Indeed, he could feel himself responding to Marcie’s close presence already, the touch of her hand on his bare skin, her soft warm skin under his own fingertips, their gently held hands and even her subtle fragrances. He deliberately breathed in the scents of her clean body, her slightly worn nightdress and her wine-tinted breath.

Marcie may have noticed his heavy in-breath or the subtle movement of his reawakening arousal, as she said, “Come on, let’s move from the childish innocence of Lucy and Edmund’s secret world to the adult potency of Roddie and Vixen’s magical den. Take a sip of my wine and imagine it’s a crystal chalice. Like your prayer, we can make this our personal heretical Eucharist.”

Ben was a little unsure about what she had in mind but was happy to go along with it as he dropped his hands and stepped back a little, letting Marcie pick up her wineglass in both her hands. She held it up between them and solemnly said, “May this wine be the living sap of the fertile Mother Earth and warm Sun’s summer king. By taking it into our bodies, may we be united in true love, primal and supreme, sensuous and divine, fleeting and eternal. In this shared covenant, let us drink of life’s essence.”

Ben was once again awestruck by her creative and heartfelt words as she lifted the glass to his lips. He drank a sip as she tilted it up high for him, feeling the tangy liquid slip down his throat, then took it from her hands to offer the last of the wine back to her. As he tipped the glass up for her and she drained it, he simply repeated just the words, “Life’s essence.”

Marcie gave him a huge grin as he lowered the glass, then surprised him by lifting her arms over her head to grasp her nightdress and pull it up and over her body in one smooth movement. Suddenly she was naked before him, her bushy vulva and heavy breasts exposed just before his own bare torso. Dropping her bundled nightdress on top of her robe and the book, she said seductively, “Now let me lead you to our shared bed to see if we can make that fleeting union a reality.”

“Aye, two become one,” Ben responded dumbly, thinking of the line he’d put in his card to her again.

“As you say,” Marcie replied with a twinkling smirk, before turning to the candelabra and blowing out the candles, filling the air with a waxy smell. Ben turned too, thinking to do the same for the pair that were still burning by the bath, but Marcie stopped him, saying, “No, let’s carry those through to light our way.”

Ben watched as Marcie swiped a towel from the rack to drape it over her arm before picking up the green ceramic candlestick. Ben took the orange one as well as her wineglass, asking her if she wanted it topped up, which she agreed to. Then, after casting a smile over her shoulder toward him, she nudged the bathroom door aside and began walking slowly through the flat.

Ben immediately saw the living room lights were already off, like those in the kitchen, but there was still enough light from their flickering candles for him to clearly see her naked body’s graceful movement as she led the way. She paused while he opened the fridge, letting its light spill out as he topped up her glass with the fresh and chilly wine, then paced on through the dark living room once he was ready. As he followed her through the room and along the awkward hallway, moving carefully so as not to drip wax, he watched the curving lines of her short well-toned legs, her wide hips and round buttocks, her slim waist, her elegant spine and her mole-dappled shoulders, under the short dark rope of her braided hair.

For some obscure reason, he was reminded of their earlier playful conversation about spirit animals, and imagined her nude body with its perfect femininity intersecting with the spirit form of a moor’s pony. Her thick hair could be that of its tail or mane, whilst she drew down the wild strength of the animal’s forces in her stamina, her stoicism, her wilfulness and, for those who earnt it, her trust and fidelity.

When Marcie pushed the bedroom door open, Ben realised that one bedside light was on, but once they were in and she’d put her candle down next to it, she turned it off. Ben solemnly took his to the other bedside table, placing the wineglass beside it, then they looked at each other across the folded-down duvet. Seeing Marcie standing at ease and naked in the candlelight brought further strange thoughts to Ben’s mind. She was wonderfully sexy of course, from the dark triangle of her pubic hair framed by her wide hips and her softly toned belly, past her heavy round breasts with her tempting nipples in their wide areolae, dusky in the low light, to her warm face with her strong jaw and twinkling eyes under those intellectual glasses. Yet she also seemed like a supernatural being, neither human nor animal, but the dream spirit of some divine ideal or impossibly pure feminine essence, the perfect angelic projection of his heart’s deepest desire.

And it was her who unfroze him by simply asking, “So shall we have a cuddle then?”

“I’d like that,” he admitted, with utter conviction.

They both scrambled onto the white sheet, thrusting their feet under the duvet as they shuffled towards each other, lying on their sides as they faced each other. Ben’s arousal had already been stirred by the physical sensation of his reclining contact with the cotton bed sheets, but when he put his arm around Marcie’s shoulder and brought her bare skin against his, it surged. She’d wrapped her own arm around his chest, and he enjoyed the reassuring firmness of her captivating hug, yet the sensations ran right up his body. He felt the touch of their thighs, his hairy and rough against her smooth toned muscles, the brushing contact of their stomachs, the soft pressure of Marcie’s breasts pushing delightfully against his chest, and the sensation of his rising penis grazing her Vixen. He was not sure if he was merely pressing against the crease of her thigh or her vulva itself, but he clearly felt the tickling pressure of her springy pubic hair, and the combined stimuli made him dizzy.

