Bride

I nodded. "The men keep the secrets and the mysteries safe, they are wise. I'm glad you didn't decide to quit- I don't know what I would have done, if you didn't want me."

He seemed surprised. "What do you mean?"

"The birthmark, my mother knew when I was born what I was meant for, so all my life I knew the men were looking for you so you could take me away." I swallowed hard, "It would have been horrible if you didn't want to...I always assumed that like me, you wouldn't have a choice. I was wrong, but I'm glad you decided you wanted me."

He said nothing, seemed to not know what to say. He just hugged me close, and I clung to him. Another thought occurred to me. "You had the birthmark too, didn't anyone know what it meant?"

"Nope, no idea, except that it was probably something magical. Mother and I had to look through some obscure old manuscripts and read between the lines to see the influence of Ceo, the legend about girls like you. I didn't even believe it at first." He kissed my ear, and I shivered.

"You are older than me," I stated more than asked. I knew he was, but yet he didn't look much older. Perhaps I was poor at judging the ages of men, as I had only seen a few of them in a short time in my life, but I didn't think that was it.

"Quite a bit older, Móirne." He said. I looked into his beautiful, freckled face, and tried to guess. He waited, watching my expression. "Well?"

"How much older?" I asked, giving up any attempt to come up with a figure.

He smirked. "I just turned thirty. It's the freckles, the hair, the baby face. Everyone always assumes I'm much younger because of it." I stared at him, eyes wide. Thirty! Older than my eldest sister. If he were merely three years older, on Ceo he could have a child my age, if he had been fertile young, when untried boys were let to couple with untried girls who had been chosen to produce the next generation. My sister had her first child at sixteen, nine months after the first time she was allowed to see a man, a boy her own age. "Hey, don't look at me like that, woman. I can still wear you out," he growled playfully, and tickled my ribs. I laughed and tried to squirm away from him, but he held me fast.

His tickles turned to caresses, and he kissed my body eagerly. He sat up, pushed aside the pillows and sat with his back to the headboard, pulled me into his lap straddling him. He kissed my breasts, which were conveniently in his face. I held to the headboard with one hand, held him to my breast with the other, as he teased my nipple with his tongue. He slid his hands down my back, grasped my butt and opened me from behind. He raised me up and slid me onto his waiting penis. I gasped, wriggled on him, grinding my pelvis to his and crying out my pleasure. He took my hips in his hands, showed me how to ride his penis, all the while kissing my breasts as they bounced in his face. I held the headboard with both hands and arched, shoving my breasts at him, threw my head back and screamed to the sky. I rode him until I could barely move, until he was flaccid inside me, then I hung there limply, panting. He smirked at me. I kissed him weakly, and fell over, stretching and reveling in the way my body felt, relaxed and sated, overstimulated and sore at once. He lay beside me, took my hand in his, we looked at each other silently. We lay like that until there came a loud repetitive tune. Dorien fetched his slim shiny thing and spoke into it, then turned to me. "Dinner is ready."

They caught up over dinner, the three of them, and I learned something of the men of Ceo and Dorien's time with them. I listened quietly, except when a question was directed to me, which was not often. I liked listening to them, their strange accents. The men of Ceo live much like people in Ireland do, according to Dorien. I took that to mean more familiar to his way of life than mine. He said they even had men and women from Ireland living among them, but he must have been mistaken.

After dinner, Dorien and his uncle took me to the gym and taught me to play basketball and tennis. I was not very good at either game, but I learned the rules quickly and had fun. Uncle Thomas and I were teamed against Dorien in the first few games of basketball, who won the first few games anyway, but then we beat him, and I learned my husband does not like to loose. That was when we switched to tennis, though one person had to sit out each game.

When the games were done, I had a shower with Dorien, and this time he did not rebuff my advances. I slid my fingers through his hair and kissed him softly as the water rained over us. I gently shampooed and conditioned his hair, washed his body as he washed mine. He pressed me against the wall with his body and kissed me fiercely. He lifted me up, I wrapped my legs around his waist as he slipped into me. It was slippery, it was awkward and animal, and I enjoyed it completely. After, we finished bathing, dried ourselves, and he guided me to bed.

We held each other in the dark, and I quickly fell asleep. I slept very well that first night actually sharing a bed with my husband. My dreams were restful, though I don't recall their content. When I woke, he was not in the bed, and a light was on in the bathing room. I stretched, got out of bed, and went to investigate. He was there, shaving. I sat on the counter beside him and watched.

"Good morning," I smiled.

He smiled at me. "I didn't mean to wake you, Móirne."

"You didn't, Dorien." I smiled again, my heart filling with him, the bittersweet way he had changed my life.

"What are you grinning at?" He laughed, finished with his shave.

I don't know," I laughed, shaking my head.

He looked at me a long moment. "Come for a jog with me. I have something you can wear for it," He said softly. I nodded. If I'd had any idea what a jog was, I would not have so readily agreed. By the time we were back home my body ached from the exertion, as well as from all of our exertions of the past few days since we'd met. We had a glass of water each, then he grabbed us each a Gatorade and led me to the gym behind the main house. I chose not to use any of the strange machines. Instead, I stretched out on a mat on the floor and watched him use them.

I could watch no more as he sat on a machine with his back to me, pulling on a wire that lifted black weights. I watched the muscles of his back working, and it sent shivers all through me. I moved and knelt beside him. He glanced at me, but kept his focus on his work out. I watched him for a few moments more, then rose up, placing my hands on either side of him, and licked his chest, savoring his musky scent and the salty taste of his sweat.

He hesitated. " Móirne...not now," He panted, continuing his exercise. I dropped down again, pouted up at him. After a few more moments, I reached up, traced my fingers down his tightly muscled stomach. He said nothing, so I slipped my hand into his loose gray sweatpants. I stroked his penis, then cupped his testicles, stroked and rolled them gently in my hand. I hadn't touched them before, it was interesting, and I could tell by the look of intense focus on his face and his hardening penis that he liked what I was doing. Still he said nothing, continued his workout. I slid my hand over his stomach again, wetting my palm with his sweat, then I took his penis in my hand and stroked him as he'd showed me to do the day before.

He groaned and dropped the weights heavily. I sat up, exposed him, and kissed the head of his penis, licked all over it. He leaned back on the seat of the machine, placed one hand on the back of my head lightly. I held him firmly, and slowly took him into my mouth until my lips met my hand, and sucked him eagerly. I licked him still, slid my mouth up and down on his penis as he held my hair, pulling it at times. It took some time to make him come, and when he did, his seed was hot and spicy, slightly sweet. I swallowed it, then sipped my Gatorade, looking up at him.

He toweled himself clean, then tucked himself away. For a long time he said nothing, then he looked at me. "That was unexpected."

"I wanted to please you," I smiled.

He stared at me a while, then nodded. "You certainly do that very well, Móirne."

We showered separately for the first time. He picked out clothes for me that would please his mother.