Author's Notes: Sorry this took so long. Real life intervened - I am so stressed out right now, you guys. Everything's just happening at once. I'll try to keep updating more often.

Het warning, this chapter only. It's downplayed but it's there. Also, if you're enjoying this story, please review. I always reply to reviews, and I really love reading them – sometimes they even inspire plot twists.

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Well, that didn't go as planned. Lily had meant to tease Nina just a little, just enough to sate her own hunger. She knows herself well; power will do as much for her as sex, most times, and often manipulation is more fun than seduction.

This is no longer one of those times. That last kiss, so damn insistent and so very unlike the usual Nina, got to Lily more than she wants to admit. Now she aches with the need to strip Nina down and make her plead for release, make her scream Lily's name at the height of her pleasure, and then make her beg for the chance to return the favor. That would be perfect satisfaction, power and lust, but she can't, not yet. Nina's still too fragile, she'll shatter under too much pressure, and Lily needs her to be strong enough to dance the Swan Queen. The company comes first, always.

If she can't have Nina, then she'll find someone else. Not within the company, though. Lily's desire has reached the point where it could be perceived as weakness, and she won't let herself be anything but completely in control with her employees. Tonight she just wants to fuck someone she's never seen before and with a little luck will never see again, do it rough and wild until she forgets about how much she enjoyed Nina getting the upper hand for a second.

So Lily goes out clubbing. She doesn't even need to change; these days she tends to haunt clubs a bit up-market from the kinds of places she hung out in her youth, and her daily clothes are dressy enough to get her in the door with no cover charge. Lily remembers those wild days fondly, but she wouldn't quite fit in with the same crowd now. She's grown too calculating, too careful, for the reckless world she used to inhabit. It's not precisely paradise lost, but nostalgia is another thing Lily cannot afford, and she shoves it aside as she goes out on the prowl.

She finds a promising-looking club and takes to the dance floor, eyeing the people who watch her. Lily is fairly equally split in her attraction to both sexes, but tonight she wants something to take the taste of Nina out of her mouth, so she smiles back at the men who admire her. She only wants one thing, so she waits for them to approach her, playing along with their attempts to seduce her. It's easy for her, that way, to simply make her choice and let him think he's won her.

Lily has several options to choose from, as always, but only one seems really promising. He's dark-haired and dark-eyed, assured of himself; he just buys her a drink and gives her a smile to go with it. "So what're you doing here tonight, gorgeous?" he asks, as if he's the bar owner trying to schmooze with a regular.

"Dancing and drinking," Lily replies. "And trying to forget someone."

"Oh yeah? What'd he do to you that you want to forget him?"

She smiles. "It's not what she did, it's what she didn't do."

"She?" His eyebrows go up, and she can almost feel the excitement radiating off him. Knowing she sleeps with girls makes her irresistibly attractive to most men.

"I play for both teams. Not that I exactly got to the championship with her," Lily tells him, smirking. From there it's a foregone conclusion. He feels like he has to win her over for the sake of straight men everywhere, and prove that he's a better lover than the woman she's trying to forget. Lily lets him; he's just what she wants. Even better, when they dance together they mesh perfectly. That little click of rhythms syncing is the best indicator for Lily of how good someone will be in bed, and with this man whose name she's already forgotten, all the signs are good.

They're all over each other in the cab to his apartment, and he's good with his hands, knows just how to touch her. Once inside neither of them can wait, and he has her up against the wall, not even bothering to undress. Even in the grip of such powerful lust, Lily makes sure to be safe; she does this too often to be cavalier about it. Once she knows she's protected, though, she abandons herself, crying out wordlessly and clawing his back. Lily can let herself go with this stranger as she can't with her dancers; there'll be no questions later, no challenge to her authority.

After, over drinks and cigarettes, they make their way to the bedroom and get started on the second round. This time it's slower, more thorough, and Lily moans in sheer delight at the way he caresses her. "God, you're perfect," he growls in her ear, gripping her hips as he enters her again.

I know, she thinks, but whispers back, "So're you, baby, so are you," as she wraps her legs around his waist. Perfect for what she wants, what she needs, and for a few minutes she completely forgets about Nina.

Lily might stay the night, but she'll make sure to wake before he does. She doesn't do mornings-after if she can help it; better just to go, and leave nothing of herself behind. No note, no phone number, only memories. That's how she prefers it, with everyone except her dancers. With them, things tend to get more … complicated.