Page 93 of Tamed By Her Touch

“You are leaving your goddess for the day.”

“Yes,” Kaelus said blankly. “But I was assured that she would be safe with your wife.”

“Yes, but you are still leaving her for the day,” Varell said.

“And?” Kaelus asked.

Varell shook his head patiently.

“And a husband never parts from his goddess without offering the Kiss of Parting.”

Kaelus looked at Clair.

She shrugged.

“The kiss of what?” she asked.

“The Kiss of Parting.” Maera smiled as though explaining something to children. “It is an old tradition. A husband honors the three sacred parts of his goddess before he leaves her.”

Kaelus’s unease increased.

“What three parts?” he asked warily.

Varell rose.

“It’s a good thing we brought the two of you here to learn. Watch me and follow my lead.”

Kaelus had a bad feeling about this—what exactly were he and Clair going to have to do to satisfy their hosts? But all he could do was wait and watch.

Maera stood as well, smiling serenely as her husband approached her.

“My husband,” she murmured.

“My wife,” he returned. Then he took her face gently between his hands and kissed her mouth.

It wasn’t a brief kiss either—it was soft and lingering, full of affection, and when he finally pulled away Maera smiled up at him.

“You start with her mouth,” Varell explained. “Because her voice must always remain precious to you.”

Kaelus nodded—he could understand that.

Then Varell bent his head and kissed Maera once on each breast through the soft fabric of her silver gown.

“Then you must kiss her breasts,” Varell continued calmly. “Because they rest above the heart and represent both love and nourishment.”

Kaelus glanced at Clair. Her face had turned pink. At the thought of kissing her breasts, his body reacted immediately.

Goddess-damn it.

Then Varell sank gracefully to his knees in front of his wife. Kaelus’s eyes widened as he watched—surely he wasn’t going to do what Kaelus thought he would do.

But he did. Varell rested his hands lightly at Maera’s hips and pressed a reverent kiss against the lower portion of her gown, directly over the place where her thighs met.

Clair stopped breathing. Kaelus knew because he was suddenly intensely attuned to her.

“And you must kiss and pay reverence to the source of her female pleasure,” Varell said as he rose again, apparently seeing nothing remotely unusual about what he had just done, “because it is the sacred center of your goddess’s body—the place from which life and desire may flow. Thus a husband reminds his wife before every parting that he honors her voice, her heart, and her womanhood.”

There was a long silence.