up close, she could see he was even more handsomely dressed than she had seen in the club. “Hi.”

The manager looked at Grady, then over at Renee, then back at Grady before shrugging. “I’ll give you guys some quiet. Just remember, your next set starts in ten minutes.”

“I gotcha.” She waited until the manager left then turned to look at Grady. “You cut quite the figure out on the floor. To be honest, I was a bit surprised you came by. I thought you were just being nice the other day at the shoot.”

“Not at all,” Grady replied, coming closer. He stopped when he was about a foot away, and Renee had to look up to see him, even in her high heeled boots she wore with her outfit. “I came because you were helpful and interesting to talk to at the shoot, and because I was intrigued by the description of your show. When I did a little online research, you’ve gotten some great reviews. After all, when the San Diego Weekend calls you one of the top five DJ’s in the area, and that we should catch your act now before you are snatched up into LA or New York, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. I was right.”

“Well, thanks,” Renee replied, feeling her face flush. She was glad for her dark skin tone in times like this, it hid blushing very well. “But that was just the mainline set. I get to really show off the next two sets. You going to stick around? I mean, you must have work tomorrow, and banker’s hours and all.”

Grady gave her a small, confident smile and shook his head. “I’m the owner, I think I can call for a long weekend if I want to. Besides, I have a very good executive assistant who can probably run the whole company better than I can. I wouldn’t miss these other sets for the world. Can I ask, will you be back here after the other sets?”

“Sure, I normally take my breaks back here. Why?”

“Oh, no reason. I look forward to the other sets.”

Motivated by knowing Grady was watching, Renee’s second set went even better than her first. As she mixed and revamped her songs, she kept an eye on Grady, whose presence, more than ever, was magnetic to every attractive woman in the crowd. The first set always had professionals and couples who were out for a night on the town, which while fun meant they were somewhat restrained. By the second set however, most of the working professionals had gone home, and the crowd was younger, wilder, and mostly single. With serious party people in the audience, Renee had to respond with even more, driving the tempos in both directions. It was her specialty, she felt, knowing when to take it into a electronic dance frenzy, and when to take it down into something bass heavy and sensual. She thought some of the beats and tones she used bordered on erotic, which is exactly where she wanted to keep it. While she hadn’t felt much action over the past few months, that didn’t mean she didn’t understand the need for the people in the audience to find that s*xual release, or to bring people together.

As the songs went on, she saw more and more bodies touching, skin brushing skin as hands went under shirts or legs came into contact with one another. Still she noticed, Grady Voelker kept pretty much to himself, dismissing most of the women who came his way with a polite yet firm refusal. She even saw a couple of the regulars, girls who were cheerleaders for the San Diego State squad hit on him, and he just shook his head with his smile and turned them away. It was both interesting and surprising. She wondered if she had read him all wrong, and perhaps Grady was gay? She’d never seen a man have so many high quality women practically throw themselves at his feet and not pick up at least one or two for later.