He came willingly into the embrace, and once more she enjoyed how he fit against her, as if their bodies had been made for each other. When their legs tangled, his stump brushed along her thigh. At that, profound sadness washed over her: that he had had to endure this, that he’d had to go through it alone, all alone, for twelve long years.
He stroked her hair and played with the long strands that clung to his fingers. Cissy buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder and breathed in his unique scent: sweet sandalwood, overlaid by the muskiness of their lovemaking of a few hours ago. She closed her eyes and smiled against his shoulder. His symmetry might be disturbed, but not destroyed, never destroyed. And they fit well together.
Turning her head a little, she pressed a kiss against one stubbly cheek. “If you want to look at my cards, we need a bit of light,” she whispered.
“As my lady wishes,” he whispered back. Before he rolled off her, he captured her lips in a searing kiss, his tongue whirling hotly through her mouth. When he finally raised his head, he was grinning again. “To keep you warm.”
With a giggle, she shoved at his shoulder so she could wriggle out underneath him and leave the warmth of the bed. Immediately, gooseflesh took her skin. “Brrr.” She rubbed her arms.
Behind her, she heard her husband chuckle. “Oh dear, I see my warming-up technique leaves something to be desired.”
She looked back over her shoulder and caught him ogling her bare behind from where he lay among the rumpled pillows. She raised her brows in mock severity. “Enjoying yourself?”
His teeth flashed. “With you, always.”
Joy rose inside her like a golden bubble. He was quite wrong, she found: his warming-up technique left nothing to be desired.
She went to her chest of drawers, and at the same time she heard him rummaging for the flint box. When she turned, her small package of cards in hand, soft candlelight enshrouded the bed and transformed Fenris’s skin into molten gold.
He watched as she walked toward him, and under his gentle scrutiny she felt herself blush. Who would have thought this a few months ago: that she would ever walk around a room stark naked while Fenris von Wolfenbach watched, this smoky, hot look in his eyes promising undreamt of delights?
When he saw the fiery color suffusing her skin, his lips twisted in a tender smile. “Have I already told you how beautiful you are, my Cissy?” he asked. He reached out a hand.
By now Cissy felt as if her cheeks were on fire. She placed her hand in his, and his warm, strong fingers closed around hers. With a gentle tug, he drew her to his side. With his free hand he flipped back the cover so she could slip back inside.
“Beautiful, but freezing,” he laughed, as her icy limbs brushed against him. “Come here.” He wrapped her in both the cover and his arms.
“Mmmm.” She snuggled against him, luxuriating in the heat his body radiated. “The cards.” She held out the stack.
“Oh yes, the cards.” He kissed her wrist before he took them. Leaning on his elbow above her, he opened the box, and ivory-colored cards rained on the duvet. Clearly puzzled, he fetched up the ace of spades. “Didn’t you say it was an erotic deck?” He turned the card around. Frowning, he glanced at Cissy, who tried to smother her giggles with a hand over her mouth. “Have you been pulling my leg, sweet wife? This is a normal, plain ace of spades, as erotic as a broomstick.”
At his consternation, she burst out laughing. She took the card. “You have to hold it against the light.” She proceeded to show him, and as if by magic, the card revealed its secret.
Fenris’s jaw dropped. “Gracious!”
“As erotic as a broomstick, hm?” Cissy asked, amused.
Together they looked at the picture, which was of a man and a woman coupling on a settee. The man lay against a fat red pillow, his trousers down around his knees, while the woman, her skirts drawn up to display her bare bottom, lay on top of him, pierced by his large member.
“Gracious!” Fenris repeated, clearly thunderstruck.
Cissy giggled. A disconcerted beast was quite a novelty. “Rather… um…enlightening, don’t you think?” she asked innocently.
He shot her a dark look.
She batted her lashes.
“Minx,” he growled, and reached for the next card, the nine of hearts. A naked woman lounged on a chair, while in front of her, down on his knees, a man teased her cleft with his finger. “Ah. Proper supplication,” Fenris commented.
