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"You're right," she said, peering into my eyes with such a sweet frank curiosity that she became irresistible to me

I pushed back the yellow cloth of her underdress and the heavy velvet of her dark-green sleeveless overgarment and kissed her bare shoulder

"Yes, you're well," she cooed into ainst it

I was blushing still as I drew back

I looked at her, and I went into her old clasp beneath her breasts and parted her volureen velvet skirts I stared at the well between her half-exposed breasts Blood or no blood, I could ree overall an as it had been before I wanted to take her breasts inherher head fall back Yes, I blushed A dim sweet swoon came over me

I want you, I want you now, you and Marius both in od and a cherub This is what herme I saw myself as if in a smoky mirror, a boy naked except for a full-sleeved open shirt, seated on the pillows beside her, displaying the half-erect organ, ever ready to be coraceful white hands

I banished all this I focusedeyes She studied me, not suspiciously but in fascination Her lips were not rouged in any vulgarlashes, darkened and curled only with a clear pomade, looked like the points of stars around her radiant eyes

I want you, I want you now These were her thoughts They struck my ears I bowed my head and put my hands up

"Angel darling," she said "Both of you!" she whispered to Marius She took my hands "Come in with me "

I was certain he would put a stop to it He had cautioned me to avoid close scrutiny But he only rose fro back the two painted doors

From the distant parlors ca had been added Soinal All this went on

We slipped into her bed I was shaking all over I saw that my Master had adorned himself in a thick tunic and beautiful dark blue doublet which I'd hardly noticed before He wore soft sleek dark blue gloves over his hands, gloves which perfectly cleaved to his fingers, and his legs were covered by thick soft cashs all the way to his beautiful pointed shoes He has covered all the hardness, I thought

Having settled against the headboard of the bed, he had no co Bianca to sit directly next to him I looked across from hi her hands on ain, I saw him perform a small act which I hadn't seen before

Lifting her hair, he appeared to kiss her on the back of the neck This she neither felt nor acknowledged When he drew back, however, his lips were bloody And lifting the finger of his gloved hand, he smoothed this blood, her blood, but a few droplets of it from a shallow scratch, undoubtedly, all over his face It appeared tosheen, and to her it would look very different

It quickened the pores in his skin, which had become all but invisible, and it deepened a few lines around his eyes and his ave hiaze, which was now so close