Her palm pressed against his cock through his sleep pants. Even that light contact made him hiss, his hips jerking up involuntarily.

  "Take them off," he said.

  She tugged at the waistband, her fingers fumbling with the simple drawstring. It took her three tries to unknot it, and Leo might have ughed if he wasn't so achingly hard. Finally the fabric loosened, and she yanked it down over his hips.

  His cock sprang free, flushed and leaking at the tip.

  Sera stared.

  "Like before?" Her hand wrapped around the base.

  "Like before. But..." He reached for her, cupped her breast again. "I want to touch you while you do it."

  Sera nodded. Her hand started to move.

  It was better than before. Her grip was firmer and steadier as she stroked up and down his length. Maybe because she'd practiced, or maybe she was too aroused to get nervous.

  "Nnh...like that..."

  "I know like that. You don't have to...ah...don't have to narrate."

  "Just making sure."

  "Insufferable," she muttered. Her hand sped up, slicking through the precum that had leaked from his tip, and the wet sounds that filled the room.

  Leo's hips jerked up into her fist. His hands tightened on her breasts, maybe too hard, and she whimpered.

  "Sorry..."

  "Don't stop."

  The words came out fast, involuntary. She caught herself and looked away.

  "I mean...it's fine. You don't have to be so gentle."

  She likes it, Leo realized.

  He pinched her nipple again, harder this time, and was rewarded with a breathy moan that she tried and failed to swallow.

  "Sera..."

  He pulled her toward him without thinking. One hand on the back of her neck, drawing her close, and then...

  Their lips met.

  She tasted like the herbal tea she'd drunk after dinner, faintly sweet, with just a trace of bitter. Her lips were soft and hesitant, and he could tell immediately that she'd never been kissed before, or at least he thought so, because he was the same.

  Sera held stiff against him, uncertain, not knowing what to do with her mouth while her hand still moved on his cock.

  Leo licked at the seam of her lips.

  She made a small sound, something between a moan and a sigh, and melted.

  Her mouth opened. Her tongue met his, clumsy and eager. She kissed like she did everything else, prickly at first, then yielding, then hungry. Her free hand came up to clutch at his shoulder, nails digging in, and her grip on his cock stuttered as she lost herself in the sensation.

  First kiss, Leo thought dimly. Our first kiss and her hand is on my cock.

  They were doing everything backwards. Intimacy before romance, handjobs before decrations. It should have felt wrong.

  It didn't.

  "Leo..." She broke the kiss, gasping, her lips swollen and wet. "Leo..."

  She didn't say anything else, just mumbling his name like she was trying to memorize it.

  Her hand sped up. He kissed her again, swallowing her moans, feeling her body shake against his as he pinched and rolled her nipples. She was making sounds now - high and breathy sounds that escaped between kisses. Her hips were moving too, grinding against nothing, chasing friction she couldn't find.

  Leo noticed.

  His hand slid down from her breast. Over the soft curve of her stomach, the dip of her navel, lower...

  "What are you..."

  Sera broke the kiss with a gasp.

  "Touching you."

  "But that was...you don't have to..."

  His fingers found the cloth wrapped around her hips. He didn't try to slip beneath it, just pressing his palm ft against her mound, feeling her warmth through the fabric.

  Sera's whole body jerked.

  "Leo..."

  "Is this okay?"

  "I...it's..." She was stammering, her hand gone still on his cock, her thighs cmping together around his wrist. "I told you, I'm bleeding..."

  "I'm not going inside," he pressed harder, the heel of his palm grinding against her through the cloth. "Just this. Is this okay?"

  She made a sound, something between a whimper and a moan, her hips twitching against his hand despite herself.

  "I..."

  "Sera. Yes or no."

  "...Yes." The word came out strangled. Desperate. "Yes, fine, just...don't stop..."

  He obligated.

  His fingers explored her through the fabric. The soft outer lips, the crease between them, the spot at the top where she jerked and gasped when he pressed. He couldn't feel the details, but he could feel the heat of her.

  "You're wet," he murmured against her mouth.

  "Shut up."

  "You are. I can feel it."

