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Madeleine inhaled sharply, the sensation surpassing anythingshe'd anticipated, and she found she was standing up straighter, pushing intohis touch. She had no idea how much thevelvet of the stain was contributing to what she felt, though there wasdefinitely an added tingle created by the shift between the stained andunstained skin of his palms as he slid his hands down further, exploring withhis fingers.
The kiss which followed was clumsy, Fisher losing a greatdeal of his poise to eagerness, and they pressed together, exploring with handsand mouths, hard erection prodding her. He became urgent, steering her to the bed, fumbling for the box ofcondoms and tearing it open only to sprinkle packets in every direction. Madeleine opened one and, remembering thethoughtful instruction of many a glossy magazine, tentatively moved to try andput it on him.
He took it off her with a gusty cough of laughter. "You're seriously overestimating myself-control."
"Sorry."
He smiled, and kissed her, but she had lost some of her certainty,felt tense and nervous as he moved over her. She tried to relax by touching his face and hair, and took small,uncertain breaths as they fumbled themselves into alignment. Fisher was shaking with effort, trying tohold himself to the slowest of paces, checking her reaction as he movedforward. The motion brought a little stingingat the very start, but a surprising lack of pain.
"Velvet," Fisher gasped, and lost his carefulrestraint entirely, plunging against her, a rushed, spasmodic motion whichbounced them on the well-sprung mattress. Overwhelmed, Madeleine clutched at his shoulders, but already he was collapsing,his weight heavy on her, breath hot against her throat.
"Hell." Hemoved, shifted to lay beside her. "I didn't – sorry, I didn't think I'd be quite thatpathetic." He propped himself upand looked at her worriedly, his hair ruffled, face flushed. "Did I hurt you?"
"No." Feeling less overcome, Madeleine touched his shoulder. "It's okay. Though I'd like it if you spent some moretime doing things to my breasts. They'venever felt quite so real before."
He spluttered into laughter, and they held each other andshook, helpless hilarity. That turned toenthusiastic kissing, pressed together, legs tangling, then relaxing back totake a breath.
"I had pictured this very romantic," Fishersaid. "Slow, and measuredand...well, lasting longer. Magical, notfarcical." Chagrin competed withamusement. "I would be very glad tocontinue to prove the existence of your breasts. And I am, if nothing else, an extremely goodstudy."
ooOoo
Madeleine slid out of the bed and paused to move a couple ofcondom wrappers from the floor to the bin, adding to the detritus of a night'sdiligent practice. Glancing outfloor-to-ceiling windows at early morning sun and the grand curve of theBridge, she picked Tyler's koi robe off the back of a chair and slipped iton. Her Blue metabolism worked againstlong, lazy sleep-ins, and she followed the call of her stomach to the plentifulsupply of snacks she'd stocked yesterday morning. Once the edge of her hunger had been dulled,and she'd cleaned herself up and managed to unknot her hair a little, she returnedto look at the boy sleeping in her bed.
Comets. Stars whichstreaked across ribs, a bellybutton which glimmered above a trail of dark hairleading down to a thicker swatch. Longarms and legs, their impression of length increased by his overall ski
She'd moved on from the main figure to work on the fall ofthe sheeting to the floor when a peaceful voice said: "Is it okay for meto get up?"
"Mm. Try not tomess the line of the sheets."
After he'd carefully rolled off the bed and crossed to lookat the sketch, it filtered through to her that this was probably not the mostlover-like way to act on their first morning together. Blushing, she looked up, but he kissed her onthe forehead and said, "I love the way you are when you draw. And you really should sketch how you lookright now because it's definitely something worth waking up to."
"A little impracticable," she said, but Fishersimply smiled and moved a standing mirror from the far side of the bed, thenheaded into the bathroom while she studied her reflection.
He was right. Sittingwith one foot tucked up, sketchbook balanced on her lap, the gold and black ofthe koi robe spilling around blue and stars, the slight curve of one breast, alength of glimmering thigh, crinkling brown hair waving loose. She turned to a new page and began outlining,and when Fisher emerged, damp and wrapped in a towel, said: "Can you get thecase of coloured pencils from that table?"
He did more, moving the café-style table within her reach,and lifting out the trays of pencils before rescuing his clothes from the pileby the door, hanging up her bathrobe, and heading out to the main room of thesuite. She had made a great deal ofprogress before his return, enough that when a sweet, spicy scent forced itselfon her notice she was willing to look at the bowls and cups he was fitting intothe gaps of the table. Steaming porridgesprinkled with nuts, dried fruit and brown sugar.
"Did you make this?" Hunger abruptly triumphed over art, and shereached for a bowl.
"With considerable guidance from Noi. I've never really had much occasion tocook."
"Was she very entertained?"
"If today wasn't Pan's birthday, it probably wouldn't besafe for us to venture out." Heslipped her sketchbook from her lap and studied the picture while she began toeat. "What do you do with yoursketches? And the paintings."
"Keep them in my room. I used to scan them and post them on an art site, but I took them alldown last year. Beinghypercritical. Not wanting to be knownfor work I no longer considered my best." She sighed, then glanced at his face, absorbed as he continued to studythe picture. "You can have thatone," she added softly. "WhenI've finished it."
His open pleasure made her feel light-headed, and as soon asshe'd finished her meal she took him back to bed. Still plenty to learn. But curled with him afterwards, thirty peoplecrept into her thoughts. This was aninterlude which could not last.
"Do you think we should try to get out of the city likeNoi wants?"
"Getting out of the city is likely to be considerablyharder than Noi wants to believe. Moreto the point, that dragon's range and speed means out of the city isn't anyguarantee of safety. But I don't thinkwe'll last two years here, either." He hesitated. "I know itseems like we've made no progress, but it's only when we have a fullunderstanding of what we can do that we can hope to mount any kind ofattack. I do think I've found a thirdability, though a practical use for it isn't immediately obvious."
"A third ability? What?"
He didn't reply immediately, shifting to lie staring at theceiling. "Think over what it feelslike to feed Nash," he said at last, almost too low for her to hear.
Everyone tended to shy away from discussing the heady warmthNash could conjure. It wasn't quite asexual thing, but it was very pleasurable, like an intangible massage. It usually left Madeleine a little tired, yetfeeling good.