The Winds of Wexford

By Edith Saint James

Dear Reader, what follows is a tale filled with high adventure, mysterious intrigue and romantic entanglements written within the Golden Pages of the Book of Heaven! Intense with Romance and faithful to Fidelity, it is a tale of loving soul mates, star-crossed Destiny and endless devotion to Divine Sacrifice. It is a tale of the braves of all angels who have come to Earth armed with the shining swords of the Principles of Divinity those guiding lights that inspire the deepest love in all of us, the heated desires that attract one soul to another, the endless dedication to a Sacred Devotion so intense that it shatters the mortal shell of human understanding!
Dear Reader, as you venture into the twists and turns embedded within the following pages, leave behind all doubts about invisible kingdoms and guardian spirits, about forces of Nature and the powers of wind and rain and thunder clash, and allow your spirit to soar into the celestial realms where angelic voices ring strong and true with the gentle strains of intense cosmic love!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499039818

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Edith Saint James.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014911025

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-3982-5

                Softcover         978-1-4990-3983-2

                 eBook             978-1-4990-3981-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 06/24/2014

Xlibris LLC

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1 Knight In Shining Armor

Chapter 2 Mysteries And Moon Glow In Cornwall

Chapter 3 Out Of The Blue

Chapter 4 Archangel Arrival

Chapter 5 Myth, Magic, And Fantasy

Chapter 6 Homecoming

Chapter 7 Molecules And Magnetism

Chapter 8 Spilled Wine And Satin Slippers

Chapter 9 Mystery Of Destiny

Chapter 10 Something Wicked In The Wind

Chapter 11 All That Glitters Are Not Questions

Chapter 12 Lemons And Lavender

Chapter 13 Promises And Principles

Chapter 14 Quest For The Holy Grail

Chapter 15 More Than Meets The Eye

Chapter 16 Simple Simon Was A Spy Man

Chapter 17 Visions, Voices, And Various Vibrations

Chapter 18 Restless Knights And Falling Darkness

Chapter 19 After This Our Exile

First Epilogue

Second Epilogue

Index Of References

Upcoming Novels In The Series By Edith Saint James

Dedicated to

Beatrice Scott Kostka

Angel on This Earth

Acknowledgments

B eatrice Victoria Scott was an extraordinary person who inspired the best in everyone. It is because of her kind heart and devotion to family that this book is possible.

R. B. Reeves was the best storyteller in the English Department at the University of Rhode Island. From him I learned the fine art of narrative timing. He is deeply missed.

Will Dvorak is a knight in shining armor and a dedicated dean of arts at the University of Rhode Island. From him I learned about humor and courage.

Mary Ellen Levy has been my mentor, my spirit guide, and my friend for many years. It is because of her friendship that I pursued my love of writing.

Dr. Robert McEachern faces the world with unending courage. He is truly an angel who has inspired both colleagues and students.

N. D. Testa is a talented student, writer, editor, and friend. From her I learned the fine art of perseverance.

Ashley Testa is a talented student, writer, and teacher whose friendship reminds me that the world is brimming with goodness.

Grace Dunning touched many lives in her teaching career. She taught me how beautiful writing can be!

So many friends in the English Department of Southern Connecticut State University have been mentors, role models, and genuine friends. For their support through the years, I am deeply grateful.

Thanks to all my friends in EN B 231. Their support through the years has been invaluable.

I wish to thank my new friends in the world of publishing, especially the talented folks at Xlibris Books. They encouraged me to pursue my art.

Prologue

D ear Reader, what follows is a tale filled with high adventure, mysterious intrigue, and romantic entanglements written within the golden pages of the Book of Heaven! Intense with romance and faithful to fidelity, it is a tale of loving soul mates, star-crossed destiny, and endless devotion to divine sacrifice. It is a tale of the braves of all angels who have come to Earth armed with the shining swords of the Principles of Divinity—those guiding lights that inspire the deepest love in all of us, the heated desires that attract one soul to another, the endless dedication to a sacred devotion so intense that it shatters the mortal shell of human understanding!

