She obeyed, hugging him tightly.

“Now,” he said, “whenever you’re ready, fit yourself around me. There’s no hurry, darling girl … we have all night.”

They lay there for a while, hugging, kissing, fondling, teasing. Then she reached between her buttocks and held him, guiding him to her wetness, feeling the displacement as he steered his way inside her, setting her shores a bit wider.

“See, it’s not so bad,” he said, kissing her face. “It’s not so bad.”

She smiled nervously, wincing as she sat upright with her knees on either side of him, her hands pinning his wrists to the bed.

“Now you must ride to meet your dragon,” he told her. “Go out there and hunt him down. Close your eyes and listen to me.”

She began to bear down on him with more of her weight, her waist stretching and compressing like an accordion, and he began to thrust back, filling her up, cocking his hips and dubbing her up, winding her like a clock. She let his wrists go and grabbed his hair.

“The dragon is near, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You can see him across the plain. Snorting. You can see his wings and the sun on his scales.”

“Yes.”

“So ride toward him … ride hard.”

She dug her heels into the mattress, arched her back, and snapped her hips, pricking him with arrows of sweat. Her moans becoming screams, she drew his hair tighter, holding him on a short rein.

“You can see him now … you’re up against him now … you can’t turn back …”

“No … no … but I’m scared.”

“Don’t worry, I’m with you. If you fall off your horse I will catch you. But you must slay the dragon.”

“Oh, fuck, my belly is burning.”

“That’s the dragon’s breath. Come on, Sylvia, you’re right on top of him now. I can tell. Take my sword and stab him—plunge it in his heart. Gather all your feelings and deal one deathblow. Stab him. Ram him. Jook the fucker now!”

She eased up and bore down with all her strength and the room turned white and began to spin, and her body was free from weight.

The doorbell chimed, as she floated toward his chest.

“Oh, no,” he said, “the pizza man is here.”

“Shit, what lousy timing.”

“Well, he’s not that bad. He could have come a few seconds earlier.”

“Forget him. I’m feeling too sweet to get up. Plus I want to hear you call my name when you tremble inside me.”

“I know, sweetness, but he’s probably some guy from Mexico who supports a whole family from tips. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“You’re right,” she said. She sliced her tongue between his thigh and his aching balls, which had not had release in over four months now.

The doorbell chimed again.

“Go,” he said. “Hurry. Don’t let the man wait like that.”

“Okay, Father Teresa,” she said with a smile. “I will now go and do God’s work.”