In Other Dreams
by Cassie Banks
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places listed on this page, but gosh doesn't it make me feel better to right the wrongs. (Fan fiction is God's way of allowing us to survive without heavy medication when our heros are bent, folded, or mutilated. sigh)

Author's Note: Spoilers are God's way of allowing us time to construct a "safe" place to go when the owners of said property in Disclaimer above bend, fold or mutilate our heroes. Luke Danes deserves better I tell ya! This is a Luke and Lorelai vignette, a snip of time that occurs after those wonderful kisses they shared at the Dragonfly Inn, but before the start of Season 5. The ideas in this story will probably intertwine with the bigger piece I'm working on (In Honor of Crash Davis)...it's just this one had it's own unique flavor and wanted to be all grown up and out there on it's own...kinda like Lorelai Gilmore.

This is my first fan fic post on this site. I don't actually know anyone who beta's, so it's here "as is." I did my best. :)

Summary: So many wonderful people have helped us pass through the summer months by creating post-Season 4 fan fics. I can't say mine's much different, but it made me feel better writing it.

Luke was smiling at her again. How many times had Lorelai been caught up in his eyes, the way they sparkled at her, all the time remembering the feel of his lips on hers, the strength of his arms as he held her against him? The kiss. The first time Luke brought her lips to his. Now, sitting on the couch next to one another, she didn't know how to act. She hoped Luke wouldn't be able to feel how incredibly aroused she was laying comfortably against him. How every inch of her body that was in contact with his tingled with an urgency. "Be cool, be calm," she kept telling herself.

He was trying to regulate his breathing. It took all his concentration. The urges inside were an overpowering force to abate. He wanted her in the worst way, but he was trying to be a gentleman about it. He started very innocently with his arm around her shoulder and noticed each shift in her body, bringing her closer to his. Halfway through the movie he'd be hard pressed to tell you one thing that had happened on the screen, but in great detail he could relive how each part of his body became alive as hers touched it and molded into it perfectly. Her hand was resting on his abdomen now. If she had any idea how hard it was for him to keep his breathing at a steady pace, endless mocking would ensue. Slowly, surely would win the race with Lorelai. Give her plenty of time to digest what she's feeling. Make her desires work for you. She was like a gun in the middle of a game of Russian roulette - you would never know when the single bullet would come flying out of the chamber and completely overcome you.

As the minutes proceeded and the hour became later, he began to feel her body relax against his. Her own breathing became much steadier until her body was limp, molding itself around Luke's solid form. He let out a huge sigh of relief and gently rubbed her arm. She was curled up against him, her head on his chest, his desire finally beginning to calm. Luke remembered this feeling from the night Lorelai met him in her pink coat, tears welling up in her eyes. She was always so strong, yet there were moments when she surrendered completely to him, like that night. Luke guided her to a nearby bench where they sat as she tried to explain. The family dinner hadn't gone well - her grandmother shredded any self-esteem she had left for her business dinner with Luke. Lorelai came away from her parent's house feeling small and broken. In a weak moment she released her independence and allowed him to be her protector; bestowing a completely vulnerable and exposed Lorelai upon the only man it seemed she could trust.

He hugged her close to him and rested his eyes for a moment. Even though it was only ten o'clock at night, his daily grind had him rising before the sun. Perhaps if he just rested his eyes for a couple of minutes, he'd get his second wind.

==/==

Lorelai was looking directly at him as she guided him up the stairs to her bedroom. Luke was smiling, acknowledging to himself the fact he was treading on hallowed ground. After the failed wedding, Lorelai told Luke how strange it felt to have Max in her bedroom. She and Luke had a similar discussion the last time Rachel appeared. Yet Lorelai could think of nothing she wanted more now. As they stepped into her room, she moved her hands slowly over his chest, along his neck, to cradle his face in her hands. She could feel the need radiating from his body, but she could tell he wasn't sure about the questions that had plagued both of their earlier commitments.

Luke quietly spoke. "Do you really want to do this Lorelai?"

She nodded at him and then gently placed her lips upon his, trying to ease him over the bridge they were about to cross together.

"Once we do this, there's no going back," Luke cautioned.

She smiled at him as she began to undo each button of his flannel shirt. His piercing eyes looked deeply into hers as her nimble fingers traveled slowly down his abdomen to the last button. She revealed no hesitation - only a loving, reassuring look. She ran her hands along his shoulders and removed the flannel icon from it's mast. As she reached up to remove his baseball cap he lowered his lips to hers, and guided her hand back to him as the last vestige of the man behind the counter fell to the floor.

How very carefully he kissed her, testing the waters for her passion. The desire radiating from her body was distinct in nature, but that wasn't what Luke was looking for. Truth be known, that type of desire was what led him to his marriage debacle with Nicole. No, Luke wanted something deeper from Lorelai and he wasn't sure she was ready to give it to him, nor was he confident he could urge it from her. Unfortunately, Lorelai had very different ideas. Her hands were already under his t-shirt, exploring every inch of his skin. She seemed to delight in the hair on his chest, and started to pull Luke's shirt up to get better access to it.

Luke's body seemed to have gone ahead without him. He still had important questions to ask, but Lorelai's skillful hands were directing traffic now. Shirt and pants removed, he was now standing before her in nothing but his boxers; the obvious tell-tale signs of his arousal spurring her on. At any other time, or perhaps any other woman, he would have already had his lips trailing kisses along her completely bare skin, but this was Lorelai. He didn't want to be like every other man who had made love to her. He wanted to be the one who touched her in a way that would sear his memory into her soul and leave her unable to satisfy herself with anything less. He wanted her to give him more than she had given any man before him.