Dear Reader, as you venture into the twists and turns embedded within the following pages, leave behind all doubts about invisible kingdoms and guardian spirits, about forces of nature and the powers of wind and rain and thunder clash, and allow your spirit to soar into the celestial realms where angelic voices ring strong and true with the gentle strains of intense cosmic love!

What follows is a story of true love and undying devotion. Angels live in Heaven and on Earth to guide and protect the human world as it unfolds through the conscious awareness and unconscious memories of the immortal human soul. Within that soul are heavenly chords of the Laws of Attraction, Suspension and Equilibrium, whose principles of physical and spiritual affinity bring lovers together like thunderclaps in the tumultuous cataclysm of divine adoration and love!

Angels come to Earth to release humans from the Great Forgetting. Hidden deep within the unconscious mind in every human being is the memory of Heaven, but the conscious mind creates a sensual awareness grounded in empirical notions that forget Heaven. Angels come to Earth to awaken those memories, to stir those souls, to create thunderous clashes of love that cause the soul to shudder into a striking awareness of the brightness of Heaven.

Many angels exist in Heaven, but the most loving of all their species are those known as the Radiance Graces. Gifted with the blessings of intense emotions, they come to Earth as devoted lovers, dedicated to the salvation of the human race, intent within the love they share with one another. Such heavenly love exists as a paradigm of body, mind, and spirit so intense that all humans experience it as the beauty that amplifies the dazzle of sunrise, the glory that defines a breathtaking sunset, and the fabulous floral displays of the exquisite world of nature. Radiance angels love with a love that burns with the light of divine devotion so powerful that humans shatter in the essence of its touch! To be loved by an angel is to be touched by fire! To love in return is to burn to ashes, powder, and dust! Only souls graced with the Principles of Divinity are able to survive the heat of such divine power and passion! What follows in these pages is a tale of inescapable divinity and ash-ridden love!

Of all the golden radiance angels, the most beautiful is known as Cassiopeia. It is she whose pristine passion carries a force of unmatched divinity! By means of her innate grace, exquisite beauty, and magical lyricism, Cassiopeia is the ultimate paradigm of the Principles of Divinity, and the chosen one who shares her love with a great angelic warrior known as a hero among all the angels of Heaven! Cassiopeia exists as the highest radiance in the cosmos, and her story is at the center of the narrative that weaves itself within the pages of this heavenly tale. Her mission upon Earth is to set in motion a sequence of events intended to awaken the deep unconscious of all sleeping humans, to unleash the energies of the Great Unfolding of Human Evolution, and to replace ignorance and blighted darkness with the lights of salvation for all people on Earth! Her love burns with the incandescence of a thousand golden suns, and the mate she chooses to share her mission suffers her touch as the sweetest of all divine embraces within the blessings of endless heavenly love!

United with the great forces of nature, including the powerful winds of Wexford, Cassiopeia surrenders her angelic soul to the ebb and flow of human suffering, struggle, and sacrifice. As a lover, she touches her beloved with the kiss of divinity. As a warrior, she strikes with the power of all the archangels who rally to define and defend her! She is a goddess of love and a soldier of Heaven, but on the earthly plane, she is a beautiful woman who embarks upon a sacred quest to honor and embrace her destiny of divinity!

Cassiopeia transforms her love as the sun casts its heat across a thousand beautiful gardens, flaming buds into blooms and acorns into trees! Her gaze burns with the intensity of her passion! Her beauty dazzles with the glow of a goddess! She is infinitely defined by the Principles of Divinity that transform her humanity into the radiance angel whom all men love! To love Cassiopeia is to love the divine! To love the divine is to touch the limits of Heaven!

Cassiopeia’s story must be told so that all humankind may learn the Principles of Divinity and begin to live by them. Once that miracle happens, the human race will rise into the higher realms of Heaven, that great destiny out of which they were born, the greater destiny to which they must ultimately return! For Cassiopeia, the power of transformation exists in the love she feels for the other half of herself! Only he knows who she is! Only he knows how she loves! Only he can awaken the divine mysteries that reside hidden behind the veils that dwell inside these pages, for they reveal the deepest magic that drives the sacred universe! These are the secrets that enable lovers to inherit their inmost desires! Attraction is their destiny! Suspension is their divinity! Love is their felicity!

