Author's note: This chapter got inspired by a French song called 'En Apesanteur' by Calogero, if you want to check it out :)

Also, I want to dedicate this chapter to @Cloudy_The_Nerd , I know it feels kinda weird to dedicate a steamy chapter like this one, but she was really sweet to me these days that I'm down, and her messages brought me tears of thankfulness and inspiration (I don't know if you get what I mean), so this is my way to thank you 😘😊

The gray walls and similar closed doors are going by as Anastasia is rushing through the hallways, which she is luckily starting to remember. She must look like a tornado, trying to fix her ponytail, glancing at the door numbers around with wide eyes, and checking the time on her phone all at once.

She hasn't really slept well last night, maybe not at all, and now she is not particularly on time, not at all.

Yet she has a long day ahead, so resting will have to wait again, even if she doesn't have class. While most of her classmates are sleeping or having fun, she will be sweeping, cleaning, and dusting all day. But she knows it is for her future and her dream. One day, all those long hours will pay off when she becomes a lawyer.

If only she wasn't sleep-deprived and on edge, holding her breath every time she takes a turn and jumping at every little noise, it would be easier...

The ding of the elevator pulls her out of her groggy considerations, and thankfully before the same steam can invade her thoughts. She has other priorities right now: like running to the elevator before she is too late and breaks another rule.

However, she stops dead in her tracks when she is brought face to face with her haunting breach of the law in the form of a familiar pair of dark eyes.

She blinks furiously in hopes of waking up from another vivid dream, although without sleeping it isn't very probable, and she quickly comes to the conclusion that he is really here, standing out in the middle of all the people gathered in the elevator shaft. After all, he works here too; she has expected this to happen one day or another. Yet does it really have to be today?

All her tired nerves are spreading the same instinct in her veins to turn back and run away, but the cold and annoyed looks from the other people around, as she is blocking the doors, are freezing her on spot. Besides, getting to the 46th floor by the stairs would really make her late.

He is just like any other stranger in this elevator, she tries to convince herself as she sneaks in, carefully finding a small space, not too close to one particular stranger: Nathaniel. But in the confined space, 'not too close' isn't enough, and despite all the people standing around, she is invaded by his presence from the intense gaze burning her back to the agitation inside her stomach.

She is probably only imagining it, as he must be focused on his phone like everyone around. She doesn't risk to turn around and verify though, keeping her eyes on the numbers on the little screen as if it would make them go up faster.

Yet her glare seems to have the opposite effect as the numbers already stop at 'one', the doors opening with the same 'ding' and welcoming more people.

She hasn't known there have been so many persons in the headquarters of the armed forces at such an early hour, neither that they could all fit in the elevator. But she watches stunned as no one sits it out, and everyone squeezes up and pushes.

Of course, with her petite body, Anastasia gets shoved behind, and she can do nothing except trying to keep her balance until her back collides with a hard chest. She is instantly crippled with a shot of electricity running along her spine, and through the loud thumps of her heart, she swears she hears a low groan just behind her.

She doesn't know why – it is surely a dangerous instinct like a moth approaching a flame – but she slowly turns her head, already guessing whose eyes she will meet over her shoulder.

Though their darkening intensity still catches her off guard, and she quickly looks away as if she had been burned.

She tries to take a deep breath to calm down her racing heart and thoughts, yet it is his intoxicating perfume invading her. She tries to take a step away, yet the big cart of two handymen is not letting her move an inch. She is trapped between the cold metal and Nathaniel's warmth, and her mind is starting to wander too far with each uneven tickle of his hot breath on the exposed skin on the nape of her neck. It is the exact same sensation, the same hot breath that has roamed all over her body some days ago, the same shivers she can't forget.

The heat emanating from his strong body is engulfing her, almost calling her to give in again, and she is hanging to the numbers on the screen as if they held her life, or at least the last shreds of her resolve.

But it gets shaken as, between the 13th and 14th floor, the elevator jolts in its rise, making their bodies collide a little closer, a little harder, and she hears it again: this low throaty groan right above her left ear, echoing until her core. She doesn't know if it reassures her that she is not the only one feeling this dangerous lust, or if it frightens her more, tempting her more.

Anyway, the universe seems to still have some tricks for her, testing her again and again as the elevator acts up with a new series of jolts, and each tremor is traveling until her nerve-endings to waver her resolve.

Is there something working in this damn modern building? She curses desperately in her head when she loses her balance, though her wobbly legs are not helping either. She balances herself, catching one of Nathaniel's wrists with her hand, as he steadies her with three firm fingers on her hips. 

