"Jenkins! Wait!"
The immortal stormed across their bedroom, slamming the bathroom door shut behind him as Cassandra rolled off of the bed, hurriedly snatched up her silk robe and slipped it on. Cinching it tightly as she scurried over to the bathroom, she hesitated for a second, then softly rapped her knuckles on heavy oak door.
"Jenkins?" she called out tentatively. She received no response. Cassandra hesitated again, chewing on her lower lip as she debated with herself on what to do next. After a few seconds, her decision was made; she couldn't just let this go unaddressed. She grasped the door's knob and carefully tried it, found it unlocked. The young woman took a deep breath and she pushed the door open just enough to allow her to slip inside.
Her husband was sitting on the lid of the closed toilet, a ridiculously fluffy pink bath towel hastily wrapped around the waist of his naked body. His elbows were propped on his knees, his forehead resting on the heels of his hands, the very picture of dejection. Cassandra took a couple of uncertain steps toward him.
"Jenkins, it's okay," she said gently, her voice low and, hopefully, encouraging. The glum man heaved a sigh and dropped his hands as he turned on the toilet seat to face away from his wife.
"It's not okay, Cassandra; please go away!" he answered her tersely. "I'd rather be alone right now." Ignoring the request, Cassandra trotted over and knelt on the floor in front of him, her shoulders dropping as she reached out to take his hands into hers.
"No! I think this is something we need to talk about," she persisted, trying to make eye contact with him. Jenkins sat upright and raised his head, but his eyes stayed down, focused on nothing. He tried to make his face expressionless, but she could see that he was upset.
"What's there to talk about?" he snapped, his tone bordering on anger as he waved a hand in the air. "My wife wanted to be intimate tonight, and I was..." He paused for a moment and swallowed, utterly humiliated.
"I was unable to satisfy her!" he finally finished, pulling his hands away to grip the edges of the toilet seat tightly. Cassandra sighed softly and moved her hands to gently grasp his towel-covered knees.
"Jenkins, you have nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about," she said earnestly, ducking her head as she tried to force him to look her in the eye. "It's just...one of those things, it just happens sometimes! It doesn't make you any less of a man if you don't get an erection!" Jenkins groaned miserably and tried to lean away from her.
"Cassandra, you don't understand—!" he started, but she interrupted.
"Yes, I do!" she said, "Or, at least I understand as much as it's possible for a woman to understand. But, sweetheart, you don't have to feel embarrassed with me! Sometimes it's just a case of the brain and the penis not being on the same page, that's all, I understand that. It doesn't mean that you're not virile or manly or anything like that, not at all. I would never think that about you!" There was a harsh snort of derision from Jenkins.
"One of my primary responsibilities as a husband is to make sure that my wife is…fulfilled," he protested sharply, "And I failed you in that this evening!"
"Okay, for the sake of argument, let's just say that yes, one of your jobs as a husband is to keep me happy," she tried to reason with the unhappy man, "But it's not your only job! It's not even your most important job, as far as I'm concerned!" Jenkins only grunted in response, but she saw the small spark of interest in her argument in his eyes.
"It's mot?" he asked stiffly.
"No, it's not."
"Then what is my most important job, as far as you are concerned?" he asked cautiously as he frowned down at her.
"The most important thing I need from you is to always be there to catch me when I fall," she answered tenderly, her eyes wide and soft and doe-like. "You have no idea how much that means to me!" Her answer seemed to catch him by surprise. Jenkins squirmed on his seat, the anger and humiliation draining from his face.
"I appreciate that," he said quietly, "It's just that…I want you to be happy in every aspect of our marriage…"
"I am happy, sweetheart," she assured him fervently, "And stuff like what happened tonight? That's just a bump in the road! Stuff like that happens; we just have to roll with it, right?" She paused and sat back on her heels, but kept her hands on his knees as she continued, her voice now serious and slightly mournful.
"Besides, I think this is at least partly my fault." At that, Jenkins's eyes snapped up to look down at his wife, perplexed by her words.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded, "How can you say that? How could you possibly be at fault for something like…like…" He bobbed his head pointedly toward his crotch. "…this?" Cassandra tilted her head to one side slightly and shrugged her shoulders, a thoughtful expression coming to her delicate face.
