A/N: Warning, M rated scene ahead!
Chapter 16 – The Wedding Night
Erik poled the boat across the lake and gently helped Christine onto the shore of what she thought of as his "palace" below the opera house. "Would you care to freshen up, dear?" he asked solicitously. "I was thinking that hot baths would revitalize us and I would definitely like to change out of this suit."
"It would feel good to get out of all this finery into something comfortable, and I'm sticky and hot after our walk to and from the church," his bride admitted. "But…" and she hesitated.
"What is it, my sweet?" he asked.
"This is going to sound silly, but I don't know if I'm ready to bathe together just yet."
He smiled. "I understand perfectly, and that isn't what I had in mind for tonight. I expect you to be shy about being unclothed in front of me just now, and I thought we would get better acquainted slowly to allow us both to become accustomed to each other. This is new to me, too, remember?"
She gasped in surprise. "Erik, you never told me that! I assumed that you…."
"Well, you assumed wrongly, my dear," he explained, unruffled. "I am as much a virgin as you are in this area. Are you displeased to hear it?"
"On the contrary, I think it is wonderful! I tried not to think of you with another woman, because I was so jealous when I did! Do you mean that in all these years, you never once…?" she asked in wonder.
"Never," he replied in all sincerity. "This," with a gesture at his still-masked face, "has denied me the joys of the flesh with ordinary women, and I disdained the idea of purchasing cheap thrills with a less-than-savory street woman. Now I am glad that I waited, for it makes what we will share more special, more exclusive."
Erik gathered his bride in his arms again, kissing her first tenderly and then with more passion, for each time he realized anew that she belonged to him his fervor arose and urged him to explore further the marvel that was now open to him. He controlled himself with an effort, for he wanted this to be a night to remember, and ravishing her right away wasn't part of his plan. He led her to the room she had used before, which contained an attached bathroom, and even had hot water due to the ingenious system of pipes Erik had designed and implemented.
Christine saw that he had considerately unpacked the bags she had sent down with him earlier in the week, just a few things she thought she might need for the time they would spend in the "palace". She opened the small closet and was startled to see her costume from "Don Juan Triumphant" hanging there. "Erik, why is this here?" she asked, turning to her husband for enlightenment.
"I appropriated it for your use tonight," he admitted, only deepening the mystery. "No one will miss it, since your replacement, Amy, is larger than you are and has her own attire. If you will humor me by changing into it after you bathe, I promise your questions will be answered soon afterwards. Will you do that for me, Christine?"
"Your wish is my command, my love, though I'm dying of curiosity!" she rejoined, and they separated to bathe and change.
Christine walked out into the main room, skin glowing and clean, once more attractively arrayed as the character of Aminta from Erik's opera, "Don Juan Triumphant". Her husband stood up from his seat at the organ to watch her enter, and she saw that he was also in costume as "Don Juan", black cape swirling around his form magnificently, black mask in place. Her heart beat faster as he approached her, and for a moment she forgot that he was her husband, and thought of him once more as they mysterious "Angel of Music" who had so bewildered and mystified her in the past.
"You look lovely, my dear," he said in a low, sexy voice as he took her hand and turned her around to admire her from all angles. "That dress is most becoming on you."
"Thank….ahem….thank you," she croaked, suddenly very nervous.
Erik was suddenly attentive and concerned, "Are you all right, sweetheart? I do hope you won't catch cold in this drafty basement."
Now that he sounded like her husband again, she was able to relax. "I'm fine, really, it's just that for a moment there time turned backwards and you were the "Phantom of the Opera" instead of my Erik, and it startled me."
"I see." He smiled mischievously, asking "Are you still frightened of the Phantom, my dear? He is a man underneath the mask, and very much in love with you." He kissed her hand and loosed it, then walked over to a strange apparatus on one of the side walls, flipping a switch, and suddenly the orchestra was playing around them just as if they were seated in the opera house several floors above.
Christine clasped her hands together in pleasure. "Oh, we can hear them performing your opera! How did you manage that, Erik?"
"Just a bit of tinkering with some pipes to guide the sound down to us from the orchestra pit, it wasn't difficult. I thought perhaps we would take advantage of our proximity to the opera and do a bit of performing for our own benefit tonight. Are you agreeable?" he inquired, hoping she would say yes, for he had his heart set on using this prelude to their lovemaking to awaken her passion.
