“Aleksei…”
He nodded, wordless.
I laid my hand on his chest again, spreading my fingers, feeling his strong, young heart pounding beneath my touch. “What you carry is no curse, but a gift. Like any gift, it can be used for good or evil. If you use it wisely and kindly, it will bring only joy, and never sorrow. Trust your heart to guide you. Take your shame, and offer it to God. Let him burn it away until only what is pure remains.”
Naamah’s grace expanded, encompassing Aleksei. He caught his breath, a single, gasping sob escaping him.
I didn’t understand, not wholly. But her words were meant for him, not me. “Is all well?” I asked.
“Yes.” Wonder dawned in his blue, blue eyes. “Oh, yes!”
“Good.” I shifted, straddling his knees. “I am going to kiss you now.”
Aleksei smiled through his tears. “Do you think you need to warn me?”
I nodded. “I do.”
Leaning forward, I cupped his face in my hands. He closed his eyes, tears trickling beneath his lashes. I brushed them away with my thumbs, kissed the salty trails they left behind on his skin. I kissed his warm, firm lips until I felt them soften, and parted them with the tip of my tongue, letting it touch his.
He jerked back, eyes open and wide. “Is that… customary?”
I laughed softly. “Yes. Did you not like it?”
“I… don’t know.” Aleksei looked at me with that extraordinary earnestness. “Will you do it again, please?”
I kissed him again. This time, his lips parted more readily. I let my tongue slip between them, finding his and teasing it, coaxing and retreating. I let my hands slide upward into his damp, tawny hair. Let myself lean farther forward, pressing my breasts against his chest. Gods, it felt good.
Aleksei groaned into my mouth, his arms encircling my waist hard, his hands pressing against my back. In the bright sunlight, he pulled me down atop him, kissing me fervently.
“No sin?” I asked, breathless.
He shook his head. “No sin.” He tugged away my head-scarf. “Why are you wearing this? You hate it.”
“True,” I agreed.
He stroked my hair. “It is as soft as it looks.”
“Oh, aye?” I kissed his throat, biting softly at his skin.
He groaned again, his back arching. “Moirin, don’t… don’t. It’s too much. I want to see you. I need to see you.”
I sat back on my heels. “Then do.”
Aleksei rose. I let him pull me to my feet. His big hands clutched folds of my drab woolen dress, lifting it and easing it over my head, discarding it. His hands tugged down my undergarments, and I stepped out of them.
“Oh, God.” With profound reverence, he took his deity’s name in vain, his voice shaking as he gazed at me. “Oh, God! Moirin. You are so very, very beautiful.”
“So are you.” I unlaced his shirt and removed it deftly. “So are you, sweet Aleksei.” His pale skin gleamed in the sunlight, stretched taut over his angular bones. I trailed my fingertips over the jutting ridges of his collarbones, over his hard chest and his lean belly. I slid one finger along the waist of his breeches, glancing up at him. “May I?”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
Kneeling, I unlaced his breeches and eased them down over his narrow hips. His erect phallus sprang free, straining so hard it looked as though it must hurt. I blew softly on it, and Aleksei groaned at the touch of my warm breath.
“Don’t… don’t…” He breathed raggedly.
“Do you think it unclean?” I stroked his phallus lightly, feeling the silken skin sliding over the rigid core, and swirled my tongue gently around the swollen head. “It is the staff of life, Aleksei.”
“No, I know.” He took a step backward, stumbling in the breeches I hadn’t finished removing, and sat down hard on the edge of the bed. “It’s just too much! Just the sight of you doing it. I don’t want to-”
“Ah.” I hid a smile. It had been a long time since I’d been with a man as young and inexperienced as Aleksei, fearful of spilling his seed too soon. “Don’t worry, sweet boy,” I said, pulling off his breeches. “We have all the time in the world.”
He didn’t protest when I took him into my mouth, only made a strangled sound deep in his throat and clutched my head. I performed the languisement as an act of worship-albeit a brief one, to be sure. Aleksei’s hips jerked forward as he poured his seed and years upon years’ worth of repressed desire into my mouth.
“God!” he said in a hoarse voice. “Oh, God!”
I sat back, smiling.
Aleksei eyed me, flushed for once with pleasure and not shame. “You are a witch,” he murmured, reaching down to take my hands. “Come here.”
I let him tug me onto the bed beside him, where he kissed me without reservation, his tongue exploring my mouth, his hands exploring my body. He was Naamah’s child, and he had found his element. He kissed my throat, hands cupping my breasts, then gave me an inquiring look.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Oh, yes.”
His tawny head moved lower, his mouth closing over one nipple, suckling hard. Stone and sea, I had been too long deprived! I shivered with pleasure and ran my fingers through his hair, encouraging him.
“You like that.” Aleksei lifted his head, eyes bright.
“Oh, yes,” I said languidly.
“What else?”
I took his hand, guiding it between my thighs. “Touch me. Stroke me.”
He did, propping himself on one elbow, gazing at the cleft of my nether-lips with intense interest. “So soft! And so hot and so wet. I didn’t know.”
“It means you’re arousing me,” I murmured.
With one fingertip, he circled Naamah’s Pearl, caressing my tender, sensitive bud. “And this?”
I jerked involuntarily. “Is the seat of a woman’s pleasure, my hero,” I said breathlessly. “Your instincts are true.”
Aleksei smiled. “Shall I kiss you there?”
“If you wish.” I hoped he did.
“I think I do.” Kneeling between my thighs, he studied me, looking like a scholarly angel. “Even here, you are beautiful, Moirin.” Lowering his head, he kissed me-kissed and licked me with ardent desire. And although there was neither art nor skill in it, there was passion, and Naamah’s blessing hovering over us.
I climaxed beneath his mouth, moaning shamelessly and clutching his broad shoulders.
“I pleased you?” Aleksei looked startled and glad.
I laughed softly. “Yes, my hero. Would you like to please us both further?” I pulled him down atop me, reveling in the weight of him, reveling in the warmth of his skin against mine, wrapping my legs around him. “Come here.”
Aleksei was fully hard and erect again, the blunt head of his phallus nudging at my nether-lips in a tantalizing manner. His blue, blue eyes gazed earnestly into mine. “I won’t hurt you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “You would need to have greater care with a virgin,” I added. “But you will not hurt me.”
He nodded as though I’d given him a gift.
I reached between us, grasping his phallus and shifting my hips. The swollen head slid into me.
Aleksei caught his breath, thrusting; and the whole thick length of him filled me. His blue eyes widened. “It’s so…”
“I know.” I kissed him, hard and deep, Naamah’s blessing like honey on my tongue. “I know, sweet boy. I know.”
FORTY-TWO
I liked the aftermath almost better than the love-making.
For the first time since I had known him, Aleksei was content in his own skin, calm and happy.
Fading sunlight filled the room. The candle I had lit burned low on the windowsill.
Naamah’s blessing lay over us like a blanket.
“You are so very well made, Moirin,” Aleksei murmured, stroking the curve of my hip. “As though your disparate gods conspired to combine all the best aspects of their folk in you. Tell me, how did you know the right words to say to me?”