  "I said shut...ahh..." Her protest dissolved as he rubbed circles against that sensitive spot, pressing firm through the cloth. Her hand had started moving on his cock again, but the rhythm was erratic now, distracted.

  "Good?"

  "I don't know... It's not..." She was panting, her hips grinding against his hand, her whole body trembling.

  "It's not? Really?"

  "Don't sound so...ah...so smug about it!"

  Leo kissed her again. Swallowed her protests, her moans, the desperate little sounds she was making as his fingers worked on her sopping cunt.

  Sera's nails dug into his shoulder, sharp points of pain that only made him want to push her harder.

  "Leo..." She gasped. "Leo, I'm...something's..."

  "Let it happen."

  "I can't..."

  "You can," he rubbed faster, felt her thighs cmp around his hand like a vice. "Let go, Sera. I've got you."

  "I...I...hahh..."

  Sera came with a cry she tried to muffle against his shoulder.

  Her whole body seized, her back arching, her hips grinding against his palm as wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her. The flood of wetness soaking through the fabric against his fingers.

  "Ah...ahh...nnh..."

  Leo held her through it. Kept his hand firm against her, gentling the pressure as the tremors subsided, letting her ride out the aftershocks against his palm.

  When Sera finally came down, she was trembling in his arms, her face hidden against his neck, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

  "That was..." Her voice cracked. "I've never felt..."

  "I know."

  He pressed a kiss to her temple.

  She breathed. Long, shuddering inhales that slowly evened out. Her hand had gone sck on his cock, and he was still achingly hard, but he didn't push. Let her come back to herself.

  After a moment, she lifted her head. Her face was flushed, her eyes gssy, her expression somewhere between dazed and embarrassed.

  "I can't believe I just..." She stopped and swallowed. "That was..."

  "Amazing? Mindblowing?"

  "Don't fish for compliments."

  She huffed, but there was something softer in her expression now.

  Then her gaze dropped to his cock, still hard and straining, neglected during her climax.

  "I...probably should finish that, right?"

  "Sera..." Leo hesitated. "I want you...to use your mouth..."

  She froze.

  He'd asked before, and she'd refused then.

  But that was days ago.

  "You don't have to," Leo said, forcing the words out past the need cwing at his gut. "If you don't want..."

  "I didn't say no."

  He waited. His cock throbbed in her grip.

  Sera was quiet for a long moment. Her face was flushed, her lips swollen from kissing, her amazing breasts heaving with each rapid breath.

  "I've never..." She swallowed. "I don't know how."

  "I'll teach you."

  "What if I do it wrong?"

  "You won't."

  "You don't know that."

  "Sera." He reached up, cupped her face, made her meet his eyes. "You won't."

  She bit her lip. Her gaze dropped to his cock, still gripped in her hand, slick with precum.

  "Fine," she said finally. Barely a whisper. "I'll try. But if I'm terrible at it, you're not allowed to compin."

  "I would never."

  She huffed again, before shifting down the bed, until her face was level with his cock. Her breath brushed over the sensitive head, and Leo's whole body jerked.

  "Just...start slow," he managed. "Lick first. Get it wet."

  Sera nodded, leaning forward.

  The first touch of her tongue made him groan.

  Just a small lick at the tip, tasting the precum that had gathered there. She made a surprised face and pulled back slightly.

  "It tastes..."

  "I know. You don't have to..."

  She licked again, longer this time, dragging her tongue up the underside of his shaft from base to tip. Leo's hands fisted in the bnket beneath him.

  "Nngh..."

  "Like that?"

  "Yes. Yes, just like that."

  Sera grew bolder. Licking up and down his length, then swirling her tongue around the head. Her hand wrapped around the base, stroking what her mouth couldn't reach. The combination of sensations was making it hard for Leo to think clearly.

  "Now, take it in. As much as you can."

  She hesitated. Her breath was coming fast, puffing against his sensitive skin.

  "What if I choke?"

  "Then you pull off and try again. It's fine. Just...please, Sera."

  She opened her mouth. Her lips stretched around the head of his cock.

  Warm.

  That was his first thought. Warm and wet and tight. Her mouth closing around him. She took maybe two inches before she gagged, a choked sound escaping her throat, and Leo forced himself to hold perfectly still.