They’d brought their faces so close together that their noses were almost touching, yet they were both resting their heads on the pillows, staring into each other’s eyes in an unfocused way, Ben feeling sure that he was mirroring the huge, contented grin that he saw on Marcie’s wide mouth. This time he made the first move, lifting his head and rolling over her to bring them closer still, then planting a kiss on her lips.

She responded slowly, just pressing her closed mouth to his for a few moments, then relaxing her jaw and letting him tentatively explore her lips with his tongue. He could taste the sour fruitiness of the wine there, just as it was on her breath, but it only warmed his affection for her, confirming her as an earthly living creature and not some supernatural divine dream spirit. Then her own slick tongue was playing with his, leading their kiss back toward the more passionate intensity of their mealtime, lapping and sucking in uninhibited enthusiasm, whilst they also writhed against each other with chaotic and impulsive movements in their legs, arms and torsos. Yet seemingly they both now had less urgency, taking the time to relish the sensations, even as Ben’s arousal kept pressing firmly against Marcie’s soft skin somewhere down in the darkness between them.

Marcie must have noticed how hard his erection had become, as when their lips parted for a moment, she murmured between pecked kisses, “Roddie’s ready to go, isn’t he? I’d like him inside me. But I don’t want you getting as breathless as you were after our night out. So I’d like to try being on top. I could ride you, my great shire horse, setting my own a gentle trotting pace while you lie calm and relaxed.”

“That sounds good,” Ben murmured back, but he doubted that he would last long before achieving orgasm like that, and he wanted to do more for Marcie, to draw out the pleasure in this delicious haven that they’d reached. To try and put more thought into their shared private world, rather than just following his body’s mindless impulse, he observed, “But I don’t really feel as if we’re horses, now we’re here. We’re too close and cosy in our nest, our burrow.”

Marcie pulled her head back a little to look into his eyes with a suspicious smile, though still pushing herself firmly against his erection with her hips. She remarked, “I thought we were getting away from innocent children’s stories to focus our potent adult sexuality, but if you want to keep playing those games too, what animals would you say we were now?”

“Rabbits,” Ben blurted out, saying the first thing that came into his head, “They’re cute and cuddly, aren’t they? If I forget the farming nuisance stuff. They have their burrows, and they’re sexually potent.”

“Well yes,” Marcie agreed, cuddling herself against him now, pecking his ear and his neck with her lips. Ben inhaled deeply as he felt a thrilling surge of pleasure from the sensations of her soft wet lips, and of her bare skin against his, all down his body. His suggestion had prompted her to recall fragments from her vast knowledge of mythology too, and she shared this as they tangled together, “The rabbit or hare represented love and fertility in the Classical world. She was sacred to Aphrodite, and symbolised rebirth. I think the Chinese see a rabbit in the Moon, mixing the elixir of life. And the Anglo-Saxon’s Eostre, goddess of spring, is obviously associated with the hare too.”

“I knew that last one,” Ben admitted, though another thought had occurred to him. As he luxuriated in the close contact with Marcie’s naked body, he explained, “But it’s their fur too, I was thinking. You know how soft it is? I had a rabbit skin, as a boy, and I loved stroking it.”

“Oh, so the man finds sexual excitement in the boy’s comforter. No wonder you fixated on the fur coats at the portal to Narnia!” Marcie teased, looking down her proud nose at him again through her crooked glasses and deliberately grinding her pubic mound against his tumescent penis now.

Gasping in his body’s visceral excitement, Ben managed to say, “Maybe. I love your fur, your Vixen’s bush. I loved burying my face in it that other night. I want to be there again, now!”

Marcie became still and looked at him seriously, “Really, Ben? I just wanted us to be close tonight, after everything today. I wanted us to make love properly, to become one.”

“And we still can,” Ben reassured her, “If you still want me inside you, once I’ve brought you some pleasure. So will you let me go down now?”

“But I want it to be pleasant for you too,” Marcie protested.

“You know how much it turned me on. You saw I’d almost come just by being there. It was wonderful, I felt so close to you,” Ben again assured her, then asking, “But did you enjoy it? Would you like it again, now?”

“Yes!” Marcie said with heartfelt emphasis, “Holy Mary, it was amazing, transcendent! I want it, but I feel so guilty.”

“Well don’t,” Ben said firmly, “I’ve asked three times now, remember? You know I’m serious. And this is me making love to you. I couldn’t be closer. It’s not our union, but it is a magical rite, kissing your body’s natural divine chalice. Now just lie back, and let me attend to you.”

