Her Good Fortune

by Marie Ferrarella

  At first she struggled against him, not because she didn’t want to kiss Jack but because she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.

  But then her breathing began to regulate itself as the center of her attention slowly shifted from the very real fear that, despite his assurances about the emergency fail-safes that had been put in when the elevators were installed, they were going to fall to their deaths, crushed inside a silvery coffin.

  Instead, her focus turned to the kiss that was swiftly setting fire to the very blood in her veins.

  Panic abated in increments.

  Gloria felt herself being pressed against him, felt the length of his body imprint itself onto hers. Felt her response as desire, hidden behind thin bamboo walls, broke through, seizing her. Making her tighten her arms around him.

  Her heart was pounding, but for an entirely different reason than before.

  He’d meant only to divert her. To keep her from hyperventilating. He hadn’t meant to get caught up in what amounted to an unorthodox first-aid application. Not like this. To make matters worse, she’d just shared something with him that had brought back memories he didn’t want to deal with, that made him relive Ann’s last days.

  Maybe that was it. Maybe that had made him vulnerable.

  And maybe it was none of the above. Maybe it just had to do with the woman in his arms. The woman he’d had an underlying yearning for since the first moment she had looked up at him with those incredible soft-brown eyes, turning his stomach to jelly and nearly turning his mind to mincemeat.

  Kissing her only made him want her with a fierceness that was every bit as overwhelming as the claustrophobia he knew she was wrestling with.

  Suddenly he realized that he had to step back, had to get air himself. Logic demanded that he try to clear his head.

  But he didn’t want to.

  Didn’t want to give up this wild surge that was pulsating through him, forging a path through his body. Making him aware of himself as a man.

  He hadn’t wanted, truly wanted, a woman since Ann had died, leaving him to wander emotionally isolated in this world. Oh, there had been biological needs since then, but he could always separate himself from them, step outside his body and watch as he went through the physical motions of having sex, his mind absent from the process.

  Right now his mind was in full attendance and there was no separating anything. The logic that always presided over his life had somehow gotten lost.

  Nothing mattered except that he wanted to make love with Gloria. Wanted to get lost within her as they kept the world at arm’s length.

  This wasn’t like her, not anymore, Gloria kept telling herself. She didn’t do things like this anymore: give up who and what she was with an abandonment that was so swift it all but jarred her very teeth. But all those encounters that had taken place in her past had been governed by inebriation. Her brain had always been liberally soused, the ability to think lost inside of a bottle.

  But not this time.

  She was stone-cold sober, drunk only on this sensation that was vibrating through her like the strings of a harp that had been plucked. She was drunk, but only on the idea of making love.

  When his hands caressed her, Gloria moaned audibly, wanting him to touch her everywhere. To both soothe and stoke the fire that his nearness had created.

  Gloria sucked in her breath. She felt his wide, capable hands delving beneath the blouse she’d pulled free earlier.

  “You’re trembling,” he whispered, his breath warm on her neck.

  He was going to pull away. She could feel it. She couldn’t let that happen. Without admitting it, she knew where this was going. Needed this to go there. Needed him to make love with her.

  “This isn’t the time to withdraw,” she breathed, pressing harder against him.

  Jack felt completely, hopelessly, lost. The willpower he thought was second nature had somehow turned into so much sawdust. If she’d backed away, cried, asked him to stop, then maybe the willpower he’d treasured could have been resurrected. But every indication she gave him was that she wanted this as badly as he did.

  He hadn’t the strength to back away, to leave her of his own accord.

  Still, he watched her eyes in the dim light for signs of fear, or mounting panic that had to do not with the enclosed space, but with what was happening.

  Instead of fear, he saw desire.

  Desire that mirrored exactly what was going on inside of him. He knew this was wrong. Clear-thinking adults didn’t make love suspended above the twentieth floor of a skyscraper that had been pitched into darkness. He didn’t make love like this. Mindlessly, and with complete abandonment.

  Hell, he hadn’t made love since Ann died. He’d had sex. And each time had left him completely unsatisfied. Not wanting more, just wanting something. Something that wasn’t there.

  Something that whispered to him now. Making every fiber within his body yearn.

  With swift, sure movements, Jack pulled her blouse away from her shoulders, pressed his lips to every inch of her soft flesh as it was exposed. His own breathing became as labored as hers.

  His fingers worked the clasp that held her bra in place.

  When she shivered against him as the lacy material fell away, he felt a volley of passion being fired through him that all but turned his body rigid with desire. He slid the button holding her skirt together out of its hole, then pulled it from her.

  The dimness caressed her like a familiar lover. His gaze passed over her. Gloria was wearing nothing but heels and underwear. His stomach pressed itself against his spine.

  Gloria could feel anticipation vibrating throughout her whole body, priming her for the final moment that she both craved and wanted to hold at bay so that she could savor the approach of the final moment. It felt as if her whole body was humming.

  She forced her breathing to grow steadier, as if that would somehow keep her hands from shaking as she swiftly yanked his custom-made jacket and pants off of him.

  It didn’t.

  Anticipation vibrated through her.

