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I look like?”
    â€œNo,” Marrin said, “but that you’re gorgeous helped a lot.”
    He laughed and hugged her, rocking her in arms still strong from long hours working in the fields, though he no longer needed to labor that way. “I could say the same. The first time I laid my eyes on you, you took my breath away.”
    She scoffed. “I was covered in dust and had three screaming children circling me like satellites.”
    â€œA pearl covered in mud is still a pearl.”
    She tipped her head back to look up at him. “I love you.”
    â€œI love you too.”
    His hands slid up and down her sides, resting at last on her hips. He shifted her around until she was snugged up against him. Heat flared in her belly at the feeling of his erection already straining the front of his loose trousers.
    â€œWe’re alone,” he reminded her. “The girls won’t be home until tomorrow.”
    â€œHowever shall we occupy our time?”
    Keane smiled. “I think I can imagine.”
    The kitchen table was just the right height for him to slide inside her as he stood between her legs and she sat on the table. The curved plazglass table warmed to her skin, bared in only moments when he lifted her skirt and tugged down her panties. One hand cupped the back of her neck and the other anchored her hip as he moved inside her. Marrin locked her ankles around his hips, pulling him closer, holding him tighter.
    Sometimes they made love slowly, taking hours. Sometimes, like now, they came together hard and fast, with nothing more than a glance to serve as foreplay. It didn’t matter. She was as ready for him now as if he’d spent half a day caressing her.
    The teacups rattled in their saucers as his thrusts rocked the table, and Marrin let her head tip back, back, laughing and gasping her pleasure as he filled her.
    â€œTouch yourself,” Keane said, his voice hoarse. “I want you to come with me.”
    With Keane supporting her she had no need to hold herself up, and it was easy to slip a hand between them to stroke her clit in time to his thrusts. She cried out as she rolled the small button under her forefinger. Keane stretched and filled her, in and out, while she rubbed.
    He kissed her, mouths open, tongues darting and becoming desperate as their mutual climax approached. Marrin heard a clatter and a crack but took no time to see if they’d at last made the cups fall over. She lost herself in her husband’s kiss, in the pleasure of his magnificent, unique cock as it moved inside her, in the sensation of her own hand between her legs.
    He gathered her closer, his grip tightening. Her face pressed against his chest. She found his skin with her teeth and tongue, tasted the salt and spice of his sweat and of their passion, and he groaned when she nipped him.
    â€œCome with me, Marrin.”
    She already was. Bright sparks of joy filled her. Her body jerked. Keane thrust inside her, sending another burst of ecstasy exploding through her. She cried out, riding him, digging her nails into his shoulders hard enough to bruise him.
    He thrust again, this time hard enough to move the table. His back arched. He shuddered, then relaxed against her, panting.
    Marrin heard a slow dripping and turned her head to see they had, indeed, spilled the tea. It had made quite a mess on the floor, too, but at that moment, she couldn’t rouse herself enough to care.
    â€œYou wear this old man out,” Keane whispered into her ear, nuzzling and nipping before hugging her tightly.
    â€œNever,” she replied.
    â€œYou can try,” came his teasing reply.
    â€œI can try,” Marrin agreed and put her arms around the man she loved.

    Ninety-nine rotations ago
    â€œHurry, Keane! Hurry! It’s starting!”
    Aliya danced, holding her pot with both small hands. Sarai joined her sister, a mug in each of hers. The baby, Hadassah, no longer such a baby, but a girl