Ben deliberately put a hand to her shoulder to push her back onto her pillow as he made to roll on top of her, moving from his hip. He felt he was being bossy, but he wanted to firmly put an end to Marcie’s worries. He guessed that if he could just get started, her fizzing mind would stop protesting as the sensations in her body began to rise. And she did comply, becoming prone under him as he put his elbows down on either side of her chest.

Hanging over her, he lowered his parted lips to hers as if it were a tender parting kiss, soft and wet but gentle and calm without their tongues. She smiled up at him, her olive skin and her pink cheeks glowing in the candlelight, and he knew that he was smiling back, perhaps excessively in his satisfaction at getting his wish and in his anticipation of what he might achieve. He knew that he’d feel both indecently proud and profoundly aroused if he brought her to orgasm again with his lips and tongue.

Suddenly Marcie’s dark eyebrows creased as she seemed to remember something, perhaps thinking along the same lines as him. “Ooh, my towel,” she said practically, “I’m sorry, but I brought it just in case. I’d feel better if I was sitting on it. And you’re sure that really don’t mind if I leak a bit?”

“I said, it only adds to the excitement. We both know that now,” Ben reassured her as he pushed himself up onto one hand to reach over the edge of the bed for her dropped towel. As she took it from him, she wriggled beneath him, getting it under her bottom. This also seemed to bring them into the perfect missionary position, Ben propped up on his arms, his hands by Marcie’s shoulders, pressing more weight through his knees where they rested between her parted thighs, whilst her hands were on his hips, now that they’d finished fiddling with the towel. His long stiff penis stuck out directly above her wide triangle of pubic hair, its exposed bright red head touching her between her vulva and her bellybutton. He saw all this as he glanced down past Marcie’s wide pooling breasts with their dusky crinkled areolae and erect nipples, and once again he felt dizzy in his arousal. He felt sure that if Marcie so much as brushed his manhood now, he’d ejaculate immediately, bringing a premature end to their fun.

He took a deliberate slow breath and raised his eyes to Marcie’s, who was looking up at him with an intense, unsmiling hunger now, her eyelids lowered, her cheeks still flushed and her broad jaw set in a serious determination. As they stared deep into each other’s eyes, still and silent for the moment, he imagined how easy it would be to slip himself inside her as she lay beneath him. He recognised it as an utterly reckless thought, yet it still tempted him, and he knew with absolute certainty that Marcie would let him follow it through if he tried. Perhaps she even wanted him to penetrate her, to feel him naked inside her for herself, for all that meant that he’d perhaps inseminate her. But he realised that they were in the grip of Mother Nature’s siren song, and he was resolved to resist her lure.

With another heavy breath, he began moving with a deliberately cautious pace, bringing himself back down onto his elbows and repeating the soft kiss that he’d laid on her lips. And now he started shuffling down, kissing her neck, her collarbones, the rising mounds of her breasts, brushing the silver pendant that lay her sternum, then delicately kissing each of her nipples. He was so fascinated by their proud arousal that he wanted to linger there, pausing to brush his nose across the supremely soft and thin-seeming skin all around one areola. He thought he could see her move beneath him, almost as if the tiny tower of her fleshy nipple was vibrating, with the subtle rise and fall of her chest, her heartbeat or even his own breath. But he knew this was another temptation that he needed to move past, especially as he still felt that he’d let himself get too carried away when Marcie’s breast had been in his mouth earlier.

So he kept wriggling down, whilst Marcie’s hands rose up the sides of his chest and over his shoulders, her fingertips brushing his skin in a way that brought him shivering delight, before they came to rest at the back of his head. He was kissing her belly now, his mouth wide, making little sucking pops on the soft skin that covered her toned abdomen, making Marcie giggle above him before he moved lower, over her bellybutton and on down. He’d been rubbing his own hands across the bumps of her ribs down her sides too, brushing the edges of her breasts, but now he brought his arms in, one at a time, pulling each towards his chest against the mattress, then squeezing his hand out under her thighs, reaching for her hips. Marcie raised her knees as he did this, spreading them wider too, so that Ben’s head came naturally to the fork between her hips and thighs.

Her vulva lay before him, close enough for him to touch with his lips at last. He inhaled deeply as he stared myopically at this most intimate part of Marcie’s body, seeing that it was just a wrinkled crease in her skin below an untidy patch of wild dark hair, secluded in the damp cleft between her muscular thighs. Yet for him it was also a miniature world of mystery and wonder, with its shadowy dynamic movements, its unknowable cycles and moods, and its magical creative potential. The sensations that might arise there for Marcie could clearly bring her to sublime ecstasy, and he was eager to kindle that extreme pleasure within her. But he hoped that he knew the consequences of those experiences too, for both of them, that through his attention and her bliss, they would be brought closer together, to feel the warm fire of their love more intensely and with deeper mutual trust.

