A Brief Exchange

The bedroom was filled by a subtle blue glow, casting exotic shadows on the walls of Nadjia's humble quarters. Small flames from sweet smelling candles flickered, the crackling occasionally audible.

Jonathan stood at the door, watching her as she pulled the covers away from her bed. Nadjia took his hand, pulling him toward her, and held him tightly. She captured his eyes with hers, and closed the distance between their lips; first gently, then voraciously, as he responded to her advances.

Jonathan's mind whirled, spellbound by her promising embrace, he filled with desire for his friend turned lover. He felt lost in her beautiful poison, her own desire working its way into him through her kisses. He quivered beneath her touch, as slowly, one piece at a time, Nadjia peeled his clothing from his body, caressing his tight muscles with her warm lips.

He was entranced by the beauty of her presence, and responded with an imperceptible start when she pressed her flesh against his; a small gasp escaping his lips as she pulled him down onto the bed.

Suddenly, breathlessly, she stopped and stared into his eyes, through his eyes, and into his essence. In the blue light of the glowing candles—some fading, some dying, others desperately fighting to continue their meager burn—she felt herself drowning in him. His eyes were deeper than any ocean she would ever swim.

She was dizzy with hunger for him, but greater still, was her overflowing devotion for this creature she embraced. Jonathan was mesmerized, held prisoner by Nadjia's hypnotic gaze, paralyzed by the wonderful sensations that infused his being. In her he saw everything he ever was, and ever would be, his dreams and his nightmares were at once a reality, but fear was nowhere to be found.

"I love you," she whispered, her face inches away from his, "with my life and my very soul. I will never leave you."

Jonathan swallowed. "I love

you

, Nadjia."

Nadjia smiled; the way he looked at her now would be forever in her mind, her heart, and her soul. She would cherish this moment until the day she was dust, and she would forever bind herself to him that he may never, ever be alone.

Nadjia cringed only for a moment, feeling a vague burning pressure as her lover slowly lowered himself into her. Her body briefly taut, the sensation intense, filling her, and then within a moment, the pain was gone; replaced by magic.

It was nothing like she had ever imagined—nothing that she had ever felt before, but could only fantasize about, in secret. It was beyond comparison. Nadjia threw her head back, Jonathan's breathlessness soft against her ear. She whispered to him melodiously, in her Arabic tongue, telling him repeatedly that she loved him.

She felt herself in union with her lover, a boy she'd grown up with, a boy who was now no longer a child. Nadjia felt as though they were no longer two, but only one in symbiosis, a single spirit wrapped up in a mantle of uninhibited abandoned rapture.

Before this she had felt as if she were only a child; as though her body had been holding its breath, and in this single act—its mere beginning, released a sigh. She imagined her innocence melting away as one of her candles, slowly disintegrating with each of her lover's movements.

Nadjia's eyes rolled involuntarily as she bit her lip to keep from shouting. Emotions so far beyond her ability to describe passed through her as though she were ethereal - a conduit - as light sped through her uncontrollably, compelling, undeniable; power entered her and left her at speeds indescribable by any words.

Her senses struggled intensely as her body attempted to understand what her mind had already grasped. Jonathan's performance far exceeded her expectations, for both of them.

Condensation had gathered on the windows with the heat of their fusion, creating a mirage of mistiness that seemed to dim her whole reality. She felt electrical—if it could be used for description—new sensations filling her, the depths of an unnameable region filling with lusty desires, and she found herself developing a hunger for something she did not yet understand, but felt it would feed her new appetite soon enough.

Jonathan began thrusting harder, and faster.

She imagined him the piston in a steam engine, working in and out of the machine, pivoting and pinning on a constant axis, the fires fed by her hunger for him, and his unfathomable hunger for her.

In this moment of their innocence, or new lack thereof, she felt whole; she felt right, and at home with him.

Nadjia clenched her jaw; head thrown back, nails digging into Jonathan's back, scratching painless welts across his body. Her gentle smiles that rode the soft waves of bliss now turned to intense expressions of boundless ecstasy, and she felt her body arching and quivering, building a feeling that she suspected could not be matched even by paradise. Faintly at first, she heard her voice escaping her throat, no longer able to contain it.

Her feet, and toes; her hands, and the tips of her fingers tingled, but her limbs were heavy. She was faintly aware that her body rocked with each deep thrust as she succumbed to her lover's mad rhythms. Nadjia arched her back out, pushing her body as close to Jonathan as she could, her head back, jaw out, mouth open as her mind slipped into the beautiful oblivion of its own inferno.