He was speaking gibberish, his voice pure gravel as his free hand grabbed a handful of her ass. His hips jutted up into hers but not too invasively. He’d asked her to show him how she liked it and now he was obviously paying attention, absorbing the motion, learning. She was quickening, tightening, chasing orgasm, and it broke over her magnificently.

He realized she was coming and gripped her hips with both hands, grinding her down on him as he cursed out the universe.

Mary let herself be putty against him for just a few seconds as he kissed at her neck and pushed up into her from below. She tipped her head to one side and spoke into his ear. “Now show me how you like it, John.”

His eyes searched hers for just a moment before he was gripping the condom and pulling out of her, rolling out from under her and pressing a hand down on her lower back to keep her belly-down on the bed.

He canted her hips up and tugged her underwear to the side again, this time pressing into her easily, as ready as her body was to accept him again. It wasn’t the deepest penetration, but it was by far their most intimate position. He was stretched out over top of her, his hand tangled in her hair and his cheek pressing against hers. He gave her some of his weight but not all of it. Mary was pinned between him and the bed, forcefully adored, nothing to do but accept the pleasure he was pistoning into her. Her breasts and clit were erotically abraded by the fabric of the bedspread as he worked himself into her, his speed picking up, his chest plastered to her back.

Mary could feel his heartbeat banging against her shoulder blade, and she squeezed her eyes shut, relishing how alive he was, how alive she was. His fingers came up and clamshelled over her hands, his leg hair scraping her calves. He sheltered her and took from her and gave to her all at once.

“John,” she whispered his name again and again.

She was naming the moment, and for her, its name was John. There was no other word for this feeling, this catapult into a new life. His name meant a million things in that moment. It was the man stiffening against her as he finally succumbed to his own pleasure, it was his heartbeat at her back, it was the electric friction every place they touched. It was everything she felt for him, all at once.