"Linda turned her head toward Tom, and his face was close, very close, moving like a descending sphere as his eager warm lips met her. She wanted him to kiss her, to press his mouth and tongue into her to draw out the raging heat that poured through her fiery body. It lingered, held to a boiling pitch of passion that made her mind blank out what she knew was a very real danger. His wetly quivering tongue flicked into her open mouth, touching the roof of her mouth like a hot poker, and she began sucking on it hungrily, feeling a warm inviting promise of fulfillment that she had never felt in a kiss before that moment. It was good, too good, and she searched through the alcoholic haze in her mind to find reason for it all being wrong. But when the kiss ended, she felt only disappointment. He had kissed her, and she had let him. It was kindness, a secret understanding formed in the privacy of a room full of people."