Maybe going to an island in the middle of the Atlantic in deep winter wasn’t the best idea, I thought as I watched David try to light the fire. When we’d arrived earlier that evening to find his house freezing cold—a thin layer of ice on the window panes—a quick inspection of the furnace had revealed a flashing light that indicated a valve failure. Thankfully, he’d managed to persuade a repairman to come inspect it in the morning.

In the meantime, we had to find a way to stay warm. Unfortunately, the damp firewood he’d rescued from the basement wasn’t exactly cutting it either. We were no warmer for his efforts at starting a fire, and the living room was filled with the acrid scent of smoke.

“Shit,” he cursed as a piece of kindling smoldered and then snuffed itself out. On his knees, David turned to me. “This sucks. I’m sorry.”

“D-d-don’t be s-s-sorry,” I answered, my teeth chattering from the cold. “It’s not your f-f-fault the furnace is b-b-broken.”

David’s eyes flashed with guilt, and he looked away quickly, attempting to stoke the fire to life. “I was supposed to have it serviced at the end of the summer, but then classes started up again and it slipped my mind.”

I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and moved off to the sofa to sit beside him. “D-d-did you know the f-f-furnace was on the fritz?”

“No.” He refused to look at me when he answered.

“Then there's n-n-nothing to apologize for. These things happen.”

David huffed out his frustration and dropped down next to me, staring blankly at the cold hearth in front of us. “I really suck at this.”

I laughed and set my head on his shoulder. “Finally, something you're bad at. You were starting to give me a complex.”

He chuckled lightly. “When I was a kid, I dropped out of Boy Scouts. Hanging out in the woods never appealed to me. I'd rather sit in my room and read.”

“Are you telling me you never learned how to build a fire?”

David looked away sheepishly. “I usually just use those fire starter logs, but even those were wet.” He poked at a soggy, paper-wrapped brick with the toe of his boot and let out a sullen breath as I burrowed deeper into his side.

Sliding my hands up under the fabric of his waffle knit henley, he gasped at my cold touch, but soon, he was pressing my palm to his flesh. That was all it took to ignite the fire inside of me. Suddenly, I had a very good idea how to make us warm.

I nudged him backward, until he was splayed out on the rug beneath me. “I once read something very interesting about how to keep your temperature up if you ever find yourself stranded in a snowstorm.” I scratched my nails over his nipple and he sucked in a breath.

“Oh yeah?”

I danced my fingers over the ridged line of his abs, pushing his shirt up as I went. “Mmm-hmm. Skin-on-skin contact is essential for heat conservation.”

David's palm found my hip and then dipped lower, past the elastic waist of my flannel pants and straight to the promised land as I worked the zipper of his jeans. Delving down, I wrapped my fingers around his cock. “We're supposed to make sure we're touching each other. Everywhere.” When I stroked upward, his eyes dropped closed and his hips lifted in time with the push and pull of my palm against his hot, hard flesh.

“God, I missed your hands.” He thrust up into my grip.

“And I missed this,” I said, sliding down to take him into my mouth.

David hissed, and he tunneled his hands into my hair. I took my time licking and sucking, taking him deep and then teasing his crown with tiny flicks of my tongue. When his hips lifted off the floor again, I pulled his pants down his thighs, hollowed my cheeks, and took him deeper than I ever had before. My eyes watered, but I pushed past my discomfort. I'd never really enjoyed giving head before, but with David, it had quickly turned into my favorite part of foreplay. Maybe because he didn't make me feel like it was something I had to do, or maybe because he willingly returned the favor, but I routinely looked forward to the taste of him on my tongue.

David’s breathing grew increasingly labored, and I could tell he was getting close. With my hand circling the base of his cock, I licked a path from root to tip. Over and over again. On the next pass, I dropped even lower and sucked one of his balls into my mouth, rolling it gently around.

“Fuck,” he moaned, his fingers tangling in my hair as his back bowed. “If you keep doing that, I'm going to come.”

“That’s the idea.” I licked him again, dragging my tongue over the soft, smooth skin before taking him deep a second time.

Using my hands, lips, and tongue, I brought David to the brink of orgasm, and then with a final, strangled groan, he fisted his hands at his side, called my name, and gave himself over to the pleasure.

Wiping the last vestiges of him from my swollen lips, I slid up the length of his now-warm body and nuzzled into his embrace. “Well, I’m certainly not cold anymore,” I said, flattening my palm on his chest and feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart.

David pulled me in tighter and dropped a kiss to the top of my head. “Thank you for that.”

“You don't have to thank me,“ I answered, pushing up onto my elbows and staring down at him. “I love doing that for you.”

David's eyes took on a faraway, troubled look for a brief moment before he blinked it away.

“What?” I asked, worried that I’d inadvertently said something wrong.

His eyes flicked between mine for a beat, and then he blew out a breath. “Stacia hated it. She refused.”

