When we return to Ubud, I go straight back to Felipe's house and don't leave his bedroom for approximately another month. This is only the faintest of exaggerations. I have never been loved and adored like this before by anyone, never with such pleasure and single-minded concentration. Never have I been so unpeeled, revealed, unfurled and hurled through the event of lovemaking.

One thing I do know about intimacy is that there are certain natural laws which govern the sexual experience of two people, and that these laws cannot be budged any more than gravity can be negotiated with. To feel physically comfortable with someone else's body is not a decision you can make. It has very little to do with how two people think or act or talk or even look. The mysterious magnet is either there, buried somewhere deep behind the sternum, or it is not. When it isn't there (as I have learned in the past, with heartbreaking clarity) you can no more force it to exist than a surgeon can force a patient's body to accept a kidney from the wrong donor. My friend Annie says it all comes down to one simple question: "Do you want your belly pressed against this person's belly forever—or not?"

Felipe and I, as we discover to our delight, are a perfectly matched, genetically engineered belly-to-belly success story. There are no parts of our bodies which are in any way allergic to any parts of the other's body. Nothing is dangerous, nothing is difficult, nothing is refused. Everything in our sensual universe is—simply and thoroughly—complemented. And, also . . . complimented.

"Look at you," Felipe says, taking me to the mirror after we've made love again, showing me my nude body and my hair that looks like I just came through a NASA space-training centrifuge. He says, "Look how beautiful you are . . . every line of you is a curve . . . you look like sand dunes . . ."

(Indeed, I do not think my body has looked or felt this relaxed in its life, not since I was maybe six months old and my mother took snapshots of me all blissed-out on a towel on the kitchen counter after a nice bath in the kitchen sink.)

And then he leads me back to the bed, saying, in Portuguese, "Vem, gostosa."

Come here, my delicious one.

我们回乌布后，我直接到斐利贝家，然后约有一个月未离开过他的卧室。这说来一点都不夸张。过去我从未被哪个人如此愉悦专注地依恋爱慕。我从未在做爱过程中被如此生吞活剥。

我对亲密关系所了解的一件事，是某种天然法则支配着两个人的性经验，而这些法则没有让步的余地，正如同地心引力般无从商榷。生理上对另一个人的身体感觉自在与否，不是你所能做的决定，和两个人的想法、举止、谈吐，甚至长相，也毫无关系。神秘的吸引力若非深埋在胸骨后头，就是毫不存在。倘若不存在（如同我过去令人心痛的明确体验），你亦无从强迫，正如同外科医师无从强迫病患的身体去接受不合适的肾脏捐赠。我的朋友安妮说，一切都回归到一个简单的问题："你想不想让自己的腹部，永远贴着另一个人的腹部？"

斐利贝和我欣喜地发现，我们是一个完全协调、在基因设计上即完全腹贴腹的成功案例。我们没有任何身体部位对对方的任何身体部位过敏，没有任何危险、困难，或排斥。我们的感官世界——简单而彻底地——相得益彰。并且……被予以赞赏。

"看看你。"斐利贝在我们再次做爱后，带我到镜子前，让我看看自己赤裸的身体与毛发，仿佛我刚从太空总署的太空训练离心机中走出来。他说："看看你多美……你的每一道曲线……都像沙丘……"

（事实上，我想自己的身体这辈子从未看起来或感觉如此放松。打从六个月大时，母亲拍下我在厨房水槽洗完澡后，裹着毛巾在梳妆台上的快乐照片以来，都不曾有过。）

而后他带我回床上，以葡萄牙语说："Vem,gostosa."

过来吧，我的可人儿。