Sappho Intl (Songs of Silk Book 1) Read online

  “So I guess this is our version of a team meeting, huh?”

  I casually hit the blunt and released again.

  “Pretty cool isn’t it? I always felt that the Intl shouldn’t really be thought of as a company, more like a secret sisterhood—we live by a different set of rules.”

  “Well, I love it and I’m already lovin’ being a part of it.”

  “Me too…which was exactly why I gave up modeling and climbed up the ranks a few years ago. It was my golden ticket out of the rat race…to achieve all of my dreams while having a damn good time...”

  Kendra beamed as she conversed.

  “I make my own hours, meet who I want when I want and still be Kendra 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It’s heaven on earth and every day I’m banking bees and honey.”

  “Bees and honey?”

  “Money, luv, money!”

  “Dats wassup.”

  “I feel a little over-dressed though.” I said with sarcasm as I looked at my grey dickie pants, black tank and black-on-black leather Converse All-Stars, then looked at the three beautiful goddesses wearing nothing but pink lace panties and pink and black corsets.

  “We always dress like this. We’re wearing NinaStarr’s Femme Fatale Collection.” The girls giggled as Kendra struck a pose.

  “Yeah, NinaStarr makes all of the burlesque uniforms and most of the outfits that you see throughout the Sapphire Lounge, SocialClub9, and the Cloud9 events.” Lolita added while pretending like her hands had transformed into a camera's lens and was taking Kendra’s photograph.

  “Once the new social networking site gets up and running, I’ll probably have a full clothing line available to all our Sapphians from my own personal boutique—strictly streetwear and lingerie until I’m brass enough to eventually have my own couture house.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “This is nothing. Just wait until you see all of my costumes at Cloud9 and SocialClub9. I have a small studio in the Miami Fashion District that was purchased by the Intl. Kendra models and fits the clothes and Lolita’s gotten very good with a camera. For all of the costumes and fashions that are sold within the Trust’s network, we share the profits with Sappho Intl.”

  “That’s cool.”

  NinaStarr seemed to be the confident and creative visionary within their group.

  “What do you do on the side, boss?”

  “I write poetry…lyrics for musicians…and I play the guitar and a few other instruments.”

  “I’m not surprised…cuz you seem like somewhat of a renaissance stud.”

  “I guess I am…what I seem to be...”

  I chased the weed that’d filled my system by drinking a swig of Dos Equis, which was my usual ritual, and passed the blunt to the beautiful, long-legged Nubian that was propped on a white pillow next to me.

  I kissed Kendra’s luscious, exotic lips and sat back to absorb the band of beauties that had encircled me, along with the high that was now slowly spreading within me.

  “Ooh, you kiss very well.” Kendra smiled with splendor.

  “I have to tell you, Silk, or I should say—boss—I can see why PrimaDonna has you on the fast track. You’re gonna give the other stallions a run for their money. I’m privileged to be on your team.” Lolita proclaimed while caressing my hair.

  “So, Silk, how does it feel to know that you’re being primed as the newest stallion in the Intl, anyway?” Kendra toked and puffed.

  “It’s surreal. I mean, I still can’t really believe that the Trust exists, let alone that it has existed for so long and that I get to party with these people.”

  “I was blown away when Flourish told me about the Trust. I mean, they have a part in governments, whole industries…anything that you can think of—the Trust has access to it or owns it. You’ll be surprised. It’s like having the whole world in your little black book. And having that much access to power and fortune is so sexy…it’s a natural high…almost euphoric—you’ll see.”

  Kendra was a royal, Nubian queen—a new age Nefertiti. She was the tallest out of the team, about the same height as myself, with very closely cropped hair and skin of the deepest, most opulent dark chocolate that I’d ever seen. Her ebony eyes and elongated neck told the story of a time of antiquated glory and I was entranced as she spoke.

  “By the way I’m Kendra, luv.”

  “She already knows your name, crazy.” Lolita and Kendra giggled together.