He’d already noticed the profoundly erotic scent of her, the subtle bodily musk lying below the fragrance of her shower-time soap. He knew that it was helping to keep his own arousal sky high, yet the wooden tumescence of his maximally erect penis seemed distant, pressed against the sheet close to the foot of the bed. He’d also noticed that in her accommodating position, the long cushions of her outer labia with their own sparse fur were already parted a little to reveal the smooth wrinkles of her inner labia. As he put his lips tenderly to these and felt their warmth, he realised they were also already moistened with what he assumed was the lubrication of her arousal.

Burying his nose in the thick fur over her hard pubic bone, he drew in more deep breaths through his wide nostrils, kissing her lips as if they were the passive sisters of her previously eager mouth. He’d planned to be careful and systematic in his committed work toward her stimulation, but now he was becoming lost in the moment. While Marcie massaged the back of his scalp with her fingertips, he was pushing his loose lips uninhibitedly against her intimate lips, explored her slippery crease with his tongue, then widening his jaw and lapping deeper into the mouth of her vagina, letting his impulses lead his steady licking strokes, seemingly encouraging a rising flow that was seeping from within her to cover the shaved skin around his mouth and chin.

He was aware of the rise in the subtle wet noises that his mouth and her vulva made as they worked together too, the little rhythmic slurps, squelches and slaps seeming natural and liberated yet also intensely personal and private. As he opened his ears to these sounds, he noticed how heavily he was breathing through his squashed nose, the whistling and snuffling airflow making its own steady rhythm in and out, filling him with her precious scent. And above that he realised he could hear Marcie’s own panting breath too, also rapid and heavy, with a dreamy and distant “ooh” escaping each time she exhaled, while she kept gripping him with her fingers tangled in his hair.

The growing evidence of her progress toward a potential orgasm prompted Ben to make a more diligent effort to satisfy her. His hands had been vaguely pawing over her soft skin around her waist and across her broader hips. Now he brought one arm in, tucking his elbow beneath him, so he could put his fingers to her in the same spot that his lips had been at the edge of her vagina. As he did so, he began stroking his tongue firmly between the creases of her inner labia, finding their apex and feeling the prominent bud of her clitoris under its hood.

He eased two fingers gently inside her as he began rhythmically lapping at her most sensitive bump of intimate flesh. The taught muscles of her vagina were slipping around his fingers, seemingly widening to create a capacious volume that slurped around him as he quested for her g-spot. Still breathing heavily through his nose and her pubic fur, rich with her personal musk now, and still rigidly aroused himself, Ben concentrated on both the gentle stroking pressure through his fingertips inside her and the steady rhythm of his licking caresses, using the breadth of his tongue against the area around her clitoris. Yet his gaping mouth enclosed a wider circle of her, covering some of her sopping-wet fur too, and he deliberately sucked at her, drawing her into him, echoing the way that she’d encouraged him to eat her breast earlier that evening.

He could hear that Marcie was drifting further into her uplifting rapture as her panting vocalisations became more expressive, her crooning “ooh” sounds becoming more like trilling “aah” exclamations, even as she clawed at his scalp with her nails. He thought of bringing his free hand in to give her just a little more stimulation, so he tucked his other elbow under his chest to bring two fingers to the slippery crease between her thighs. Crowding his hands under his chin, he managed to massage her below her vagina along her perineum, then squeeze his fingertips between her buttocks. Even as his other fingers kept stroking the inner wall of her vagina and his mouth kept working rhythmically over her clitoris, he was thrilled to feel the tight bud of her anus, and to notice that it seemed to respond to his pressure as Marcie flexed and relaxed under his fingertips.

Suddenly Marcie clenched her hands, pulling almost painfully on his hair with her grip. At the same moment her hips jerked hard against him, crushing his lips and presumably her own skin between his teeth and her hard pubic bone. Ben concentrated on keeping his fingers and mouth just where they’d been, still rhythmically working, but now letting their pressure become a little firmer, the sucking become a little stronger.

He felt his guess that Marcie had reached the cusp of her climax was confirmed when she exclaimed above him, seemingly in babbling rush of desperation, “Qaddisa Marija, Omm Alla, itlob għalina midinbin, issa u fis-siegħa tal-mewt tagħna!” As she cried out, Ben had been aware of spasming quakes pulsing through her muscles, in her softening slippery anus as well as her cavernous vagina. He recognised that she’d truly achieved her orgasm, passing that painfully frantic final moment as she reached her explosive release. He was also unsurprised to notice that everything around his mouth and hands had suddenly got a lot wetter, as warm fluid had leaked from somewhere around Marcie’s genitals in a cathartic liberation.

