Speak Easy

As their bodies cooled he looked down on her, half an eye keeping track of comings and goings outside the window. But she had known all of him, for just those few seconds. She had been given his every attention, and she would take it, even if it was all he had to give. Her hand reached up and stroked his face, her own visage revealing much more than she meant to.

He looked at her with tenderness, though still not his complete attention, "You will stay here now." It was not a command, she heard the slight question in what he disguised as a statement.

"I will." She said, because he already knew she would.

"I will buy you a thousand new dresses tomorrow." He blinked at her, all seriousness.

"I would live out my life naked if I had to, just to stay here with you." Her hand fell from his face to the strong tendons of his neck, caressing him.

"I would never ask it of you."

Outside the rain began anew, washing off the tin roof of the big stone building. It snaked in and hit the windows, it rushed through gutters, carrying away the debris of so many lives. Leaving glistening cobbles and clean, damp air in its wake. She slept, and dreamt only of the man holding her through the night. There would be no more dreams for her but for that one.