We ate an exquisite Pacific Northwest cuisine dinner at a trendy restaurant in the village. Theo looked so hot in his indigo blue jeans that hugged his butt magnificently, and a grey Henley shirt that subtly screamed out “Hey, there are pecs under here!” He smelled like a sexy lumberjack who’d been out chopping wood in an alpine forest all day and was ready to bang some lucky lady in a glamorous cabin all night.

I had consumed only half of my glass of wine because, as Theo pointed out, the high altitude was already making me lightheaded. I pointed out that it was his unparalleled hotness that was making me lightheaded, and while that made him smirk, it wasn’t enough to calm my stupid nerves. Despite being more than ready to do the deed, I was still too in my head about how I’d compare to all the other women he’d been with. As always, Theo was well attuned to my foolish inner dialogue, and suggested that we stop in for a drink somewhere on our way back to the hotel.

If his intentions were to make me so lightheaded that I was no longer in my head, I was fine with that. But, I quickly realized, as he led me into a nightclub, that his intentions did not involve copious amounts of alcohol. He was a genius in so many ways…

I only feel truly confident in two situations—when I’m doing my job, and when I’m singing and dancing around the house. I may have looked like an idiot when he caught me Swiffering to Justin Bieber, but I was a very confident idiot who danced like no one was watching, as long as I thought no one was watching. Or if I’d been drinking.

After half of my first-ever bottle of Moosehead lager, and five seconds of the intro to Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack I was ready to hit the very crowded dance floor and I didn’t even care that most of the people there looked eighteen years old. I hadn’t truly felt like a young twenty-five year old in ages, and I was bringing my sexy back with the sexiest millionaire with dual citizenship on the west coast.

My hips did not lie, and they were telling Theo that they wanted to rock his world. Unfortunately, they may have been broadcasting it to more than just their intended audience. There were a number of drunk dudes around, hooting and hollering. But I was only interested in Theo, and what he was doing with his body. I had never been in a situation where I could see him dance before, and he was in no way disappointing, but he was being such a cool guy, moving as little as possible, that it just made me want to undulate more and dry-hump his thigh. When I kept feeling someone else’s body pushing up against my back, I thought surely he was just accidentally bumping into me because it was so crowded.

Theo, however, thought otherwise. He was glaring at the person behind me, and I’ve never seen him look so intimidating. I didn’t look back, but whoever was there must have moved away because I couldn’t feel anyone else around me anymore. I tried to hold Theo’s attention by running my hands all over the front of his shirt. It wasn’t enough to keep him from staring down the guy behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw the twentysomething drunk dude, then did a double-take because he looked a lot like Andrew. It wasn’t Andrew. But the guy must have misunderstood my double-take, because when the song transitioned to a slow-jam, Drunk Dude was right behind me again, his hands on my waist, yelling in my ear, asking me to dance.

“Fuck off,” is what Theo said, to my horror. His tone was not casual. He meant business.

“You fuck off, I’m talking to her.”

And that was all it took to incite Theo to move me aside so he could shove that guy. He stumbled back a couple of feet, until one of his buddies caught him, and then they both came lunging towards Theo. I somehow managed to get in front of Theo, between him and those guys.

“Sorry sorry! We’re leaving! Sorry!” Theo’s arm immediately went around my waist, maneuvering me away from the angry drunk dudes, who looked like they were ready to head-butt whoever was in their way. I’m not even sure who was pulling who off the dance floor and out of the club, but I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I pulled my hand away from his as soon as we were outside, and I stomped off ahead of him.

“Wrong way,” he muttered.

I huffed, then followed him back, in the direction of the resort.

“I can’t believe you did that.”

“Me? He was rubbing up against your ass, Gemma.”

“It was a crowded dance floor!”

“You didn’t see the way he was looking at you.”

“Oh my God, who cares.”

“I do.”

“Well get over it!”

He started to speak, but I held up my hand as I strutted past him up the promenade. “I don’t want to hear it, let’s just get back to the hotel.”

He clenched his jaw, and we were silent except for our heavy breaths, until we got into the hotel elevator. I wasn’t sure who I was more mad at—him for behaving like a jungle beast, or me for being so aroused by it. As soon as the elevator doors shut, I let loose.

“If you’re feeling jealous that is your problem to deal with but you don’t get to act like an asshole—to anyone.”

He stepped in, facing me, staring down at me. “We’re on our honeymoon. You’re here with me.” His hands, God help me, were on my hips.

I stared up at him, defiantly. “Right now I’m not sure who I’m here with because I don’t recognize you at all.”

“I thought that was what you wanted,” he said, pushing me up against the back of the elevator. “I thought you wanted to strip everything away and see what’s left. This is what’s left.” He licked my neck, from my collarbone all the way up to my earlobe, and whispered into my ear, “All that’s left of me is this need to have you. I want you all to myself. Is that such a bad thing?” His breath was so hot on my skin.

