Two Arts

Chapter 17

I kept the shield visor up while riding through the city. I didn't need it down at the low speed I could reach in the busy streets, plus the wind on my face helped my nerves to stay at bay.

I watched the buildings run past me, I had memorized every turn between my place and Sadie's hotel that one time I had gone before. Not on purpose, I only realized I knew the way once I went to search for it and found out I didn't need to. 

I parked in front of the hotel and gathered what I needed to bring upstairs for her. The only item missing was my confidence, I had to pull that one together from scratch.

Sadie already held all sorts of powers over me, if I showed up in a puddle of nonsensical anxiety she would've crushed me.

Crushed by Sadie seemed like a decent way to go.

I shook my head at the thought and tried to shake it all off. I unlatched my helmet and freed my head from it. I ran a hand through my hair in the hope that it would regain enough volume and walked into the hotel.

I nodded toward the desk, the hotel key card visible in hand, and walked straight to the elevators.

I looked at the panel with all of the buttons for a moment, and the number seventy-eight lit up in my brain. I pressed it without questioning myself.

The doors opened and I followed my heart to her room.

I thought about knocking but didn't. I swiped the card through and cautiously opened the door.

The room wasn't as tidy as when I had visited before, clothes were thrown around over random parts of it.

Sadie was nowhere to be seen. I hesitantly spoke to make sure she wasn't in the room, "Hello? Sades, I'm here," I tried, expecting no answer, maybe she was still at work. I could've waited for her and surprised her there.

"Oh, you're early," Her voice came from the bathroom, accompanied by the feeble noise of water splashing, "Please come through."

I swallowed, slipped my feet out of my boots, and rested the two helmets and the bag with Sadie's motorcycling clothing near the door, I left my jacket too, before walking toward the bathroom.

The sliding door was fully open, but all I could see while approaching the room was the massive marble counter in front of a wall of mirrors where two elegant sinks were sitting quite distant from each other.

My heart was pounding and my legs felt weaker at each step, "May I?" I managed to croak out before stepping into the bathroom.

"Of course," Sadie's voice was low and accompanied by more water-like noise.

And it made perfect sense once she became visible, lying in a beautiful porcelain tub, submerged in soft white foam, New York City buzzing with slow movement in the floor-to-ceiling glass wall behind her.

Oh my God.

My mouth watered. I could feel my heartbeat all over my skin, as if all throughout my body it was pulsating along the same fast beat.

Sadie's hair was piled up in a big bun of curls on top of her head. A few strands were getting wet at the base of her neck but she didn't seem to mind.

The lines of her neck disappeared in the foam, her collarbones hidden, her shoulders bobbing slightly in and out of sight when she turned to look at me.

Her eyes held fire when they met mine.

She was lying naked within reach, and all of my most primordial instincts kicked in.

My core immediately throbbed at the sight of her wet knees poking out of the water. One thing was to imagine her in the sexiest setting and making up movies in my head, and a completely different one was to find myself in that specific very real-life scenario.