(thank you, Kegel exercise) and was gratified to hear his hoarse shout. Then he was pulsing inside her and throwing his head back and roaring at the ceiling. The headboard gave one more loud THUMP! and was quiet.

She sobbed for breath, and he soothed her with gentle strokes and small kisses. “Shhhh, sweetie, you’re all right. I just don’t think I am. Shhhh.”

“That was—that—”

“Easy. Shush, now. Get your breath back.”

As the ripples from her last, titanic orgasm faded, she realized she was still throbbing. She still wanted him. She was a bookworm cursed with the body of a slut.

“That was—mmbelievable. ’Mazing.” Oh, great, she was babbling like a cheerleader after her fifth beer. She tried again. “Unbelievable. Amazing. I’m sure you hear this all the time, but that was the best ever. I don’t mean for me. I mean in the history of lovemaking.”

He was kissing her forehead, her mouth, her cheeks. “For me, also. And I don’t hear it all the time. I haven’t been with a lady in almost a year.”

She nearly fell off the bed. “What? Why? You’re so—I mean, the overall package is just—and then what you can do in the bedroom—what the hell have you been waiting for? Did you lose a bet?”

“I did not. Who,” he said. “Who the hell have I been waiting for. That’s the question.” He bent and nuzzled her cleavage. “God, I could get lost in you. So easily. Which means I have to kill you or marry you.”

“Har, har. And get your nose out of there, it tickles.” She could feel his cock on her thigh, very warm, and reached out. “Jesus! You’re hard again!”

“Sorry,” he said dryly. “I can’t much help it if you’ve got the sweetest cunt. Not to mention some very talented fingers.”

“No, I mean…uh. I don’t know what I mean.” Their gaze met. Her eyes had long ago adjusted to the dark; she could see him quite well. “Do you want to keep going?”

He smiled slowly; it was like an extra spoonful of sugar being stirred into really good coffee. “Do you?”

“That’s not really relevant,” she said tartly. His eyebrows arched. “A promise is a promise, remember?”