Taura's eyes snapped open and she looked over at the empty space beside her. She glanced around her bedroom. The light was turned off and there was no sign of Jack's presence.

Only a dream. Damn it. She sighed, slumped back, and rubbed her hands over her face. Wait … why am I suddenly dreaming about having sex with Jack?

She closed her eyes and tried to relax, making a half-assed attempt at going back to sleep. But her mind was running too fast, wandering in circles and always coming back to the images from her dream.

She threw the covers off, sat up, and rubbed her face again. She'd never had sexual dreams as often as she had for the last few nights. These dreams had been very different from her usual ones. And Jack, of all people, had been the focus of them all.

Damn.

She walked to the doorway, peeked around the corner, and found the door to the other bedroom halfway open. She could see them in bed, arms around one another, sound asleep.

Ah, that explains it. The sounds of their lovemaking must have reached her in her sleep and triggered the dream.

But why did I dream about Jack? She shook her head. Obviously, she was attracted to him. But there was nothing to be done about it. She'd been around long enough to have accepted the way humans viewed love and mating, even though she didn't entirely understand it herself.

Maybe I can get some sleep if I just rub one off.

But she would probably fantasize about Jack while releasing the tension. Even if Corona wouldn't give it a second thought, Jack would probably have a more negative reaction. He already had Corona, and even if that wasn't enough to stop him, he wouldn't be attracted to her in the first place.

Not that anybody else would be, either. She sighed again. Nobody sober, that is.

She paced back and forth for a moment, then put some clothes on. Just a pair of jeans, a random shirt grabbed from her closet, and her trench coat.

I need to get out for a while. She wasn't sure exactly where she would go or what she would do, but she had a feeling that just getting away from the horny couple for a few hours would do her a lot of good.

She stopped in the front room long enough to send a quick text message to their phones so they wouldn't worry about her. Then she cast one more glance at their bedroom before stepping outside. She closed the door gently and locked it, released a slow breath, and walked down the hall to the elevator.

A few minutes later she was outside, the cold, crisp air driving away the last wisps of sleep. Steam puffed from her mouth, visible in the yellow light from the bulb above the door before drifting into the darkness.

She stuck her hands into her pockets, picked a direction at random, and started walking.