At the mention of his ex-wife—a woman I was inordinately jealous of—a stabbing pain lanced through me. I breathed through it and tried not to let my envy show. I dropped my eyes to his chest where I traced a heart with the pad of my finger. “I don't understand how anyone could deny you anything, especially when it's something you enjoy so much.”

Seriously, he loved it when I gave him head. That was probably another reason why I was always so excited to do it.   

David pressed his knuckle under my chin and lifted my face. “But you like it, too?”

He hadn't even touched me yet, but when he did, he'd find me slick and ready. Seeing to his pleasure, hearing him come with my name on his lips, was the most potent aphrodisiac I knew. Knowing that it was me who reduced him to a boneless pile of flesh conjured an acute awareness of my body that was almost primal in its power. I'd never experienced anything like it before.

Wordlessly, I pushed up to my feet and guided my pants down my thighs. Once discarded, I wrapped my arms around my middle, grabbed ahold of the hem of my sweatshirt, and tugged it off over my head, baring my naked body. The room was freezing, but I didn’t feel a thing. Not with the heat from David’s hungry gaze roaming my curves, warming me from head to toe.

Slowly, I lowered myself down … down … down … until I hovered over him, my knees planted on the rug on either side of his hips. Then, taking his cock in hand, I rubbed it through my slick folds, coating him with the evidence of my arousal. With each pass over my clit, he grew thicker and harder until he was velvet steel in my palm.

“I always enjoy it,” I whispered, guiding him to my entrance and sinking down, taking him into my body.

David groaned, his eyes flashing with something I couldn’t name, and then his hands found my hips. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said, levering himself into a seated position to take my nipple into his mouth. “I’ll never get enough of you.”

“Me neither,” I answered, my head dropping back as sensation cascaded over me. It shouldn’t have been possible, but every time we came together was better than the time before. I was his. David owned me, body and soul. “I love you … so, so much,” I breathed out, looking down into fiery cobalt eyes that were locked on mine.

He banded his arms around my middle, his palm resting on the flat of my back, as he guided me toward my orgasm. “Come for me, baby.”

I chased my orgasm, but it was just out of reach, taunting me, hovering in the distance. David wouldn’t come until I did, but the more I concentrated on my release, the further it retreated. My limbs trembling and my body slick with sweat, I rode him harder, all signs of finesse vanished.

David found my eyes again. “It’s okay; I got you.”

I screwed my eyes shut and concentrated on the feel of his dick moving in and out of me, but it was no use. “I can’t get there,” I admitted with defeat. “You go.”

“Look at me.”

My eyes popped open. In my race to the finish, I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them. Now, I found David staring up at me, his face suffused with so much love and desire that it nearly took my breath away.

“Just relax, baby. I got you.” He slowed our pace, his hips rocking into me with measured strokes.

I twined my arms around his neck and let him guide our lovemaking, let him lead me back to that place where our bodies were in sync and our breaths flowed in and out in perfect harmony. He brushed my hair back from my face and kissed me tenderly, making love to my mouth the same way he was making love to my body. Like there was nowhere else he’d rather be. Like we had all the time in the world.

My heart tripped, and I fell again.

And I kept on falling as my orgasm hit, a feeling so intense and so overwhelming that my body shook and tears leaked out the corner of my eyes.

“Shh,” he whispered, dropping sweet kisses all over my face. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

I was okay.

Better than okay, in fact.

I was free.

I didn’t care about my job woes, or my mother’s disapproval, or anything else for that matter. Locked in David’s embrace, all I cared about was him and our future together. I couldn’t be bothered about what people would say when they found out about us.

I leaned forward and kissed him, long and slow. His cock twitched inside of me, and he chuckled against my lips. Pulling back, he said, “As much as I’d love to go again, I’m going to need a minute to recuperate.”

I slid from his lap, and we laid down together on the rug, side by side. David’s fingers coasted over my skin, my head resting against his heart. While David’s heart was strong and steady below my palm, mine had grown wild and erratic in my chest.

I must have tensed, or he must have detected a change in my breathing, because suddenly he sat us up, cradling my cheek and his eyes boring into mine. “What’s wrong?”

Something had changed tonight. A switch had been flipped, and I knew I couldn’t go another day without David by my side. I wanted this quiet intimacy every day for the rest of our lives.

“Move in with me,” I blurted.

His mouth dropped open, and I rushed to convince him it was a good idea. “I love you, and I want to be with you. You love me, and you want to be with me. My house is perfect. We can be together like this every day. I can make love to you anytime you want. Please say yes. Please say you’ll come live with me.”

David’s eyes softened, and he pulled me toward him. “Of course I’ll—”

Unfortunately, his words were cut off by the sound of the front door slamming. In unison, our heads swung around, landing on the horrified faces of my mom and his dad.