Chapter One

KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR

W inston Worthington Wentworth was not troubled by the onset of evil in the beautiful valley of Wexford. At least not for now. She was upstairs in her massive mansion enhancing her blonde beauty with combs and cosmetics, inhaling the scented air through the doors of her bedroom, and indulging a fantasy she had held in her heart for three lonely years. As she opened the curtains of her imagination, she slipped into the arms of a sweet young lover she knew long ago. Resting her chin on her open palm, the cornflower color of her sparkling eyes deepened with the romantic vision of a delicious lover who had left her bed and her life and had broken her heart without a word.

For all of her twenty-four years, Winston believed in the principles of true love, elegant romance, and happily ever after. She believed in her heart that in the world, there lived a lover who longed for her, who waited for her, who languished in loneliness looking for her in every facet of his life. She believed in true love as sure as the sun shone in the heavens and the moon glistened above Wexford Lake.

For most of her life, she thought her true love was Payton Michael Donovan, the young son of the prominent family who lived just west of her own estate, below the summit of Wexford Falls.

Three families owned all the private land that surrounded Wexford Lake. To the north was Bedford Castle, where old Cornelius had built a house and plantation gardens on two hundred acres of family land in 1800. To the west were the Donovans, who arrived in Wexford around 1900, to purchase land and build a house to rival the Bedford estate. About the same time, the Worthingtons also bought land and built their palace closer to Old Town. Blessed with money and dramatic flair, the three great houses created a triangle of fabulous wealth that respected the woodland and valued the sparkles that danced on the surface of Wexford Lake.

As a testament to their enormous wealth, the Worthingtons hired a Newport architect to create a mighty temple to be their home. He did not disappoint. Resembling a massive white Greek temple, with sweeping galleries, wide terraces, and Corinthian columns, Worthington Hall cast an elegant reflection onto the surface of Wexford Lake.

Virginia plantation houses were more to the Donovan taste, and the great brick edifice that rose as a tribute to their wealth completed a triangle of elegance and style and colonial charm. Balanced and graceful in their exterior charms, the interiors rivaled the palaces of Europe. Cavernous ballrooms, large dining halls, and pantries and closets big enough to store the enviable collections of wines, brandies, velvets, and silks rendered luxurious attractions to the public rooms and sumptuous comforts to the private rooms among the upper galleries and halls. Of the three palaces, Bedford Castle was the largest, designed to rival the great estates of English homes in Hampshire, Surrey, and Kent. In contrast, Worthington Hall rose from the gardens of the Wentworth estate like an ancient temple assigned to the worship of a glorious Greek god. Donovan House boasted the workmanship of colonial craftsmen dedicated to forging a suitable edifice adorned in deep-red brick and pristine white lace. Both Worthington Hall and Donovan House supported outdoor galleries that provided ravishing views of the lake. In its early years, Bedford Castle had been the destination of people of wealth from all thirteen of the new United States of America. In recent years, it had fallen to rack and ruin from disrepair and neglect. It stood empty and dark, a hollow shell of its former self, desperately in need of money and respect. Donovans and Wentworths had lived in their homes for over a hundred years. Bedford Castle stood abandoned and alone. Such were the mansions and the families who held the deeds to all the lands surrounding the lake.

Winston grew up with the Donovan children, Isolde, the elder of Payton by six years. They had played together during endless hours in the Worthington library, where they read romantic books about knights and castles and beautiful ladies in shining towers, and romped like wild children through the shadows of Wexford Wood. On hot summer days, they would tear off their clothes and swim in the waters of the shallow pool at the mountaintop and cool themselves in the hidden shelter of the water cave. Inside the confines of the cave were smooth, silky walls of sedentary rock, pressed by the weight of the ancient glacier. A tidal pool provided cool relief for their tender feet while small boulders offered comfortable places to sit. Inside the shelter, away from the searing heat of the summer sun, they would devote endless hours to fabulous tales of fearless knights and beautiful ladies, flirtatious and brave, among the companions of King Arthur’s court.

