Christine, my flower...

Chapter 14

We were in Christine's old dressing room, I was sitting on the bed as she was gathering things to dress my wounds. She had a bowl of warm soapy water, a washcloth and bandages. I smiled as I watched her nervously flit about the room.

"Christine, I'm fine you don't ha-

No."

She cut me off.

"I want to make sure you're alright!"

I watched her put the things she had gathered down and pull the chair from the nightstand in front of me. She sat down and I held out my hands. There was no use fighting it. She dipped the cloth in the water and dabbed each knuckle with it. I cringed as she did this. The soap stung my opened wounds.

"I'm sorry Erik I know, it stings."

She hurried to finish my hands, not wanting to cause me pain and moved on to the small cut on my cheek. I watched her as she intently dabbed the cut. She stuck out her tongue a bit and I smiled at her.She smiled back.

"What?

Nothing, you're a very good nurse."

She chuckled at me as I said this. I watched her bandage my hands. She did it so carefully, not wanting to hurt me again even though she was just taking care of me. I looked into her eyes as she studied my face, wondering what to do about my cut. She leaned in and kissed it.

"All finished."

She smiled and went to the washroom to put the bowl and cloth back. I put the chair where it belonged and followed her. She jumped when she turned, apparently she didn't know I was there.

"Come, lets go home."

I took her hand and she followed me through the mirror into the secret tunnels of the Opera Populaire. When we arrived at our little underground home we were both still wet, I more so than her but still. It was decided that we'd change into our night clothes, make some tea and warm by the fire. She dashed to her room and I went to mine. I peeled out of the wet costume and threw it onto the floor. My night clothes were at the edge of my bed. I quickly threw them on and gathered the costume, not letting it make contact with my dry clothes. When I walked into the front room Christine's clothes where hung by the fire and she was filling the tea kettle. I hung my clothes near hers, pulled the sofa towards the fire and motioned for her to come sit with me. She sat very close. Our legs intwined, her stomach on me and her head on my chest. She looked up at me curiously.

"Erik? Why don't you take that off so it can dry?"

She motioned to the wig. I hadn't remembered I was wearing it. My heart started to race.

"Are you sure?"

My pulse was thudding in my ears. Christine reached up and slipped her fingers under my mask. She kissed me, and I her. A kiss this passionate gave me chills. She pulled away, I smiled at her and gently took my mask and wig off. I threw the wig by our clothes and put my mask on. As I did this I took the tea kettle off the fire. My hands were starting to sweat. I turned back to Christine and my lips grazed her neck. Softly at first then I kept kissing her. She seemed to like this. With a shaking hand I took my mask off and set it down. I picked her up and kissed her neck still as I carried her to her room. I was so nervous and shaking so hard I was sure I was going to drop her before we got to the bed. We made it successfully to the bed. I gently put her on it and started touching her, caressing her body. Oh how I'd longed for this! My hands shook so hard they seemed to vibrate. She helped me undress her layer by layer. "Why does lady's clothes have so many layers!?" I thought to myself as we did this. I couldn't take my eyes off of her beautiful uncovered body. She ripped my shirt off and gently ran her fingertips down my naked torso. It felt so wonderful I almost purred. My breathing grew heavy as I slid out of my trousers and straddled her. She touched my chest and I crumbled under her touch. I started to shake and my breathing was irregular. She kissed me and squeezed the back of my neck.

"Erik, it's okay."

She gently whispered into my ear. I looked down at her nude figure and started to kiss her neck.