Her smile is a playful flash of plush lips and pearly-white teeth. You love the way she smiles, the way it seems to widen and flood the already beautiful room with opulence and grandeur. She walks- no, Lara Croft never walks, she struts- across the red-carpet foyer, passing by a rather tall advertisement board gilded in silver.
Kiss That Good life Goodbye
Tonight,
Madrid City Opera House
10:00 PM
You let her come to you; after all,
she
was the one to extend the invitation. Around her people are milling and flowing around her like a stream of ugliness breaking on her boulder of beauty. The riff-raff around her were adorned in expensive fabrics and glittering jewels, but all the frilled dresses, dangling pearls and glinting gold does little to outshine Lara and her stunning ensemble.
A gorgeous pyrite-hued halter-top dress flows down her towering six-foot, ultra feminine frame. It's one of those dresses that is backless (and very nearly assless) and as the fabric passes around her neck, it splits and cascades loosely down over each beast, only to join again just below her navel. The dark green fabric was not only very thin and delicate; it was also very sparse and left
very
little to your imagination. A stray breeze might have been enough to expose a nipple. There is a long split down the left side of her leg and as she strides towards you your eyes are constantly assaulted by her golden, sculpted leg. She manages to navigate the throng of well-dressed bodies and makes her way to stand in front of you. You are equally as tall as she is and because of the noisy lobby she has to get very near to you in order to say hello.
"I'm glad you came." She offers her ungloved hand; it is adorned with several pieces of sparkling green jewelry. One of her bracelets looks to be a solid thick hoop of jade gilded by tiny ornate silver squiggles that remind you of some oriental language.
"Me too," You manage to mutter, quickly taking a breath and almost wishing you hadn't. Normally a deep breath calms your nerves, but this time your lungs fill with Ms. Crofts scent and you nearly palpitate. You are so close to her you can see the moistness in her skin and lips. She has a light blush on her cheeks and a darker pallet around her eyes.
You fight down a gulp and take her hand.
"We've been playing phone tag," you say, then smile, "hell, county tag, for so long now I was wondering if you would ever make good on your promise."
"Well, a girl's got to travel or the world seems so boring." Lara say's with a smile, "We have only a moment before first seating."
In the first few moments of conversation you realize how much you missed her voice. The accent is just as crisp and refined as you remembered, but there is something more that you hadn't remembered hearing before. Was it nervousness? Trepidation? No, it couldn't be, Lara Croft is not afraid of many things, least of all a man.
"The box is this way," she says to you, pulling your hand and hooking her arm in the crook of yours, "You can tell me all about South Africa along the way."
As you two find the lift which will take you to the upper deck of the Opera House you begin to talk freely, mostly about the last two months that you have been out of contact. She makes many references to your near misses, touching your skin softly with the palm of her hand.
"Twig told me you went through Chicago two days before I arrived. I was almost tempted to phone your pilot and make him turn the plane around."
"You should have," You smile, perhaps a little too forwardly, but she doesn't seem to mind. You two are now in the elevator and are sharing it with many other people. You don't talk, but you don't take your eyes of one another either. You feel isolated and alone, as if the back corner of the elevator were a separate world where only you and the ravishing Ms. Croft existed.
Her hair isn't in the long braid you are used to seeing her in. It's long and flowing down her bare back. Her bangs are pulled back and fastened down with a thick band of fabric that matches the stuff her dress is made with.
The elevator dings and the people disperse, leaving you two in the elevator.
A while goes by, the doors try to close twice but you keep putting a foot between them.
"Our box is down the hall," Lara smiles, not breaking eye contact with you, "That way."
You don't want to move, you want to let the doors of the elevator close and press her back against the wall, take fistfuls of her hair and just
kiss
her. Something in the way she is looking at you suggests she wouldn't put up a fightβ¦but still.
With a small laugh Lara tugs you through the door, "I swear, sometimes you act in the strangest ways."
"I don't think you understand how good you look tonight," You say, testing the waters of flattery. She responds well.
"I think I might have an idea, love."
The box is third in the upper row and is lined with thick black stage curtain. All but two chairs have been removed and a small silver tray on a rolling trolley holds a crystal bowl of ice and a tall square bottle of amber liquid.
"Lara," You smile, "You remembered."