It was early.
For what remained of the night Andromache and I locked ourselves in the bath. She sat down on the edge of the large pool and dangled her long, shapely, perfect legs in the pool while I spoke of tomorrow's events.
I watched her soulful brown eyes watch me, I watched her lips form a smile, I even found myself staring at her nightgown as if I were a young man hoping to catch a glimpse of skin.
As if she weren't my wife and I had never been with her before, and then she would talk. Her voice was the sweetest sound upon my ears and I remembered she was mine. Unable to even remember how I could forget such a thing, I swam over to her and pulled her into the warm pool with me.
The laugh that came from her was like music.
Even though she could swim she still wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck, just as she did when we were young and foolish.
We were no longer children, no longer in the young days of our marriage. It was perhaps even more exciting for us. Not having to hide in the palace in closets having our way with one another in hurried encounters. No longer did we worry if anyone heard us, or if anyone walked in.
The door was locked. Simple as that, I did not care if anyone heard or knew what we were doing.
I no longer blushed at the knowing looks the men gave me. No longer did I tolerate the jokes about it, which I quite often silenced with a single look at everyone from Paris to the men under my command.
In the night I simply enjoyed my wife, when morning came there would be marks on my body from her. The knowledge that I would have them was there, that some would be visible by ranking officials of Troy, and yet I could not have cared.
There would be scratches along my back and shoulders, perhaps a bite mark on my shoulder, maybe even two round bruises from her heels in the small of my back. There would be purple marks from my neck down, anyplace that she could reach with her plump lips.
Lips I was quite certain I had bruised during the night's activities. Her back would likely be sore, whether or not the pool tiles had been indented into her back from me. Something that only came mind afterward.
Afterward when she simple slumped against my undressed front side, completely exhausted. Her head fell upon my shoulder and she fell asleep. Oblivious to the quickened rise and fall of my chest beneath her. Her long hair clung together in wet ringlets plastered down both our backsides and on the gown she still wore.
The violet robe floated along the bottom of the pool.
Somehow she had looked even more alluring with the pale gown plastered to her womanly form, the feel of wet silk between us had been perhaps a added source of frustration, but well worth it in the end. Though the poor dress had not survived in one piece. There were a few tears along the top hems and it was bunched around her waist.
Ruined by my own hands due to the frustration it had caused before and still.
I slowly made my way through the pool and up the steps.
All without so much as a noise from my exhausted wife. For which I was grateful, she had not been sleeping well, after nearly ten years of marriage I could hardly sleep in our bed without her by my side. I felt her move, sit up, even when she crawled from bed and thought I was asleep.
With a quick look at her sleeping face I went to one of the chairs and picked up a rather large blanket, which I wrapped around the both of us.
With her in my arms I made my way through the bath, I unlocked the door and walked out into the hall.
It was early morn so the palace was busy with silent activity of maids and servants. All of which lowered their heads or looked away at the sight of me.
I personally did not care if they saw me without clothes.
My wife was an entirely different matter.
No one but myself saw her without clothes.
I walked down the halls and to our bedroom, the guard outside the door, Tarus, opened the door and closed it behind me without a word. He didn't make a face at the sight of me carrying my sleeping wife to bed, wet and wrapped in a blanket.
A truly wise man.
The chambers we cohabited in were dimly lit by oil lamps and candles. The sun had not yet rose thank the Gods.
Once the sun was up my body would not allow me any sleep.
With no need of lights I walked to our bedroom. Past my office, her fiber room, and the maid Padme's room. Into the open bedroom I had left earlier. She didn't so much as make a noise for the entirety of the trip from the pool.
But when I sat down on the bed she let out a groan, tightened her grip on me and opened her eyes.
A feeling of pure happiness and contentment filled me, it usually did after we were intimate.
Her eyes were heavy with sleep, but she managed to pull herself even closer to me, if that were even possible. She buried her face against my neck and whispered, "Don't leave me."
I knew what she meant.
The palace would have to be on fire for me to leave the bed, my heart would have to stop for me to leave her physically. She didn't mean either with her simple words.
I didn't bother to pull down the sheets.
Nor did I unwrap us from the blanket.
Instead I laid down on the bed and rolled on top of my wife, completely on top of her, but kept my weight on my knees and the arm I had wrapped around her warm waist.
A groan of both pleasure and satisfaction came from her, her eyelids fluttered as I was pressed further into her body. Someplace I hadn't left in some time, a place I didn't want to leave. I fought to sudden urge to wake her up as I felt my body react to her own.
It was then she opened her eyes and looked up at me, speaking a single love filled word I was praying to hear.
"Again."
