It takes two hours and some serious mental mapping, but eventually I find Lara in the sixth library on the East end of the manor, contained in a circle of tomes and manuscripts. Unfortunately, my confidence is for naught because she isn't conscious enough to see it.
I cross to the opposite side of the mahogany table and kneel down, resting my chin on the edge and peering across to get a look at her face. Her head is buried in her crossed arms on the desk and her breathing is slow and even, hair splayed messily over the wood surface.
"Lara?" I whisper. Sleeping in a chair like that couldn't be good for her back, especially considering she had two fifteen pound weights attached to her chest. I wonder if they're real or not, though I really can't imagine someone like Ms. Croft having any interest on having boobs that hindering. "Hey, wake up."
She stirs vaguely and her eyes flutter, but she only groans and slips back into sleep. I make an impatient noise and reach to flatten my hand against her back, and even as I'm doing it I realize what a mistake I've made.
She's on her feet before I have time to blink and the crook between her thumb and index finger slams into my throat so hard my larynx closes immediately. My back is thrown into a bookcase by her sudden momentum.
She raises a switchblade to my neck and just as she's about to make the slice her eyes unglaze and she regains clarity. Her angry snarl drops.
"Sam!" she exclaims, taking her hand from my throat. I wheeze and sputter, struggling to stay on my feet as air rushes through my bruised trachea. "Oh god, are you alright? You really shouldn't sneak up on me, it's dangerous."
I cough around my new injury and clutch her shoulder for support; she takes my arm gently and helps me to the chair she'd been asleep in just a second ago. After a few minutes of learning how to breathe again, she speaks.
"I thought perhaps you'd leave," she pondered quietly. "After that whole ordeal."
"No," I swallow. "I sent Alex home, but I'm still here. Zip made dinner, you should come eat something…" Both she and I knew that wasn't what I wanted to say, but she rubs her right eye tiredly and gives me that cryptic smile nonetheless.
"It's crazy how used to this stuff you two are. I mean, your house exploded earlier and Zip just shrugged and was like, 'Yup, happens all the time. Have this five star dinner.' "
She chuckles, and it warms me, relieving some of my building anxiety. "I…uhm…I wanted to ask you to reconsider your decision about my request."
Her smile drops in a heartbeat. "Sam-"
"I know, I know. Just let me talk, okay? Let me talk, then you can tell me 'no' again."
She pauses and sighs, crossing her arms over her chest. "Alright."
Good. That's farther than I thought I'd get. "You're trying to protect me, right?"
Her eyes flicker, widening just for a passing moment.
"That's why you're being so stern about this. I get it. Trust me, I know what it's like to lose the people you care about. I mean, I've never had anyone die in my arms or anything like that, but I did have parents that just got sick of having a kid. Parents that just threw me away to boarding school in another country when I became too much for them to handle. And I know I can't even begin to touch the pain and suffering you've had to go through over the years, but…" I hesitate before continuing, mouth open and trembling with anticipation.
"I feel so alive when I'm with you. I feel like I matter to the whole world, I feel important and special and, and ready to take on anything! And when you had that gun to your head, I thought I would fall over dead myself. I felt like I…I felt like there was nothing that I wouldn't have given to see you live through that next moment…" My face heats up; this is sounding a lot like a love confession or something, and when I look up to meet her gaze her cheeks are flushed and her sharp eyes are soft. Her lips peel apart slightly.
"What are you saying, Samantha?" Her voice is still so impossible to read, but I press on.
"I'm saying I don't want to leave you, Lara." I stand up slowly in front of her, stepping in close; she inhales sharply and matches my gait backwards. For a second she looks genuinely off-put, and I guess that hurts pretty bad but I keep at it anyway.
"Enough. That's enough," she urges between gritted teeth.
"No. Stop, you don't get to say that to me." I step into her space again, and again she backs off. "I know you feel it too, right? That's why you're trying to protect me." It's a presumptuous thing to say. She glowers at me the same way a trapped tiger would glower at a hunter.
Her heel touches the wall at her back, and she freezes up stiff, giving me her best 'back off' glare. It sends a rocking shiver through my spine. "Please, Lara," I beckon lowly, trying to seem as non-threatening as possible.
It doesn't work.
Something in her must have set her off then, maybe it was the lack of escape or my wildly presumptuous tone, but her eyes snap open and her pupils shrink down to pinholes and she grabs me, like really grabs me hard around the shoulders and shoves me back. I hit the ground unceremoniously, thumping down on my ass and hitting the back of my head against the floor; I'm glad for the carpet because otherwise I'd have seriously broken something.
