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"Katrin, you cannot ever do that to me again, challenge my discipline to that extent unless you want my baby inside of you. My God you should have warned me."
Santiago's warning drifted to Katherine as she continued to float down from her sexual high, gently heaving and catching her breath. Her body rippled with lingering waves of pleasure as Santiago crawled over her like a possessive animal coveting its prize. He twined their legs together and used the hard length of his thigh against her womanhood to calm the rolling sensations of luxury that piqued across her intimate muscles.
"I want you to tell me everything about this husband of yours..."
She sighed and stretched against his heated body. "He is not my husband." She settled into him and enjoyed the exhilarating mix of decadent comfort and lingering thrill his hard body spread throughout her system.
"No. He is not. I am more your husband now." He looked at her with a dark possession in his eyes and a shameless thrill rippled through her womanhood.
"I will get you a cloth." He kissed her and rolled off of the bed.
"Aww," she pouted as cool prickles raced over her body at the loss of his warmth.
"Until I return." He covered her with a blanket so soft and decadent she could only sigh. The room was now sultrily dark and peacefully quiet, the city and starlight she had mocked earlier sparkled gentle light into the room, giving everything a soft magical quality. She'd never been so relaxed while her body brimmed with tingles and luxurious swells.
She listened to Santiago turn off the water in the adjoining bathroom before he reappeared with a knitted cotton washcloth as he resettled beneath the covers.
"I want to take care of you." He lifted the blanket.
"I'm fine." She took the warm cloth and pressed it softly between her legs. "But, thank you."
He drew her back close to him and propped himself on an elbow. "Now tell me what it is I want to know."
She closed her eyes and drew in a breath. "Why I’m still a virgin?"
Santiago spread his hand brazenly over her womanhood, then looked down at her with a strange look of bemused proprietorship in his eyes. "He never possessed you here."
"No." She looked away. "We never really got to that. I mean we tried once but ... it didn't work out. He wasn't interested in me that way and I was too stupid to realize why." Jon was getting everything he wanted from Marie Claire. By the time he got around to her, his naive inexperienced girlfriend, he was far too spent and satiated to muster up any desire for my benevolent innocence.
Santiago used a finger on his chin to revert her eyes to his. "Then where did you learn to orgasm as you do?"
She cleared her throat and shifted as her face ignited with heat. "What kind of question is that? The same way most women do, I guess. Alone. At twelve years old and in the privacy of their own bedroom." Her mind bounced to her first time with a self-discovered orgasm. She had barely become a teenager and was reading a 'naughty magazine' lent to her by her best friend. She was lying on her stomach and her hips started to press into the mattress pretty much on their own. The rest, as they say, was history.
Santiago chuckled and slid his finger between her thighs, gently pressing and sliding until she gave another soft moan, her heart beating into a fresh rhythm. His smile turned serious and his eyes became intense again when he pulled his fingers from inside her body. "You realize that you have now made a blood oath to me." He held up his red-stained fingers so she could fully see them.
Her eyes widened "Stop it. This is embarrassing enough." She grabbed his hand and enclosed the tell-all fingers into her palm.
Santiago brought their hands to his chest. "Embarrassing?" His eyes lit up with sharpness. "You have just given me your blood, Katrin. A blood exchange is a vow, remember?"
She swallowed as he spread their hands over his heart. "This is hardly the same thing." She thought of the vow he'd made to her, to protect her and Tariq. Had that really been just a week ago?
"I am sure I too am stained with your blood, which is even more binding." He looked purposefully down at his manhood between them. "Shall we double-check?"
"No!" she groaned. "Can't we talk about something else?"
"We most certainly cannot." He leaned down and kissed her lips again. "This is far too precious a moment." He moved their hands over his chest and upper shoulder, resting them on his Lauburu tattoo.
"He was a selfish bastard to never bring you to satisfaction. To never even learn how."
Katherine stroked her fingers across his tattoo. "He said I was frigid, and I believed him. I figured I would be responsible for my own pleasure throughout the marriage."
Santiago shook his head. "That is madness. Sacrilegious even." He brought their hands over to her body running their palms over her skin. "You have the most responsive body. I knew this immediately when we first touched...how much you would love the things my mouth would do to you ... especially here." He untangled their fingers and cupped her mound. "This was made for me. Every part of your body fits mine. My hands. My mouth. My hips. All about you fits to me. Another woman will never satisfy me now and I will not let another man satisfy you." He used his thumb to stroke her with definitive possessiveness until she slowly arched into his palm. "You are all for me."