Beside him, Cissy shifted. A rather extraordinary feeling this, her husband’s hot body pressed against her, while they looked at these erotic little pictures together.
Reaching for another card, he threw her a look, his eyes glinting with sudden devilry, as if he knew that a pulse had begun to throb between her legs. “Have you looked at all of them?” he wanted to know.
This time the card showed a woman on her knees before a soldier, sucking on his manhood.
“Ye-es.”
On the next card, the king of diamonds’ enormous penis sprung up from among his loosened clothes. Fenris arched a brow. “Impressive,” was his dry comment. “If somewhat crooked. Don’t you think so?” His gaze returned to Cissy’s, pierced her.
Blood heated her cheeks. “Hm.” She fought hard not to squirm under his scrutiny.
His gaze shifted away as he chose another card. The seven of clubs: another settee, another couple. “Do you look at them often?” Fenris asked, his tone almost disinterested. But there was still that glint in his eyes.
Cissy swallowed. By now, her whole body tingled most uncomfortably. “Sometimes,” she croaked.
“Ah.” He sounded as if he had made a profound discovery. He turned the five of hearts to the light. “A nice one, that.”
Two women, this time; naked and kissing, and one of them was fondling the sex of the other, while in the background a man stood by and watched.
Cissy swallowed. The duvet rasped painfully over her puckered nipples. She bit her lower lip in the vain hope the tingling would stop.
Her husband’s gaze swiveled back to capture hers, like an eagle capturing its prey. Smiling, he leaned down. “And what do you feel when you look at them, my sweet?”
At the sound of his voice, dark and smooth like hot cocoa, Cissy felt the muscles in her stomach contract and a rush of scalding heat between her legs. She sucked in a sharp breath. “I…I…”
He nuzzled the hollow under her jaw. “Does it make you shiver and tingle?” His tongue rasped over the soft column of her throat. Ecstatic, Cissy closed her eyes and arched her neck to give him better access. “Does it make you hot, so hot…?” His teeth closed over her tender skin in the gentlest of bites. “Hot,” he breathed.
Cissy moaned. “Y-yes…”
“Does it? Does it indeed?” He stopped kissing her, and she thought she would die.
“Fenris!” She opened her eyes.
“That’s a nice one, too.” He held up another card. This time, the grin he gave her was decidedly wolfish. “A very nice one, the queen of spades.”
The queen of spades.
Cissy ran her tongue over suddenly dry lips.
His eyes fastened on that tiny movement. “A very, very nice one,” he rasped. He raised his eyes to hers, daring her. “Don’t you want to look at it?”
Temptation, that voice. It flowed over her like warm syrup, so smooth and tempting.
“I…” Of course she knew what she would find when she looked at the picture. “I…”
“Go on,” he invited, his eyes smoky and smoldering. “Look at it,” he whispered. “Look at the queen’s delight. Let the heat spread through your body.”
Helplessly, she followed his gaze as his eyes turned to the queen of spades, which he held flat between his fore and middle fingers. Flat, so the light glinted off the card, but didn’t yet reveal its secret.
“Behold”—a flick of his thumb and the card sprang to life—“the queen.”
The woman leaned nonchalantly against a small green tab
le as if she did not care that her skirts were rucked up to her waist, revealing her rounded belly and thighs. And on the floor between her legs sat a man who…who…
“And what do you feel when you look at this?” Fenris whispered against her ear, making her shiver helplessly. “Can you feel the heat?” His lips caressed her temple. “So much heat…”
It was burning her up, the heat. A fire raged through her veins.
Transfixed, Cissy stared at the little queen of spades, at the man who sat between her legs and—
“Here.” Fenris pressed the card into her nerveless fingers. “Look at it, will you? Look at her delight, Cissy.”
Now free, his hand slipped under the duvet. She sucked in a breath as it reached her breasts, brushed over her aching nipples. Darts of delight nipped at her nerve endings.
