Chapter 38: Across the Threshold
The thunder grew more distant. Cora stepped back inside off the balcony, soaked to the skin and shivering from the cold. The effects of the whiskey still lingered in her blood, and she staggered as she headed toward the bathroom in search of a clean towel. Half-way there, she froze, interrupted by the sound of someone knocking at her door.
Cora's eyebrows drew together. At this hour? It must be Penny or Lauren. One of her friends must have forgotten something. Or perhaps the subways had stopped running and they couldn't find a rideshare home in the storm. She wondered how long they'd been out there pounding, drowned out by the thunder. Cora left a trail of water droplets as she crossed to the front door and peered out into the hallway through the peephole.
Her heart stopped beating at the view that greeted her. For a moment, she accused her own eyes of playing tricks. It couldn't be. It couldn't possibly be...
Cora pulled the door open and stared.
Jamie stood in the threshold with his hair dripping wet and a sodden raincoat folded over his arm. "Hi. Did I wake you?"
No, just the opposite, Cora thought. She must have fallen asleep at last. It had to be a dream. She closed her eyes to see if he would vanish by the time she reopened them.
"I'm sorry," she heard his voice say in the dark space beyond her lids. "I know I shouldn't be here. I had to..."
A wave of dizziness took hold, and she flung her arm out to grab the doorframe as she swayed.
"Cora!" Jamie caught her around the waist with his arm, strong and solid. Her eyes flashed open with surprise.
This was no phantom holding her. The real Jamie stepped across the threshold into her apartment to catch her before she fell. For a brief instant, his arm tightened as if to pull her against him, but it slackened and released her. His hand hovered an inch from her elbow, as if waiting for permission to make contact.
"Cora? Are you all right?"
"No." She wrapped her arms around herself to still the violent trembling of her shoulders. Only then did she realize how little clothing she had on. The thin white t-shirt had turned nearly transparent, clinging to her breasts and hips. A small puddle of rainwater had formed around her feet.
Jamie shook his head at her, bewildered. "Why are you so wet?" He unfolded his raincoat and draped it around her shoulders. She clutched the collar closed at her throat.
The urge to laugh bubbled up inside her. Cora had never considered herself the swooning type. She remembered how she used to be, not so long ago, dripping with nothing but self-assurance as she stood in front of the first camera of them all.
What are you looking for in a man?
A faceless producer had posed that question, and she'd flipped her hair as she answered. An average temperature of 98.6 degrees. Bonus points if he's enough of a gentleman to loan me his jacket when I dress inappropriately for the weather...
Now here he was again, right on time, loaning her jacket after jacket every chance he got.
Cora blinked and met his eyes. "What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night."
"Sorry." He looked down. "I tried to text first. I had to see you were all right."
She nodded. "I am," she lied. "I'm fine."
"Oh." A master at disguising his emotions, but she didn't miss the flicker of disappointment that crossed this face. "Good. Excellent. I should—I'm sorry. I just wanted to say that. But I-I didn't mean to disturb you. I should..." He looked over his shoulder toward the door.
She had spent three weeks in this man's company, 24 hours a day, and in all that time she had never heard him stammer. Not once. "Jamie, are you OK?"
He looked startled at the question. He met her eyes, and she saw a Jamie she had only seen one time before. That morning on the airport shuttle bus, explaining to her the dire urgency of his predicament. How his survival depended on her agreeing to change her plans, upend her life, and join him for a month in a destination she had no intention of visiting. He had looked at her with those haunted eyes. A little boy, left behind and lost.
She took his hand. They made a spark of static electricity at the contact.
"Stay," Cora whispered. "Don't go yet."
She pulled him toward her, close enough to touch his cheek. It was all the invitation Jamie needed. He let out a low moan.
Then somehow her hands were on his chest, and the trench coat slid forgotten to the floor. His arms locked around her waist, and this time he didn't release her. He lifted her nearly off her feet as he backed her toward the nearest horizontal surface. The kitchen countertop.
She gasped as he hoisted her on top of it. She sat on the edge with his hips between her thighs. Her fingers trembled but no longer with cold. They shook with urgency as she reached for his belt to drag him closer still.
His forehead came to rest against hers, and his lips twisted in a grimace. She sensed his desperate urge to kiss her. She could see the struggle play across his face.
He buried it in her neck instead. The tip of his nose drew a course from beneath her chin, around the base of her jaw, to the sensitive spot behind her ear.
His lips made contact, but not in a kiss. He didn't make a sound, but she could feel the shape of the words against her skin and feel them vibrate through her skull. Please. Oh, Please.
Then her hands were in his hair. She tore his face away. The sky above let out a piercing thunderclap as her lips found his.
Their first kiss in the bungalow had been imperfect, with a note of falseness at its core.
The second kiss had brought a fiery release.
But their third kiss...
If there were any doubt in Cora's mind as to how she felt, the third kiss ended it. These things always come in threes. Her lips parted to let his tongue across the threshold. He kissed her like the storm outside, lashing in its fury. All the universe's pent-up energy released in bolts of flame.
No taste, no sound, no sight, no smell. His kiss drowned out her senses, drowning everything but Jamie's touch and the urgency for more.
Cora's hands were on his chest, clawing at his shirt, ripping it in her haste to undo the buttons. Jamie shrugged it over his head, only breaking from her for a moment as the fabric separated their lips. Cora pulled his mouth back down to hers, tearing at his hair.
His hands moved to her hips, and his fingers dug into her flesh. Cora raked her fingers down his chest to the waistband of his jeans. She heard a low rumbling sound, but she couldn't be certain if it came from his throat, or from hers, or from the storm above.
His fingers worked to unbuckle his belt. Cora ran her hands up his shoulders and cradled his face between her hands. She moaned into his mouth, feeling the way his jawbone strained and struggled as his lips moved against her own.
Her t-shirt clung to her and she peeled it off. Her panties whispered as he eased them down her thighs. And then his arms claimed her again, firm and strong, pulling her against his chest in a shower of sparks. Flint striking stone.
His mouth left hers then. She gasped as his lips began to wander, trailing kisses down her neck, pausing to suck at the sensitive place below her collarbone. She arched her back to allow him access to every inch of flesh. The tip of his tongue trailed fire as he found nerve endings she didn't know she had.
"More," she whispered. "More."
And his kiss moved lower still. Until he tasted her where she'd never allowed another man to kiss her. Never in her life. The very thought of it would have made her shudder with disgust. But the boundary between desire and repulsion wasn't a line. It was a string. He had taught her that. And when he plucked it with his tongue, he set it vibrating.
She leaned back, cooling her torrid skin against the cold, hard granite countertop. Her thighs pressed around his ears, and she lay helpless. Swept up in a raging current. Unable to do anything but cry out, again and again, until the storm had passed.
***
In a lull between the thunderclaps, Jamie picked Cora up and carried her to bed. They awoke there, limbs tangled together, with the morning light shining through a gap between the curtains. The dawn had long since come.
For once, Jamie thought, they needn't hide from it.
Cora sighed in her sleep as he eased himself from bed, wrapping a rumpled sheet around his waist. Jamie went to pull the curtains fully closed to let her slumber undisturbed, when he caught a glimpse of the world on the other side.
His eyes went wide. He swished the curtains open and let himself out onto the balcony.
"Bloody hell," he murmured at what he saw.
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