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Chapter 20
Love which is felt for things to which we are not habituated... is called love resulting from imagination, as for instance, that love which some men and women feel for the Auparishtaka, or mouth congress.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
Alice woke with a start. Disoriented for a moment, she lay still, rubbing her eyes.
Large body curled around her, holding her close. Numb arm because his heavy form had her pinned. A soreness between her legs, a throbbing ache.
Nick’s breathing, deep and rhythmic, rumbling close to her ear.
It was still early morning.
Kali hopped onto the bed and nuzzled her wet, cold nose against Alice’s cheek.
“Where have you been, Miss Kali?” Alice whispered. Kali looked smug. There was a feather sticking to one of her whiskers.
“Ah-ha,” Alice said. “Terrorizing birds.” She should tie a bell on her cat.
Kali licked her lips and then licked her paw, climbing over Alice to investigate the sleeping marquess.
He certainly slept soundly.
Probably never left his bed before noon. Alice’s favorite time of the day was morning. Even on the evenings she stayed up late working, she still rose early to snatch a few more minutes of calm and peace.
She had much to mull over.
She lifted Nick’s arm and slipped out of bed. He muttered something and rolled over, crushing a pillow in his arms and curling up around it.
Kali decided he made a nice bed, and draped herself across his ankles.
Alice smiled. Kali wasn’t scared of Nick, which was unusual. She normally didn’t like large men. She’d loathed Fred, hissing whenever he came into a room, but she seemed to approve of Nick.
In the washroom, Alice soothed her soreness with soap and water.
The secret things they’d done during the night, aided by champagne and French corsets, were perhaps meant to stay in the darkness.
But the acts described in the Kama Sutra were equally voluptuous. So why didn’t she balk at reading them? It was the remove between reading and doing.
Palm leaves and palms holding her breasts.
It made her pause. She’d been thinking of the text as a historical artifact, and a window into the minds and practices of an ancient civilization.
But they had been people just like her and Nick.
And today, because of sexual congress, she had a new awareness of her body... and the meaning of the Kama Sutra.
She stretched before the glass, looking at her body. She’d never truly studied her form before. Nick thought she was beautiful, or at least he’d said so last night.
She cupped her breasts, turning before the glass.
There was a power in knowing the intimate workings of one’s body, Alice reflected. She felt sensual in a way she never had before.
She could weave that sensuality into her translation. This was still a scholarly pursuit of knowledge.
Nick was still the best man for the job.
And she was still very much in control.