"Well, we've had so much sex over the past few years, maybe I've just worn the poor thing out?" she replied with exaggerated sadness. "Maybe poor Little Jenkins just needs a nice long vacation from my voracious..." She struggled for a moment, trying to come up with a less clinical-sounding euphemism for "vagina".
"...My voracious 'cookie'!" she blurted.
The immortal stared blankly at the young woman for several seconds as his brain processed what she had just said. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, then spread into a bashful, silly smile before a soft chuckling finally rumbled in his throat. Cassandra smiled with him, happy to have broken through the taciturn man's mood.
"Your 'cookie'?" he repeated with good-humored tartness.
"Well, I had to come up with something!" she explained, "You don't like slang words, and I don't really like the word 'vagina'—it's just so...cold-sounding!" She got to her feet and seated herself on the unprotesting Jenkins's lap. She slid one arm around his neck and with the other hand she toyed with his silvery hair, lightly combing her fingers through it before running her fingertips over his face, down his neck and onto his smooth, bare chest.
"You know that I'll always love you," she said softly, her fingers tracing the lines the dragon tattooed on his left shoulder and upper chest. She looked up and into his eyes. "You don't ever have to be afraid of me falling out of love with you. Even if we could never have sex again, I'd still love you. You know that, don't you?" Jenkins smiled faintly and laid a strong hand on her small face.
"I know," he said shyly. "I only want to make you happy, my love, in every way I can. For me, sex is the most obvious way, but you're right—it's not the only way." He leaned forward to kiss her, his lips pressing gently against hers for a moment, chastely. Cassandra smiled and draped both arms around his neck, rested her forehead against his.
"Would you like to try again?" she murmured. Jenkins took a quick breath and pulled away from her, his lightened mood evaporating.
"I think I'd like to take a nice hot shower," he answered abruptly, helping her to her feet as he suddenly stood up. "Do you mind, my dear?"
"No, no, that's okay," she replied, hiding her disappointment. She forced a smile as she looked up into his eyes and tried to joke with him. "Just so long as it's a hot shower and not a cold one!"
"A cold shower would be utterly wasted tonight," he said, his grumpy mood having returned as he ushered her to the bathroom door. Cassandra silently cursed her choice of words. Before she could think of something else to say, though, Jenkins had gently pushed her out of the bathroom and closed the door again. She heard the water come on in the shower, and her shoulders dropped in defeat as she sighed loudly.
Might as well turn the bed down, she thought, then desultorily clomped over to the huge bed to begin preparing it for sleep rather than sex. As she pulled the bedding down and fluffed the pillows, she thought about the conversation she'd just had with her husband. She'd meant every word of what she'd said, but she was also very disappointed when Jenkins wouldn't give lovemaking another try tonight. Once she and Jenkins had first started sharing a bed, Cassandra had been surprised to learn that she had a rather high sex drive; happily, Jenkins was more always than willing and able to indulge that drive. Tonight had been the first time he'd had any kind of "equipment failure". She partly blamed it on the stress he'd been under all week with a particularly delicate and time-consuming experiment involving triffid venom that he had run in the lab twenty-fours a day, for seven days straight. He had been forced to spend the entire week shut up alone in the lab, unable to leave the experiment alone for even a few minutes. The experiment had finally concluded successfully earlier this morning, and all day long Cassandra had been looking forward to celebrating his success by spending the evening with Jenkins's strong arms around her, his hands exploring her body, his lips dotting her skin with kisses, licks and nips. She had sighed quietly to herself several times that afternoon at the thought of his hard manhood sliding into her, the weight of his body on hers as he moved against her...
Cassandra shivered involuntarily at the mental pictures, suddenly aware of a warm pool of desire in her belly and groin. She rubbed her upper arms and sighed again, deeply, longingly, then shook her head quickly as she tried to push the seductive images away. She went back to preparing for bed.
"You married him for better or for worse, Cassandra," she reminded herself with determination. "Time to walk the talk!"
Jenkins stepped from the bathroom at that moment, the thick pink towel again wrapped around his waist. With a matching towel he briskly rubbed his damp hair with both hands as he slowly made his way to the place on the floor where his previously discarded pajamas lay in a rumpled heap. The towel partially blocked his vision, so he didn't see Cassandra impulsively slip up behind him; seeing her handsome, towel-clad husband, she simply couldn't resist trying one last time to seduce him.
