I Have Lived And I Have Loved: A Charity Romance Collection

by Willow Winters

  “Ah, you didn’t know you got trapped with MacGyver, did you?” Leaning to the side, he took a ring of keys out of his pants pocket, holding them up and daring her to, “Watch, and learn.”

  She finished eating her protein bar in the almost five minutes it took him to get the cork out of the horrible wine, but it was entertaining watching him trying to avoid letting the small specs of cork he’d broken off fall into the red wine.

  Finally, declaring victory, he held out the bottle, offering her the first swig. “Oh no, I insist, you go first,” she urged.

  The horrified face he made as he forced himself to swallow the swill made her laugh.

  “I warned you!” she teased.

  “What did you do to piss off the person that gave this to you?” he asked after he’d swallowed, sputtering slightly.

  Having received it in the company gift exchange at Christmas, she corrected him. “I don’t think they were pissed. More like cheap.”

  Jacob was clearly thirsty because he stole another swig before handing the bottle to her. “You should still drink. We don’t want to get dehydrated.”

  The way her bladder felt, she knew there was no chance of that. “I’ll pass. I already have to pee. I don’t want to make it worse.”

  As if he were on a treasure hunt, Jacob dived back into the box, looking for any small trinket he could turn into nourishment. When he pulled out the Rossi, Anderson, & Hart company water bottle all employees were issued when they were hired, he again looked like he’d found a treasure.

  “Um… in case you missed it, the bottle is empty,” she pointed out the obvious.

  “That’s why it’s going to make a great toilet.”

  “Are you nuts?” she squeaked, sure he’d lost his mind.

  “What? Just think how satisfying it will be to piss all over the company logo after they fired you.”

  “Well forget it. I couldn’t. It’s too weird.”

  Setting the bottle aside, he resumed his treasure hunt, adding, “Suit yourself, but fair warning. If they don’t have us out of here in an hour, I’ll be putting the damn thing to use.”

  “That’s different. You’re a guy.”

  He stopped to look up and smile. His “Thanks for noticing,” was a bit too charming.

  “Yeah, well, it was a bit hard to miss.”

  “What gave me away?” he added, giving most of his attention to her odd collection of belongings in the box.

  “I don’t know… the five o’clock shadow… your forearms… the tattoo on your arm,” she listed, avoiding the more personal observation of how yummy he smelled and how she’d enjoyed the feel of his muscular chest pressing her against the wall of the elevator. Considering he’d only been gallant while trying to protect her, it was irrelevant.

  “What, you don’t have a tattoo?” he asked.

  “I didn’t say that…” she hesitated, unsure if she wanted to share.

  “Aw, come on. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he encouraged her.

  “Let’s just say, if I get desperate enough to use the bottle, you might get a peek at it.”

  “Interesting. Let me guess. A butterfly?”

  She shook her head.

  “You a dog or cat person? Is it paw prints?” he asked again.

  “Nothing so predictable,” she teased, picking up her phone to check if the service had been restored.

  It didn’t look like it would work, but since her power was now down to seven percent left, Lanie took a chance at sending her roommate a text. She wasn’t surprised when it flashed, undelivered, when she tried to send it.

  “Dammit.”

  “Still no service? It’s not a great sign of what’s going on out there if there is still no cell service.”

  She’d been thinking the same thing.

  “You trying to check up on your boyfriend?” he asked, taking another swig of the horrible wine.

  Surprised at his question, she glanced up. “You fishing for personal information?”

  “Maybe. Like I said, what else do we have to do?”

  Lanie chuckled. “So glad to know I can be of some use in a crisis.”

  His good-natured grin lit up the enclosed space, putting her at ease.

  “If you must know, I was trying to text my roommate, who yes, is a boy… and he is also a friend… but I can assure you, Raúl is not, nor ever will be, my boyfriend.”

  “Raúl, eh? Let me guess. He bats for the other team?”

  “Boy does he,” she laughed. “He not only bats for them, but…” she paused, unsure how crude she should get. “Let’s just say, he likes being part of team sports.”

  “That’s kind of an odd choice for a roommate, then.”

  “Not at all. He’s a hoot, but more importantly, he keeps things picked up, and is a great cook.”

  “I wish he could whip us up a steak dinner about now.”

  “You’re obsessed with steak,” she retorted, shifting the way she was sitting in an attempt to relieve more pressure on her ready-to-burst bladder.

  “Yeah, well it’s helping to keep my mind off needing to pee,” he added.

  The crackling sound of the building intercom system filled the elevator just before a voice spoke to them. “Hello, this is building security, giving you a status update. As you can imagine, city resources are spread thin, responding to emergencies. The fire department has been here to do a preliminary check, and everyone in the building has been evacuated, with the exception of those of you detained in the elevators.

  “I’m sorry to inform you that the decision was made to wait for the elevator company’s repair team to arrive to assist us with getting you out safely. If the city gets the power turned back on first, we’ll be able to restart the elevators, but if not, it looks like you’ll have a few more hours to wait for your rescue.”

  Jacob summed up her sentiment exactly with his quiet, “Fuck.”

