She lay helpless in his hold.
Afterwards she realized that she must have been near to fainting, for when at the end of those wild moments of passion he let her go, her knees gave way beneath her and she could not stand.

Yet instinctively she gripped her courage with both hands.

He had startled her, appalled her even, but there was a fighting strain in Sylvia, and she flung dismay away.

She held his arm in a quivering grasp.

She smiled a quivering smile.