Moonlight, soft, ephemeral, lovely… Pale, insubstantial beams cascaded through the open window. The curtains fluttered slightly in the night breeze- thin, translucent fabric billowing outwards, then folding slowly back in on itself.
Their gauzy shadows danced across the luxuriously carpeted floor; they climbed, swirling, up the blanket hanging carelessly off the side of the bed. A cloud, murky grey under the cloak of the night, drifted across the moon.
The room dimmed momentarily, the gloaming obscuring the two figures resting beside each other on the bed…
….and the cloud passed. The moon peered out from behind its murky veil; cold, clear, light illuminated the room once more. Lady Nyx plays with the imagination, does she not..? Penumbrae, shifting shadows, icy light…. Steady breaths. The gentle, incessant rising and falling; alveoli drawing oxygen from the tepid air.
Invisible eddies, swirling currents created with every inhalation.
A soft rustling; a measured movement. Slivers of light reflecting off of a pair of eyes, unfathomably dark in the weak light. A faint sigh, fading quickly into the night. How long? How long since the bell tower last tolled midnight, since they last looked upon each other? Since they each turned away, wordless, an unspoken understanding between them? Not for the first time, she wondered if he was asleep. Surely… surely, after all these long hours….
An indiscriminate clashing of thoughts… the warring of interests and wants and needs and longings; the agony of indecision…
An eternity… a veritable eternity passed. He lay beside her, on his side, face turned away. His breaths were deep, even. She could feel the warmth radiating off his back…
Surely… it couldn’t hurt… just a few moments…
Slowly, ever so slowly, raise your hand, move it forward…
She was awake. He was sure of it. He heard her sigh, felt her shift slightly under the covers, pause for the longest time, then, just as he was almost certain she had fallen asleep… light fingers traced their way slowly down his back; delicate, careful. What… how… could this… a dream? He remained still, unsure of what to do as she trailed her hand down his back once more, a gentle caress. Her hand came to a stop, resting softly on his arm, then began to withdraw, fingertips lingering as her hand lifted away slowly, almost reluctantly. Without thinking, he caught it and turned over, staring into her wide eyes…
He was awake…! She stared into his eyes, surprised, a little embarrassed, but more than a little happy. So he hadn’t been able to sleep either, then… the moonlight illuminated his features, making them seem almost angelic. During the day, he had always seemed beautiful to her, but now… his dark eyes, cast in shadow, met hers, and electricity seemed to spark between them.
A long silence ensued as each sized the other up.
“I suppose… I suppose you couldn’t sleep either?”
“Yeah.”
Silence.
She glanced away, unsure, blushed, prayed it wouldn’t show, then started as he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.
“Wh-“
She clamped her lips shut on the errant question. Now was not the time to ask…
A lingering kiss, then he released her hand, looked deeply into her eyes. She met his gaze evenly, and an unspoken question flickered across them; Shall we?
She slung her arms around his shoulders. They were warm- as was the rest of him. Their bodies slid against each other, and she shivered slightly as a wash of cool air flowed over her torso. It was a warm night, and the blanket had already only been half covering them- now, it slipped off the bed completely. He drew her close and they kissed, softly, but somehow with more tension, more passion, than could have been conveyed with a deeper kiss. They broke apart slowly, arms around each other. Another long stare, each drinking in the magic of the moment.
A few heartbeats later, they kissed again. This time, hungrily, passionately. She ran her fingers down his back in earnest then, tracing the curvature of his spine and feeling the rippling muscles in his shoulders as he reached around her to reciprocate. His hand slid easily beneath her pajama top, and she drew in a shuddering breath as he hitched up the smooth fabric, stroking her back. Her exclamation was cut off with another kiss, and she found herself melting in his arms as he twined his fingers in her hair and stroked her bare skin soothingly.
This… this was insane.
As they retreated slightly from each other, lips wet with moisture, her rational side made a last, desperate attempt at reason. It was already beaten down, shut away to a remote corner of her mind since they had gotten in bed together, but now it rattled its chains and screamed to be heard.
