“We’ll take a quick shower,” she promised, her hand snaking around to his front and gripping him again, this time pumping him with much more intention than her playful touch from before.

He stopped protesting and instead reveled in the feel of her delicate but firm grip. He looked down at his lap and grunted at the erotic sight of her gorgeous hand gripping him so tightly. She slid around to his lap, slipping off her underwear and swiping a condom from the floor on her way. She sheathed him with it as she straddled him. He sat on the edge of the bed and she sat on him, lifting up and taking him in in one long, wet slide.

This time wasn’t any prettier than the last time, he figured, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. She rode him hard, artlessly, and it was hands down the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. He leaned back on his palms and just watched, letting her get herself off on his body any way that she wanted. When she shuddered hard, calling his name and clamping down on him rhythmically, he banded an arm around her waist, securing her, and drove himself upward in several short, intense strokes before he was coming hard, sharply, woozily. Perfection.

They sagged to the side, and he took a long moment to gain his breath back before he was lifting her, carrying her to his shower.

“You love carrying me,” she muttered into his shoulder.

“I do,” he agreed. “It makes me feel...”

“Like a man?”

“Not quite. It makes me feel human. I can’t explain it. Connected to you. Protective. Like I’m the one thing in between you and the rest of the world. I love it.”

He set her down carefully in the shower and her smile nearly knocked his metaphorical socks off. He’d told her she was radiant and, boy howdy, he hadn’t been lying. The woman was incandescent.

A second later, though, before he could twist on the shower, she stiffened, clapping a hand over his mouth even though he hadn’t been talking.

“Shh!” she hissed. “Do you hear that?”

John cocked an ear and heard the familiar, benign tones of his neighbors talking. “My neighbors?”

“I forgot how thin your walls are.” She had both hands pressed to her flaming pink cheeks. “Oh, God. John.”

He couldn’t help but grin. “Are you reflecting on the number of times you just screamed my name?”

“I can’t believe this. I haven’t even met them yet!”

“Mary, it’s New York. Hearing your neighbors have sex is a citywide experience. Practically a rite of passage. Besides, they’re not exactly celibate. I’m sure they don’t begrudge me returning the favor.”

“But I was loud.”