Ben was still tentatively licking and stroking her, more gently now, wondering if she wanted him to carry on, perhaps to find a second orgasm, just as she had with her vibrator last night. Yet her hands, gentle once again as they held his crown, were pushing him back, and she told him breathlessly, “Stop now! Holy Mary, that’s everything. You’ve done it for me again Ben! It’s wonderful.”

Ben carefully withdrew his hands and looked up at her, seeing her face looking down at him over her heaving chest and belly. Her mouth was ajar as her heavy breaths slowed, and he saw her face was shining with sweat, her cheeks flushed to a full red blush that far exceeded their earlier warmth. From his low perspective, he also saw how matted and wet the curls of her pubic fur now were, and how her nipples still stood thickly erect on the raised and puckered areolae of her liquid breasts. He felt a profound tenderness towards her, seeing her at ease in her surrender to the flowing currents of her body’s innate and expressive sexuality. Her eyes seemed a little unfocused though as she cradled his head in her hands and he smiled up at her.

“I’m glad,” he said, “It’s wonderful for me too, to be able to do that for you.” With a weak attempt to be surreptitious, he rolled sideways over her knee to give his mouth a cursory wipe on the edge of her towel, then quickly wriggled up the bed. He propped himself up on one elbow beside her as she let her head fall back onto the pillow, cuddling his naked body against hers. He tried to explain a little more, “It’s a magical thing, to be so intimate and close to you.”

Marcie draped one arm carelessly around his shoulder, revealing her glistening armpit to Ben as yet another part of her body that was drenched by her arousal. “If you say so,” Marcie conceded as they smiled warmly into each other’s eyes and she casually brought her other hand to rest on his upright penis. Ben guessed that she’d felt it rather than seen it, now resting hot and long against her thigh, its exposed dark purple and crimson head messy with his own leaking lubricating or seminal fluid.

He felt eager to kiss her, but he was aware that the potent scent of her body’s arousal was still strong in his mouth, so he twisted around to cheekily help himself to a slurp of her wine. As he’d hoped, the movement rubbed his sensitive erection against the weight of Marcie’s still hand in a pleasant way. He started turning back, but then, thinking back to their games on the sofa last night, he twisted around again to take another generous mouthful, this time bringing it to Marcie’s lips rather than swallowing.

She smiled dreamily as she saw what he was doing, then pursed her lips to his with her eyes closing as she sucked the wine dribbling from his mouth. Her hand closed around his penis as she did so, gripping his shaft in a way that made Ben tremble as he let the fluid escape and she gulped it down. A few drips inevitably escaped, and he licked these up from around her mouth, making her giggle and squirm a little, shaking his manhood. Then he remembered her phrase from earlier, murmuring it once again, “Life’s essence.”

“Hmm, yes, from my blessed chalice,” Marcie agreed, licking her lips as she held his stiff erection firmly, then also seemingly remembering something else from earlier that evening, “But it’s not your own leaking creamy milk-sperm, is it?”

“No,” Ben admitted, “But that’s close to coming too.”

“Ooh, you’d better get your mackintosh on quickly then!” Marcie said eagerly, suddenly seeming to wake up a little and find her focus, “I still want you inside me when you let it go!”

“I’d like that,” Ben said simply, though his heartfelt tone and yearning gaze into Marcie’s may have given away just how deep his desire ran. She surely knew how much he wanted just the same thing she did, to make love, to have her, for her to have him, body and soul.

“Let me get a condom and our new gel out of the drawer then,” Marcie said practically, shuffling underneath him to twist over onto her side, wriggling away from him momentarily. As she rolled to the edge of the mattress, she glanced back over her shoulder with a smiling cheekiness on her flushed cheeks, saying, “Though it’s not really as if I need lubricating,” then explaining once she’d reached over the edge of the bed to search the drawer, “I could hardly get myself any wetter, thanks to you. But if you don’t mind me saying how it is, the gel still helps with the rubber by making it more slippery and stopping it sort-of tugging at me.”

“I don’t mind,” Ben explained, resting his own hand on the thick base of his penis now as he watched the sinuous motion of Marcie’s back and wide buttocks. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he clarified, “I want you to say how it is, for you, I mean. I want us to share how things feel, honestly. And I want to make things comfortable for you. Whatever we do. But especially this, penetrating you. It sounds painful, saying it like that.”

“Oh, painful isn’t the word,” Marcie reassured him as she rose up from the edge of the bed and rolled back towards him, clutching the condom’s silvery packet and the tube of gel in her fist, still grinning broadly. She continued as she tucked herself under the arm that Ben reached to her, “When we made love last time, you slipped in so easily it was beyond comfortable. I felt no drag or friction from the rubber. I can’t describe it, but it was as if there had been something missing from my body, and I hadn’t realised how much that hole in me was aching to be filled. But then it was, stuffed by something I could hold firm, and for a blissful moment I felt complete. I’m just so sorry that you got breathless when you were working so hard on top of me. So I open it this way up?”

