The first time your father and I were alone together I wanted him then and there. But he was strong enough for both of us. It was a whole year before we possessed each other in body. And you came of that union.
"You will not command me so," he said with cheerful confidence.
Her eyebrows rose—they were strong and dark, like a raven's wings. "Indeed?"
"Because you know how much better it would be to wait. We both want each other now. But if we restrain that hunger, it will grow. It will be not just a desire of the flesh, but a longing of the spirit. It is said that the souls in paradise know no greater happiness than two lovers do, who are united in soul as well as body."
"Prodigioso," she said. "But I am just a Sicilian girl, and I do not perhaps have the refined spiritual appetite of a French nobleman. What if I cannot wait?"
"It is natural," Simon said, thinking again of what his mother had confided to him. "Then I must be strong enough for both of us."
The thought of her powerful passions, which she restrained with such difficulty, excited him. Holding himself back from her was going to be painful, but delightfully so. And think of the ecstasy when at last they were united.
Sophia released a long sigh and brought the palms of her hands down on her knees with a slap of finality. "So be it, Simon. You will teach me the ways of courtly love, and I will do my best to be your—what did you call it?"
"Mi dons. My lord."
Her teeth flashed white in the candlelight, and her lips glistened. Simon's own lips burned to taste hers.