“Fenris…”
“Just look.” He kissed her temple. “Look at her. So much delight, Cissy.” His hand stroked her quivering belly, and she had to bite her lip to prevent herself from screaming. “A true queen, isn’t she? Just look at her, my sweet. Look.”
His fingers brushed over the springy hair at the apex of her thighs, while she stared at the card, at the woman who stood so proudly—and at the man who orally pleasured her.
One of Fenris’s fingers found the little nub between her legs and flicked. Cissy moaned loudly. Her eyes fell closed. Her back arched, and she pressed herself against his fingers.
“Do you feel the heat, my sweet? Do you?”
“Yes,” she whimpered. “Yes.”
His finger slid deeper, sinking into her. “Ahh, and how wet it makes you.” Sultry satisfaction rang in his voice. “So wet you’re overflowing.”
She could feel his finger moving inside her, in and out, sliding easily through her moist heat. She panted. Surely this was too much. Nobody could feel so much and still live.
“Look at the queen, Cissy. Do you think she is as wet as you?” His deep, dark voice flowed over her, added to her delight, and she whimpered again.
Abruptly, his fingers disappeared, leaving her empty and aching. So empty, she could have wept. She blinked and looked at him as he loomed above her. “Don’t…don’t stop,” she begged.
He raised her hand holding the card. “Look at the queen, Cissy. Look at her.”
Almost sobbing, she complied.
“Beautiful, is she not?” With tender hands he stroked the damp strands of hair out of her face. “Can you imagine what she feels?”
“Fenris, please!” Her whole body ached for his touch.
The flame of the candle flickered, making the woman on the card shudder wildly.
Cissy shivered. “Please, Fenris, please…”
He stared down at her, his eyes darker than she had ever seen them. Frantically, she reached up to stroke his cheek, his chin. “Fenris, please. Please, I beg you. I…”
A dark, dangerous smile lifted his lips. “Shall I show you?”
“I— What?”
His gaze flickered to the card. “Will you let me…?” His voice trailed delicately away.
He would…?
Cissy gasped. She felt as if she were burning up from inside.
“Yes or no, my sweet?” His lips roamed her face, raining kisses on her brows, her nose, her cheeks, her lips. But it was not enough. Not nearly enough.
Shuddering, she let her head fall back and closed her eyes. “Oh, yes,” she breathed. “Yes.”
He took her mouth with his, branded her with his tongue. “As you wish,” he finally said, his voice hoarse. And a heartbeat later, the cover was ripped aside, her scattered cards rustling like the wings of little birds.
Cool air washed over Cissy’s hot body, but only for a moment, then his mouth was there, nibbling on her collarbone, tracing the outline of her breasts and then—yes!—kissing his way down her stomach. She moaned as his tongue dipped into her belly button, whirled around. Her thighs fell open.
Against the black of her closed lids she saw the queen of spades, proudly displaying her nakedness. The man sitting at her feet, licking her, licking… Fenris!
Cissy screamed.
His tongue flicked over her again and again, ran teasingly up and down her folds and dipped into her wetness. And as he sucked on her, he catapulted her right into the sky and made her fly.
She felt his hands clamp around her waist as she thrashed helplessly on the bed, moaning his name.
And he licked and licked, like the man on the picture. He licked until the sky exploded into a thousand stars, raining down on her.
Cissy’s scream echoed in the room, but still Fenris did not cease, and she could not evade his tongue, even though she whimpered and begged. He licked and teased and a second wave washed over her…and another…and another…until she lay in his arms, damp and limp, and thought she had surely died with so much pleasure.
His hands stroked her in gentle circles, soothing the tremors which still wracked her body. “The most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” she heard him whisper. He nuzzled her ear, traced its outline with his tongue.
Then, when she was still lying boneless against the pillows, he gently turned her around so she was facing away from him. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her back against his chest, slick with sweat. She could feel his erection against the small of her back, so hot he must surely burn her skin. And then he lifted her leg a little and in one smooth thrust slipped inside her.
