Sleight of Hand

A/N: Randon inspiration lately! Haha well actually, its been Tenneil and Tina's smut that got me here haha. Well, no, not really. I wrote half this chapter right after I saw Derailed for the first time (yes, there are blatant things taken from the movie. so sue me :-P). The next chapter should be along as quickly as this one was, its already half done :-) Hope you enjoyy, and please leave a review!

She could feel him watching her. They remained silent, neither one having any idea of what to do next.

Why had she moved her hand? Even she wasn't sure. It wasn't out of loyalty to Barry, not at all. Was it out of loyalty to marriage itself? Was she simply trying to convince herself that being married still meant something, that her life wasn't complete shit?

This was a mess.

She looked down at her wedding ring. No wonder she didn't get many tips tonight, she thought to herself. She always got more if she left the ring behind. She wished she could just get rid of it already, but habit sometimes found her with it still on her finger. It almost disgusted her that she would hold onto it, when it was the symbol of everything that had gone wrong in her life. And yet, as she rotated it around her finger, she couldn't get herself to take it off.

"Maybe we should go now," she offered, refusing to look into his face, afraid of what she might see there.

"Yeah," he agreed. After a little protest, he laid money on the table to pay for their drinks, and they headed off.

-----

He felt lightyears away from her as they trodded the up the block to their building. Glancing peripherally, he saw that she had her arms crossed over her chest, and she was staring straight ahead of her. But her face faltered. She seemed . . . confused.

"I'll walk you up," he insisted when they entered the lobby. She simply nodded, leading the way up the stairs to the fifth floor. He'd never felt like the staircase was this long, and he never knew silence could burn so much. He was desperate to fix whatever had made her shut down to him, only he didn't know how. But he knew that he couldn't let her enter her place with this uncomfortable air still between them.

"Well, this is me," Rachel said as they reached her door. They turned to look at each other, their eyes locking in a visual game of chess. Though, at the moment, it was hard to tell which person was winning. He had to take a chance. Fuck the rules. He didn't want to wonder about what could have happened. He didn't want to go to bed thinking about how she would react. So he leaned in close, putting his mouth by her ear. He could feel her breath begin to strain beneath him.

"What if I kissed you, but didn't touch your lips?", he asked, his voice just barely a whisper. She was literally pinned to the wall with him standing in front of her, and his breath on her neck made her shiver. She couldn't dare answer, only stand there and soak up whatever the hell this was. Her heart began beating so rapidly that she was sure he could hear it.

With her lack of a verbal answer, Ross took this as a defeat. Ever so gently, he leaned in even closer, very lightly brushing his lips against the skin just beneath her ear. The simple act caused her breath to catch in the back of her throat. It provoked him, and he moved down, kissing her cheek but letting his lips linger just a second longer. She still hadn't found the strength or willpower to lift a finger.

Even slower, as leaned in and kissed just next to her lips with an open mouth. She then inhaled so violently that it made a sharp noise that cut through the silence and sexual tension.

He pulled away, looking directly into her eyes. He couldn't read her expression, but she seemed to be struggling to catch her breath. Her eyes soon looked pleading, begging him for more.

Without warning, he roughly grabbed her arms, mashing his lips into hers before either could blink an eye. He felt her hands immediately on his back, groping for a hold as her fingernails dug into the fabric of his shirt. She opened her mouth for him, allowing his tongue to enter and battle with hers. Somehow, in all the commotion, she stumbled back and palmed the door knob to her apartment in her hand.

Both fumbling with the buttons of the other's shirt, they staggered backwards into the apartment, slamming the door behind them. Rachel quickly had his shirt unbuttoned, and slid it over his shoulders and off. Before anything else could happen, she pulled on him to move into her bedroom, and he followed suit, his hands getting bold and kneading her ass through her skirt, pressing her tight against himself.

Without bothering to turn on a light, they somehow maneuvered through the room until their knees hit the bed, causing him to fall on top of her. They were still liplocked, the kiss heightening to a bruising intensity. Ross tore his lips from hers, moving down to kiss her neck, his tongue brushing it with every touch. He now had her shirt unbuttoned, revealing her deep purple lacy bra, and he quickly moved his mouth lower to caress the uncovered cleavage. His hands finished the job of removing her shirt.