He pulled her to him again, searching for answers that weren't there for the taking. He leaned forward, teasing her lips with his, hoping to coax something deeper from within her. Yet all he could see was the clouded ache for fulfillment; her body desperate to be touched, excited, taken. He tried once more, giving her his longest, deepest, most passionate of kisses, but her desire still lay on the surface, near the top, waiting to be satisfied. He took a step back, heavy-hearted, wondering if he would ever be able to break through.

==/==

Lorelai recognized the feeling even deep in sleep as she was. Her hand had connected with her favorite part of a man, the throbbing undercurrent so familiar. She realized her hand shouldn't be there, but inexplicably it was and she was enjoying the sensations it produced. Luke was breathing pretty heavily, as men do when they have fallen asleep. She wondered how long she could stay in that position before Luke realized what was going on. She felt his breath quicken and a low moan escape from his lips, and she quickly repositioned her hand over his stomach.

==/==

Luke inhaled a quick breath and awoke in a startled state. Lorelai was curled up next to him as she was before, but the movie was now over and she was focused on his face instead of sleeping comfortably.

"You ok?" she asked.

Luke thought for a moment. His dream had seemed so real, yet here they were on the sofa where they had been all night. He looked at her, wondering what the dream meant if anything at all. She didn't look any different. Not from before he fell asleep, nor from when they kissed in the dream. She was awake now, and the current of sexual tension was noticeable again. Luke wondered how he was ever going to combat so strong a draw from Lorelai until he could access the inner reaches of her soul - the part he wanted from her. He kissed her gently on the lips, then pulled away. It was midnight.

"Hey, I've got to get up in a few hours - I should probably head back to my place." Luke said. Lorelai looked slightly disappointed.

"Oh, ok" she replied, saddened by the notion the night had to end.

They both raised from the sofa, Luke slightly embarrassed at the uncomfortable bulge in his pants. Lorelai noticed it, her smile mocking him accordingly.

"When should we get together again?" Luke queried.

"Any day you want," Lorelai answered. "Any time you want, wherever, whenever...just let me know. It's a date Luke Danes."

As they reached the front door, Luke pulled Lorelai against him in direct defiance of her mocking his obvious physical reaction to spending too much time with her wrapped in his arms.

Lorelai looked at him seductively and quipped, "So, did ya have a good time tonight Luke?"

Luke blushed. "Yes, as a matter of fact I did. And I think it's all too apparent that I did." He leaned forward to kiss her. Lorelai took this moment to torture him further by eagerly responding to their lips touching, turning a simple good-bye kiss into an in-depth, seductive kiss who's intentions were not hard to miss. Luke groaned unhappily as their sexual energy heightened, making his physical problems even more apparent.

"You're a piece of work, lady" he said as he walked out the door and winked at Lorelai. She waved as she watched him get into his truck and pull out of the driveway, slightly disappointed she was unable to possess control over Luke's demeanor with her feminine wiles.

Luke wondered how long he could hold out before it became impossible to not react to her playful advances. He tried to keep his focus on the task at hand...to reach Lorelai deeply enough to keep her from running away from the altar again. He wasn't sure he would recover if they went that far, only to fall apart at the last minute. He'd already stepped too far into it to not come out a victor.

A nagging feeling from the back of his mind ran over scenarios for failure. If he didn't make it all the way through this time, he didn't think he could remain in Stars Hollow. After all, what was keeping him there? He could always hire someone to run the diner and open another one somewhere else. Or maybe it was just time for him to finally go out and see the world. While the comfort and safety of his father's store had originally kept him in the small town, it became increasingly clear over the last few years Lorelai and Rory were his reasons for staying - for not going past it's boundaries. But if he and Lorelai couldn't make it all the way through, his diner would no longer be the safe haven it once was. It would become a
painful memory of how much he loved her and how stupid he was to waste so many years not telling her how he really felt (even though he had trouble admitting it himself).

Everyone said they were supposed to be together. Lorelai's mother, Sookie, Rachel...everyone seemed to see it but the two of them. Now it was Luke's turn to prove them either right or wrong. He had to find a way to get Lorelai to let him inside her dark spaces - the things she couldn't or didn't want to face. Until she released her demons and let him help her heal from them they would never be able to be as close as Luke needed the two of them to be.

Luke parked the truck behind the diner and went up to his apartment. He was still just as aroused as he was when he left her house. He shook his head and rolled his eyes as he got ready for bed. Just as he was getting under the covers the phone rang. He laughed.

"Hello?"

"Hi Luke," Lorelai said as seductively and mocking as possible. "How ya doing big boy?"

"I'm about two seconds from being sound asleep Lorelai. Go to bed," he teased.

"Ya sure you don't want me to come up and see ya?" Lorelai taunted in her best Mae West accent.

"I think you've seen quite enough tonight. Go to bed crazy lady." Luke smiled and hung up the phone.

Lorelai laughed as she put the phone back down in its hook quite proud of herself. She secretly wondered why Luke was holding back, but was glad in her own way that they were taking it slow.

"This could really be the whole package" she said as she climbed the stairs up to her bed. It felt really good to be Lorelai Gilmore tonight.

==/==

Finis