Thirty seconds was all they had. For her it was all it took. Her mind was a whirl of alcohol and euphoria; the infectious intoxication of the evening's events to that point swirled in her consciousness to create a maelstrom of desire and unadulterated longing for the man who held her now. They had a history but that didn't matter. What mattered was the sense of urgency with which his body met hers, the longing gasps of his breath on her neck.

Her eyes opened lazily, hoping that no-one else on the dance floor would see the intimate embrace she shared. This wasn't the man she arrived with. It was not the man she would leave with. This was a phantom of the past suddenly made flesh by circumstance; they both had so much to lose but for that brief spell, barely a lapse in the beat of the music playing at deafening volumes around them, they found in each other that which they had both missed.

She felt the cool plaster of the wall on her bare back, still moist from her exertions on the dance floor. His left hand cupped her cheek as she moaned silently, reluctant to belay the desire that caused the ache within her. This was wrong, yet as his other hand explored the curves that lay beneath the cloth of her top, she found she was slipping further and further into herself.

As his lips touched her neck, his tongue tracing a line towards her ear, she was vaguely aware of the touch of denim. Her hand cupped the object of her erotic dreams these last few years.

If she could see herself she would blush as her fingers searched urgently for the edge of his jeans.

There she felt the heat from the tip of his manhood and her fingers curled around the shaft.

In that moment she had lost herself, giving her body completely to the forbidden lust in which she found herself enraptured. Her leg curled to intertwine with his as her hips urged forwards towards his pelvis. Her hand worked the tip of his manhood urgently, the thrill of getting caught within the crowd giving her a confidence she did not know she possessed.

The touch of his rough fingers across her navel gave her pause as his hands slid up her torso towards the thick fabric of her bra.

Again her eyes opened. She took in the sea of revelers before her, each caught in their own catatonic state and totally oblivious to the intimate scene she shared with a man who could never be hers but for this brief encounter.

His hand slipped into her bra and found her nipple erect and waiting, prompting her grip to tighten on his shaft. There in the haze of alcohol, music and lust she had never wanted anyone more. Her lips pursed as she began to give voice to her desires but as she did the tall figure in front of her pulled away. With a last urgent kiss on her earlobe he was gone.

She opened her eyes, suddenly aware that the body that had moments before been pinning her to the wall was no longer there.

She blinked once, twice, and accepted the drink from the outstretched hand of her boyfriend as he returned from the bar....