Intimacy

In the book about Esther, the author made some interesting comments on intimacy (240-241).

"Intimacy, while definitely something I felt during and after the consummation of our union, was far more than just the closeness created by the joining of our bodies. Intimacy was the joy we felt in each other's company - joy we could have felt walking together or having a deep conversation - as well as trust, the mutual understanding, the romantic feelings of tenderness, the visual attraction, the longing to be cherished. It was all these things and more."

Also:
"First, you must be someone who knows who she is and how she fits into the world, who needs no one but God to make her a whole person. Neediness can be highly seductive, but only for a very short incendiary period, and usually only with a man who is flawed in his own right. (...) What attracts him the most, and the longest, is a woman who does not need him to be complete yet chooses out of her wholeness and completeness to give herself utterly to him."