A dream

Sergio's fingers intertwined delicately with Xenia's, the tighter, shinier skin around his knuckles slackening as he found comfort in her warm, soft hand. He could hear her breathing, regular, then short and shallow, then regular, as her grip tightened and released, lost in a universe of sleep.

Is this what he had meant when he had invoked intimacy? Her damp hair, pooled at the nape of her neck, smelling slightly fruity, slightly musky. His breath held, watching her in silence, in the half light, the wrinkles that formed between her thick eyebrows from her laughter, or her quizzical, pensive gestures, inescapable indicators of her mood. His airless lips, moist and glistening, pressed against her moonlit skin.

She shuddered in sleep, her muscular legs kicking and extending, unaware of his bated breath, or his questions. A smile flitted across her face, she pulled his arms in around her like a blanket, his chest against her lumbar curve, and settled back into sleep. She seemed so infinitely far away, even now that their skin vibrated in sympathetic waves, cell membranes that separated the blood of one from the other. He reached below, felt the beguiling hardness of her belly as it contracted against his touch. Yes, this must be intimacy, he accepted, kissing gently between her shoulder blades, tickling her into a brief shiver with his scratchy chin.  The rest, he would have to figure out tomorrow.