Lara knew she'd had way more champagne than was wise. And kissing and groping a guy on the balcony just outside the doors of a ballroom filled with a couple of hundred people who included friends and relatives was just a little out of character for her.
She wasn't sure if it was his cologne or simply the amount of champagne she'd had affecting her senses, but he smelt so good. With his jacket around her shoulders, his arms around her waist and his scratchy, stubbled face kissing her neck, Lara actually felt her knees go weak. Maybe it was just a side-effect of the lack of male pheromones in her life in recent months. The break up with Josh had been enough to put her off any kind of male company for quite a while. But that didn't mean she didn't still need sex. Perhaps just one night, with a sexy, single doctor was just what she needed.
But still something held her back. She was trembling, not sure if it was from the cold, the kissing or just nervousness.
His hand slipped from her waist to her ass, cupping her cheek and pulling her pelvis against his. Lara groaned and then pulled back. "Hey," she said, realising at once how breathy she sounded. She tried hard to control her shivers. "I think we need to go back inside."
He stepped away from her, clearly unhappy with her statement. "Why?"
"It's rude to leave a wedding before the bride and groom."
"I've never really been one for the social niceties."
Lara chuckled. "I get that. But I guess what I'm saying is . . ." she took in a deep breath. "I'm not quite ready to go upstairs with you yet. And if we keep doing this, that's what's going to happen."
"Ah."
"And it is cold out here."
"You said you're not quite ready yet. Does that mean it's still on the menu of possibilities for tonight?"
Lara thought the look on his face was cute. It could have been sleazy, or desperate, but instead it was kind of yearning, perhaps even lonely. He was obviously as bored of the wedding as she was, only he was being less polite about it. She liked that. Liked his confident swagger, cut-to-the-chase remarks, and the witty, spiteful commentary he'd been keeping up all night. Added to that was the broad shoulders, stubbled jaw and blue eyes. The cane thing she barely noticed.
In an instant her nerves vanished and her decision was made. He was a good kisser. It didn't necessarily mean he would be a spectacular lover, but it wasn't a bad start. If nothing else, having him hold her close and continue to kiss her would be very nice indeed.
She smiled. "I would say, yes, it's still on the menu. Perhaps after they cut the cake?"
He grinned at her and stepped back, letting her lead the way back into the ballroom. He kept a hand on the small of her back as they made their way back to the table and Lara was glad of it, glad that he kept the connection with her without pawing her in front of everyone.
The guy she'd been talking to at the table looked kind of disappointed as he watched her sit down again. Lara had no doubt it was clear that something had gone on outside, her hair was probably a mess and she was still wearing House's jacket. She quickly shrugged it off and handed it back to House before pouring herself another champagne and downing it in a few gulps. House copied her, drinking a full glass in what looked like a single swallow before refilling both their glasses and draining that one, too. He then fell silent, sitting back, looking bored, sleepy and drunk, his easy banter from outside suddenly evaporated, leaving a conversation gap that her earlier table companion tried valiantly to fill.
"So Lara, before you, uh, went outside, you were telling me about your trip to Europe. Did you get to Prague?"
Lara almost felt sorry for the guy. He was still giving it his best shot, even though she felt that watching paint dry would be more interesting than struggling to keep up a conversation with him. She made quick work of the fresh glass of champagne in front of her and was pleased when House refilled it again. Suddenly her proper decision to not leave before the bride and groom seemed silly. Larissa and Paul were good friends, but with two hundred and fifty guests in the room, they'd never notice if she wasn't there when they cut the cake – and they were taking an awfully long time to get around to that; it was nearly midnight. Besides, she was seeing them again tomorrow, before they headed off on their honeymoon – she was driving them to the airport. And even more besides, Lara hated weddings. Why would she voluntarily stay at one when she could be getting her rocks off with a sexy stranger? It had been too long . . .
Lara drained another glass of champagne and then turned to House with a grimace. "You know, I'm suddenly not feeling well."
House looked mildly shocked and very disappointed. She gave him the slightest wink and watched as his eyes lit up again. "I think it's that problem I was telling you about on the balcony." She turned to the others at the table who were all now observing their conversation – all of them too exceptionally dull to manage one of their own. "Dr House was kind enough to take an interest in a small health problem of mine."
"Oh, you mean your peripheral vestibular disorder?" House asked.
It was Lara's turn to be surprised, but she covered it by looking down and rummaging in her evening bag, thinking that it might just look as if she was searching for pills.
"You need to lie down immediately. The problems with your balance will make you feel nauseous otherwise," House said, his voice authoritative and stern, even though he slurred slightly.
