“Better?” My lips twitched into a half smile. “We can do better than ‘better.’”

“We can?” She sounded breathless.

“Uh huh,” I murmured, sliding my hand along her thigh and guiding her other leg around my hip. Her gasp of pleasure was what I needed to hear. “How about that?” I kissed her as I pulled out slowly, and then slid back in. She shuddered as I pulled halfway out. “And that?” I asked.

Her eyes were only half open. “That’s…that’s good. That’s…oh…” Then her eyes drifted shut and she rocked her hips up, reclaiming the inches. “Oh, wow.”

“Yeah,” I grunted. “Wow.”

Syd did it again and I slammed my hand into the pillow beside her head. I let her set the pace and dear God, once she got the hang of it, she curled those damn legs around my hips and my restraint broke. I thrust into her deep, over and over again. Her soft moans rose as the intensity and pace became feverish. I moved faster, grinding my hips against hers and lifting up, getting leverage and going deep. Her movement became frantic, and I was mindless, swept away as she cried out my name and her body spasmed around mine in tight, sensual waves. I couldn’t hold back. Not any longer. With two more thrusts, I buried my face in her shoulder and pounded into her as I came.

As I shuddered in her, I finally got it. Hell. I got in that moment what had been so elusive to me this entire time. Sex mattered—oh, holy shit, it mattered—when it was with a person who meant something.

It mattered with Sydney.

Chapter 17

Sydney

My body ached in all the right places in a really, really great and unfamiliar way. God, I got why everyone freaked out over sex now. What we’d done had been amazing. I wasn’t so naїve that I didn’t know it wasn’t always that sublime, but I’d never felt that way before, never came like that or felt so—God, I can’t believe I’m thinking this—full and complete.

I had no idea sex could really feel like that.

It took forever for my heart rate to slow down, and I knew it was the same for Kyler, because when he’d pulled out he rolled onto his back and tugged me along with him. I was half on him, half off. One arm and leg were thrown over his body, and my cheek rested over his heart. We stayed like that, his hand moving in a slow circle over my lower back. I was snuggled as close as I could be, more content than I could remember.

Everything seemed unreal. To be lying next to a fire on a snowy day after doing something so wonderful. How many romance novels featured passionate sex by a fireplace? More than I could count. I almost laughed, but…