Page 116 of My Best French Wedding

“I don’t want to screw this up,” she whispered, as if that would keep him from hearing the vulnerability in her voice.

“Sex?”

“All of it.”

Walter shook his head. “It’s you and me, Hildy.”

“What does that mean?” If he was referring to their track record, it wasn’t exactly an auspicious sign.

“Have you ever felt this way about anyone else?” He looked right into her eyes.

“No.” There wasn’t even a close second.

“Me neither.” Walter slid his hands down to grasp her hips. When he pulled her closer, a familiar heat flared, her body craving more of his touch. “Don’t think of it as a shocking twist. Maybe we were always headed for this moment.”

“It took us long enough.” Hildy shook her head at the thought of their mutual bumbling. “What were we thinking?”

“Maybe the problem is that we weren’t thinking.”

“Or thinking too much.” The back-and-forth felt like slipping on a favorite sweater.

Walter took her hand, turning it over to press a kiss to her palm. “Hildy.”

“Walter.” She tried to copy his inflection but wasn’t sure it had the same panty-melting effect.

He brushed his lips over the pulse point in her wrist. Was he planning to dismantle her inch by inch?

“Are you teasing me?” she demanded. “I thought we put that behind us.”

“This is the fun kind of teasing. Not that it wasn’t fun before,” he added, when she started to protest.

Hildy summoned her sternest expression. “Okay, but we don’t have all day.”

“I’ve been waiting half my life for this. I was planning to take my time.” As if to illustrate, he gently bit her earlobe.

“What if we get interrupted?Again.” It felt weirdly freeing to mention the past so casually after all these years pretending their history was dead and buried.

He wrapped his arms around her, lips finding hers in anopen-mouthed kiss. “We should have a few hours at least. It’s still early.”

“How about this?” Hildy countered, holding his chin in place with her thumb and forefinger. “One time fast so I don’t lose my mind, and then you can go slow.”

“If that’s what you want.”

She should have known he was capitulating too easily. It turned out Walter was humoring her when he promised not to make her wait. Then again, it was hard to complain while reclining on a bed of rose petals as he kissed his way down her body.

Hildy felt like a goddess. Except this goddess was very much on the physical plane as opposed to floating in some distant Olympus. A goddess on vacation! She thought of a line from the old-fashioned wedding vows that had always struck her as surprisingly racy for a church:with my body, I thee worship.

As his mouth ventured to ever more sensitive places, she felt cherished—and insanely turned on. “Walter.”

“Hmm?”

“What are you doing?”

“Living out my teenage dreams.”

That distracted her. “Is it— I mean, am I like you imagined?”

He lifted his head. “How could the real you ever be less than the fantasy?”