By the time I came for the second time and he for his first, I was pretty sure every muscle in my body had been used to the full, and our skin shone all over.
He clamped my shoulder and pumped into me, his face an inch from mine, breathing hot breath on me before taking my mouth and savaging it with a kiss.
We lay entwined, rolling from side to side, still joined at our cores, until our hearts began to slow and we slipped sweatily from each other’s grasp.
The room was darker now and the time seemed to stretch along with our exhausted bodies. We lay in silent shellshock, waiting for words or thoughts to form.
Tom found speech first.
‘Room service, then?’ he croaked.
I tried to reply, but my throat had been lined with sandpaper. Instead I reached for the bottled water on the bedside table and uncapped it.
Once we had drunk deep and studied the room service menu before ordering, we lay back against the pillows and Tom put the covers over me.
‘Are you sure you can afford it?’ I said, putting the menu away. ‘Those prices are steep.’
‘In for a penny,’ he shrugged.
‘That’s reckless talk.’
‘And you’re not reckless?’
‘No, not as a rule. I’m pretty cautious, actually. And I don’t like to go off-plan. You seem to have found this hidden side of me.’
He grinned and leaned in for a kiss, then laughed as he withdrew.
‘You look absolutely shagged out,’ he said.
‘There’s a reason for that.’
‘Let’s eat and then have a bath,’ he suggested. ‘I took a look at the tub while I was in there earlier. It’s got jets.’
‘You’ve talked me into it. What girl can resist jets?’
‘Seriously,’ he said. ‘If this is your hidden side, I’m very glad I found it.’
‘Are you?’
‘Very.’
After satisfying our appetite for food, we jumped into the bath, put the jets on and emptied every luxury sachet and bottle into the water until it foamed with gusto.
‘So,’ I said, as he lathered my hair with unnecessary care and attention. ‘What do you reckon is going on in the dungeon right now?’
‘I can’t wait to see it,’ he said. ‘It’s going to be…educational.’
‘Yes, but is it going to be incredibly embarrassing?’ I wanted to know. ‘Or even painful?’
‘Well, I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘How do you feel about that?’
‘About what might happen? Nervous.’
‘Do you think she’s going to lock us in and walk all over us in her six-inch stilettoes until our backs bleed?’
‘Maybe! I don’t know. You don’t know. We don’t actually know the woman, do we?’
‘That friend of yours does – Katie. Why don’t you ask her?’