“Ouch…”
“Sorry Vincent, this one’s deep.”
“Try not to press too hard.” Vincent’s muffled voice asked.
“You just try to relax. Its because you’re uptight that its hurting so much.”
“I can’t help it. Catherine is due any minute, and if she should see me like this…” Vincent groaned with embarrassment. It was quite one thing having to put up with his father extracting splinters out of his derrière without Catherine walking in and seeing him stark naked as well.
“I’m trying to go as fast as I can, but you have to remember Vincent when that crate collapsed beneath you, it left many reminders of your foolhardiness. Why were you up there anyway?.”
“Like I told you, I was trying to pounce on someone. I expected them to come around the corner at any moment.”
“Good thing for you they didn’t arrive at all.”
“Yes.”
Both were silent for a time, Father working quickly to remove the splinters from Vincent’s bottom, thighs and back and Vincent remembering what had happened to render him in this acutely uncomfortable situation and with Catherine due at any minute no less!
It had been as he’d told Father. He had wished to perform an element of surprise of the detrimental kind to a man he knew to be causing much grief to some helpers. Standing up on the crate had seemed such a good idea at the time. It was in the shadows, was on the corner where two streets met and it had seemed sturdy enough to take him. It had been the length of time that he’d had to wait that had caused the problem. It was wintry up top and he’d got cramp and cold from waiting, and deciding the fellow had taken another route Vincent had intended coming down from the crate to look for him. And he didn’t know how it had happened, but suddenly instead of positioning his weight evenly upon the huge wooden box, he had put it all in one place, and there had been this almighty crack, a moment of fear and apprehension and then down he had gone, right through the gaping hole beneath him and the jagged edges had done likewise gone right through his clothing and into his skin. As if that had been bad enough, he then had to scramble out of the crate, past those jagged edges thus causing more damage to himself than had happened in the first instance. And now here he was, subjected to Father’s doctrinal hands working their magic on him. And that was wonderful, except for the fact that Catherine was due any minute!
“Nearly done Vincent, just these few on your upper thighs are there any on the front of you?”
“No. And if there are I can get them out after Catherine has been and gone.”
“You really should forsake modesty this time Vincent and let me get them all out now. We do not want them causing an infection. Just flip over, I can get these out afterward.”
Vincent hesitated and Father reminded him, “What would be less embarrassing Vincent, for Catherine to walk in with you laid on your belly, or for her to see you on your back?”
Father chuckled when Vincent rolled over at once and after a close perusal with deft fingers and a magnifying glass, Father extracted the few minor splinters from Vincent’s abdomen.
“Right I think that’s got them all, so if you would roll back onto your tummy now Vincent, I’ll get the last of them.”
His heart thumping Vincent did as told as through the connection he shared with Catherine he knew that she had long entered the tunnels and was quite close to his chamber. When she found it empty she would enquire of his whereabouts and Mary or someone would tell her and she would come to the hospital chamber to see if he was really all right. And because she loved him she would not hesitate to wonder whether he might be in any particular state of undress, because at that moment the only thought in her mind would be checking for herself that he was well. Vincent shuddered as a long delicious sweep of longing flowed through him. The thought of Catherine standing in the doorway and beneath the glow of many candles she would see him as naked as the flame…and there the daydream ended, because Vincent did not like to visualise how Catherine would respond to such a sight though she’d told him a thousand times he was the man that she loved. She’d told him he was a man, she told him she was not afraid, that she would be ready to move their relationship forward the moment he decided it was right for them to do so. Even so, what she told him and presented suddenly with the facts was a totally different thing and one he had worried about ever since he knew that she loved him, as a woman loves a man.
“Penny for them Vincent?” Father asked with a knowing smile. His son’s torment was almost too plain to see. It was apparent in every taut muscle in his body. Catherine was due any moment. He’d heard her arrival announced on the pipes, but had known of it moments before when his son’s demeanour had changed. Vincent had sensed her entry into their world through the bond that they shared. And Vincent was anxious that Father should finish his task so that he could get dressed and go to meet her. And so he would have. Father was not one to delay under such circumstances, but there was one splinter that worried him greatly. It was larger than the rest and deeply embedded, and to get at it properly Father needed another pair of hands…
“Vincent can you pull this fold of skin apart, here bring your hands round, that’s it, now stretch the skin.” Vincent did as asked, aware that doing so presented the most dreadful sight to anyone walking in at that moment. “Father, if I might be permitted to make a suggestion?”
“What is it Vincent?”
“Could I turn around, so that my head is facing the doorway?”
Father chuckled, “Much as I’d like to humour you Vincent, its not possible. I need you where there’s the most light, and to turn you around and move all the candles would take time we simply do not have.” Vincent was glad that Father never stopped working while he waffled, or that would have wasted even more time.
“Then do you think you could cover some of me with a blanket?”
“That I could. Just a moment I’ll fetch one.” Father made to walk across the chamber when Vincent halted him, “On second thoughts that’s wasting time too, just get on with it are you sure its the last splinter?”
