Dancing in the Gray (23 page)

Paul jumped in, “She seems to like your
brother, a lot!” Paul patted Trey on his chest.

“I like her, too.” Trey added with a
smile. He wouldn’t take his eyes off of her.

“Dude, you have it so bad!” Will was
very observant. He did have it bad for Elise.

“Yep.” Trey turned and poured three
shots. He handed the glasses to his closest friends. “Here’s to
having it bad, and having it all.” They touched glasses and tipped
back the 1800.

Elle Goulding’s
Lights
started playing.
Trey sat the glass down and started walking to the dance floor,
“Where are you going?” Will said as he held his arms up.

Trey turned around with a smile, “To
the dance floor,” he pointed behind him.

“You don’t dance!” Will’s look of
confusion was priceless.

“I do after a couple shots of that!”
Trey winked as he turned to meet Elise on the dance
floor.

He heard Will behind him, “Who are you
and what have you done with my brother?”

Elise’s head whipped around to find
Trey who was now right behind her. Her beautiful eyes were dancing
with excitement as the song brought back all the memories from
their public display of affection at the table in Le Showcase. All
Trey said was, “I remember.” He took Elise’s face in his hands and
kissed her hard right there on the dance floor. The music was too
loud to hear her moans, but he felt them on his mouth. He made a
promise to himself that he would hear them later on
tonight.

Elise’s hands were inside his jacket
and around his back. She grabbed onto his shirt tightly and drew
herself closer to Trey rubbing her body against his very erect
shaft. He slowly ran his hand down the center of her back until he
reached the cut out of her dress that exposed her lower back. He
ran his thumb up and down the curve at the center of her back just
enjoying the feel of her skin. He felt a long vibration leave
Elise’s mouth proving that she was enjoying his touch as much as he
was.

Her hands crawled up his chest and into
his hair as Elise raked her nails across his skin. She tugged his
hair and lightly bit his lip as Trey began to sway to the beat of
the song with her. She ran her hands all over his body as he
continued to possess her mouth. He couldn’t get enough of her,
which was nothing new when it came to Elise.

Elise pulled away slowly and
grabbed his hands as Calvin Harris’
Feel So
Close
took over the dance floor. There were
so many people dancing now that Elise’s body was forced to be flush
to Trey’s. She moved her body in beat with the song, and she sang
the words to Trey which caused his heart to beat harder than the
bass line of the song.

He knew in that moment that he didn’t
have it bad for her … he was in love with her.

~

The group was leaving the club waiting
on their respective vehicles when a group of paparazzi started
snapping pictures of them. Elise and Trey were all over each other,
not really caring about the pictures that the vultures were
snapping. As Ronald pulled up with the SUV, one of the vultures
shouted something about Rixby Storm. Elise pulled back from Trey
and looked up at him with panic in her eyes. Trey smiled down at
her and gave her a wink which instantly changed her expression. He
felt her stiff body relax again as he led her towards the
vehicle.

“So Elise, is there any truth to the
stories about a love triangle?”

Trey looked down at Elise and smiled.
She hugged Trey’s arm close to her as she turned her head to the
group of vultures and said, “There’s love, but no
triangle.”

Chapter 19

Elise was resting her head on Trey’s
shoulder as they made their way to the Upper East Side to her
apartment. Ronald was driving while she and Trey sat in the back
seat of the SUV. They hadn’t spoken a word since they left the
nightclub. Elise just laid her head on his shoulder and hugged his
arm close to her.

Ronald dropped them off at the lobby of
her building. They were greeted by security and the twenty four
hour concierge on duty. They rode the elevator silently up to her
apartment. Elise was quiet since she was slightly tired, mildly
drunk, and completely in love.

When they reached Elise’s apartment,
she unlocked the door and entered her apartment. She placed her
keys and clutch on the round table in the middle of her foyer. Trey
followed her into her living room where he began taking off his
tuxedo jacket.

The silence between the two of them was
getting more and more awkward by the minute. Trey was oddly gazing
at nothing which told Elise that he had something on his mind. She
walked over to her wine cabinet and with her back turned to Trey
broke the silence between them that began when they left the
nightclub.

“Wine?”

“Uhm, yeah, sure.” He sounded like the
question caught him off guard.

“Red or White?” Elise’s back was still
turned to him as she opened the cabinet to pull out
glasses.

“Oh…uhm….Red, please.” He still sounded
distracted, and his silence was starting to make her
nervous.

“Would you mind turning on some music?
My iPod is connected to my entertainment center. Put on whatever
you would like.” Elise pointed to the cabinet below her
television.

Trey walked over to her
entertainment center picking up her iPod and began looking through
her music. Eric Clapton’s
Wonderful
Tonight
began playing. Elise looked over
her shoulder just in time to catch the small sideways glance that
Trey shot her.

Elise smiled and grabbed the bottle of
Chateau Lafitte Rothschild Paulliac 1996 that she received from the
firm that was buying her company. The day that she had her lawyers
contact them to tell them she was interested in their deal, a
basket of wine showed up. There were three bottles of Rothschild
Paulliac; 1978, 1986, and the 1996 she was opening now. The ’78 and
’86 were opened at her office with Jeremy and Ashley. Ashley was
only a few months pregnant at the time so she just smelled the wine
and watched Elise and Jeremy drink both bottles. They were
celebrating that night, and tonight, Elise was celebrating. Not her
award, but her strength to move past the hurt and the fear. She
allowed herself to love again, and that was worth
celebrating.

She opened the bottle and poured a
glass for both her and Trey. She walked into the living room where
Trey was still searching through her iPod. She placed his glass of
wine on the console and tried to walk past him to sit on the sofa,
but Trey grabbed her hand to stop her.

