Major Nikolai Koulikov awoke to kisses.
Gentle, feather-soft, exploratory kisses, trailing over his cheekbones and jaw, working their way down his neck to the hollow of his throat and collarbones. Fingers stroked the muscles of his shoulders and down his breastbone to the line of his ribs, tickling, teasing, arousing … one of those fingers inadvertently touched one of the still-tender cuts in his shoulder.
"Ow!"
"Oh! I’m sorry … I didn’t mean to hurt you …"
Nikolai opened his eyes to see Rivka kneeling above him, her old nightgown covering her delicious body once more – much to Nikolai’s regret – and her brown gaze watching him with concern.
"It’s all right woman …" Nikolai grinned. "It’s just a bit sore still. But don’t stop – you don’t know how nice it is to be woken up by a lusty wench showering kisses on you and eager to ravage your body."
Rivka smiled.
"Am I a lusty wench, Major? I’ve never been called ‘lusty’ before …"
Nikolai took in the happiness on her face with wonder.
"Yes, Missus – I would say you are a very lusty woman indeed - "
His words were stopped by her mouth on his, Rivka cradling his face in her hands, her lips tasting him, tongue tentatively dipping into his mouth to be met by his own, eagerly responding to her attention. Rivka felt him shiver under her hands, and her kiss deepened, knowing he was eager for her again – she knew he was aroused instantly as his body shifted under her touch.
Breaking off her kiss she sat back on her haunches and looked at him – all of him, his long body stretched out before her, the blankets barely hiding his burgeoning erection.
Rivka Velonina realised she loved Nikolai Koulikov.
She didn’t know what she was going to do about it, but she couldn’t deny the feelings that coursed through her every time she looked at him … every time she thought about him. She loved the rumble of his voice, and the way his big hands held her close. She loved the feel of his body next to her and the play of his muscles as he moved in her. She loved the gentleness with which he had taken her and shown her what it was like to be loved by a man.
He cared in a way Gavri never had. Nikolai Koulikov was a soldier … he was tough, uncompromising and deadly. But he was also gentle, generous and very protective. He respected her, wasn’t frightened of disagreeing with her, and his good-humoured intelligence knocked her tendency for seriousness right out of her in an instant.
She reached out and eased down the blankets far enough to uncover his navel and began tracing around the edge, eyes alight with curiosity. She had never studied a man’s navel before.
"Nikolai …"
His head was relaxed back on the pillow, his eyes closed as he surrendered to the sensations her fingers were giving his skin.
"Mmmm?"
"When … when you were inside me …" Rivka hesitated. She didn’t know if it was all right to talk like this to a man.
Nikolai’s eyes opened lazily. He smiled.
"Yes, my lady Rivka. It was wonderful, I can assure you."
Reassured, Rivka continued.
"You … you said you didn’t want to make me pregnant. What would you have done if I had said no … if I had been frightened?"
Nikolai looked at her in surprise. She honestly didn’t know.
"I would have withdrawn." He grinned, the warmth in his tone belying the seriousness with which he considered her question.
But Rivka was confused. She sat back once more, stopping her soft swirl of fingers, to Nikolai’s momentary regret. But he knew this was important to her and listened as she continued.
"But … but you were so close to … to … finishing, or whatever it is men do at the end. I … I know the mechanics, I suppose. I read it in a book the doctor had in his clinic when he wasn’t looking, but …" Her voice tailed away miserably. She really wasn’t too sure what she was talking about. She was disgusted with herself – a woman of her age should know these things!
"Rivka …" Nikolai’s soft voice stopped her in her tracks. "Rivka, a man who won’t take ‘no’ from a woman is no man at all. I would have stopped in an instant, even so close to spending myself in you … and Lord knows I wanted to do just that!! When you said it was all right … God, Rivka! It was … was delicious!! But I would have withdrawn and figured out what to do about it later. If you were frightened, or hurt, or just didn’t want to go any further … Rivka, the pleasure comes from a woman wanting you as much as you want her! What made it so … so … wonderful, was the feel of you holding me close, hearing you cry out with pleasure as I loved you, the touch of your breasts against my chest and your hands holding me tight within you."
