Hard Rain

tell. The way you look at me."
    Her hand pressed closer. "I can feel your heart," she said.
    Between her hand over my heart and her hips at my crotch, she might as
    well have been administering a polygraph.
    I looked out at the street beyond the overhang. The rain was coming in
    at gray angled streaks. One of my hands moved to her cheek. I closed
    my eyes. Her skin was wet from the rain and I thought of tears.
    She lifted her head and I felt the side of her face settle against
    mine. Her head moved up and down just slightly, as though in time to
    some music I could almost hear. I kept my eyes closed, thinking, Don't
    do it, don't be stupid.
    I could hear my own breath, flowing through my nose, moving past my
    teeth.
    I started to pull back, sliding my wet cheek past hers. She moved one
    of her hands to the back of my neck and stopped me.
    I shifted my head slightly. The corners of our mouths brushed
    together. I felt her breath on my cheek.
    Then we were kissing. Her mouth was warm and soft. Our tongues
    entwined and simultaneously I thought Oh you fucking idiot and Oh that
    feels so good.
    My hands found their way inside her coat to her waist. She took my
    face between her palms and kissed me harder.
    I squeezed her hips, then ran my hands up and over the curve of her
    ribs to her breasts. Her nipples were hard under the wet fabric of her
    dress. Her body radiated heat. I heard myself groan. It sounded like
    capitulation.
    She stepped back and fumbled in her purse. She pulled out a key and
    looked at me, her eyes dark, her breathing heavy.
    "Come inside," she said.
    She turned and put her key in the lock. The door slid open and we went
    in.
    We kept kissing in the elevator on the brief ride to the fifth floor.
    On the way down the corridor we were pulling at each other's clothes.
    We moved inside her apartment, into a foyer at the end of a short
    hallway. There was a living area beyond. Everything was dimly
    illuminated by the reflected gray light of the street without.
    She closed the door behind me and pushed me back against it. She started kissing me again, hungrily, her hands
    unbuttoning my shirt. Ordinarily I don't get comfortable in a place
    until I've had a chance to look around it, but the narrow hallway, with
    Naomi between me and any potential attackers, wouldn't have worked well
    for an ambush. I didn't pick up any danger vibes, at least not of
    those kind. And Harry's bug and video detector was blessedly
    quiescent.
    I eased her coat off her shoulders and let it fall behind her. She
    kissed my neck, my chest, while her fingers worked on my belt and
    pants. I reached around and undid the zipper at the back of her dress.
    I moved the straps off her shoulders and the dress slipped soundlessly
    to the floor. I felt her kick off her shoes.
    She pushed my blazer back, but the wet material clung to me. I
    shrugged out of it and pulled off my shirt. She put a warm hand
    against my belly for a moment as though to freeze me in that position.
    I felt the diamond bracelet, a small cold circle around her wrist. Then
    she reached lower and started to ease my pants down. I stopped her so
    I could get my shoes and socks off first. Pants-pooled-at-the-ankles is
    too helpless a posture for me.
    I stepped out of my pants and undershorts and kicked them aside. She
    pushed me back against the door again, circled her arms around my lower
    back, and pulled us tightly together. Her breasts and belly pressed
    against me, warm and soft and insanely inviting, and at that instant I
    didn't care what this was all going to cost me. What it might cost
    her.
    I took her face gently in both my hands and eased her head back
    slightly. I looked into her eyes. In the dim light of the hall they
    seemed to have their own quiet luminescence.
    Her hands dropped to my hips and she lowered herself in
    TOO
    front of me. I watched her, breathing faster now. The door was cold
    on my naked back and then her mouth engulfed me and for a moment I
    couldn't feel anything else.
    One of her hands rose to my belly and I took it in mine, then let it
    go. My head dropped back against the door with a quiet thump. Some
    stray hair brushed against my thigh. I could feel every strand of it,
    as though I'd been stroked with hot filament.
    One of my hands drifted down and traced the edge of her ear, the curve
    of her cheek, the line of her jaw. I exhaled hard, tightening my
    abdomen until there was nothing left in my lungs, then breathed in
    sharply through my