She mounts me effortlessly, straddling my waist with thighs that could probably choke out a full grown bear and rips the knife from her side. She brings the point of it down to my neck gracelessly, stopping just a half-inch from its target. She's shaking, I can see it in the blade and in her lips and in her eyes.
"Leave me be!" she shouts. "If you want to die so badly I could save you the speech and just finish it here!"
I should be afraid. Two days ago, when she flashed the weapon at me with a smirk and a high air of untouchable confidence, I was pissing myself. But now…those stone cold eyes are glassy and those strong, steady hands are quivering with conflict and anger and something else. And I'm not afraid. I'm hurting. I ache for her sorrow and my chest tightens at the sight of her so wounded.
She's bent over me, her face directly over my own, and so I reach between her stiff arms and touch the corners of her jaw as lightly as I can, trailing them up over her pronounced cheekbones and skimming her delicate ears. She looks absolutely shocked at my motions; the knife tip doesn't withdraw.
"It's okay," I mutter, unsure of how to communicate with her in this state of mind.
"What?" Her eyes are welling up and her features are twisted; I run my fingertips into her bangs and stroke a scar on her cheek lightly with my thumb.
"I'm not afraid of you, Lara."
She makes a choked sound and throws the knife away, covering her face with her hands and digging her fingernails deep into her scalp.
"How are you doing this," she grits, barking a hard, cracked laugh. I keep my hands on her cheeks as she begins to break down. "How are you doing this to me?"
I don't see the rest coming, not by a long shot. She grabs the back of my head, tangling her fingers into a fist in my short black hair, she kisses me with bruising force. I lose all of my breath right then, all of my brain just shuts the fuck off. I grab at her desperately as her dagger tongue sweeps between my lips, wiggling between my teeth and diving inside, sweeping fast strokes over my own. I gasp raggedly, unable to catch my breath, and circle my hand to grip the back of her head.
She pulls me forcefully upwards and I prop myself up onto my outstretch arm. I'm kissing her right now. It's all I can think. I'm fucking kissing her right now and I never even knew I needed or wanted this but it's everything, it's the only thing that matters. I can feel the seam of her shorts against my bare abdomen where my shirt had ridden up, and can feel her struggling for air with the same uncontrollable desperation as me. I wrap my free arm around her back and scratch her down the bend of her spine and she lets out this sexy, edged groan that goes right to my lap.
Her lips are so unbelievably soft, and her chin and cheeks are smooth, hairless. The lack of uncomfortable friction eggs me further, sending my wandering hand under the tight fabric of her shirt and up. Miles of steel muscle tightens and pulses under my touch as she reacts in time with me. Before I reach my intended destination though she rips her mouth from mine, biting my lower lip and licking a wet line over the side of my neck.
Now having her tongue in my mouth was definitely something. But feeling it wander, having it curl and flick and lavish one of the most sensitive parts of my body like that, instantly drives me to incoherent moans. Jesus, she's not even doing anything particularly dirty and she's get me on my edge. I want to beg her to do more.
She pulls back and kisses me again with that same crippling force, but it's too quick and too soon over; her head leans against the crook of my neck and she breathes unevenly into my collarbone. I squeeze the back of her neck and try to clear that warm, humid fog from my mind.
"Take me with you," I whisper between shaky inhales.
She bites her nails into my back, maybe a last-ditch effort to fight me off.
"You'll get hurt," she mutters weakly. I have to admit that have this sort of effect on someone like Lara is quite the ego-booster.
"You want me to come, I know it." Her hot breath blows against my shoulder in response.
"This isn't about what I want." My heart jumps into my throat.
"Take me with you," I breathe again. I know I'm breaking her. She's quiet for a handful of heartbeats. I say her name like it's given me air, like I can't live without it, and she actually shivers against me. Again, my ego soars.
"You…" she begins, clearing her throat gently and wiping her face with the foot of her palm. "You'll have to follow me instructions exactly."
I can feel my features beam. "Alright!" I say excitedly, slapping my hands together.
"And if I tell you to stay somewhere or hide, there won't be any arguing."
"I'll be the most obedient and loyal partner you could ask for," I grin, giddy and beside myself. I can't believe I managed to convince her. She still looks unsure, so I hold my hand out in the small gap of air between us and stick my pinky out.
"Hey, I promise, okay? Cross my heart."
She looks between my gesture and my eyes before sighing in a resigned way and wrapping her pinky around mine.
"Alright. We had better go get you ready."