The way he was looking at her was
leaving her short of breath. He placed her iPod next to his wine
and then bent down in front of Elise gliding his hand down her leg
through the deep slit in her dress. Elise was blinking rapidly and
slowing breathing in air through her separated lips. He lifted her
leg and removed her right shoe, then her left. He placed his hand
behind her knee and kissed her on her thigh before standing. Elise
closed her eyes for a moment. Trey had a way of overwhelming her
with the simplest touch.

He grabbed his wine and took a sip
before sliding his hand around her and resting it on the small of
her back where her dress was cut out. He brought Elise close to him
and began swaying to the music. He placed his wine glass down on
the console and grabbed Elise’s to do the same. Elise wrapped both
arms around his back and pulled him close to her burying her head
into his chest as they slow danced in her living room.

More Than Words
by Extreme followed Eric Clapton. Elise’s eyes
were closed and her head was resting on Trey’s chest as she fell
deeper and deeper in love with him as each second
passed.

“What did you mean by there’s love, but
no triangle?” Trey was looking down at her when Elise finally
raised her head to look at him.

The corners of Elise’s mouth curled up,
“There is only me and you. That’s it. No one else.” Trey had a look
of melancholy on his face as his eyes left hers. That wasn’t what
he wanted to hear. Elise took a deep breath and continued, “All the
love I have is for you.” Elise swallowed hard waiting for his
response. Trey’s eyes darted back to hers, and he stopped dancing.
Elise needed to fill the silence, so she filled it with the truth,
“I am so in love with you. Like – the one – in love with
you.”

~

Trey tried to muster up some
courage to ask her what she meant on the way home, but didn’t want
to have that conversation in front of Ronald, so he waited until
they were here alone to ask. He didn’t expect her to respond to the
vultures in the first place, much less respond using those words
-
there’s
love
. Those two words kept resonating
in his head over and over. He wanted to believe that she felt the
same way but couldn’t make that assumption. This was one area where
there was no gray. It was black or white.

Then she said it,
“All the love I have is for you.”
He froze in the moment in disbelief. Trey thought
he was hearing things until Elise continued. She said she was in
love with him and used the words
the
one
. The look in her eyes was
unforgettable. Her ability to tell him how she was feeling without
saying a word was something that he cherished. Her eyes were
telling him she loved him. And all Trey did was stand there
dumbfounded.

Elise’s eye suddenly went sad as she
turned her head. Trey instantly snapped out of his catatonic state
and placed his hand on Elise’s face. He turned her head back so she
was looking up at him. Her eyes were sad initially, but a small
smile started to cross her face and the look that he loved, of her
love, returned to her eyes.

Elise brought her hands from around his
back, up his chest, and around his neck. She pulled him down and
hugged him around the neck. Trey wrapped one arm around her waist
and the other went to the back of her head. He turned his head and
whispered into her ear, “God, Elise. I love you so
much.”

“I thought you were about to run out of
here screaming.” Elise whispered back.

Trey laughed with a grunt.
“Never.”

“Is that why you were so quiet
earlier?” Elise’s hands left Trey’s neck and made their way down
his chest and around to his back again as she pulled back and
looked up at him.

“Yes, sort of. I was playing your words
in my head over and over. I wanted to believe it, but I wasn’t
sure. I didn’t know how to ask you or bring it up. I just wanted so
badly for you to love me, like I loved you.” Trey pressed his
forehead against Elise’s, cradling her face with both
hands.

“I do.” Elise lifted her chin and
kissed Trey gently.

“How did I get so lucky?” He couldn’t
believe she actually loved him.

“Luck had nothing to do with this.”
Elise closed her eyes and shook her pretty little head.

“I’d disagree. I was very lucky that
your BlackBerry fell into my lap.” Trey smiled down at
her.

Elise’s cheeks turned pink as she ran
her hand down Trey’s tie, “You didn’t feel that way at the
time.”

“I’ve changed the way I see a lot
things because of you, Elise.”

“I don’t want you to change for me.”
Elise was shaking her head.

“It’s for the better, trust me. I like
dancing in the gray. I like me dancing in the gray.”

Elise ran her hand through Trey’s hair
above his ear, “I love dancing with you, literally and
figuratively.”

“And, I love you.” Trey kissed Elise
softly.

“Mmmmm,” Elise was smiling, “I love
hearing those words. And just so you know, your song selection
kinda gave you away.”

“I haven’t ever said those words to
anyone. I’ve never felt this way before. I don’t know what I am
doing. I’m just winging it.”

“Even though I love that I am that
special to you, I can’t believe you never had a relationship where
you loved someone. You are so easy to love.”

“I don’t know how many people would
agree with you.”

“How can they not? You are so attentive
and caring. You don’t judge or find fault in all the stupid stuff I
say or do. You’re honest and trustworthy. I can just go on about
how great of a man that you are. Previous girlfriends had to know
this.”

“There weren’t many girlfriends due to
my career. The women I would see weren’t willing to be second to my
work, and the one’s that would be willing had ulterior motives. So,
no, I have only been the man that you know because you make me want
to be that man.”

“And you say you’re lucky.” Elise
hugged Trey tightly. “Is it crazy that I don’t know where you live,
and I only met you a week ago, but I’m totally
infatuated?”

Trey laughed then kissed Elise on the
top of her head. “First of all, I’ll show you where I live in
Virginia. It’s not that far from your place. And when I’m in New
York, I normally stay at Will and Jessie’s. They live in Chelsea.”
Trey pulled back and placed a sweet kiss on Elise’s lips,
“Secondly, I can’t help the way I feel, so call me crazy, too. It’s
kinda funny, because now I know what my sister went
through.”