Lara nodded, realising that she had definitely met her match when it came to bullshitting. He was spinning the story beautifully – had taken her lead and run with it. It was all she could do not to sit back and applaud.
"Yes, I think you're right. I don't want to throw up at the table."
Lara had to make a serious effort to stop herself from smiling at the horrified look on the geek guy's face.
"Come on, I'll help you up to your room. Make sure you don't vomit along the way," House said, rising and taking her elbow.
"Thanks, doctor," Lara said, "I really appreciate it. Good night all."
As soon as they were outside the ballroom, Lara broke into giggles.
"What's funny?" House asked, seemingly genuinely puzzled.
"What's funny?" Lara asked, gasping for breath through her laughter. "You really don't know?"
Before she could so much as think anything further, House grabbed her shoulder with his free hand, roughly pushed her against the wall, and kissed her. Her mouth was open, still giggling, and he pushed his tongue straight inside. Her giggles died instantly and Lara leant her head back against the wall, her hands rising to run through his hair and hold his head close to hers. She couldn't help but groan as she felt his hand run from her shoulder downwards until he cupped her breast, gently feeling its weight. The fact that they were just a few feet from the main doorway to the ballroom had completely slipped her mind.
"Lara?"
Melinda's voice came swimming up through the haze, bringing Lara back to herself. She twisted her hands in House's hair, pulling his mouth from hers so she could see over his shoulder, finding herself looking straight into her friend's rather bemused face.
"James and I went back to the table and they told me you'd gone to your room because you were sick," Melinda said, trying to sound cross and failing badly.
"Oh, I was . . . it's just . . ." Lara trailed off, knowing it was very clear what was "just" going on.
"No problem, I wanted to make sure you were okay, that's all." She grinned. "And it seems you're perfectly fine."
House hadn't turned around or looked up at all since Melinda's interruption, he simply moved his kissing to the side of Lara's neck. His scratchy chin was rubbing against the soft skin of her throat and Lara was equal parts aroused and embarrassed – the fact that he hadn't stopped making out with her while her friend stood there was mortifying but also kind of gratifying.
"Yes, I'm definitely fine," she said, trying hard to keep her voice as normal as she could.
"I'm pretty fine too," Melinda confided. "James and I are heading upstairs. I was going to wait until after the cake, but if you two can get out of it . . ."
Lara bit her lip to stop herself from making any noise as House bit a tiny piece of skin just at the juncture of her shoulder and neck, rubbing his teeth together gently before licking the hurt away.
"Larissa won't notice," Lara said once she was again capable of speech. "See you later. Come on." She pulled away from House, putt an arm around him and steered them straight for the elevators. Melinda's chuckle carried down the corridor after them and Lara gave House a light slap as he continued to try to kiss her neck.
"Stop that," she said, looking up at him as sternly as she could manage as they walked clumsily along, arms around each other, but even she could hear the giggle in her voice. "That was embarrassing."
"That wasn't embarrassing. This is embarrassing." House grabbed her hand and put it straight on his crotch, pressing her hand into a large and very evident bulge. "I couldn't turn around."
Lara giggled but then heard a loud and obviously annoyed throat being cleared, followed by a disapproving woman's voice saying, "Some people! There's a time and a place." Without Lara realising it, they'd reached the elevator bank and when she looked away from House's face she found an elderly couple staring at her with frank dislike. Lara snatched her hand away from House's trousers and felt her face flame with heat.
"'S'okay, I'm a doctor and she's my nurse. She was jus' taking my temperature," House said, slurring his words and then breaking into a loud, evil laugh.
The old lady tut-tutted.
They were saved from further disapproval by the ding of two lots of elevator doors opening. Lara quickly hurried House into the one further away from the couple and pressed button twelve for her floor. She turned to look at him, finding him leaning heavily against the elevator wall, his eyes closed, humming something random under his breath.
"Hey, you're not going to pass out on me, are you?"
"No."
"You're not going to be too drunk to perform?"
"No."
"'No' you're not too drunk or 'no' you're not going to perform?"
"No," he said again, then chuckled.
Lara, feeling quite drunk herself, laughed. "Maybe what you need is another drink."
"Yes."
"Damn. Are you going to pay my minibar bill? 'Cause the drinks downstairs were free."
"I'll leave you a tip. I'll double it if you hit the stop button and go down on me right now." His eyes opened and Lara could see that he was half serious. She wanted to be outraged, but was surprised to find herself turned on by the idea and a jolt of heat stabbed into her groin at the vision his words provoked. Not that she was going to do it.
"I like my oral sex in private," Lara said, as primly as she could manage whilst releasing that she was swaying with the movement of the elevator. "And I like it reciprocated."