Marcie’s gaze had fallen from Ben’s eyes as she’d been speaking as she stoked her fingertips down his belly and then very delicately brushed his penis, just behind its deep red glans, while he still held its base, helping it to stand upright. Now she had torn open the condom packet and was holding it over his head, ready to slip the rolled-up rubber out. Ben eagerly noted how she seemed confident of trying to put the condom on him for herself now, as he confirmed she was right, then asked, “But it wasn’t so comfortable in the kitchen?”

“That first time in the kitchen was like a ride on a rocket!” Marcie said, laughing lightly. “Holy Mary, how I wanted you inside me then! You were filling me, yes, but it was also like you were boosting me up, like I had been a plodding drudge, my feet stuck in the mud, and suddenly I was getting lifted way up above the ground, blasted into the sky by a wild unexpected force coming up through my pelvis. No, comfortable might not be the right word, but it certainly wasn’t painful. Surprising, hard, exciting, powerful, sudden, shuddering, stimulating, exhilarating, all those maybe. But most definitely deliciously fun. Now, you just lie back, wriggle down a bit and rest your head on the pillows. I’ve got this.”

While she’d been speaking, she’d carefully eased the condom over his head and diligently rolled it down his shaft. Ben only had to give minimal help, keeping his long and heavy erection upright with one hand around its shaft initially, and then holding its latex-wrapped head up as Marcie unrolled the last of the condom, burying her hand into his pubic hair around the base of his penis. She’d then squeezed out a slug of the gel into her palm to rub around the tacky rubber in a business-like way, though her swift strokes still made Ben shudder with pleasure. Ben had still been pinching his manhood around its thick base as she did this, eagerly holding it upright for her, but then Marcie put her sticky hand to his shoulder, pushing him down onto his back with her kind but firm command.

Ben was transfixed as he lay back, watching Marcie rise to her knees to straddle his prone body. He saw the soggy mess of her pubic hair hanging above his tall erection in its glossy wrap, between her thickly muscular thighs, plastered against the fawn tinted creases of her lips. As she balanced over him on one hand, her other was already reaching down there to part herself wider, bringing the edge of her vagina’s pink mouth closer to his turgid head. He eagerly held himself upright for her, leaving just one hand on his shaft as he raised the other to touch her near her perineum again, using that point for navigation now more than her stimulation.

As he felt the thrilling warmth of their contact, Marcie said, “That’s it, you’re almost home,” then wriggled above him to bring her lips around his head. They gasped simultaneously as they both felt the moment when he truly entered her, then Marcie batted his hand away before dropping both hers onto the bed, leaning forwards over Ben so that her breasts swung forward. As he placed his hands on her knees, he watched their heavy curves hanging and rocking before him, his pendant dangling between them. Her supremely feminine breasts suddenly seemed even bigger than he’d thought as they were stretched long by gravity, tapering almost to cones at the low points of her prominent nipples. The erotic sight added further arousing stimulation to the sensational feelings of himself slipping deeper up into the warm grip of Marcie’s silky-smooth vagina.

She was deliberately rocking her hips very carefully back and forth, moving him into her by small increments. She crooned encouraging yet cryptic words to him as she did so, “I have you! That’s it, lie still. I’m taking care of you. Ooh yes, come further up, further in. Aah, this is our real country, we are home at last. You belong here.”

Ben felt beyond speech as he gasped at the intensity of the sensations of her muscular vagina enclosing his desperately aroused penis in divine comfort. He raised his eyes from her hypnotically swaying breasts to her face, staring deep into her wide brown eyes beneath her demure glasses, framed by the dark outline of her tidily swept-back hair. She was looking down at him with an intensity that mirrored his own, yet the corners of her eyes were crinkled by her warm smile, even as her mouth hung ajar, her broad jaw pushed towards him.

He craned his neck upwards to kiss her, but she moved to swiftly push him back, sternly repeating, “No, keep still! Relax. Just enjoy feeling yourself rising toward your climax, as slowly or quickly as comes naturally. Aah, yes! Feel me around you, watch me too, if you like.” With that she pushed herself upright, so that she was now squatting on her knees directly above him, bearing down all her weight through her pelvis to push him even more firmly into her, even whilst her hips still gently rocked against him. Ben found he was excited to see their point of coupling, where his complete erection disappeared up into her vulva. He imagined its full size inside her, his mind boggling at the space that there must be within her, as his head was surely reaching up to somewhere behind her bellybutton now. He looked up at her in wonder as she kept moving, her arms raised behind her head now, lifting her elbows high and tilting her head back, closing her eyes as she drew sharp breaths between her teeth.

