" It wasn’t until he started to speak that he realized he was shaking, too. He reached up, touched her cheek. “You are real,” he said, then grinned when she rolled her eyes. “I--just checking.” Then he framed her face with his hands, struggling to keep the touch gentle when what he wanted to do was pull her all the way inside him and keep her there forever and ever. “Because I don’t think I could stand losing you a third time, Starfish. I’m barely functional as it is.”
“So I’ve heard,” she said, then half laughed, half caught her breath on an emotion-filled gasp of air.
“Have you, now?” he said, his own voice choking up. “I’ll have a talk with that one after.”
“After?”
“After this.” Then he pulled her tightly into his arms and lowered his mouth to hers, the joy filling him so swiftly and so fully, he truly feared he might burst with the intensity of it. "

― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)