Chapter 41

It was a gentle kiss, to start with. But it lasted, and the sense of sinking into a sea of intimacy, was matched by a corresponding rise in excitement and energy—so much so that when we broke apart at last, I felt slightly out of breath.

“Wow!” I said.

“Does that answer your question?” But then he took my hand in his and gently began to pull me towards the bedroom.

By the time we were undressed and climbing into bed the rush of sexual arousal had been swamped by the physical fatigue of having been up for so long. As we lay there, facing each other, I was aware again of a sense of separateness, of not knowing this man that well, and certainly not in a physical way. This might have been disappointing, if it weren’t for the twin senses of tiredness and of a magical connection—the sense that just being close like this created some kind of wonderful shared communion that, while still largely unexplored and slightly scary, was nevertheless profound in its potency and reassurance.