7. Ritual

Sunday

I slept before calling Yvette. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. Then I took a long shower, before picking up the phone. She asked me to come over.

I thought about taking flowers, but that would look like I was sorry for what had happened. I wasn't... not as such, anyway. I might feel bad for my conflicted feelings, and I might think things had gone far further than Yvette had expected, but in the end I'd had her explicit permission. Apologizing for that would insult her offer, and imply that I was hiding something.

She gave me a rich and genuine smile. "Bonsoir, Mon amereux," she said. "'Ow was your date?"

I hesitated about offering her a kiss, still unsure of her reaction. She seemed to sense this, and as I leaned forward to give her a chaste kiss, she wrapped her hands around my neck and turned it into anything but.

She held my hands when we separated, and waited for me to speak. She wore a long green-gold wrap of what looked like silk, knotted at the side. It fell almost to her ankles, but lifted to mid-thigh in places. The barest hint of cleavage showed at the top. I felt badly underdressed in western shirt and jeans.

"You were right," I admitted.

"You 'ave slept with Meadow?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "And... well, quite a bit more."

There was something odd in her expression. I was prepared for resignation, acceptance, disappointment. Not... amusement?

"I know this," she said.

"You do? How? Did you talk to Meadow? To Liz this afternoon?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Liz? No, not to either."

"Then how?"

"You 'ave not looked closely into a mirror, I think?"

I frowned.

Yvette led me to the bathroom and motioned me through the door.

"Oh, that..." I shook my head. I knew exactly when she'd done it. That long kiss to the base of my neck on the park. There was a raw hickey there now. "She did this deliberately."

Yvette tucked her hand into mine. "She is ver' sexy girl, and demands much of 'er lovers." Then she gave me an inquiring look. "Did you fall in love with 'er?"

"No," I said, instantly. Then I paused. "I think... I think I could, very easily, and I think if I'd met her first, I'd still be with her, and I'm sure I would have done. But, Yvette, there's something I have to ask you."

I think that's the first time I saw real worry in her expression. "What is this, Kévin?"

"Did you know about Sofia? The girl I was with at the beginning of this semester?"

My heart sank as she nodded. "Yes. I know this." Her expression was puzzled.

"How?" I asked.

"You tell me. Last week."

"Oh!" I stared to breathe more easily. "You didn't know about her before?"

She shook her head, still puzzled. "Non. I did not know this. Why?"

"Something Meadow told me. She's actually the reason Meadow planned the date, which I guess means she's the reason you and I did date. So in the end, it's good. I'm glad."

"I do not understand," she said, but the expression of worry had faded.

"I'll tell you later," I said. "It isn't important right now. There's something I want to say, and I hope I'm not out of line."

She frowned, but without the worry. "What is this?" she asked again.

"Yvette, je t'aime."

"Vraiment?"

"That means... Really? I think?"

She nodded.

"Really," I said.

She smiled. "Why would this be out of line?"

"We've only known each other for a few days, and you are an elegant, classy lady, who has no good reason to want to keep me around."

She laughed. "Idiote! Je t'aime aussi!"

"Really?"

"Vraiment." This time it was a statement, not a question.

I drew her close. We kissed, and I knew she'd spoken the truth.

"I don't know if I can understand why you were okay with me seeing Meadow. I don't know if you know her as well as you think you do. She and I... well, I have had some very strong feelings in the last day. But I was sure they weren't love, because at some time in the last week I've figured out what love feels like."

"The sex was good, yes?"

My breath shuddered. How could she be so unconcerned? "Yes, the sex was exciting, and... addictive might be the best word. And I like her, and she likes me, but I didn't want her the way I want you. Even now, just holding you, I want you so much."

She kissed me again. "Per'aps you should show me this, in the bedroom," she whispered.

 

We sat side by side on the edge of Yvette's wide, comfortable bed, fully clothed except for shoes and socks.

"You are ver' quiet, mon amour."