The thought fell, crashing into her consciousness like ice water.
What. the hell. was she doing?
A chain of thought wrapped itself around her mind for a moment, desperate to impart some last vestiges of clarity.
Where was this going? Something like this… could lead to so much more. The images that swept through her mind now brought heat to her cheeks.
It’s not like I didn’t see this coming at some point, she thought brusquely, and shoved her rational self entirely aside.
They kissed again with a renewed intensity, certain, now, of their mutual desire.
Hardly daring to think, lest she waver, she let her hand trail down his chest, slipped under his waistband, then gently pulled it downwards, her fingers cool against his seemingly fevered skin.
Her lips followed the path her fingers left; they blazed a trail of light kisses down his inner thigh. She ran a finger down the turgid length, then watched him stiffen slightly at her touch. He trembled under her attentions, his arousal evident.
When she returned to meet his lips, the emotion behind his kiss, and the passion with which he responded was almost overwhelming- it was then that she knew for sure that there would be no stopping whatever ensued.
He guided the nightshirt over her head with a sense of urgency borne of desire, and she quickly helped him shed the rest of her clothing- the irritating obstructions separating their heated skin.
Finally, they paused, entangled in each other’s arms, and she couldn’t keep from wondering about what she was doing…. and what was being done to her.
Her right arm was wrapped around his neck, her left hand tracing languid circles on his bare chest. A gentle hand was moving up and down her thigh, sending electric sensations tingling up her spine, and another hand was twined in her hair… she looked up to see him staring intently at her.
She was suddenly painfully, acutely, aware of their lack of covering; it left nothing to the imagination…
ah, screw it, she decided.
It didn’t matter now. Especially not in comparison to what they were going to do in the near future…
She felt her cheeks redden when she saw the way he raked his eyes down her body, lingering on her curves, but she quickly realized that she couldn’t take her eyes off of him, either.
He was everything she had ever thought he would be, everything she had ever wanted…
She surprised herself then, with the intensity of her desire.
But it was true- she wanted him. She wanted him so badly that nothing else seemed to matter in the world, as if he was everything to her.
Which he was.
They stared into each other’s eyes for another long moment, feeling the passion and the barely contained want, the need roll off of their bodies.
The sexual tension was almost palpable in the still air.
Though the room was silent, her heartbeat seemed to roar in her ears as he slowly leaned forward and left a trail of kisses down her chest, cupping his hands around her breasts. She tensed under his touch, emitting a sound she hadn’t thought she could ever produce before. Her own hands moved downwards as well, eliciting a low groan.
In the space of a few moments, their hands were roving over each other’s bodies, exploring, caressing, comforting… It was madness, beautiful madness- but who’s to say what’s sane?
What followed was a blur.
The night freed any inhibitions the two might have had. Under the cover of darkness, anything could happen; everything was possible. And so they made love, moving their bodies in ecstatic synchronicity, emotions soaring time and time again to the edge.
She discovered a side to herself that she had never thought she possessed; the side of her that unabashedly screamed his name, the side that begged for more and clutched at the bed sheets and moaned in a passionate fervor; the side of her that never saw the light of day.
It was a side of her that she would have been horrified to show anywhere but just then, in the concealing darkness, with him by her side.
Utterly spent, the two of them lay together, sprawled across the bed for several long moments. At last, however, she extricated herself from the tangle of sheets and cuddled up to him, her head resting on his chest.
“That.. “
“…was amazing.”
“Yes.”
She tilted her head upwards and murmured into his ear, lips barely brushing against his flushed skin.
“Love you.”
He turned and kissed her.
“Love you too.”
They moved a little closer in the darkness. And as the moonlight cast dancing shadows across the rumpled sheets, the clouds shifted across the hazy sky, and the translucent curtains rippled and billowed in slow, rolling, waves, they drifted to sleep in each other’s warm embrace, safe in the bastion of their love.