Chapter 7: CarnalityAfter all this intellectual stuff, I found myself brought back to an acute awareness of the here-and-now, the purely present and physical. I realized Jake had left the chamber and was probably on his chair up on the patio, keeping vigil against raccoons. I smiled at that, but my attention returned to the physical, which took both the form of actual touch and a kind of awareness of the massive masculine presence that was so near to me—something like the gravitational field of a mountain, which I had read was measurable—only stronger, and more wonderful.
The contact was reassuring and intensely pleasurable and I lay there, not wanting to move. I had closed my eyes and was feeling so content that when I felt one of Grendel’s big fingers touch my cheek, I didn’t start. It
