A Sophisticated Seduction

And I Find A Ring In The Closet

Excerpt:

"I've told you before, Regina," I said, trying to breathe but I couldn't, "put yourself in my shoes and see how you'd feel. Understand why I...magnify things. Because you're still married to your work, you leave room for doubts, we hardly talk and then something like this happens. What the hell was I supposed to think?"

"That I am in love with you, I am your partner, and I would never cheat on you?" her voice was small but firm.

"I never said -"

"That's what you thought," she croaked. "Wasn't it? You thought I was cheating on you."

I couldn't even reply because it was the truth.

.

.

Somewhere in between shock and complete fright, I found the focus inside of me to steady myself. To entwine my fingers with hers, the room slanting as she led me into the middle with a sea of eyes upon us. Faces that registered unbelievable expressions and a few were smirking. Mally was gloriously thrilled. Even when the whispers began, she kept on smiling, her gaze resting on me. And in that moment, I realized that probably, she had known of this planned move from a very long time before.

It had to be planned.

Regina wasn't the type of woman to act on impulse. She wanted things to be detailed and arranged, knowing of a definite start and finish, no surprises. So for her to do this to me, it had to have been thought of before.

As the music lingered in the intro, Lionel Richie's 'Say You, Say Me', her hands draped over my shoulders and our eyes met. Immediately I kept thinking that this is what she wanted. This is what she really wanted and I had to give in. I couldn't back out. I couldn't conceal my feelings. Because can you imagine hiding the way that one person made you drown in love right before everyone's eyes?

How could I rest my hands upon her hips, feel the fabric of that red satin dress and maintain composure? Her perfume was already doing things to me, like fingers whispering pathways across my skin and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't divert my eyes from hers. I couldn't do it.

With just an inch of distance between us, Regina bewitched my mind once again, our bodies swaying side to side.

"Don't worry," she mouthed smiling at me, lips parted.

"Really?" I stared back. "That's easy for you to say."

"Just think of me," she said, "look at me. And nothing else. Nothing else, matters. In this moment."

About a minute into the song when Mally decided to pull her husband onto the dance floor, Regina closed the distance between us. Her hands wrapping around my waist and drawing me nearer. So near, I could taste the kiss of her warm breath and feel the heat generating from a body consumed with passion. The fire in her brown eyes couldn't be compared to the lick of flames within my mind. In all manner of speaking, I was hypnotized by her radiance, as if we were meeting for the first time. And I immediately was aware of everyone who had at least some intelligence embedded in their brains could decipher what was going on.

I could already hear the guys' questions buzzing in my ears.

But everything was placed on mute, was shut out when she braved all odds and leaned in. Our lips brushed. My eyes fluttered close and in that moment I couldn't even compose myself. I couldn't conceal how breathless she made me feel. The urge to linger in the touching of our lips for a little longer. Making that connection and savoring it for as long as I could. And when she finally kissed me, my knees grew so weak.