With This Kiss

he wanted to feel every day. Then she cried out again with a kind of guttural, raw pleasure, wrenched from her chest, followed by a pulsing that coursed through her body and gave wings to his desire.
    He wrapped her in his arms and pumped into her, mad with lust, loving the fact she was tucked under him, safe, warm, his .
    “I love you,” he gasped, at the moment when everything he had in his body and heart coursed out of him. “Oh God, I love you, Grace.”
    She arched into him, caught by a second wave of pleasure. He caught her scream with his kiss, saying it again, and again, silently, without words.
    It didn’t matter.
    She had heard him.
    “I love you. I love you, too,” she whispered.

 
    Four
    G race woke early the next morning, just as a cool, pinkish light came over the windowsill. At some point in the night she had pulled off her blindfold. Colin, her Colin, lay beside her, tousled hair falling over his face, an arm thrown above his head.
    She was so happy that her heart hurt. Colin loved her; he had said so again and again. He wasn’t pretending. She knew him better than anyone else in the world, so she knew that.
    He was hers.
    Just then he made a small noise and she saw his hand clench into a fist. His jaw tightened and he made a noise so pained that her entire body froze.
    “Colin,” she whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder.
    “The blood,” he said, turning his blindfolded eyes toward her. “It’s running over my boots again. Send my boots to be cleaned.”
    “I will,” she said, but his face remained anguished. So she moved and lay down on top of him, naked body to naked body. “Your boots are clean now,” she whispered into his ear.
    She could feel little shudders running through his body. “Did you wash off all the blood?” he rasped.
    “I did,” she told him. “I washed it all off.”
    His hand touched her back. A small smile curved his lips. She held her breath. If he didn’t know who she was…
    “Grace,” he breathed. “My Grace.”
    She waited a long time, but his breathing became regular and he never woke up. Finally she slipped off his body, thinking hard. It seemed that war didn’t go away once a man walked off a ship.
    She finally eased from the bed and crept to the bathing alcove. She used the chamber pot hidden in a small chair, and then washed at the basin. It was interesting to discover a jumble of little red marks on her body, as if his kisses had burned a pattern into her skin.
    She washed herself between her legs and her touch caused a tingle, but not of pain. Her nipples seemed a darker rose, perhaps from all those kisses. She frowned at that, and then pulled on a nightgown: it was literally the only thing she had left to wear, given that Colin had destroyed two gowns.
    The gown was a muted pear color, sewn from a silk that shifted color constantly, going from milk to faint pink. The problem was that she had never thought of wearing it in front of a man, though, of course, it was designed for just that.
    Now a look at the glass showed her that the gown was more like a scrap of cloth with pretensions to being a garment. It didn’t even reach her ankles, and the fabric was far too sheer. She crossed her arms over her chest. That was not acceptable.
    It wasn’t really a sound that warned her; it was more like a change in the very quality of the air. She turned and there he was, wearing nothing more than a twist of sheet around his hips. He was smiling at her, his eyes heavy-lidded and gleaming with an emotion she’d never seen in them before.
    “Where is your bandage?” she gasped. “Colin!”
    “Six weeks today,” he replied, holding up a black swatch of cloth with one finger. “But I am not throwing this out, Grace.”
    “Because your eyesight is hazy?” she asked, anxiety streaking through her body. “The doctor said it might be. You should put it back on.”
    “My vision seems absolutely normal.” He emphasized the words. The look on his face was akin to the giddy joy that lit his eyes on seeing Lily at the ball. But it was a deeper, more intoxicating joy that bound love and desire together.
    Grace smiled back, as delighted as he was. “Oh, Colin, I don’t have the words to say how happy I am!”
    “But perhaps I should test my eyesight. May I say how much I love that gown you’re wearing?” He slowly looked over her entire body, starting at her toes, taking his time, enjoying it. When he reached her breasts, she folded her arms in