“Yes. And if you just hold the skin back I can get to it.”
Vincent obeyed and each held their breath for different reasons as Father tried to extract the long jagged piece of wood.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry Vincent, but its very difficult, your hands are in the way. Can you open your legs wider?”
“If I must.” Vincent groaned.
“No, that’s no use, either. Look Vincent, I shall have to go and find Mary. We need small hands for this as the skin needs pulling taut and it’s such an awkward place to get to, right between your legs. I’d say you should thank your lucky stars really, another inch or so and we’d be performing a much different operation.”
Vincent groaned he didn’t need that explaining.
“I might be able to get to it, if you lay on your back with your legs pulled up to your chest, but even I have not the stomach for such a sight. So I’ll go and find Mary, and I will look out for Catherine along the way, and try to deter her from coming here to you.”
Vincent sighed with relief, “thank you Father, and I know it’s difficult for you, but please try to hurry.”
“I will try. See you soon.”
In the silence that followed Vincent probed the bond he shared with Catherine. He had known that she had gone to his chamber and he had felt her close to where he was for one or two moments, but then she seemed to have changed direction for which he was thankful, and he decided she must be with William, for it felt like she was in that general area. That was good since William’s kitchen and the hospital chamber were a good ten minutes apart, and hopefully Father should locate Mary before then or perhaps Catherine and ask her to wait for him in his chamber. Relieved that the problem seemed to have smoothed itself out Vincent laid his head on his hands dozing. He really was quite tired. It had been a long night and an unfruitful one at that. It meant he still had to go out another night and try to find the man that was terrorising some of the helpers.
How it had happened was they owned a shop and this particular man and his thugs had moved into the area demanding ‘insurance’ and if the helpers did not pay the fellow vast sums of their hard earned takings, then the thugs would come and wreck the place. Vincent had met their kind before and he knew there was only one way to stop them. Show those people that the helpers already had insurance…or assurance as it was… Him. He would always make certain that their lives were trouble free, since the tunnels relied on such ones for all manner of items and help.
So engrossed was he in his musings, that Vincent’s tight hold on the bond was relaxed and he did not feel when Catherine made her way stealthily toward the hospital chamber. In fact the first he knew of it was the gasp she emitted and the giggle that followed.
Mortified, Vincent tried to cover himself in the only way possible, placing his large hands on the cheeks of his backside and groaning hoarsely, “Catherine, please do not come in. Wait for me at my chamber.”
Sensing his embarrassment, Catherine hesitated, but it seemed her feet were made of lead. The sight before her was one she had imagined for too long and oh, it was far more beautiful than even she had dreamt. Golden fluff covered the length of his skin, silky soft and just begging for her hands to glide through its density. Mesmerised, Catherine’s feet now became clouds and she floated across the chamber floor, hands outstretched and focused on just one touch of his glorious body.
Sensing her feelings through the bond, Vincent buried his face into the pillow, his heart hammering. He ached for and he loathed the situation, any moment now Catherine would touch him for he felt that in every fibre of her body, and she would recoil at the feel of his fur against her fingers. He braced himself as he felt first the warmth of her hands and then the feathery touch of her fingers brushing the fur at the back of his thighs.
“Ooh.” She breathed and he held his breath, waiting for the moment when she would snap out of the trance and go running from his sight never to be seen again.
Her eyes were closed as if looking was encroaching upon his rights, knowing that she did not have his permission to see him like this, and that under any other circumstances it would never have happened. Her warm hands glided across his skin, and her heart pounded as the touch of him sent her mind to dizzying heights of pure pleasure. “Vincent, you are truly beautiful.” She breathed softly as he bit into the pillow to stop himself from groaning.
At his thighs her hands lingered tantalising moments running her fingertips, round and round in ever increasing circles, until her knuckles brushed the underside of his testicles. Here Vincent flinched and beneath him out of her sight his manhood rose to a magnification that caused thumping discomfort by the position he was in. He waited a long moment undecided, until finally he had no choice but to move just slightly enough to relieve the growing pressure beneath him.
“Don’t go!” Catherine sure he was leaving held his buttocks tightly, and then as if believing that would not be enough she threw herself over him pinning him to the bed, “Stay, please.” She whispered at his nape, “Don’t go Vincent, truly, I see nothing for you to be ashamed of.”
Her body close to his, Vincent felt every texture of the clothes she wore, but she may as well have been naked. Her breasts were against his back and he could feel the heat from her thighs pressed close against his bottom. “Catherine, I was going…nowhere.” He told her and sensing her sudden embarrassment, he spoke hurriedly, “Its all right, don’t get up, Catherine…stay where you are.”
Her mouth went dry, she was unable to answer him, so pressed warm kisses to his neck instead. They sizzled against his fevered skin, and his manhood grew some more.
“I love you Vincent.” Catherine managed to whisper, “I love you so much.”
Eyes closed tightly Vincent drank in her words, swallowed them and digested them deep into his body. They fed him and he swelled some more and unable to stay silent any longer he groaned against the pillow, “And I love you too, Catherine.”
