Chapter 11

"Vincent, where are we going? Wasn’t that last turn the one that leads to your chamber?"

"I said a place where we won’t be disturbed. Do you think that my chamber is such a place?"

Catherine smiled up at him. "Gosh, no. I’d say the average length of uninterrupted time in your chamber is…oh, ten minutes?"

"That’s about it. This is a bit of a longer walk, but I can just about guarantee that our privacy will be maintained."

She smiled. "And for what reason do we need privacy, pray tell?"

He didn’t look at her, but he was smiling also. "I think we need to…talk."

She stopped, taking his arm to stop him too. "Vincent, you’re getting my hopes up. Just exactly what does all of this innuendo mean?"

He took her shoulders in his hands, looking down into her eyes. "I want to tell you how I feel, and ask you to tell me the same. I think that we need to have clearly in our minds what we want from this relationship before we take any…steps."

"Is it far? How long to I have to wait for this clarification?"

"Not far now. Two more turns."

When he stopped at last it was in front of a door. Catherine was surprised. "A door? There aren’t very many of those down here."

"I’m very much aware of that." He opened the door, and bowed. "Milady." She entered, and stopped.

"Oh, Vincent."

He had been busy while she slept. The room was obviously a storeroom for unused furniture, but he had made a room within a room. There was a wide daybed, piled with many pillows, a low table in front of it with a tea service on it. There was a brazier with a steaming kettle, and candles everywhere. Behind the soft glow of the candles, the big room’s contents were shadows, shutting them into a warm circle of intimate privacy. And best of all, the room had a door, now closed.

Vincent moved to the brazier, took the kettle and filled the teapot "Please, sit down, Catherine."

She made herself comfortable among the pillows on the daybed while he opened a cupboard and took out a plate of cookies. Then he came and sat down beside her, putting the plate on the table and smiling.

She smiled in return. "Vincent, this is perfect. Thank you."

"I wanted us to be comfortable, and to have our privacy assured. I think that this fills all of the requirements."

"It certainly does. I love that you’d do this for us." She looked around her again. "It’s perfect. And there’s tea; you’ve thought of everything. Is it steeped yet?"

"No. It’s only been four minutes."

"Vincent, I’m always amazed when you do that. How do you know it’s four minutes?"

He smiled and shrugged slightly. "If I knew perhaps I could teach others to do it."

Catherine shook her head. "You would think about teaching others! That’s one of the things I lo…well, I needn’t hesitate to say it any more…things I love about you." Her eyes were soft with her love for him.

He looked down at her with equal tenderness. "No, you needn’t. And I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do the same." He stopped for a moment and put his hand up to touch her cheek. "Catherine, I love you, with all there is in me…" He caressed her cheek, his hand moving down to curl his fingers around her neck, touching her nape lightly. "I have since the first moment I saw you…oh Catherine, don’t cry."

"I’m not crying…much." She summoned a watery smile while the tears ran down her face.

His arms went around her and he held her to him while he kissed her cheeks, taking her tears into himself. "Catherine, don’t cry any more. Please…my love, I must kiss you when you’re crying, and I have things I need to talk about. Please..."

She lifted her head from his shoulder. "I’m listening. It was just…I was beginning to think I’d never hear it. I’ve wanted so long for you to say it." Her tears were over; she smiled up at him, snuggling into his embrace.

His voice was soft as he spoke with his lips against her hair. "I’m finished with denying the truth. The truth is that I love you, and I have promised you that we will find a way to move toward love." His arms were around her still and he held her firmly against him.

"That means that we must find a way for us to be together, while you maintain your access to the world above. I haven’t changed my mind, Catherine. I still cannot accept that you will live below. It is not a life for you to live. For those injured or disappointed by life Above, my world is a refuge. For you I’m afraid that it would become a prison."

She began to protest, but a clawed finger was pressed gently to her lips.

"I believe that I am doing you no service by attempting to tie you in any way to my life here Below, but I can no longer deny that you are tied also by the bonds of…of your love for me. We have come too far now to back away from those bonds that hold us to each other."

She felt him drop a light kiss on her temple as he continued. "I think I may have found a way to give you still the freedom of the world Above, while allowing us to be together, at least part of the time. Do you think that you could find a place to live, an apartment or a house, where we could make a private tunnel access through the basement, as in your apartment building? It seems to me that it would be the best solution. Then we can be together, and if you have a place Above that I can reach at any time we will have privacy whenever we wish." He smiled wryly. "You know that privacy is in short supply in the tunnels, most especially in my chamber. For twenty years people have been welcome there at anytime. The tunnel dwellers will learn, but it may take a while."

