THE DANCE
'I feel like I'm losing it'
'A Frustrated Young Man
Still carrying that note
Carrying that old note
Said I'm trying, trying hard to
Hold on to my home' ~ 'Don't wanna go the other way' ~ Cody Chesnutt
All she wanted to do was get out of this dress…
"Donna."
Suddenly she heard Harvey's distinct voice call out behind her, drawing her attention away from trying to hail a cab, causing her to just miss one by seconds as it sped past. Silently cursing in the dark she turned to watch him glide down the walkway towards her.
"Going somewhere?"
"Home." She replied.
"Me too. I'll take you."
She would have asked him 'why the rush' but she'd already found out from Mike that Jessica had all but set the gauntlet in response to Harvey's bet with Darby. After fending off Scottie's attack she wasn't really in the mood to ask too many questions but she couldn't help herself.
"Where's Scottie?" She arched an eyebrow, her tongue letting her teeth taste the consonants as she waited for the sting to take effect.
'Still inside" he said, simple, throwing a look towards the limo that immediately pulled up alongside them, the window rolling down.
"Donna… you are a vision in black." Ray crooned.
"Thankyou Ray." She smiled warmly as she scooted into the backseat of the limo, Harvey joining her on the opposite side.
"Are you sure that you don't wanna take that dress for another walk around Manhatten? I know a very nice restaurant, I'd be happy to take you to." Ray continued, glancing to Harvey through the rear view mirror, who gave him a nod. The man promptly nodded back.
"Oh, Ray, I think this dress has retired for the evening. And I'm sure you don't want to explain to your wife why you were out past your bedtime with a strange woman."
"My wife knows that no one holds a candle to you, Donna. She's come to accept that." He replied.
His gushing humour made her laugh out right, hand coming up to cover her mouth as her eyes locked on Harvey's. In these kind of moments he always took the position of slightly amused or slightly possessive.
"Stop hitting on my assistant, Ray, otherwise we'll find out just how much your wife knows." the steel dry edges of his voice peeled in jest.
"I can't help it. She's a knockout!" He argued jovially pausing the car at a stop sign.
"That, she is." He said, his eyes just grazing her periphery as she tried to seem nonchalant and not betray the peeking interest in her features as she watched the streets start to move again through her window. Her concentration was brought back to him as started speaking, lowering his voice a notch.
"I forgot to say… nice dress." He said, his voice slightly huskier than it had been earlier in the evening. It had been a long day.
"Thanks. You bought it." She joked, a look of innocence mixed with a hint of challenge on her pouting lips.
She wasn't an acute feminist. She didn't let any man tell her what to do, but she was also a realist. She knew how the world worked, she knew that women couldn't always be on top – although the dirty side of her welcomed that challenge – but she also knew when she could bend and flex the boundaries of gender to get what she wanted and still own up to a discrepancy.
She watched his eyes slowly roam her body as he had done earlier in the evening. It still left a slight singe in her belly as his eyes swept from her lips all the way down to her sparkly silver heels.
"I do have great taste." His lips quirked, jaw flexing to adjust them.
Suddenly everything in the car felt very serious and very, very dangerous.
"Harvey." She protested, her tone drying up in the corners of her mouth.
"What?" He said, not even flinching. Glorious Bastard…
"I know what you're thinking." Suddenly she felt like Ray was watching them both. She tried to check the rear-view mirror but the partition window was already three quarters of the way up.
A smirk appeared at his lips. "We've done it before" He said, voice suggestively low as his head bowed. "…If we set the rules first?"
Her skin was on fire, itching and burning and white cold at the same time. Her mind wasn't even defining the implications of what he'd suggested; instead her mind just fired replies.
"There were rules last time." The standing in her voice flaltered.
"No, there was just Whiskey…a dare, and those heels."
She had a very vague memory of those heels. She hadn't let herself wear them since...they were officially retired on the grounds of bad choice making on her part, and the her realising that he really, really loved a woman in heels. He hadn't let her take the damn things off.
"Harvey, I know you're pissed about what's going on with the firm but this is…this is a bad idea." She said; shaking her head and straitening up, appearing slightly taller than his seated form. She would have to be the level headed one in this instance, hell, someone had to be. "Besides, unlike many of the women in left in manhatten that you haven't bedded, I'm just not that stupid." She tried to ignore the 'again' that rang after her words.
"There's just one problem...I know you want to." His voice was like a spalsh of cold water wrapped in brown silk.
The limo came to a halt outside her building.
JUST
IN
TIME.
THANK THE HOLY LORD.
She turned back to confront him and his eyes still hadn't lost their smoulder as they bore into hers. He'd also managed his way to the middle seat in the car. She picked up her purse, inches from his hand, looking pointedly at him, trying to think of the worst teacher she'd ever had to channel in this moment.
"No, I don't. Maybe Scottie will want to go play... Goodnight Harvey."
