And it had been so very long since she’d been touched by a man.
He stood in front of her again, hands at his sides. Anna frowned, wanting those large, elegant hands on her body again, caressing her. The stranger tilted his head to the side and studied her, his expression curious and confused. Then he leaned in close. His face nuzzled her neck as he breathed in deeply.
“Ah,” he murmured. “You smell so good. Like fresh honeysuckle. So sweet. .”
His breath danced over her skin, tickling her flesh. “I–I love the smell of honeysuckle,” she managed to gasp out, struck by the inanity of her words. How she smelled of this, she didn’t know, but anything was possible in this place. It delighted her to know that her scent pleased him.
Hot lips touched her neck with the slightest of caresses. Desire arched through her body and dipped between her thighs. “Oh!” Her breath hitched. She certainly hadn’t experienced a reaction like this to anyone in a long time.
His face hovered in front of hers, his eyes filled with a certain knowing, a confirmation of sorts. Of what? She wished she knew.
“You enchant me. You must be a witch. Or an angel? Who are you?”
She opened her mouth to tell him her name, but he halted her words with one finger to her lips. “No, don’t tell me. I will call you Angel. Your beauty rivals a being from the heavenly realms, and I’m told that any number of various and sundry creatures travel through these planes.” He smiled, his full lips pulling across straight, white teeth. His finger traced her mouth. It took all of her self-control not to let her tongue snake out, not to nip at his finger playfully.
Odd, she thought. I don’t even know this man, yet I want to do something so intimate with him? The internal thought was both question and statement. An image flashed through Anna’s mind. The stranger’s finger in her mouth. His other hand between her thighs. Her lips clutching his finger, mouth suckling the digit in rhythm with the hand that touched her sex.
Oh! Intimate, indeed!
“Yes,” the man continued as though oblivious to her sensual thoughts, “I’ll call you Angel. My Angel. And although I’ve never before seen your lovely face, my body knows yours. I think, perhaps, we have kissed before.” He removed his finger, and leaned in, his lips hovering over hers. “And I ache to do so again.”
He was so close she could taste his breath, could inhale his scent. He smelled like chocolate and burgundy wine and everything decadent.
Her flesh hummed from his nearness. Her stomach muscles quivered, taut with anticipation, waiting. He cupped her arms, his hands hot, searing her skin through the thin cotton shift she wore. Anna’s lips parted in invitation, and her eyelids fluttered shut.
And yet, the stranger hesitated. “The anticipation is so very sweet. . isn’t it?” he murmured. He tilted his head to the side, allowed his cheek to brush hers ever so slightly, then dipped to her neck, nuzzling, inhaling sharply, breathing her in. Then, before she could fully register the gamut of emotions trilling through her, his gaze met hers once again, and his lips parted into a half smile.
She couldn’t take this. She had to touch him. She had to kiss him. Taste him. She had to—
His mouth pressed hers, stealing her thoughts. His lips teased her with slow, sensual movements that whispered of a deeper, more intimate joining. His fingers left her arms and caressed her neck, twined through her hair, and left her own hands free to roam.
And roam they did. To his lean waist, over his bare, flat stomach and his hard chest. He touched his tongue to her lips with a quick, tentative exploration. Just enough to stoke the fire burning in her belly and send licks of flame between her thighs. Anna gulped air, her head swirling. The kiss deepened and became more aggressive. She suddenly couldn’t feel the sand beneath her toes, couldn’t hear the water lapping at the shoreline. The stranger’s heartbeat beneath her fingertips accelerated. She could feel his heart beating, frantic and erratic. So was her own. The two beats grew louder, filling her head, making her dizzy with want and need.
Anna’s body seemed to melt into the stranger’s. They were as one being. The sensation was erotic and exciting.
And then suddenly, the man was gone. Cool air brushed her lips and wove around her empty arms. Anna’s heart plummeted as disappointment washed through her. No! A white void surrounded her. And she was falling, falling. .
Anna gasped as she slammed into her body. The return was so fast and unexpected this time that she couldn’t move for several long moments. She struggled to reorient herself. Then she felt it. The hot tongue licking her face. The loud, persistent purring in her ear. The ten pounds of fur perched on her chest.
She groaned and rolled over in her bed, sending the cat tumbling to the pillow next to her. She blinked one eye open to stare at the orange tabby and the bedroom door he’d obviously found his way through.
“Emerson, how do you do it? You don’t even have opposable thumbs.”
The cat scooted closer to her and licked her cheek. “Meow,” came his reply.
She scratched him behind his ears, eliciting more purrs, and sighed. She’d started locking Emerson out of the bedroom at night because he had a habit of affectionately attacking her in her sleep and disrupting her nocturnal travels. Tonight was one night Anna really wished Emerson wasn’t such a clever little feline.
Anna immediately fell back into a deep, dreamless sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, she awoke for no reason and could not fall back asleep. After glaring at Emerson who was snoring beside her, oblivious to her insomnia, she rose and went to the bathroom to dig out some melatonin from the medicine cabinet.
A half-hour later, still wide awake, she decided a hot shower might help her plight. She took her time with her shower, enjoying the sting of the hot water and the delicious aroma of her goji berry and chocolate scented body wash.
Anna stepped from the shower into a thoroughly steamed up bathroom and wrapped herself in a fluffy towel. After opening the door to let out some of the steam, she turned to the sink to find her comb.
Her eyes went wide and her breath caught. The comb hit the tile floor with a clickety-clack. Tears spiked and trickled over her cheeks. There, on the mirror, written as though a ghostly finger had reached out from beyond the grave to scribble the words on the steamed-up glass, was a message.
I am sending you love. Love is in the air. R
The next day was Saturday. Anna had not slept more than an hour after finding Richard’s message. They’d joked once that whoever of them died first would find a way to get a message to the other and let them know they were okay. But it had been two years since Richard’s death, and as much as she’d wanted to feel him near, to know he was alive and well somewhere beyond the veil, she hadn’t had the slightest paranormal experience to breathe life into that hope.
Why? Why now? Was he concerned that it had been so long since his death and she’d yet to start dating again? Possibly. Maybe he wanted her to know he was all right so that she’d have an easier time letting him go.
Was it a coincidence that his message came the very same night she’d met the handsome stranger in the astral realm? Anna frowned. What if Richard’s motivation was just the opposite? What if he was angry she was moving on, even in this small way? She immediately pushed that thought away. No, that didn’t sound like Richard. Richard had always been more concerned about Anna’s well-being than his own.
And what exactly had happened tonight? Who was the stranger? Why was she so drawn to him? She couldn’t stop thinking about him, about his mesmerizing eyes, his titillating touch.