For one hour only, when the moon is full and the clock strikes twelve, the two shall become one...
Bong. Bong. Bong...
Clarissa stood before the old grandfather clock, her fists tightly clenched in anticipation.
Bong. Bong. Bong...
In just a few short moments her lover would return to her. A bittersweet reunion, however, for they could only be together for one hour.
Lightning lit up the long windows in the study of the grand old mansion she had called home for the past two hundred years. Soon the room would be filled with joy and passion, instead of silence and desolation. And loneliness.
Bong. Bong. Bong...
The waiting was torture for her, and for Tristan. But they would not spend their precious minutes together in bitterness and thoughts of revenge. They were past that point by now. The spell could not be broken.
Bong. Bong. Bong...
At last. At long last, as thunder cracked and the fire grew higher and brighter in the hearth...through a swirling mist before her, he appeared.
“Tristan,” she said, the sound of her voice revealing her depth of relief.
As the mist quickly cleared, Tristan stepped forth, tall and broad, his long cape swirling around his feet. His blond hair appeared windblown as it cascaded back from his handsome face and brushed upon his shoulders.
“My love.” He wasted no time in taking her into his strong arms, tilting her back and ravishing her lips with a kiss.
When finally they broke apart, Clarissa grasped his hand tightly and led him to the thick rug before the fire. They stood facing each other, he looking down fondly upon her from his great height, and she gazing up in awe at his formidable presence.
Once again he took her into his arms. “’Tis forever, the time spent without you.”
Clarissa felt pain creep upward toward her heart, but she pushed it back down with determination. She would have days to mourn him after he had gone, but less than sixty minutes to enjoy him right now. She would not waste a single moment.
“I know darling,” she soothed him. Well did she know the nightmare he endured when he was not with her. He’d spoken of the endless darkness and the isolation. At least the jealous warlock who’d cursed him had been kind enough to grant them this one boon—small though it may be. Sometimes she wondered if their fleeting moments together had been meant to be more of a torment than a comfort. But no, as she looked at Tristan, she knew their time together was something to be cherished. She would rather have these brief glimpses of him than to be denied his presence completely.
Silently she knelt down before him and began to undo the strings securing his breeches. As her fingers worked against the material she could feel him stirring to life beneath her touch. Harder and larger he became, until finally she reached within and drew him free of the confining barrier. Tristan gasped as her hands wrapped around the wide, thick length of him. She marvelled once again over the softness of the skin covering such a powerful weapon. Her breath quickened in anticipation as she recalled how masterfully he’d taken her over and over the last time they were together. Wielding his sword with precision and enduring accuracy.
Anxiously she took him into her mouth. Deeply she suckled before slowly withdrawing, only to once again slide her lips down upon him. She felt his hands entangle in her flowing mass of long, dark hair. His grip was firm yet gentle as he guided her back and forth upon him. She then began to torture his cock with her tongue, paying special attention to his sensitive tip.
“Clarissa,” he moaned, as she continued to ply her tongue up and down.
She couldn’t help but smile at the power she suddenly wielded over one such as he. All too soon he would have her begging beneath him, reducing her to a quivering mass of need.
Tristan knelt down upon the rug before her. He kissed her lips as he grasped her bottom and pulled her toward him. As his kiss deepened and his tongue slid into her mouth, she could feel his fingers trail down the length of her gown. His excitement was evident as he lifted the dress quickly up and over her head, tossing it across the room.
“My lord!” she chastised him, before smiling seductively. She laughed at the expression on his face when he noticed she wore nothing beneath her gown. “No wasted moments,” she reminded him.
“Aye, if I could step through the portal naked I would,” he agreed, shedding the rest of his clothing.
Clarissa gasped as he suddenly took her into his arms and lowered her back onto the rug. Hot kisses blazed a trail from her throat to her breasts, and then lower. Her hips arched up off the floor when his lips fell upon her core. He teased her with slow strokes of his tongue as she had teased him. Moments later she felt one long finger slip inside of her. Soon it was joined by another, and then another.
