Page 60 of Hot in the City
He kissed her neck, tasting her skin. He mumbled, “Yeah, so good.”
Cruz flicked her hair over her shoulder, baring more of her neck and decolletage, all while continuing his onslaught of kisses. He kissed her collarbone, she sighed. He kissed the edge of her dress’s neckline, and she gasped.
Megan squirmed in his lap, letting him go wild. She wanted it, wanted him. If she was in his apartment right now...suffice to say she’d be wearing a lot less. He’d be naked, obviously, in her best possible scenario.
She was a writhing, panting mess, her lips just reconnecting with Cruz’s, when she heard the first bang on the stairwell’s outer door. They both froze, staring into each other’s eyes. She pulled back a little from their kiss, still breathing heavily.
Someone banged on the door again. The thud, thud, thud became a regular, rhythmic beat, then Megan straightened up, listening. She was almost certain she heard someone call her name. It was all a bit muffled, since they were basically sitting in a concrete bunker.
Cruz whispered, “Maybe it’s security?”
Megan nodded against Cruz’s shoulder and was just about to climb off his lap when a crack of light appeared around the door. Then a drop of rain plopped right onto her forehead.
“Rain?” She looked up, only to get properly sploshed with a shower from above, squirting right in her eyes. “Argh!” She flicked her wet hair out of her face.
She caught Cruz silently laughing, his shoulders shaking. “Sprinklers!” he said, pointing up above their heads.
Megan stood on shaky legs and smoothed down her poor, destroyed dress, then wiped her face with her hands and shook off the drips of water. The sprinklers continued to shower them both, thoroughly soaking Cruz’s shirt. It was a good look for him.
Megan’s head whipped towards the door as it clicked, then opened a crack, light spilling through the gaps. This time she definitely heard her name. A woman’s voice was calling her.
“Jean?”
“Megan! Are you in there?” The door was wrenched open, and yes, it was Jean standing in the doorway. Bright lights around her blurred her edges, almost like a mirage.
Megan yelled, “Yes! Oh my God! Thanks for coming to help.”
She stepped forward and her knees wobbled. Cruz grabbed her by the elbow to steady her. She shot him a grateful smile.
Jean shook her head and glanced at the two of them, who probably looked like drowned rats. Water was still gushing from overhead sprinklers.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Jean said, as she extended her hand. Megan grabbed it, letting her friend pull her out of the bunker of a stairwell.
Cruz was close behind Megan as they stepped into the building’s foyer and blinked at the overdose of light shining on the marble floor tiles. Cruz took her hand and steered her towards his body as they almost collided with someone, just to Jean’s left. A huge, lanky someone wearing a baseball cap and a goofy smile.
“Oh, um, this is my friend, Xander.” Jean stated this fact with a slight inflection on the word friend that maybe only Megan noticed.
Megan smiled up at Xander, who had to be at least six and a half feet tall. “Hi, Xander. Nice to meet you.”
When he grinned back, his face creased in such a way that Megan placed his age at closer to thirty-five than twenty-five. Still a lot younger than Jean, but they were both adults, so who was Megan to judge?
Xander shook Cruz’s hand, a blokey forearm grip thing that had Megan laughing and Cruz raising his eyebrows.
Xander shook his head, pointing at something to the left of the stairwell door. “When Jeanie said you guys were stuck in the office, I brought my toolkit. But I didn’t expect that!”
Megan turned and took in the sight.
A stack of mannequins had been piled up and left right in front of the fire door, hands and legs everywhere. A dismembered head sat at the bottom of the strange tableau. Next to them, a large trestle table piled high with packaged pyjamas had been set up. A scribbled paper sign read: Free PJs!
One mannequin stood tall in a slinky nightie, holding a sign made of part of a cardboard box. The writing scrawled in black marker in the mannequin’s hand read: F.U. Cruz Ono!
Cruz nudged Megan’s shoulder with his and mumbled, “I told you people hate auditors.”
Megan glanced sideways at him and met his serious gaze. “I kind of like them. At least, the ones I’ve met so far.”
Cruz took her hand and she stared at him, then almost fell into his eyes, the darkest midnight pools reflecting the lights around them like shimmering stars. The corners of his mouth tipped upwards, and she felt an answering upbeat in her heart rate. Her heart was literally beating out of time, just for him. Who knew she was such a romantic?
He winked at her, conspiratorially. “I like computer nerds called Manny. But to each their own!”
