Cherished
Page 37
Her response was incoherent, a quick catch of breath and small sounds without form or substance deep in her throat.
“Tell me,” he said fiercely.
Somehow, she managed to choke out the words.
Breast to breast, fingers laced above her head, they gazed without smiling into each other’s eyes. They were in thrall to the mystery that had set them apart from all possible lovers. She was his. He was hers. It was meant to be.
Their eyes glazed over and the world contracted to the next sigh and moan and the caress of a lover’s lips against bare skin. Desire quickened to a white-hot flame, consuming them in the relentless drive to be both possessor and possessed. At the height of the act, Leon muffled his cry of triumph against his wife’s breast. Emily wept softly into her husband’s neck.
A long while later, Leon eased himself from her body and gathered her close, with tongue and lips, he brushed over her face, absorbing each tender tear, savoring far more than the sensual pleasure of it.
“Holy water,” he said, teasing her, “sanctifying our marriage.”
Emily sniffed and sighed and snuggled closer. In another moment, she had drifted into sleep. It amused him to see that there was a smile on her lips.
Leon lay awake for a long while after. He was thinking that he would never forget his wife’s words to him when she had told him that she was with child. She hoped for a son who was in the image of his father.
As he leaned over her, love tightened his throat. “I want a daughter in the image of her mother,” he whispered.
Emily did not awaken, but she responded to something in her husband’s voice. Reaching over, she felt for his hand and carried it to her softly swelling abdomen.
By degrees, Leon relaxed against her, his forehead resting against her nape. The wind rattled the windowpanes, and he heard the lonely call of a wolf far off in the distance and the answering cry of its mate.
A new day was dawning and the taste of it was sweet.
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