Slipping down very slowly, the sheet gradually denuded her breasts and liberated their vermilion nipples; then it descended below her waist, revealing the diaphanous, snowy whiteness of a very flat stomach; and already my eyes were ablaze on perceiving, at the base of her tummy, the edge of blond and silky curls, like spun-gold.
But there, voluntarily, I brought my incursion to an end. Only too well did I know that, if I went further, no consideration would prevent me from parting Therese's legs-even by force- so as to conquer the intimacy of her flesh. However, I decided that I had better not, by an act of premature brutality, scare away her total relinquishment to my caprices.
On her naked breast-the splendour of which dazed me-I repeated my caresses of the preceding night: manual manipulations, multifarious digital contacts, little teasing touches with my tongue, and also from my lips a whole succession of suctions. These caresses of mine-enriched by a second conquest-were extended to her tremulous stomach; and thus, in the hollow of the navel there glistened, like a miniature lake, a modicum of my saliva. Therese let me do exactly as I wanted, with her arms motionless and apparently wholly indifferent; but when my tongue, gliding on her stomach, slowly ascended towards her breasts, I observed that they swelled with voluptuous expectancy, that her respiration became quicker, and that the nipples stiffened and grew.
I was squatting by the side of the low bed, with one arm, above Therese, resting upon it. And this arm, left bare in its sports' shirt with very short sleeves, happened to graze her lips. So, slightly raising herself, she placed her mouth in the hollow of my arm-pit and entered on a prolonged respiration, at the close of which she proceeded to lick, moistening me with her saliva abundantly. However, my shirt was in her way, so, in an impatient, excited voice, she bid me remove it. In my haste to obey her, I rose from my semi-recumbent position. Therese glided to the edge of the bed and, turning towards me, directed her eyes eagerly to my tummy, which the raised shirt was gradually uncovering. A wild temptation took possession of me, — to outstrip her thought and lower what remained of my clothing, and then, suddenly, to bring my entirely liberated sex before her face. However, though this imagined gesture still further increased my lust, its very indecency made me hesitate and desist. I realized the dangerous imprudence of so brutally obscene a revelation.
There was the risk of alienating for ever the woman whom I wished to make the adorer-a most tenderly sensual one- of my "manly blade".
Moreover, my wife did not allow me time to reflect further.
Immediately my torso was bare she enclosed me within her naked arms and forced me to stretch myself at her side. And then, with lips and tongue, she began to design upon me a thousand interlaced arabesques. Afterwards, with the supple crawling movement of a young wild animal, she came nearer until her breasts and nipples were resting on my stomach, — and with the latter, whose fine flesh seemed slightly fresher than the rest of her skin, she amused herself by gently grazing my body. At times she brought her nipples on to a level with my mouth and momentarily stopped until I had tasted their fresh savour; while at others she descended to my navel and hid the little vermilion fruit there, until-untiringly recommencing her little game-she once more brought them up again to my lips.
But while, lying on her stomach across the bed, she was crawling towards me, her buttocks slipped from underneath the sheet and within immediate reach of one of my hands. She was still only partially nude, yet quite sufficient to reveal the entire harmonious curve of her hips, up to the very beginning of a narrow valley. Soon I pushed down the sheet, whereupon the double outline was wholly uncovered, in its abundant yet slender plenitude. Was Therese going to protest against the indiscretion of this action? For a few seconds I thought she would, because there was, at first, a contraction of her hips, ready to refuse themselves; but she immediately relaxed and revealed her nudity to my scrutiny. I did not wish, however, to take advantage of my victory.
Restraining the desire to seize hold of my voluptuous discovery, I confined myself to a greedy visual examination of the perfection of her curves and their mysterious shadow-line.
Wearied, at last, with having caressed me too much, Therese let her head recline on my tummy. Hers was the movement of a broken doll, but a somewhat crazy doll, who instinctively extended her hips towards me. So, slightly raising myself, in order to reach the coveted riches with both my hands, I began to stroke them with my fingers very gently. The same reflex action as a short time before followed: the contraction provoked by a modesty which would still resist, and then the relaxation of a body which, curious of new forms of voluptuousness, consented. My hands, becoming still more enterprising, were now busy kneading the soft plenitude of both her thighs.
First of all, I followed her haunches longitudinally. Starting with the curve of her loins, my hands scaled the double hillock and redescended towards the dimples which mark the beginning of the thighs. And often, on arriving there, an indiscreet finger brushed against a silky, moss-like bank, in close proximity to the warm centre of love. But, fearful of my own impatience, I took immediate flight from that disturbing contact, and returned towards the centre of the loins, where I recommenced my amorous to and fro movements immediately.
At other times, it was from left to right, or from right to left that my caresses progressed, enclosing and then relaxing the twin globes of her flesh. Flesh at one and the same time plastic and firm, and of a texture which was infinitely soft to the touch; flesh more cool on the summits, but moist and warm where the shadow-lines lay; flesh that was alive under my caresses, and which sometimes shrank, so as to protect the privacy of its secret valley, but which, on the other hand, surrendered itself, in a confiding and visible voluptuousness, when my hands drew closer together its equal rotundities. In my ardent love for my wife, her pleasure under my touches was as delicious to me as though that
pleasure had been my own; and so I multiplied my caresses incessantly.
The shades of evening were already falling when Therese-her eyes heavy with voluptuous lassitude-cried for mercy.
CHAPTER VII
The bed had become moist through the perspiration from our bodies.
So we decided to install ourselves, for dinner, on the sofa near the window. With the twilight the atmosphere turned somewhat cool. I fetched a dressing-gown for Therese, who, seized with a tardy fit of modesty, had again hidden herself under the sheet. When I returned, bringing our provisions, she was up, closely enveloped in her gown, the belt of which she attached with minute care, — adding a second knot, and then a third. And while doing so she glanced at me from underneath her eyelashes mockingly.
All that we had to eat were the remains from the day before, — a most meagre repast, but, thanks to a little champagne forgotten in the Thermos flask, appearances were kept up. The meal at an end, we chatted and smoked. The sky-blue rectangle formed by the window changed from royal to Prussian blue, and then became studded with stars, more and more numerous. We were unaware of the exact hour.
But what did that matter to us?
When night came completely, — a summer night which was astonishingly tardy, — we cast aside our cigarettes by tacit consent, and Therese snuggled up towards me, with her mouth extended towards mine. A long dialogue between our lips and our tongues followed. I meditated on the fact that, under her dressing-gown, Therese was nude; but I did not dare to slip my hand within her bosom, fearing that she was weary of our orgy of caresses of the afternoon.