Thank you Carmen for the beta! Thank you Lauren for reviewing this and telling me to tweak it. You ladies rock.
The air cooled, dropping in temperature from a blazing ninety-two down to sixty-three. She could feel it in the air, she could feel it.
Brown hair immediately shriveled up, sucking in the humidity, resulting flyaways tickling her cheeks delightfully. Sara had waited forever for this. Forever, well, for what seemed like forever.
Sara smiled and put down her book. She was so happy that she had decided to change into her pajamas as soon as she had gotten home. Padding to the window, she slid her window open and breathed in the air.
It smelled of asphalt and ocean and atmosphere. Her face was pink with glee as she went to her bedroom and slipped on a pair of foam flip flops. She shucked her sweatshirt, clad only in a loose tank top and terrycloth shorts. Luckily she'd taken the time the day previous to shave her legs. She'd even taken the time to lotion them. She was very glad she had.
So, nearly naked, she grabbed her key and locked her door.
Sara sat down on her stoop, forearms on her thighs, waiting.
The first droplet landed on the crest of her ear and she jumped just a bit. Sara opened her hands, palms up... and waited. Icy droplets descended from the sky, kissing her skin delightfully. It would have been impossible to wipe the grin from her face. She looked to the sky and blinked repeatedly as the tiny pinpricks of water splashed on her face.
It touched the inside of her elbows and she nearly shied away. Instead, she chose to embrace the feeling. The water chose to cling to her eyelashes, obscuring her already obscured view. But it didn't matter, there wasn't much to see anyway.
He was coming to drop off a file for review and she would be waiting for him, right there in the rain.
Gooseflesh graced her skin and she welcomed the feeling. Her toes curled in a vain attempt to retain heat. But she didn't want to be warm, she wanted to be cool and clean.
His Denali rolled into the lot on the side of her apartment, eschewing water from its wheels with a delightful swish. God, she loved that sound.
Hopping from his car, Grissom gripped the file under his coat and ran towards the stairs with his head down. He hadn't seen her.
That lone fact made her smile even more, but she turned her face back to the sky, winking at it seductively.
"Sara?"
Sara didn't bother moving, didn't bother looking at him. "Hey, Griss." Her voice was giddily optimistic.
"I uh, Sara, what are you doing out here?" He moved his head from side to side, as if that would relieve him of the rain. Sara laughed on the inside and looked down at herself. She was pretty wet. In good humor, she wiped the water from the skin of her legs and arms.
It felt amusing to do, it looked amusing and Grissom would have smiled if his jeans weren't sticking to him in a very starchy manner.
"It's raining." Sara licked the cool droplets off of her lips and glanced at him quickly. He held her gaze until she turned back to the lovely gray sky.
Grissom stared down at her, getting more wet by the second. His face was screwed up in confusion and discomfort. It was then that he noticed how the thin cotton of her top clung to her collarbone in a delightfully seductive way. The light peach fabric was so transparent that he could make out the freckles smattering her clavicle. He didn't dare look any further south for fear he might not be able to meet her eyes again.
He couldn't help it, he glanced down. She wasn't wearing a bra.
Sara was nearly nude and she didn't care. In fact, she was smiling at him, but it wasn't the smiling that got him. It was the warmth in her eyes, the wonderful warmth. He wanted to wrap himself in that. He'd never seen so much heat, so much fire, in one single pair of eyes before.
Grissom swallowed hard and blindly pulled the file from the inside of his coat. Holding it out to her, the sound of more distinct rainfall sounded out on the manila of the file and she finally looked down from the sky. The edges of the light cardboard became yellowed and soggy, but she didn't bother taking it. She just looked from the pliant paper to his eyes.
Sara was still smiling. "You're very wet."
Grissom's voice was deadly, dripping with sarcasm. "Nothing gets by you."
"Why don't you come inside?" She stood, fabric clinging to her like a second skin. He could then see the freckles of her stomach, the pebbling of her breasts. And when she turned to go inside, he noted the soot on her ass, vestiges from the damp step she had just sat on.
Even as he followed her inside, she wished for lightening, thunder. She wished for thunder so forceful it would shake her apartment. None came.
Not even when he let her peel off his clothes and drop them to the floor. Not even when he let her lead him to her bedroom and inside of her. There was only one moment when she could not hear the rain hitting the ground and it was when he came inside of her.
But the rain didn't leave, didn't stop. It stayed with her through the night. It stayed with her as she watched him sleep, the warmth still resonant in her gaze. .
The pitter-patter of the rain on the pavement lulled her to sleep, his hand cool but secure around her waist.