The Undaunted

Beauty From Ashes

I woke and saw you there
Beside me as before
My heart leapt to find you near
To feel you close once more
- Ennio Morricone

***

Jack awakened to the feel of their moist skins joined and his hand lying lax on Jenny's belly, lifting and falling with each breath she took. Somehow, sometime during the night they had made it to the bed. He lay still, filling his senses with her rhythmic breathing, the rumpled cotton sheet covering their shoulders, her naked rear sealed to his thighs.

The smell of her hair, like poppies and sunlight, the dusty rose taffeta wallpaper covering the walls, the noiseless motion of sheer white curtains in the breeze from the open French doors. Warmth. Happiness. Belonging.

It's your home too, Jack, she had said. For as long as you want it.

Jack's arms tightened around her, content to simply watch her sleep for the moment.

I don't want to leave here, he said to himself. I want to stay with this woman, laugh and love with her and share the thousands of mundane tasks that bind lives. I want to carry the things that are too heavy for her, reach the things that are too high, shave in her bathroom every morning, stand in a doorway and watch her dress, stand in the same doorway in the evening and watch her undress. I want to come home to her every night. Share lazy Sundays and rainy Mondays and the last cup of coffee of the morning.

No, I don't want to leave here. I don't want to leave this woman ever again.

He knew the precise moment she awakened by the change in rhythm of her breathing, and a slight tensing of muscles that fell just short of a stretch. He spread his hand on her stomach and touched the back of her neck with his nose. She reached behind him and slipped her hand down between his legs, stroking him, once, twice, tight and deft and certain. His flesh sprang to life in her hand and she smiled, eyes still closed.

I wasn't dreaming, Jenny thought to herself. Thank God. I wasn't dreaming.

He knew she smiled, knew it as certainly as if he could see her face, and curled her forward and she drew her knee up feeling him inside her once more. Then reaching around with an arm she drew him flush against her. He gripped her hips and said good morning to her in an age-old, wordless way. As they moved together, Jack's breath hot and quick against her neck, Jenny suddenly turned her head and their lips met, open and wet, Jack stuttering to a halt to kiss her. Jenny was the one who thrust back against him, urging him on.

When they had finally shuddered and spent and the moisture lay drying upon their skin, she turned, their bodies still precariously joined, and hooked her legs over his thighs.

The smile he had earlier defined, he saw and met with one of his own. He crooked an elbow beneath his ear and fit the fingers of his free hand between hers. They lay there in silence, studying one another's eyes while the morning light brightened the room and the sheer curtains continued their graceful fluttering. His thumb drew lazy circles around hers.

Jenny reached up to smooth the hair back from his forehead, then linked her hand with his as before and they resumed the lazy stirring of thumbs. No word was spoken, no promises made, but during that silence they both said the most meaningful things of all.

***

The chateau was still and quiet, basking in the late morning sunshine, the birds sweetly singing in the apple orchard. The dwarf trees down by the canal were alive with their fluttering wings while butterflies of blue, yellow, and orange visited the burgeoning apple blossoms one by one. Jenny and Jack strolled hand in hand, sipping coffee, Jenny's head occasionally lolling against Jack's shoulder.