Page 67 of Angel's Fall

With a nod, Erik replaced his old mask with the new one, grateful for Christine’s smile as he did, and the reassurance of her hand in his as they turned away from the bluff and made their way back into the town. Christine spoke softly to him as they walked the old cobblestone streets, of her memories of the village and her happier days there. Erik kept his head low, inclined towards hers. For a few minutes, they were nothing more than a normal couple strolling the streets.

His anxiety flared again as they reached the inn. The woman at the front gave Christine a curious look, but Erik’s beloved only smiled.

“I’m sorry if I failed to tell you my husband would be joining me. It must have slipped my mind after arriving so late. I hope you don’t mind.” Erik would be the worst of liars if he were to claim that hearing Christine call him ‘husband’ didn’t make his heart burst with joy and pride. It was a dream of course, but a beautiful one, just like all of this. “Please send up supper in an hour or so.”

Erik kept his head low as Christine guided him up the stairs and unlocked her humble room. It was so normal and welcoming. He drifted to the window as Christine stoked the fire, watching as the sun sank towards the sea, painting the sky purple and pink. When was the last time he had watched a sunset? He didn’t even know.

“Beautiful,” Erik mused as the sky entranced him.

“I still can’t believe you’re here.” He turned to see Christine staring, as awestruck as she had been in the cemetery.

“I know it’s rather out of character, but you know how I react when I’m told I can’t or shouldn’t do something,” Erik replied with a shrug.

“Ever the rebel,” she sighed, taking off the cloak he had given her. “You can take that off. It feels like talking to a stranger.”

“That means it’s working.” Erik obeyed and unhooked the new mask from behind his ears. Christine helped him remove his hat and cloak.

It made his heart pound to be so exposed in an unfamiliar place, even with her hands reassuring against his chest. All of a sudden, the rashness of what he had done in coming here filled Erik’s mind and it was hard to breathe.

“Are you cold? You’re shaking,” Christine asked softly, bestowing soothing strokes on his shoulders and face as he shook his head in the negative.

“I don’t know what to do – up here in your world,” Erik confessed, trying and failing to stem his rising panic. “I’m rather overwhelmed.”

“Do what I do then: play the part.”

“What part is that?” Erik grasped her hips, desperate for something solid and familiar amid so much newness and change. She continued to touch him, gentle and steady.

“Didn’t you hear? You’re my husband,” she breathed, and Erik’s heart leapt. “You’ve come to join me after a long journey. You’ve missed me.”

“I have,” he murmured as she pulled him down into a kiss. It was like falling into a dream, the feel of her soft lips on his once more mixed with the teasing flicks of her tongue. “I have missed you so much. My...” His voice caught on tears. “My wife.”

“We’re here now, together,” Christine went on, her fingers straying to his collar, causing him to tense again, but she kept kissing him, her mouth chasing away all thoughts but her. She kissed down his neck, bold and sure. “And we’ll wake together at dawn.”

“We’ll go home to our lovely flat above ground,” Erik whispered back, drunk on the heat of her lips. “Where I keep you amused in the evenings. Shall I take you out on Sunday?”

“To see the first blooms at the Bois.” He could hear the emotion in her voice too as they dreamed. “But first, let me see you, so you can make love to me.”

He didn’t fight as she undressed him, carefully removing the layers of clothes that served as his armor. He was too in awe, too in love. She kissed the scars on his bare chest and caressed the still-raw wound on his side from the knife he had taken for her. He’d take a thousand more stabbings and fires just to keep feeling the touch of her hand on his horrid skin. Or the pressure of her body against his rising desire.

“Now help me with this.” She meant the fastenings of her simple blue dress, but even so, Erik’s hands trembled as he undid the buttons and hooks. The sunset outside the window turned the whole room to gold as he exposed her skin, inch by inch. “You’re so beautiful,” he sighed aloud when the last undergarment joined the pile at her feet.

And she was. Christine’s skin was like rose petals in the sunset light, all of it bare to Erik’s starving eyes. Her round, perfect breasts and rigid nipples; the soft curves of her belly and hips and thighs. It all called to him, and he was being pulled by her tide when he embraced her. He needed to feel as well as see, taste the way the fading daylight made her warm. He lifted her to the bed, falling upon her with his hands and mouth once they were safe on the mattress. He took a nipple between his lips, suckling as she writhed in pleasure beneath him.

“Erik,” she breathed. “My Erik.”

It did something, to hear her call his name in this heady dream. Despite everything, this woman wanted him. Lovedhim. How it was possible, he still did not know, but he would rejoice in it.

He parted her thighs and took his honored place between them, kissing up her chest and claiming her mouth again as he did. She was so wet when his fingers found her, and her body arched to chase his touch as he stroked her open. She wanted and needed him, this wonder, this goddess. He could never be enough, but he would be damned if he didn’t try to serve her even so.

“I love you,” he gasped as he embraced her and filled her. She groaned her response, wrapping her legs and arms around him as he began to move inside her. She was hot and slick and close around him, her entire perfect body welcoming him and begging for more. Still he began slow, drawing out the incandescent pleasure inch by inch, losing himself in the music of her sighs and the perfect heat at her core.

“Yes,” Christine whimpered. “Erik.Yes. Just like that.”

“Keep saying it,” he begged in return, drunk on their ecstasy. “Keep saying my name.”

“Erik.” The name broke through her moans, and it spurred him on. He thrust harder and deeper, gaining speed as Christine hung onto him. “Erik, I—”

He caught her scream in a kiss as she came, her nails digging into his flesh as her body convulsed. He savored it for a fleeting second before he followed, his pleasure rising to a maddening peak as he lost himself in her. He was free and whole as he poured into her, and she sang out his name one more time. Perfect and sublime.

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