“
I think it would be for the best if we both pretend yesterday afternoon- in the woods- it never happened. Wouldn't you agree?"
"I would." He takes a step closer, his eyes still locked on hers. He is no longer smiling.
"And I think we should avoid any future situations that put us in close proximity to each other."
"Like this one?"
"Yes."
Jack nods, still holding her eye, and she tries hard to control the rise of blood to her face as a fragment of something from the woods comes back to her- the sensation of his fingers running down the curve of her collarbone, his mouth against her neck.
"Good." She clears her throat. "I'm glad we understand each other."
"We do." He takes another step towards her, so close now that she wonders if it is the breeze through the open window she can feel on her skin, or his warm breath. "I think that is our problem, Lillian. We understand each other. You and I, we seem to share something."
Lillian can hear her heart beating in her ribcage.
"I felt it that first moment I saw you... at the party."
Lillian swallows.
"You feel it too, don't you?" he asks.
The sun, now low in the sky, filters through the trees outside in the arboretum, casting them both in a burnished glow. She knows she must go. She knows she must turn and leave the room, but something in his eyes holds her fixed to the spot.
"Tell me that it's not just me, that I'm not imagining this," he says in a low voice.
There is a stillness in the room, as if they both await the next breath, the next word.
She swallows. "I feel it, too."
She isn't sure who takes the next step but it doesn't really matter; she is in his arms again and he is kissing her, pulling her close and all reason and rational thought- all the jumbled arguments she has agonized over- fly away like a flock of birds startled from the branches of a tree. Her arms are wrapped around his waist and his hands are on her face and in her hair as they stumble backwards. She meets the edge of the desk, and then he is lifting her onto its surface, several brushes clattering to the floor as he presses against her.
"We mustn't," she sighs, but already her fingers are tugging at the buttons of his shirt. She parts her legs and his hands move under her skirt, his fingertips grazing the bare skin above her silk stockings.
"Do you want me to stop?" he asks, his breath hot against her neck.
But she draws him to her again, pressing her mouth against his ear to whisper her answer. "Don't stop. I don't want you to stop.
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