She could wait no longer to answer him. She sat up straight and turned to face him. "This is a wonderful idea, Vincent! I don’t see any reason why we can’t do that." She smiled and reached to smooth the hair back on his forehead. "You have been looking for a way to move toward love, haven’t you?"

He caught her hand, and continued to hold it while he spoke. "Yes…oh, yes, I have. Catherine, I love you with every part of my being. I can no longer deny it to myself or to you. And there is something else that I have denied and suppressed for…well, from the first time I saw you." He looked away from her eyes, down at their joined hands. "I…want you, Catherine...I want you with such passion, I want to hold you in my arms in love…to touch you and taste you…to make us complete. I have dreamed…dreamed of us together…in lovmg. Catherine, I am beginning to hope that perhaps I may have more than dreams of you. Is it possible that we may…that my dreams may become a reality?" He looked up at her again, his heart in his eyes.

"Oh, my love, you know it is. I’ve been waiting to hear you say that for…" She smiled. "Well, forever!"

He went into her outstretched arms with a groan. "Oh Catherine, are you sure? I need to know that you’re sure, because I don’t know that I will be able to stop…when…later."

"I’ve been sure since you and Father were caught in the cave-in. When I thought that I might have lost you, I knew. I knew that I wanted us to be lovers then, Vincent. But I was afraid that you would never agree."

One arm still holding her tightly against him, he raised a hand to touch her cheek softly. "I have been so torn. I wanted you with such urgency, such overwhelming…desire, and I’ve always known although I denied it to myself, that you wanted me as well. But I couldn’t reconcile myself to condemning you to live Below." He hesitated before he went on, "I must tell you, I am still not sure that I am doing the right thing by binding you to me. But the frightening vision of the future that you made so vividly clear to me has convinced me…that and the passion for you that...that makes my nights a torment. Oh Catherine, I want you so much…" Her lips were so close. He bent to them with a long sigh, meeting her opened mouth with soft lips that cherished hers, and with a tongue that moved into her mouth softly, touching here and there, making her heart hammer.

When he raised his head at last, he said in his soft half-whisper, speaking with his mouth against her hair. "I’m not…experienced. You would tell me if I did anything…anything that displeased you, or… hurt you? I must not hurt you; it would kill me. You would let me know if I am…clumsy…or…or coarse? I feel very much at a loss, Catherine, now that…it looks as if my dreams…may come true. And I must tell you, I feel unsure…that I will be able to control myself…in…in the heat of…" He stopped, moved away from her and looked down at the floor before them, his hair shadowing his face.

She lifted his hair away. "Vincent, I love you and want you very much. I can think of nothing that you could do that would displease me. I promise, though, I’ll tell you if anything is…not what I would wish. And…if you were to scratch me or nip me in the heat of passion, would that be ‘hurting’ me? I hope you won’t think so, because it may very well happen that I will do that to you. Sometimes when I look at you, when I watch that beautiful body move, I feel as if I could just…just devour you."

His head came up and he turned to her. He looked incredulous.

"What? Your body?" She smiled. "You don’t know that you have a beautiful body, do you? Well, let me assure you, Vincent, you do, and I’ve wanted for years to undress you!"

He blushed. She chuckled, and drew him back to her. With her lips next to his ear, she whispered. "Love me, Vincent. I want you so much."

She felt him slowly stiffen as his muscles tensed. He raised his head to look at her, and stared down into her eyes for a long moment, then he spoke with great intensity. "…Now? Now, Catherine?"

"Oh please, my love…" Catherine smiled tenderly, "…Could there be a better time?"

He saw her eyes soft with love, her lips trembling for his kiss. He just looked for a moment, savoring her desire for him, and then with a groan he dropped his head to meet her lips. His mouth covered hers warmly, and his tongue moved immediately between her lips, to stroke the inside of her mouth. She responded passionately, making a small sound as her tongue moved over his sharp incisors.

He groaned with pleasure as she slid the fingers of one hand into the neck of his sweater, reaching as far as she could to feel the warm skin beneath. He lifted his mouth from hers to whisper, "Oh, Catherine, I want your touch so much…and I want to touch you…your body…I have dreamed….so long…"

"Oh, my love, so have I!" As she spoke she was searching for the fastening of his vest. "Take this off…I want it off you…How…?"

He reached down to the edge and pulled it up over his head. "Like that." He was more undressed without the vest than she’d ever seen him before. His sweater and undershirt had come up a way with the vest, and there was a tantalizing strip of golden haired midriff visible. Her hands were drawn immediately to touch the skin exposed, caressing him, making him gasp. Then she could stand it no longer, she had to see him. She reached to the edge of the shirts to lift them up, but Vincent was there before her. In a moment he dropped them also to the floor, and he was bare to the waist.

