“You won’t.” His determined tone left no room for discussion. “Tell me something about yourself.” He was trying to divert my attention from the situation at hand, only it didn’t work. “Where do you live? What do you like doing in your free time?”
“There’s nothing to tell. I’m boring.”
A sexy little laugh, then, “I highly doubt that, Laurie. You sound like an interesting person.”
In spite of myself, I smiled. He had no idea how wrong he was. “No, really. I’m a bore.”
“Well, try me. I’m in no hurry.”
Neither was I. We’d probably been stuck for more than two hours, and I needed a distraction.
“Laurie,” he prompted, hesitating. Or maybe he was having trouble breathing as well. And then I noticed it: a slight shaking and vibrating of the walls. It stopped almost as quickly as it had started.
His hands let go of me. Clothes rustled, and something dropped to the floor with a muffled thud. Then his hands were back on me, his bare skin brushing mine in the process, his fingers holding mine.
I realized he must have taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. The air was getting hot. It wasn’t just my imagination. Suddenly, I had a vision of dying without clearing my conscience. If I couldn’t do all the things I had envisioned I’d be doing with my life, if I died and all the things about heaven and hell were true, then I needed to at least relieve my conscience.
Confess.
Acknowledge my mistakes to find absolution.
Well, you get the point.
“You think I’m interesting?” I asked, not waiting for his answer. “Okay, I’ll tell you something about me. I have five secrets. Five secrets I don’t want to carry with me to the grave. Probably the only five things that don’t render me a complete bore.”
“You’re being melodramatic. It’s just a technical glitch. People are—”
“Coming to rescue us. Yeah, got it.” I rolled my eyes because I didn’t believe a word he said. “Except that it sure felt like an earthquake, and everyone’s probably gone.”
“Earthquakes happen all the time. And people return for those left behind. So, what are your secrets?”
The air was getting all hot and stuffy because the air conditioning was no longer working. Already my lungs were burning, and my head was dizzy. It was only a matter of time until we ran out of oxygen, and he knew it.
“You want to hear them? Well, I’m scared of dark places. Any dark place,” I said. “Always have been, and this is my worst nightmare.”
“You don’t need to be scared. I’m here. Being stuck in an elevator is not a big deal. And a lot of people are scared of the dark, but once you know it’s just in your mind, your imagination, your fear talking, you’ll get over it.”
I smiled bitterly. “You’re great at this. You really are. And if I had to go through this all over again and I could choose one person to be stuck in an elevator with, it’d probably be you. But that doesn’t change anything. I’m still scared out of my mind. It’s—”
“Nyctophobia.”
“Yeah, that.”
In the darkness, I could feel the smile on his lips, and for a moment I took the time to imagine him. But all that came out was a fuzzy picture of blue eyes and a soft, sexy smile.
Maybe lopsided.
Or dimples, because I was a sucker for those.
“What’s number two?” His voice was hoarse now. Definitely trouble breathing.
“I’m buried in student and credit card loans. It’s so bad, it’s unreal. Last week I said to my best friend Jude that if I didn’t get this interview, I’d fake my resume just to get a job. Any job. She laughed about it, but I meant it. I’m really that desperate.”
“The depravity of it,” Sexy Voice said. Was he mocking me? I had just opened my mouth to speak with a comeback burning on the tip of my tongue when he cut me off. “I think, given the circumstances, it’s understandable. It doesn’t make you a bad person…unless you pretend to be a dentist. My point is, there’s far worse out there.”
“Probably.” I sucked in a deep breath and regretted it instantly. My head felt so dizzy, I feared I might just pass out. I had to hurry up if I wanted to get to the highlight of my little confession.
“I guess we all revert to lying and cheating if we want to achieve something, because there’s no other way to get there. What about the next one?” Sexy Voice said, as though reading my mind.
“You’re not bored yet?”
“Not yet. It’s definitely getting interesting.” His fingers brushed my wrist, and in spite of the macabre of the situation, I found myself relishing his touch, maybe enjoying it a bit more than was proper.