"Gotcha!" she cried as she slid her arms around her husband and pulled against him. Startled for a moment, Jenkins involuntarily jumped slightly, then relaxed. The shower had made him feel much better and had given him the time and space to process everything. Now, feeling a little guilty for being so melodramatic earlier, he turned around in her arms and looped his own long limbs around her thin shoulders, peered down at her from beneath the damp towel draped over his head like a hood.
"That wasn't very nice!" he scolded and gave her a theatrical look of disapproval. She only grinned back, her head tilting to one side playfully.
"So what're you gonna do about it?" she teased as she pulled the towel off of his head and let it drop to the floor. Her clear blue eyes stared boldly up into his. Jenkins recognized the glow in them, and he smiled, unable to resist her any further. He would do anything for Cassandra—even risk the embarrassment of another failed attempt at sex.
"Perhaps you need a good spanking?" he mused. He swatted her behind, then let his hand rest on her round, soft buttock. Cassandra squeaked, then giggled happily; he wasn't refusing her advances—that was a good sign! She pressed her body closer to his. Right from the shower, he smelled clean and fresh, the faint odor of soap mixing with his natural scent filled her nose. She nuzzled her cheek against the warm skin of his chest.
"I can think of a better 'punishment'," she murmured. One small hand brushed the skin on his side with her fingernails, sending a thrill though his tall body as it came to rest on the right side of his chest. Her fingers began to circle and tickle his nipple, while her lips softly kissed their way to his left side. She kissed that nipple, then teased it with the very tip of her tongue. Jenkins closed his eyes and drew in a deep, quiet breath of air as she toyed with him, a sharp surge of electricity arcing from his groin and deep into his gut. A sigh of pleasure slipped from him as she went from merely teasing him with her tongue to eagerly suckling on his now-hard nipple. A huge wave of relief mixed with eager anticipation as he felt his manhood flutter to life in response.
Cassandra felt it, too. As she continued to suck and tease his nipple, she slipped her left hand into the back of the towel around his waist, gently tugged on it until it finally came untucked and fell to the floor at their feet. His stiffening member pressed insistently through her thin robe. She dragged her hand forward and down, grasped his stiffening shaft and slowly squeezed it, at the same time pushing her body against his, her lower belly pressing against the tip of his manhood, grinding her hips ever so slightly against him. Jenkins half-gasped, half-grunted as her movements triggered a dizzying surge of desire within him. Cassandra licked her lips and began to lower herself to the floor before him, but he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up again.
"No!" he said, his voice low and hoarse. "Tonight is just for you." His dark eyes burning into hers, he quickly stooped and swept an arm under her legs to pick her up. Cassandra laughed as he hurried toward their bed, the fingers of her hand still playing with his nipple and lightly pinching it.
He laid her across the bed and quickly climbed in after to straddle her. He stared down at his Librarian for a few seconds, taking in the sight—her long coppery hair fanning out on the bedspread behind her head like a halo, her lovely sapphire-blue eyes looking up at him with just the right mix of adoration and want, her plump breasts poking faintly against the deep amethyst silk of her robe. Jenkins leaned over to run his large hands over her arms, her sides and her hips, then back up over her belly to firmly squeeze her breasts, his thumbs rubbing her nipples through the smooth fabric.
Cassandra growled and stretched languorously as her vision began to fill with the familiar soft, swirling mist of transparent lemon yellow crystals. The removal of her "brain grape" had lessened the number of her day to day synesthetic experiences, but they hadn't faded completely, and their intensity was directly tied to the strength of her emotions or the physical sensations she was feeling at a given moment. Intimacy with Jenkins, especially sex, was the time she experienced those visons the most powerfully.
Jenkins adjusted his position over her. His hands moved down to take hold of the sash of her robe to pull it loose slowly, a tiny smile on his lips. This was one of his favorite parts of making love to his beautiful wife: He loved to undress her. It was like opening a longed-for gift, and he liked to take his time with it. He carefully, deliberately loosened the sash, then peeled back her robe to finally reveal her creamy skin, her full breasts, her soft stomach, her hips and legs and the rest of her glorious body. Cassandra watched each movement silently, pleased to see his hunger for her growing in his eyes again. When she was naked, he paused for a moment to brush a loose strand of fine red hair from her face.
