Kira had been on high alert with the jealousy since the second we got here. She tried to pretend like everything was okay, like she didn’t feel threatened, but I knew something was up when she decided against the black pant-suit she originally planned to wear that afternoon, choosing a short, pink dress instead. Meeting my ‘one that got away’ clearly had her feeling rattled.
My thoughts again settled on that image of Sam coming into the room downstairs. I’d done all I could to focus on the conversation with Maisha’s cousin and his wife, but the second she walked in…
In my head, I never forgot a single detail about her. I remembered the exact shade of her skin, the soft texture of her hair, and her scent. The details of her face were permanently carved into my mind as well. However, the woman who I’d laid eyes on a little while ago was Sam, but not. When she left Charleston, she was gorgeous by all accounts. Now, though?
Understatement.
When I caught myself thinking about her instead of Kira, I rolled over onto my side and corrected the problem.
Half an hour passed before I decided to call Kira’s phone to see where she’d gone. Originally, I assumed she just stepped outside the hotel to gather her thoughts, but she would’ve been back by now. Two unanswered calls later, I slipped into my shoes and took to the halls in the wife-beater and jeans I’d been lounging in. The elevator doors opened immediately and I pressed the button for it to take me down the four floors to the lobby.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against the back wall while I stared at the ceiling, waiting. The music blaring through the speakers sucked pretty hard so I mostly concentrated on tuning it out. When the elevator doors opened, I looked down semi-startled because I wasn’t paying attention, and then froze.
Sam stood there alone on the other side of the threshold with the same expression plastered across her face. She clutched her purse over her shoulder and finally put one foot in front of the other to step inside the elevator, turning her back to me once she was officially in my personal space – standing only a foot or so away.
It felt like the heat in that small box climbed well over one hundred degrees with all the tension. She had a white-knuckle grip on the strap of her bag and I could see each labored breath that she took. Standing there, even with me fighting it, I couldn’t help what happened next. Whether it was purely the man in me, or because I was so used to doing this in her presence…I checked her out.
Hard.
She still wore the gray shorts and jacket from earlier – the ones that barely came below where her backside cupped under and met her thighs. The two, perfectly sculpted mounds beneath the material were tight and full, even more so than I remembered. Clearly, time had done her body right.
Forcing my eyes north before I got caught, her reflection in the mirrored doors was one of sheer terror. If I had to guess, I’d say she was counting the seconds until this ride to the first floor was over. Things were too tense, though, and I had to say something to break the ice. We’d never survive this weekend if one of us didn’t.
“So…how’ve you been?” I managed to say without letting on that I was about as uncomfortable as she was.
She actually jumped a little at the sound of my voice.
“Uh – good. Things’ve been good.” A moment passed before she added, “And you? H-how’ve you been?” She glanced back over her shoulder at me for a brief second.
I nodded and replied with a generic, “Good.”
She nodded and cleared her throat. Was that it? That was all either of us had to say to one another after five long years?
“Well…I’ll see ya,” she said with an air of relief in her tone when the doors parted again and she breezed out into the lobby. Within a matter of seconds, she was halfway down the hall, headed toward the back entrance. Shaking my head, I stared as her hips drifted from side to side, and refocused on the task at hand – finding Kira.