He pushed down the covers and ducked his head to her thighs. "Again, our blood is mixed." In seconds he had her moaning and then crying out his name in another shaking climax. "You can stay here Katrin." He breathed the words across her womanhood. "Fully realize all your history in this country, come to a full understanding of our heritage. My villa will be yours for however long you want. You can study, research; no one will disturb you." He laid his head down on her womanly vee, the contact with his soft cheek sending a frisson of pleasure gyrating through her core.
"I can't think—when you do that." She reached her hand into his hair. This man was so comfortable and casual with nakedness and sex, indulging in the afterglow as if sipping coffee after a meal. Meanwhile, her entire being was hypersensitive and still vibrating. "And that is something I would have to think about." Her body continued to thrum beneath his cheek. She shifted then gasped when yet another strong pulse drove pleasure through her body.
He smiled and stroked her intimate soft hair. "Do not think. Only feel. Succumb to what your body loves to feel."
She moaned as more of her heat flooded over his fingers. What on earth was happening to her body? It had a mind of its own now. Santiago had released something inside of her and she had no idea how to get it back inside the box. She shifted and her body betrayed her again, abandoning all common sense and moving on its own to chase the feel of his hands.
"My sabbatical is too important—oh my God you have to stop that!"
Without moving his head, he slid his tongue across her mound and burrowed between her folds until he found her centre. "No. I do not." He pulled her nub into his mouth and stroked his thumb inside of her passage until she sighed and moaned and struggled beneath him. He held her hips firmly down and kissed her until her nub was kernel hard and she was arched up into his mouth moaning his name again and the word yes over and over until it sounded like a full agreement to stay with him in Basque Country.
*****
SANTIAGO LOOKED AT his phone screen then put it face down on the nightstand. Ten more minutes. He flexed his fingers then laid them back to the small of Katherine's naked spine. He'd finally let her fall into an exhaustive sleep though there was no such relaxation for him. His insides raged with a primeval need to finish what they'd started, consummate and copulate, conjugate and consolidate, breed her in the most carnal way possible, especially after learning that he was her first and only man. His primitive instincts had taken over and now clawed at him to aggressively pursue a virgin conquest over her.
He could still feel something ancient growling from his insides.
He ran his hand over Katrin's round bottom then continued to stroke her soft skin. He must relax. Focus his thoughts on logic. Concentrate on the best way to spend the dwindling time he had with her, wisely and find the way to entice her to stay, as there was no way in Hell he could stand aside and let her walk away after all they shared. They had come so far and discovered so much about each other. It was way too soon to say goodbye.
His mind remembered the delicate way her intimate muscles had tightened and pulsed against his tongue and the feel of her mound as she arched against his mouth...the way she bucked within his lips. His manhood stirred to life once again, urging him to spread her soft thighs and be inside of her again, only this time unrestrained and taking her in a blind possession that would leave no doubt as to where she belonged.
With him. Beside him. Beneath him. On top of him.
He wanted her woman's permission, an orgasm while he was deep inside of her, primitively summoning him to flood her with his male ropes of heat.
"What on earth are you thinking about?" Katherine's voice pulled him back from his primeval caveman thoughts.
He cleared his throat. "That it is time to get up even though you looked so peaceful and perfect in my bed." He kissed her lips and forced himself from within the covers. If he didn't get up now, he'd be doing all the base things his body so urgently wanted him to do.
Katherine stretched then burrowed beneath the duvet. "Can't we just stay in here and order room service?"
He chuckled. "Though I would love to, we cannot. There is somewhere I have arranged to take you, and Tariq is video calling in less than five minutes. I can, of course, tell him you are too busy in my bed?"
Katherine bolted from the covers and ran past him in a blur. Before he could blink he heard the shower water turn on. "Do you have a laptop set up or a tablet? I'll be less than three minutes."
Santiago stared as his walk-in-shower stall filled with mist.
"Well don't just stand there," Katherine peeked out the door. "Be by the phone in case he calls early. Do you think we can use whatever you set up to try and call Molly?"
