For a hundred times, already, my lips traversed her body, — for a hundred times my hands felt and caressed her, turning her over this way and that. But I could not satisfy my passion for her beauty. Many, many details, hardly perceived before, intoxicated me with their perfection: the immaculate whiteness of her slender stomach, the lissom plenitude of her haunches, the clear curve of her thighs, and the elegant length of her legs. It was towards these sweet novelties that, first of all, the whole ardour of my lips and tongue was directed. But they also tarried in the neighbourhood of the fleshy roundness of her rump, and amidst its warm shadows, — spots which up to then my hands alone had explored. I amused myself by tickling with my tongue the two adorable dimples which emphasized that rump. Comparable to two indiscreet arrows which a roguish hand might have traced there as sign-posts towards the most secret of voluptuous pleasures! Then I turned her lovely body (which bent between my arms voluptuously) over again, to enter on a voyage with my lips along her supple thighs and smooth belly. Meanwhile. Therese's breasts, pointing their tiny, rosy nipples, transmitted towards me a silent yet provocative appeal; they gave me the impression that they reproached me for having abandoned them. So I responded to their appeal. And the repetition of a multitude of caresses, which I had taught them on the previous night, was hardly sufficient to make them forget the impatience of too long a wait.
Therese thrilled ardently; and at the same time with absolute sincerity, incapable as she was of feigning an inexperienced sensation. Some particular caress which I imagined was the quintessence of voluptuousness remained without an echo; whereas another, inspired by an almost unconscious reflex, made her quiver like an asp. At times her whole supple body writhed on the bed, as though maddened with the impossible desire to offer herself, wholly and simultaneously, to the pressure of my hands and lips. Meanwhile, if my fingers or tongue, descending the whole length of her belly, sought to surprise and penetrate the most shady and private nook of her sex, she refused to submit, by suddenly pressing her thighs together. Doubtless she feared that a spasm of desire, similar to that of the preceding night, would drag from her an irresistible appeal to my body, to that body which, however, she wished to know before the supreme gift of her flesh.
Divining her thought, I resisted the temptation to force open her legs and crush her sex under the pressure of my lips. I resumed my incursions towards other regions of her body. But soon I returned to the attack, thirsting still more to refresh my lips with the forbidden, voluptuous moistness; once more my mouth was placed on the golden fleece which attracted it; and once more Therese's legs came together, preventing my going any further. Gradually, however, I felt her resistance grow weaker; and then, rapidly, with a great thrill, Therese confessed that she was defeated. Her legs slowly opened, still hesitative, yet docile to the pressure of my caresses; then they suddenly spread wide apart, presenting the ruddy nudity of the flesh to my eager lips.
Indifferent to Therese's modesty, which too long a resistance had, moreover, weakened, I let her body slip to the very edge of the bed, in more immediate proximity to my mouth. Then, amidst my vertiginous and tender folly, I began to mould that still virginal flesh. The prolonged suctions with my lips alternated with multitudinous teasing touches from my tongue. Or else, I covered it entirely with my mouth, which, starting from the dimples on her rump and delicately touching the whole of her sex, finally blossomed on her stomach.
At last I was forced to stop, so tired had my loins become through the irritating tension of my Phallus; while Therese stretched herself, as though she were dragging herself from a dream. But, all of a sudden, her consciousness returned. With a quick movement she covered her sex with one of her hands and with the other gently pushed me away, saying that "we were really too crazy." She sat on the edge of the bed, with her hand pressed, shiveringly, between her closed legs; and, gathering up a piece of clothing from the heap on the carpet, she sought to veil her nudity with it. But she succeeded very badly. Still dazed through her state of prolonged voluptuousness, she was touchingly, comically awkward; so that, indocile to her efforts, sometimes it was a breast that re-appeared, sometimes the blonde tuft adorning her sex. Meanwhile, I felt sorry for her and the re-awakening of her sense of shame. Raising her in my arms, I stretched her on the bed and covered her up.
A travelling time-piece on a bed-side table gave forth its rapid tictac.
It was already one o'clock in the morning-time indeed to interrupt our gambols.
My wish was at least to obtain a momentary respite for both of us. But, involuntarily, I went off into a dose in my bath. From the adjoining room came my wife's voice, calling out to me:
"You have forgotten me, naughty man!"
Hastily slipping on a dressing-gown, I returned to her.
She had switched off all the lights. From the sofa, near the open window, a childish voice directed me thither: "Cuckoo! darling. This way!" There was less luminosity than on the previous night, — nothing of that phosphorescence with which that feminine body, straining towards the awakening of her flesh, was surrounded. For the stars, under the tread of many clouds, had been crushed one by one.
Nevertheless, their luminous soul still exhaled in the form of diffused light, so that the whiteness of her neck, through the opening in the dark dressing-gown she was wearing, stood out. I placed my hand there: a movement rather of tenderness than of lust, since my Phallus was dormant. But Therese stopped me immediately.
"No, my darling! No more to-night. Do you realize the state into which you have thrown me? Moreover…" Leaving her sentence unfinished, she merely added: "Snuggle up to me, — quite close to me, dearie."
Seated on my right, she placed her head on my shoulder with a movement already familiar to her, and one I loved. Her hand, lightly touching my chest, sought for the opening in the garment, and she trembled slightly on coming into contact with my skin. Then she remained absolutely motionless. Around us was no other movement than the distant scud of the clouds. Therese would soon fall asleep.
Sorrow for her lassitude came over me, and I decided that, after a little while, I would carry her, as though she had been a child, to her bed,carry her with infinite precautions, so as not to frighten her.
But the hand resting on me began to awaken and finger me. Then, with a slow and very delicate progression, it descended along my body.
Mighty waves of voluptuousness were awakened by its contact and rippled down to my loins, while my Phallus, in its turn, was aroused from its slumbers and came to life in a series of rapid pulsations.
Despite myself, I held my breath; and one might almost say that, of our two bodies, only her hand and my penis were alive, in the double expectation with which they trembled. Under the light material of my dressing-gown, her hand continued to advance. Now it slid along my stomach, and appeared to be astonished when it came into contact with a fleece similar to her own, only rougher. Divining the nearness of my penis, Therese's fingers began to grope about, feverishly. But when she suddenly touched it she momentarily hesitated-astonished by its burning hardness. Uncertainly and somewhat timorously, she began to finger it, — to ascend to the point where my desire was concentrated; and then her hand closed and became immobile around its delicateskinned prey. In a grave and far-away voice, — an infinitely tender voice, — Therese murmured words of ardent love in my ear. Amidst a strange relativist complex, Time and the fleeting clouds became confounded: neither of us could have said whether they were quartersofan-hour or Eternity.