  Security dude continued on, unaware of the curse. “We are monitoring things carefully and if anything changes, we’ll let you know. If you have an emergency, please pull the alarm button again and we’ll answer.”

  The static of the system silenced, just as Lanie called out, “What do you mean, if we have an emergency? We’re stuck in the elevator, you idiot! This IS an emergency.”

  Jacob wisely didn’t make fun of her outburst.

  What a nightmare. They could be stuck there for hours more, and that could only mean one thing.

  Reaching out with her left hand, she groused, “Hand me the damn empty bottle.”

  Chapter 3

  Jacob handed over the RAH water bottle while kindly offering, “You need my help to hold it for you?”

  Snatching it from him, Lanie pushed up to her feet and spat back, “Not only do I not want your help, you need to turn around… face the wall.”

  “You do realize I’ll still be right here, right?” he said, turning his head slightly.

  Recognizing how much she did not want to do this, she instructed him, “Put your hands over your ears.”

  “What are you, fifteen? It’s not like I’m going to see anything new.”

  Despite his barb, he did at least keep facing the opposite wall as she struggled on her heels, working to just slip out of her panties and tossing them into the box with the hodgepodge of items already collected there.

  After twisting off the lid to the bottle, she tried to decide what would be her best option. Holding the bottle up was awkward, but when she put the bottle on the floor and tried to squat over it, her narrow skirt made it impossible to get into the right position.

  Taking a last look to make sure Jacob wasn’t watching her ungraceful balancing act, she finally hiked her skirt up to her waist, trying her best to line up over the bottle. And then…

  Nothing.

  She tried to tell her brain to let go, but it was just too weird. The longer she squatted, trying, the more unstable she got, finally resorting to holding onto the wall to keep steady over the bottle.r />
  “I’m guessing you don’t camp, do you?” he teased.

  “Be quiet. You’re making me nervous,” she argued.

  Ever helpful, Jacob offered, “I might have a bit of power left on my phone. Want me to play one of those babbling brook or ocean wave apps to help you go?”

  Another minute went by and she was about to take him up on the ridiculous offer when she finally got things moving. When finished, she was thankful that the security dude had just emptied her drawers into the box haphazardly as she grabbed one of the many napkins from the bottom of the box.

  “Boy, you weren’t kidding you really did need to go.” She had started to pull her skirt back into place when he added, “So I’m guessing you were in a sorority?”

  “Eh?” she asked, tucking the wet napkin away and digging to see if she could find a package of wet wipes to wipe her hands.

  “Pi Mu Epsilon. Never heard of them.”

  Lanie reached out to punch him on his shoulder. “You peeked!”

  “Of course, I did. I had to see your tattoo since you wouldn’t tell me about it.”

  “Yeah, well Pi Mu Epsilon is a Mathematics fraternity.”

  “Wow, I bet that was a hotbed of social excitement.”

  “It was a professional organization, if you must know. Some of us went to college to do more than party,” she replied, happily wiping her hands on the wet wipes she’d found.

  Holding up his hands in the universal sign of surrender, Jacob tried to smooth things over. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just afraid I might not have been quite as dedicated of a student as you is all.”

  Lanie bit her tongue to keep from confessing she’d spent more Saturday nights studying than any co-ed ever should have, but not only did that sound pathetic, it just made getting fired that much worse. She’d worked her ass off, just to have it all get thrown away by Peter and whoever else he was in cahoots with.

  She’d been lost in her own pity party long enough that she must have missed something Jacob had said since he was looking at her expectantly.

  “Sorry, can you repeat that?”

  “I asked for you to please pass the bottle. I might as well get this over with, too.”

  Not for the first time, Lanie was grateful for the dim lighting in the enclosed space. She tried not to think about it too much, reminding herself that she’d leave here after they were rescued from the elevator and not only would she not return to The Tower where RAH was the main tenant, but she would certainly never see Jacob again.

  When he finished, she tossed him the packet of wet wipes. It was Jacob who eventually broke the long silence. “So, now what? You want to play a game to pass the time and help keep my mind off how hungry I am?”

  “Sure, although I’m not sure what kind of game you think we can play with no phones or computers,” she countered, finally untucking her blouse from her skirt and waving the fabric in an attempt to get some air movement to cool down a few degrees.

  Jacob countered by unbuttoning his dress shirt as he laid out the rules to the entertainment trivia game he suggested they play.

  “This sounds kinda hokey. Did you just make this up?” she teased.

  “Maybe… But, like you said, we’re short on resources. In fact, I just want to take this opportunity to officially thank you for getting fired today. Can you imagine how much worse things would be without your box of weird supplies? They’ve really come in surprisingly handy.”

  The grin on his face told her he was joking, and she wanted to laugh with him. Hell, maybe one day she would, but today, just remembering about how she was being railroaded by the company just gave her anxiety.

  “I’m so glad that the total demise of my professional career was able to provide you with a tiny measure of comfort…”

  “I think someone is being a bit mellow-dramatic, don’t you? Who says your whole career is going to go down the tubes? I’ll bet money that the truth is going to come out after you get out of the elevator, and then the people who really deserve to be fired will get the axe, and you’ll be the hero.”

