She can feel it when he tenses underneath her, and also as he incrementally relaxes, all while her mouth lingers on his. Her free hand slides from his hip all the way up the center of him, until she can touch his face. It’s only then that she stops kissing him, pulling back just enough enough to look at him.

“I missed you,” she says easily, even though he never left her head. Her fingers trail along his jaw and down the side of his neck, tracing his clavicle and gliding across a well-defined pectoral muscle. “You’ve made it difficult to sleep without you.”