black walls closing me in is making me quiver all over despite the cozy heat.
He's stretched out on his back with his hands behind his head and grinning at me like the silly girl I am.
“Okay stop laughing now. I know I’m an idiot.” The box room of the cabin is like a tardis or a Mary Poppins bag. It appears much larger in than out and is as sumptuously decorated as a mini dollhouse palace.
Soft light emanates from crystal sconces in the walls. The heavy silk curtains over the large picture windows are open for a cinematic view of the passing palaces. Mark is laid out on a pile of red and gold brocade pillows and thick furs that create a luxurious mattress.
“You look like a sheik waiting for his harem.”
“Then get on your knees slave-girl.”
With a flex of his abs he sits up and grabs me by my arms. Lifting me as though I'm weightless, not a sensation I'm accustomed to, he pulls me down on top of him.
The gondolier pushes off and with only a few punts of the oar, we move languidly along the narrow canal. I release Mark's pants and wrap my fingers around the solid rod of iron to gently tug it from its moorings. And it stands hard at my mouth, as fantastic impressive as I knew it would be.
Without a thought I take the entire length into my taut lips and right into the back of my throat. I suck the delicious velvet skin until Mark daggers his fingers into my hair to pull my face close into his musky warmth.
Applying soft suction with my tongue and palate I saw along his blade, swirling the head with my tip until he shudders in my mouth. Never has a man tasted so divine and as soon as he finishes I want him to fuck my face all over.
I'm nestled on top of Mark's massive chest, secured in his solid embrace. He leans down to kiss me again and his hand cups my breast, squeezing gently and toying with my hard peak. When I open my eyes from the rapture of his kiss, we have turned out of the thin waterway and into the mega wide Grand Canal, bobbing smoothly along on the tidal flow.
Momentarily terrified at the expanse of water and how we're barely floating above it in the low narrow boat, I clutch Mark, relishing the strong flex of his bicep in response. The fear evaporates. I know he'll take care of me if anything should happen.
I lie on top of him safe in his arms, swaying gently on the indolent toss of the water, as the Renaissance world floats by.
“What's so amusing?” Mark whispers into my hair, feeling me laugh against his taut rolling body.
“I can't believe this. People pay for the chicanery of this in a hotel back home and here, it's not only real but I'm wrapped in your arms.”
The perfect hold of the most amazing man. Every fantasy I've ever had.
“You're so beautiful. I knew it the moment I saw you on the quay,” he murmurs.
“That night I was half drowned in terror? I say.
Still the mistrust hasn't quite left, the momentary fear that he'd confused me with some other women tourist.
“My excuse to come to your rescue. You were, are, so beautiful and not just to look at.”
He wraps a tendril of hair at my cheek around his finger so tenderly I feel a tear prickling at the back of my eyelid.
“So warm and so vulnerable. The barrier you have up to protect yourself makes me want to hold you and keep anyone from ever hurting you again.”
He kisses me again and I lie in his arms as we float up the Grand canal until finally the Rialto Bridge is right up ahead. All those barriers are melting away into the water around me. The Gondolier pulls up at the pontoon floating outside Mark's palace.
Pinch me, pinch me because I'm positive this has to be a dream. No, second thoughts, leave me sleeping, I don't ever want to wake.
Mark hands me up out of the low boat and holds me locked close to him while he pays. Then the gondolier pushes off back upstream, wailing a tortured Italian aria of lost love and we burst out laughing in unison.
We should move inside the palace but instead remain fixed
Sophie Hannah
Ellie Bay
Lorraine Heath
Jacqueline Diamond
This Lullaby (v5)
Joan Lennon
Athena Chills
Ashley Herring Blake
Joe Nobody
Susan R. Hughes