Dean squeezes into my tent and suddenly there’s not much room in here at all. I want to reach out and touch his damp curls.

‘I thought you might be worried by the rain.’

‘No.’ I’m British—since when has rain ever bothered us? Now my late-night guest doesn’t look sure what to do.

‘Well,’ I say. ‘A little.’

If he’s been lying there imagining me laid out seductively in a spaghetti-strap negligée then he must be cruelly disappointed. I’m in my fleecy Tigger jim-jams with my sleeping bag pulled up to my neck. Though I have, thankfully, taken off my socks.

‘I think everyone else is asleep.’ Dean’s eyes are glittering darkly like the stars. He clears his throat. ‘Could you do with some company?’

I hear myself gulp. ‘Yes.’

And then we’re on each other. Our lips hot and searching, frantic. I pull at his wet tee-shirt, ripping it as I do. He zips open my sleeping bag, jamming it halfway down.

‘Goddammit!’

As I struggle out, he’s tugging at my pyjamas. I start to giggle.

‘Ssh. Ssh.’ Our thrashing about might be disguised by the pounding rain, but not if we’re making enough noise to wake the dead. ‘This is crazy,’ Dean mutters thickly.

‘I know.’ I’m wriggling out of my pyjama bottoms and trying to tug Dean’s belt off at the same time. Crashing to the ground, we scatter my tin mug, my washing bowl and my trekking pole. We seem to have grown more elbows than the standard quota. Dean kicks off his boots and we wrestle with his jeans, stifling our laughter. We probably sound like a couple of drunks and maybe we are. If someone was watching this from the outside it would probably look like fifty ferrets having a fist fight. He pulls off my pyjama top and holds me close, suddenly serious.

‘I don’t do this as a rule,’ he pants, breathless. ‘I haven’t got any…I haven’t come prepared.’

I put my finger to his lips. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ I say. ‘I can’t…I can’t get pregnant. I can’t have children.’ Good grief, this is the first time I’ve said that out loud—and certainly in these circumstances. And I can’t believe that it doesn’t feel too bad. In fact, for the first time I feel positively grateful!

‘What about other risks?’