She lifted her face to his and kissed him on the lips.

“You were right. It’s definitely time to move to the bed.”

Vivian pulled back the covers and then stopped.

“No. Oh no.” She turned to him. “Do you have condoms?”

Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit.

“No. I didn’t realize today would end like this!”

She laughed.

“Well, part of me is grateful you didn’t presume, but the part of me that wants to have sex right now is furious you weren’t more prepared.” She looked around the room. “I always tell women they should be prepared themselves, and here I am not taking my own advice. But in my defense, I didn’t think to pack condoms on a trip to England with my daughter!”

He was also furious with himself for not being more prepared.

“Well, there are things we can do that don’t necessitate a condom,” he said.

She laughed.

“Oh, the enthusiasm!”

He squeezed her ass, and she giggled again.

“I am very enthusiastic about all of the things we could do tonight, with or without a condom; I just wish we could do them all!” He kissed her hair. “Or we could put our clothes back on and go back to my apartment?”

She pushed him away and held up a finger.

“I have a better idea.”

She walked over to the minibar and picked up a box.

“I saw this the day we checked in and completely forgot about it until right now. It’s a ‘personal care’ box, and”—she tore open the box and looked up at him with a grin—“there are two condoms inside! God bless us, every one.”

He grabbed her and kissed her hard.

“You, Ms. Vivian Forest, are brilliant and observant, as well as being charming and altogether too sexy for your own good.” He fell with her onto the bed and rolled over on top of her.

“If you just said that to ensure we make good use of these, well . . . okay, fine, I’m in.” She smiled from underneath him and slid her hands down his body until she reached his butt, then squeezed.

He laughed out loud.

“I would have said that no matter what, but your reaction to it shows me exactly why I’ve been smitten with you since the first moment I saw you.” He crawled down her body and kissed her neck, her collarbone, then lingered for a very long time at her breasts, until her moans got so loud he had to keep moving down.

She let out that giggle again when he got there, but her laughter quickly turned into sighs and then moans again, and her hands clutched his head until she gasped and her whole body relaxed.

He slid back to the head of the bed, and she put her arms around him and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” he asked as he pulled her toward him.

He could feel her smile against his chest.

“Everything about this is funny in the best possible way,” she said. “That we met each other in the first place, that you took me horseback riding, that you managed to convince me to stay in England, that the man who introduced me to the Queen gave me the best orgasm I’ve had in years.” She laughed again. “This whole situation is hilarious and I love it.”

She sat up, reached over to the side of the bed, and grabbed one of the condoms from the hotel kit.

“And while I very much appreciate you giving me a moment to rest just there, I don’t want to let these condoms go to waste. Do you?”

Oh, he liked this woman so much. He sat up and took the condom from her hand.

“Absolutely not.”

He tore the package open. Not his favorite brand, but he would take anything at this point. She watched him roll the condom on, and if it was possible for him to get harder, her steady gaze on his cock would have accomplished it.

She pulled him toward her and kissed him. As they kissed, he pushed her slowly back onto the bed, so he was on top of her again. She had that wicked smile on her face once more as he pushed inside of her, then she closed her eyes and her smile softened.

“Mmm. That feels so good.”

She’d taken the words right out of his mouth.

They moved together, first slowly, as they both figured each other out. Did she like it like this . . . or like that? Did she like it when he touched her here, too, or was that too much? He could tell she was making the same calculations about him, which made him like her even more.

But soon, it felt too good for him to keep thinking. He just moved, harder and harder, and the way she moved with him and clutched at him and whispered into his ear told him how much she liked all of this.

Finally, he thrust everything he had into her and let out a loud yell into the pillow. He collapsed back onto the bed and pulled her on top of him.

“Wow,” he said, when he could breathe again.

She kissed his shoulder.

“My thoughts exactly.”

The next morning, Vivian woke up with the blankets tucked around her and Malcolm breathing softly next to her. She looked at him, still sound asleep, sighed in contentment, then grinned up at the ceiling.

Who would have ever thought that she, Vivian Forest, would wake up on December 29 in a fancy hotel room in London, in bed with a very attractive man? She certainly wouldn’t have thought so. But here she was, and goodness, was she happy about it.

Thank God Maddie had made her stay in London. What if she’d been scared and stubborn and had flown home with Maddie the day before and had missed out on last night? She shuddered to think about it.

She got up and went to the bathroom, then slid back under the covers next to Malcolm. He opened his eyes and pulled her close to him.

“Good morning.” He kissed her shoulder, her cheek, her forehead.

“Good morning.” She smiled up at him. “I believe we have one more condom. What do you say to—”

Before she could finish her sentence, he growled and pulled her underneath him, as she giggled again. How was this man able to both make her laugh this much and turn her on this much?

After a very successful use of the last condom, they curled back up in bed together. Malcolm kissed her on the cheek.

“So. We have three more full days together, and I think we would both agree that most of yesterday didn’t go so well.” He sat up, turned to her, and took a deep breath. “And that’s all my fault.”

She sat up, too.

“No, Malcolm, it wasn’t—”

He stopped her.

“Please don’t argue with me; we both know it’s true. But let me explain why.” He sighed. “I lied to you yesterday.”

She just waited. Whatever this was, it was a big deal to him.

“About Miles. That’s not what his big news was. It was that he’d gotten into an art school for next year and is giving up his place at Oxford.” Her mouth dropped open, and he nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly how I felt. We had a massive fight about it. And now he’s even more determined to do this, Sarah is furious at me for encouraging him with his art in the first place, and for not finding a way to talk him out of this, and I’m furious at both Miles and myself.”

It was obviously very hard for him to tell her this. She was grateful he trusted her enough to open up to her. She reached for his hand, and he squeezed it.

“This all sounds so hard. Do you want to tell me how it happened?”