Santiago opened his mouth but didn't have a chance to answer before she disappeared back into the mist. Less than a minute later she was out, dressed and engaged in a wildly animated video discussion with his nephew, most of which Santiago did not understand. How two people could get so excited over absolutely nothing was beyond him, but watching Katrin and Tariq on the screen was a lesson in the pleasure of joyful banter. He wasn't sure who was six and who was twenty-six.
An hour later, Santiago leaned back in his car's leather seat. "You will agree Tariq is happy, healthy and completely at ease."
"Yes." Katherine agreed wistfully, looking over at him. "Thank you." She sighed and looked out the passenger side window. "I'm just disappointed the video call to Molly wouldn't go through." This was the eleventh time she stated this disappointment. "I guess they're still up in Montverde."
"Most likely," Santiago repeated his reassurance, though this time, he added, "And how would you have responded to her inevitable question of your whereabouts in relation to her son if the call had gone through?"
Katherine opened her mouth then closed it. "I didn't even think of that."
He chuckled. "Not to worry. I did."
"That could have been a total disaster," she moaned with realization. "So, where are you now, Kath? It doesn't look like you're there with my Tariq. Where is he?" Katherine sounded exactly as her friend would. "You're where? He's what?" Katherine dropped her head into her hand and whispered a prayer. "Please, Lord give me strength. Lay your hands on my head and give me ..."
Santiago shook his head. "Katrin, you are, as they say, spiraling."
"I'm doing no such thing," she informed him. "I'm praying. Big difference."
Santiago shook his head and nodded out the window. "We are here."
Katherine's head snapped up and followed his gaze as the car stopped along a quiet cobblestone street lined with mature trees and gray gothic buildings with lush green landscaping, kept that way by the set of sprinklers spraying water over the grounds.
"Oh this is nice," she stared out the window then jumped out of the car before Santiago could open her door.
Santiago sighed and informed his driver to wait for them before he joined Katherine on the cobblestones. She looked up at the marble arches and domed rooftops of his old university. "Is this a mosque or a church?"
He smiled. "It was once both, among other things, all of which were integrated when the university was established many years ago."
"Oh, it's a university?" Katherine nodded with understanding. "Everything blended into one massive historic landmark. Very Basque."
Satisfaction spread through Santiago's gut. She was learning. "The Moors left their mark when they passed through, as did the Greeks, the Romans, and the European Christians. This building has been a mosque, a church, and a sacred library before it became the Cultural Research and Historical Preservation Centre."
Katherine smiled and touched his face. "Your favourite place no doubt."
He inhaled and nodded. "One of them. Before it was part of the university, I studied here privately with my professor. He was one of the centre founders once he returned from diaspora. After his travels, it became very important to him to have this place as a centre for next-generation teaching. His wife is in charge of the program."
Katherine's mouth fell open. "Seriously?" She turned and stared at the old building. "Generation teaching? Is that Basque code for early childhood studies?"
"Yes." He leaned down and kissed the back of her neck. "It is. And I have imagined showing it to you many times in my dreams."
She walked, as if in a trance and touched the carvings of Lauburu in the double wooden front doors. "I don't even know what to say."
He put his hands over hers. "You've come to understand our culture well. You need not say anything."
She shivered and grinned up at him. "I think I'm in awe."
His heart swelled, as did places much lower in his body. He gritted his teeth and used both of their hands to push open the tall imposing doors before them. The scent of old books and freshly polished oak flooded his nose and brought an immediate sense of nostalgia over him as they stepped into the quiet room.
"Oh ... my." Katherine blinked around the gothic space before she stared at the dark stone fireplace in a cove on the far wall. It was early, so the book exchange was closed until much later in the morning. When it opened it would fill up with research students and other academics in search of a reserved place to work and study. "God forbid they ever light that!" Katherine stared at the fireplace. “Isn't that a bit of a fire hazard with all these books around?" She stared up at the polished oak bookshelves that stretched to the ceiling.
Santiago chuckled. "It has not been lit in over a hundred years. It is no longer needed to warm the building." He looked pointedly at the temperature control thermostat on the wall.
Katherine crossed to where the stones curved into the fire corner. "If this was once a mosque or church, I bet people kneeled for prayers here."
"Very good." Santiago nodded. "You are on holy ground, even though it has not been used for prayer since the building was repurposed many years ago."