Rachel then pushed back on his shoulders and rolled over, forcing him to the bottom. She diligently untucked his undershirt from his pants, pulling it up and over his head and flinging it off to the side. She lowered herself on his bare chest, sucking on the tightened skin. She felt his hands move to her ass, then around front as he worked on the front button and zipper of her skirt. But before he could get it off, she moved down his body, and held his eyes as she undid his belt. She slowly tugged his pants down, seeing his arousal through his boxers. She kissed him just above the waistband, but he forcefully pulled her back up his body so he could kiss her mouth again.

Her head was spinning so much she thought it would explode. He tugged her skirt down her legs, sensually rubbing his palms up her thighs, over her ass, until he reached her bra and unclasped it. His hands lightly brushed the sides of her breasts as he removed it, causing her to let out a soft moan. Even more when he began to firmly fondle them, her nipples hardening in anticipation. He took one into his mouth and she thought she would burst if he wasn't inside her soon.

Too impatient to wait for him, she reached between them and stroked him, feeling that he was definitely ready. Without warning, she guided him into her, pushing down hard to feel him deep inside her. He let out a loud moan, since it had all been unexpected to him, but recovered quickly as he felt her begin to move up and down on top of him.

It had been so long since Rachel had been this active during sex. Ages, really. She couldn't have remembered the last time she and Barry had sex even if one of them tried. And she couldn't remember ever feeling this needy . . .

She tried to quicken the pace, feeling him rise up to meet her, his thrusts getting harder and harder. He began hitting a certain spot at her, and though she wasn't climaxing yet, she began to feel weak in the legs. He could tell that she was getting exhausted, so he quickly ceased his motions to move her underneath him. Re-adjusting himself with his arms on both sides of his head for support, he began pumping fast, knowing he was close to the edge and feeling pretty sure that she was too.

Sure enough, a minute or two later, he felt her fingernails dig painfully hard into his back. Her eyelids squeezed shut as she tried with all her might not to scream. He felt her involuntarily contract around him, sending him dizzily over the edge as well. He collapsed in a heap on top of her, but he felt her hands move from the strong grip on his back to awkwardly holding his sides. And all of a sudden, he felt out of place.

He rolled off her, landing next to her on his back. Both were still panting deeply, out of breath. What the fuck were they supposed to do now?

Turning to look at the clock, something caught Rachel's eye.

Her wedding band was still on her finger.

She couldn't even fully comprehend what she'd just done. All she could think about was that it was wrong. She wasn't even having one thought about Barry, or Ross. Just the fact that she was married and just broke whatever that marriage had left with her, if there even was anything there to hold on to.

She felt him try to grab her hand, but she quickly pulled it away. Without a word, she wrapped a blanket around herself and quickly retreated to the bathroom. The moment she got in, she pulled the ring from her hand as if it were burning her, seething into the skin of her finger. It was tainted. She tossed it in the toilet, watching it sink to the bottom.

She didn't have the guts to pull the flush.

-----

He hated himself.

Why had he started that? Why in God's name did he have to? And now, he just ruined her . . . ruined everything that might have even been there. He was sure that he'd fucked it all up. She would never have acted that way had he not initiated it.

In disgust, he pulled his clothing on, wishing he could just snap his fingers and disappear. He looked at the bathroom door that she'd slammed shut behind her. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. He couldn't bring himself to say anything. He couldn't get himself to reach out to her, to apologize, to say one word.

He quickly opened his eyes, and with one last look, he left.

When he got home, he went straight to the shower. He washed himself until his skin became raw and red, and it burned with a quiet intensity. But he still felt dirty. He still felt guilty, and stupid, and terrible . . .

But, amongst the mess he'd let himself become, he felt a tiny ray of freedom. He felt like, finally, he'd broken out of his conservative ways. He felt like he'd let Emily go completely, and that he'd even let Carol go. All of that was gone. He was . . . just Ross.

She'd freed him.

-----

She curled into a tight ball in bed that night. She was exhausted, and with the close of her eyes, she waited for sleep to take her, and for her mind to stop twisting and turning over what happened. She'd deal with it later.

She longed for a day when her life didn't seem so complicated. When she was younger, before she knew how far gone she'd become.

Before she'd let him break her.