A/N: Response to LAS prompt 6. Set around the 18th century.
Disclaimer: Just playing in the DLM sandbox.
Absolution
"God created sex. Priests created marriage..." -Voltaire
Meeting in secret corners of isolated alleys, away from the bustle of the city, they would seal the distance between themselves completely. Daisy had felt the rough texture of dirty brick against her back more times than she could count, and she had taken to wearing her darker gowns to conceal the filth that always worked its way into the threads of expensive silks her husband brought back from China.
Mason…Mason…
The litany of soft cries she muffled by biting into the coarse wool over his thin, hard shoulders. He always smelled of gin, even on the rare occasions when he hadn't a drop to drink. His sad-dog eyes were half-covered by heavy eyelids, dark irises hemmed by angry, red lines. In their meetings, Mason's throat would work fiercely but no sound would escape. Daisy had often smiled to herself in the confines of her sitting room as she conjectured that making love to him was the only way to stop his incessant chatter.
His hands on her hips were as calloused as her husband's were not, the rough pads of his fingers scraping delightfully to where they were most wanted. Raymond's were soft and yielding like rotting fruit and she made excuses against his intrusion into her rooms. Daisy's hand traveled up Mason's shoulder to rest on his jaw, fingers splayed over his cheek, and the gold band on her finger captured the heat that leeched from both of them in every fluid motion of their bodies. She barely glanced at it—or any of the other jewels displayed on her hands—instead entranced by the faintest shine reflected from the drops of sweat on Mason's face. His hair was mussed, his face grimy—although she knew he often tried to look as well as he could whenever she sent her maidservant with a perfumed slip of paper.
She thought him lovely.
And when next she sat in church, the hard eyes of the rector sweeping over the sinful crowd, she smiled to think that her duty to God was done.
A/N: Reviews are love.