She stroked the ancient stones with wide eyes. "It's absolutely stunning. These stones must be so old, they're so crumbly."
"Crumbly?" Santiago said slowly.
"Yes, crumbly. You know what I mean." She continued to stroke the square and rounded stones as she stared up at the entire wall.
Strangely enough, he did know what she meant. He watched her gaze up at the bookshelves again, most of which lined the walls right up to where the ceiling curved and became stained glass with round golden circles.
"Where do those lead?" She looked past the built-in wooden shelf ladders to the arched stone doorways on the second floor.
"To the dormitories and other parts of the university."
"Amazing," she breathed, staring in awe.
"Xanti!" An old woman dressed in a long flowing skirt and blouse, came down one of the halls in a flurry of colour. She wore leather sandals on her feet and a gold and green scarf around her long black hair. "It has been far too long." She embraced Santiago then stood back and gave him a long head to toe look. "Did they not feed you in Canada?" She wrinkled her brow.
"I ate fine. And the Donna shoves food at me every hour now that I am home."
"Hmmm." The older woman looked unconvinced as she turned to Katherine with a warm smile. "And who have you brought for me?"
"Katrin," Santiago stepped to one side, "may I present Madame Sorne. Madame, this is Katrin."
Katherine reached out a hand, but Madame Sorne took her into a familiar hug instead. "I am very pleased to meet you. Xanti has talked so much about you and your work with children."
Santiago sobered at Sorne's disclosure of their personal discussions. He glanced at Katherine, who thankfully if surprised at the other woman's words did not show it.
"It is nice to meet you too." Katherine stepped back. "But you have me at a disadvantage. This is my first time in Basque Country, so I have limited knowledge about your university." She looked apologetically at Sorne.
Sorne gave Santiago a scolding look. "No to worry. I can tell you everything there is to know." She held onto Katherine's upper arm and started her toward the library's circular stairway. "Zuzen is in his office," she looked over her shoulder at Santiago. "And waits to see you."
Katherine looked over her shoulder too, giving him a mischievous grin.
"I had planned to introduce Katrin..." Santiago started to say.
Sorne waved a hand. "He can wait. We will get to him afterwards. I get firsts with this lady you have finally brought home." She pointed up the staircase and leaned toward Katherine and whispered. "You are the first woman he's ever brought home, so I have no intention of sharing you so soon."
Katherine looked from Santiago with a look of pure delight. "Do tell. I am always interested to hear new things about our mutual friend."
"Katrin—" Santiago warned.
Sorne waved toward her husband's office. "Run along, Xanti."
Santiago watched them climb the steps to the second floor, their voices drifting down to where he stood.
"So, Xanti tells me you like children's books and stories."
"I used to teach children's literature to early childhood students at our university."
"Wonderful," Sorne said in a rush. "We will begin our tour with our children's cultural history books. The Old Town preschoolers have just finished their family tree books and I started to bind them last night. I'd love for you to see them."
"Making books was one of the first things I did every September with my group when I still worked on the floor preschoolers. It was one of my favourite activities..."
Santiago watched them round the first set of shelves, their voices fading in their wake.
"She is for you," a deep voice announced from behind Santiago. Santiago did not need to turn around to know that his old professor, Zuzen would be standing there dressed in his very academic clothing.
"How would you know? You have not even met her yet."
Zuzen chuckled and walked forward. "I have heard all your talk about her over the past year, and now that I see her, the way she looks at you, and the look on your face as you watch at her..." the older man shrugged, "I do not need to know anymore."
Santiago inhaled. "She plans to leave. I cannot stand to let her go."
Zuzen put a hand on Santiago's shoulder. "She lit up at the mention of children and books. Walked in here as if coming home. And she has Basque blood."
The two men briefly embraced then stepped back and looked at each other.
"I want to make her my wife."
Zuzen chuckled. "And you will, I am certain."
Santiago closed his eyes. "Help me, convince her."
"My old friend, after your call, I conjured up something she will not easily walk away from." Years of knowing friendship passed between the two men. "Come. We will discuss ... and plot if necessary." Zuzen gestured toward his study.
"Thank you." Santiago exhaled a breath he did not even realize he had been holding.
The two men looked at each other and chuckled as they walked down the old stone hallway. "And please explain to me, crumbly? How are our stones are crumbly?"
Santiago's relieved laughter echoed in the hall.
*****