Chapter 9
1414 Words
After our sultry escapade on the stairs of Mortain, we finished fooling around in my Elizabeth suite. It shouldn’t be far from 2 am when we exchanged a few words, sated as we were by our erotic activities. The sheet across his tattooed chest, my head resting on his shoulder, I contemplated more carefully the indelible drawings inscribed on his skin.
“Do they all have a meaning?” I asked, trailing a finger over an angel’s wing with a devil’s tail on his abs.
“They all have one, yes,” he replied.
He made a movement that forced me to shift my head on the pillow while he got up into a sitting position.
“This one I made after my first death.”
I looked at the tattoo in question. It was a sentence in a language that was unknown to me. It started from the start of his right collarbone, crossed his pecs, and went down to his waist in two parallel lines. When I put my finger on it, I felt a muscle quiver at my touch.
“What is this language?”
“Gaelic. It means: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”.
“Isn’t that a bit narcissistic?” I said, suddenly seized with uneasiness listening to this quote.
“Well, in context, it was used as a joke encouraging a character to continue to act in ways that annoy his mistress.”
“It’s from who?”
“Shakespeare.”
“And why in Gaelic?”
“I’m Irish.”
“And you subscribe to this notion?”
“Annoying my mistress or inflating my greatness?”
“Both, I suppose.”
“The first, for sure! The second, I don’t know. So little of what I was remains.”
“I know so little about you,” I said, curiosity pushing me to question him further. “How did you die the first time?”
“Murdered in my sleep.”
“How awful!”
“No, believe me, there are worse ways to die.”
This time there was silence. Finally, I saved my curiosity on this subject for later because I didn’t want to dwell on all the best ways to die after such a beautiful night of love.
“Did you have other deaths after this one?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“And why this sentence?” I continued. “Do you think immortals are superior to the rest of humanity?”
“I don’t care about humanity.”
“So what about the rest of the castes?”
“Like you, for instance?”
I remained silent. His enigmatic gaze and sudden silence seemed to reflect agitation in his thoughts. His eyes lit up with a strange light. The mystery of this man escaped me. But, after what we had just been through in a few days, I was no longer surprised that I didn’t understand him. After all, we didn’t know each other. Only this sensual attraction enlightened us with its clarity, and while my thoughts were going well, I looked back at his arm to escape.
“I like that one too,” I said, wanting to snap him out of his dark thoughts.
I pointed to a lion’s head on a clock, on his bicep. This tattoo was beautiful, even though time had done its job on the ink. I also noticed that the relationship to time was significant in the drawing.
“This is one of the most recent. I made it towards the end of the twentieth century. You can see it in the sharpness of the image.”
I let out a sigh. His muscles, adorned with all these patterns, whose meaning I gradually discovered, fascinated me. His body was a work of art. Connor, moved by my contemplation, came closer to me, locking my arms in the vice of his hands.
“Maybe I should consider making another one,” he said with a dimpled smile.
“But I haven’t finished analyzing them all yet,” I replied, squinting.
“You’ll have time,” he added, kissing my chest.
“So I conclude that we are starting a real relationship?”
“You conclude well.”
His response to my desires fills my chest with intense emotion. Exalted by this prospect, I blushed, which amused him. He brought his mouth to my lips, fully aware of what he had caused. And when he pulled away, I let out a sigh.
“You too, you have a tattoo. A little secretive.”
“It’s true, a butterfly behind the neck. You can’t say that I can compete with you!”
“And a navel piercing,” he said, loosening his grip around my arms, going to touch the jewellery with his finger.
“A teenage whim!”
“I like. But what I prefer is this,” he said, pointing to a small mole slightly below the left corner of my lips. “A natural tattoo, and I also like the one you have on your buttocks.”
“I didn’t know you saw it!”
“It’s because I look at this place a lot.”
I giggled and kissed him. His tongue found mine. The effect this man had on me was unimaginable.
“How about coming with me for a while?”
“Sorry?”
“As I said at dinner, I’d like to take a vacation. Would you like to accompany me?”
“Uh... Yes, why not? Well… No, that’s not reasonable.”
He stood up, and the vision of his naked body fascinated me. This image would haunt my dreams all the nights of my existence. I was sure of it. His firm buttocks waddled before my captivated eyes as he headed for the kitchen area, and I bit my lip, if not the cushion, itching to touch it.
“I’m leaving in two days for Brazil. Will you come?”
“Brazil?”
“Yes, I have business to settle there, and I’d like to relax there for a while. Even though I’m Lord of this Territory, I have only been there a dozen times, and my stays have always been too short to visit the country. I’m thinking of extending it to Argentina, and why not to Chile?”
“Well, of course, but I have just arrived, and I’m not sure my mother…”
“Your mother left for two months and left you alone as soon as you set foot here. I’m sure she can understand that you want to see the world a little.”
“Yeah, probably, but…”
“We don’t know each other well enough, is that it?”
“Uh... Yes, it’s a bit like that. And I’ve never gone on vacation with anyone!”
“A good reason to remedy that, don’t you think, princess?”
I watched him as a tender silence fell between us. He returned from the kitchen with a large glass of water. He handed it to me, and I couldn’t suppress the urge to stare at his body. Lord, how beautiful he was! My thoughts sought to refuse his proposal, but I saw no valid reason to reject such an offer. The prospect of discovering Brazil enchanted me, and doing so in the company of Connor seemed even more attractive. Admittedly, our relationship had started at breakneck speed and finally seemed like a crash, but we had just found common ground based on understanding his strange character. Despite everything, I couldn’t help fearing a new cataclysm. But when he sat down on the end of the bed, gently running his hand down my leg, his eyes convinced me that I really did attract him.
“Why don’t you want your brother and sister to know about us? It’ll be hard to hide if we go on a romantic trip.”
A new smile lit up his face as he understood that I was actively considering his proposal. He moved closer, lifting the sheet that hid my chest and the top of my thighs.
“I think that the question no longer arises, does it?” he said while his hand moved dangerously up my leg.
I grabbed his neck and encouraged him to lie on my body. What followed confirmed that the painful words he had evoked in his family’s presence were forgotten.
- Writer
