Lucas looked around the elevator in the dim illumination provided by the emergency lights. "What the fuck?"
Peyton swallowed hard. "It looks as if the electricity went out."
He glared at her and she shrank back a little. "Thanks. If it wasn't for you, I'd never figure that one out for myself." His voice just oozed sarcasm and venom.
She felt her heart break into pieces. Peyton couldn't wrap her head around Lucas talking that way to anyone. Especially not to her. She wanted to say something to smooth things over, but found that her voice just wouldn't come. So she just retreated to her corner and sat down. She busied herself by putting away her mp3 player and her book.
Lucas watched as she did so. He had never been claustrophobic but the elevator was far too small for him and Peyton and all of their issues. Hell, LA wasn't big enough. Lucas felt like he was suffocating. He hadn't prepared himself to see her again. All sorts of feelings were bubbling up to the surface. He felt angry, hurt, depressed and annoyed but he was also happy, curious, and aroused.
He opened his cell phone. There was no way that he was going to just stand there in silence with Peyton. That would be too weird. And he was definitely not ready to talk to her, yet. As he was debating who to call, he noticed the lack of bars. No signal. Of course.
Peyton sneaked a glance at him. He was playing with his phone. All the strong lines seeming even stronger in the dim light. Her breath caught in her throat. God, he was so beautiful.
"So…" he starts, unsure of where to go from there.
"So…" she replies, her tone lighter than his.
Lucas closes his phone and looks at her sitting there just a few feet from him. He felt himself growing stupid as the blood rushes away to his brain, leaving him incapable of thinking clearly. Sighing, he rubs at the back of his head and sits besides her.
"Does this happen often?" His voice sounds tired and soft.
She gives him a confused look. "What, getting stuck in a elevator with my ex-boyfriend? No. Not as much as you would think."
He took in a deep breath. She had called him her ex-boyfriend. Obviously, that what he was but it was more the way that she said it that bothered him. It sounded like it was easy for her to say it. Like it didn't hurt her to admit that their relationship failed.
"That wasn't what I meant," he growled. Wow, he didn't mean for it to come out like that. One look at Peyton's reaction told him that she hadn't been expecting the tone of his reply, either.
"Um, uh, you meant the electricity going out," she said, her voice so soft that he almost had trouble hearing her. She shook her head. "No, not any more than any other place, I think."
Suddenly her mind went back to the city-wide blackout in Tree Hill all those years ago. That wonderful rainy night that she had spent with Ellie. Before…
Despite all the time and distance, Lucas could still see where her thoughts were at the moment. He could see she was trying so hard not to cry. A little surprising, considering that the Peyton Sawyer he knew was the toughest girl around. It was hard seeing her as this broken shell before him. Before he even realized what he was doing, his arms were around her, pulling her to his chest.
"Shhh," he whispered in her beautiful hair. He took a deep breath and allowed the scent of her hair to engulf his nostrils. God, the smell of her. Lucas felt an ache at all the memories that came flooding back to him at that.
Peyton held onto Lucas, even though she had felt better the second he wrapped his arms around her. She didn't want to let the embrace end. She couldn't allow it to. Not yet, at least. It felt so right being in his arms. She was dying to know what he was thinking but she didn't dare move. Just in case it brought an end to him holding her.
They sat there in silence, clinging to one another for awhile. Each of them, just holding on to… everything. Suddenly, Lucas pulled away from her so violently that Peyton nearly didn't have time to catch herself from hitting the floor.
"So, what are you doing here?" His voice was harsh, angry even. Lucas hadn't liked where his mind had been going. But he had to know.
Peyton looked surprised. "Do you mean here in LA?"
Lucas shook his head. He couldn't even look at her. He stood and paced a bit as the thoughts raced through his head. She had an apartment in town. She didn't need to stay at a hotel. Did her new boyfriend? "No, I mean, here. The hotel."
"Oh. I was just dropping off some food for a new band that the label's thinking about signing." Peyton didn't understand why he was acting the way he was.
He turned to look at her. Was she lying? One look in her green eyes, even in the dim light, told him that she was telling him the truth. He sighed with relief. Something that wasn't lost on Peyton.
"Why? What was so important about…" It hit her. He thought she had just been upstairs screwing some guy. "Is that what you think of me?"
Lucas was in no mood to apologize. Not that he thought he had anything to apologize for. Not really. "I don't know what I think about you, Peyt. Some of your choices have been real head-scratchers for me."
Peyton stood up as well, almost as if her anger was propelling her upwards. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." He wasn't going to get into now. He looked up at the dark numbers that should've been lit up. Why the hell wasn't the fucking electricity coming back?
"Anyway, what does it matter what I was doing? You broke up with me, remember?" Peyton hated the way she spit that out.