Rivka’s brown eyes cleared with sudden understanding. It was her loving of him that had made the experience so magical for him. She had a say in the relationship, and she knew Nikolai respected her wishes. He was also incredibly patient – he had to be, with a woman who was more ignorant than a teenager! Her hand clasped his, and she squeezed long, big-knuckled fingers.
"Nikolai Koulikov, you are a good, wise man. I am so very, very glad it was you who lay with me for the first time. I don’t count Gavri. He was a heavy-handed, ignorant fool."
She saw Nikolai’s face darken with anger as Gavri’s name was mentioned. He stiffened, then winced in discomfort, a moan escaping his lips as his body protested. All thoughts of Gavri were gone in an instant as Rivka’s concern for Nikolai took over.
"You should be in a proper bed, not this rough mattress – you’re still not strong enough! Do you think you can stand? Shall I help you dress?"
Nikolai was highly amused by her fussing, and immensely touched by the care she gave him.
"Now then, Rivka … I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m not too sure I could get up out of bed at the moment. First of all, I’m lying next to a beautiful, lusty woman who just has to touch me and I want her all over again. And secondly, I think I maybe shouldn’t have been so …" He struggled with words. Oh bugger it, he thought. Tell her, man! "Well … my wounds didn’t bother me when I was making love to you, and I was feeling no pain at all at the end … all I could feel was you, Rivka, holding me tight, not letting me go as I spent myself in you. Do you know how much that meant to me?" He saw Rivka blush and was once more reminded how charming that was. "But right now … right now, my lady Rivka, I hurt like bloody hell."
Rivka thought for a moment, then her hand touched his chest, telling him to be still and take his ease.
"Then I’ll bring the bed to you. But this is the last time you’ll sleep on this old thing, Major Nikolai Koulikov, do you here me? No more talk of ‘going back to your own bed’. From now on you sleep in a proper bed where you can rest and heal. Besides …" Her face softened as she pressed gently on the muscled chest in affection. "I missed you."
There was a flash of a steely grin.
"Your wish is my command, Missus."
Nikolai watched as Rivka eased out from beneath the blankets and began pulling bedding and pillows from her old bed, tickled mightily at her eagerness. She was almost girlish in her enthusiasm as she returned to him laden with bedding, and began to plump pillows before settling them beneath his head and shoulders. She tutted and muttered as she cared for him, and Nikolai began to feel like a very precious, fragile piece of bone china. She fussed and worried, her hands careful as she made sure his wounded side was supported and that he had enough blankets to warm him.
Finished, she sat back on her haunches and studied her man.
"Are you comfortable now? Is that better?"
"Rivka - "
"Do you need anything else? Are you in a lot of pain?"
"Rivka, I’m - "
"Are you hungry? I can get you - "
"Rivka! I’m fine!" Nikolai’s voice interrupted the flow of words from her. Blue eyes gazed into brown with such intensity Rivka was caught like a rabbit in headlights. Nikolai grinned again, delighting in her passion. "I won’t break, you know! It’s just … well, maybe I overdid it a bit. But then, making love to a luscious woman like you … someone could have cut my foot off with a saw and I wouldn’t have felt it, you were so … so …" Words failed him, so he caught her shoulders and pulled her to him, kissing her hungrily. Her response was immediate. Her lips softened under the bruising kiss and she moaned into his mouth, her passion flaring once more. Nikolai broke off, his breathing ragged with need. "Come to bed …"
Within moments she had slid under the blankets beside him, her body moulding to his, her mouth trailing kisses once more down his neck and bare chest. Nikolai’s hand snagged the hem of her nightgown and tugged it impatiently upwards, Rivka shifting her body to allow him access to her. Long fingers stroked her flank then trailed around to cup the soft curls between her legs, still damp with his seed. She leaned over him, her body shadowing his, her teeth nipping gently at his throat and jaw. But she gasped as Nikolai touched the nub of nerves that sent her reeling into pleasure, his fingers sliding down until he slipped into her, her body rocking forward in reply to his caress.
Dark hair tumbled over his chest as Nikolai felt her thrust gently against his touch, Rivka’s moan of desire jolting his groin. He was already painfully aroused, but he wanted to please her and he began to stroke slowly, his other hand starting to unbutton her nightgown so he could reach her breasts.