  “Kendra doesn’t smoke very much at all.”

  The high was starting to take hold of Kendra almost immediately.

  ”I’m originally from Capetown, South Africa. However, I spent most of my young life in the U.K. where I was first afforded the opportunity to model in Paris. But after a while I got bored with the superficial glitz…AND the long shoots…I can remember whenever we would take a shoot in New York we would go to the Sapphire Lounge in Manhattan. I always felt there was something more to it, underneath the surface. It had a vibe that was a little different then the regular gay and lesbian clubs. So I got a job as one of the go-go dancers and then got invited to be one of the burlesque girls in SocialClub9: Manhattan. PrimaDonna asked if I wanted to come to be a part of the Miami hub before last year’s Cloud9. That’s where it REALLY started raining and pouring, luv. I made more money in a month there than I did modeling in a year. Isn’t that insane?”

  Kendra puffed and passed the blunt to Lolita. She then locked lips with her, as she tenderly caressed her face in the spotlight of the moon.

  “I never dreamed that I would be having this much fun and be making as much money and contacts as I would here at the Playhouse. It’s crazy…”

  “Right…” Lolita added as she took a pull from the spliff and laid back casually on Kendra’s lap. “…I used to be a dancer at this club in L.A. just to get by…and being around women who can appreciate women just is much safer and much more sensual. Men can be so boorish and boring. We women…we still have that creative butterfly flickering in our brains…I don’t know, maybe I just love women…and I love me a gorgeous stud even more…” The smoke from the blunt danced from Lolita’s exotic lips as though the butterfly that she referred to had been impelled to jump for a moment from her lips to kiss the sky.

  Lolita seemed as though she was plucked straight from an anime graphic novel or a Tokyo hair salon in the Shinjuku District. Her freckled cheeks were a sharp contrast to her Japanese features and gave her an amazingly, animated appearance. NinaStarr and she were about the same height and both were about a half foot shorter than I. Her shiny black and purple streaked hair streamed down her back and onto the lap of Kendra. And she championed a large Japanese koi fish tattoo that cascaded down the bulk of her body and seemed to come alive and thrive vibrantly in the waterfall that adorned her.

  “You’ll be surprised that a few of these members—don’t even know if they’re full on lesbians yet. They just know how to appreciate a woman’s beauty and like to watch the action. They love the company and we welcome them.”

  Lolita turned around and kissed Kendra on the thigh three times.

  The kisses’ notes resounded like the bell that rings when angels get their wings, as my high hailed ascending heights beneath the star filled sky. There was so much beauty in the mixture of their multiplicity and how they intermixed so easily with one another. It was like enjoying a flight within my own afterlife.

  I looked directly at Lolita and asked in wonderment,” What are your origins, super cutie?”

  “My mom was from Tokyo and my dad was from Sydney. They both mixed it up in L.A. which is where I was raised. But when they split up, I ended up in Arizona. I worked at SocialClub9: Arizona AND the San Francisco Sapphire Lounge. I even worked at one of the cyber lounges and coffeehouses that one of the Trust’s members owned in San Francisco. After I left, I heard that the Trust went in with them to turn it into one of the Elements.”

  “…a coffeehouse?”

  “Hell yeah! Like Kendra said, the Trust has a hug
e member’s list and their Sapphians have their hands in a piece of everything. Have you ever been to any of the P.R.I.D.E.S.?”

  “Have I? I used to go every year.”

  “Well, the Trust and many of its members have been some of the main sponsors for the various P.R.I.D.E. festivals worldwide, for as long as gay and lesbian pride has been celebrated within the mainstream. The Trust has seen and done it all. And an invitation into the Trust comes with a real, REAL deep network.”

  ”It’s like made up of different levels…from young, working queers who just like to party and be a part of the social network…to the entrepreneurs and professionals, looking to connect and have a blast within our community…and all the way up to the mega-rich, who have more than enough time to play and more than enough money to pay. There is no discrimination and really no lines to blur the different groups. Like we said before, we live by a different set of rules, fer sure.” Lolita pulled the smoke in deeply and passed the blunt to NinaStarr.

