We used to swim

The same moonlight waters
Oceans away from the wakeful day

My fall will be for you
My love will be in you

If you be the one to cut me

I will bleed forever

The rain had stopped its gentle pattering and the moon appeared from behind the clouds.

Erik awoke a couple of hours after sleep had claimed him. It was still night outside but he didn't care, the only thing that occupied his thoughts was the sleeping beauty in his arms who slept with her head pillowed on his shoulder and with her arm across his stomach.

His swollen lips curved upwards, he had never guessed, that in a world like this, there could be a pleasure so exquisite. The knowledge that, after all this time and after everything that he had been through to win her heart, he finally had her was overwhelming.

His finger brushed away one of her curls that had landed across her face. Her face was tired but smiled at the same time as she lay by his side in her naked glory. The cover had slipped down from her shoulders to her hip, leaving very little to his stormy eyes. Fearing that she might grow cold, he pulled the cover up again.

Sleeping was useless, his mind may be at peace but his body was not, e wanted her again. But he couldn't rouse her now when she slept so peacefully. He decided to get up and work away some energy. Dressed in his black trousers and partly unbuttoned white shirt and cloak, he bent down and kissed her rosy cheek which was warm from sleeping.

He walked into the garden. The moon threw its silvery light over it and made the raindrops on all the petals twinkle.

He sat down on the swing, thinking about his latest experience, he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry out of happiness. He looked up at the sky.

"Don't ever take her away from me again, I can't loose her now" he hissed, as if cursing some demon from his past.

- ---

Christine slowly stretched, with her eyes closed she reached her hand out, searching after her beloved, but she only encountered the red satin sheets. She moaned in disappointment and grabbed Erik's pillow, burying her face in it. She heard footsteps and assumed they were Erik's. She got up and shivered as she felt the cold air brush against her warm body. She felt soreness between her thighs that made her smile. It hadn't been a dream. It had really happened.

She looked out through the window and saw her dark angel make his way through the ivy and into the garden.

She decided to follow him, she picked up her nightgown, put it on and pulled her hands through her tangled hair.

As she entered the garden she saw him, sitting on the swing. She smiled, he looked so much younger surrounded by nature and sitting on a swing.

Erik looked up at the sound of her feet touching the ground, his eyes softened at the sight of her. She was a beauty. His beauty dressed in white. Her face was smiling tenderly as she approached him.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked as she stood in front if him.

"I woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep."

"Really? What distracted you?"

Erik smiled, they had never had these kinds of simple conversations before. He truly felt normal for the first time.

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes, you" he said as he pulled her against him, resting his cheek against her belly. The thought that she might conceive from him tonight didn't distress him. The image of Christine holding a small bundle against her breast made his heart swell.

"Come." He took her hand and made room for her to sit next to him on the swing. He noticed how she winced as she sat down.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, I'm just a little sore, it's natural after the first time."

Concern crossed his face.

"I never meant to harm you…" he never finished his sentence, her finger silenced him gently.

"The result was so wonderful that I would go through it again. And I have no regrets, my Angel."

She replaced her finger with her lips.

"Do you have any idea how tempting you look in the moonlight?" he asked as they parted.

"It makes me want you again."

Before she had time to react he pulled her up from her seat and, in one swift motion, had her straddling him on the swing.

"Erik" she gasped as she felt his lips against her throat. "We can't do it out here" the entire situation felt both exciting and improper.

"Oh but my dearest love, we can."

She was just about to protest when she felt his lips against hers and his hands searching their way down to the hem of her nightgown and then caress her thighs.

"Well, if you say so, Angel"

She felt how his lips searched their way down her throat and down to her chest, where he unbuttoned the top of it, making her breasts visible for his hungry eyes.

She felt a jolt come through her as his mouth took one of her rosebuds and devoured it.

Christine was confounded, how could something so sweet and divine be sinful? She remembered something that one of the girls ha said once in the dormitories, late at night, that made men loose their minds.

She lifted his unmasked face gently from her bosom and sucked his lower lip into her mouth as her hand came between them and unbuttoned his trousers.

She heard him gasp as she found him and shaped her hand around him.

His eyes became wide open as she started to stroke him up and down. Christine smiled at his chock, she had certainly made him loose his mind.

Christine was fascinated. The feeling of him! He was softness and hardness in one combine.

Erik removed her hand before it was too late. He pushed the skirt up and lowered her onto his swelling manhood. Christine cried out, but not from pain but pleasure.

Erik took her legs and wrapped them around his waist. He lowered his feet to the ground and pushed back the swing, letting the ground go again he and Christine swayed through the air of passion.

Christine moaned over and over as she felt him enter her time after time as they swayed. What an incredible feeling!

Erik drove his hips into her as if his life depended on it. If their first time had been fantastic then this surpassed that a hundred times.

One of his hands held onto swing, the other came around her waist.

"You feel so good, my Angel" he whispered in her ear.

Christine felt that she was getting close to her release.

Erik felt how her silky muscles clenched around him. As he swayed backwards one more time and she forwards her entire body shock and her arms came around his neck and her legs hugged his waist tightly.

She threw her head back and screamed out his name.

Erik followed shortly after and felt her name leaving his lips as well.

'Divine exhaustion' he thought as he stopped the swing.

They both breathed heavily, Christine's opened her eyes and looked at his face, his beautiful face!

'How could I have ever been afraid of him?' she wondered.

"I love you" he gasped as he looked into her shining eyes.

"Oh, my Angel! I love you so" she said before he kissed her, his tongue plunging into her mouth.

Erik rose from the swing, with the legs and arms of Christine still wrapped around him, and fell down on the soft grass. She was lying on top of him, he still had his cloak on which she unhooked, spreading it cross the grass.

She crossed her arms on his chest and rested her chin on them, she wanted to remember every tiny detail of his face.

Her mind reflected on their entire history. First the chorus, her debut in "Hannibal", the masquerade and the "Don Juan"-performance. It all seemed so long ago and here they were now, completely smitten with each other. How could she have been so foolish? This was the paradise she had always dreamed of, he was the hero her father had been reading about for her in all her bedtime stories.

She was a woman now, she realised. His, only his. And he was hers, the thought brought tears to her eyes.

Erik noticed how she smiled and how the smile turned to tears.

"What are you thinking of, my love?"

"How happy I am and about the past, a little."

"The past?"

"Yes, mostly the night of "Don Juan", had I only known that you were in love with me."

"What did you think I was?"

"I don't know."

He chuckled, she was still so innocent.

"Well, you did have a strange way of showing it she said and kissed his chin.

"Really?" he smiled "how about now then?" he asked and kissed her. "Sometimes I find it difficult to understand that you love me" he said and stroked her forehead.

"I think I always have."

"What?" he asked. "And you tell me I have a strange way of showing it!" he said with a pretended angry look and threw her off of him, she squealed as he started to tickle her.

"I meant subconsciously" she laughed out. He stopped his tickling and embraced her from behind, bringing her back against his chest, he started kissing her earlobe and buried his face against her neck, kissing her pulsing vein.

"The past can't harm us, love. The past has died and will forever be dead, it is only now that matters" he whispered against her ear.

Authors note: Sorry about the long delay. The little poem in the beginning is lyrics from a song by Nightwish called "Ghost love score" and some genius made a cool video of it with scenes from the 2004 phantom-movie. Check it out: http/