It was enough to rouse her from her languidness and make shafts of fire pierce her body once more. “Ahh,” she groaned. Her head fell back against his shoulder.
“Do you like that?” he murmured, his breath a warm caress against her ear, while he flexed his hips and slowly moved inside her.
“Mmmm.” Her sigh ended in a moan, as his hand found her breast. She wriggled her bottom against him.
A soft laugh drifted over her cheek. “I gather that means you like it.”
This time, their loving was slow and dreamy. He moved without haste, his hands tender on her body. His warmth surrounded her, flowed into her, until the barriers between their bodies blurred and the pleasure swept over their heads like a dark wave. They floated in it, and it gently carried them over into sleep while they were still joined: she wrapped in his arms, he embedded deep inside her.
So deep he must surely touch her heart.
Interlude
The happiness soaked through them until they fairly hummed with it. They remembered such happiness from ages past when they had been filled with joy.
Would the joy return to them now, brighter than sunshine?
Would there be enough happiness to chase away the shadows, to break the ice of desolation?
They hoped and waited.
Sometimes a tiny spark was enough to ignite a mighty fire.
Chapter 19
The second time Cissy woke, it was to sunshine and birdsong—and to a cold, empty space next to her in bed.
Fenris had opened one of the windows, and the fresh, crisp morning air had already chased away the scent of their lovemaking. A feeling of loss stabbed at her heart, as sharp as any knife. And fear. Was he embarrassed that her maid might come in and smell it, their passion, the joy they had found and shared?
All at once, tears pricked in her eyes.
She turned her face into the pillow where his head had rested. His scent still clung to the linen, and greedily she inhaled it.
Wolf, my wolf.
She sighed.
For a moment, she lay limp, then she rubbed her cheek over the pillow and remembered the moments she had hugged him to her, when she had buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder. She remembered the weight of him when he had moved inside her body, and the even more delicious heaviness of him after he had orgasmed that first time. He had lain so still she might have thought he had died had it not been for the thundering of his heart against hers. He had smelled so sharp and sweet, of joy and love. Love…
Cissy rubbed at her eyes.
How she
would have loved to wake up with him to a new morning. How she would have loved to hug him to her once more, to feel his living warmth, his strength and gentleness. To feel how well their bodies fit together, so very well.
Frowning, she sat up. Why wasn’t he here with her?
Something pricked at her thigh, and when she reached down to remove whatever had caused the little sting, she found the knave of clubs smirking back at her. In fact, her cards lay scattered all around the bed, showing their shiny, innocent daytime faces. Cissy looked from them to the burnt-down candle beside her bed.
“It’s no use pretending last night hasn’t happened,” she told the knave of clubs grimly. “So you can just stop.” She scrambled up and retrieved her cards.
Yet one was missing. One was…
She found the queen of spades under her pillow, slightly crumpled but still smiling serenely. Cissy pressed the card against her heart. “You and I, we both know what happened last night,” she whispered to the queen. “And we will hold on to it. Yes, we will.”
~*~
Cissy did not bother to wait for Marie, but donned her wraparound stays over her chemise and chose a simple morning dress. She splashed some cold water into her face and quickly combed out her hair. After braiding it tightly, she pinned it up and deemed herself respectable enough to confront her husband.
She took a deep breath.
He would know, just like her, that her simple, respectable appearance was a daytime façade, too. In his arms she had become a wanton, had been naked, and had lost all decorum. And yet, she refused to be ashamed, for there had been so much joy and pleasure.
And love.
For a moment, she had to close her eyes. But yes, that too. Love.
She picked up the queen. “I will not feel shame for something so beautiful,” she told the card before she slipped it into her pocket. Determined, she walked out of her room and started to search for her husband.
She found him in his study, deeply engrossed in his account ledgers. Cissy’s heart softened as she stood unnoticed in the door and watched how he ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up in all directions. Concentration tightened his features and had created a wrinkle between his brows. So he just has work to do. She felt an overwhelming urge to kiss the wrinkle away, to smooth her fingers over his face and chase away all that tension.
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