Before she'd even gathered her dress enough to open the door he'd come around and opened it for her, holding out a hand. She examined it, eyes narrowing at him as she accepted his helping her out of the car. He hadn't left but a second until she'd found herself pressed flush against the open car door, his hands gripping her waist and mouth hungrily devouring hers. The kiss was quick as he retreated just enough; a slight whiskey hint to his breath in the cold air mingling with a silent question like a stop sign hanging on amber. His eyes waited for a prompt reply..or a 'Go' sign.
Donna Paulsen only had so much reserve.
You didn't need to ask her twice, she wasn't that kind of stupid.
She grabbed him roughly by his lapels, as he softened, allowing her to stuff him in the limo, a mess of hands and lips and limbs colliding around silk black fabric and Calvin Klein.
"Donna?" The Chauffeur called out from the front, confused.
"Just drive, Ray," She gasped, straining Harvey's tie as he pulled her into straddling his lap and scooped a hand into the top of her strapless dress as their lips fought. Neither heard the partition wall as it completely closed.
Cufflinks...
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIII Collarbones…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII Cartier…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Manolo's…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII III Red lips…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIII Eyelashes…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIII Egyptian Cotton…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thigh bones…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIII Red hair…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIII Fingernails…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I Night air…
Morning.
Getting out of his bed wasn't too hard but creeping around Harvey's apartment in the stiff spring sunshine was like wearing smoke on your back. Luckily they didn't seem to be factoring spooning or anything so typically romantic into any of this, so she'd been easily able to slide out from under the sheets, ignoring the urge to look over at him again whilst doing so. When she'd first woken up, she had already been confronted with a ruffle in his almost perfect hair and the sound of him lightly snoring on his back; and that almost made her run out the door. Instead she took a breath, doing up the cuffs of the not so crisp white shirt she'd pulled on. She tip-toed over to her belongings, cursing silently at herself for what would now be a poignant walk of shame through a rather expensive building… that came equipped with a Doorman. A doorman who knew her… now, vividly.
The keys in her bag jingled, causing him to stir.
Damn it..
"Morning," He half-smiled; his voice thick with sleep as one eye looked out at her stretching an arm out.
"Hey. I would have made you a coffee, but I didn't want to wake you."
She watched as he started to sit up, and then felt the oncoming formality of the work day and averted her eyes. He had his boxers on but for some reason, through the clear light of the next day it felt more than little awkward... Again.
No, she reasoned, seeing Boxers would definitely not be good thing…because of...
She was suddenly petrified that he would move that duvet and…
"Nice Outfit. You coming to work like that? Jessica might...wait a minute that's my good tie!" He said, referring to his long shirt that hung loosely on her, tied in the middle with his duck egg blue tie.
"No I will not be coming to work like this…and you have three of these. Look, I'm not wearing THIS home" She gestured to the dress wrapped in her hands. "So I'm stealing this."
"Oh," He smiled, laying back against the small mountain of pillows, seemingly very un Harvey-like in his reaction to her taking his clothes. "I thought it was a souvenir."
"Oh no Harvey, that's what's the baby's going to be for."
She watched his face drop a notch, as a deliciously evil smile formed. "Kidding. We are fine." She said, alluding to the pill which she took every morning at 7:55am without fail and always before he came into the office.
"Seriously, how is that going to look less conspicuous?" He said, pointing to her black lingerie that glared with a starkness out from behind the white shirt.
"Because if someone sees me around Manhatten at 6:50 in the morning on their way to work, wearing the same dress as last night, then they're going to have a lot of questions, and they won't have any problem joining up the dots and answering them for themselves. Or better yet, making it up and then passing it on to their assistants."
"Donna, no one is going to say a thing. You know you can see your..."
"I know."
"But you can really see your-" He started to gesture and then promptly stopped.
"Alright already, I'm aware you can see it all!"
"It's not a problem…I've already seen it. Wouldn't hurt to see it again," He said cocking his eyebrow at her.
"Smooth. I've called a cab, It'll be here soon." She smiled trying to deflect him.
"I could get you in and out of that in like… 4 Minutes?"
"Do you really think that's impressive?" She said, scrunching up her face in mock disgust at his overly cocky behaviour.
"Okay we both know fourty five… just please, come back to bed." He said, whinging a little to her dismay.
The panic in her throat and was immediately quashed by his complete changing of what they had previouslt discussed.
"Oh NO Mister, we said that this was a 'one time' thing. Harvey, we agreed." She warned, finger pointing at him.
"It is, just… time isn't up yet. And if you think about it, last night was…more…than…one time."
She frowned at him. He was past cocky, now he was just downright skirting over every single rule they'd ever made and all with a fiendish delight.
"I have to go, and YOU have to shower and deflate that ego of yours before WE have to be at work…on time."
She didn't even let him get out of bed before she slid open the front door and almost ran out of the building.
Why was she running?
For two reasons:
Firstly, just incase they did it again. Preventative Measure.
And Secondly, incase they were late, which they would be...then they'd have to arrive together. In the Limo. That Ray drove.
'I'm trying to hold on
Trying not to fall
But I feel like I'm losing,
Help me God I'm losing.
Don't wanna go the other way'