Chapter Five

Grissom absorbed the playful side of Sara like a man absorbs water who's been out in the sun too long. He loved the fact that she could practically recite the lines of a Hitchcock movie right along with him. Again, her agile mind captured him and stirred his intellect and he found that extremely attractive in a woman. The moment he realized that his imitation of Norman Bates bothered her, he couldn't seem to stop himself from pushing her to her limit. When she tried to step over him to leave the room, he thought her reaction was adorable. He knew he wasn't going to let her go "sleep in the truck" so he grabbed each of her legs as she placed them on either side of him. He playfully promised he would stop agitating her as he looked up at her standing above him. Jesus, but she was a beauty, with her legs going on forever. He couldn't seem to release his hold on those legs, his long, thick fingers taking pleasure in simply holding her around her ankles. He half expected the spitfire to jump off of the bed anyway, but instead she stopped everything and stared at him with that face that had caught his attention back in San Francisco all those years before. Then, when she dropped down on top of him, perhaps with more force than he would have liked, he could see her expression was one of complete desire. That was when the smile started to fade from his face and his heart started to beat so much faster.

She didn't do anything other than watch him as her hands moved onto his chest to steady herself. He could see how her breathing was coming in short puffs, almost as if she were afraid to take a deep breath, afraid she would change some infinitesimal charge in the atmosphere that would alter their situation. He watched her huge brown eyes as they darted from his face down to his stomach and back again, and he realized she was responding to the rigidity that had begun the moment she quoted Anthony Perkins. As her little puffs dried her lips, she quickly wet them with a flick of her tongue and that was when he was beginning to suspect that he was losing ground in this battle of wits.

Neither seemed able to move, both frozen as they watched one another until finally, her thumbs started moving over his nipples, making his breath catch in his throat as he stared at her. He knew he had to end this now. He knew that "he" was the one who needed to get outside in the middle of a thunderstorm to hide in the truck for the rest of the night. He knew he had to get up from the bed; to move from beneath her, but his face must have shown his thoughts because as soon as it occurred to him, she ever so slowly started to move her hips back and forth on him.

He had no control over his reaction as he immediately bucked against her stimulation, but he quickly tried to get himself under control again. He gently moved his hands up from her ankles; his intentions being to grasp onto her hips and move her away, but as his fingers took in the smooth softness of her legs, he seemed to have forgotten his destination and found his way as far as her buttocks that were pressed so securely against him. This seemed to ignite a fire inside of Sara, a fire that he could see glowing in her eyes as she leaned down so close to him that her lips were only a breath away from his.

"It would be so easy," she whispered to him as her fingers moved against his chest like a cat flexing its claws. "There's only a fraction of an inch of cloth separating us. I can feel your body responding to mine; wanting to be with mine. I can feel your heart beating so fast because you realize the same thing."

The loud knock on the door turned Grissom's gaze to the entrance of the room and he remained still, waiting to see if it would come again, and when it did, he looked back at Sara. She had dropped her gaze, the spell having been broken. He moved his hands to her waist and turned with her, partially dumping her onto the bed as he got up when the third set of knocks echoed through the room. He paused as he got to his feet and looked down at where she slowly moved across the bed until she was sitting back against the wall with her legs drawn up and covered again with the shirt. The fourth set of knocks turned him around and he moved to the door.

He pulled the door open in a rush, his frustration showing in the way it nearly swung out of his hand and bounced against the doorstop on the wall. The sight of the old man standing inside his rain slicker aggravated Grissom. He had been a pain in his ass since his arrival at the motel. Everything had been substandard and now here he was, interrupting what was, most definitely, a delicate situation with Sara. He watched how the flashlight the man was carrying was darting around the entranceway, then when he saw that Grissom was dressed only in a pair of jeans, he pointed it inside the room until its beam rested on Sara on the other side. Grissom automatically stepped between the source of the light and its target, blocking the man's view of the beauty on the bed.

"What?" Grissom asked a bit more harshly than he had intended and the man had to half-shout in order to be heard over the rain.

"I just wanted to check in on you. We're letting everyone know that we're working on getting the generator started. The transmitter blew, so an outside source is out of the question until the power company comes to replace it—and the way its storming tonight—I don't think we're going to be a high priority."

"Fine," Grissom grumbled as he continued to stare at the man. "Is there anything else?"

"Nope. Just letting ya know." He pointed the flashlight to the bed closest to the door and saw the puddles of water gathering on it and started to walk inside but Grissom again blocked his way. "Looks like ya got a leak there."

"Obviously."

"I could come in and have a look at it."

"It appears you've already looked quite enough. We'll survive until morning."

Just then the lights flickered twice then came on and stayed on and although the neon signs at the entrance of the parking lot didn't light up, the various motel rooms showed that they now had lights behind their drawn curtains. When Grissom saw the man's eyes looking past him toward Sara again, he stepped back and pushed the door closed completely. The rattling of the old air conditioner drew his attention, or maybe simply gave him something else to look at before he had to turn and deal with the woman behind him. He slowly walked to the contraption and looked at it.

"The air conditioner is working," he said unnecessarily. "Would you like me to turn it up so it cools things off in here?"

There was no answer, only the sound of her getting off of the bed and retreating into the bathroom. When he turned to see what she was doing, he saw her approaching him with the clothes they had gotten wet earlier. With the arrangement of the chairs and table that sit in front of the air conditioner, she spread her clothing out so they might dry more quickly with the cool air hitting them. She refused to look up at him and he knew there was no possible way for them to avoid discussing what almost had transpired between them before they were interrupted. As she started to walk past him again, he stopped her by grasping her wrist. She paused momentarily.

"It's alright, Grissom," she said quietly without looking at him. "I understand. The terms are different when the lights are on. . .you were brought back to your senses. . . I'm not the one you thought you were with. Take your pick. I'll believe any one of those excuses."