“That’s not a fair question when you’re asking my neck with your tongue.”

“My tongue will be giving you some pretty clear answers somewhere else in a little bit.”

My hands went to his chest and pushed him back. “We’ll see about that.”

His eyes flashed with admiration for a split second and then the lust took over. “I knew it. I knew you’d be a firecracker.”

“You have no idea what I’ll be and neither do I—yet.” The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

We walked down the hall to our suite at a brisk pace, wordlessly, without touching, both of us practically vibrating with desire.

As soon as he opened the door, he lifted me up and pinned me against the wall behind it, his bent knee positioned between my legs to hold me in place while he tore my blouse open. I let out a loud gasp before grabbing onto his thick sexy hair and smashed my lips against his. He undid my jeans with ease and his determined hand was inside my brand new panties.

He groaned, his voice deeper than I’d ever heard it before. “You sure you aren’t turned-on by jealous assholes? You telling me it was that other guy who made you this wet?”

I bit his lower lip. He hissed and slid another taunting finger inside of me.

“Tell me.”

I shook my head and lowered it. He brushed my hair aside and held my face up with one hand so I could look directly into his dark, hooded eyes.

“You like being with me like this?”

I nodded. I didn’t know yet if my brain liked this side of him, but my body was not keeping any secrets from either of us. I finally understood what it meant to be turned-on. My whole body was awake and ready and powered-up, but only for Theo. As strange as it was for me to see him act so possessive of me, my body was his to possess and it had no problem with that.

He carried me over to the bedroom, lay me down on the bed and pulled my jeans off faster than I’ve ever managed to. He reached back to pull that Henley shirt off over his head, and dropped his jeans to the floor, stepping out of them, crawling towards me and then hovering over me like he was about to do a push-up. I looked down to see the massive bulge in his boxer briefs, and gulped.

He grinned, lowered himself down and kissed me. He swiftly maneuvered me around so that he was sitting up and I was straddling him. His hand squeezed my breast and his finger traced around my nipple. He licked it through the lacy bra, gently tugging at it with his teeth.

It wasn’t until we’d slowed down to kiss and touch each other with less fiery anger that it occurred to me that Theo may have been getting me all riled-up so that I wouldn’t feel nervous about this. It had worked. Until now.

“Whatever you’re thinking about right now—stop it.” he grumbled, as he reached around to unhook my bra.

“I think I just forgot how to do this,” I whispered.

“You’re in luck,” he said. “Because all of a sudden I can’t remember how to do anything else.”

From the way he consumed my breasts once they were fully exposed, I believed him. And I completely forgot that I was ever nervous. I leaned back and let him take me, devour me, any way he wanted to.

Eventually, his mouth traveled down from the top of my ribcage, to my belly, and then he licked and exhaled warm breath over my panties before taking hold of them with his teeth and pulling them down to my knees. He used one hand to drag them off the rest of the way, positioned himself between my legs, looked up at my bare lady bits, growled and muttered: “You should probably order up a movie and room service, I’ll be busy down here for a couple of hours.”

Hah. A couple of hours. The five times that Andrew went down on me he spent less than a minute tickling me with his tongue and then looking at me like he deserved a medal. What could Theo possibly do down there for a couple of hours?

Answer: A lot.

He did a lot.

Maybe not for two hours, but for a long time.

All that restraint he showed on the plane was replaced with hungry, urgent sucking and licking and swirling and flicking and thrusting, like his life depended on it. I made such a crumpled mess of the linens as I traveled on my back, up and down the bed, gripping onto the sheets, the pillows, the headboard, clinging to the bedspread with my toes, arching my back and crashing back down again. I may have lost consciousness at one point, and I actually thought I was going to die, because how could I go on living after experiencing so much intense physical pleasure from someone I cared about so deeply? He brought me to the brink so many times before letting me come, and afterwards I was just jelly, but I lay there knowing that I would have no trouble at all accommodating this guy’s huge erection.

I was right. He started slow. I wrapped one leg around him, held on tight to his biceps and opened my eyes because I wanted to see what he looked like now that he was actually inside of me. He was so beautiful. His long dark eyelashes fluttered as he winced. Once he was all the way in, he began thrusting, and my eyes stayed wide open because holy fuck I was feeling things I had never felt before, in parts of me that I didn’t even know existed. I do mean that metaphorically, but also literally. Physically. Gynecologically. I had no idea a dick could fill me up and penetrate so deep inside of me.

Chloe was right—it didn’t matter how little experience I’d had while we were actually fucking because Theo was doing most of the work. I just tried not to pass out.

I was panting when he suddenly sat up on his knees and said huskily: “Let’s see if those yoga classes are paying off.”

I tried to open my eyes and lift my head up. “What?” There’s more?

His hand slid down my thigh and calf to my ankle and swiftly pushed my left leg to the side and then up to rest on his shoulder. “Well done,” he grinned. “Namaste.” When he pressed himself against the back of my leg, coming at me from a new angle, I was done. Or was I undone?