I frowned. "You usually call me something slightly different."

"Amoureux?"

I nodded. "Amour is love, I know that."

"Oui," she did. "Mon amour is my love. Mon amoureux is my lover. It is much the same in English, I think."

I smiled. "I see. That's maybe why I'm quiet. We have been lovers, and it has been great. This will be our first time being amour. I want it to be special for you."

"For us, Kévin," she corrected me. Then she stood, took my hands and drew me to my feet. She reached up to begin unfastening my shirt, slowly, wordlessly, without kisses, but still sensuous in her single-mindedness. Only when she had slipped the shirt down my arms - and then folded it neatly, for heaven's sake! - did she begin to draw her fingers over the side of my face and down my chest. The overall effect was of exquisite care and great affection.

After minutes of caressing with her fingertips, she rested her hands at her side, and stood still, expectantly.

I didn't stay entirely silent. First I ran my fingers gently through her hair. "You should have stars in you hair," I said. "A Disney princess would sell her soul to the wicked witch for this hair. I almost wish it was up, so that I could see you let it down again. I think... on that first evening, when you let your hair fall, I think that's when I began to to realize how strong my feelings for you could become."

She smiled up at me. I brushed the curls back over her shoulders. She wore diamond earrings that matched the stud in her nose and the one in her navel. And, I began to believe, the other one. Was that really a diamond?

Then I ran my fingers down from her scalp to the back of her neck and brought the whole mass forwards, hiding her face. She giggled and blew it from before her lips. I tossed most of it back, then, leaving it looking a little windblown, sexy and lovely.

She kissed my fingers as they roamed her face. I ran my hands down to the knot in her wrap, and began to untie it. When I looked back up, I was shocked to see that she was blushing furiously. I frowned, and almost asked what was up, but that would have spoiled the mood.

Instead, I finished loosening the knot, pulled it out, then opened the wrap. I was going to try to take it to fold, as she has done with my shirt, but she shrugged it back to collapse onto the bed.

Under it she wore the wispiest, most transparent negligee I could have imagined. Suspended by shoulder straps about a half inch in diameter, but incredibly delicate in the gossamer cloth, it lay in a U just above her nipples, leaving most of her narrow areolae uncovered. It tapered in to her narrow waist, then flared slightly in a skirt that ended just below her hips.

Her panties looked to be the same material, narrow around her waist, a little wider over her sex. I could see the glint of the stone in her piercing.

Looking up, I saw her face was still bright red. We'd seen each other naked several times now, but this was the first time after declaring our love. And she had dressed in this before I said the words, I realized. Had she known I would? Or was this her way of opening that conversation?

But she needed more than my eyes feasting on her to ease her nervousness. She deserved more.

"I think," I breathed, "I have never seen anyone or anything more beautiful than what I'm seeing now."

"Really?" She asked.

"Vraiment," I assured her. with a slightly embarrassed grin for my likely poor attempt at her language.

She put her arms around me and hugged me, laying her head on my chest.

"I don't know how you'd feel about it," I said, "but I'd like a photo of you in this sometime."

She smiled and nodded. "I would like for you to have."

"I feel terrible that I only have my shirt and jeans."

She grinned. "Soon you will be naked. This suffices."

I reached for the wrap, drew it out from behind her, then folded it very carefully and placed it beside my shirt. After that I stood, hands by my sides, allowing Yvette to take her turn.

She leaned forwards, setting her hands on my waist, and began to tongue my nipples. Her curls sliding over my chest was erotic. Also it hid what she was doing. I felt her hands drawing together over my belly, following the this trail of hair there, then unhooking my belt buckle and unfastening my jeans.

She lowered herself to her knees as she slid the denim down my legs to gather at my feet. I stepped out of them, and she stood, then folded them, following the ritual she'd established, and placed them on my folded shirt.

My turn.

I ran my fingers over the front of Yvette's negligee, caressing her breasts. The material felt almost as insubstantial as it looked, soft as down and delicate as a spiderweb. Through it I cupped her breasts, kneading them lightly.

