She lay looking up at him with total trust. He pushed down a little harder on the next kiss and brushed her lips with his tongue. She opened to him, allowing him to explore her mouth, not responding yet, just enjoying the feeling. He set their wine glasses down and slid around to bring them face to face. He kissed her deeply again, and this time she responded with her own tender exploration of his mouth. She pulled back and gave him a look, one eyebrow raised.
"I washed and washed and washed and I was a good boy too, I told you! I'm so clean I squeak! You're lucky I didn't scrub anything off!" They laughed really hard together and swept into more deep kisses until they couldn't quite breathe. Kenshin began to kiss her neck while she ran her long strong fingers down his shoulders and arms. This was for them, the sweet exchange of pleasure they didn't quite understand but had come to need in their years together.
It has caused problems at times, in the world around them and in their own relationship. This love didn't fit neatly into categories or slots, it was unique and theirs. Others had tried to break it, and almost succeeded. They had tried to break it themselves when it had become as much pain as pleasure. But they always returned to each other as parts of a whole. Kenshin was Teo's snug harbor, the place she could relax and let go of the control she always needed otherwise. She had hid her love from him for a long time before he told her of his feelings for her. She felt she wasn't good enough, she had told him, for one as sweet and wonderful as he after what her life had been.
And that was one reason why he loved her. In Teo's eyes he was the shining boy, the sun of her sky. She held him in a sort of awe, amazed and almost afraid to touch him. It was an amazing feeling to be considered the most beautiful and special of all beings. To be loved for nothing more than being. She was his protector, his firm base for his life, the person who loved him beyond all others. She knew his faults as he knew hers. They fought sometimes; they had hurt each other's feelings more than once. They had nearly shattered. But together they were unbreakable, able to weather the tragedies around them as friends and old lovers succumbed to death and disease, as times were good or bad. This was the physical expression of their loving bond, a bond as different as their relationship was.
Teo lifted her head to release Kenshin's mouth and turned him onto his side, moving behind him to kiss the back of his neck. She kissed every mark that had been made earlier, as if to heal the damage on the skin she loved to touch. Reaching around him she ran her hands down his chest, pausing to tease at nipples now firm and sensitive. He pushed his body back against her warmth and sighed in pleasure. She was never rushed; she always took as long as possible on the slow sensuous kindling of desire. One hand stayed at his nipple while the other trailed down to push up the fabric of the shirt he wore and fondle the soft curve of his hip. The whole time, she softly kissed and licked his neck and ear, whispering sweet words of pleasure at his beauty and her joy in holding him in her arms in every language that she knew.
He arched back against her as she took him into her hand and began to slowly stroke his length. From long experience she knew his most sensitive areas and hands and lips plundered each of them. His shirt was gone now as was her towel. They lay nude in the candlelight, caressing with hands and tongues and skin against skin, the light turning their bodies into golden fields of pleasure. His lips closed on her breast and she whimpered his name, her hands never ceasing to stroke and touch him. He rocked against her and she against him, but they did not couple in the manner of straight men and women.
They had tried that and it wasn't for them, it did nothing for them. What mattered was the slow dance of pleasure which could be given by hands and mouths and skin. Touching tasting breathing each other in; this was their lovemaking, truly made by love in their case. They would stop and just quietly hold each other to hear their heartbeats and breathing, let the pleasure ebb and flow as a warm sea for them to bathe in. Then they would begin again, giving each other only tenderness and delight.
It was their joy and skill to stretch lovemaking out for as long as possible. The quick sweaty rush of need was not for them, they had all the time in the world when they lay in each other's arms. Sometimes Kenshin would take the lead, sometimes Teo, but they were equals in this dance.
Once a good friend had asked Kenshin what he found in Teo that attracted him to her when no other woman did. "She cares more for me and my pleasure than she does her own, and I care more for hers than mine. Between the two of us, that means we both find nothing but joy in each other's arms. How many people can say that of someone they have known for as long as we have? After so many years her voice can still make me shake. And my lips can make her weep with delight. Can you say that? We enjoy sex and the bodies of others give us pleasure. But we don't just have sex, Teo, and I. We join in soul more than bodies and that is the wellspring of our joy. Any one who tries to come between us is a fool."
Finally, he reached down for the spot which brought her the most intense pleasure. As she began to shudder, she picked up the pace of her stroking and caught his mouth in a deep wet kiss, her other hand buried in the softness of fire red curls. Her moans only caused him more excitement and he joined her cries with his own. She shook and then stopped, but he didn't stop his hand, he knew from long loving that she was not yet at the peak of her pleasure. She reached farther back to stroke the cleft of his buttocks and he began to tremble and cry out with his release pouring out on to the skin of her hip. She followed in quick succession, and her tremors only heightened his own sensations.
As their breathing slowed they lay in a sleepy satisfaction. Kenshin dried her off and pulled her into his arms to lay her head on his chest, stroking her arm lightly. Her hand still traced the curve of his hip, making him shiver and smile down into her loving eyes. "I love you, my beautiful Teo, my koi, my friend, my wife. Nothing will change that now or ever."
"My koi, my Kenshin, my loving boy sweet as honey. My husband in soul and mind, nothing will change that now or ever." She blew out the candle and they drowsed off to sleep in each other's arms. His left arm pressed against her right, joining the tattoo lines of unbroken koi. Which meant love.