  Like a person caught in a dream, Gloria could hardly remember unbuttoning his shirt. All she knew was that she wanted to press her fingertips along the hard ridges of his chest, wanted to leave imprints of his firm flesh on hers.

  Wanted to be with him in the most intimate of covenants between a man and a woman.

  Her mouth sealed to his, her fingers questing, smoothing, she felt him reacting to her. Heard his breathing grow more shallow. A thrill shivered through her as the extent of her power registered. He was hers. For a single shining moment in time, he was hers.

  His hands were hot on her body. They sank to the floor of the elevator, cushioned by the clothes they had discarded.

  One movement inviting, flowering into another.

  She could feel every pulse point in her body responding to him. His mouth roamed over her chin, her throat, along the planes above her breasts. The hollow of her belly.

  Everywhere he touched, he conquered.

  She’d never wanted to make love with anyone the way she wanted to make love with Jack. All the nights she had spent with her husband combined hadn’t equaled this single instance with Jack.

  Maybe this was what had been missing from her marriage all along, mind-bending lovemaking. She’d married Gary because he’d been the first half-decent man she’d come across. She’d thought marriage to him would keep her safe. It hadn’t.

  This wasn’t safe, either, but the risk was enticing, thrilling.

  She felt a wild explosion rapidly moving forward through her system as, time and again, Jack brought her so very close to the edge, then withdrew so that she slid back.

  Hot, moist kisses burned along her torso. Gloria twisted into them, wanting more. Wanting that final moment.

  “Hurry,” she whispered urgently against his ear, biting down on her tongue before she could add, “please.” She wasn’t going to beg, wasn’t going to be pathetic, but oh, how he made
her want.

  Needs slamming through him, Jack stretched his body over hers, needing the contact. He refrained from entering, wanting to prolong this even though somewhere in the back of his mind, where reality still dwelled beneath a dark curtain, he knew they ran the risk of being discovered.

  Was that adding to the thrill?

  He didn’t know. Didn’t know anything at all anymore. Except that he had utterly lost himself.

  When she raised her hips urgently against his, that was the last straw, the last enticement. Unable to hold back any longer, Jack entered her.

  The rhythm was instantaneous, as if guided by something that was completely outside of him, something he had no control over.

  The dance began sweetly, moving, growing in ever-increasing tempo. They tumbled around on the floor, moving from side to side, first with him on top, then her, then him again. With each movement, the urgency increased, growing more erratic, more demanding.

  He was vaguely aware that he heard something breaking. Glass? But that wasn’t possible.

  The very air from his lungs began departing. He felt his mind swirling somewhere just out of reach as he pulled her closer to him, his arms tightening around her as if she was the most precious thing he had ever encountered.

  Perhaps she was.

  The climax was so powerful, it stole the last drop of his breath away.

  He could feel his heart pounding so hard, it threatened to break out of his chest. Or was that her heart, pounding so hard against his?

  He had no idea where he stopped and she began. They were like one. If he could, he would have remained like this, feeling himself inside of her. Feeling himself whole for the first time since his world had abruptly ended with the screech of tires and metal groaning against metal.

  Listening, he could have sworn he heard that sound now. Metal, creaking, groaning. Somehow, in his brain, the past had merged with the present.

  Then, abruptly, he felt Gloria’s soft body turn rigid beneath him. A moment later her hands were pulling at him urgently. With effort, he pivoted himself up on his elbows to look down into her face.

  Was she afraid again?

  “The elevator,” she cried.

  “It’s all right,” he told her. “We’re not going to fall.” Except, maybe he was. The thought bounced at him out of nowhere.

  But she was pushing him from her. “No,” she cried, desperate to make him understand what she was trying to say. “We’re not falling, we’re going up!”

  Just then, the lights went on.

  Chapter Twelve

  T he realization penetrated. In a few seconds they were not going to be alone anymore.

  The next moment they were quickly scrambling into their clothes, desperate to get dressed before the elevator was brought up to the next working level, which was only five floors up.

  Gloria didn’t even take time to breathe. Her heart was racing almost as madly as it had been when they’d been making love. But this time her fingers felt not only clumsy but fat, as if they didn’t even belong to her. It made closing her buttons annoyingly difficult. She didn’t even bother to tuck in her blouse. There wasn’t time.

  Wasn’t time to even notice how magnificent his body was as he slid his trousers back on. But somehow, she managed.

  Gloria felt her body start to tingle all over again.

  It wasn’t until she had on her skirt and blouse that she realized she’d forgotten to put on her underwear. The lacy panties were next to Jack’s foot. But as she reached for them, the doors began to open. Her heart slammed hard against her chest.

  There wasn’t going to be time to put her underwear on. Worse, whoever had come to rescue them would see them right there out in plain view.

  Seeing her dilemma, Jack quickly scooped up the errant underwear and shoved them into his pants’ pocket. He ran his hand through his hair just as a technician peered in. He was half a floor above them. The elevator wasn’t level with the landing.

  “Sorry,” the man apologized, raising his wide shoulders in a depreciating shrug. “’Fraid this is the best we can do right now.”

  Gloria didn’t care that the top of her head was level with the barrel-chested man’s kneecap. The psychological rush of new air was wonderful and she savored it as she dragged it into her lungs.