How they loved those tales! How they loved the triumphs of the young King Arthur who rescued Excalibur from its prison in the enchanted rock! They imagined that rock inside their cave, and they played at fencing and glorious quests in search of the Holy Grail. They relished the secrets written between the lines of the magic of the grail, of its attraction by only those knights who were pure in spirit and true in heart. Payton adored the role of Lancelot, the brave French knight who fell in love with the beautiful queen. Winston felt herself surrender to the mystique of the gray-eyed enchantress, said to carry the magic of fairy land, royal in heritage and regal in blood. She adored Lancelot and worshipped him as ardently as the queen had loved her forbidden knight. Payton relished the idea of champion, the knight who wore the colors of his lady, who rode into battle to rid the world of evil and harm. They played their roles throughout their childhood and grew into adolescence inside the spell of a magic charm. He believed himself to be a knight in shining armor, and Winston was his lady fair. As childhood passed and the teen years unfolded, their kinship as brother and sister shifted to feelings with far more power.

As teens, the tenderness between Winston and Payton deepened with the ardor of adolescent love, and in time, they shared the notion that each was the other’s intended beloved, blessed by Heaven, for all immortal time. Payton Michael Donovan grew tall and lean with chiseled features, soft brown eyes that deepened in color when he looked at Winston, and thick brown hair that settled seductively in glorious waves at the nape of his neck. One free-spirited curl was a constant flourish upon his forehead. His stunning looks and thick, full lips captured her heart, and his manner enchanted her soul. She had loved him when she was six, she had loved him when she was eight, and she had loved him that summer so long ago when she celebrated her twenty-first birthday and he was a young man about to graduate from college. He was her knight in shining armor, her luxurious lover, her best beloved for all time to come. Her fantasy life was ever and always filled with the scent of Payton.

As she sat at her dressing table and tugged at a curl, she listened to doves on the gallery rail and allowed her mind to forget itself in the veils of a daydream, a delicious world of imaginary love where her spirit flew to the power of devotion and where it extolled the principles of the laws of attraction.

She remembered the night when they kissed each other and held each other and passed delicious hours in touches and embraces that filled them with exquisite pleasures. She shivered when she remembered. It was an old daydream deepened with sadness, a bittersweet memory of midnight kisses and velvet caresses that utterly and completely had broken her heart.

Your lips were made to be kissed, Payton had whispered.

She thrilled at the memory. She loved making love with Payton. His touch was tender and full of love, and the memory of it made her go weak in the knees. His kisses were spicy like warm autumn wine, and the taste of his mouth filled her with madness. Her surrender to him was easy and eager and almost like worship.

She had loved him with her mind from the years of their childhood. He read books with gusto and relished his role as great champions in the pages of history. He slew dragons like Tristan, shot arrows in Sherwood, and happily carried the tribute of her colors in knightly tournaments at splendid royal courts. He flew into fantasies and carried her with him! She had loved him as a sister loves a brother, as a lady loves her knight! His fantasies lifted her out of her childish devotion into a tissue of bodily rhythms that caught her unawares and fastened themselves to her imagination like a magic spell. In time, sisterly devotion underwent an inevitable transcendence into adoration, and she felt herself suffer a flood of feelings that changed her notion of sisterhood into one of intense desire. As her body grew into young womanhood, her mind opened like a blossoming flower and her heart deepened with notions driven by the Principles of Divinity and the laws of attraction. Her own powers came to life and brightened inside the colorful flashes of his fantasies. Her own sparks ignited in body and spirit as he lifted her out of her youthful innocence into the delicious desserts of summer love! She felt her body open to cravings that nearly drove her out of her mind. Such delights! Such distractions! First love drove her mind into transcendence and her body into the arms of the beautiful knight whom she loved.

