Feedback is really appreciated! Sorry for the slow updates. I'll get the next chapter done before Friday, I hope.
Noir52
Once the house was quiet, Erik entered the hall, his breath still and his hands sweating. He felt like a fugitive roaming a museum as he stared at the fresco walls. The walls he knew. He had designed them, but the interior decoration was not his own.
It was foreign, unfamiliar, and strangely alarming. Erik had forgotten what it was like to walk a hall where the carpet was drenched in sunlight. He had forgotten the varying shades of light created as clouds passed through the sky, the sound of the wind hissing through windows, the feel of a wet floor when the windows were left open.
He didn't know how to live as others lived. Being above ground made his heart thunder in his chest and his lungs tighten.
He felt an urge to flee.
Erik's hand touched the railing and he paused, forcing himself to remain at the top of the stairs.
Where will I go if I leave? he asked himself. His stomach was empty, he had little money and far too many people still searching for him. He wasn't even sure where he was, as he had slept through a portion of the journey.
He knew he should have felt overjoyed, yet his heart sank in his chest. Corinna had spent too many years searching for him, and all he could think was of the many ways he could disappoint her. He could never walk in daylight again. He was too ashamed of his appearance, too fearful of who might recognize him on the street.
"There you are." Her voice snapped him out of his daydream.
Startled, he glanced around, uncertain of where she stood. She touched his stomach with the palm of her hand as she walked past him on the stairs. The folds of her cloak brushed past his leg as she rounded the corner.
"Ursula couldn't tolerate another moment of her children screaming," she commented. "They are returning home now but may join us for dinner in a night or two."
Erik turned and followed Corinna with his eyes, his feet suddenly planted on the floor. She glanced at him and smiled warmly.
"Would you care to join me for a moment before we sit down to breakfast?" she asked.
He followed in silence, his thoughts pulled in different directions. He wasn't sure if Corinna understood what a life with him would entail. She deserved better than a life of hiding. She was gregarious and her appearance still youthful. Any number of men would vie for her hand.
"You are being very quiet this morning," Corinna said once she ushered him into her bedchamber.
Erik glanced around the room but still said nothing. He saw a large painting on the far wall and his eyes were drawn to its depiction of two people riding an elephant. His mouth turned dry as he took a step forward, his lips parted, his hands suddenly trembling.
"Are you feeling ill today?" Corinna asked.
The man and woman in the painting were shown in profile, sitting astride the elephant. The man had his arm wrapped around the woman's waist and his chin rested on her shoulder.
"My God," he whispered as he neared the painting. His hand reached out, fingers grazing Corinna's likeness.
"Do you like it?" Corinna asked over her shoulder.
"It's…" He shook his head. It was before the burning, before the right side of his face had been scarred beyond recognition. The sight of it made him shiver. Corinna looked the same. He was far beyond recognition. What once belonged together was no longer meant to be, he thought morosely.
"A man I met in Florence painted it from the story I told him. I think it's beautiful," she said. She paused and began taking pins out of her hair. "It has kept me company for some time now."
Corinna twisted on her vanity stool and stared at him a moment, silver hairbrush in one hand and several pins in the other. Erik looked away, knowing she still studied him. His eyes searched the floor and he wondered if she compared the man in the painting to the thing standing before it.
His eyes flicked up. That was what she wanted, the moment captured in memory, this scene displayed on her wall. Despite appearances Erik was certain he could never quite be that man again. He was changed, both inside and out.
"I can't," he whispered softly.
"Do you remember that morning?" Corinna asked as she began running the boar bristles through her long, black hair.
Erik could see her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes had closed, her lips forming a slight smile. She looked serene, like someone caught in a pleasant daydream.
"You had never ridden an elephant before. I remember how you hesitated—and how that boy kept yelling at you because you were certain you needed reins, like horseback riding. You had no idea what he was saying, but you yelled back. The only Hindi phrase you knew."
"Water, please," Erik said as he walked to Corinna, watching her closely in the mirror.
Corinna chuckled. "My aunt taught you that, didn't she? So that the servants would bring you something to drink while you worked. She was afraid you would die of thirst as you worked in the sun all day. She was surprised you weren't as dark as the rest of the Indians by your second week there."
The memory prompted a smile to slide across his lips. "I believe she did."
Without opening her eyes Corinna reached over her shoulder and took Erik's hand in hers.
"This is better," she said. "I admired that painting, but this is real. This is what I've waited for."
She opened his fingers and handed him the brush.
"Would you care to help me?" she asked, her voice low and sweet.
