Wish Granted Ch. 09

"Danetta?" His gloves returned to her fingers, and they tightened.

She focused on his face. She wondered if the shadows were distorting him even further.

The basic features of a face were there, but they were ruined by the bumpy, stretched disfigurement. Danetta was reminded of liquid wax that had been carelessly spilled, and then cooled into something heartrending. She couldn't say that she was too horrified to touch him, but she couldn't say that her heart ached with lust upon looking at him.

But when she remembered the way she felt when her eyes were closed, shielded by a blindfold, heat rushed into her body, and she reminded herself that an unpleasant face couldn't remove his skills. That uneven set of lips quivering in fear and uncertainty had kissed her with affection and strength. Those miserably shaped eyes had gazed upon her with commendation.

"Danetta?"

She was smiling. "I'm relieved, my wonderful Erdgar. I thought you'd been sliced open."

And she kissed his mouth. She bent over and put her lips right onto his, completely uncaring of his scars. He was clean. He smelled sweet. He was a man, a strong and loving man, and she felt no remorse in tasting him.

Something fluttered onto the wooden floor of the porch. She pulled away and searched for the source of the noise.

It was the gloves.

The gloves were on the floor, empty, loose.

Silently, Danetta turned back to her husband, and she sighed as his hands, his warm hands of flesh and blood, slid against hers. The backs, the dorsa, they were every bit as marred as his face and throat.

And all she wanted was for him to keep touching her.

She snatched his hands up to her throat and ran them up and down her skin.

"Erdgar, have you found any courage?"

His fingernails scraped her flesh very gently, making her shiver. "Yes."

Such a clear and beautiful voice!

Danetta pulled one of his hands up to her face, and she kissed the scarred back. Her tongue flicked at him. He tasted like salt and leather. She felt his trembling reaction. Her own body was much the same, quivering and needy.

"Erdgar, would you do something for me?"

Those twisted lips revealed healthy teeth. "Anything."

"Would you please take me home?"

The firelight seemed to hobble around his ruined features as he tilted his head. "I don't understand."

She stole one of his fingers into her mouth and suckled it as hard as she dared, mischievously looking right at those surprised eyes of his.

"Oh."

Oh, indeed! Danetta smiled around his digit, and then she flicked her tongue at the tip.

Then, they separated for only a moment so that Erdgar could stand up. Danetta took his arm, and they walked back into the ballroom.

Concerned gasps, whispers, staring, even laughing, all these reactions rose in the ballroom. Danetta saw the twitching jaw of her husband, and she hated the discomfort there. Her hand tightened. Her eyes searched for the host so they could politely leave. Lillitu was gone, it seemed.

Danetta asked a servant to give Lillitu an apology. Then she left the dancing hall with her husband, smiling and occasionally nuzzling his shoulder.

***