it was indeed likely that after nine years of marriage , and three years of a somewhat tumultuous courtship before that , with literally thousands of kisses kisses that were quick pecks or full-lipped smooches ; kisses that were the prelude to love as they shed their clothes and caressed one anothers bodies ; kisses before going to sleep ; kisses in the kitchen and at parties in front of their friends ; kisses in the shower on the few vacations theyd taken without the girls ; kisses during the essential contact of his exterior with her interior that their mouths could have duplicated one another .