"You're so beautiful," he whispered. Before she could respond he leaned over to kiss her. Her hands glided up his chest and around his neck as she raised her head to meet him. Gold-colored sparks snapped and crackled around their heads as Cassandra greedily sucked on his lower lip and then bit it, whimpered faintly as she impatiently pulled him further down, her tongue darting into his mouth. The lemony crystalline mist became slightly more solid as it enveloped them, its hue darkening to a fiery orange-red with Cassandra's rising excitement.
Jenkins was becoming lightheaded with desire. His groin ached painfully to enter her, but he resisted. He broke their kiss to run his lips over her warm throat and along her collarbone, her shoulder, kissing and gently biting her the entire way. Cassandra closed her eyes against the blinding yellow-white plumes that shot out from the cloud around them like solar flares each time his lips and his warm breath touched her skin.
"Jenkins!" she sighed, then moaned as her fingers slid into his hair to grasp it. She gently pushed his head slightly downward, signaling that she wanted him to suckle her breasts, and Jenkins gladly obeyed. He moved lower and immediately took one stiff nipple into his mouth. He sucked it and licked it as one calloused hand squeezed and caressed her breast, relishing the loud gasp and the moans of enjoyment that it drew from Cassandra. In her vision, the fiery mist suddenly became streaked with twining ribbons of red, purple and gold, the ribbons snapping and glowing as they formed mathematically precise mandala-like patterns before her eyes, each mandala melting into the next before wrapping themselves around her.
"Oh, Jenkins!" she groaned, raking her nails through his hair and across the back of his neck and shoulders. Her closed eyelids couldn't block the arcs of blue-white light that followed her clawing fingers along his skin as he continued to tantalize her tempting breasts. "Oh, god, Jenkins, that feels so good!"
Pleased with the results of his efforts, the immortal worked on one breast, then the other for a bit longer, her cries of pleasure and the feeling of her body wriggling beneath him serving only to increase the intensity of the throbbing in his manhood. Jenkins eventually gave her breasts a final soft kiss each before moving down her body, pausing along the way to kiss each of the freckles sprinkled across her skin like stars. Cassandra gasped at both the feeling of his lips on her body and at the silver-colored explosions that flashed across her field of vision with each kiss. His final stop was the freckle sitting directly above her belly-button; he purposely nibbled on the ticklish area to make her giggle and squirm even more under him, the final explosion in her mind's eye flaring like a supernova.
He suddenly backed off of the bed and seized her legs, pulled her toward him so that her buttocks rested on the edge of the mattress. He knelt on the floor and began to kiss and nuzzle the inside of one thigh, then the other. He retraced his trail of kisses with his tongue, his wife shivering at the sensation of his hot breath against her hyper-sensitive skin. The whirling mandala-clouds melted into a cocoon of soft lavender, molding itself to her body like a second tingling skin.
The cocoon darkened to a deep, glowing violet as the Librarian again cried out when she felt his lips on her sex, gently kissing her at first, but soon he began to devour her. He kisses became hard, passionate, his tongue plunging deeply into her, probing and exploring her folds until he finally found her clit. As he teased and nibbled her, Cassandra shrieked, an eruption of exquisite, mesmerizing patterns dancing before her eyes, golden whorls and twists rippling through the purple cocoon like smoke and forming intricate geometric patterns of breathtaking beauty. Her climax was on her before she knew it, the cocoon exploding around her into crystalline shards of light that flew outward and solidified into rings of shining emerald green as they expanded away from the center occupied by Jenkins and herself. Clutching the bedding in her fists, Cassandra's back arched slightly as she cried out his name again and again.
Completely unaware of what his wife was experiencing, Jenkins quickly got to his feet and bent over to kiss her panting mouth. She wrapped her heavy arms around him, her hands barely feeling the scarring on his back. He nuzzled her cheek as he moved his lips next to her ear.
"May I?" he whispered huskily. His voice, like that of an angel, sounded like it was coming from a million miles away as a warm, blanketing haze of pink and turquoise replaced the emerald rings.
