She can feel how his mouth yields to hers, the wondering hunger in it. "There is no comparison," she assures him, with complete truth. "Already I understand much that confused me in those days."

She kisses him again with hunger of her own, pulling him back up and wrapping her arms around him as she nips at his mouth. There is a melting sweetness to it, a heat that she feels growing, far beyond what she experienced before. There was pleasure then, yes, but only body pleasure, and that she now suspects not great. It is wholly eclipsed now.

She rolls them over while still kissing him, her hair sliding over one shoulder, then begins moving her own way down, teasing his neck with lips and teeth and darts of tongue.