In her dream, she felt her spirit slip away to the glorious summer three years ago. When she was in the past, in his arms, the pleasure renewed itself with every remembrance of every embrace. All summer long they had touched and kissed and felt the thrill of friendship and love. They had spent each day together, and she loved him with a sweet, sweet ache that nearly drove her mad. At first she fought against herself, fearful of embarrassment, afraid she would look like a fool. But her own power grew too much for her, and her desire for him deepened with every touch of his hand, every glance from his eyes, soft with a power of their own. In time, his touch burned with the intensity of fire, and she surrendered her will to the delights of its heat. As the summer deepened and the mists from the lake carried the scent of lilies and roses, his touch lit fires within her, and his gaze burned a searing blast into her soul. Alone together in the water cave, they gave in to the need to embrace one another, to touch and caress and explore the mysteries they longed to experience. She prayed for him to put his hands upon her body, to slip beneath her clothes, to find the places she wanted touched. Like two exotic flowers, open and new in the glories of nature, they reached for one another as their petals surrendered to the inevitable attractions of intense divine love.

She held him and kissed him and trembled in his arms. When she looked into his eyes, she could see his devotion and his love for her, and the thought of his love intensified her own. Their attraction was almost beyond endurance! They touched each other and held each other and fell under the spell of a powerful innocent rapture. All around them in the water cave, the pounding cascade created a wall destined to hide them inside their shelter like honeybees inside the depths of a flower. His kisses burned her soul and melted away the traces of childhood. Together they touched and burned and consumed one another in the flames of ignited spirits brightened by the innocence of their love. How they loved one another! How they adored one another!

As the summer wore on, his full lips ran traces along intimate places that shattered her senses. She adored the sparkle in his eyes, his easy laugh, and the lovely brown curl that fell on his forehead. She wanted to cover him with sweet, sweet love as they passed their days together. Summer deepened, and so did the ache that bonded them together.

She wanted to show him how much she loved him. She felt his hunger and his desire to have her, and she wanted to satisfy all his pleasures and ease the ache that both of them shared. She wanted to take him and kiss him and love him forever. She wanted to lure him into an ivory tower and cast a spell to keep him safe. She wanted him, she wanted him, she wanted him to love her in the ivory tower, and she wanted him to shut away the world forever. Her waking and her sleeping were full of her love, and she knew with all of her heart that before the summer had come to an end, she would have him in her bed. She had to have him. She needed him to complete their bond. She needed him to ease the ache that nearly drove her into madness. How she wanted him in her bed! How she wanted to be held in his arms, to ride astride a great white horse, to race with him through the secret places of Wexford Forest, down the mountain, and into the ballroom of her gigantic temple. She longed for him to lift her against him, to find her bed, and to press against him until the end of time!

Her twenty-first summer passed in the sweetest of agonies of mystical desire. Body and spirit made love to him in fantasies of their own. Through the month of June, they lay together in soft, shaded glens fragrant with the scent of wild primroses. In the passing of July, they swam naked in the pool below the cascade of their sheltered cave. And then, late in August, a moonlight gala at the country club provided them with the interlude that sealed their fates. It was to be the social event of the season, the opportunity for all the wealth in all the town to dress in sparkles and twinkles and elegant clothes as tribute to the glories of the delights of summer. An orchestra had been hired to play romantic tunes, and the country club was decorated in the theme of a midsummer fairy ball. It was to be an elegant affair, and he had invited her to be his elegant partner. She was twenty-one, full grown and so much in love! He was slightly older, nearly a graduate student destined for greatness as a shining knight! They planned the evening together. Time seemed to stand still as they took the train to New York to purchase a gown and tuxedo, and they laughed as they pulled at zippers and cuffs. Blessed with money and stunning good looks, they devoted the day to a tour of the finest designer shops in the city. They laughed in their joy as they tried on dress after dress, suit after suit, performing a ritual as new as sunrise and as ancient as their need for love. Their sojourns into bridal shops and formal salons seemed like a ritual, the foreplay to a sacred marriage, and their time together fueled their ardor to a point of no return.

We dress for a wedding! he whispered as she appeared before him in a gown of tulle with a thousand sparkles from bodice to hem. How could anyone be so lovely!

Oh, Payton! Her knight in shining armor! The great love of her life! She loved him with a love that filled and thrilled and validated the mysteries of earth and sky!