Rivka was lost in sensation. Nikolai’s skilled touch consumed her, and all she could think about was spreading her thighs wider to allow his access to her body as she knelt above him, her hands braced on either side of his shoulders, her body moving with the rhythm of his touch. Her eyes opened languidly and she looked down at Nikolai, the big man lost in the delight of her arousal.
He managed to bare a breast at last and his mouth found the turgid peak as it moved above him. Rivka cried out as he suckled, tongue laving the sensitive surface and Nikolai tugged lustily at the nipple as he slid his fingers deeper within her.
Rivka threw her head back in abandon at the twin sensations of Nikolai’s mouth and hand working in unison to bring her to completion. She would never have believed the glorious delight of it all, the immeasurable pleasure brought to her by Nikolai’s tender care.
He pushed even deeper now, his path unimpeded by her maidenhead this time and Rivka cried out his name as she swept towards completion, unaware of Nikolai’s left hand easing under her nightgown to stroke and knead her other breast. He wanted her badly, but he couldn’t stop stroking and teasing her body, knowing how much joy he brought to her love-starved heart.
She rocked above him as he nursed at her free breast, riding his hand, a low moan echoing from her as she urged him deeper still.
"Nikolai … oh, please, my Niko … now … it’s … it’s … oh God … Oh God!!"
Rivka’s back arched and Nikolai felt her sheath contract around his fingers as she called his name again and again, her orgasm shuddering through her body … and the joy of it set his soul on fire.
Slowly her body relaxed from its strain and Nikolai slipped his hand from her honeyed depths, his arms catching her as she sank down on his broad frame, taking great care not to jar his wounds.
Nestling quietly against him she settled sated kisses on his throat and cheeks, working her way to his mobile mouth. She was amused by the tickle of his moustache against her lips, and trailed a finger down the line of his nose and the outline of his strong chin. She loved every inch of him. Raising herself on her elbow at his side she studied him closely. He looked tired but happy, although the outline of his arousal was very apparent under the warm blankets. He still wanted her desperately, but she knew he didn’t have the strength to make love to her again.
"Rivka …" Nikolai’s voice was husky with need. "Let me love you … I want - "
"No, Niko. Lie still now … let me love you instead …"
This time she took the initiative. Kneeling once more, she sat beside him, a hand resting on the battered chest as she traced the line of his collarbone with the other. She had no idea what she was doing, but she began to calm and trust her instincts. She knew her touch relaxed him and made him feel safe – that had been apparent when she first treated his wounds, so she began to explore his big, brawny frame with a gentle touch.
As her gaze lingered on the long muscles of his arm, she became curious. Men were a mystery to her. She had never seen a naked man before, not even at the doctor’s residence all those years ago – Doctor Rabinov had sternly ordered her from the room if he had to strip a male patient. And as for a man in full arousal … well, she was completely astounded by Nikolai’s reaction to her body. She had a vague idea of the physical practicalities of reproduction, and she was well aware of the results that could occur – illegitimate children were castigated in her community just as Nikolai had suffered from the stigma during his childhood. She grieved for him, knowing how hard it must have been. But as to all of this pleasure … she hadn’t expected that at all!!!
And so with a seriousness that typified Rivka’s determination to find out all she could on a subject, she set out to thoroughly love and satisfy Major Nikolai Koulikov.
Nikolai lay back in the cocoon of blankets and pillows she had made for him, feeling very much like the pampered princes in the ancient folk tales his mother had told him so long ago. His head and shoulders were propped at a comfortable angle and he watched as Rivka concentrated on her task of pleasing him. Her deep brown eyes were dark with desire as she smoothed her hands over the sensitized skin of his shoulders, and Nikolai shivered as her fingers caressed the erect nubs of his nipples. Her fingers began the softest of stroking motions, and he shifted once more at the sensuality of her touch.
His breath quickening, he was touched by her expression.
"So serious, my lady …"
Rivka looked at the naked desire on Nikolai’s gaunt face – he was exhausted and in pain, but she knew her loving of his body would help ease his discomfort. The smile that lit up her face stole his heart.
"Rivka …" Passion made his voice dry with need. "Rivka … love me … touch me … please …."
