“Mmm,” Tatiana muttered. “Tent is good.” She could have been on a marble floor of the Peterhof Palace for all she cared.

Alexander was hugging her to him, but all she wanted was to be lying down in front of him. How did he do that? “Shura,” she whispered.

“Yes,” he whispered back, kissing her neck.

But he wasn’t… he wasn’t doing anything else, as if he were waiting, or thinking, or…

Alexander pulled away from her, and she saw by the reserve in his eyes that something was troubling him.

“What’s the matter?”

He couldn’t look at her. “You said so many upset things to me yesterday… not that I don’t deserve all of them…”

“You don’t deserve all of them.” She smiled. “What?”

He took a deep breath.

“Ask me.” She knew what he wanted from her.

His eyes remained lowered.

Shaking her head, Tatiana said, “Lift your head. Look at me.” He did. Kneeling in front of him, Tatiana held his face between her hands, kissed his lips, and said, “Alexander, the answer is yes… yes… of course I’ve saved myself for you. I belong to you. What are you even thinking?”

His happy, relieved, excited eyes flowed into her. “Oh, Tania.” For a moment he didn’t speak. “You have no idea… what that means to me—”

“Shh,” she whispered. She knew.

He closed his eyes. “You were right,” he said emotionally. “I don’t deserve what you have to give me.”

“If not you, who?” said Tatiana, hugging him. “Where are your hands? I want them.”

“My hands?” He kissed her ardently. “Lift your arms.” He took off her sundress and laid her down on the blanket, kneeling over her, roaming over her face and throat with his hungry lips, roaming over her body with his hungry fingers.

“Now I need you completely naked before me, all right?” he whispered.

“All right.”

He took off her white cotton panties, and Tatiana in her weakness watched him in his weakness, staring at her and then uttering, “No, I can’t take it…”

He put his cheek against her breast. “Your heart is pounding like gunfire…” He licked her nipples. “Don’t be scared.”

“All right,” Tatiana whispered, her hands in his damp hair.

Bending over her, Alexander whispered, “You tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it. I’ll go as slow as you need me to. What do you want?”

Tatiana couldn’t reply. She wanted to ask him to bring her instant relief from the fire but could not. She had to trust in Alexander.

His palm pressing into her stomach, Alexander whispered, “Look at you, your wet, erect nipples standing up, pleading with me to suck them.”

“Suck them,” Tatiana whispered, moaning.

He did. “Yes. Moan, moan as loud as you want. No one can hear you but me, and I came sixteen hundred kilometers to hear you, so moan, Tania.” His mouth, his tongue, his teeth devoured her breasts as her back and chest and hips arched into him.

Lying down on his side next to her, Alexander eased his hand between her thighs.

“Wait, wait,” she said, trying to keep her legs together.

“No, open,” Alexander said, his hand pushing her legs apart. With his fingers he traced her thigh upward. “Shh,” he whispered, wrapping his free arm around her neck. “Tania, you’re trembling.” His fingers touched her. Her body stiffened. Alexander’s breath stopped. Tatiana’s breath stopped. “Do you feel how gently I rub you,” he whispered, his lips on her cheek. “You… so blonde all over.”

Her hands were clenched on her stomach under his forearm. Her eyes were closed.

“Do you feel that, Tatia?”

She moaned.

Alexander stroked her up and down and then in small circles. “You feel unbelievable…” he whispered.

Her hands clenched tighter.

He rubbed her a little firmer. “Want me to stop?” He groaned slightly.

“No!”

“Tania, do you feel me against your hip?”

“Hmm. I thought that was your rifle.”

His hot breath was in her neck. “Whatever you want to call it is fine with me.” He bent over her and sucked her nipples as he rubbed her and rubbed against her—

In circles, in circles—

As she moaned and moaned—

And—

He pulled his fingers away and his mouth away and himself away.

“No, no, no. Don’t stop,” Tatiana murmured in a panic, opening her eyes. In the palpitating tension of her flesh she had begun to feel combustion, and when he stopped, she started to quiver so uncontrollably that Alexander lay on top of her briefly to calm her, pressing his forehead to her forehead. “Shh. It’s all right.” He paused for a second and got off her. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

Unsteadily, Tatiana said, “I don’t know. What else have you got?”

He nodded. “All right, then.” He pulled off his shorts and knelt in front of her.

When Tatiana saw him, she sat straight up. “Oh, my God, Alexander,” she muttered incredulously, backing away.

“It’s all right,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. “Where are you going?” His hands held on to her legs.

“No,” she said, shaking her head, staring at him in astonishment. “No, no. Please.”

“Somehow, and in His infinite wisdom,” Alexander said, “God has ensured that it all works the way it’s supposed to.”

“Shura, it can’t be possible. It’ll never—”

“Trust me,” Alexander said, staring at her with lust. “It will.”

He lay her down flat, and said, “I cannot wait a second longer. Not another second. I need to be inside you right now.”

“Oh, God. No, Shura.”

“Yes, Tania, yes. Say that to me. Yes, Shura.”

“Oh, God. Yes, Shura.”

Alexander climbed on top of her, supporting himself on his arms. “Tania,” he whispered passionately, “you are naked and underneath me!” As if he could not believe it himself.

“Alexander,” she said, still trembling, “you are naked and above me.” She felt him rubbing against her.

They kissed. “I can’t believe it,” he said, his breath shallow. “I didn’t think this day would ever come.” He paused and then whispered, “Yet I couldn’t imagine my life without it. You alive, under me. Tania, touch me. Put your hands on me.”

Instantly she reached down and took hold of him.

“Do you feel how hard I am,” he whispered, “. . . for you?”

“God, yes,” she said in crazed disbelief. Seeing him was a profound shock to her. Feeling him was entirely too much. “It’s impossible,” she muttered, stroking him gently. “You will kill me.”

“Yes,” Alexander said. “Let me. Open your legs.”

She did.

“No, wider.” Alexander kissed her and whispered, “Open yourself for me, Tania. Go ahead… open for me.”

Tatiana did. She continued to stroke him.

“Now, are you ready?”

“No.”

“You are, you are ready. Let go of me.” He smiled. “Hold on to my neck. Hold on tight.”

Slowly Alexander pushed himself inside her, little by little, little by little. Tatiana grasped at his arms, at the blanket, at his back, at the grass above her head. “Wait, wait, please…” He waited as best he could. Tatiana felt as she had imagined she would—that she was being torn open. But something else, too.

An intemperate hunger for Alexander.

“All right,” he said at last. “I’m inside you.” He kissed her and breathed deeply out. “I’m inside you, Tatiasha.”

Softly she moaned, her hands around his neck. “Are you really inside me?”

“Yes.” He pulled up slightly. “Feel.”

She felt. “I can’t believe you… fit.”

Smiling, Alexander whispered, “Only just, but yes.” He kissed her lips. Took a breath. Left his lips on her. “As if God Himself joined our flesh…” He took another breath. “. . . Me and you together, and said, they shall be one.”

Tatiana lay very still. Alexander was very still, his lips pressed against her forehead. Was there more? Tatiana’s body was aching. There was no relief. Her hands went around to hold him a little closer. She looked up into his flushed face. “Is that it? Is that all there is to it?”