His own natural beauty was amplified with a black dinner jacket that made him seem older, and that deepened the sparkles in his beautiful eyes. His thick brown hair fell in soft, seductive waves, as his signature curl playfully rested upon his forehead. He was handsome and young, athletic and shapely, a god in a tuxedo with the heart of a lion. When he saw her step into the open showroom in gossamer and twinkles, his heart melted into adoration and love. All around them were massive windows designed to flood the space with natural sunlight. Surrounding them were gilded beveled mirrors which cast their reflections into myriad echoes of their stunning silhouettes. They laughed as they looked at themselves together in the reflections and bathed each other in delicious love. Like an enchanted couple in a fairy tale, they held hands as each admired the other in the surfaces of the glass.

I take you, bride! I take you, groom! they whispered together in luxurious kisses as they admired themselves in formal splendor. They laughed and held hands, and their time in the shops deepened their bond and sealed the destiny of their love.

When the evening arrived, the spirits of the forest provided a sky full of stars, and a bright full moon reflected its light upon the surface of Wexford Lake. The winds of Wexford conspired to deepen the romance of the evening by scenting the air with the fragrance of warm summer roses. Soft breezes stirred the waves around his face and played with the curls that framed Winston’s eyes. Every second was scented by winds and whispers and sparkles upon the water.

They met on the grounds of Worthington Hall, where a gazebo at the water’s edge provided shelter from prying eyes. As they met along the pathway that connected their houses, they clasped hands and kissed under the shining light of the full Wexford moon. Alone and sheltered in the little lace house, they surrendered to the mystery and magic of sweet summer love. Gently pressed against one another, they swayed to the strains of the nearby orchestra that played seductively across the lake. Warmed by their love, she inhaled his scent of cinnamon and sandalwood, and he surrendered to her blooms of honeysuckle and lilacs, lilies and roses. She felt the press of his body beneath his tuxedo as her mind surrendered into the conscious awareness of the heady scent of his skin, hair, and clothes. All reason abandoned his brain to the delights of his senses, and he pulled her closer as they swayed in the shadows of their gossamer hideaway. Moonlight and music, wind gusts and magic carried them out of themselves into a heightened dimension of romance and fragrance and sensual love.

Winn, he whispered as he savored her lips.

Yes, my love, she answered as she felt the heat of his hands around her waist.

This is a good hiding place. Let’s stay here, he offered.

I should like that very much, she answered as flickers of desire pierced her body.

Do you mind? he asked as his luscious lips burned like fire against her cheek.

She stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His love for her brightened the color in his eyes, and she ached for him in the deepest mysteries of love and desire. Her body strained against the aches that consumed her, and she allowed him to guide her from shadow to shadow inside the shelter of their little lace house.

In the distance, the orchestra slipped into a waltz, and he pulled her closer as they danced together under the moon. Desire pierced them like arrow shots. Their breaths heated as their bodies burned in the flames of ancient mystical fires.

You are so beautiful! he whispered against her ear.

She pressed against him and felt herself burn into ashes.

Payton, she breathed, I want you to kiss me. Would you mind if you kissed me? I-I think I shall perish if you say no!

He laughed against her ear and pulled her closer, kissed her cheek, and swayed with her body in slow-moving motions. His thighs felt hard as he moved to the music, and she almost fainted in his arms. She trembled when he tightened his grip, kissed her hair, brushed her cheek with his soft, warm lips. She felt an ache that intensified into a craving need. She felt her need deepen against him. She wanted him naked. She wanted him naked, and she wanted him now! The craving consumed her and filled her body with aching desire. Forget the dance. Forget the moon. Forget the formalities of courtship and manners! She wanted him to ravage her, relish her, rampage through her body like an eager knight in love!

Deep in her daydream, Winston felt her desire as ardently now as she did three years ago. Such a delicious daydream! It seemed amplified with time and intensified with love! She remembered how she trembled every time he touched her and kissed her. She trembled every time. She caught her breath and trembled. She could feel his desire, and the press against her body nearly drove her out of her mind. Even now, in her daydream, the intensity of their love drove itself through her body in a sequence of unrelenting assaults.

Payton! she melted against his cheek. His kisses deepened her ache.

