She climbed on. And oh, had he ever felt something so good as Dani Martinez inching down his dick? She blew out a careful breath, and he joined her. She was tight and hot and . . . her. When she was fully seated, she went still, so still that the room was utterly, preternaturally silent. She was back in the path of those rays of light. One of them hit the side of her face and made a Rorschach blot of sunshine. She did not move. She did not breathe.

That twisting, tender feeling started in his chest again, coiling up like a snake rising, and he feared that if she didn’t stop staring at him like she could see inside him, the prickling sensation moving up through his throat might lead to tears. He opened his mouth and whispered a command. “Breathe.”

She did, and she moved, too. “Thank god,” he said, apparently out loud, but it didn’t seem to matter. She stayed upright, her hands planted on his chest and her hips rocking back and forth as she huffed out short breaths. She was still staring at him, but somehow the addition of movement and sound beat back the tidal wave of emotion threatening to overtake him. He clamped his hands onto her waist and tried to move in rhythm with her.

Her hair dripped on his chest.

“Oh my god, Max,” she said again. “Oh!” He let one of the hands that was on her waist slide around and down, and he burrowed his thumb between her folds.

Her eyes went even wider, and she looked for a moment as if she, too, was having trouble holding back tears. But it must have been a trick of the sunlight, because suddenly she smiled, although to say “she smiled” did not begin to capture what was happening on her face as she grinned in what looked like a mixture of disbelief and joy. As she started coming, she started laughing. He went back to gripping her waist with both hands—tighter this time—said, “Hold on,” and allowed himself to buck his hips up, big, almost violent pumps that had her gasping through her continuing laughter and what looked like her continuing orgasm. One, two, three, and with a groan, he was joining her.

Afterward, they stared at each other. He was stunned. Dazed. But when she started to pull away, he snapped out of it and held onto the condom so she could peel herself away.

She flopped down on him, panting, and he was as stupidly pleased as a child being passed a note by a girl he had a crush on. Last time, at the palace, she’d lain down next to him but not touching him. This time, she was draped over him as if this was a thing they did.