  Kendra was now looking at me deeply.

  “Your eyes are so clear…like, I can see your future…”

  “Girl, you are blazed already…Kendra has a very, very low tolerance, despite the fact that she’s a sassy-ass…”

  “No, really it’s like looking into a crystal ball…like I’m a fortune teller…”

  I laughed which in turn started a domino effect as Kendra and Lolita also began to giggle.

  But then NinaStarr suddenly kissed Lolita and it was as though their clinched lips shot sparks into the night. Their bodies were illuminated, as they closed their eyes and my body made their passion hard to deny, as my mind painted a portrait of the event. Their friendship and chemistry was becoming apparent, as I began to get more and more acquainted. If Kendra was seductively sassy and Lolita was deliciously sweet, NinaStarr was seriously sensual and serene. Therefore, all three of them together were a cocktail that I had to experience.

  NinaStarr let the back of Lolita’s head go as she took her drag from the blunt and although she’d been relatively quiet up until now, she finally began to speak.

  “I’m originally from Chicago and before you ask…Iroquois Indian and Irish. I was a go-go dancer at the Chicago Sapphire Lounge and a burlesque girl slash pin-up girl slash waitress at SocialClub9: Chicago. I’d been the designated in-house costume and freelance designer for Sappho Intl for a few years before PrimaDonna finally proposed that I join the Miami Playhouse about a year ago. And I do agree that you are the most divine living creature that I have ever had the pleasure of being in the company of...”

  She was direct and highly blunt—even while blunted. She ingested the ganja as though she was a professional and had purposefully fallen into a tantric trance. And although the meditation soothed her soul she remained highly lucid.

  NinaStarr was a shooting star. She had classic black and smoke inked arm sleeves and diamond dimple piercings in her cheeks. Her green eyes and striking long, red and loosely curled locks reminded me of those paintings of Eve in the Garden of Eden. She was so cool on the surface and yet her aura was a bright point of light radiating within the night sky—like her name suggested.

  NinaStarr was naturally striking and smart to boot. And it seemed that when she spoke, everyone listened—and right now, it was her time to command the podium.

  Unlike the light-heartedness of the other two of the Trio, she chose to tap into her internal source and evoke a serious message, as the tip from the spliff glowed red and burned slow.

  “My people were seers and oracles. I have the ability to tap into my higher being and align my mind, body and soul at will. I can raise my vibrations and manifest divine knowledge easily—which basically means that I can see deep into your cosmic trail because the signs are all around us.”

  “We three within this trio are all best friends and are all coincidentally the same age—25. We also all coincidentally have little to no living family, despite being from different areas of the international map. You, Silk are around the same age and are of the same circumstance. I believe there is no such thing as coincidences.”

  “I say that to say that you have a guardian that’s been watching over you for a long time, Silk. A certain woman has been reaching out to you as a higher power for as long as you can remember and has impelled certain people to surround you—even now.”

  “Wow, how’d you know this?”

  I began to sober up a little as she dropped knowledge. This was more than a twist of fate. How could she know about this mysterious woman? What was the correlation of this woman and me in the greater scheme of things and why had NinaStarr been the one to divulge this information to me? All of these events, including this very moment were happening for a reason and I was now deeply linked to NinaStarr, as well as what she had to tell me.

  “I’ve always believed that it was my mother, although she looks a little older than what I remember of her.”

  “I’m not sure who this woman is, but I do know that I can feel her energy moving around you and compelling me to speak from my heart.”

  “There’s a lot more to Sappho and the Trust than meets the eyes. There are dual realities occurring at any given time. While money and success is a reality to members of the Trust and a fantasy for us, love and passion is a reality to us and the fantasy for them. Love and true passion can be more powerful and intoxicating—because it knows no boundaries. It’s like a drug. So give it in careful doses.”