Yes, my beloved!

Payton! she moaned across his lips.

When the music was quiet, his kisses continued to fill her body with heated sensations. She ached intensely. She ached in the deepest reaches of her imagination. She opened her mouth and felt his tongue between her teeth. Her knees weakened, and she clung to him tightly to keep from falling into a faint. His scent consumed her, excited her senses, and drove her body to the edges of a fainting moment!

She loved his mouth and his kisses. She wanted his touch and his deep, burning kisses. She wanted him naked beside her in bed. She wanted him naked! Every cell in her body cried for him to ease the ache that nearly drove her out of conscious awareness. She wanted him eagerly, urgently, in utter surrender! She craved his body with endless need.

When the music stopped, his hands slipped beneath the neckline of her dress. He cupped a breast, a touch that released a sequence of breathless whimpers and moans. She clung to his arms so as not to faint. His muscles felt hard, his body felt hard, and his kisses tasted sweet as nectar! He smelled of spices! Deep, exotic fragrances wafted through her body in myriad waves and sensations. He pressed her gently against the frame of the little lace house, and his gestures filled her senses with hot, exotic sweetness. When she kissed his cheek and nibbled his neck, she felt him tremble against her.

Winn, he whispered close to her ear as his lips trailed across her sensitive skin.

Yes, she barely breathed conscious awareness.

I want you so much, my beloved, he said with hushed voice. He was gentle and sweet, and her ache for him intensified with every breath between them. His hands caressed her neckline, her bodice, and returned to her breasts. She cried out against him and clung to him in relentless need. She reached inside his ruffled shirt to steady herself against the rail. When she touched his skin, he trembled against her. She let out a cry and almost fainted. She loved the sensation as he pressed against her. She loved his hands, and she loved the places where he touched her.

I love you! he whispered. His voice was deep and urgent and full of desire. She felt his need press against her, and she craved his body in desperate response. She craved his body to explore the recesses that opened like petals in need of penetration.

I love you too, she answered. He pulled her to him and kissed her neck. Without thinking, her body arched against the bulwark so that she could open herself to welcome his kisses. His hot breath seared her skin with burning, fragrant mists.

She moaned in his arms, and he held her in a tight embrace. At the sound of her moans, he pressed her harder and pulled her deeply against his body. His arms were strong and his thighs felt hard, and she moaned against his ear. She could feel the press of his weight as his hands circled her waist and lifted her onto the edge of the railing. He pressed himself between her knees. Her moans made her mouth go dry. She ignored the notion of thirst and surrendered to the relentless hunger her body suffered. She let herself go and opened herself and wanted him to take her. Every inch of her body ached with desire to be free of her gown and to welcome him in. She surrendered herself to complete abandon. She surrendered herself to his touch and his kiss and the thighs that touched her body with madness.

Footfalls and laughter broke the spell. Several couples had left the dance to walk around the lake. They walked past the lovers but took no notice. The sight of the couples cooled them a little, and he pushed away and took a step back. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

Winn, he blushed, I-I’m sorry!

She pressed her hands against the skin beneath his shirt. He felt hot against her touch. His skin released traces of fragrance that filled their senses and sent him into a backward motion. When he loosened his hold, she wanted him more. She wanted him to satisfy the aching need inside her. His soft brown eyes made her heart skip a beat, and she welcomed the taste of his warm, sweet mouth and the sensation of his hands as they touched all the places that made her body want him more. She pressed against him.

I’m alone in the house tonight! she offered. Everyone is in Europe! We could go to my room, if you like!

She saw flickers of passion burn in his eyes.

Are you sure, Winn? he asked her.

I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life! she answered.

Her beautiful white house shimmered in the light of the summer moon. Upstairs, a glow in one of the bedrooms welcomed them in invitation. She had no recollection how they reached the center of the grand ballroom, but she remembered the heat of his touch and the romantic kisses that covered her lips, touched her cheeks, and followed the curves of her neck and bodice. Her body ached in powerful spasms, and she longed to be in bed. She longed for him and wanted him and trembled against him with exquisite pleasure.