Her hands became more insistent as she stroked his body into further arousal, and she worked lower, investigating the outline of rib and hip. But she needed more. He was tense now, his head resting on the pillow, azure eyes hazy with wanting her.
"Nikolai … I want … I want to see what happens to a man when … when he …" Rivka stumbled over the words. She needed to know, she needed to understand fully what to do to please him and to see what her touch did to him. She wanted to see him at the height of his passion and she wanted to know how to touch him to send him towards completion. She wanted to know everything …
His hand reached out and cupped the breast bared by his attention earlier, but he wanted more.
"Undress for me Rivka … I want to see your body as you hold me …"
Rivka smiled and leaned over him.
"I’m yours, my Niko …" Her whisper was seduction personified
as Nikolai decided he would bare her body to his gaze. His big hands swiftly
unbuttoned her gown and pushed it from her lean frame, the light from the brazier
showing him the glisten of the wet curls at her groin. Her breasts swung free
and he watched her as she sank back onto her haunches, her face shy in the shadowed
light.
But his voice was urgent now.
"Touch me Rivka … I want your hands on me … I need to feel you as I come …" The rumbling growl was accompanied by his hands catching hers and placing them on his belly, pushing them downwards where his erection strained beneath the blankets.
His head fell backwards on the pillow in ecstasy as Rivka’s hands moved lower on their own accord, pulling down the blankets, the cool air teasing his heated flesh. He waited for what seemed an eternity … and then came the feel of deft fingers idling along the base of his shaft, and he heard Rivka’s gasp of wonder.
He felt her begin to explore his arousal, her touch reaching the flared crown of his penis and beginning to smooth the first pearled drops of semen into the silken head. He grunted softly as her other hand cupped his testes, kneading gently, then a long, insistent finger slid behind the quivering sac to stroke the smooth skin beyond, and he cried out with the joy of it.
He reached out and showed her the places he loved her to touch, and wrapping both of their hands around his erection he helped her gain the rhythm he desired so much.
She learned quickly and she began to speak, her tones quiet but eager in her need to please him.
"There … is that the place? So soft and smooth Niko, did you know that? Oh, love … does that feel good if I stroke you there? I can feel you wanting more …"
Nikolai began to thrust into her hand instinctively, his body helpless in its need, his hips lifting in a strained arch from the mattress. His hand had left hers and now clutched the blankets in desperate pleasure, his moans telling her where and how to please him.
Rivka watched in fascination as his body reacted to her ministrations and her hands became more confident, pushing him quickly now to the edge of rapture. His big frame quivered as she drove him onward, the corded muscles of his neck and chest stretched to the limit as he became aware of his urge to finish. He was close now, she knew, and her body ached to have him thrust deep within her to pleasurable oblivion … but she denied herself gladly, wanting to understand how his body worked and how to make their loving as satisfying as she could.
His breath came in heady gasps now, chest heaving, sweat lightly sheening powerful muscles. His words were groans of want, desperate in his drive to finish.
"Please … please … harder … Rivka … yes, yes … God …"
Rivka’s hands moved firmly, confidently, feeling him become even harder beneath her touch and she used her thumb to tease the sensitive spot on the crown, watching him arc upwards and cry out her name.
"Rivka!" His blue eyes widened. "God … oh God …"
He was poised on the edge for what seemed like an eternity … and then he convulsed beneath her, his ecstasy a shout of joy that echoed in the shadows of the ancient room.
"RIVKA!"
She watched in wordless delight as he came hard and fast, holding him tightly but gently as his seed spurted in milky streams onto the tensed, shaking muscles of his belly, his orgasm pulsing through him as his hips thrust upwards into her loving touch.
For long moments he stilled, poised in the throes of his climax, but slowly his body relaxed back onto the old mattress, chest heaving, muscles trembling with released tension.
Rivka leaned forward once more and kissed his brow, her hands leaving him with regret. She felt the sticky evidence of his passion and was glad. She had brought him joy, and he had called out her name as he emptied himself completely.
Nikolai lay sated. His body tingled pleasantly, and he felt Rivka leave his side for a moment then return with a cloth, gently cleaning his abdomen of the results of his passion. Once done, she lay down beside him and stretched her naked body over his good side, soothing him into drowsiness. She pulled the blankets up over their tired bodies and kissed his cheek.