  "Easy," he told her. "Don't force it. Just...suck. Move your head."

  She obeyed.

  It was extremely amateurish. Her teeth scraped him once and he hissed. She pulled off to apologize, and he had to urge her back. She couldn't find a rhythm, bobbing her head in jerky movements that didn't quite match the stroke of her hand. She had to pull off every few seconds to breathe, saliva trailing from her lips to his cock.

  But the sight of Sera...of his wife...

  This beautiful, prickly, almost stranger....

  Her lips stretched around his cock, her cheeks hollowed as she sucked, her breasts swaying with each movement of her head. Her eyes were closed, brow furrowed in concentration, and she was making small sounds - muffled mms and nnhs that vibrated through his shaft.

  All of it was too arousing.

  "Sera...fuck...I'm going to...!"

  He tried to warn her and pull back, to push her away.

  She didn't let him.

  Her mouth tightened around him. Her hand sped up on his shaft, stroking fast and tight, and Leo erupted with a groan that echo off the wooden walls. He spilled into her mouth in hot, pulsing waves, his hips jerking up involuntarily, his hands fisting in Sera's messy hair.

  Sera choked, pulled off coughing, his seed dripping down her chin and onto her breasts. But she'd swallowed some of it.

  And the sight of her there, gasping and disheveled and painted with his cum, was almost enough to get him hard again.

  "Sorry," he gasped. "I tried to warn..."

  "It's fine," Sera waved his apologize away. Her voice was hoarse. Rough from having him in her throat. She wiped her chin with the back of her hand, grimacing at the mess. "I just...didn't expect so much..."

  "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine."

  Prickly again. She looked down at the streaks of white on her breasts.

  "You could have warned me more."

  "I tried."

  "You could have tried harder."

  "I was a little distracted by your mouth on my cock."

  Sera let out a genuine chuckle, and covered her face with her clean hand.

  "I can't believe I just...I actually did that."

  "You did."

  "I know I did. I was there," she peeked at him through her fingers. "Was it...?"

  "It was good."

  "Don't lie to make me feel better."

  "I'm not. It was good," he reached for her, pulled her hand away from her face. "It was your first time. It'll get better with practice."

  "Practice," she said the word like it was a foreign nguage. "You want me to do that again."

  "If you want to."

  She was quiet for a moment. Then her voice came again, so small that Leo almost missed it.

  "I didn't hate it."

  "I know."

  "Shut up."

  But there was no heat in it. She looked down at the mess on her chest again and sighed.

  "I need to clean up."

  "Let me."

  Leo jump down from the bed. He fetched a bucket of water from the rge water jar in the yard and came back. Then, gently, he wiped the streaks of seed from her breasts.

  Sera held very still. Watching him with an expression he couldn't quite read.

  "You don't have to do that," she said quietly. "I can clean myself."

  "I know. But I want to."

  He finished wiping her chest, her chin, her throat. Set the rag aside. Then, before she could protest, he pulled her down onto the bed beside him, tucking her against his chest.

  "Leo..."

  "Time to sleep."

  She was stiff in his arms for a moment. Then, slowly, she rexed. Let her head rest against his shoulder, her bare breasts pressed against his side.

  "This is strange," Sera murmured.

  "What is?"

  "This. Us. A week ago you barely looked at me. Now...if it hadn't been that day of the month, we would have..." She made a frustrated sound. "I don't understand you, Leo. I don't understand what changed."

  I'm not the man you married, he thought. He died in that alley, and I took his pce, and I don't know how to tell you that without losing everything we're starting to build.

  No, Leo decided. I'm going to bring this secret to the grave.

  "Does it matter?" he asked instead. "I'm still your husband, and we're going to build a life together from now on."

  Sera was quiet for a long moment. Her fingers traced idle patterns on his chest.

  "No," she said finally. "I suppose it doesn't."

  "Good."

  "But Leo?"

  "Mm?"

  "If you ever go back to how you were before," her voice hardened, that prickly edge returning. "If this is temporary, I'll never forgive you. I mean it."

  "I won't."

  She rexed against him again. Her breathing slowed, evening out toward sleep.

  Leo pressed a kiss to the top of her head and closed his eyes.