Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

60. The Wedding in Char-Kermen (2 of 2)

Parneres gave me an unguarded look from the bed. I sat on the corner and clasped his hand in mine. He lifted up on the elbow to kiss me.

"Wait," I whispered, as his mouth softened under my lips.

A small oil-jar sat in a mound of flowers on the floor. I plucked it out and showed to him. "This is an infusion of midnight violets."

I moved the sheet aside, dripped the oil over my palm, gave it a moment to warm up and slipped it along his ankle, anointing his skin.

"This won't erase magic from your skin, but it'll dull its influence. For both of us."

The tattooed lines dimmed, but tracing his long limb from calf to thigh filled me with jitters. "Because you see, I don't need magic to covet you."

Magic weakened so much that I could see scars on him, some fresh, some faint, the relics of wicked things. My fingers lingered over them. "I'm sorry for leaving so much to chance. I should have looked harder for you."

He threaded his fingers through mine, catching them at his chest, next to his heart.

"I should have had more faith. I should have recognized my destiny when Peleth went mad. Hurting me was no longer just a game, it was payback for the moment of hesitation before I had helped her, for the glances I threw over my shoulder when we raced out of Palmyr. For regrets I had never confessed. I should have run the moment I understood."

"Shh... it's all in the past."

"I was too afraid of the trial by freedom--only to come to you ruined."

I stretched across his chest, reaching for his lips with mine. "I'm madly in love with you, then and now. She twisted your mind, but there is no ruin, Parneres. No curse. No pain. I had removed all barriers. Swept every obstacle away. You're... are..."

His mouth parted, responding to each touch of my tongue with a soft moan. "You're mine."

Between kisses, I smothered oil on the swirl that went up and around his neck and dabbed some on his chin, even though his face was untouched by the horrible patterns. I leaned back to admire both my handiwork.

Breath caught in my throat. Was I the only one who had ever seen his beauty like this, unmarred?

"I want you far more without the magic lies," I whispered. My voice was so hoarse with desire that there could be no way he could have thought I was pretending.

Under the gentle pressure of my hand, Parneres turned around. After a few strokes down his back, and lower, the jar slipped out of my suddenly clumsy hand, drizzling the sheet with the last drops of its fragrant bounty.

"Mythra's fangs, good thing I'm not holding a sword about to do battle." I covered him, kissing his neck, ear, the side of his cheek, and promising, promising, promising... That I'd be gentle, that he'd never hurt or want for anything, and that I loved him. Or something like that. Words evaporated faster from my lips than the violets' fragrance from his skin.

Without any special efforts on my part, the life-giving blessing flooded my womb. It would quicken if I took this man, my husband.

I slipped down the oiled skin, breathing in oil and flowers, and what he smelled underneath it. Pressing himself to my side, Parneres buried his face in my neck, lips to the cove at its base, and his hips moved between mine.

The touch through the middle was tantalizing, but I waited to catch him, too afraid to rush and make our coupling into anything resembling a transaction. Perhaps it was insane between a wife and her husband, but until he lifted his face, until he looked upon me... I just couldn't.