  “Sex can be seen as a recreational drug to control and overpower weak individuals or it can be given as a subset of love to inspire and edify. This is the sole reason as to your importance within Sappho and the future of the Trust, Silk. You’re being called to continue building within this organization to inspire cooperation within the various economic levels to unite all of the members for a greater future. The Trust was meant to not only preserve the happiness of all of its current members, but to accelerate the growth of newer, younger and more ambitious members like us. We are the future of Sappho and the Trust.”

  “The virtual feeds and the social networking website are only a few of the facilities with which the Trust is evolving, but there are certain members that are not too keen on things changing. You’re here to be the new face of the Intl but also the key to Sappho’s evolution. And they may not know it yet…but I see it clearly and it all starts in this house. There is a season for all…and a time and turn for everything …and the evolution IS not televised.”

  “Girl, that’s deep! You got me hyped, luv.”

  “I know…Starr-light…I have never heard you talk this serious before!”

  We all listened intently now, as though we were kids being read a bedtime story before being tucked in for the night. And NinaStarr continued.

  “We want to inspire these women through our events and appeal to continue to reach higher. When it's all said and done, we may be able to have lesbian music networks, glamorous fashion and film networks, media outlets…anything our little minds wants to attain... simply by continuing to bridge the gap between the creative sources and the commercial purchasing power that exists WITHIN this secret little network. Ladies, this has been our golden ticket to date and now we’re about to pimp our rides. We’re about to be our own promotions vehicle within this network.”

  “So here’s the vision. Silk, you should see US as your eyes and ears within the Intl. We got your back. You said you have a passion for music, writing and poetry, right? If that’s the case then let your sex appeal work for you in more ways than one…if this is your stage, let us be your fly hype girls. We hype what you naturally have—sex appeal—and increase your worth and your stock behind the scenes. We also keep the hype going, even after the events, to sustain your appeal. All you’ll need to do is to live up to the hype. Before you know it, you’ll be getting more personal call requests than you can handle. You’ll be Sappho’s IT-stallion of the year.”

  “…and from the looks of things Flourish is already hypnotized by IT, so I know you got the s
kills for IT.”

  As NinaStarr articulated the vision, the other two began to chime in.

  “…fo real. I peeped your voodoo tattooed all over Flo’s body…you got that girl sprung already.”

  I laughed.

  “Silk, you laugh but to these women. Sex, love, and attention from a femme OR a stud…it’s like liquid gold…it’s priceless to them…”

  “The fact of the matter is that the Trust is going through major transformations right now. You have one side wanting to preserve the ritualistic and older way of doing things within the Trust and another side wanting to preserve the organization by becoming a little more modern and evolving as a group. Regardless of which way they go, one thing has always been and will always remain—the Intl aims to please and will stop at nothing to keep their Alices pleasured.”

  “Another thing you’ll begin to pick up on is that these women love the fantasy that surrounds them—and they also love to run their mouths. This is where we come in because we have our ears to the ground. We not only become your eyes and ears, but also promote their fantasy of you, for you. We spend most of our time around these ladies. So, in the midst of the gossip we become your ultimate hype women while you remain untouchable. It keeps you presentable but gives the illusion of being almost unattainable. That means you don’t have to bend over backwards to flirt, provide foreplay, or really break a sweat in the chase of these women, because we’ve already warmed them up for you and done much of the research and dirty work on these ladies to save a lot of valuable time. It’s the ultimate promotions vehicle. You’ll know a lot about these women before they even cum your way... no pun intended.”

  Weed has various effects on people. This night the ganja had us all unrepentantly talking and thinking deeply. Some of the greatest creations have come after an innocent smoking session and this plan would be going down in history as one of those great creations. And so far, this plan sounded fail-proof to me. It was almost like my life’s purpose had been revealed to me in an instant. I couldn’t help but think that all of my angels had been watching over me all along.