  At the same time she felt the oddest sting of disappointment. The interlude between them was over.

  A swirl of emotions danced through her, each jockeying for lead position. Sorrow, need, happiness, relief and a dozen more. She shut them all away. She just wasn’t up to sorting through her half-formed feelings right now.

  Maybe you never will, a small voice whispered. She’d found that avoiding things was better than letting them eat away at her.

  She focused on their rescuer; a short, squat man wearing navy-blue coveralls. It was safer that way.

  “Don’t be sorry,” she told him breathlessly. “At least you got the elevators running again.”

  He beamed at her even as he shook his partially bald head. “Wasn’t me. The power company gets all the credit. They got the juice flowing again. Rumor says it was some squirrel biting through a line that did it.”

  Jack moved her jacket and purse aside and stood behind her. He saw her shoulders suddenly grow rigid. What was she afraid of? They were getting out. “I’ll give you a boost,” he volunteered, then glanced up at the other man. “I’ll hand her off to you.”

  Gloria watched the technician brace himself as he got down on one knee. His arms were stretched out, readying to take hold of hers and pull her out. A feeling of déjà vu washed over her and she shivered. This was just like when she’d been stuck in the well. With one very notable exception.

  Suddenly she felt Jack’s hands taking hold of her waist. The next second he was raising her toward the technician as if she were nothing more than a life-size doll.

  The pressure and warmth of his palms surged all through her. Stirring her. She was almost sorry that the power had come back on again.

  Almost.

  Before she could dwell on the sensation, the technician took hold of her hands and began pulling her up. She sucked in her breath as she felt Jack’s hands move lower, slipping down to her hips, then to her thighs, as he continued to boost her up, wreaking havoc on her emotions despite her every effort to block everything out except for the rescue. She could feel her face burning as she realized that Jack had a very clear view beneath her skirt. Not a good time to find herself unintentionally going commando.

  With a mighty tug, Gloria found herself beside the technician on the floor, whose name was inscribed in white right over his breast pocket. Raul. Offering him a smile of gratitude, she tried to get her bearings as best she could. Regaining her composure was a lost cause.

  Jack threw both his jacket and hers over the top, followed by her purse. And in the next moment he was there on the floor beside her, looking a hell of a lot better than she did, she thought ruefully.

  “You two all right?” Furrows of concern went all the way up to Raul’s pronounced receding hairline as he looked uncertainly from one to the other. “Want me to call the paramedics?”

  Jack shook his head. “I’m fine.” Sitting up, he looked at Gloria. “How about you?”

  Her eyes held his for a long moment. Was he just asking about her condition, or did the question actually go deeper? On the surface, she could answer him with a terse, “Fine.” No bones were broken, no health-threatening conditions had to be addressed. Beyond that, she wasn’t sure.

  All she knew was that everything had been upended and she had no idea if there was a penalty attached to that. A penalty for flying without ever leaving the floor.

  Still, if there was, that was her problem, not his.

  Taking in another deep, sweet breath of nonrestricted air, she finally nodded. “I’m okay.”

  The technician was on his feet again, surprisingly agile for a man who appeared at least fifty pounds over-weight and beyond his prime by most stan
dards.

  “Okay, then.” Raul touched each of them on the arm as though discharging them from his care. “I’ve got other elevators to see to.”

  As Raul turned to walk away, Jack called after him, “Is all the power back?”

  Raul had a one-hundred-watt smile. “Like nothing ever happened, except that the elevators seem to be a little out of sync. But I’ll fix that soon enough.” He hurried to a stairwell, calling, “Have a nice day” just before he disappeared.

  Jack refrained from saying something about the inane statement. Once on his feet, he extended his hand to Gloria and waited. After a beat she locked her fingers around his and rose to stand beside him.

  He frowned, concerned about her well-being. “You sure you’re all right?”

  Aware of how she’d behaved, Gloria tried to laugh the incident off. “Well, I’m dumping all my stock in this elevator company, but other than being a little bit shaky, yes, I’m all right.”

  She bit her lip as she looked at him again. Just where did they go from here? Did they talk about what happened in the elevator? Ignore it? Treat it as the first step in a truce or just an aberration they were better off not acknowledging?

  She didn’t know and she longed for something that she could understand, something familiar she could grasp and hang on to.

  Belatedly, she realized that she was still holding his hand. Releasing it, she glanced at his wrist. Where the watch crystal had been were now just a couple of jagged pieces of glass.

  “Your watch.”

  He glanced at it reflexively. “What about it?”

  “It’s broken.” Well, that would explain the sound of breaking glass she’d heard. She’d thought she was just imagining it, along with the swirls of color, heat and music that had gone through her mind just before the elevator had come back to life.

  Holding up his wrist, Jack examined it. He shook his head. “So it is.”

  “I can fix it for you,” she volunteered, reaching for it.

  Jack pulled back his hand. Right now, the less contact they had, the faster his mind would clear. “No, I—”

  A puzzled expression creased her brow before fading away. “It’s the least I can do, seeing as how you took my mind off being trapped in the elevator.” A sultry smile filtered along her lips.