As moment the door seals us into the elevator I know we're in trouble. Gregory and I can barely be civil in a room where we could put a decent distance between us. In the elevator there's nowhere to run. I fold my arms, trying to ignore him as I watch the lights move along the bar above the door. AJ had to get a room on the top floor and of course Gregory would never settle for anything less then the best, so he's headed up to the top as well.
How long is this elevator going to take? It's already been years, and I can feel his eyes on me before he pretends to be looking away. What could Gregory be looking at that he hasn't seen before?
Watching the lights drag uncomfortably from two to three, I hear the rustling of silk as he loosens his tie. Why is he warm? It isn't warm in here, the air conditioning actually has it a little cooler then I'd like. For on insane moment I wonder if he's having a heart attack, if everything he's held inside is finally going to force its way out.
Gregory's eyes are on me again. Even without glancing secretively over to him, I can feel his gaze run up my leg. It's as hot as he looks.
"What are you looking at?" I ask him softly. I mean the words to sting, to hide my nervousness, but I can't bring the bite to my lips. Of course I hate the way he's nibbling at me with his eyes, don't I?
Looking away, Gregory just shrugs and feigns interest in the wall and the metal seam of the elevator door that's locked us in together. I never thought we'd be together again.
Tapping my fingers against my arm can't make the elevator go any faster. In fact the light seems to have stopped between four and five. That's just my imagination, isn't it?
The sickening thud of the elevator as it halts with a jolt is real. I nearly drop my purse in surprise, and even Gregory's knocked out of his daydream. He reaches for my shoulder, the soft light in his brown eyes reminds me of when he was my husband and there was care in his eyes when he looked at me. If only for a moment.
"Are you all right?" He asks chivalrously, but I step away from his hand.
Refusing to let him touch me as I remind him of the boundary between us. "I'm fine. What do you think just happened?"
"I don't know." He picks up the emergency phone and waits impatiently for the operator. "Damn thing isn't working. It'll probably start back up again soon."
Please God let it start up again. "It probably will." I echo his supposition without hearing my own words.
We continue to avoid each other's eyes. What is it there that frightens us?
The black straps of her heels caress her ankles in a way I'd give my own feet to do. As she shifts away from me, the slit in her long black skirt gives me a view of her legs that makes my mouth go dry. The curve of her calf muscle has the kind of fullness I want to sink my teeth into, like ripe melon. Her knee is the harbinger of the smooth skin of her upper thigh, the kind of silk my fingers can only dream about. For one blissful second, my eyes catch the lace edge at the top of her stockings.
The lace haunts me, teasing me with visions of sliding the stockings down, over her knee and off her perfect ankles. I undo the top button of my shirt, sweltering in my suit jacket. The air conditioner must be broken, but her hair is elegantly up on the back of her head and there isn't a trace of sweat on her neck. I close my eyes, picturing her black skirt on the floor at her feet as she steps out of it. Perfect in her nudity. When did I forget she was a goddess?
I don't even notice the way my hands are reaching for her. The way I've moved to be closer to her. The scent of her perfume fills the elevator, reminding me of lying in bed with her. Lying over her, that scent in my nose, her sweat on my lips.
My hand's on her shoulder. From the way she looks at it, I can tell she's as surprised by it as I am, but she doesn't move away. Those blue eyes glisten beneath her eyelashes as she turns her glance from my profaning touch to my face.
Meeting her eyes sends an jolt of heat through my body that makes my jacket feel like an oven. There's a desert in my heart and she's the only rain. The only moisture. I'm not even thinking, unaware of my own actions as I back her to the wall.
"Let's go back to Florence Liv, here, now. Come with me..." The space between our bodies is eternity. One of her breasts brushes against my chest and all of my senses coalesce into that touch. That precious contact. Her sigh, the breath escaping her lips is everything I want. It's life in that sigh of wanting. In the wetness of her tongue as it darts out from her lips.
Gregory shouldn't be able to do this to me. There's too much unsaid between us. We should be incapable of intimacy, of this kind of maddening closeness. His arms trap me against the wall, but I can see escape in his hungry eyes. There's a way out of everything wrong in my life. Can I take that? Do I dare feel anything again?
The horrible ringing is my cellular phone. "I have to get it." I explain weakly as I duck out and away.
Olivia, you can't do this. You can't let him in again. You can't hurt like that.
I flip it open, half-kneeling on the floor of the elevator. The voice on the other end is more shrill than the ringing.
"Stay away from my husband. You bitch!" Annie screams into my ear. I don't have time to think about how she knew I was here. How she knew Gregory wanted me? I start to stammer a reply, but he pulls me to my feet.
Snatching the phone from my hand, Gregory smashes it against the wall of the elevator. His sudden violence surprises me and I jump back from him as the plastic falls to the bottom of the elevator. Clattering against the walls and the carpet.
"I'll replace it." He doesn't ask who it was. It's obvious that he doesn't care. He takes a step forward. Closing the distance between us so I can feel his belt buckle against my stomach. I could throw my arms around his neck, bruise his lips with the ferocity of my wanting but I don't.
I listen to the roaring of blood in my ears, somehow his voice cuts through the cacophony. "If you say no-"
Gregory's hand finds my side, a firebrand through my black beaded dress. "I'll stop. If you can look at me and tell me you don't want me."
My foot slips of its own according, lodging between his feet. Bringing me that much closer. Near enough to feel his body press against mine. Insistent, but controlled. He's always controlled.
"I never stopped wanting you." The words are out before I can censor them. My traitorous foot caresses the inside of his ankle and it's his turn to sigh. Gregory hasn't stripped me with his eyes in years, but the look on his face is as familiar as the sensation of his hands against my skin.
Phantom fingers trace up my spine as his eyes feast on my neck. I'm completely naked to his stare. "What made you think we ever stopped? That we ever could."
Gregory's not touching me yet. In a moment I'll be begging him to. I can already feel the tension in my stomach. The rising heat he brings with each passing moment. "We left. We walked away." It's a pathetic reply and he burns it away as his knee teases my inner thigh.
His hand follows suit, rustling the fabric of my skirt as he squeezes the flesh of my thigh. "But we didn't stop wanting. That fire Liv-"
I swallow my gasp of pleasure. "Fire destroys." Another moment of contact brings another moan from the back of my throat. "We destroyed each other."
Gregory's hands dig into my hips, shoving my back against the wall. "What do we have left to lose?"
Wanting him hurts, a physical pain that begs to be soothed, but still I attempt vainly to resist. "Everything."
Turning my attention to her back, I can feel the delicate zipper of her dress. My fingers dance over it, taunting myself with how easy it would be to have her the way I see her in my mind. "What do you have now that compares to us? Tell me you're happy with him. Tell me he's all you want." I let my lips the skin of her neck just beneath her ear. My tongue darts out to find the softness of her neck. "Tell me he makes you feel the way I did."
Her breath shudders in her chest. There's an agony between where we are and fulfillment. A lifetime's pain, condensed into the gulf keeping us apart. "He doesn't make me cry." Olivia explains simply, her words whispering past the need. "He doesn't make me want to drink. He doesn't make me wish I'd never been in love-"
I kiss her neck, moving lazily to her face as her hand finds the back of my neck. "If he doesn't inspire emotion. What do you feel?"
Olivia forces herself into my arms, pulling us both off balance, so we tumble back to the wall. She wraps a leg around my legs, pinning myself to her. "No more." She hisses into my mouth, filling the space after her words with a searching tongue. We explore old ground, lips locking together like a puzzle finally placing its missing piece.