Soft hands smoothed out the worry lines on Sam's face. A tender kiss caressed his lips as he fought to distinguish the line between dream and reality. He slept alone. He
knew
he slept alone, and yet she was so real. He could smell the scent of her perfume, exotic, foreign to his all male environment.
He reached up to smooth the hair back from her face, the face of an angel: serene, eyes filled with love and understand. How he longed to hold her, to make Delilah his with more than just the magic of his mind.
Delilah. How prophetic. She was his weakness, his reason for breathing, and yet she was nothing more than a dream, an illusion created to fill the emptiness within.
Arms heavy with sleep, eyes unfocused, blinking to bring her back into sight, he willed himself to move, to take the chance he had worked so hard to avoid. His fingers grazed her cheek, and she smiled and turned her lips to his hand, laying a kiss on this hand before pressing it to her flesh, reveling in his touch.
I've always loved you
. The words never left his lips, but he knew she heard them.
Brown hair framed her face. A sheer white gown edged with lace barely shielded her from his raving eyes, while he lay nude on a white sheet. A matching top sheet and blue comforter was folded at his waist. A light mat of hair feathered over his chest and tapered down his stomach. His breathing was uneven.
He loved her. He struggled through the fog to reach her. She was sitting beside him, for God's sake, and yet she could have been years or miles away. He stopped the struggle and relaxed, knowing it had to be a dream, another in a long line of dreams about this non-existent woman, this figment of his imagination.