Excerpt: Sweet Dreams, Beautiful Nightmares

"We've met before, you know," Claire said with a nervous laugh, before taking a sip from her martini.

"Oh, yeah?," he said, leaning in, taking her statement as some sort of come on. He ran a finger around the glass of scotch in his hand, then ran it on Claire's forearm. She shivered with pleasure at his gentle touch. Sometimes she just couldn't believe her luck, that this was all true and happening. She worried that any moment, she was going to wake up, he would be gone and she would be an outcast once more.

"Do you like stories?"

He smiled at the non sequitur.

"I love 'em. You've got a good one for me?"

"Yeah, I do."