The initial, powerful silence didn't last long. Paul collapsed onto her, heavy and spent, his body a warm, damp weight pinning her to the soft mattress.
Mariella didn't move. Her heart rate, which had been frantic moments before, now thrummed with a deep, pervasive contentment she had never known. She ran her fingers tentatively over his sweat-damp back, tracing the hard definition of his shoulder blades.
“Oh, my God,” she finally whispered, the words escaping in a breathless, awestruck puff.
Paul shifted his weight, propping himself up on one elbow, looking down at her with a lazy, satisfied gaze that was suddenly warmer, the cold lawyerly mask having melted away. He pulled out of her, she felt the sudden cold air, stood up, pulled the used condom and discarded it in the waste bin, and
