The room looked different with both of us in it.

He closed the door behind him and the sound of the sea through the open window seemed louder now, filling the room, unhurried and constant. The lamp on the nightstand threw its small warm circle of gold across the white bed and the white walls. He stood in the middle of the room and looked at me and I looked back at him and neither of us was in a hurry.

He came to me slowly and put his hands on my face again — both of them this time, cradling my jaw, his thumbs moving along my cheekbones in...