Elevator Magic

Excerpt:
Elevator Magic
K.Z. Snow
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2008 K.Z. Snow

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“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?” Rich said. It was more a statement, albeit a tentative one, than a question. “I mean here, in this building, on this elevator.”

Before Lanie could answer, Spey said to Richard, “You sound uncertain. How could you not remember seeing this lady?” He flashed her a disarming smile. “Excuse my brashness, but I think you’re a knockout.”

“Thank you,” Lanie murmured. And the opinion is mutual. She caught Richard as well as Jackson regarding her quite openly. Her mouth snapped into a self-conscious smile and she looked at the floor, aware of the lingering concentration of heat in her cheeks.

Richard cleared his throat. “Well, I, uh… I’ve been rather preoccupied lately. What with, you know, leaving my business behind and…” Apparently at a loss for words, he didn’t finish the sentence.

Spey finished it for him. “Striking off in a new direction.”

Richard nodded. “Plus, I usually leave the building with my… with a lady friend.” Looking a tad embarrassed, he shot a quick look at Lanie. He certainly realized, at least now he realized, she was well aware of Marla. And well aware of their falling-out.

“Ah, I see,” Jackson said. “That’s really quite commendable. You know, it’s a measure of a man’s character whether or not he eyes up other women when he’s with his special woman.” He gave Lanie a pointed glance. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Absolutely,” she said with emphasis. Lanie had stark contempt for oglers. Few things undermined a female’s self-esteem like a partner who couldn’t keep his eyes to himself. “It’s all about respect. And depth of feeling.”

“So you don’t feel slighted?” Richard asked her.

Lanie found it touching that he was being so solicitous. She liked his humility, his old-fashioned gallantry. “Of course not,” she said with an understanding smile. “Believe me, I don’t think I’m the center of the universe.”

Richard breathed a laugh and shook his head. “Still, what a waste of my attention.” When he looked at Lanie again, it was with more than passing interest.

This discussion, she realized, was not only drawing her out, it was building her confidence. She wondered if she should make some move, tell one of these men what she thought of him. But which one? With no small sense of irony, Lanie realized she was smack in the middle of her perfect fantasy, but circumstances made it impossible to play that fantasy out. “It’s getting warm in here,” she murmured, fanning her face with both hands.

Richard ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Yes, it is.”

Suddenly, the three top buttons of Lanie’s blouse came undone. They didn’t pop open -- she hadn’t moved her arms forcefully enough to cause that to happen -- but they methodically slipped out of their holes, as if plied by invisible fingers.

With a startled, soft intake of breath, Lanie looked down at her blouse… or, rather, at her exposed cleavage. Her hand automatically fell to her chest.

Richard was staring at her, his lips parted.

“Oops,” she said lamely, “I don’t know how that hap --”

In rapid succession, all the buttons of Richard’s shirt came undone. His stunned gaze slid from Lanie to himself to Lanie again. With a nervous chuckle, he offered an explanation. “Maybe the guardian angel of elevator riders wants us to be comfortable.”

Snickering, Jackson Spey crossed his arms over his chest and studied his boots. His clothing remained securely in place.

Lanie gaped at him. An unusual someone I know quite well and trust implicitly. He has… unique skills. But no, that was too farfetched. Lanie didn’t doubt Angelina Funmaker had some unusual friends, but a man who could undress people without touching them? No. Even if she was an exotic woman who came from an obscure little island in the east Jamaica Channel.

Without lifting his head, Jackson Spey shifted his weirdly colored eyes between Lanie and Rich. “Cooler now?” he drawled. “Or hotter?”

It was an unmistakably suggestive question that prompted Lanie to look at Richard’s exposed chest. The sight made her want to remove her blouse entirely, as well as her bra, and stride up to him and begin rubbing her bare breasts against the hard mounds of his pectoral muscles. They were lightly glazed with sweat and embellished by a fine pattern of mahogany colored hair. Below his beaded nipples, his taut, tan skin was perfectly smooth, the plane of his stomach interrupted only by a series of low, parallel ridges.

Lanie felt her own nipples tighten and rise. The thin fabric of her bra was resistant enough to stimulate them further. Hard now, they strained against the hugging silk with a maddening tingle that zigzagged down her torso to her pussy.

As it trickled moisture, Lanie’s mind hazed. Her hand fell away from her chest. She wanted Rich to stare at the soft, bulging flesh of her breasts. Hell, she wanted both men to stare… and burn to touch her. The rise and fall of her chest became more pronounced as excitement fired her breathing.

Richard had been fumbling with his open shirt, looking bewildered and flustered, trying to rebutton it. Now his hands stilled.

Lanie’s blouse opened, again by itself, down to the waistband of her skirt. Its two sides slowly parted and folded back like a stage curtain. She was aware of little but the stubborn push of her nipples against the semitransparent, lavender cups of her bra and the deep, sharp throbbing between her legs.

Richard’s breathing was heavy enough to be audible. “Definitely… hotter,” he forced out in a coarse whisper.