Shaking his head, he said, “That’s only for me.” He reached for her and brought her up to rest on top of him. “Kiss me.”

Her lips fused to his, she broke the connection only to let him remove her sweater. Helping him get rid of the rest of their clothes, she moved quickly, craving the feel of his skin against hers, the soft brush of his chest hair, the firm muscles, his scent. Everything about him appealed to her—and scared her. To love like this was to risk so much, things she’d sworn to never risk again after her disastrous marriage.

“What?” he asked, his lips coasting over hers.

“I was just thinking that if this is how we’re going to spend it, I’m going to like this year.”

“That’s not what you were thinking,” he said, reversing their positions so he was on top. He kissed her softly, his eyes intent on hers, letting her know she could hide nothing from him.

“I was thinking how much I love you and how sad I’d be if—”

“Don’t say it.” He slid into her. “Don’t think it. It’s not going to happen.”

Sam arched her back to take him in. “Nick.”

“What, babe?” he asked, his lips soft against her jaw.

“Faster.”

“Not tonight.”

“Why?”

“I read in the paper today,” he said close to her ear, his hips moving with aching slowness, “that sex therapists say intercourse should last between three and thirteen minutes.”

How can he talk right now? she wondered. I’m having trouble breathing!

“Since we usually work the lower end of the spectrum,” he continued, “I thought we’d see what the other side is like.”

Burning up from the inside out, she gripped a fistful of his silky brown hair and wrapped her legs around him. Thirteen minutes? She’d be dead in five. But nothing she did, nothing she tried, got him to move any faster.

His mouth descended on hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth as he cupped her breast. Suddenly, he withdrew from her and kissed a path to her nipple.

Sam could have wept from the loss and the sweet torture of his kisses even as she felt the now-familiar signs of impending climax. It happened so easily with him that she’d almost forgotten how unattainable it had been in past relationships.

His lips were on her belly, his tongue laying a trail to her burning center.

The rosy glow of the fire burnished his skin. Just looking at him took her breath away, but watching him watch her as he made slow love to her was about the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. She reached for him.