Yvette shivered, and I realized she was already aroused. This undressing ritual had excited her.

I ran my fingers over her front and back, stroking her ass, tracing the outline of her panties, sliding my hands under her negligée to caress her waist. Then I drew the delicate garment up, raising it over her head as she lifted her hands to allow me. Her lovely body quivered as I bared her breasts.

Then I carefully folded the negligée, laying it on her silken wrap.

Yvette slipped her fingers into the waistband of my briefs. She drew it up and out, stretching the elastic until it would slip over my erection. Easing it down, she cleared the obstacle, squatting to remove them. Then, onto the pile they went, neatly folded.

My turn again, the last of the ceremony. I knelt before her, then lowered her panties a few inches. I gazed at her sex, then leaned forwards to draw my tongue up her pussy, ending at the piercing. She moaned softly as I touched her piercing with my tongue and held it there for a moment.

Then I drew her panties down to her feet, still studying her, increasingly certain that all of the studs were a matched set. She stepped aside, and I gathered them up and lay them on the negligée.

Moving to her, I took her waist and drew her close. Her breasts brushed my chest, and my erection rested against her lower belly. "Je t'aime," I whispered.

"I love you," she replied, and after this slow revealing of ourselves to each other, we finally kissed.

The suppressed tension of our kiss made my cock swell to the edge of pain, and Yvette's breath shuddered both in and out, as if she were barely holding herself together.

She turned and pulled the bedsheets back. "Lie down, s'il te plait, mon amour."

I lay on my back. Yvette climbed onto the bed, between my legs, pushing them wide apart. Then she lay atop me, slightly to the side, and pulled a single sheet back into place over us.

Once she'd done that, she parted her legs, shifted onto me, so that her thighs rested just inside mine, then slid a little higher and pushed my shaft into the moist opening of her sex.

She lowered herself gingerly, but it seemed she really had been wet from arousal, and it wasn't long until her sex met my groin.

She pushed her pelvis forward, then relaxed. I replied by gently pressing myself to her. She repeated the cycle, and we were moving very slowly against one another. She lay down, resting her cheek on my shoulder, and we slowly rocked. I was deep inside her, and I felt my shaft sliding easily inside the warm, moist passage.

That seemed to be the point that Yvette was waiting for. She picked up the pace and the motion, her body rolling against mine. Then she shuffled her feet together, and her sex became tight around my shaft. I groaned, and she closed my mouth with hers.

This was... almost, it was like missionary position, except our places were reversed. I was inside her, but she was on top, setting the pace, her legs between mine. I could wrap my legs around hers, and I did, drawing my feet in to caress the back of her calves. Almost, it felt like she was inside me.

The downside to this was that her tightness around me would have dragged me to release on any normal day. But today wasn't normal. Today, Meadow had taken what was left, particularly in the last activity, in my room. Today my balls were aching from overuse, and I could probably postpone my own finish indefinitely.

My hands caressed her waist and ass, reveling in the feel of her silky skin under my fingers. She moaned softly into an intimate kiss, a kiss of love. I felt her emotions, as I'm sure she felt mine.

I could feel the hard presence of her lower stud against the base of my cock occasionally. I squeezed her butt on her downward thrusts, and felt it more positively. She started to pant softly, and I kept up the motion.

Breaking the kiss, she smiled at me. My heart raced with the elation in that smile, and I rolled my hips further as I held her close, feeling the stud pressed to me.

"Ah, oui," she breathed. "Oui."

She panted louder, desire in her eyes. She was setting the pace, and I responded by moving to it, without rushing her, but I squeezed her butt as her piercing pressed to me.

She lifted herself, and pressed her sex against my groin hard, with a groan, then dropped back against me, her breasts making a slapping noise against my chest. She grabbed my hips, thrusting hard for a moment.

