They were quiet, their breathing settling still, their senses not altogether recollected.
“It was wonderful. I could never have imagined this. Thank you,” she said shyly.
“Oh, well, my pleasure,” he murmured. “In fact, greatest pleasure of my life.”
It seemed absurd to blushnow, but she did.
He smiled at her, and it was a somewhat tilted rakish affair. But his eyes were somber and tender and hazed with sleepiness.
And then they drifted closed.
“Oh, God. I shouldn’t sleep,” he murmured. “We truly cannot tarry here long, Aurelie.”
“You must sleep. You need to sleep. Have you a watch?”
“My coat pocket,” he murmured.
“I will wake you in... two hours. Do you trust me?”
“Very well. Two hours. I trust you,” he said. After a moment.
As though he hadn’t said those words aloud in agesand it had taken some time to admit it to himself. Perhaps he had never said them.
She rose and fished about in his coat for his watch. She was aware of his admiring eyes on her, and she was glad. She’d never dreamed she’d ever dare to stroll naked through a vicar’s cottage with the eyes of a spy on her.
She returned to bed with the watch. And settled in next to him, arranging their piles of covers over their bodies.
They layered their legs over each other. He looped his arm beneath her.
“I will tell you a story,” she said softly.
“Excellent,” he murmured happily.
“There once was a man whose body was made of iron and scars. He was as brave as a lion, but underneath his skin, behind the cage of his ribs, his heart was as soft as petals.”
“Petals?”he said sleepily, amused and indignant.
“Shhhh,” she said. “He was born to be a protector, but he didn’t know he needed one of his own, until she arrived. He knew she would cherish the soft petals of his heart. And when he realized this, he discovered that his cage had been unlocked all along.”
Then he gave a short, stunned laugh. “Aurelie,” he said. As if she had undone him.
Sleep took him under.
She woke him with a kiss.
His eyes fluttered open.
“Itwasn’ta dream,” he whispered, quite pleased.
She smiled at him and kissed him again. He laid his hand alongside her cheek and kissed her back. They lost themselves in a series of long, languid, dreamy, kisses that deepened, and grew hungry.
She kissed the base of his throat; then slid her mouth to beneath his ear, where his pulse was quickening. He drew his hand along her hair.
“I may touch you like this? And kiss you like this?”
“You may touch me and kiss me however you please.” His voice was hoarse.
“You will tell me how you like to be touched?”
