Time stands still. Every moment, every sensation, every feeling is enhanced, amplified, intensified. His fierce kiss, that violent warning that he wanted her, needed her was reciprocated with as much eagerness. Her breathless gasps were her wordless replies to his seduction as she succumbed to a flood of desire that took over her body. His hands that had held her with some tenderness curled into grasping fingers and her own limbs found their strength and she found her fingers clutched at his chest and neck signalling him mutely to go on and on.
Clawed fingers, rasped cries, sweat and heat. Hands full of hair, fingers pressed into flesh, limbs entwined, heat and sweat. Shivers, goosebumps, heat and sweat, then relief, release, respite.
When Catherine next becomes aware of herself she finds she is laying on his chest listening to the steady beat of Lucian's heart. Bliss. It was like waking from a beautiful dream, only this dream was real and warm and breathing softly beneath her. She glances up to see his face and is met by his intense gaze similarly looking down at her. She is pleased by this and smiles and as she does a though strikes her and she chuckles as a result of it. Lucian looks at her quizzically,
"Something amusing?"
She raises herself up so that she can look at him better and meets his wry gaze with her own smirking face.
"What's my name?"
He, for the briefest second, looks shocked at the question and almost offended, but then the realisation strikes that he has not the faintest idea. Panic then follows as he wonders frantically how she will respond to his honest response. Catherine decides to put him out of his misery and moves further towards him so that they are face-to-face.
"Catherine," she whispers and kisses his lips softly, "it's Catherine."
They embrace once again and he holds her close.
"It suits you," he murmurs, smiling, "Catherine the Great."
Her smile engulfs her whole being. For the first time in almost 10 years she is completely and utterly content.
The day light hours pass far too quickly and almost as soon as the sun had sank below the horizon he was gone. As many who bask in the sun's warmth feel the chill of the shadows cutting like a cold blade, so too did Catherine feel the absence of the heat and light of Lucian that night.
His parting words to her, whispered into her ear after a final lingering kiss has been:
"A single tiny light creates a space where darkness cannot exist."
She had looked up at him puzzled and he had kissed her forehead.
"That's you Catherine. Thank you."
She had held him then, afraid that this was a final goodbye, scared that she would never get the opportunity to hold him again and too afraid to ask him just in case it was true.
He had held her close also, making a decision. He murmured something to himself as his thoughts twisted and turned in his mind. He was so preoccupied with his choice that he was unaware that the words had actually been vocalised. Catherine, deep in her own inner turmoil, did not hear the thought as it had passed his lips.
"Try as it might, the darkness cannot conquer the light."
His mind was made up.
Lucian had pushed himself out of her arms and touched his fingertips to her cheek.
"Go to sleep."
He had taken her hand and kissed it.
"I will see you at the sun rise Catherine the Great."
She could have wept with joy.