Difficult to understand, impossible to hold onto.
They slipped elusively through his fingers like strands of the silky blonde hair fluttering in and out of his reach.
There was a woman in a long, sheer gown. He was chasing her but she was always too far away to catch, to really see her. She was laughing, the tinkly sound echoing through his dream in time with his heartbeat. Every time he got close to her she’d disappear like mist only to reappear again in the distance.
She was naked under the gown, glimpses of her buttocks, the bare arch of her back and the side swell of her brea**sts taunting him. He was conscious of his arousal as he gave chase, as his legs pumped towards her, the desire to hold her, to kiss her, drumming through his veins.
His body ached with anticipation, his head spun with desire, his breath rasped and not just from the demands of the chase. She laughed again and he ran faster.
* * *
Claudia woke to a whirl of sensation spiralling deep and low inside her and sinking lower still, tingling between her legs and dragging heavy fingers down the backs of her thighs. Her eyelids fluttered open and she blinked, trying to orientate herself through eyes that were gritty, the skin around them simultaneously tight and puffy.
Something weighed heavy across her hip and thighs. And her breast. She was aware of heat at her back and hardness nestled between the cheeks of her bottom as she looked down at the hand no longer at her waist but cupping her breast instead. She froze.
Luke.
His hand moved in a circular motion then, gentle and firm all at once, and her nipple responded with blatant enthusiasm, scrunching tight.
Luke groping her.
Claudia’s heart thundered behind her ribcage and echoed like gunshots through her ears. She was surprised he couldn’t feel it considering how closely acquainted he was becoming with that area of her body.
How long had it been there?
Long enough to have her belly twisted into knots!
She raised her head and looked over her shoulder. He was sound asleep, his leg thrown carelessly over her hip, his thigh trapping hers, weighing her down. His mouth was still at her neck where she remembered it, his hips well and truly aligned with hers and about as close as was humanly possible with clothes on.
She watched as a frown flitted across his forehead, then stared at the stubble covering his jaw, a little darker now. It was surprisingly sexy and Claudia took a slow steady breath to expel any thoughts of sexy from her brain.
She was worried if she moved a hair, a single muscle, if she breathed too deep she would wake him and he’d find himself in this compromising position and then where would that leave them? Their relationship had become fraught enough this past year.
But she needn’t have worried. He didn’t budge, his body remaining heavy against hers in slumber, effectively trapping her slighter frame.
He wasn’t waking and she wasn’t going anywhere.
She turned away from him then, slowly placing her head back on her pillow and shutting her eyes. Willing herself not to think about the press of him along the length of her. About the wild tango her hormones were performing. About the persistent tug down low morphing into something else. Something more.
She just revelled for a moment. This was how it would feel to be with Luke. To be cherished by him. Comforted. Protected.
Loved.
This was what she’d fantasised about during all her teen years. Hoping he’d see her as more than the little sister he never had. Hoping he’d kiss her, look at her as if she was a woman rather than a child, take her to his bed.
Hoping he’d stay.
He shifted against her slightly and Claudia held her breath. She expelled it on a quiet whimper as the delicious friction between their bodies ramped up another notch. The roughness of his barely there stubble scraped at the sensitive patch of skin where shoulder met nape and sensation prickled from the point of contact right down to her nipples, tightening them.
His hand squeezed in some kind of subconscious response because he was definitely still heavily asleep. Claudia’s eyes practically rolled back in her head as her nipple blazed with hot, fiery need. She pushed back slightly, trying to ease the ache between her legs.
Oh, God. She swallowed. She should move—now! She should get the hell away. She should not be using his unsuspecting body as some kind of scratching pole!
Her resort had been declared a disaster zone and Luke was only here for a week.
But neither of those things seemed to matter right now.
She just wanted to push back a little more. Maybe rub herself against him a little. Arch her back, slide her arm up around his neck, pull his mouth down on hers.
Or maybe she could just roll over and press her mouth to his. Beg him for just one time in his arms.