AN. Thanks all for being so kind about the last chapter, hopefully you'll enjoy this one too. Still have a few chapters to go on this story, but won't be too long until we come to a conclusion. Thank you for your continued patience!
The sound of the wedding band and the dancing crowd from the wedding reception filtered through the air to the small groups of people milling in the lobby of the hotel. Some were placed at small tables with a drink to escape the noise of the reception, others waiting to make their exit from the venue.
Charles moved through the small groups of people without stopping. He gave a few cordial glances as he walked, indicating with his head to anybody who tried to stop him that he was moving towards the exit. There was a silent will not to engage in any more polite conversation. Despite the fact that his head was swimming with too much to drink, he'd skilfully managed to dodge the family chats on politics, religion and sport. His thoughts and attention never strayed far from the person who he'd forced to stay with him for most of the night. Much to her surprise, he'd been reluctant to let go of her at all.
He grabbed one of Molly's hands in his and moved the other to the small of her back as they weaved through the crowds of people. As they moved, she stumbled slightly on her heels and fell clumsily into his chest. He in turn stumbled and laughed. The drunken infectiousness that made him stop and beam at her caused her to let out a loud giggle.
"Shhhhh." He held up a finger to his lips as he grinned.
"I think we might be a bit pissed" he confessed with a loud whisper that told her he definitely was.
"You.." Molly swayed as she pointed somewhere near to his head. "You might be drunk mate, but I'm alright. I can hold my booze just fine."
"I won't disagree that for a short arse" Charles ducked out of the way of the elbow that came flying into his side at the insult. "What I mean is, for a very small person-" he grinned as he continued "you can hold your own." He pressed the lift button as they waited for the carriage to open at the ground floor and pulled her waist towards the warmth of his body.
"I might need to get a bit shorter, my feet are bloody killin' me in these things." She aimed her scrunched up nose at the shoes that were now causing her a world of pain. "You reckon this place is too classy for me to just take 'em off?" She didn't wait for an answer before grabbing onto his belt to steady her swaying movement and bending down to try and deal with the fiddly straps of her shoes.
"While you're down there.." Charles joked as he pressed the lift button again and tried to ignore the heat that flooded his body at the sight of her kneeling on front of him, even if the reason was innocent.
Molly looked up and caught his eye. A burst of laughter at his suggestively raised eyebrow and facial expression took her balance by surprise and caused her to fall back on her arse with a yelp. She let out a strangled mutter of "nice fucking try" as she landed on the floor of the lobby.
At the sight of her landing, one shoe off and the other still on her foot, he threw his head back and let out the heartiest laugh she'd heard from him since meeting him a few weeks ago. Molly couldn't help but join in with his infectious roars. He kneeled down and removed the ankle strap of her one remaining shoe as the lift finally reached the ground floor and the doors opened to let them in.
She stayed on the floor, still victim to an attack of the giggles even as he stood, then bent down again to hand the pair of shoes to her. It wasn't long before his arms circled around her and lifted her up, her bare feet dangling to the side.
"You might wanna watch that back of yours, old man like you." She carried on giggling as he walked them into the lift and reluctantly slid her down towards the floor, her dress catching on his watch as he let her go. It was smoothed down onto her thigh by his hand, although he looked more than interested for a minute as he caught a quick peek of the lace underwear that had been on display.
"So" his hands moved up towards her waist, holding her in front of him as he steadied his body against the mirrored wall of the lift. "Was it as bad as you thought?"
Molly found her nose scrunched up again, the memories of the day flitting through her drunken consciousness as he stared down at her.
"It was...fun? Fun-ish?" she nodded her head seriously, having given it as much thought as possible on a stomach filled with too much wine and champagne, but very little food. The last thing she was about to confess when he was in this good of a mood was the fact that she'd felt shit, stuck out like a sore thumb and been saved only by the company of him and his sister.
"Fun-ish." The words sounded strange coming from his mouth and she giggled for a minute again. "Anything that could make it more fun?" The look on his face was almost innocent, but Molly couldn't miss the furtive glance he'd aimed at her body.
His tongue rolled around in his mouth before his bottom lip was trapped under the bite of his teeth. He stared at her with a knowing grin, not even trying to hide his smirk. She felt a hand move from her waist, to her side, briefly brushing against the side of her breast. She tried to hold back a gasp of anticipation at the feel of his hands on her body. As she pretended to give it some thought, her head fell to the side. "Depends what's on offer.."
Her eyelids were partially closed when she felt his hot breath on her neck, her body sandwiched between his and the wall of the lift. The curved ledge of the wall dug into her back, forcing her hips forward. A hand round her arm forced her eyes to open again. Charles brought the inside of her wrist towards his mouth and pressed his lips onto the soft skin. She hoped he couldn't feel her pulse race wildly as she felt the warmth of his breath heat up her skin and shuddered. Suddenly, their eyes met, his lips moving slowly until they were pressed against her open palm.
"Shouldn't you press the button?" Molly managed to breathe despite her increased heart rate.
A look of confusion flitted across his face as he shifted away from her, the space between them increasing by a fraction. "Button?"
"Yeah" her face filled with colour. "For the lift. We are goin' up to the room, aren't we?" This time it was her turn to grin suggestively.
For a brief moment the dark brown in his eyes seemed to darken even more. "I really hope so." His soft smile erupted again as he shifted to press the number 3 on the wall furthest from him and began to move back to her.
The doors closed and the lift started to move up as his smile disappeared. He turned his back to her and paced the lift again with one long stride, muttering a quiet "fuck it" under his breath.
Before Molly knew what was happening, he had moved again towards the brass buttons at the side of the wall, pressing one that brought the carriage to a shuddering halt as she let out a squeal. That squeal was repeated as she was swept up by his arms and placed on the small ledge that had been digging into her back.