Now every inch of their bodies is touching, and a prominent bulge poking her lower back lets her know she isn't imagining things, taking her breath away and spreading a tingling all over legs and higher until her core. 

Out of breath, she looks around, but thankfully no one seems to be aware of the electricity sparking between them. Those people and the surroundings that appear so normal and ordinary feel miles away from the sparking chaos happening inside her body, and it is like Nathaniel and she are in their own bubble, where all her senses are invaded by him and only him.

His unique scent is now permeated deep in her lungs, and his pulse under her pads is echoing the wild pace of her heart as his chest is rising and falling perfectly in sync with hers.

These are just details, and they shouldn't leave her in this flustered state, but each tiny detail is unraveling her resolve, and she lets herself lean against his firm chest, her legs too wobbly to stand straight and her mind too hazy to protest.

The second she closes her eyes, those same steamy, dangerous memories flash in her mind, and they are swept away as fast with the 'ding' of the doors opening.

Some people get off the elevator, leaving more space, yet neither Nathaniel nor her move an inch, staying in their dangerous bubble of proximity. Luckily, the people near are too focused on their phones to notice, and the high cart is forming them some kind of shelter.

She doesn't dare closing her eyes again, or even blinking for too long, though her mind isn't clearer for all that. With every faint jolt of the elevator, she has to hold back moans, and through the reflection on the metallic cart, she doesn't recognize herself, biting on her lip until she is almost drawing blood. She is battling with herself and the sparks of desire running along her spine and lower as Nathaniel's three fingers are digging deeper in the skin of her hips, where their mark has just disappeared.

She is about to lose it when he quickly lets go of her, and with her breath knocked out, she watches the two handymen leave with their cart and take away their hiding place.

Despite her shaky legs, she moves away before any of the few people remaining in the elevator can witness their forbidden intimacy. Though she is once again escaping the reality of this elevator shaft when she meets Nathaniel's penetrating gaze from across the small space, and these same flashbacks of the steam room rush back in her mind. With the dark desire engulfing any lighter shades in his brown eyes, the wild memories become even more vivid, and she can guess they aren't only haunting her. 

She gives up settling down her heart rate as their dangerous proximity continues in the few feet separating them, the air around getting suffocating like invaded by an invisible burning steam.

Another 'ding' and the last people remaining get out. 33rd floor, they are alone. 

None of them moves, probably somehow slightly conscious of the risks of any more proximity, as their minds are already far away, meeting in the memories. She holds intensely his dark gaze like hypnotized by the reflections of the same flashbacks.

He kisses her again and again, his lips slow and demanding as their erratic breaths are mixing, and his hands hold her tighter, closer. Every inch of their damp skins is touching, rubbing and sliding as they are moving in sync and building an impossible pressure outside and inside, the most delicious pressure she has ever felt. His groans are echoing her dazed moans, vibrating through her like her only point of reference, as the pressure is cracking into a wildfire, and she feels him take her higher and higher, closer to something, somewhere she doesn't know, but she senses it must be close to heaven.

She leans against the cold wall, her hand sliding to her scales pendant in a desperate attempt to keep some balance, some rationality, as the same pressure is burning her inside, his eyes stoking it up. There is still the same distance between them, but it is like they are in zero gravity, and the space and the time are distorted with the seconds ticking like hours and hours passing like seconds, while the memories are merging with the present time.

Their heavy breaths are the only sound in the empty shaft, sharpening the electric atmosphere tickling their skins, and despite their ragged pace, it is almost surreal how each intake of air he breathes in is followed instantly by her shaky sighs.

She is tightening her grip around her pendant like the clench she feels inside her core, and something snaps with it as she opens her mouth to let out more than a shallow pant.

Yet she is stopped by the 'ding' of the elevator, which resumes time and space to their normal state before she could say the one word that could be their end. The gravity comes back, and the return to reality feels like a fall of all the floors they have just climbed.

Anastasia's eyes travel from the open doors to Nathaniel's piercing gaze during a second of internal battle, where burning steam is colliding with freezing shock, and then, it turns into the same rush inside her veins as she gets out, almost running away.

Nate stares at the doors closing, his heart thumping too loud to comprehend anything that has just happened. She's disappeared again. He could have chased her – No. He shakes his head, trying to erase the dangerous steam she's left behind again, though he knows it's useless when he's still struggling to breathe.

He needs a cold shower. The day has just started, but he needs a cold shower.

Who else needs a cold shower? Or maybe share one with Nate? ;)

Sorry, I know this chapter is short, but I hope the sexiness is making it up! I hope you liked it, let me know in the comments and vote if you did! 😊

Also, I wanted to say that I'm really thankful for all of you my amazing little readers, my little rays of sunshine 😘