"Are you asking if I will sing with you again, like I did on opening night? I would love to, my Angel! I haven't forgotten the exhilaration of our song or our flight yet, and am not likely to in this lifetime!" Christine admitted, excited at the prospect of repeating their performance privately.
Erik was pleased at her response, which seemed to match the excitement and anticipation he felt, and he liked the heightened color in her cheeks. This had seemed like a good idea when he thought of it, but he wasn't sure how to proceed if she had objected, because he was as nervous about tonight's lovemaking as she surely was. He handed her a basket of red roses just like the ones she had carried onstage on opening night.
"Ah, my dear, I think I hear our cue" he cried, swinging into place at the side of the room to imitate Don Juan's position several floors above them. His contrivance allowed the music into the room but not the voices, so it was as if they were on stage again. He gestured to Christine to begin, and she fell easily into her role as Aminta.
"No thoughts within her head, but thoughts of joy! No dreams within her heart but dreams of love!" she sang beautifully and simply, moving to sit on the sofa since there was no step to sit upon here and picking up a single rose to twirl between her fingers.
They could almost hear the next spoken line:
"Master?"
Erik answered on cue, "Passarino. Go away, for the trap is set and waits for its prey!"
He then sang to Christine in his expressive deep voice, "You have come here in pursuit of your deepest urge, in pursuit of that wish, which till now has been silent, silent..." and he placed a finger at his lips in reminder of that other night when they had trusted each other. Christine, as Aminta, looked over her shoulder at him startled and timid.
Don Juan/Erik sang with an arrogant smile, "I have brought you that our passions may fuse and merge. In your mind you've already succumbed to me, dropped all defenses, completely succumbed to me." Aminta/Christine closed her eyes, overcome by the emotions he aroused with his words.
"Now you are here with me, no second thoughts," he shook his head slowly, approaching her.
"You've decided, decided..." and he swept his cape backwards with a flourish. She got slowly to her feet as he continued, "Past the point of no return, no backward glances; our games of make believe are at an end...Past all thought of "if" and "when," no use resisting; abandon thought, and let the dream descend..." and he was close enough to touch, circling her, raising an arm and then lowering it as the dream descended and she gazed spellbound at this man she was powerless to resist.
"What raging fire shall flood the soul?" he growled in song, capturing her from behind with his hand on her throat as she closed her eyes in unexpected ecstasy. "What rich desire unlocks its door? What sweet seduction lies before us?" He ran his hands down her neck and across her trembling bosom on the way down her arm to take her hand in his, and she was surprised into a smile at his daring. She allowed the shoulders of her dress to drop sexily down, baring her shoulders.
Erik led her across their mock stage, keeping eye contact as he continued, "Past the point of no return, the final threshold – what warm, unspoken secrets will we learn beyond the point of no return..."
Still in character, Christine pulled away from him and walked to the other side of the room, pulling the dress back up on her shoulders to sing, "You have brought me to that moment where words run dry, to that moment where speech disappears into silence, silence...I have come here, hardly knowing the reason why...In my mind, I've already imagined our bodies entwining, defenseless and silent, now I am here with you; no second thoughts, I've decided, decided..."
She turned to Erik then with a sultry smile, realizing that she could now acknowledge those feelings and act on them. She allowed the dress to slip back off her shoulders, issuing an invitation with her eyes. He took a deep breath at her action, lips parting with emotion, steadying himself to finish the song instead of seizing her then and there. She had never been more beautiful to him than she was now!
Christine's song went on, "Past the point of no return–no going back now; our passion play has now, at last, begun." There were no stairs to climb, so they merely circled the wide room, never losing eye contact as she continued, "Past all thought of right or wrong, one final question; how long should we two wait, before we're one?"
It was all Erik could do not to take hold of her at that. They walked toward each other as she sang huskily, "When will the blood begin to race, the sleeping bud burst into bloom? When will the flames at last consume us?"
He flung his cape to the side and they sang together now, "Past the point of no return, the final threshold," and they grasped each other by the arms as they had on stage. "The bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn," and he twirled her to stand with her back against him, caressing her neck and upper body as she tried to continue singing despite the feelings he was awakening.