His touch was strong and gentle. I felt weak and empowered beneath him. He was the Theo that I had always known and loved, but he was also someone new. I was more me than ever, but I also wasn’t. I was just a body. A stunned, happy body. I felt everything and nothing and too much and not enough. I wanted more, to disappear into him. He raised my other leg up, and moaned, as though he was feeling things he had never felt before, though surely he had.

He flipped me around so I was facing the headboard, pulled me up and back so I was on my knees, and entered me from yet another new angle that I hadn’t experienced before. I held onto the headboard, he held onto my hips, and I have no idea how loud I was or if I was actually forming words, but I could not keep quiet as he slammed into me.

Stamina. Endurance. Pacing. Grace. These are the qualities that made Theo a fantastic marathon runner, and it turned out they are also the qualities that make him a fanfuckingtastic lover. How could anyone be so good at this at twenty-five and be a CEO of his own company? That was the second-to-last clear thought I remember having before he grabbed onto my shoulders and told me that he was going to come. My last thought was Thank God, and then I just dissolved into an epic orgasmic oblivion as he made the sexiest sound I had ever heard in my life.

I didn’t have the strength to turn my head and watch him when he walked to the bathroom, in all his sweaty naked glory, but I really really wanted to.

Ohhhh Laaawdy. I was mentally fanning myself. Sex is amazing. I never had any idea what I was missing.

I was so pissed.

All this time I could have been feeling like that?

I wanted more. I wanted it all the time. It was shocking to me that people who had this kind of sex would ever stop it to do anything else. How do other things even get done in this world when people could be doing that?

I realized that I had fallen asleep, that Theo had fallen asleep in bed beside me, and although my body was quite exhausted and thoroughly satisfied, I was now wide awake. This was my chance. I carefully lifted the sheet up from his body and tossed it down to the foot of the bed, exposing him completely.

And I stared.

I stared down at his totally naked body, finally allowing myself to fully appreciate the beauty of it. The smooth golden skin, the broad shoulders that inspired confidence, the firm rounded biceps that made me want to grab on and never let go while he plowed away at me.

“See anything you like?” he asked, eyes still closed, smirking.

“I’m seeing everything that I like.”

I squealed when he suddenly reached out to grab me. He rolled on top of me and pushed the mess of wavy hair out of my face. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No,” I giggled. “It wasn’t nearly as awful as I feared it would be.”

He laughed and kissed my neck. “Ready to go again?”

“Oh yeah.”

He pulled back. “Can I just say one thing to my best friend Grandma Kelly for a sec?”

“You may proceed.”  I waved my hand in front of my face and gave him a friendly smile. 

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“But I need to tell you about this woman I’m dating.”

I scrunched up my face. “Do you have to?”

“Yeah. Because I’m going to be spending a lot of time with her from now on and I don’t want you to feel left out.”

“What makes you so sure she wants to spend a lot of time with you too?”

“Because I see the way she looks at me and I can feel how wet I make her.”

I punched his beautiful firm rounded bicep. 

“I hope to be with both of you at the same time someday.”

I wrinkled my nose. “What, like a threesome?”

“Well that’s not what I was thinking, but now I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Okay.” I swiped my hand back up over my face and gave him a sexy frown. At least I hoped it was sexy.   “Grandma Kelly’s got to go.”

“Just give her a message for me. Tell her I still love her in the way that I always have but now I’m falling for this other woman in ways that I didn’t know were possible.”

Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop saying such amazing things and looking so cute and touching me all the time like you can’t get enough of me. 

“Also I need to know one thing, just one thing.”

Yes. I’m in love with you. Don’t make me say it or I’ll start ugly crying and you’ll never want to have sex with me again

“DiCaprio or Damon? Come on, just tell me. If you had to pick one of them which would it be?”

“You. I’d pick you. Every time.”

I couldn’t believe I’d just said such a cheesy thing out loud, but the way his eyelids fluttered, the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down like he was holding back emotions, the way he held me even tighter—it was worth it. I was mortified, but it was worth it.

“You don’t have to look so scared. My heart was always yours to break, Gem. You can do it now or you can do it later. But at least believe me when I say that the last thing I’d ever want to do is break yours.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “You believe me?”

I nodded my head.

He traced the tip of his index finger down the center of my torso from between my collarbone to my belly button, along the vertical line that had become more defined in recent months. 

“I like this,” he said, tracing his fingertip back up again. “You know what this is called?”

“An ab crack?”

“The linea alba. Not everyone has this. It’s genetic. Like dimples.”

“Really? I thought I worked for it.”

His finger wandered down to my nipple, lightly circling it. “I like this too.” He placed his whole hand on my breast and squeezed before kissing me there and everywhere, as promised. 

“I really do like every part of you.”

“Good. Because it’s all yours.”