‘This is where you live?’ Hayley looked up at the glass and chrome building in front of them. It was imposing, somehow stood out amongst the other premises of equal stature around it. The snow was falling heavily now and her teeth started to chatter. She wrapped her arms around herself, holding onto the sequinned bag like a lifebuoy.
‘This is where I live. Come on, let’s get inside before you freeze,’ he said, heading towards the doorman. ‘Hey, Bosco.’
‘Good evening, Mr Drummond,’ the doorman responded.
‘Hello, Bosco, I’m Hayley.’ She waved a hand at him.
‘Good evening, Miss.’
‘I bet Bosco has seen some action, whisking in your Wish Women,’ Hayley said as they entered the lobby. ‘This looks just like your offices. But where’s the Christmas tree? This is so bare.’
Everything was chrome and grey, modern, functional but a little bit dull. There was nothing to suggest the holidays were fast approaching.
Oliver pressed the button for the elevator. ‘It’s a multicultural building. Some of the other residents don’t celebrate Christmas sowe don’t have a tree.’ He reached for her hand. ‘FYI – that’s another abbreviation right there – I don’t bring my Wish Women here. And don’t call them that. They aren’t a thing.’
‘Double W I think the Twitter hashtag is. Rumour has it that particular edition of theNew York Timessold big.’
‘You’re making it up,’ he said as the elevator doors opened.
‘Maybe, but it’s never going to get old,’ Hayley said, stepping into the lift with him.
‘I think you’re forgetting the rather amazing fashion show I took you to tonight.’
‘Which could only have been bettered by having Adam Levine come and sing in the interval.’ She sighed. ‘But I did meet Emo Taragucci, in the flesh, actually there for me to squeeze,’ Hayley said, hugging herself.
Oliver smiled. ‘I’m glad you enjoyed the evening.’
‘It isn’t over yet, is it?’ she asked. She watched the numbers of the floors on the display going up slowly and she looked to Oliver, a smile playing on her lips. ‘Ever done it in a lift before?’
‘What?’
She shifted closer towards him. ‘I said, have you ever done it in a lift before?’
She watched him swallow and finally catch on to what she was suggesting.
‘I have a five-million dollar penthouse on the twenty-fifth floor and you want to do it in the elevator.’
She licked her lips. ‘I don’t know if I can wait twenty more floors.’ She unbuttoned her coat and shrugged it off her shoulders, then, slowly, she lifted the hem of her red dress, dragging it up her body, revealing stockings and her best black silk and lace panties and matching bra.
‘Jeez, Hayley, what are you doing to me?’
‘Looking a little overdressed over there, Clark.’
In one move, he lost his coat and in the second and third, he unfastened his buttons and ripped his shirt away from his body.
‘I knew you were trouble, the very second I set eyes on you by that fire exit,’ he breathed. He claimed her mouth with his, pushing her body up against the mirrored wall. She tasted of chocolate and coffee and that something he could never quite put his finger on. He was pretty sure it involved vanilla but right now, all he could taste was lust – whether it was his or hers, he couldn’t tell.
She wrenched her lips from his. ‘You knewIwas trouble? I think that’s a bit rich.’
‘Stop talking!’ he ordered, his mouth at her neckline, his tongue tracing the length of her shoulder.
‘Get these things off,’ Hayley said, her hands at the belt of his trousers.
He stood up straight, his hands on top of hers. He held her fingers as she weaved the leather through the buckle, his eyes on her, wanting to watch her expression and feed off of it. They lowered his zipper together, he slipped a condom from his pocket and then she took over, yanking at the material so he had no choice but to kick his trousers off and away.
He appraised her, her chest rising and falling, her nipples tight against the silk of her bra. The condom packet between his lips, he reached forward with both hands, looping her back and unfastening the clasp until the fabric slackened and he pulled her bra forward, letting the straps slip down her arms and off.
Voluptuous breasts greeted him and the kick of arousal stung. He wanted to touch her, taste her, own every inch of her. He held off, just watching. She slipped her fingers inside her panties and hewatched her, teasing, toying, easing her hand backward and forward.