"Never said I wouldn't," House said flippantly, but then his eyes suddenly lost their glassy look and his gaze pierced her. "I'd be happy to."
He held her eyes and Lara felt as if all the breath had left her body. It wasn't just the thought of him doing that to her, she was sure it would be very nice, but something more. In a moment of drunken clarity, something told her that Greg House was going to become important in her life, she just wasn't quite sure why.
The elevator doors slid open and they staggered their way down the corridor to Lara's room. With each step, Lara felt the effects of the all champagnes she'd drained so quickly begin to weigh heavily on her until she could tell that she was weaving as badly as House was – and he needed a cane to walk. She fumbled with the room key and finally got them inside, House immediately headed for the bed and fell on to it, backwards, with a loud sigh.
"God I hate weddings," he said, his speech still slurred.
"Me too. Wanna drink?"
"Sure. Whisky."
The cupboard beneath the television revealed a tiny Johnny Walker and a tiny Makers Mark and Lara made an executive decision to keep the Johnny for herself and poured him the bourbon. "No ice, 'cause I don't have any," she said, handing him a glass. He sat up awkwardly, looking foggier and drunker than ever, and took the drink from her hand.
"Bottoms up!" he said lewdly, then downed the drink, tossed the glass carelessly to the floor where it bounced and rolled under the bed, and then grabbed her around her hips. Before she knew it, his hands had raked up her dress, reached underneath and pulled her lacy thong panties down to her ankles.
Lara was left sputtering and coughing – he'd done it just as she'd swallowed a mouthful of whisky and she'd gasped in response. The liquid set fire to her throat.
"Hey!" she protested weakly.
"Hey what? Let's get this party started." House shrugged off his tuxedo jacket, undid his tie and took off his shoes and socks. Once that was completed, however, he seemed drained of energy and he fell back on the bed again, still in his shirt and trousers.
"You are too drunk to perform," Lara accused, weaving unsteadily over to the other side of the bed, where she too fell onto her back, kicking her shoes off over the side. She didn't bother saying that she felt she was too drunk to perform too.
"Am not," he protested, rolling on to his side and dragging her closer to him. He kissed her, and Lara felt a faint stirring of nausea as the whisky and champagne in her belly decided to fight each other for their right to her stomach's territory.
She closed her eyes and willed herself to concentrate on the kiss; despite his drunkenness he was still a decent kisser and one of his hands was roaming over her body, stroking and touching her through the fine fabric of her dress. Somewhere inside her head a voice told her it would probably be a good idea to get out of bed and hang the seven-hundred-dollar dress up, but it wasn't terribly convincing.
His hand was stroking her thighs and then between her legs, and Lara was quite relaxed and comfortable. Miles away from an orgasm, barely even a fraction as aroused as she had been out on the terrace, but it was all quite pleasant. She heard a zipper and felt his weight press over her, then his penis battering around between her legs, trying to find home base. She put a hand between them and guided him in, noting that he wasn't really all that hard. Nowhere near as hard as he had been just a little while ago in the elevator foyer. Maybe the alcohol was affecting him as much as it was affecting her, Lara thought. She drunkenly tried to count how many glasses of champagne she'd had, but her brain wasn't up to that kind of complex math problem. He thrust for a while, but kept slipping out of her, and Lara was finding it less pleasant the longer he went on. She was about to ask him to stop when he went suddenly still and she opened her eyes again to look up at his face. He was either having an orgasm or a heart attack and she wasn't quite sure which.
"Did you just come?" she asked, her voice sounding loud and accusing in the room that a moment ago had been filled only with the sound of his heavy breathing.
He rolled to her side and lay on his back, chest heaving with effort. "Yeah, but that was fucking pathetic. Sorry."
She knew she was supposed to console him and say things like nevermind and it's fine, but she was actually cross. She'd wanted to have one night of good sex and it had turned out like this?
"Yeah, it was pretty pathetic," she said, her irritation clear.
"I'll make it up to you."
"Now?"
"I jus' need a lil rest . . ."
Lara folded her arms, not sure whether to demand her satisfaction, ask him to leave, or just go to sleep. Just a moment later, loud snoring started up next to her. Lara sighed, figuring there wasn't going to be any further lovemaking in her near future. Not unless she took matters into her own hands. She thought about that for a while and then decided she couldn't be bothered.
Instead she got up, hung up her dress, and had a quick shower. She spent time scrubbing her face – she'd put on a lot more makeup than normal and she hated the feeling of it. No matter how drunk she was, she always took her makeup off. She went back to bed, crawled in naked beside House's snoring frame and pulled the quilted bed cover over them both. Within minutes she was asleep.