Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.
Margaret Oliphant
Since Cavallo got promoted to assistant director, his new policy was for everyone to attend a specialist forensic conference every year, to develop their continuing education. Failure to comply with this rule resulted in an immediate ban from fieldwork.
Grissom was generally in favour of furthering his forensic knowledge, but the lab was understaffed and Warrick Brown was still reasonably new to their ranks, and he thought the conference was about 0.009 on his overall list of priorities.
Which was why it took a considerable amount of badgering from Catherine to get him on his plane.
He sighed deeply now, taking in the lushly furnished hotel lobby with his program guide in one hand. The lecturers were reasonably well-established forensic professionals, but he wasn't worried about their qualifications. There were three days ahead of lectures and demonstrations, and he was vehemently sure he wasn't going to enjoy any of them.
"Grissom?"
The oddly familiar, lilting female voice spoke softly behind him, and Grissom frowned, turning slowly to locate the source.
He blinked in surprise.
"Sara?"
He had managed to put Sara Sidle out of his mind for two years now. The passionate, inquisitive pretty young student from one of his seminars in San Francisco, who often possessed a persistency to get an opinion across that defied social niceties, and had made her less than liked with a few of his similarity intellectual, but admittedly less interesting pupils.
She looked slightly different, and the few years she had aged only served to make her more attractive. Her dark, silky brown curls framed her young features delicately, and her intense, infinitely dark cocoa eyes fixed on him pleasantly.
"Hi", she said softly. "It's nice to see you again".
"You too", he replied, amiably enough, wondering why he felt so confined by formalities when he was around her. "What… are you doing here?"
She tilted her head slightly, eyes dancing as they took in their impressive surroundings. "My boss made me come after one of my colleagues dropped out with the flu".
He smiled slightly at her innocuous reply. "Are you still at the San Francisco Lab?"
She nodded, slightly shyly. "Yeah. I'm a CSI Level 2 now".
He blinked, surprised and unexpectedly pleased for her. "Well, congratulations".
She smiled modestly. "Thanks. Um, how about you? What are you doing here?"
He sighed tiredly, again reminded of his irritable circumstances. "A new continuing education policy", he confessed unhappily.
Sara lifted an eyebrow, slightly amused by his show of petulance "Well, considering how much we both want to be here, this should be interesting".
He smirked slightly in response, unable to stop himself from agreeing with her observation. "Riveting".
She hesitated, considering him thoughtfully. "Do you want to maybe… sit together then? I don't know anybody else here".
He nodded, strangely enthused by the prospect, and instantly agreed. Sara Sidle was an endlessly intriguing woman to talk to, and if he could glean nothing else from this seminar, at least he could have some interesting conversation. He couldn't remember the reason he had lost contact with his most promising student in the first place.
He remembered.
By the time they reached the evening buffet, he was violently reminded of how much he was attracted to her. Being around her, as she brushed past him and the sweet smell of her perfume invaded his nostrils, or she laughed softly at something he said, revealing the endearing gap between her front teeth, was absolute and utter torture.
He honestly had no idea how he had survived the two-week period of his original seminar with his propriety intact. She was overpowering. She was probably barely over twenty-five, yet there was a sensibility and wisdom about her that made him feel as if she was older.
He hadn't been seriously involved with a woman for a long time now; his work consumed all other aspects of his life. Yet away from its overshadowing presence, he was strong tempted into following a very rudimentary impulse.
His chivalrous nature dictated that he escort her up the elevator and to her door, which incidentally was only a few down from his own.
Sara paused when they reached it, glancing at him with a warm smile as she slid out her key card, before lowering her eyes again. "Well, thanks for making today marginally more bearable".
Grissom tilted an eyebrow good-naturedly. "Marginally?"
Sara shrugged. "Well, I'm sorry, but nothing is going to erase the memory of that lecturer who sprayed the entire two front rows every time he got excited about his speech. Which was a lot".
Grissom chuckled slightly at her careless reply.
A thoughtful expression overtook her features, and her eyes turned to his tentatively. "Grissom? Can I… ask you a question?"
He frowned at her sudden earnestness. "Sure".