"We've passed the point of no return..." and at the music's natural pause, Erik maneuvered toward his clever switch without releasing Christine and cut them off once more from the sounds of the opera house. Now they were alone and breathing heavily from the passions of the song, and this time they could follow that passion to its natural conclusion. He turned her to face him and, holding her warm body against his heated one he began to kiss her mouth hungrily.
Christine returned his kiss, and when she ran a tongue across her lips he eagerly captured it with his own mouth, sucking it in lightly and then releasing to run his own tongue around her lips and inside of her mouth, tasting and teasing. She imitated his own actions, sucking on the softness of his tongue, and he gasped as his manhood throbbed with sudden desire in response.
Knowing he must pace himself, he moved to kiss her face and neck, and it was her turn to struggle for breath; he seemed to instinctively find the sensitive areas which would cause her body to respond, and she felt a growing heat in her belly which was very pleasant as he licked along the side of her neck.
"Let us get out of these clothes, shall we?" he murmured in her ear and started by removing his mask, secure in the knowledge that this woman loved him as he was, flaws and all. He then turned her around to unfasten the bodice strings on the costume dress. To his wonder, she had only the briefest of undergarments beneath, and she had to laugh at the little joke she had played on him, knowing he was expecting to find a corset and petticoats.
"Don't worry, dearest, I wore everything I was supposed to on stage," she giggled. "But in this instance, I thought I would save us some time!"
"I appreciate that, my love," he smiled. "My, but you are getting bold; have I been a bad influence on you?" he asked, leering playfully at her.
"Yes, and I'm glad!" she replied trying to sound brave and also to ignore how exposed she felt standing there in just a pair of lacy pettipants. To cover her nervousness, she began to undo his clothing also, and he helped her unaccustomed fingers so that soon he was as bare as she, standing only in an undergarment. It was easy to see his arousal now, and she glanced quickly at it before looking away, feeling a little uneasy suddenly. It looked so large!
Erik wasted no time in pressing their bodies together again where they stood, eager to feel her soft breasts against his chest, and he kissed her passionately once again until they were both breathing heavily. Christine liked the crinkly feeling of his chest hair against her uncovered body; it sort of tickled. She could also feel his erection pressed against her lower abdomen, but tried to pay no heed to it, not sure if it was ladylike to notice.
He broke their embrace to pick her up in his arms and carry her to the beautiful black swan bed, which he had prepared with fresh red silk sheets to indulge their senses on this night of nights. Laying her softly on her back, he stood back to survey with pleasure the sight of his beautiful bride, her mass of curls fanned out on the pillow, creamy breasts crowned with rosy tips above the dip of her tiny waist and curve of those luscious hips. And she was his!
"My love, you are the most beautiful woman ever created," he breathed, lying down next to her on the bed and stroking her face with his fingertips. "Do you know how much I love you, Christine? You are worth all the treasure in the world to me." He kissed her again on the lips, tenderly, running his hand down her velvety body, and then moved to kiss his way down her body, stopping each time he found a spot that she seemed to particularly enjoy having caressed.
Christine felt as if part of her was floating outside of her body, observing, for she was extremely curious about the sex act itself, and yet she was also inside this body feeling every place that Erik touched come alive under his fingers and mouth. "Oh, yes," she murmured as he ran his tongue around a breast and her nipple hardened at his touch. He licked harder and she moaned softly, feeling the heat grow between her legs. How could his touching one place cause another to react? she wondered, even as she responded to his caress.
Erik was delighted that he seemed to be pleasing her, and continued his exploration, finding that a tongue in her belly button seemed to tickle her instead of exciting, so he moved on, temporarily bypassing the most tempting area to travel down her legs instead. Her feet were very ticklish, so rather than playing that game he left them and traveled back up, finding her knees to be sensitive when kissed, so he paid them both some attention and then journeyed further up her legs. Kissing and licking her upper thighs caused her to writhe under his touch, especially in the sensitive area where her legs joined her body. When he breathed warmly on her special womanly place she moaned with passion and he nearly lost his own self-control then and had to take a few deep breaths to calm his eager body. Her pleasure was all-important now; his could wait.
