I look out at the shoreline. The others have disappeared behind the rocks.

“Gone exploring,” Salvatore adds. “Won’t be back for a while. Private beach. No one else is going to interrupt.”

“Maggie might.”

“She’ll stay asleep. She’s a good kid.”

“And you’re a very bad man.”

His hand strokes lower still, moving into my shorts, teasing its way along the waistband of my panties. “You want me to stop?” he asks.

“I didn’t say that, did I?”

“Then shush and catch some rays.”

I close my eyes and breathe steadily, listening to the sounds of the ocean as the tide slowly recedes. I think of how happy I am, how content.

Then I remember how sure I was that everything was going to go wrong.

hows what I know, right?

His hand moves inside my panties, fingers stroking gentle lines on my inner thighs as I lift my knees, moving my legs apart, shifting in place.

I let out a quiet moan as he finds my core, sliding into the wetness that’s forming there.

“So wet for me,” he growls in my ear. “Cara mia.”

I shift in place, allowing him to push a finger deep inside me. I open my eyes, glancing around. No one in view.

Just the ocean, the sky, and my husband moving his finger to my clit, stroking it lightly as the sensation turns me wild.

It’s always been like this. Throughout the pregnancy, he could always tip me over the edge.

Once Maggie came along, things were put on ice for six weeks, but recently my desire for him has become insatiable.

My hunger only seems to grow as time passes. Our love stronger in a way I never expected.

Salvatore says it’s like the concrete they used to build Ancient Rome. It only hardens and strengthens as time passes. It never weakens.

That’s how I feel about my husband. A stronger love with every day that passes.

I let out another moan as he slips his finger into me again. “I want you,” I whisper. “Right now.”

“You read my mind.”

He moves me onto my side, wrapping himself around me, easing my shorts down to my thighs.

A moment later, he’s in me, pushing deep, filling me completely.

He holds me in place, rocking slightly, driving me wild as his hand moves back to my clit. “So good,” he mutters.

“Give it to me,” I reply. “We haven’t got long before they come back.”

For once, he obeys me. It doesn’t happen often. He moves me onto my front and lifts me onto all fours, pulling back before slamming all the way in.

A finger slips into my ass, filling me even more than I thought possible. My nerves are shot, my voice nothing more than a ragged gasp for air.

I toy with my clit, getting close to the edge in moments. He reads my mind, moving faster than ever, whipping the breath from my lungs.