"Are you all right, Nikolai? How are your wounds?"
The concern in her voice made Nikolai smile in amusement. He turned his face to hers and nuzzled into the dark swathes of her hair.
"What wounds?" he murmured, sighing with contentment.
Rivka snorted.
"Ach! Men! So easily pleased!"
Nikolai grinned with delight and leaned down to kiss her lustily.
"You please me, Rivka Velonina. You please me like no other."
They lay in silence for a few moments, Nikolai relaxing into the comfort of the bed and Rivka’s strong arms.
"Niko …"
"Mmm – hmmm …"
Rivka snuggled into his shoulder, unafraid now of asking him questions.
"Have you known many women?"
Nikolai heard no jealousy in her voice … just interest and plain curiosity.
"A few." He waited to see her reaction.
Rivka thought about his comment for a few moments, then carried on.
"You said you almost married, once. What was she like?"
Nikolai took a deep breath. Marija. She wanted to know about Marija. He took the plunge and answered.
"I met her in Germany before the war. A pretty little thing she was, all soft curves and buxom hips."
Rivka smiled at the description. So different from herself, she thought. She was surprised to discover she wasn’t resentful for a second. She was glad Nikolai had had some affection in his life.
"And?"
Nikolai succumbed to her prompting and continued.
"She was the widow of a German officer in Gnossen, and she took a bit of a shine to me for some reason. She was lonely, I was in a foreign country and I didn’t speak much of the language then … and we took it from there."
What was she like? She must have been nice to want to marry you?"
"Yes, Rivka – she was nice. A good cook, with a neat little house and a neat little garden." Nikolai’s voice became rueful. "She was … well, how can I put it … comfortable. Yes, that’s the word. Comfortable. I thought about marrying her, I’ll admit, and I think she would have taken me. We would have made a good couple – she would have been an attentive wife and probably have given me pretty children to brighten my days."
Rivka heard the hesitation in his voice.
"But you didn’t love her."
Nikolai smiled sadly.
"No, Rivka … I didn’t love her. But it would have been a good marriage nevertheless."
Rivka was thoughtful for a moment.
"So, what happened to her?"
Nikolai rested his head against Rivka’s, his voice soft with pain.
"She died … just like everyone else I’ve ever cared for. When the war came she went back to Warsaw to see her family. She never came back. She was Jewish, y’see, and she died with them in the Warsaw ghetto. That’s how I knew you had a Jewish name – Marija’s fourteen-year-old sister was called Rivka."
Rivka looked up into the saddest eyes she had ever seen and her heart contracted with the love she carried for him.
"I’m so sorry, Nikolai – I shouldn’t have asked."
"It’s all right, Rivka. It’s past and gone now, and it doesn’t hurt as much as it did. I just worry …"
She frowned.
"Worry about what?"
Nikolai hesitated for a moment then continued.
"Everyone I ever cared for … everyone I ever loved, died. I can’t lose you, Rivka. Please … live for me …"
Rivka looked once more into those bottomless pools of blue, now glistening with unshed tears. She kissed him sweetly.
"I’ll always be here, my Niko. Always …"
He smiled shakily and kissed her in return, grateful for her concern. She had loved him with her body, taken away his pain and given him hope. Dare he ever think that she could love him?
You oaf, Nikolai Koulikov! Love you? You’re bloody lucky she even looks at you! She gave herself to you because she knew you wouldn’t hurt her, and she’s taken a bit of a shine to you, just like Marija – but don’t kid yourself. She’ll find a decent man one day, and thanks to you she can love him in return. Be grateful for that and be done with it!
He gathered her in his arms with a sigh and settled back, cradling her as she slipped into slumber. He would have to be content with living for the moment and wait to see what the future brought. Resigning himself to his fate, he drifted into a troubled sleep.
****************
As Major Nikolai Koulikov and Rivka Velonina lay exhausted and spent in each other’s arms, dawn rose over the ruined city of Stalingrad. Hitler’s great 6th Army began its final push to take the city, and the Panzer divisions moved into the piles of rubble and blood that had once been proud houses and their industrious inhabitants. Within hours, General Paulus told his officers, they could be at the Volga. And then Stalingrad would be theirs.
****************