“Yes, Tristan. Yes, my love,” Clarissa moaned as his fingers moved back and forth within her.
Before she could reach her peak, Tristan kissed his way up toward her belly and then her breasts. He guided his cock toward her entry, his mouth latching onto one hard nipple as he pushed inside of her. With slow deliberate strokes, he took her. Clarissa’s head thrashed from side to side as she felt the intense pressure building within her. Faster he began to move.
She felt her release come on with full force. “Ah. I love you, Tristan. I love you,” she said, her voice a rasping sob, for well she knew he would soon be gone.
Tristan stiffened and Clarissa felt him fill her with hot spurts of his desire. He lay down beside her to catch his breath. After resting a moment, he was once again on top of her, hard and ready, plunging deeply, filling her with his passion, before collapsing once again at her side.
“Say the rhyme to me,” he said.
Clarissa sat up and looked at him with despair. “We have gone over it and over it, Tristan. Please let us spend our precious minutes in each other’s arms, not with riddles,” she begged.
Tristan sat up and held her. “Say it once more,” he whispered as he ran his hand down the length of her hair.
Clarissa sighed. “All right, but the spell cannot be broken. For one hundred years we have tried.” She paused a moment then began reciting by memory...
“I hear the words of true love, across time and space.
The pair, who is joined forever, shall become separate in their place.
Never will the two be one, and will remain as broken.
Until such a time arrives; the oath of two is spoken.”
Tristan got to his feet and began to say the lines of the rhyme again. He donned his clothing as he spoke and Clarissa watched him with sadness.
“Our time grows short. Please, come to me, my love,” she said, holding out her hands to him.
Tristan looked down at her and joined her on the rug before the heat of the flames. “I cannot stand being apart from you.”
“It only makes it harder when we struggle with our fate.”
“You may have accepted this, but I refuse. How dearly I would love to lay my hands around the neck of that villainous warlock.”
Clarissa dropped her hands away from Tristan in defeat. Though his passion for her was great, it seemed his desire for vengeance was greater. He would spend their last moments with talk of revenge it seemed, for even now the clock began to strike.
Bong!
“Nay! ’Tis too soon,” Tristan yelled, jumping to his feet as the mist began to form before them.
Clarissa ran into his arms and held him tightly. “Take us both,” she cried. “Take us both.”
Tristan gently pried her fingers from off his cloak. “Nay. We will be together again. When the moon is full,” he promised.
The pain was just too great. Clarissa stepped back and watched as Tristan stepped toward the mist. “I love you, Tristan! I love you.”
Tristan looked at her as he began to fade from view. “And I love you.”
Clarissa raised her hand to her mouth in shock. Never had he said those words to her. Ever.
“I love you,” he repeated, and then he was fully gone from her sight.
As the sound of the clock’s ticking filled the room, Clarissa sank to the floor in shock. For centuries the proud, passionate Tristan had loved her, she knew, but had never told her so. Always when she stated her love for him he had replied “And I you.”
Until now.
Suddenly, the clock’s ticking became louder and louder, causing Clarissa to stare at it in wonder. And as she watched, the mist began to form before her again. She rose to her feet and watched in fascination as a shadow appeared in the mist and then fully formed into a man.
“Tristan?” she asked, then saw that it was he. “I cannot believe it. How came you to be here now?” she asked, tears of joy running down her face.
Tristan smiled ruefully and took her into his arms. “The answer to the riddle, it seems, lay within me all along. Until such a time arrives; the oath of two is spoken. ’Twas when I said I love you, after you said it to me. Forgive me, my love.”
“’Tis what broke the spell? Your declaration of love?” Clarissa gasped.
Tristan dropped his head. “I have been such a proud fool, my love. All this time, I could have ended the separation.”
Clarissa reached out and touched his cheek. “Nay. Do not live with regret. Let us live for now, for this moment, for each and every moment together from this day forth.”
“Aye,” Tristan agreed.
And the two sealed their pact with a kiss.