Author: Regency
Title: Irresistible Craze
Characters: Alexis, Craig
Rating: PG/ TEEN
Summary: After the reception ends, Alexis is left behind, but finds that she isn’t as alone as she expected.
Disclaimer: I own exactly didley squat--especially not the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen Secret Garden. ABC
owns everything.
~~
Alexis was still in the reception hall overseeing cleanup. It was surprising how much carnage three dozen or more wealth
citizens could wreak on a wedding reception. She remembered watching people dance. Not that she had been asked, not even once.
She tried not to let it bother her, but she failed in that respect. She’d gotten twenty compliments on how she looked,
easily, but not a single offer to take to the floor.
She asked herself whether the cancer was that much of a romantic deterrent. In the last few weeks she’d spent so
much time in the company of a man who didn’t seem to mind that she began to forget how the outside world viewed her:
as a dying woman. No matter how well she filled out her dress these days.
She crossed her arms in front of her ample cleavage, suddenly aware of just how cold it had become since the masses had
departed. Jax and Carly were on their way to Fiji, Sonny had taken to a bottle no doubt, and she was going home alone tonight.
Though distracted by her rather disappointed thinking, she noticed that the wait staff had vanished, as had the mess. The
room’s inhabitants consisted of her, only her. They must have gone home to their lover and spouses…and sex.
They’re probably having sex right now. She wasn’t bitter about that really--she just missed it.
She was about to leave for home when the lights began to come down. Subtle strains of a song she’d hasn’t heard
in twenty years begins to play. She revolved slowly in search of the culprit. He stepped into the wide ceremonial doorway
the happy couple had vanished through hours ago. The backlight drowned out his features but she thought she knew what she
would see.
“I’ve watched you all night, beautiful as you are. It seems a shame for you not to dance even once.”
She licked her lips. He walked towards her, his dubious saunter gone in the sweet dimness. He extended his hand to her.
A thousand reasons to say no sped through her mind, but when it came time to speak not one came to her lips.
She allowed him to cradle her fingers in his and guide her towards him. An unexpected warmth engulfed her as his arms came
around her. He peered down at her with eyes nearly black as she saw them. Her skin burned with the touch of his palm on her
exposed back.
She'll let you in her house
If you come knockin' late at night
She'll let you in her mouth if the
Words you say
are right
Inch by agonizing inch, they started to sway. He was smiling at her now, aware of the apprehension she wore beneath the
surface. She was afraid. Not of him, but of what he was managing to do to her with a simple look.
If you pay the price
She'll let you deep inside
But there's a secret garden she hides
Sharp blades of grass seemed to climb her limbs as they caressed his. She was forgetting how to breathe. He laid his head
against hers pressing her to his cheek. She sighed, wanting this, whatever this was. He smelt so good--bold, dangerous,
everything she had learned to run from by now.
She'll let you in her car
To go drivin' round
She'll let you into the parts of herself
That'll bring you down
He brushed his lips against her ear, stealing her breath away so swiftly her knees buckled. He caught her. She was his,
bound by the waist. His fingers walked the stern path of her spine to the back of her neck. He looked down to her mouth; she
looked up to his. For a brief second in eternity, they shared a look. Wordlessly, he asked for something. A key, perhaps permission.
She'll let you in her heart
If you got a hammer and a vise
But into her secret garden, don't think twice
She laid her hands on the lapels of his dinner jacket, looking away from his intense gaze to steady herself. She was falling
so fast for this man. He was an unknown, someone she hadn’t accounted for when she planned the way her life would go
from one catastrophe to the next. He had become the constantly saving grace, the infinite quantity.
You've gone a million miles
How far'd you get to that place where
You can't remember and you can't forget
He clung to her. A distant part of her mind wondered if he was as blindsided as she by their instantaneous
connection. Was it a tight-rope walk to him, dangerous even in its undertaking? From his charm to his blunt intellect, her
instincts warned that he was a liaison to avoid. Yet, she couldn’t keep away. God, no, the more she fought against him,
against the very idea of waking up lustfully entwined in him, the more she ached to do just that. To relent, to surrender,
to burn with him. Even if never again.
He gently lifted her chin, asking once again, ever-patient, ever-kind for her permission. When she’d granted it,
he lowered his lips to hers.
In a room where someone else had celebrated what they considered great love, she thought might’ve been finding her
own. James Brosnan was setting her up for a fall. She was falling in love with him. This time, she wasn’t afraid.
Silenced by his mouth, by words reduced to moans and by his hands which roamed unrestrained. She felt the unearthly flame
of desire lapping at her heels. She greeted it with open arms.
The buttons of his jacket came undone. He reached for the he closure of her dress. They should’ve waited, gone somewhere
more unseen. They wouldn’t, she knew. The power of a public rendezvous gave her chills of both unbridled shame and want.
She wanted this, needed this, needed him.