Moonlight fell all around them. She remembered his beauty! She remembered his beauty and the glow of the moonlight against his hair. He was so lovely in the moonlight! He looked like Lancelot in the court of Camelot, and she fell under the spell of moonlight and magic and marvelous kisses beneath the crystal chandelier!

Where shall we go? he whispered against her cheek.

Look for the light, she answered.

He kissed her and lifted her into his arms. He held her close as he kissed her and loved her and carried her to the top of the imperial stair. He saw the glow in the room down the hall and passed through the open door. When they reached her bed, he pulled back the covers and gently placed her against the pillows.

He stood for a moment to study her. He stood for a moment like an acolyte at worship of his goddess. Against the silk, her thick blonde hair framed her face like a halo, and he was no longer certain that she was human, for the inner lights of her divinity burned through the blue of her cornflower eyes like intense fires of Heaven!

He bent to caress her cheek, and he looked at her with adoration. In his beating heart, she was meant to be adored! She was so beautiful! He ached with love at the sight of her stunning beauty. He stood for a moment and ached in his heart because he loved her so! His entire being was full of moonlight and madness and aching sensations! He loved her in the deepest regions of his soul, beyond the reason of his own mind, beyond the sensations of his young man’s body. He loved her in a principle of divine adoration, and he would have been pleased to worship her beauty from afar.

He had always loved her! Childhood, teen years, and now their adulthood were gentle phases of their burgeoning love! In his mind, he had dreamed of this moment! Now it was here! Now it was real! What he felt went beyond the limits of his romantic imagination! In body, they were perfectly mated, as if the great scheme of divine creation had designed the one to be the perfect fit for the other. They fit like perfect partners, like the sleeve of a stem and the blossom of a perfectly formed petal!

In mind, they conceived of love as a great romantic declaration, a form of worship that kept rhythms with ancient whispers and mystical currents of the world of nature. In spirit, they were united long before their bodies had touched. In spirit, they were light and dark, sun and moon, sea and stars in the everlasting vastness of the endless cosmos. In spirit, their spasms were delicious and endless long before their bodies had touched.

As he felt her shudder beneath him, he knew her body was releasing its hunger. He felt her shudder, and the sensation gave him the keenest pleasure. He had given her pleasure. His heart ached with love for her, and he quietly wept when he thought of his love as a form of worship.

Her delicious release anchored her body against him. She felt his pleasure, and the sensation blocked her conscious awareness. She lost her mind, all sense of time, all sense of the outer world. Her body rippled with aftershocks that ran deeply into her belly, and she clung to him out of gratitude, and heartfelt love, and intense adoration. In a little while, she relaxed and caressed his skin with gentle sensations.

At first he did not notice her touch, but after a while, when he felt her relax, he thrilled to the softness of her hand as she slowly caressed him.

He shifted himself upon his elbows and touched her cheek. Like his own, it was hot with tears. He looked into her eyes, saw her tears, and worshiped her with tears of his own. They laughed in joy as they wept in love and sealed their worship with kisses and weeping.

I love you, he whispered as he held her beneath him.

I love you too, she answered as she touched his skin with tender caresses.

His weight deepened as he relaxed across her body.

Did I please you? he asked after a while.

She tightened her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

Oh! Yes! she breathed against him.

Are you sure? he pressed.

He smiled against her hair. As they settled quietly within a gentle embrace, she shivered a little, and he realized the night had developed a chill.

You’re cold! he announced as he reached for sheets and blankets.

He tugged at the silk and settled the covers around them. As she lay in his arms, his love for her nearly broke his heart. How was it possible to love someone with so much devotion? How was it possible to be so in love? His happiness pained him. He felt so much pain because he was so much in love! He liked the sensation of her body in his arms. He wished he could hold her forever. He wished he could hold her and shield her and shelter her in his arms like a knight in shining armor! He wished he could hold her and warm her and keep her safe from all the harm and noise and trouble in the world!

She was so beautiful! In the blush of their passion, her color had deepened, in the pink of her cheeks, in the blue of her eyes. Cornflower blue! Their beauty was beyond mortal endurance! She had been fashioned from immortal creation with the