Christine was now lost in the sensations Erik had stirred up by his continued caresses, and when he parted the curly hair between her legs with his tongue, she thought she would die from the pleasurable new feelings he was causing her. She had a moment's embarrassment when he used his fingers to open her private area, but that disappeared in the wave of pleasure she felt when he ran his tongue along her most secret of places, and she involuntarily cried out in passion, totally overcome by the feelings.
Erik knew there was a certain spot on a woman's body which would cause her the most pleasure, similar to his own member, and his studies of human anatomy helped him to find it quickly and stimulate it with his mouth and tongue. He was rewarded by hearing Christine's cries of pleasure, and he experimented with different pressures and techniques, guided by her reactions, and all the time trying to ignore his own desperate need. His member was throbbing to the point of exquisite pain, and he could hardly wait until it was time to quench the fire in the way the creator had intended for man and woman. He concentrated on his wife's enjoyment, and was rewarded by a crescendo of sighs and moans, "Oh, yes, there, yes, yes, like that!" finishing in one last long shuddering "Ohhhhh!" that let him know he had brought her pleasure to completion.
Christine had never felt anything like this experience; her whole body was on fire, with the flames concentrated where Erik's tongue was driving her mad with desire, and she was hardly aware of crying out. He began to lick faster and harder, and suddenly she exploded in a wild, pulsing flood that left her tingling and throbbing all over. He was next to her then on the pillow, holding her tightly as all of the tension went out of her body and she lay like a limp doll. He wiped his mouth on a towel he had conveniently placed there and then kissed her urgently. She returned his kiss, all the time murmuring, "Thank you, thank you" for the experience he had just given her.
Erik could wait no longer to fully possess her, and lifted his body over her. She felt a sudden anxiety, combined with her own desire to be one at last with her husband, and she spread her legs to allow him access. He grasped his erection and, guiding it to the entrance, slipped partially inside, the lubrication from his mouth and her arousal making it effortless. He rocked back and forth slightly, looked at Christine's face to make sure she was ready for him, and when she whispered, "Yes, now," he gave a push and was fully inside of her. He had to pause and breathe to maintain some control, and he kissed her lips again, asking in a low voice, "Are you all right?" She smiled and kissed him back, answering, "Yes, it's fine, it really is," in a voice signifying her relief that the pain was almost nonexistent.
Erik began to move again rhythmically, biting his lower lip in an effort to make this last longer, but in a moment was aware that he was much too excited to continue for more than a few strokes before he groaned out his passion's completion. He held Christine tightly to him as his breathing and heart rate slowed to a normal rhythm, his face buried in her hair on the pillow.
"I'm sorry, my dear," he began, raising his head, but she stopped his mouth with a kiss. "Erik, that was the most wonderful experience of my life," she said in a mock-stern voice, "don't you dare to apologize for it!"
He laughed, relieved. "I was going to say I was sorry I couldn't last longer, my love" he explained. "Men are supposed to measure their sexual prowess by how long they can perform, and if that is the measure, I failed miserably; but it was my first time, so I suppose it is understandable. You just felt so wonderful inside that I couldn't hold out!"
It was her turn to laugh now, relaxed in her husband's arms and feeling totally natural to lie there naked together, just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. "Oh, Erik, we are really married now, aren't we?" she exclaimed happily.
"Yes, dear, we are truly 'one flesh' now, just as God intended. I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?" he asked, concerned.
"No, it really didn't hurt much; I think you made me feel so good beforehand that I was more than ready for you. Thank you, my love, for what you did; it was amazing," she said and kissed him again repeatedly.
Those kisses stimulated a revival of their previous passion, and led the newlyweds on to further experimentation and learning of each other's bodies on this first night together as the candles burned lower and lower, finally finding them asleep in each other's arms fully satisfied and very content.
A/N: Thanks to all who have reviewed my story in the past! I'd appreciate some input from the rest of you...wish I had a guest book you could all sign so I could know who I've touched. Only one chapter left and this story is complete, sigh...though I do plan to go back and improve using some of your past suggestions about style, etc. Maybe then I'll have time to read some of your great stories! Feel free to recommend some.
Heidi
