Chapter 5. Where the magic happens

You stand behind her as she's waiting for the elevator to arrive. You eyes trace the straight line of her back, linger on the curve of her hips, come back up to follow her hand as she brushes her hair away from her face. Right now you're in a position of power - standing right behind her, observing her. You know she wants to turn around and look at you. but you also know that she won't as it would be losing the game.

The elevator doors slide open and she comes in, you follow. She turns around to push he button and is now facing you, standing so close that you can see every light freckle on her radiant face. The polite thing to do would be to take a step back as you're in each other's space, but neither of you does that. The obvious thing to do would be to reach out and touch, but neither of you does that either. You both just stand there, too close for comfort, studying each other. Your eyes travel over her full lips, her high cheekbones, her perfect hair, before finally stopping to peer into her blue orbs. She stares back at you and you get a feeling she likes what she sees. You sure do like what you see. The elevator ride only takes a couple of minutes, but to you it feels like forever. Finally, you the elevator stops moving and you turn away from her towards the already opening doors, walking out into the corridor.

"Turn left" her soft voice guides you - "Room 203".

You walk to her room together, this time she is slightly behind you, no doubt taking in your every move, and you desperately want to turn around and face her, but it's not the right time yet, so you restrain yourself. Anticipation is key and you feel excitement burning in your veins - this is a well-known game to you, but every game is only as good as the players. Stella is obviously very good.

As your reach room 203 you stop so that she has to lean over you to open the door, your bodies touching slightly. You shiver at the contact - it is neither sensual nor deliberate, but it sends an electric jolt through you. You are so going to enjoy what comes next. You push the door open and enter, casually dropping your heavy bag on the floor. It lands with a thud, you hear the door being shut and you know it's time. So you turn around to face her.

Your plan right now would normally be to say something witty or daring, but as soon as you see her standing there in the dark of the corridor, her features only illuminated by the light that comes in from the window, a small content smile on her face, anticipation in her eyes, talking is the last thing on your mind. Kissing on the other hand… You can see her watching you with interest as if trying to predict your next move or maybe planning a move of her own. You take a step towards her with confidence that you're not entirely sure you actually have, the intensity of all this is a bit unnerving, but there's no turning back now. Stella is silent, still staring at you as you take another predatory step, you hands finding their way onto her hips, gripping them confidently, pushing her back until she's pressed against the door. You come even closer, your bodies so close you can feel the heat radiating of her and her incredible smell envelops you, overloading your senses. You can feel her breathing fasten and smile triumphantly, happy to have this effect on her. Your face is now right in front of hers, your noses almost touching. Suddenly she makes a slight move forward, her body pressing fully against yours now. This is pure bliss.

"Can I just…" she raises her hand and your heart beats so loud you are sure she can hear it. Now. It's all going to start now…

Suddenly the lights in the room come on. Surprised, you look at her, then it registers in your mind that she just put the key card into the device by the door. Now it's her turn to smile triumphantly as she brushes past you and walks into the room. You allow yourself to chuckle out loud, letting her have this round. The game is only just beginning after all. Stella carefully sets her own bag on the chair and reaches for a vintage bottle of whiskey on the table.

"I wasn't sure that's what you meant" - you tease her, but she suddenly looks up and fixes you with a strangely cold stare.

"I'm sorry?"

You lift your eyebrows and eye a bottle in her hand - "when you offered to have whiskey in your room I wasn't sure you meant just that."

"Oh." she is now visibly relaxed, the predatory smile back on her face as she pours you a glass. You take it from her and your fingers touch as she says in a low voice: "Of course I didn't mean just that".

Admitting intent. Round two is on you. Now you could just stay silent and enjoy this moment of having the upper hand, but you decide against it for some reason.

"I hoped so." You even the playing field. She goes on to pour herself a glass and as you watch her you realise that this night is going to be very different from what you had imagined before.