Erik studied the brush. There was a tiger etched into the broad back, which brought on another onslaught of memories. With a deep breath he pushed the thoughts aside and turned his attention to Corinna.
Her shoulders dropped the moment he ran the brush through her straight hair. With her head slightly tilted back she released a soft sigh of pleasure that nearly caused Erik to drop the brush to the ground.
His fingers inadvertently caressed her neck as he pushed her hair aside. Corinna leaned back against his touch, which set his nerves on fire and ignited heat deep within his belly. Erik continued to run the brush through her hair, though at the same time he raked his fingers through her locks, encouraged by her escalated breathing as he touched her scalp.
It was impossible for him to concentrate or keep his fingers from touching her neck. He kept his eyes trained on her expression in the mirror, finding himself hypnotized by the look of sheer ecstasy overtaking her flushed face. She had never looked so perfect as she did in that moment, with her hair down and enjoying his caresses.
The brush slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor as Corinna turned and rose. She ignored everything around her as she linked her arms around his neck and stared into his green eyes. No one looked at him the way she did, so fearless, so compassionate. She looked at him as though he were still the same man in the painting.
Erik's arms hung loose at his side. His hands twitched, balling into fists and then releasing as his uncertainty heightened into something that threatened to swallow him whole.
At the same time his heart raced and his palms felt clammy as he continued to clench and release his fists. Her dark eyes looked brighter than he ever remembered as she closed the space between them, her stomach pressed to his, her breasts against his chest.
Corinna gave him no time to reconsider his desire. She turned her face and closed her eyes, parting her lips as his mouth pressed to hers. Her fingers pressed into his shoulders, kneading his muscles, soothing the tension that had built up over the years. She ran her index finger along his neck, evoking a surge of warmth to rise through his body.
Her tongue slipped into his mouth, causing him to exhale hard through his nostrils as his hands gripped her tighter, pressing her to him, squeezing her soft body to his own hardness.
Corinna tugged at the hem of his shirt until it was untucked from his trousers. Her hands slid along his hips and up his sides, eliciting a soft moan from him as she gently nibbled his bottom lip.
When she pulled away his eyes opened, heavy lidded and betraying his private thoughts as he studied her face. He watched in mesmerized silence as Corinna unbuttoned his shirt, her lips slowly moving down his chest where the soft cotton of his lawn shirt had once covered. His breath hitched when her tongue ran like wet fire along his nipple, instantly turning it into a hardened peak. He exhaled sharply as she ran her tongue and teeth down to his ribs, springing his desires to life in an unmistakable shape beneath his trousers.
Erik could barely stand the centering of unrequited pleasure he felt churning through his midsection. His eyes closed for a moment as he allowed waves of pleasure to course through his veins.
But it was not enough.
He wanted to touch her, to taste her, to explore each inch of her. His hand combed through her hair as she kissed his neck, her tongue dragging along his hot flesh. His lips parted and he whispered her name hoarsely, his chest heaving as she tormented him with a taste of pleasure.
Erik's hands slowly moved along her back as he struggled to find the end of the sari. He tilted his head down and kissed her again, pulling firmly at the fabric.
Corinna giggled against his lips and brought his hand to her shoulder.
"Here," she said, waiting for him to grasp the fabric.
She spun around in a slow, tantalizing circle, her movements undressing her before his eyes. Yard by yard the sari slipped away and revealed her titian flesh covered only by a short blouse that came up beneath her breasts, and a petticoat that touched the floor.
Erik stared at her hips and bare stomach, his mind lost in the gentle curve of her belly. He wanted to run his tongue along her navel, bite her gently along her waist. He wanted to smell her sweet, feminine scent and drink in her taste.
Corinna crushed herself to his chest again, the buds of her small nipples pressing into his bare flesh. She released a soft, desperate moan as he kissed her shoulder and neck, biting her gently below her ear. She ran her fingers through his hair and pushed her hips forward, grinding her stomach against his erection, groaning louder than before.
His mouth pressed to hers again in fervent need to be closer to her. Once his hands found a way beneath her blouse he caressed her small breasts, finding the pebbled hardness of her nipples. He smiled against her lips as one of his hands moved and pressed against the small of her back, feeling her move so that she stood on the tips of her toes, caressing his manhood with her body.
When finally he felt as if the coil that had been building within him would burst, Corinna pulled away, panting as she stared at him.
Thinking he had stepped over an unspoken boundary he looked away, uncertain of what would happen next.
Corinna placed her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his back, fingers swirling along his flesh.
"Erik," she said, her voice low and deep. She kissed his chest, nuzzling against the sparse covering of dark hair. "Take me to bed."