Catherine’s heart raced, she became heady with love for him and her hands sought his sides, her intention plain “roll over Vincent please.”
Wave after wave of pure emotion coursed through Vincent. Feelings he had never before encountered coming to life with every swell, he was no more able to deny her than he was to summon the sun to fall from the sky and shine inside the tunnels. He turned over ever so slowly careful not to dislodge her and she moved with him holding herself upon the bed and him so that neither of them should tumble, until she felt him beneath her, hot and hard and wanting and the floodgates of her desire burst upon him.
A searing kiss of passion began the rhapsody of love long overdue between them, his hands warm upon her back beneath her sweater and with his legs entwined with hers Catherine slipped between them to press her body even closer to his.
There was nothing and nobody but the two of them now, held there, suspended beyond heaven itself lost in a kiss as wild and abandoned as each of them felt. On and on it went, each filling and giving to the other all the love that they had held inside for too long a time.
Catherine’s mind flew, Vincent’s mind soared and he knew only one thing - the depth of his love for the woman in his arms, and that after this moment he would never ever let her go back to her world again. Not that she intended to, for after this moment, he was hers, and she was his and nothing or no one would ever come between them for now unto eternity.
“Vincent, I haven’t found Mary, but I’ve brought you a blanket, so at least if Catherine comes you can be covered.” Father’s sudden voice coming from the doorway brought their long earth-shattering kiss to an end.
Mortified, Vincent moved, unsure of where to go, or what to do, but Catherine held him fast, and without looking up to where an elderly man was standing staring wide eyed from the doorway, she murmured with a grin, “Its all right Father, I’ve got him covered.”
Father coughed, “Er…yes, I can see that you have. Er, well then, that’s all right then…Er…I’ll go then shall I?”
Catherine giggled, Vincent chuckled and watched his embarrassed parent disappear only to re-emerge moments later, “Just thinking…maybe Catherine? I mean since I can’t find Mary, and then once its out the two of you can get back to…Er.. Whatever it was that you were doing when I interrupted?” He grinned, hopefully.
“I know I shouldn’t ask,” Catherine asked anyway, “But what exactly do you want to get out, Father?”
Vincent blushed, Catherine blushed as she realised what she had said, and Father went bright red too.
“A SPLINTER!” Father and Vincent cried together.
“Oh.” Catherine sounded disappointed, “Is that all? Well of course I’ll help.” Reluctantly Father noticed she climbed off of his son, and he saw that Vincent really did need a blanket after all. He tossed it over him even as he decided it was a bit like closing the stable door after the horse had bolted, but for his son’s modesty thought it best. And then he remembered Vincent would have to roll over on to his belly anyway.
Once he had, the pair worked swiftly, the splinter was difficult and Vincent gritted his teeth, but each were in a hurry for their own reasons and had more than wretched splinters on their minds.
Finally out it pinged, “That’s it!” Father cried with jubilation, “Now I’ll just pour on some antiseptic and you two can get back to… Er…whatever it was that you were doing. Though I don’t need to remind you that your chamber would perhaps be the best place to continue.” He added with a chuckle.
“Thank you Father.” Vincent mumbled holding his breath as the stinging antiseptic soaked into the wound the splinter had left behind. He felt the sting subside and being replaced with other feelings, too numerous to put names to, and many he had no words for either. “We’ll do that. Catherine?”
“Of course.” Helping him up, Catherine passed him his clothes surprised when Vincent folded the clothes and just put on his cloak before reaching for her hand and watched by a wide eyed, grinning parent the two left to walk the short journey in silence toward Vincent’s chamber.
Once there, Catherine sat on the bed where Vincent had deposited her and watched mesmerised while he placed a huge tapestry over the entranceway to his chamber after positioning the privacy code of a lamp several yards down the tunnel preceding it. From the tapestry dust particles danced on the light of two solitary candles lit upon the desk and as Vincent turned to face Catherine he unhooked the fastening on his cloak and let it glide to the floor. Naked he faced her, his eyes blue fire his gaze upon hers and crossed to where she sat enchanted by his glory.
“I love you.” He whispered huskily reaching for her hands and pulling her up against him. “With all that I am.”
Their lips met once more in a burning, sensational kiss that held all the promise of a night of passion.
“And I love you.” How Catherine’s clothes met the floor she did not know, but soon her feet were pooled by them and she was pressed hard against his body, the heat and the power of him flooding her senses.
“It is time.” Vincent murmured against her lips.
“Yes.”
They fell together to the bed, limbs entwined, lips on lips, each desirous of the other until with minds lost to the song of their loving they became one at long last…
“Ooh Vincent?” Curled in his arms Catherine whispered sleepily a few hours later.
Vincent heard the mischief in Catherine’s tone and was amused by it. “He missed one? What?”
It took a minute or two for Vincent to understand, and then he laughed, long and hard and joyfully, before nuzzling the back of her neck and whispering huskily, “That’s not a splinter my Catherine.”
“I most certainly can. Roll over, my love.”