It was after midnight when Mikhail pulled up at the big brick house in Shepherdstown. It was cooler now. There wasn’t a cloud in the star-scattered sky to hold in the heat. Beside him, Sydney slept with her head resting on a curled fist. He remembered that she had taken the wheel on the turnpike, driving from New Jersey into Delaware with verve and enthusiasm. Soon after they’d crossed the border into Maryland and she’d snuggled into the passenger seat again, she’d drifted off.

Always he had known he would love like this. That he would find the one woman who would change the zigzagging course of his life into a smooth circle. She was with him now, dreaming in an open car on a quiet road.

When he looked at her, he could envision how their lives would be. Not perfectly. To see perfectly meant there would be no surprises. But he could imagine waking beside her in the morning, in the big bedroom of the old house they would buy and make into a home together. He could see her coming home at night, wearing one of those pretty suits, her face reflecting the annoyance or the success of the day. And they would sit together and talk, of her work, of his.

One day, her body would grow ripe with child. He would feel their son or daughter move inside her. And they would fill their home with children and watch them grow.

But he was moving too quickly. They had come far already, and he wanted to treasure each moment.

He leaned over to nuzzle his lips over her throat. “I’ve crossed the states with you, milaya.” She stirred, murmuring sleepily. “Over rivers and mountains. Kiss me.”

She came awake with his mouth warm on hers and her hand resting against his cheek. She felt the flutter of a night breeze on her skin and smelled the fragrance of roses and honeysuckle. And the stir of desire was just as warm, just as sweet.

“Where are we?”

“The sign said, Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.” He nipped at her lip. “You will tell me if you think it is so.”

Any place, any place at all was wild and wonderful, when he was there, she thought as her arms came around him. He gave a quiet groan, then a grunt as the gearshift pressed into a particularly sensitive portion of his anatomy. “I must be getting old. It is not so easy as it was to seduce a woman in a car.”

“I thought you were doing a pretty good job.”

He felt the quick excitement stir his blood, fantasized briefly, then shook his head. “I’m intimidated because my mama may peek out the window any minute. Come. We’ll find your bed, then I’ll sneak into it.”