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My keys! I slapped my hands around the pocket of Aiden’s hoodie, and finally found the hard lump I was looking for in the right pocket. I yanked my keys out and latched on to the slick, metallic tube I’d had on my keychain forever. The small button on the back clicked into place… and nothing.
It wasn’t working.
My phone! I started patting around my pockets when I remembered watching Aiden set my phone into the cup holder in my car. Cold dread sucked me in.
“Calm down,” Aiden demanded in the dark.
You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re in an elevator. You’re okay, I reminded myself.
“Vanessa.” I sensed the radiant heat of his body against my knees. “You’re fine,” he stated over my wild pants.
I was too riled up to be embarrassed that I couldn’t seem to breathe. I definitely couldn’t open my mouth to talk either, much less get all bent out of shape for him bossing me around.
Another hand joined the first and curled big and consuming over my shoulders. “You’re all right,” Aiden’s low, gravelly voice murmured in the dark elevator.
“What’s wrong with her?” the unfamiliar male voice on the other side of the elevator asked. “Is she okay?”
“Take a deep breath.” Thumbs kneaded my shoulders, ignoring the question from the stranger. “Breathe.”
Breathe? I tried, but it came in and out as mostly a choke.
“Through your nose… come on. In. Out through your mouth. Calm down.” Those big thumbs made small, almost angry circles over me. “Slow breath. Slow. In your nose, out of your mouth.” If this had been any other situation, I would have been surprised by how calm and cool his tone was. How gentle and unrushed. How very unlike the person who had just been snapping at me when he first realized something was wrong.
“You’re fine,” Aiden commanded with a squeeze of the mitts he called hands. “Calm down. You got it,” he coached me through the next ragged breath. “I’m right here.” His breath washed over my cheek as his palms cupped my upper arms. “I’m not going anywhere without you.” He squeezed, his words ringing through my ears. “You’re not alone.”
I was fine. I was fine.
It took a few wild inhales to really get a good breath in that didn’t seem like I was struggling not to drown. As soon as I could, I shifted off my stinging knees to sit on my butt, dragging my legs up to my chest.
“Breathe, breathe, breathe,” Aiden commanded.
I couldn’t make myself open my eyes, but it was all right. I was still shaking, but I could live with that as long as I could get oxygen into my lungs. In my nose, out of my mouth like the big guy had said. My breaths were sharper than they should have been, but there they were.
“You got it?” Aiden began moving around, his knee hitting my foot as I sensed him sit next to me.
“Yes,” I puffed out, putting my forehead on my knees.
I was okay. I was okay.
My body gave a near violent shake that said otherwise.
I was fine. I was fine. One breath in, one breath out. I clenched my eyes closed. I wasn’t alone. As if to make sure, my hand crept over my lap and down my thigh until I brushed the side of Aiden’s hip. My fingers touched the hem of his shirt, and I pinched the thin material between my fingertips.
I wasn’t alone. I was fine. I shuddered out a breath as my biceps spasmed.
“Better?”
“Little bit,” I muttered, rubbing my fingertips over the sewn hem of his shirt. Stop being a baby. You’re not dying. You’re okay. I made myself open my eyes and raised my head until it dropped back to the wall behind me. I couldn’t see a single thing, but I was okay.
I was all right.
One deep exhale out, and I was breathing out of my mouth, calm, calm, calmer. By that point, the other couple in the elevator had resorted to whispering so low I couldn’t bother to understand what was being said. Aiden, on the other hand, was familiarly silent, his deep, even breathing telling me he wasn’t at all affected by whatever the hell was going on with the weather and the elevator.
Then again, if I weren’t so terrified of the dark and small spaces, none of this crap would be a big deal either. It wasn’t like we’d be stuck inside forever, and it wasn’t like the elevator would suddenly plummet and we’d all die.
I hoped.
The elevator gave a sharp jerk and the woman screamed as the lights in the ceiling flashed bright for one precious second before going out once again.
Fuck this.
With skills I didn’t even know I possessed, I was up, sliding over Aiden’s knee, and in his lap so fast I had no idea I’d even done it, because if I’d thought about it, there was no way in hell I would have done it. No fucking way. But the fact was, I had.
I was in Aiden’s lap. He was cross-legged on either side of me, each of his muscular thighs cocooning my hips, his chin just behind my ear. I shivered.
Behind me, Aiden straightened; under my butt, his thighs tightened and strained.
It was then that I felt embarrassed. “I’m sorry,” I apologized, already lifting up to lunge off him.
“Shut up,” he said as his hands landed on my bare knees, shoving me back down onto him; my back hit the solid wall of his chest and it was right then I realized his shirt was soggy from the rain. I didn’t care. Under me, his legs relaxed, my bottom settling on top of his feet.
It was like sitting on a beanbag. A big, firm, slightly wet beanbag that breathed… and had two hands cupping my naked kneecaps. Immediately and pathetically, I let out a long, deep breath and relaxed in the cocoon of Aiden. One of his thumbs rubbed the sensitive skin on the inside of my knee, just a quick circle-shaped brush that had me letting out another sigh.
