Stronger than Yearning

Jenna lay face down on the bed, her forehead pillowed on her hands. She heard Layla mixing the oil and closed her eyes willing her tense muscles to relax. It was clear that they had not done so as she jumped when Layla gently touched her foot, and then started to massage it firmly.

The scent of roses and lavender wafted round the bed, and Jenna drank it in. As Layla expertly massaged her way up over the backs of her legs, Jenna could feel the tension easing from her.

Nearly an hour later when she was finally massaging the tension spots beneath her shoulders and at the top of her spine Jenna felt as though she were slowly dissolving into the mattress, her body so light and relaxed she could almost have floated upwards off the bed.

‘If you would like to turn over, I…’

Slowly, Jenna shook her head. ‘I’m too relaxed now to even think of moving,’ she told her with a smile. ‘If you don’t mind, Layla, I think I’ll just have half an hour’s sleep.’

She smiled as the girl nodded her head, and picked up her basket. ‘I can let myself out,’ she assured Jenna. ‘I am so glad you are feeling better. You were very tense.’

Yes, and it hadn’t all been caused by jet lag, Jenna thought sleepily as she heard the main door to the suite close behind Layla. Heavens, she couldn’t remember when she had last felt so relaxed…so good about herself. She stretched experimentally, feeling her muscles move in perfect fluid symmetry beneath her skin. She stretched again like a small cat and then yawned succumbing to the waves of sleep.

Something touched her spine. Something teasing and yet pleasurable making her want to arch and stretch, sending tiny shivers of delight racing over her skin. She murmured in her sleep, torn between clinging to sleep and the tantalising invitation of that light rippling touch.

‘You smell good…what have you been doing?’

She knew the voice, and she stretched sensuously at the sound of it, still keeping her eyes closed.

The ripples of delight tormenting her spine continued, and she felt sleep receding abandoned to the need to explore a little further the delicious sensation building up inside her. Something pleasantly warm touched her bottom, caressing one gently rounded cheek, stroking the soft skin. She sighed in luxurious contentment, curling her toes like a cat kneading its paws before it starts purring.

‘Well, well, here’s a change!’

There was a hint of laughter in the familiar voice now and it made her frown slightly, and open her eyes as she rolled on to her side.

“Hello, James…’

He had obviously just showered. She could smell the clean piney scent of his soap and his hair was still wet. In the deep vee of the white towelling robe he had on she could see the honey-burnished sheen of his skin.

‘Where have you been?’ Jenna asked sleepily.

‘Swimming. Have you missed me?’

He was watching her closely, but Jenna felt too relaxed and pleasantly floaty to heed the voice of warning urging her to remember all sorts of things she would rather forget. The oils Layla used on her body seemed to have done more than simply relax her body; they had relaxed her mind as well.

‘Why should I?’ She pouted up at him, the teasing glint in her eyes darkening to shock as he leaned over her mock menacingly, grasping her shoulder and droplets of ice-cold water from his wet hair splashed down on to her skin, raising immediate goosebumps and a tiny shriek of anguish.

One fell against her breast and hung there like a tiny diamond, suspended, trembling with the deep breath she took.

James made a sound deep in his throat that her senses immediately recognised and responded to. She closed her eyes as he bent his head, her body totally supine and obedient to his will. His mouth caught the tiny drop of water, savouring the coolness of it against the heat of her skin.

‘You taste of roses and lavender,’ he whispered huskily against her breast. ‘Did you know that?’

In spite of herself, Jenna giggled.

‘It’s the massage oil,’ she told him. ‘I had a headache when I woke up and instead of aspirin the girl on room service recommended a massage…’

‘Did she now…’ His eyes darkened, saying things to hers that there was no need to put into words. She was lying on her side and his hands stroked slowly up from her bottom, absorbing the texture of her oil-warmed skin.

When he touched her breasts with his oil-slick hands, slowly massaging and caressing them, Jenna felt the now familiar slide down into intense desire begin. She was too relaxed even to think of resisting it. The bitter thoughts she had had that morning might never have been. It must be the oil, she thought hazily, it must possess some magical aphrodisiac powers. Either that or the way James’s eyes hypnotised her senses. Whatever it was, it was all-powerful, subduing every lesser emotion, lifting her breathlessly above the mundane and into a world bounded only by the limits of her emotions and feelings, by the knowledge that this slowly rising, whirling tide of feeling inside her was something James was experiencing as well. She felt her heart thud crazily in longing. Her breasts felt heavy, taut with the desire conjured by James’s slowly deliberate caresses. Her nipples ached, burning a deep rose red against the paleness of her skin.

James brushed one with his thumb, watching it quiver and flood with dark, passionate colour.

‘Beautiful.’ Jenna’s head arched back, her throat tight and raw with furious need as his tongue curled delicately round one rose-red tip, his fingers gently caressing the other.

The ache in the pit of Jenna’s stomach grew too much to bear. She reached up and locked her hands behind James’s head, drawing him down against her body, tiny shudders fluttering through her as her hands slid from his neck to his shoulders, investigating the warmth of his skin beneath his robe. It felt like silk, sleek and yet firm. All at once she wanted to know more of him, to see what she was touching. Her fingers sought and found the belt of his robe, inexpertly she tugged at the knot, a tiny sound of satisfaction escaping her throat as she worked it free.

James had stopped m