Crossing The Grey

T h r e e

The rest of the car journey we do in complete silence. Charlie looks out of her window, and for the most part I look out mine. Though I occasionally look round at her. Desperate to see her face, or her eyes, to see if anything in them can help me figure this mess out. There's also a part of me that's just desperate to see her.

I hadn't properly considered how I'd feel seeing her again. What emotions might be dredged up from the freezing cold pit that was my heart. I had only prepared for anger but that hadn't happened. I text Gideon to tell him we're on our way back - to which I get the response: well this should be fun.

When we stop at the hotel, Angus lets Charlie out and I come around to meet her on the sidewalk. She tilts her head back and takes a deep breath as she stares up at the building. When she turns to look at me she's biting her lip, looking pensive and tense.

"A lot of people know me in this city Christian," She says. "And lots of them spend a lot of time in places like this. It may be best we go in separately. I'll meet you at the elevators." I give her a look of wariness, which earns me an eye roll. "I'm not going to run. You can trust me."

"Can I?" I ask, the words heavy with intent.

She nods. "Yes. You can." Her voice is soft and her eyes wide and from nowhere an image of her kneeling in front of me, head bowed, palms resting on her thighs flashes in front of my eyes. The surge of demand in my c*ck is strong and immediate. I clench my fists together as need courses through me.

"You run and this whole thing ends now." I tell her in a calm tone. "It was never my intention to make any sort of deal with you. I will not be blackmailed." I want to add not by you, but something stops me. "This was about an explanation Charlie, not a negotiation - do you understand?" My voice is low and firm. The one I use for business purposes to show I won't be fucked with. The one I use in my playroom.

She stares at me a long time before speaking. I find that looking into her eyes doesn't in fact offer any clarity on what the hell is going on. All it does is fill me with a long lost kind of warmth. It felt familiar, like an old friend. Also, I wasn't used to women I wanted to dominate looking me directly in the eye. If we were where I wanted to be I would punish her for looking at me like that. I would punish her for a lot of things.

"I understand. "She nods. "I'm not going anywhere." When I finally nod back she moves. I wait until she's a few feet ahead before I follow her. Up the front steps and towards the large brass doors, which are opened for us by immaculately dressed doormen in black suits who politely tip their pilot style hats to us and smile. It occurs to me then that if she did run, there wouldn't be a whole lot I could do about it. I'd draw far too much attention running after her. And even if I caught her - what then? Drag her up to my suite kicking and screaming?

No. Right now she held all the power.

It was not situation I was used to.

But true to her word she doesn't run. She walks, back straight but with her head down slightly through the lobby to the bank of elevators on the far side of the bustling foyer. There's a small queue waiting and so I come to a stop just behind her, glancing again down at her neck. It's masked mainly by her high collar, but I notice a light brown freckle just below her right ear standing out against her pale flawless skin. I hadn't known about that. She'd always worn her hair down back then so I'd never have known about that. Gideon would have. I have the sudden urge to graze my tongue across it.

When the doors spring open she gets in first, followed by an older couple, a single guy in business dress tapping furiously on a blackberry, and then me. The elevator operator asks for our floors and I tell him mine first in order for Charlie to do the same. It's all a bit cloak and dagger. Ridiculous really since no one in the elevator knows either of us. Eventually, as people vacate, we are left alone - except for the operator who keeps his gaze fixed on the panel of buttons. Bizarrely, the cooped up space seems to heat up as it empties, and though there is more than enough room, Charlie stays so close to me that I can feel her heat and smell the faint feminine scent of her skin tingle my nostrils. It takes a high proportion of my control not to touch her. My cock is semi hard and my breathing rapid and heavy. To be honest, I've never had a more arousing experience in an elevator. I'd never even considered elevators to be arousing.