Ben was once more gasping for air himself in his arousal, his own breath coming easily even as his chest heaved. With his hands resting passively on Marcie’s hips, he gazed adoringly up at her. At that moment she seemed supremely confident in her sexual prowess with him, utterly in charge, buoyed up on reserves of stamina that she must have found since her own gushing orgasm. As he let himself stare openly at her breasts, once again resting against her chest as the round orbs with their distorted circles around her nipples, just as he’d first seen, he unexpectedly recalled his impression of seeing Shona’s breast too. He realised that he was once again that humble supplicant, in awestruck submission below the fertile goddess, prostrate on the sacred ground of their shared bed. Yet he was no longer that frustrated child, but instead at ease and in a state of bliss, confident that he was a fully potent man, most utterly embedded in his lover’s care.

The moment passed as Marcie groaned then fell forwards onto her hands over him, panting in a way that imitated Ben’s own deep and heavy breaths. She was rocking more firmly against him now, making her loose breasts swing low once more, pushing her vulva against his erection rhythmically, grinding against him with enough force for Ben to feel the pressure of her pubic bone against his, to feel the friction of their bristly hair rubbing together. Beneath her heavy breaths, he was aware of the small wet sounds of her slippery flushed lips against him, exciting him still further.

Yet above the asynchronous beat of those soft slurps and their shared panting groans, she still found enough breath to whisper her incantations in brief bursts, “I have you. I’m holding you. We’re complete. You’re firm, I feel your solid oak, I want its rising sap. Ooh yes! You can let it flow, let your seed come, fill me with that creamy essence, stir my chalice, quicken my life’s waters! My Vixen has an egg, aah, you know it’s true, ready just for you, hidden deep, in the moist earth of my womb, ready for the bursting golden warmth of your sun. Ah, Ben, yes, that’s it!”

After so long at such a high pitch of arousal, the first spasm of Ben’s ejaculation caught him by surprise, yet it shot through him as if his whole being were gushing up into Marcie. He inhaled sharply through his nostrils, and again noticed the profoundly intimate and personal musk of her own arousal, still lingering all around his mouth and perhaps arising directly from their penetrative point contact. His next forceful spasm came with that arousing awareness as he gave an inchoate cry of raw ecstasy. Then Marcie fell onto her elbows above him, ending her pounding rhythm as she curled her body around, brushing his chest with her breasts, keeping him buried deep inside her. She cradled his head in her hands, panting heavily hard by his face, yet still finding a moment to place a delicate kiss on his forehead, even as the jerking pulses of his orgasm kept firing through him, from the root of his spine and up into her, making his body spasm beneath her.

“Oh Ben,” she whispered earnestly, “You’re safe now! Breathe easy. We’re safe together, fucking, flowing, loving, in your magical world.”

As he came back to his senses from the unconscious bliss of his climax, he realised he could follow her instruction, as if it were a kind of magical spell in itself. His panting breath was easy, even as his heart still hammered in his chest, and he focused on it, drawing the air in a little more slowly and more deeply each time. He felt divine peaceful waves of calm equanimity roll over him, even as he also felt his profoundly intimate connection to Marcie, still embedded deep within her.

“Thank you Marcie,” he said earnestly, feeling the final trickles of his subsiding ejaculation leaking into the rubber reservoir that they’d made to confound Mother Nature’s reproductive impulses. Then, before she could tell him that no thanks were needed, he reached up to place a tender kiss on her mouth as she hung over him, savouring the modest simplicity of their lips touching.

“I’m sorry,” Marcie confessed, “I’ve got to move. My knees are giving out.” Ben understood, pinching the critical condom around the base of his softening penis as she rose upright, letting his manhood withdraw and fall out heavily against his stomach with a final wet squelch. She smiled apologetically down at him, her cheeks still glowing in the candlelight, as she lifted her knee over him, twisted around to lie down beside him, grabbing the edge of the duvet as she did so. Wriggling up to him, she stretched out her legs and pulled them under its cosy warmth as she cuddled up against him, rubbing the bare skin of her chest, stomach, hips and thighs against his.

As she brought her face close to his again, she said in a low but heartfelt voice, “That was wonderful. It seemed to really work well that time.”

“Aye,” Ben agreed with equally heartfelt commitment. Yet even as he said it, he was aware of a whisper of anxiety that nagged at him. Feeling that he must in honesty voice it, he said, “But you’ve been too kind to me. I’ve taken so much from you, and I was thoughtless and rude to you earlier. I almost feel that I don’t deserve you.”

“Oh, Ben, don’t speak like that,” Marcie said urgently, throwing her arm around him to squeeze him in a strong hug, pressing her soft breasts against his chest, “It’s nonsense, you must know it. We’ve said we’re both sorry about our little tiff, and it’s behind us. Also, we’re not trading favours, nor weighing our virtues against each other to find which comes out ahead. I believe we’re doing everything out of love. That’s why I wanted to take you into me and ride on top of you, and I think it’s why you wanted to do that wonderful thing with your mouth for me. Love doesn’t keep a score.”