His mouth was on hers, hot and wanting, before she'd had a chance to register what was even happening. All that she could react to was his tongue exploring; the kiss hard and forceful, almost desperate. It was different to the couple of times she'd kissed him previously. For one, he was taking the lead, plunging his tongue into her mouth and leaving both of them breathless. Another difference was the fact that they had no audience. Whenever they'd kissed before she'd had no doubt that it was for show, proving to others that they were together. All she could focus on was the sensations his touch was creating in her body as he kissed her, warmth pooling in her belly as she tried to pull him even closer.
Charles pulled away, panting and breathless as she moaned into his mouth. "Shit, sorry." He moved his lips to the clammy skin of her neck, marking a trail as he sucked and nibbled on the perfectly soft skin there. Molly sighed with breathless anticipation as her legs opened automatically and accepted his body, thighs wrapping around his waist, her ankles locking together.
"Oh god, don't be sorry. Don't stop" she pleaded as he found the sensitive spot at the top of her neck and sucked again.
"I can't stop" he let out a deep laugh into the crook of her neck as he pulled back and took in the view below him, her chest heaving, the breasts he'd been struggling not to stare at all day begging to be released from her dress.
"You have no idea" his words tailed off as he lowered his hands and trailed his fingers along her chest, focusing on where he could feel her nipples developing into hard peaks under the material of her dress. "No idea how much I want you right now."
Molly couldn't help it, she giggled out loud at the statement, trying to stop when she saw the puzzled look that flitted across his face. "Think this is givin' me a good idea" she confessed as her hand found the bulge in his suit trousers, and grasped the hardness through the material. His groan reverberated onto her skin as he moved his face towards her once again and kissed along her collarbone.
"Fuck" he hissed loudly as she grabbed again, feeling him twitch against her hand. Molly gasped at the sensation of his lips searching lower on her chest, his fingers tweaking her nipples once more through the lace of her dress.
As she dared to begin to unzip and unbuckle him, freeing him from the tent of material, his hand stilled her movements, but didn't pull her away. She glanced up at his face, worried he'd somehow changed his mind. His eyes was dark and stormy; full of promise.
"I'm not going to last much longer if you keep that up." She ignored the warning. Another firm grip of her palm as it explored beneath his open zip had him almost pained.
"Molly" he managed to mutter as his hips moved in rhythm with her hand. Her palm was now gripping the smooth, taut skin and moving back and forth slowly. She could feel the shuddery breaths escape from him as she gripped his arse with her other hand. A galloping need to yell out and release began to register inside of him, and he began to pull back, his head overruling his body on the fact that this wasn't the time or the place.
Suddenly, the lift sprang into action, the upwards motion shocking them both. Molly's hand withdrew from his zip as he took advantage and brought his mouth down towards her again, desperate to taste and touch. He knew he only had moments before they arrived at their floor, and he made the most of it. His hands ran along the undersides of the thighs wrapped around him, travelling to the curve of her arse, and running along the seam of the underwear covering it.
He took one brief moment to run his finger along the moist heat of her underwear, feeling the hum of approval that came from her throat and the increased urgency of her kisses as he dragged his finger along the material. Molly felt herself throb with a sudden urgency to have him, all of him, inside of her.
As if it had been timed to frustrate her the most, the ping of the lift arriving at floor 3 was the signal for the doors to spring open. Charles pulled her body from where she sat on the ledge. He made his way out of the carriage, Molly's legs still wrapped around him. He tried to grip his way out of the lift and towards their room, his legs trembling with the imminent relief of getting them both through that door. He began to wonder how he was going to break away for long enough to retrieve his room key.
The thought was disturbed by a ferocious scream coming from down the hallway, one that made them both stop and look in the direction of the loud noise. He could feel Molly panting in his arms, face buried in his chest as he let her down and tried to work out what was going on.
"You fucking bitch! You stupid, stupid cow!"
The screaming rant continued from further down the hall in the direction of their room. As the blood began to rush back towards Charles' brain, flooding his body with confusion, he realised that he knew that voice.
It was Lauren.
What the hell was wrong with her? She sounded demented.
He looked at Molly for a second, his attention being pulled from one source to another. Now that he'd placed her back on the floor, she was pulling her dress back down with one hand, the other trying to smooth her hair back into some sort of order from where she'd been trapped against the wall of the lift. She looked as disorientated as he felt, her eyes still hooded with a combination of lust and alcohol as she looked at him.
He somehow knew that trouble lurked around the corner, and grasped her hand once again as they faced it together. It felt like heading into the unknown, nervous anticipation flooding his body. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling for him, he could only liken it to being on patrol and heading towards where he knew disaster lay.
When he turned the corner, hand gripped firmly around Molly's, he had no idea of the depths his heart would drop to. The tear stained face of his sister was the first thing to greet him. She was no longer in her wedding dress, her eye make-up smeared down her face. He had no time to question her odd appearance before he realised that behind her was his ex-wife, wrapped in a white bedsheet and nothing else. It was one of the first times he'd seen Rebecca look anything other than immaculate; her hair was wild and untamed. The last part of the jigsaw fell into place with the sight of his new brother-in law, dressed only in his trousers, hands in his head as his shirtless body sank to the floor of the hotel corridor.
Charles' hand automatically dropped Molly's, his brain reeling as she looked up at him in confusion.
"What the fuck is going on here?" He heard his own voice bark the demand, but he couldn't be sure he'd even said the words. Everything was spinning, nothing making sense in his jumbled brain anymore.
Three horrified faces turned towards him. Two guilty, and one furious.
He heard Molly gasp with understanding from beside him and had a horrible feeling that the question was no longer needed.
Fuck.