Joseph was kneeling at the fireplace, poking at the logs when Clarisse entered the living room. The room was enveloped in a warm glow from the fire and the gentle light of a few candles. Joseph sensed Clarisse's presence behind him. He stood up and turned towards her. His breath caught when he saw her in the light blue nightgown. In seconds he was in front of her, touching her shoulders. He looked into her eyes for a few moments before crushing her against him, holding her tightly in a long intense embrace.

The emotions that Clarisse had kept carefully under control for so many years were balanced on a knife's edge. Feeling Joseph's body against hers, she felt choked inside, her love for Joseph almost too much to bear. She felt a sob pushing in her throat and her eyes filled with tears.

"No, darling, please!" Joseph said, loosening his grip to look at her.

She responded instinctively, pressing her face against his shoulder and cheek, her arms circling his back as the tears started to flow. "I love you, Joseph," she said in a muffled voice.

"I know, love." Joseph moved his hands soothingly over her back to her shoulders and neck and finally took her face between his hands. He looked at the glistening of tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. "Do you have any idea how much I love you, Clarisse?" he said as he rubbed the tears tenderly away with his thumbs.

Clarisse felt a jolt of surprise. She had unconsciously longed to hear those words from the man who had captivated her heart for what seemed to be a lifetime. She closed her eyes as Joseph moved his lips towards hers. As they touched, she felt a tingling feeling shoot through her body.

He moved his lips over hers and forced them apart. He felt her response and heard her involuntary moan as he started to explore with his tongue. Joseph lifted his lips from hers and she opened her eyes slightly to look at him. He saw the gleam of love and yearning in her half-open eyes. He pushed the straps of her nightgown off her shoulders and kissed the smooth skin. He caressed her slowly with his hands as he pushed the nightgown down. "I've waited so long for this, my darling," he said huskily.

Wanting to feel his skin against her, Clarisse moved her hands over his chest and under the material of his bathrobe to push it off his shoulders. As Joseph's bathrobe fell, she felt her own nightgown slip to the floor. Her body started to quiver and weaken as Joseph pressed his body against hers. He reacted immediately by tightening his hold. He kissed her softly on the lips before lifting her in his arms.

"Your knee, Joseph?" Clarisse whispered in a husky voice, clinging to Joseph.

She saw his smiling eyes. "I don't feel anything except you," he replied as he carried her towards her room.…

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Joseph woke up feeling movement against him. He became aware of Clarisse snuggled up close. She lay on her stomach with her head on his shoulder and her arm across his body. The light in the bathroom was on and he could see the light from the living-room shining through the door.

He felt at peace, content, completed, the feelings all due to the beautiful woman who he loved with all his heart, asleep in his arms. What a night they had had, and he had thought he knew everything about her! She was more than he had ever dreamed she could be. He had found out that she wanted to please him as much as he wanted to please her, that her passion for him matched his own. All the sensitive places on her body he had discovered…

He felt her stir. "Joseph?" he heard her ask in a drowsy voice.

"Hmmm?" He pressed a kiss on the top of her head, and caressed her back.

"What's the time?"

"I have no idea. Where's your watch?"

"In the bathroom, I think."

"Do you want me to fetch it?"

"No, stay with me. It doesn't matter" she said as she pressed a kiss on his chest.

They lay silently in each other's arms for a while and listened to the soft rain and the gentle sound of the sea.

"Do you know that I wanted to take it slowly last night… that I didn't want to rush you?" Joseph thought back to the moment when he had seen Clarisse in her nightgown the previous evening. "I lit the fire and candles and fetched a bottle of wine and glasses for a nice romantic evening."

"I noticed," chuckled Clarisse. "We can try that again. I'm sorry I cried, Joseph. I didn't mean to ... OR want to," Clarisse said seriously. "I was nervous and overwhelmed. It has been such a long time since I…"

"I understand. You don't have to be in control all the time, not when you are with me. If it will make you feel any better, I very nearly cried with you." Joseph smiled, placing another kiss on her hair.

"The nervousness disappeared after a while…"

"I noticed," Joseph said dryly.

"Don't you dare make fun of me!" Clarisse smiled. She shifted and took Joseph's bottom lip between hers in a tender kiss.

Joseph felt his body beginning to stir. He tightened his arms around her and rolled a little, pushing her onto her back so that their positions were reversed and he lay half on top of her. He kissed her gently and moved his mouth along her jaw line to her ear. "Round two?" he asked as he continued his trail of kisses down her body, and they gave themselves over to bliss.

tbc