He whirled on her, his blue eyes dark with rage. "Only because you didn't want to marry me. Because you didn't love me enough-"
She cut him off. "Didn't love you enough? Bullshit. You're the one that didn't love me enough to wait for me."
Lucas grabbed her arm. "Don't you ever doubt how much I loved you. I proposed to you, remember? And you said no!"
Peyton felt the tears sting her eyes. "The only reason you proposed was because you were feeling insecure about the relationship. That's it. And I didn't say no, Lucas. I said someday. By leaving the next morning, you're the one who said no. To our entire relationship."
His grip loosen on her arm, but his anger was still there, radiating off him. How dare she put the blame on him? No one could ever doubt how much he loves her. Loved… he had to remind himself. Past tense. Always use past tense. His eyes took her in, a ball of fury underneath those blond locks. And he knew, there would never be a past tense with her.
"I called you. I invited you to my book signing and you never came." His voice had dropped the angry tone, but there was still a challenge there.
Peyton chuckled. A bitter angry laugh that Lucas could never have imagined coming from her. "Just so you could rub in your new girlfriend? Yeah, I went, Luke. And I saw you with your new skinny little girlfriend all over you. Sorry to have denied you the pleasure of knowing that I did see you two together for so long."
Her confession had struck him silent. She had come. She had seen him with his new girlfriend. Girlfriend? What was she talking about? Oh... Lindsey.
Lucas swallowed thickly. "You don't understand. Lindsey, um... she was just my editor, Peyton. There was nothing going on between us. I was still…"
He stopped. She didn't deserve to hear that he was still hoping that they would get back together. Peyton studied him and prayed the darkness would hide the answers away from her.
"So, then there's nothing going on between you two?" Her voice was a little higher than usual.
Lucas looked away. "Well, no. We're together now. She's my girlfriend."
Peyton had to bite her lip to keep from crying. "Oh, congratulations. I hope you will be very happy together."
She was lying. She knew it. He knew it. Even so he asked, "Do you mean that?"
This was too much. "No." She took a deep breath to keep the sob from escaping. "I lied."
"Oh." That was all he said. The same damn thing he said when she admitted that she was in love with him in her bedroom. For a writer, he sure did have a limited vocabulary sometimes.
"But that's okay. After all, you lied too," she said.
"What? When?"
"In your book, Lucas. When you said that you would always be in love with me." The tears couldn't be denied any longer and they began to fall. "That was a lie."
He was torn. There was the part of him that wanted to save her, to kiss away the tears and the pain. And then there was the part of him that was too proud and angry to cave in. The same part that convinced him to leave her sleeping in the hotel bed. The part that kept him from calling her. The part that he wasn't going to start denying now.
"How can you think for one second that it was anything but truth?" He was pissed at himself that his voice sounded a little shaky. "I wrote a whole book about you!"
"Half of one, remember? Besides, it was labeled fiction. Because that's what it always was." Peyton sat down and brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She was done. The will to fight had exhausted itself and she was just tired.
He knelt beside her. Lucas wanted to violently shake her. He grabbed both her arms and turned her to him. All the things that he was going to say to her went out the window at that moment and he kissed her.
Their lips pressed against each other and both let out a moan. His hands let go of her arms and tangled themselves in her hair. Her hands went to his face, using it to help her press her lips firmer against his. Mouths opened and tongues dance around each other. The kiss was desperate and passionate, just like every other one between them had been. The kiss seem to last for ages, but in truth, it only lasted a little while before Lucas broke away.
He didn't move away, even though he knew he should. It was dangerous being in such close contact with Peyton. He knew that, but he just couldn't will his body to move from its present location. His eyes fell to her chest as it heaved while she panted for air.
Pants tighten around him. She was panting. Almost as if she needed… He closed his eyes, trying to force himself to calm down. There wasn't anything he was going to do about it, so it was better for him to just relax.
"Wow," she said, breaking the silence.
"Yeah."
"That was… unexpected."
"No kidding," he said, chuckling a bit. "I'm sorry, Peyton, I didn't mean for that to happen. It was just… Well, to be honest, I don't quite know exactly what that was."
She smiled. The first one he had seen on her face since… Jeez, when was the last time he had seen her smile? Its effect on him was instantaneous, he smiled back. He had forgotten how good it felt to see her smiling. He missed it. Lucas didn't know how much he had missed it until that moment.
Peyton took his hands in hers. "Please, don't apologize, Luke. Never apologize for kissing me."
Her face burned. Had she really just said that to him? His kisses were hazardous to her ability to think straight. They always had been. There was always such truth in those moments that she couldn't help but react accordingly.
He laughed at her embarrassment. A nice, easy laugh. The one that only came out when Peyton was around. She looked at him, her cheeks still a rosy pink. She loved hearing that laugh. It was more beautiful a sound than any song she had ever heard.
