Crossing the space that separated them, he gathered her into his arms, wrapping them tightly around her and holding her close against him. He dropped his head and rested his cheek on her hair. They stood silently for long moments.
Charly drew comfort from the warmth of his arms and body. It felt so right to be close to him. How could people make it into something ugly? She didn't want their friendship to end now. There was so much more she wanted to know about him, so many things yet to discover.
For just a moment, she considered the possibility of seducing him and making him need her so much he wouldn't be able to say no, but only for a moment. It would be easy enough. Just lift her head, touch her lips to his and repeat the fantasy they had shared previously. Her mind began playing it back as she stood soaking in the warmth and scent and feel of him.
Suddenly she felt him shudder and knew instinctively he had picked up her thoughts. Trying to blank her mind, she moved to step back from the circle of his arms, but as she lifted her head from his chest, his lips moved over hers and settled firmly on them, as though coming home.
Now the fantasy became three-dimensional reality, with added bonuses. She could touch him as he was touching her, feel the thick softness of his hair as her fingers slipped into it, sense the acceleration of his pulse and feel the throb of his heartbeat next to hers. She could hear his breathing quicken as the kiss deepened and she sensed that he was rapidly reaching his limits of control.
Her own body was responding as it had in her fantasy, giving as much as she was taking, encouraging him to respond to her needs, by a little pressure here, a subtle movement there, all performed unconsciously and naturally. As his hands slipped from her face down to her rib cage, his fingers just under her breasts, she arched her body closer, his arousal alive and demanding against her. Her hands slid down over his shoulders to pull him even closer as the kiss they were sharing lifted them to heights only hinted at in their fantasies. But his hands had barely closed over her breasts to inflame them with his heat, when he pushed himself away from her, holding his hands up as though to ward her off.
"Stop me now, Charly, please!" His voice was anguished as he turned his back to her.
"I can't stop myself, McKinnon. I don't want to. So if you want to end this, you'd better leave now." Tears were falling, but she tried to keep them out of her voice.