Max had had a lot of sex in his life. He’d had sex with a lot of people he liked. In fact, he made a point to have sex only with people he liked. So he was accustomed to the way a mood could shift during sex, from serious and heated, say, to lighthearted and silly. There were lots of flavors of sex.

What he hadn’t experienced was the almost painful tenderness that nearly doubled him over as Dani came through the adjoining door and dropped her bathrobe—they had showered in their respective rooms after emerging from the mine covered with dust—and said, “All right. Time for some things that require condoms.”

She made a “bring it” motion with her fingers. She was trying to be funny. He should try to tip himself out of this uncharacteristically emotional state, to match her playful mood. He should laugh. Pick her up and drop her on the bed and tickle her.

He could not do those things. He couldn’t get over the fact that she was here. Naked and trusting and confident and glorious. She was so familiar to him, yet as the afternoon sun slanting in through the window painted stripes on her bare shoulders, she was also a complete and utter shock.

He couldn’t breathe properly. His hands came to his stomach, as though he needed to clutch his belly to keep his insides from spilling out. He had been standing when she came in, and somehow he’d ended up sitting on the edge of the bed. Perhaps his legs had given out without him noticing.

“Come here,” he said, and she did, unhesitatingly. She must have picked up on his mood. All traces of laughter disappeared from her face as she strode toward him. He was wearing a bathrobe, too, and he opened it just before she straddled his lap.

“Oh, god.” He was learning that with Dani, his body responded in two ways. There was the usual way, led by his dick, which had gotten so hard at the sight of her that it was almost painful. And when she settled herself on him, there was a sense of both relief and torment. But there was another pain, too, the tenderness from before, alchemized into something keen-edged and powerful. The first pain—sexual desire—was familiar. He knew how that worked. They would have sex, and he would find relief. The second pain, though, that bone-deep ache, made him a little frantic if he thought about it too hard. What if it never went away? What if he never caught his breath? What would happen when she went back to New York?