Sal tightened his jaw. “Not even halfway, babe.”

Her eyes widened. “Don’t stop.”

He made his way in slowly. Since he was so worried about hurting her, he began to think it wouldn’t be over as fast as he’d first thought. He’d imagined this going very slow and gentle, but once all the way in and her initial discomfort gone, he began to accelerate his thrusts.

She reveled in it, lifting her hips for him, wanting him deeper so he complied. “You still okay?” He could barely speak.

“Yes! Oh yes… ”

Her longing voice only heightened his arousal and he drove in harder and deeper each time. Hearing her cry out with pleasure, he was only able to go a few more times before the enormity of the fact that he was making love to Grace kicked in and it was over. He squeezed her hands grunting as the incredible surge of pleasure pulsated through him.

He collapsed gently on her, feeling her heartbeat against his chest. He kissed her on the temple then her forehead. “My God, Grace. What you do to me. I can’t even tell you—”

She touched his cheek with the back of her hand. “You don’t have to tell me. I know. I felt it, too.”

Sal stared at her feeling the icy terror creep down his spine. After today, he definitely didn’t know how he’d ever live without her.

*

Sal made out Melissa’s blurry smile as she looked up at him. His arm was draped around her neck. “You got it, babe?”

He tried smiling back but could barely get the words together to respond. “G-got it.”

The hotel room opened and they walked in. Something was wrong. This whole situation was wrong but Sal could barely put two coherent thoughts together much less figure out what it was. As soon as the door closed, Melissa’s hands were on Sal’s pant’s zipper.

Sal jerked out of his sleep, the bright sun immediately making him squint. It took him only a second to remember where he was. In a tent, in his backyard with Grace.

He had a feeling he’d wake up early, but he thought it would be because of the sun coming up so early. Not because of this. His heart pounded. The dream was the exact memory he had of that night in Vegas only the snippet of memory was a little longer this time. Further proof that he had been with her that night. Gulping hard trying not to think about it, he checked his phone for the time. It was only six.

Even with his rude awakening Grace hadn’t budged. She still slept soundly on her stomach, her face on her pillow, facing him. He turned to face her, still breathing hard from his dream and studied her delicate features. The beautifully elongated eyes he’d loved staring into last night each time they’d made love. Those lips, he could kiss them forever and never tire of tasting them.

She gasped suddenly. Sal stared at her ready to wake her if she appeared to be having a bad dream. The corner of her lip went up ever so slightly and she let out a very satisfied sigh. He had to wonder if she was dreaming about last night. He’d been so exhausted by the time they knocked out he hadn’t even dreamt, at least he didn’t remember dreaming anything—until the morning’s disturbing dream.

He lay back on his pillow again and brought his phone up to his face. Not wanting any interruptions yesterday, he’d placed his phone on silent the entire day. He figured if anything was important enough, they’d leave a voicemail. The whole day he had only checked his voicemail once and to his annoyance it had been from Melissa. He deleted it without even listening. But he had several texts he hadn’t checked

The first was a picture from Alex of one of the twins, smiling in her sleep. Like his mom had said a few days ago when he’d gone over and saw one of them do the same thing, “Probably gas.” Still he smiled and saved the picture on his phone.

The next three were from Melissa he turned the phone just slightly so there was no way Grace could see and began highlighting the entire thread to erase it. Damn phone. He wished there was a faster way to do this.

“Good morning.”

He was so startled by Grace’s voice, he dropped the phone and it promptly clunked him on the forehead.

“I’m sorry!” Grace giggled.

He picked the phone up, blinking a few times. Grace was already on her elbow leaning in. She kissed him on the forehead and nose “Does it hurt?”

“I’m good,” he said, rubbing his forehead then putting his phone aside and taking her in his arms. She yawned. “It’s too early—damn sun. You wanna go inside? I have solar shades on my bedroom windows. You’d literally think it’s night time unless you peeked out.”

She yawned again and he kissed her head. “I could probably fall asleep out here again but if you’d rather go inside, that’s fine, too.”

“Yeah, lets go.” He reached for his boxers on the side of the mattress and handed Grace his t-shirt. She slipped it on then glanced around. Sal stood up. “What are you looking for?”

She grinned. “My underwear.”

Sal reached his hand out. “You’re not gonna need them. Trust me.”

Grace took his hand and stood up. Unfortunately, his t-shirt was long enough to cover everything. They both walked out into the sunlight squinting.

They walked in the house and Grace walked directly to the guest restroom. “I gotta go in here first.”

Sal took advantage, speeding up to get to his room. “I’ll be in the bedroom.”

He went straight to his restroom and closed the door. Before he forgot, he made sure he deleted Melissa’s texts. He frowned, pressing the buttons on his phone. He was going to have to figure out how to block her number.