"So what should I say, then?" His blue eyes twinkled and his mouth keep curving upward, despite his best intentions to keep a straight face.
Green eyes met blue and all the merriment went away, replaced with something more serious, but no less joyful. True genuine affection. Love, even.
"You should say that you like it." She was serious. Peyton watched his face for a reaction.
His eyes lowered from hers for a moment before meeting them again. "Did you?"
She smiled again. "Of course I did."
He nodded. "Me too."
Her smile widened and she let out a breath he hadn't even realized she was holding in. Lucas couldn't help laughing at that. And Peyton raised an eyebrow.
"What are you laughing at?"
"You," he said, snickering slightly. "You were actually worried that I was going to tell you that I didn't like it."
"Well, you have been known to lie, on occasion," she said defensively. At the look he shot her, she held up her arms. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. I was embarrassed and you were teasing me. I'm sorry."
He sighed as sat back against the wall beside her. "It was a good kiss, Peyt. They always are with you, you know that."
"I know. For a moment there, it almost felt like old times." There was a dreaminess to her voice and Lucas knew what she was talking about.
But he couldn't go there. Not right now. He had to change the subject. "So, LA hasn't changed much since the last time I was here."
Peyton willfully pushed away all the thoughts conjured up by his referral about the last time that he was in town. Instead she said, "Luke, what are you doing here?"
"Do you mean in this hotel?"
"No. I mean, well yes, but no." She looked at him. "I mean what are you doing in LA? Are you on another book tour? I didn't know that-"
"No book tour," he said, cutting her off. "No second book, actually. I haven't been able to write since… since Ravens."
Peyton didn't really have any idea on how she should've responded to that so instead she just asked, "Then why are you here in LA?"
For a moment, she dared think that he was going to tell her that it was for her, but she quickly pushed those thoughts out of her mind. She knew it wasn't true and there was no point getting her hopes up just to get them dashed.
He cleared his throat. "Actually," he began, his ears turning red. "I'm signing a contract for the rights to turn Ravens into a movie."
"Oh, that's wonderful, Luke!"
There was something so genuine in her joy for him. Like she was proud of him and that was it. Lindsey was proud of him, obviously, but there was something that made him feel like she was proud of herself, too. Not that he was denying she had any right to feel that way, it just tainted it a bit for him.
But not with Peyton. All that pride? It was solely for him. It was so intoxicating being with her. He was beginning to think that he was addicted to her. She hugged him, pulling him close to her. Her breasts pressed against his chest and he was having trouble breathing.
Okay, he needed to change the subject. Immediately. "So, I noticed you were pretty engrossed in a book earlier. What was it?"
Peyton's eyes widened suddenly and her face turned redder than he had ever seen her. Even in the little illumination provided by the emergency lights he could see the deep shade of red that she was turning. "It was nothing."
"Like hell," he said. It was definitely something or she wouldn't have reacted the way that she had. "What is it? Are you ready some trashy romance novel?"
"No!" Her voice was high and she pulled her purse closer to her. She held it protectively against her chest. "Luke, don't worry about it, okay? It really is nothing."
Oh, the curiosity. He eyes fell on the bag cradled against those gorgeous breasts. Lucas bit back a smile and made a grab for it. However, Peyton had been expecting that from him, so she pulled away at the last second. She shouldn't have bothered, though. He was quicker and stronger than she remembered and he tackled her to the ground.
Lucas was on top of her now and he looked down at her face, and he was struck by how beautiful she was. The dim light was enough to show him that her beauty had grown in his absence and that fact hurt him. It hurt that he hadn't seen her these past few years. He shook his head. He wasn't going to let himself think about that now. His mind focused on the task at hand. Find out what Peyton was reading. And there was only one way left to do it.
He tickled her.
She shrieked. Her body convulsing underneath him. Loud giggles and gasping and begging for him to stop. But he didn't stop.
"No… Please… I give up," she managed to get out between gasp and fits of laughter.
"Yeah?" Lucas asked, looking down at her, keeping his weight on her so she couldn't escape.
"Yes." Her breath was ragged and her face was flushed. Tickling her had been a bad idea to get his mind off missing her. He was now missing her in a whole other way.
"Then what book is it?" Lucas asked, the arousal seeping into his voice had turned it husky.
She swallowed hard. "Yours."
It was the last answer that he expected to hear and it was also the last answer he should've heard. It was the last straw. It was too much. Her body lightly wriggling underneath him, pressing against him in a way that was eliciting certain reactions from his body. He couldn't help himself any longer. Lucas looked at Peyton's beautiful face and leaned down an kissed her again.
He needed her, wanted her and he was going to take her.