  Lanie scoffed, knowing that no matter how much she loved the sound of that scenario, it just wasn’t going to happen like that.

  “Okay, I don’t want to get all depressed again thinking about it. This is your game, you go first,” she prompted.

  She had absolutely no idea how long they spent quizzing each other about some of their favorite TV shows, movies, and even books. By the time they moved on to talking about their favorite musical artists and songs, both of their phones had died, and they had no idea what time it was. Not only had they learned they had a lot in common, she had also learned that despite all of the depressing things that were happening to her, Jacob had somehow managed to make her laugh more times than she could count.

  Unfortunately, one other thing they had in common was Lanie knew was she was now as hungry as her elevator partner.

  Jacob’s stomach growling loudly finally forced her to lean over the box she’d moved out of the way the hour before.

  “Now what are you looking for?” he asked, peering over the edge of the box with her.

  “I have to have something else in here to eat. Hand me my purse from over there. Maybe I have another granola bar, or maybe even a bag of peanuts from my last flight.”

  Without a flashlight, she relied on touch, caressing all of the items in her purse until she hit the jackpot, coming out with not one, but three Hershey chocolates.

  “We’re saved! I found chocolate!”

  “You’ve been holding out on me? You know how hungry I’ve been?” Jacob said, leaning closer and stealing one of the chocolates from her palm like a tease.

  “Hey! You stole my Kiss!”

  While her statement was wholly accurate—it was a Hershey Kiss—Jacob stopped unwrapping the silver foil from the drop of chocolate, gazing back up into her eyes instead. Lanie’s breath hitched at the heated look in his brown eyes. At least she thought they were brown. It was hard to tell in the emergency lighting and shadows.

  She wasn’t sure why he was frozen. She’d expected him to eat the treat quickly, more than happy to share with him. As each second ticked by, she sensed he was leaning closer… and closer…

  “Fair warning, Lanie. I’m about to steal a real kiss, and not the chocolate kind. If you don’t want that to happen, you’d better speak now or forever hold your peace.”

  The first brush of their lips was light, hesitant. When she didn’t press him away, Jacob grew bolder, wrapping those muscular arms she’d been admiring around her waist, pulling her closer to him until she tipped into his lap.

  For the briefest of seconds, she felt like she was falling, but the press of his tongue demanding entrance at the seam of her lips grounded her in the most unexpected way. It had been months since she’d gone on a real date—even longer since she’d liked a guy enough to be intimate. So, it was unnerving to recognize exactly how right it felt to be sitting in the lap of a man she’d never set eyes on until just a few hours before.

  As her body melted under his touch, falling deeper under his spell, her brain tried to reason with her. Her reaction to his magnetic attraction was just part of the crisis response. It was a proven fact that people who went through traumatic experiences together formed temporary bonds to help them fend off stress. She couldn’t read too much into this. Stress relief, that’s all this was.

  Probably.

  Maybe.

  Damn, she hoped not.

  His hand moved to lightly cup her breast as he hugged her against him with his other arm, igniting a flame of need deep in her core. If the growing shaft under her ass was any indication, Jacob had a flame or two burning of his own. That she could make his body react with desire got her heart racing even faster until he finally pulled out of their kiss, staying close enough that she could feel his heavy panting as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Shit, that was amazing,” he said softly.

  “Yep… even better t
han chocolate,” she countered, glad they had leaned their foreheads against each other.

  The hand that had been roaming before, moved up to cup her cheek. Leaning back a few inches, Jacob softly asked, “Open your eyes for me? Please.”

  A girl could get used to having a man look at her like Jacob did in that moment. Those gorgeous brown eyes had her melting into a puddle of need, but her brain fought for control. This was not like her. She didn’t like to play around, yet what was happening between them didn’t feel at all like a game.

  She suspected he was trying to decide if he was going to be a gentleman and try to keep things from escalating between them. This realization only helped solidify her decision.

  “You know…” It had been several long seconds since she’d spoken, so her voice sounded shaky as she tried to put the right words together. “When I get out of this elevator and my girlfriends ask me where I was when the earthquake hit, I’m going to tell the story about how my day had gone to shit. How I’d gotten called to HR where I was accused of embezzlement and then fired. How my belongings had been thrown into a box and I’d been sent on my own walk of shame just before the elevator I was riding in screeched to a halt, stranding me stories above the lobby.

  “But instead of ending with just the bad, I’ll also get to tell them about this really cute guy who’d been trapped in the elevator with me. I’ll tell them how grateful I was that he made me laugh and took my mind off of not only the danger we were in due to the earthquake, but how horrible it felt to lose my job so unjustly.”

  Lanie paused there. She should stop talking.

  But she didn’t.

  “Don’t you think it will make for a much better story if we could add how we… well… you know…?”

  That sexy grin of his lit up his whole face. “Hmmm. I’m not sure I’m following you. What is it exactly you’re suggesting we do to beef up our already exciting earthquake survival story?”

  Grateful for the dim lighting, she could feel her face blushing. “Well, we’re technically still in a lot of danger. There have been so many aftershocks,” she added, upping the ante of the game.