She looked down again, absent-mindedly playing with the keycard in her hand. "Why did we loose contact with one another?"
He paused, eyeing her uncertainly. She was a very perceptive woman, and he wondered if she knew the real reason.
"We have busy jobs, Sara", he offered slowly. "They generally get in the way of everything else".
She licked her lips, and he wondered if she had any idea how alluring that was. "Right. Yeah. Of course".
That single pause was his undoing, and he knew he couldn't go away now without knowing what she was thinking. Even if it was probably better if he did.
"What… did you think it was?" he asked quietly.
Sara blinked, gazing up at him hesitantly. She remained silent, and he frowned, meeting a gaze that held an uncomfortable amount of intensity. Slowly, she shifted forward, as if coming to an inward decision. Her slender frame warmed his with its sudden proximity, and she tilted her soft, delicate chin until her infinitely soft, gentle lips lightly caressed his, probing his mouth with butterfly softness.
The moment lasted only for a second, but Grissom was riveted by surprise and overwhelmed as a sensation of deep-running desire overcame him. Sara opened her eyes, glancing at him carefully as she lifted her face partially away from his, and an uncharacteristic glimmer of sadness and long-suffering tiredness shined in her eyes.
Grissom stared back at her, quite convinced he would do anything at that moment to get that look out of her eyes. There was a haunted quality there he wasn't ready to acknowledge, he didn't want to acknowledge.
She turned her head slightly, gazing at him with measured intensity. "That", she said, voice barely above a whisper. She was still close enough that her breath caressed his lips as she spoke, and he resisted a long shiver. "Isn't that… why?"
She was really much more astute than he gave her credit for. He swallowed, sensing her waiting for some sort of response. He had managed to convince himself that any mutual attraction was imaginary. Obviously, he was wrong. Therein was the problem. Because suddenly their situation became much more precarious.
"Sara…"
She cut him off by drawing his lips over hers again, capturing them together with a more ardent passion than before. She was acting out all of his day's fantasies in one swift moment and he couldn't have resisted if he'd wanted to. All rationality momentarily abandoned him.
She's too young… She's an adult.She was your student… She isn't now.
She's dangerous… What are you talking about? This is purely physical.
Grissom gave in, feeling his palm travel up to the softness of her cheek as he guided her lips more strongly against his. Sara was soft and plaint and willing against him, and he realised it had been too long since he was with a woman.
However, the chiming of the elevator down the hall restored common sense, and he pulled reluctantly away from. "Sara, we're in the hallway", he panted pointedly.
Sara blinked, seemingly lazily breaking from some far distant fog. "So come into my room", she breathed softly.
Grissom felt himself waging some inner war, and closed his eyes hesitantly. "Sara, this can't ever be anything more—"
Her fingers curled in the front of his shirt, and he realised she had opened the door as his eyes snapped open again. She slowly backed into the room, dragging him forward with her. She tapped the door closed with her finger, staring at him as it clicked in place, and he stared back at her, surprised at what a master of seduction Sara Sidle was turning out to be.
She came forward; pressing her lips over his with such raw desire it made them both quiver. "Just tonight", she murmured against his lips, kissing him again. Her palms trailed over the broad expanse of his chest, lingering over his buttons. "Promise… no… consequences…"
Her proposal was simply too convenient to ignore, and gave him a chance to give into his overwhelming attraction to her without exploring any further implications. His compliance might have had something to do with her warm, smooth hands sliding under his shirt, and teasing the skin at the waistband of his jeans. Nevertheless, he quickly took all leave of his senses as he lowered his mouth to the elegant, lengthy arch of her neck, and trailed a blaze of hot, open-mouthed kisses over the skin of her collarbone.
The following morning, their brief tryst was purposefully ignored, and they maintained all semblance of politeness. At the end of the three days, they exchanged addresses once more, and returned to their lives, his in Las Vegas, and hers in San Francisco, unanimously agreeing that all correspondence would remain impersonal, and never refer to their one, brief lapse of attraction.
And Grissom almost managed to convince himself it never happened, and Sara Sidle was simply an old, trusted friend from San Francisco.
END