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"Go ahead," she said "Nothing an to undress

"What are you doing?" Her voice was low, but shocked

"Not fair forat you, is it? It’sat, I expect, but…" He paused, frowning at a knot in the lacing of his breeches "But at least you’ll not feel you’re on display"

"Oh" He didn’t look up to see, but he thought that had ood on his bare back Feeling unspeakably self-conscious, he stood up and eased his breeches halfway down before stopping

"Is this a striptease?" Brianna’sout loud, joggling the baby

"I couldn’t decide whether to turn ot a preference?"

"Turn your back," she said softly "For now"

He did, and got the breeches off without falling into the fire

"Stay that way for a minute," she said "Please I like to look at you"

He straightened up and stood still, looking into the fire The heat played over him, uncomfortably warm, and he took a step back, a sudden memory of Father Alexandre vivid in his mind Christ, and ould he think of that now?

"You have er," Brianna said, her voice softer than ever "Who hurt you?"

"The Indians It doesn’t matter Not now" He hadn’t bound or cut his hair; it fell over his shoulders, tickling the bare skin of his back He could i lower, over back and arse and thighs and calves

"I’ht?"

"I won’t be shocked," she assured him "I’ve seen pictures"

She had her father’s trick of hiding her expressions when she wanted to He couldn’t tell a thing from the soft, wide htened, as? She had touched everything she was now looking at; had caressed and handled him with such intimacy that he had lost himself in her hands, yielded himself to her without reservation--and she to hio, in the freedom and frenzy of hot darkness Now he stood before her for the first ti hied ht?

She looked at hi tothe child easily to the other breast, leaving her gown open, the one breast bared

He couldn’t stand there any longer; the fire was singeing the hair on his arse Heher

"What does that feel like?" he asked, partly froot too heavy, partly froood," she answered softly, head bent over the child "Sort of a pulling It tingles When he starts to feed, so, like everything intoward hiht it would feel like your substance being taken, somehow"

"Oh, no, not like that at all Here, look" She put a finger in the infant’s mouth and detached it with a soft pop! She lowered the ser saw the nipple drawn up taut,out in a thin stream of incredible force Before the child could start to wail, she put hier had felt the spray of tiny droplets, warainst the skin of his chest

"My God," he said, half shocked "I didn’t know it did that! It’s like a squirt gun"

"Neither did I" She s the tiny head Then the sined before they happened tohis nakdness in the need to touch her "Bree, I know you’re scared So am I I don’t want you to be afraid of me--but Bree, I do want ye so"

His hand rested on the round of her knee After abird

"I want you, too," she whispered They sat frozen together for what see tio too fast, not frighten her Be careful

The tiny sucking sounds had ceased and the bundle had gone limp and heavy in the curve of her ar as cautiously as one holding a vial of nitroglycerine, she scooted to the edge of the bed and stood up

She er lifted his hands instinctively She hesitated for no more than a second, then bent to lay the child in his ar full and heavy in the shadow of her open gown, and he smelled the deep ly heavy; dense, for the size of the bundle He was aer boosted the tiny body cautiously, cuddling it against him; the small, curved buttocks fit in the palm of his hand It--he--wasn’t quite bald, after all There was a soft red-blond fuzz all over the head Tiny ears Almost transparent; the one he could see was red and cruainst his " Brianna’s voice jerked hi across the rooht be regret on her face, but the shadoere too deep to tell

"That wasn’t what I was looking for" He lowered the baby carefully to his lap "It’s only--this is the first time I’ve had a proper look at ue She relaxed a little, though

"Oh Well, he’s all there" There was a sht at his heart, and ht as snail shells; he picked one up and gently stroked it with his thuh for hiain in reflex, astonishing in the strength of its grip