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I breathed out twilight, letting it settle over us both, embracing us. We were alone together in a world half a step away. "Now."

"Oh!" Jehanne whispered, opening her eyes. "I'd forgotten how lovely it was. They can't see us?"

I slid into her arms. "No."

She kissed my throat, placed a line of kisses down the skin laid bare by my plunging decolletage. "Not this?"

I shook my head. "No, my lady."

"This?" Jehanne eased the silk of my gown aside. A jolt of desire shot through me as her warm, wet mouth closed around my nipple and tugged on it with lips and tongue.

My grip on the twilight wavered.

"Ahh…" I pulled away from her with an effort. "No. But I need to concentrate."

She smiled. "On what?"

I pushed up her skirts. "You."

Jehanne's smile deepened. "Then do."

I was a far, far more skilled lover than I'd been when Jehanne had first seduced me at Cereus House—and yet no less ardent. I'd wanted her all night. My mask and headpiece got in the way, tangling with her skirts. I took off the mask, disentangled the headpiece and put it aside, shaking my hair loose impatiently. Her fingers slid through my hair, telling me without words to slow down.

I listened.

There are many different ways to perform the languisement on a woman. I teased the soft petals of her nether-lips with the tip of my tongue until I felt her fingers tighten in my hair. Then I licked her with quick, delicate strokes like a cat lapping cream. Not until I felt her hips begin to thrust involuntarily did I worship her in earnest, working my tongue as deep inside her as it would go.

It went on for a long time. Lost in Jehanne and the twilight, I took her to the edge many times, until I could sense in the tension of her thighs that once more would be one time too many, and sweet urgency would give way to frustration. I ran my tongue around the swollen bud of Naamah's Pearl, sucked it into my mouth, and took her over the edge.

Jehanne shuddered, hands clenched in my hair, her hips rising to meet my mouth. "Blessed Elua have mercy!"

Afterward, I licked her gently, letting the last spasms subside.

"Moirin." Her fingers stirred in my hair.

I breathed, slow and deep. I was content. I rested my cheek against the soft skin of her thigh. I smiled up at her. "Enough?"

"Mm-hmm." She looked languorous and a bit disheveled. "Not very fair to you, is it?"

I smoothed her skirts back in order, contemplated my headpiece, and decided it was a lost cause. "I don't mind. Not tonight."

"Come here." Jehanne cupped the back of my neck and pulled me toward her, kissing me. She regarded me with one of her unreadable looks, then shook her head. "Sometimes I forget you're exactly what I call you, my witchling. Then you remind me, and I'm forced to confess to a certain awe."

"I'm just me." I looked around the twilit hall. Folk were uncoupling and stirring in various stages of undress. I had a feeling it was later than I thought. "I'd best let it go before someone takes it in their head to sit on the Dowayne's couch."

Jehanne's brows rose. "That would have been interesting."

I let the twilight slip away.

Across the hall, an adept in training dropped a tray of empty glasses and stared in shock at our sudden appearance. Heads turned. I watched Jehanne's lips curve in a smile, delighting in the attention. And I thought that despite all her foibles, I did indeed love her quite a bit.

She glanced at me. "Why do you look so solemn?"

"You'd find it tiresome if I told you," I said to her.

Jehanne stroked my hair. "Oh, mayhap not as much as I pretend." A horologist called the hour and she startled. "Elua! That's the call to usher in dawn. Come watch it with me?"

We adjourned amid a gorgeous, tired, satiated throng to Cereus House's rooftop terrace, swept bare of snow for the occasion. The adepts made way to give Jehanne and me a place of honor at the eastern railing. Bare-armed, I shivered in the cold. Jehanne folded me into her ermine-trimmed cloak, and I breathed the Breath of Embers Glowing until I was warmer,