You were counting on having just another fun one-night-stand, but this is something of entirely another level. Still a one night stand for sure, but the woman in front of you is too far from being "just another" on your list. Not only is she gorgeous, but she is also brilliant, smart, driven, all of which make her even sexier to you. Looking at her you feel a mix of lust and admiration - and that's not something you often feel for people. Frankly, its pretty fucking rare for you. This is quite unique. She is quite unique. This night will be quite unique, but only if you both let it. If you both agree to let it unravel into what it's supposed to be, if you both don't pretend this is just another night. To you it certainly isn't and you hope it isn't for her either.

You take a sip of whiskey and it rolls down your throat like a ball of fire. You watch her do the same, admiring every move she makes.

"So you had this planned?" She teases as she lowers the light in the room to a warm glow. It's the sex light and you both know that. You take another sip of whiskey, this time it goes down smoothly and you feel warmed up from inside as you reply:

"I'd like to say I did. But I'm afraid the credit is yours." After all it was her who invited you to the hotel, then up to her room. And now she's standing right next to you, taking the drink from your hand and moving closer, whispering in your ear:

"We could share that credit." With that, she leaves a kiss right below your ear, her lips travelling down your neck, kissing and sucking gently. You feel like fireworks explode in your belly as you pull her up for a kiss.

As soon as your lips touch you're gone, lost, devoured. You let go of all the planning and the moves and you just go with the flow, spellbound by how amazing this feels. For a while it's just kissing, coming in waves, passionate then tender, careful, growing languid and then desperate, hurried and then slowing down again, sensual, wet, all of it. You feel delirious and as you look into her eyes you see she is lost as well. Her eyes are dark with desire as you make a first move to unbutton her shirt.

Her hand catches yours before you can do anything and you can feel her stiffen in your arms.

"Don't" you whisper, your lips swollen from all the kissing and it comes out too desperate but you don't care right now.

"Don't what?" she whispers back, her hand still wrapped around yours in between your bodies.

This time it's you who goes for her ear, your free hand stroking her lower back sensually. "Don't try to control… this." you almost beg her, biting her earlobe teasingly and her sharp intake of breath lets you know you've achieved the desired effect. You take her face in your hands and look deeply into her eyes. "Let it go." you say firmly and you feel her loosen her grip on your hand, now stroking your wrist slightly. Her mouth is slightly parted and all you want to do is to kiss her again, but instead you watch her eyes darken with lust as you open the top button of her blouse. Then the second. The third. She doesn't move, her eyes boring into yours with an intensity that makes you shiver. You carefully run your finders along the opening of her blouse, caressing her warm skin and she moans softly, throwing her head back in pleasure. That moment is too beautiful for you to handle, so you let go as well, any resemblance of control gone for good.

When you come out of the shower you find that she is already asleep, looking even more beautiful the before, her hair all tousled u and an innocent expression oh her face. You get dressed quietly, careful not to disturb her and contemplate leaving a note, finally deciding against it: there isn't really any need for words after last night.

You throw one last look at her sleeping frame before shutting the door quietly behind you. As you get into your car and turn the engine on you glance at the clock: it shows 04:30 am.

"Jarvis, we're so screwed." You sign and chuckle to yourself at the irony - you have to turn in the article in two hours tops and you haven't written a word yet. Because you were busy flirting with Superintendent Gibson and then busy getting screwed by Superintendent Gibson. Several times. You close your eyes for a second, remembering how good it all felt until you decided to check the time…

"Shit, It's 4 am!"

"So?"

"The article is due at 6. Fuck." You fall back onto the pillows with a groan, now wanting to let go of her. Then she is on top of you, punctuating each word with a light kiss:

"Get. Out. Of. Here. Then." You both laugh as you pull her head down for a real kiss goodnight.

"Mind if I use your shower?"

You speed drive through the city for the second time today, this time in the direction of the office. As you drive you start talking to yourself, trying to word the article, to come up with an outline. In 15 minutes you sit down at your desk to type it up and you barely manage to finish in time. You submit it to the correctors and then you feel the exhaustion wash over you. As you drive home you sing along to one of your favourite new songs:

Can I take you home?
Can I take you home?
We can go anywhere you wanna go
Can I take you high
To the mountain sky?
We can go as far as you wanna go
Pa pa pa pa pa pa
Pa pa pa pa pa pa

And you are happy.