in you I will find my
own
way
home…
Cassius rested.‘You remember,’ he said.
‘Youremember,’ she said.
‘Such a long time to carry a memory.’Cassius cupped her cheek and ran his thumb across her bottom lip, then leant in, claiming them before he could hesitate and think better of it.He was here to start the end, not kiss her, but she tasted so sweet, her lips so soft, and she opened with a sigh.Chasing the invitation, he moved closer, pressing deeper.Warmth, longing, and champagne.
He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.
‘Why not me.Why all of them, but never me.’
‘You walked away,’ she countered.
‘You didn’t follow.’
‘You are right,’ she said, as she set her fingers against the keys, tapping out another simple scale.‘I watched you go.I wanted to call out, but I couldn’t.I did not know who I was.I knew I was on the edge of something.And you… you were larger than the curtains and the stage and even the music.And I knew that if I followed, I would have lost myself in you.’
‘We keep finding each other, though, don’t we?’
Odette played, her notes filling the silence.‘Why don’t you like my opera?’she asked.
‘I do like it.Ezra is very talented.’
‘So it is better?No longer adequate?’
Cassius shook his head and looked down.‘It is still only adequate.’
Odette slammed the keys, then sat back to face him.‘Why?’
He played the opening notes of her lament to the moon.She hummed it, perfectly, her voice and the tune in sync.‘A peasant girl, lured by an evil lord with a promise of wealth?In love with a simple boy who will give her… what exactly?A life tending his fires, having his children?And the ending?Why would you want that story to beyouropera.’
‘Audiences love those endings.Carmen,La Traviata.I would not have a career without those parts.’
‘But they are notyou.’
‘And what would you make me?’
‘A goddess.’
She laughed.‘I am not a goddess.I am only a woman who can sing.’
‘Not to me.’Cassius stilled, his fingers resting on the keys as the last of the notes faded.His chest caved with horror and apprehension at the realisation of what he had just said.Three words, three tiny words, and the eternity of the confession weighed heavy inside them.‘If I wrote you an opera, you would not sing to the moon.You wouldbethe moon.You would light the night, make tides swell and recede.You would provide cover for smugglers and dark deeds or give hope to those who are lost and light their way.’
Odette stood.Cassius twisted on the piano bench to turn his back to the keys, like in the pit, so that he could face her.
‘Why must I be a goddess?Why so much?I am just a woman.’With a slow tug, she pulled the sash at her waist until the bow broke, and the length of silk hung loose.She untied the knot.Her gown parted, and with a shrug, she slipped it from her shoulders to crumple at her feet.She kicked off her slippers.‘Nothing more,’ she said, as she gathered the hem of her chemise into her palms to pull it over her head.‘And nothing less.’
Just a woman, she said.Not with apology, but with fire.Just a woman.The most beautiful woman he’d ever seen beyond a painting or a statue.And even then, she could make artists weep.And he, just a man, let his hardening cock influence his gaze, let it draw him to the light pink circles of her nipples, let his eyes linger on the curves of her hips, then skim the dip and crescent of her stomach, and finally, come to rest on the dark slit between her thighs and her smooth, shaved mound.Odette reached her hands over her head, interlaced her fingers, and stretched as she turned in one perfect circle.
‘This is all that I am.Can I be just this, and only this?’She walked her fingers along his arm and stepped into the space between his thighs.‘Can I be just a woman?’
Cassius slid his palm along her thigh, beneath her arse, and inched his finger between her smooth folds from behind, teasing at her cunt.A perfect groan burst from her lips as he pushed a finger inside her.He arched to find her nipple and drew it into his mouth, running his tongue over the point as it hardened.She grew slicker as he thrust his finger inside her, and when he withdrew and tasted the tang of her, he could not contain a moan.
