the first time they’d touched, she had been aware of the effect he had on her, of how thoroughly he was able to excite her. She had been completely defenseless since the first time he had kissed her. And now that they belonged to one another fully, the next step felt inevitable.
Usually Naomi found it a little bit awkward to be with someone for the first time, even if the sex was good. There was always a bit of fumbling as they figured out the right things to do, a series of missteps as they learned the things each other didn’t like.
But with Petr, it felt as if someone had written her a script.
No. It was more than that. Because she wasn’t following any line of thought. She wasn’t thinking at all.
It was as if her body just knew what to do. As if this—exactly this—was what she had been made for.
Every action flowed smoothly into the next. Every touch was intense. And when it was over, she felt happier and more satisfied than she ever had in her life.
There was no conversation. There was no need for it. She curled up in his arms, and he wrapped himself protectively around her, and together they drifted into blissful, contented sleep.
It had been a long time since Naomi had gotten through a night without at least one disconcerting dream. She usually had recurring visions of her parents telling her they were disappointed in the way her life had gone. Though that was a sentiment they had never expressed to her while they were alive, it was all too easy to believe, because that disappointment was something Naomi so often struggled with herself. She usually woke up from those dreams feeling raw and anxious, wishing she could call them for reassurance that they were proud of her, that everything was all right.
She would never have that reassurance again. It was devastating.
But tonight, she felt bathed in a surety that they would have approved of her life. If her mother could have seen her right now, Naomi thought, she would have been nothing but impressed that her daughter had found a man like Petr.
She woke up in the middle of the night and stared up at the ceiling. Beside her, Petr was still asleep, breathing slowly and evenly. Naomi glanced over at him. He was so handsome while he slept, his features relaxed and at peace. She couldn’t believe that he was hers.
She didn’t want to disturb him—he had done so much to make their wedding day spectacular for her, and he deserved to rest now—but she didn’t think she would be able to get back to sleep. Slowly, carefully, she extricated herself from his arms and made her way out onto the balcony outside his bedroom.
She wandered along the length of the balcony for a while. In the corner, where the east side of the courtyard met the north, there was a hammock strung up from the balcony ceiling. Naomi eased herself into it, reached over to the balcony railing, and gently set herself rocking.
They were far enough from the center of the city that she couldn’t hear any traffic or city noises, but near enough that the stars weren’t much to behold. She stared up at them anyway, trying to pick out familiar constellations, trying to identify her own place in the universe. These were the same constellations that dwelt in the sky above her back in Los Angeles. It was mind-boggling to think that she could have come so far and could still be under the same sky.
She had spent so much time stargazing, she remembered, during the time in her life when she’d been writing her album. So many of her track names had come from astronomical ideas, and the concept of the album as a whole had had to do with the idea of finding your place in the universe, and how that related to finding the people you were supposed to have with you. She wondered if Petr had understood that about “Starlight Boy”—that it wasn’t just a simple love song. It was a song about finding the person who would recognize you in any set of circumstances, the way she could find the same constellations no matter where she was.
She would have to tell him.
They still had so much to learn about each other. Her heart swelled with excitement at the thought. It had been too long since she had had someone new in her life.
She