JК
A Stroke Of Midnight :: Гамильтон Лорел
Страница: 233 из 293“Such as watching you stretched underneath me, screaming your pleasure around another man’s body, while I bring you, and pour my pleasure between your legs.”
Just hearing him describe it with that look in his eyes tightened things low in my body. “I was offering that,” I said.
“I want you on your back as you were with Sage. I want to see your breasts rise and fall with your breathing.”
I went to him, touching his face, trying to see through this combination of passion and seriousness. It wasn’t like him. “I want Biddy and you to be a happy time, not a sad one.”
He smiled, but it held an edge of something that was not happy. “I remember a time when marriage was not the end of such joys but the beginnings of them. The sidhe never cheated on their partners, but if we agreed then others were brought into our beds.”
He was speaking of a time before Andais was queen. A time before Christianity was anything but a heretic Jewish sect. Most of the sidhe didn’t speak of it, for they didn’t like talking about what they had lost. Who wants to talk of a time when the sidhe had not been outnumbered by the humans. A time when we married for love and not simply for children. A time when sex was about joy and sharing and not a relentless pursuit of pregnancy. A time when an unplanned baby didn’t condemn you to a loveless marriage. I had felt such happiness when the ring chose Nicca and Biddy for each other. But was it a true love match? Yes, they were infatuated with each other, and yes there might be a child, but would there be happy-ever-after? Or would Nicca love her, bed her, share a child with her, yet regret. And would those regrets eventually destroy their love?
Suddenly I smelled roses. “Do you smell apple blossoms?” Galen asked.
“Yes,” Nicca said, “like in the hallway with Mistral.”
“Honeysuckle,” Kitto said.
The scent was growing stronger. I had a moment of inspiration. It wasn’t the same as channeling the Goddess, but… “When did the sidhe stop having children, Nicca?”
He blinked at me. “I can taste the perfume on the air.”
“Answer my question.”
“I don’t know,” he said, “long ago.”
“Did we stop having children after we adopted the human ideal of one partner?”
“We adopted monogamy because the humans outbred us using it,” Nicca said.
“Did they really?” I said. “Or did we begin to be outbred when we stopped being who and what we are?”
“What do you mean, Merry?” Galen asked.
I held up my hand to show the dull metal gleam of the queen’s ring.
Just hearing him describe it with that look in his eyes tightened things low in my body. “I was offering that,” I said.
“I want you on your back as you were with Sage. I want to see your breasts rise and fall with your breathing.”
I went to him, touching his face, trying to see through this combination of passion and seriousness. It wasn’t like him. “I want Biddy and you to be a happy time, not a sad one.”
He smiled, but it held an edge of something that was not happy. “I remember a time when marriage was not the end of such joys but the beginnings of them. The sidhe never cheated on their partners, but if we agreed then others were brought into our beds.”
He was speaking of a time before Andais was queen. A time before Christianity was anything but a heretic Jewish sect. Most of the sidhe didn’t speak of it, for they didn’t like talking about what they had lost. Who wants to talk of a time when the sidhe had not been outnumbered by the humans. A time when we married for love and not simply for children. A time when sex was about joy and sharing and not a relentless pursuit of pregnancy. A time when an unplanned baby didn’t condemn you to a loveless marriage. I had felt such happiness when the ring chose Nicca and Biddy for each other. But was it a true love match? Yes, they were infatuated with each other, and yes there might be a child, but would there be happy-ever-after? Or would Nicca love her, bed her, share a child with her, yet regret. And would those regrets eventually destroy their love?
Suddenly I smelled roses. “Do you smell apple blossoms?” Galen asked.
“Yes,” Nicca said, “like in the hallway with Mistral.”
“Honeysuckle,” Kitto said.
The scent was growing stronger. I had a moment of inspiration. It wasn’t the same as channeling the Goddess, but… “When did the sidhe stop having children, Nicca?”
He blinked at me. “I can taste the perfume on the air.”
“Answer my question.”
“I don’t know,” he said, “long ago.”
“Did we stop having children after we adopted the human ideal of one partner?”
“We adopted monogamy because the humans outbred us using it,” Nicca said.
“Did they really?” I said. “Or did we begin to be outbred when we stopped being who and what we are?”
“What do you mean, Merry?” Galen asked.
I held up my hand to show the dull metal gleam of the queen’s ring.