"You may!" she purred in response. She smiled and gave him a smoldering look as she reached down with one hand to slap her husband's flank. "Giddyup, my handsome stud…er, I mean..steed!"
"Ouch!" he exclaimed with mock umbrage. His baritone voice echoed in her mind in silky waves of deep golden topaz, the color she always associated with Jenkins. "You saucy little wench, I'll teach you...!"
Jenkins stood up and grabbed the drunkenly laughing Cassandra by the hips. As soon as he had positioned himself between her flailing legs, he pushed his swollen manhood into her. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling as her man filled her, her vision filling with swirling blues and golds as he began to thrust into her. He forced himself to move slowly at first, savoring the sensations and the sounds of her sighs, moans and quick bird-like cries of delight. But soon his deliberate rocking was replaced by a hard rhythmic pace. With every lunge, she could feel his scrotum swing forward to softly strike her, creating tiny pillows of white that flashed and quickly faded against the blue-gold field.
Jenkins tightly grasped her hips, continued to ram himself into her again and again, panting loudly and grunting with each stroke. Within moments it was his turn for climax to strike without warning. He gave a loud, half-strangled shout of release, drove his long, slick shaft into her a few more times, then came to a halt, his cock buried deeply inside of Cassandra, his head back and eyes shut as he submerged himself in the blissful, primal feeling of his seed pulsing into his wife.
Cassandra remained still for a few minutes, immersed in the same sensation. As her private light show gradually diminished and faded back into her present surroundings, she gently disengaged herself and moved further into the bed. As she rolled over onto her side and slid under the sheets, Jenkins followed and did likewise, eagerly spooning his long body against her back and wrapping his arms around her to hold her close against him. Cassandra entwined her legs with his and wriggled into his embrace while he pulled the blankets over them. The two lay together quietly for several minutes, each one simply enjoying the feel of the other's hot, slightly damp skin against their own.
Cassandra softly sighed. Her thoughts wandered lazily from the feelings of love and happiness and contentment to wondering what their future together held. Before she knew it, the last vestiges of the bright colors in her field of vision disappeared dramatically as she began thinking about what would happen when she grew old—when she grew too old for things like sex. She tried to push the thoughts away, but it was too late. She closed her eyes, a single tear managing to form and escape one eye and fall onto the pillow under her head.
Jenkins, half-dozing with contentment, suddenly felt a sharp twinge of sadness within his heart. He blinked back to full wakefulness and paused a moment as he tried to figure out what had caused such a feeling to come over him, especially now. He realized that it was coming from Cassandra, through their Sealing bond. But why should she be feeling sad at this moment? The answer came to him instantly: She was worrying about growing old again, and it how would affect their relationship, something that seemed to prey on her regularly. The immortal drew in a deep breath, then gently raised himself onto his elbow so that he could look down at her in the faint starlight coming through the bedroom window.
"Cassandra," he said, his voice low and soft, his tone telling her that he knew what she thinking. She rolled onto her back so she could meet his gaze, her eyes full of sadness and apology.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I didn't mean to spoil the mood for you."
"You haven't spoiled anything for me," he replied kindly. He began to brush the backs of the fingers of his free hand along her pale cheek.
"A little while ago you told me that if we could never be intimate again, you would still love me," he reminded her.
"I know, but this is different…"
"No, it isn't," he cut her off as he looked her steadily in the eyes. "This is a two-way street, my love. No matter what may come along that prevents us being physically intimate, I will always love you, Cassandra. Always."
Cassandra looked up at him and smiled weakly, feeling somewhat sheepish. She scolded herself for having such foolish thoughts, raised her hand to his face and laid it on his soft cheek.
"I'm sorry," she said again, "I don't know why I'm so afraid of you falling out of love with me. I guess I'm just not used to having someone in my life who loves me so much with no strings attached." Jenkins dropped his head and kissed her gently.
"Nor am I," he answered, then smiled down at her, his eyes crinkling impishly. "But isn't it a wonderful 'problem' to have?"
"It is!" she agreed at once, then closed her eyes and cuddled against him, her small smile turning into one of pure joy. "And I hope it's a problem that never gets resolved!"
Jenkins settled back onto the bed and wrapped both arms around his young wife, closed his eyes and sighed with happiness.
"As do I, my love. As do I."