Adriana
“You can’t be serious.” I found myself pressing my whole body against the far wall of the elevator. “Can’t they help us?”
“The system is designed for automatic notifications when something goes wrong,” Mr. Klein explained, sounding exasperated. “But it could be half an hour or more before a technician reaches us. Longer to actually get it fixed. It’s possible that the glitch passes by itself, but I really doubt that.”
“Oh,” I breathed, the air around me already feeling so much heavier. “Oh, no. This isn’t good.”
My phone began to vibrate, and I checked my messages. Several from the photographer asking where the statue was. Stating that they were all ready and just waiting for this one element.
“We’re late,” I said in a near-whisper. “They’re probably furious. Oh, no.”
He rested his eyes on me, but I barely noticed. All of the anxiety from earlier was rushing back in now that we were stuck here. Only now, it was ten times worse. There were no step-by-step measures that I could follow to get out of this mess. There was absolutely nothing I could do about this.
My phone vibrated again, but I couldn’t convince myself to check the messages again. I knew what they’d be. Complaints about service, someone wanting something to be changed, the photographer’s assistant yelling about the statue, Nolan asking me what my problem was changing Reggie’s lunchagain.
I couldn’t look at it. I was helpless.
The elevator suddenly felt far too small. The crate with the statue seemed to have grown in size, and two people were far too many for such a small space.
I’d always had a level of claustrophobia, and being as stressed as I currently was definitely didn’t help that. My panic was rising in my throat and making it difficult to breathe. I didn’t want Landon to see me like this. I needed to try and stay calm, cool, and collected.
But the longer I stood there, the harder that became. The lights flashed once or twice, and that made me dizzy. I was shaking, and my jaw was tight. I was sure that I was getting pale, and that soon, I’d lose my mind. If I couldn’t stop these escalating feelings, I’d tumble into a full-scale panic attack.
“Are you okay?” His voice barely reached me, and I lifted my eyes to look at him.
I could feel tears forming, and there was a lump in my throat. I didn’t think that I would be able to speak. I tried to nod, but the sheer concern in his face let me know that it was alright to be honest, and I shook my head instead.
To my surprise, he stepped forward, and put his hand on my shoulder. I could feel the warmth of his touch through my clothes, and that single movement was already comforting. I was sure this wasn’t appropriate, but I made up my mind that I wouldn’t say anything about it.
“You’re safe,” he said softly, squeezing my shoulder. “I promise, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I lifted my head so that I was staring into his eyes. From here, with everything being overwhelming, their intensity and depth were drawing me in more than ever before. It felt as if I could fall right into them, as if they could wrap me up like a blanket and keep my fears at bay.
“Take a deep breath,” he said, placing his free hand on my other shoulder. He was standing so close to me that I could simply lean forward against his chest; but I resisted that urge. “Hold it. One, two, three, four… Exhale.”
He repeated his instructions, and I followed them. With each repetition, I felt my body calm down, my breath return; the one thing that didn’t change was my racing heart. That, however, was probably due to how close we were standing to one another, and the electric sensation that was running through my body.
It seemed as if time had slowed to a crawl, as if nothing in the world existed outside of Mr. Klein and me. Something was changing in his eyes, too, something I couldn’t quite place, but which was drawing me ever closer nonetheless.
After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke again. “Are you feeling better?”
Despite the logical part of my brain knowing that I really should not do it, I reached up to put my hand around his neck, and pulled his face toward mine.
He didn’t resist, but that was only surprising for a second. Then, our lips collided. Softly at first, then more urgently, and soon, I found myself pushing my entire body against his. He was as solid as I would have expected, and I could already tell that he was lean, but muscular, even through his suit. I wanted to rip it off him, to see everything that was hidden beneath.
At the same time, there was a small voice in my mind that was screaming at me.
This was completely inappropriate. I definitely was not supposed to be doing any of this.
You should pull away,I found myself thinking.Apologize, say it won’t happen again. You can still stop. You should stop. Pretend it never happened. Hope it will be fine.
But I simply couldn’t resist, and it seemed like Landon was in the same boat. He wasn’t pulling back either, wasn’t telling me that this was wrong and taboo, wasn’t reprimanding me for going over the line.
His tongue was in my mouth now, and the way that it danced with mine was mind-blowing. It was as if we’d been doing this for years, like we already knew everything our bodies wanted.
Mr. Klein finally lifted his hands, too, putting them on my waist and pulling at my blouse to release it from my skirt. Once he managed to do so, I felt his hands on my lower back, and the sensation caused goosebumps all over me. I pushed against his body harder, encouraging him to go further.
I had forgotten my panic entirely, as well as the fact that we were in an elevator in the Pacific that could start moving at any moment.