Ben realised to his surprise that she was becoming genuinely upset as her eyes glistened with rising tears again. Quickly he tried to backtrack, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to spoil the moment. And I do love you, heart and soul, with all my being.”

Marcie was still hugging him tightly, holding herself urgently against him, as she buried her face against his neck and almost wailed, “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t get so emotional. But even a stray tendril of doubt reminds me how fragile everything is! I want to keep you safe, when everything else has been torn away from you.”

“I promise you, Marcie, we’re not in a fragile place,” Ben said quietly but firmly. As he gently stroked the back of her neck and her freckled shoulders, he explained again, “You’re strong. It’s your strength that’s saved me. Or our shared strength, this love that we’ve brought into being, the holy angel that’s lifting us up, into the clear air. Our precious inner fire is giving me hope, when the world’s just thrown a bit of crappy stuff at me. We’re tapping into the deep forces of life now too, just like you said, in our passion. You might truly have an egg for me, in your womb, like you said. And when I come, I am trying to fertilise you, to create a new life, to turn us into a mother and father. That’s not our plan right now, but it is our most basic instincts at work, seeking ways to help Mother Nature’s own greater plan, for the continuance of life, weaving a tiny part of Earth’s epic story for her. To be honest, it seemed I felt her force earlier, just before I went to kiss your Vixen. I was lying on top of you, if you remember, and we were so close. I could have slipped Roddie inside you right then, recklessly, deliberately ignoring the need for a condom. It was almost like one of your old stories, with a goddess, Aphrodite, Eostre, trying to trick us.”

Marcie seemed to have become relaxed again while he’d been speaking as they lay tangled in each other’s arms. Now she pulled her head back to plant a soft lingering kiss on his lips. Ben wondered if this would develop into something more passionate again, but then she pushed herself further back peer at him through her skewed glasses with a strangely critical expression. “You have great insight, Ben. And I appreciate your honesty. So if I’m going to be honest with you, I admit that a part of me would have found it wonderful for you to let your semen flow into me without any protection. I feel that urge too, yet our sensible rational thoughts must stay in charge, postponing that for a few years at least. Anyway, I still worry that I talk too much when we’re in our passion, that my mouth runs away without me, so you mustn’t take what I say too seriously. But Holy Mary, yes, we are deep in those forces of life now! Mother of God, the amount of mess we’re making, with our sweat and my tears and your semen, and whatever was going on down there for me, which seemed way beyond what’s reasonable for lubrication and saliva. Well, we might as well be protozoa swimming in Earth’s primordial ocean!”

“So, are you saying we need a little wash, before we drift off to sleep in this magical grotto?” Ben asked with a playful smirk, making Marcie laugh as she emphatically agreed, saying that she really needed a wee too.

It seemed they were returning to the more mundane practicalities, as Marcie gave Ben a final peck of a kiss before rolling away. He watched her wriggle off the bed and make for the door, still nude but taking her wineglass with her. He’d already begun sorting out the mess that he’d made in the flaccid condom, so once he’d knotted it and used a corner of Marcie’s towel to rub the slippery semen off his limp penis, he followed her. Dropping the condom in the bin, once he’d wrapped it in a sheet of kitchen roll, he went through to the seemingly bright light of the bathroom to drop the towel in the laundry basket too, carefully moving Marcie’s robe and book aside as he did so.

He’d seen she was already back in her nightdress as she stood at the basin washing her hands and splashing her face. She stood aside to let him do the same, being a bit more vigorous with the soapy water around his mouth than she’d been. Then she watched without comment as he held his penis over the basin rather self-consciously to give it a somewhat inadequate wash too.

He apologised for his behaviour, but she dismissed it, surprising him by quoting something that he was sure came from an old Underworld dance track, “It’s okay. It’s like they say, ‘Don’t put your hand where you wouldn’t put your face.’ Or your mouth and toothbrush, I guess.” And with that, she did indeed move in to begin cleaning her teeth at the basin as he stepped back to dab his penis dry, before following her example with his own toothbrush.

When they’d finished, Ben feeling that his mouth was a whole lot fresher for the experience, Marcie suggested they have some clean glasses of water by the bed too. Once he’d used his brown inhaler, Ben filled and carried the glasses through, finding Marcie still settling down under the duvet. As he’d got into bed beside her, she leaned over to give him another polite peck on the lips, saying, “Good night. Sweet dreams, my mighty stallion,” before turning away to blow out her candle.

Ben did the same to his, then rolled up behind her to make the spoons position again, reaching around to find her hand and hold it. “I love you, Marcie,” he murmured, “I’m so glad I’m here with you.”

“Hmm, me too,” she replied ambiguously, mumbling as if she were already drifting into sleep.