Aleksei groaned into my mouth, his arms encircling my waist hard, his hands pressing against my back. In the bright sunlight, he pulled me down atop him, kissing me fervently.

“No sin?” I asked, breathless.

He shook his head. “No sin.” He tugged away my head-scarf. “Why are you wearing this? You hate it.”

“True,” I agreed.

He stroked my hair. “It is as soft as it looks.”

“Oh, aye?” I kissed his throat, biting softly at his skin.

He groaned again, his back arching. “Moirin, don’t… don’t. It’s too much. I want to see you. I need to see you.”

I sat back on my heels. “Then do.”

Aleksei rose. I let him pull me to my feet. His big hands clutched folds of my drab woolen dress, lifting it and easing it over my head, discarding it. His hands tugged down my undergarments, and I stepped out of them.

“Oh, God.” With profound reverence, he took his deity’s name in vain, his voice shaking as he gazed at me. “Oh, God! Moirin. You are so very, very beautiful.”

“So are you.” I unlaced his shirt and removed it deftly. “So are you, sweet Aleksei.” His pale skin gleamed in the sunlight, stretched taut over his angular bones. I trailed my fingertips over the jutting ridges of his collarbones, over his hard chest and his lean belly. I slid one finger along the waist of his breeches, glancing up at him. “May I?”

He swallowed. “Yes.”

Kneeling, I unlaced his breeches and eased them down over his narrow hips. His erect phallus sprang free, straining so hard it looked as though it must hurt. I blew softly on it, and Aleksei groaned at the touch of my warm breath.

“Don’t… don’t…” He breathed raggedly.

“Do you think it unclean?” I stroked his phallus lightly, feeling the silken skin sliding over the rigid core, and swirled my tongue gently around the swollen head. “It is the staff of life, Aleksei.”

“No, I know.” He took a step backward, stumbling in the breeches I hadn’t finished removing, and sat down hard on the edge of the bed. “It’s just too much! Just the sight of you doing it. I don’t want to-”

“Ah.” I hid a smile. It had been a long time since I’d been with a man as young and inexperienced as Aleksei, fearful of spilling his seed too soon. “Don’t worry, sweet boy,” I said, pulling off his breeches. “We have all the time in the world.”

He didn’t protest when I took him into my mouth, only made a strangled sound deep in his throat and clutched my head. I performed the languisement as an act of worship-albeit a brief one, to be sure. Aleksei’s hips jerked forward as he poured his seed and years upon years’ worth of repressed desire into my mouth.

“God!” he said in a hoarse voice. “Oh, God!”

I sat back, smiling.

Aleksei eyed me, flushed for once with pleasure and not shame. “You are a witch,” he murmured, reaching down to take my hands. “Come here.”

I let him tug me onto the bed beside him, where he kissed me without reservation, his tongue exploring my mouth, his hands exploring my body. He was Naamah’s child, and he had found his element. He kissed my throat, hands cupping my breasts, then gave me an inquiring look.

“Yes,” I whispered. “Oh, yes.”

His tawny head moved lower, his mouth closing over one nipple, suckling hard. Stone and sea, I had been too long deprived! I shivered with pleasure and ran my fingers through his hair, encouraging him.

“You like that.” Aleksei lifted his head, eyes bright.

“Oh, yes,” I said languidly.

“What else?”

I took his hand, guiding it between my thighs. “Touch me. Stroke me.”

He did, propping himself on one elbow, gazing at the cleft of my nether-lips with intense interest. “So soft! And so hot and so wet. I didn’t know.”

“It means you’re arousing me,” I murmured.

With one fingertip, he circled Naamah’s Pearl, caressing my tender, sensitive bud. “And this?”

I jerked involuntarily. “Is the seat of a woman’s pleasure, my hero,” I said breathlessly. “Your instincts are true.”

Aleksei smiled. “Shall I kiss you there?”

“If you wish.” I hoped he did.

“I think I do.” Kneeling between my thighs, he studied me, looking like a scholarly angel. “Even here, you are beautiful, Moirin.” Lowering his head, he kissed me-kissed and licked me with ardent desire. And although there was neither art nor skill in it, there was passion, and Naamah’s blessing hovering over us.

I climaxed beneath his mouth, moaning shamelessly and clutching his broad shoulders.

“I pleased you?” Aleksei looked startled and glad.

I laughed softly. “Yes, my hero. Would you like to please us both further?” I pulled him down atop me, reveling in the weight of him, reveling in the warmth of his skin against mine, wrapping my legs around him. “Come here.”

Aleksei was fully hard and erect again, the blunt head of his phallus nudging at my nether-lips in a tantalizing manner. His blue, blue eyes gazed earnestly into mine. “I won’t hurt you?”

“No.” I shook my head. “You would need to have greater care with a virgin,” I added. “But you will not hurt me.”

He nodded as though I’d given him a gift.

I reached between us, grasping his phallus and shifting my hips. The swollen head slid into me.

Aleksei caught his breath, thrusting; and the whole thick length of him filled me. His blue eyes widened. “It’s so…”

“I know.” I kissed him, hard and deep, Naamah’s blessing like honey on my tongue. “I know, sweet boy. I know.”

FORTY-TWO

I liked the aftermath almost better than the love-making.

For the first time since I had known him, Aleksei was content in his own skin, calm and happy.

Fading sunlight filled the room. The candle I had lit burned low on the windowsill.

Naamah’s blessing lay over us like a blanket.

“You are so very well made, Moirin,” Aleksei murmured, stroking the curve of my hip. “As though your disparate gods conspired to combine all the best aspects of their folk in you. Tell me, how did you know the right words to say to me?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t.”

“You did, though.”

“No,” I said. “Naamah put them in my mouth.” I hesitated. “What did they mean to you?”

Aleksei touched my face. “I cannot explain it, not entirely. But she told me to trust my heart. And I realized that it does not matter that you cannot love me as I wish. It matters that I love you.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my eyes stinging.

He wrapped his strong, young arms around me. “Don’t be. I’m not.”

I laid my head on his chest. “I’m glad.”

“I think this is what it must have been like for Edom and Yeva in the Garden before the fall,” Aleksei mused. “To take pleasure in the light of day without fear of sinning, to be naked and unashamed. I think this is what I was meant to understand, Moirin. That state of grace is not lost to us after all; it is only that we have lost our way. Perhaps that is why God granted a measure of license to his errant grandson Elua and his disobedient servants. Perhaps their message is one we need to hear.”

“Gods have mercy, I’ve made a heretic of you,” I murmured.

He laughed, his breath stirring my hair. “Maybe. But I think rather that you’ve led me to the beginning of a deeper understanding of my faith.”

I lifted my head. “No more mortification of the flesh?”

“No more,” Aleksei promised. “At least not the kind meant to punish for desires that are natural and beautiful in their own right. I still believe there is merit in discipline such as fasting. As you said, this is a gift, and like any gift, it can be used for good or evil. I needed to hear that, too. Needed to hear it acknowledged.”

I smiled at him. “I suspect you’ll use it for good, sweet boy. You’re too gentle a soul to do otherwise.”