Then I felt her spasm around my cock, huge waves that threatened to evict me. I grabbed her ass and held myself in place as Yvette moaned. The waves kept coming, and I wasn't sure if I could postpone my climax long at all.

They subsided, though, and very soon she began to move again. I squeezed her thighs to me with my ankles, still feeling her stud with each stroke.

I moved my hands under her shoulders, and lifted her from the bed far enough to be able to suckle her delicious breasts. I moved my lips and tongue around first, kissing everywhere I could reach, then took her left breast into my mouth and played with it using my tongue, occasionally sucking the nipple into my mouth.

Yvette shivered and wrapped her arms around my head, holding me in place. Her breath shuddered, and again, she murmured, "Oui! Oui! Yes, my love! Oh, mon Dieu!"

I could sense her approaching her release, and suckled harder. "Ngh!" she grunted, her body stiffening. Then again I felt the waves of pleasure take her, pulsing around my sex. Goaded beyond endurance, I exploded deep inside her, and she moaned.

"I love you," I breathed, as her amber eyes gave me a look of contentment.

"Je t'aime," she agreed. "Tonight, I think we sleep naked, yes?"

I kissed her lips.

 

Epilogue: Just before Christmas

 

The grounds of the house were huge, and mostly vineyards, leafless brown twigs in rows. The house, too, was huge. I met Yvette's parents briefly. She introduced me as her copain, which she immediately rendered as boyfriend. It gave me a warm feeling They promised good-naturedly to interrogate me at dinner. Her mother's English was flawless and idiomatic, much more than Yvette's. Her father's was not quite so good, but still excellent. I understood why Yvette wanted to stay in the states for a few years yet.

 

I also understood, seeing the house and grounds, that it really was not unlikely that my new girlfriend would have quality jewelry, even out of public view.

Before we'd left the US, Yvette had given me an early Christmas present - photos from a shoot that included the green gold wrap in varying poses and amounts of cover, over the gossamer negligee, and of the negligee without the wrap. Also of other outfits, including the gauze and bra that she'd been hiding at the bowling alley. I had downloaded them onto my phone, then turned off wireless to avoid roaming charges.

But before I'd disabled the Internet, I'd received an email that nagged at me throughout the transatlantic flight. I was going to have to make a final decision on how to deal with it soon, before Yvette asked why I was so distracted.

It had been easy enough to hide my straying thoughts in the stresses of security checks and schedules - although flying first class made the experience much smoother than I expected - but it wouldn't be now, especially in any alone time we might have.

I could recall the email perfectly, given how many times I'd glanced at it.

You have a HerMassager invitation!.

MeadowLark2069 has invited you to share her intimate massager. Get the app here and give MeadowLark2069 the experience of your presence whenever and wherever you want to be together!

MeadowLark2069's custom enticement to share her special moments is: "I have a new toy. It's yummy and *very* effective! but I have no one to play with me! I'll use it every night when I sleep for the next two weeks, and perhaps someone will visit me in my dreams. There's a little stand pointing the phone camera at the bed and I've set this invite for any time, so you can watch me dreaming! Or waking up!"

 

My first reaction when I saw the message was to hide my instant erection and wonder when I could sneak away to try it.

My second was that I should trash the message and forget about it. I was with the woman I loved. With her encouragement I'd had an exciting time with Meadow, but it was done.

I hadn't deleted the mail yet, though. And when I'd gotten the wi-fi password for the house (was this called a house or a chateau?) it caught my eye every time I looked at my phone.

On the other hand, Meadow was a friend of Yvette's. My girlfriend knew what she was like and sent me to her anyway. Maybe she knew her better than I did. She said never to hide anything from her. And she said if I fall for Meadow, she'd cure me in bed.

Maybe she had found the idea of Meadow seducing me amusing. Or even arousing. Maybe she would again.

There really was only one option.

"Uh, Yvette?"

"Yes, Kévin?" my girlfriend asked. "Is there problem?"

I thumbed my phone to life. "There's an email here that I need to show you..."