Grissom caught her before she fell; the hotel employee?s quick assistance helped get her to the bed. Rapid Italian spoken on the phone brought a woman to the room just after Sara?s eyes fluttered open with surprise.
?Did I faint?? She asked.
?You did.? Grissom answered as the woman expertly took her pulse and placed a cool hand against her face. A blood pressure monitor beeped and the woman removed the cuff.
The woman asked several questions with both providing answers. She smiled at one of Sara?s answers and left as quickly as she had arrived, promising a return in minutes.
?I can?t believe I fainted.?
Grissom chuckled. ?At least you waited until you were in the room. Scared me to death.?
Sara placed her feet on the floor. ?Excitement of getting here. The room is beautiful.? She smiled as he helped her to stand and kept a hand on her as she explored the room. ?This is beautiful.? She opened shutters to find a balcony large enough for two chairs and two people, if they stood very close, overlooking a small tree shaded, flower filled courtyard.
Returning to the room when they heard a quiet knock, the woman had returned with a tray of food.
?It is for Mrs. Grissom. Often our guests need time to adjust after traveling. Food helps.? She brought fruit, juices, bread and cheese on the tray. ?Rest before going out to enjoy our city.? She handed Sara a card. ?A clinic with good doctors should you need one?several speak English.?
Sara ate almost all the food before declaring she felt better. ?I?m ready to take on Venice.?
Grissom had stretched on the bed. ?We are going to sleep?just a short while?before going out. And I really need a shower,? he said as he fluffed a pillow.
Within minutes, both were standing in the shower; his excuse was ?you might faint again.? She laughed, knowing neither needed an excuse. Hands, soap, warm water, lips on wet skin combined to have the desired effect on both. Grissom backed her against the tiled wall bringing her leg around his hip, finding a place for his hand to hold her against his thigh. His mouth tasted her delicate scent as he heard her quiet laugh. She was warm, wet, incredibly snug against him.
?Bed,? he heard her say. ?More room in bed.?
He needed no more room, but somehow one managed to turn off the water, a towel was wrapped around both, and in a tumbling dance they got to the bed with the same explorations, caresses, lips on skin, teasing searches which had started in the shower.
Sara managed to tangle legs around his and roll above him, placing light kisses across his chest, to his chin, to his mouth where wispy, feathery delicate lips became forceful, entering his mouth with her tongue, sucking his into hers. Her hands moved in nimble graceful motions, along his chest to his groin. When she traced a line along his thigh, brushing a weightless thumb along his pulsing body, he heard a deep giggle.
His hands had not been idle. He knew she was moist, warm, ready for him and in one motion, he was on top of her?searching, finding what he had initiated in the shower. The same wonderful discovery of men for thousands of years, this woman was made for him, in the secure, precision fit of two parts made for each other. Their love making was the hurried demand of postponed passion; a leisurely generous time would come later.
And it brought sleep to both; deep, dreamless rest needed to adjust to time changes and a new environment. For two people who had spent most of their lives sleeping alone, they slept as one. A shift of one moved the other in symmetry of legs curled and bent together, an arm wrapped around a chest, a hand enclosed another. From above, unseen except by a few lazy flies, their sleep was a slow dance of unfettered emotions.
Sara woke first and was content to remain within Grissom?s arms, against his shoulder in a place she claimed as her own. Her hand was held against his chest, captured, content, comfortable.
The mobius bracelet reflected late afternoon light. He had given her what she needed, tenfold, without demands, without restrictions. He left his career, his network of colleagues, his support?even his dog, his home, to find her. They had returned, not to the home they had made in the desert, but returned to do ?things? he said, before beginning a new life.
The lawyers were first. Sara never imagined the steady accumulation of wealth that could occur when one lived within modest means as Grissom had saved and invested from an early age. Before leaving Vegas, he had paperwork completed for joint ownership?everything he owned he shared with her with a signature. She protested to no avail.
In the time they had lived together, she had paid few bills; Grissom had insisted she save her money ?for a rainy day?. When that day came, she had enough?not to live expensively, but to live.
?We are going long term,? he said. ?Sign the papers.?
At the bottom of the stack of papers was a photograph of a house that looked vaguely familiar. Sara picked it up.
?It?s the house near your mother. If you want it, we can buy it. Have it updated, painted, while we travel.?
She smiled that day, and everyday following, even when Grissom talked her into a wedding of sorts, in front of friends. He gave her the bracelet that night. She moved her fingers against his chest; he stirred, one eye opened.
?We are in one of the most beautiful places in the world and we are sleeping,? she said.
They dressed, carefully and simply, to join off-season crowds to cross canal bridges and walk narrow sidewalks and marvel at the lack of motor vehicles. They checked posted menus at small cafes and stopped in front of shop windows to point out displays of the unfamiliar or expensive glassware or tacky tourist trinkets. Their map set a path through ancient city squares, beside markets and old churches, until, suddenly, and with no warning, a passageway opened to the city?s greatest tourist attraction.