"God! How beautiful you are. I knew it." She just looked for a second, then her hands came up while she never took her eyes from the sight she had so longed to see. She stroked him, sliding her fingers into the heavy thatch of soft golden hair on that broad chest, running them across the sharply defined pectorals, moving to his broad shoulders and down to caress those beautiful heavy biceps. She made a little soft sound in her throat as her hands touched at last his beloved flesh.

Vincent sat still, head thrown back, eyes closed, while she fondled and stroked and kissed his bare chest and shoulders. He drew deep trembling breaths, luxuriating in the feeling of his beloved making love to him. When he could stand it no longer, when his desire for her overflowed, with a low growling groan he reached for her.

Wordlessly, he began to unlace the tunnel blouse that she wore, holding her close with one arm as he worked. As the neck opened farther, his mouth came down on the skin exposed. "I need to touch you, and smell you, and taste you …" He breathed deeply with his nose pressed into the angle where her neck met her shoulder. "Your scent…Catherine, it makes me insane with longing for you." He took in another deep breath of that scent. Then slowly he pushed her woolen vest back over her shoulders and opened the unlaced blouse. As he gazed down at her uncovered breasts, he murmured softly, "Now….now this is mine, this is for me…" He bent and his mouth covered a nipple that reached up to meet him. "M-m-m-m-m," a long moaning sigh escaped him as he nuzzled, drawing her nipple deep into his mouth.

"Oh yes, do this, yes, yes…" Catherine slid back on the bed until she was lying down, and he followed without raising his head from her breast. Her hands cradled his head, lost in that golden mane, while she writhed in pleasure. A soft moaning stream of words came from her mouth, a long repetition of the one word. "yes, yes…yes….yes."

Their mutual desire ignited in a firestorm of kisses and caresses. He never remembered how they got out of the rest of their clothes; he only knew that he felt the whole length of her body pressed against him at last, skin to skin. In a delirium of desire he kissed and stroked and nuzzled her body, finding all the wonderful warm places that he’d had guilty dreams of in all the nights of his long desire.

And Catherine opened to him; opened her heart and mind and body to his desires, loving the feel and scent of him, moaning in the frenzy of her desire for him.

Vincent felt his remaining control on the edge of dissolving. "If you’ve changed your mind say so now...now! I want you…I want your body to be mine… I want you …all of you!" He was kissing her breasts; as he spoke his mouth moved lower, and he began to slide down her body, kissing and tonguing and breathing in her scent as he went.

Suddenly he raised his head and looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, she was flushed and panting. When she realized that he had stopped, she opened her eyes and reached for him "Don’t stop! Come back…oh come back."

Vincent’s voice was hoarse, and his hands shook as he took her hands, holding them against his chest. He needed, he must have, final reassurance that her desire for him was real before he could let go of all hesitation, before he plunged into the stuff of his dreams at last. "You do want me?…you want this as much as I…?"

Her look was questioning. "Haven’t you believed me?"

"Yes! Oh, yes! I just…I believed it here…" he touched his forehead, "but not really, here…" and he put his other hand over hers that he was holding against his heart. "But…you do want to make love with me, I believe it now, I see it in your face, and your body..." He could wait no longer, he lowered his mouth again to her body. Between kisses, he spoke with his lips against her skin, "…You do want me, you want this…"

"Oh, please, yes, yes…" She was nearly wordless, only showing him with her hands and her body’s response to his kisses how much she loved what he was doing.

When his mouth reached the soft curls of her pubic hair, he glanced up at her for an instant, looking for her consent. Her hands came to his head, and her soft murmur, "Please, please…" reassured him, and with a moan he dropped his head to kiss that soft hair, moving then to the inside of her thighs, breathing deep of the scent of her sex, his tongue lapping at her where the liquid proof of her excitement coated her skin.

"Oh, Catherine….your scent…the taste of you…" The soft words fueled her pleasure, and she opened her legs further, inviting him. He began to growl a soft accompaniment to his passion when he nuzzled at her very center, realizing a long long dream.

Catherine’s hands held his head as her hips lifted to meet his mouth. "Oh God, God…" Her hands held him against her, while he licked and sucked and kissed and nuzzled in a delirium of desire. Her scent, her taste intoxicated him, sending him near to madness with his delight in her. And his attentions to her at her very center were driving her to new heights of passion; when her body began to tense with the onset of her climax his mouth and tongue covered her with even greater intensity, until at last her body arched upward and she cried out.

He felt her climax in every part of him. It pounded through his body with enormous effect; he stiffened and came to his own orgasm, his hips pumping wildly, his back arched, his head thrown back in a delirium of ecstasy…he was unable to hold back the torrent of his desire when he felt her ecstatic release.