The Black Widow and the Peacock: First Date

[Ivone]

Before she could lift up from the kiss, Aurelio's hand caught her and held her so he could whisper in her ear. His touch was as gentle as a butterfly's flutter. She was not trapped, physically, but in other ways, well...

"Stay with me," he said. Ahh, he did it, didn't he? Voicing her inner most thought out loud like that? Oh, she was undone. That was her line, yet it came from his lips. How was she supposed to resist that? How many other women had he won over this way?

It didn't matter and it didn't make a difference. Ivone wasn't walking in blind, but she was just like any other woman. Women often had a hard time separating the heart from the body, especially when it came to sex. Ivone was no different. She was just more emotionally complicated. She knew when she started she would find herself in a position that hurt her. Maybe that's why she did it. Because hurting meant she felt something other than numb.

The washcloth slipped from her fingers. Her arms slipped around him in a hug. "Of course." She whispered back.

"I'll tell you something else." Ivone slipped into the water behind him, rested her cheek against his back, and held him.

"The first house party I attended, I was thirteen." Ivone closed her eyes, remembering the music and people.

"I was so nervous. All the other ladies were much older than I and looked so glamorous. I wore a lady's dress, but with my petite size I thought I looked like a boy dressed in a woman's dress. My hair was down, tied back from my face with a bow. All the other women had their hair pulled up and they murmured behind their fans. Really, not much of a difference from the shop today. Women size up their competition and tear them down with sharp words and sharper kindness."

Ivone smiled against Auerlio's back. "I walked the room as I was told I ought, being introduced to this matron and that. I was a commodity and the shopping had already begun. I curtsied. I made small talk and smiled. It is what we do, isn't it?"

Ivone shifted her legs, so they settled easily along the line of his hips.

"I looked around, probably a little too wide-eyed. In one corner, an attractive man held court among a group of several women. He sat in a chair, sipping a glass of wine. The women were pestering him to dance, but he just looked bored. Our eyes met and I looked away, embarrassed at being caught staring. The next thing I knew, my mother was petitioned to allow me to dance. When I looked up, there you were, holding out your hand and asking me to dance."

Ivone was smiling again, amused at the memory of her youthful naivete.

"You were my first dance. Now, how is that for sharing something you didn't know?" Ivone left it unspoken that the gesture had also made him her first crush. She didn't want to make things awkward when they seemed to be doing so well together. If he asked, though, she'd admit it.

[Aurelio]

Aurelio leaned forward, releasing her neck to smooth his hands along her thighs. He expelled a breath; the sound he made was almost startled, almost a laugh. It was quiet, at odds with the staccato movements of his fingers against her skin. When he spoke he was off by a half beat. "How many years ago was this? And you remember, you remember me." He lifted his right hand, capturing one of hers and bringing it up for a teasing kiss. "I am charmed, milady. Did you enjoy this dance with me?"

[Ivone]

Ivone smiled again, this time at his surprise. Granted, he did not see it, but that was alright, too.

"Seven years' ago at the Morrington's house." The kiss to her hand earned another smile. Ivone chuckled. "Ahh, how could I not enjoy it? A dashing man swept an impressionable young girl off her feet into a waltz when he could have danced with any other lady in the room. Of course, I did."

The washcloth floated in the water near her leg and his hip. Ivone picked it up and pressed the cloth to the side of her neck, allowing the warm water to flow down her chest and back.

[Aurelio]

"Would you care to dance with me again?"

His voice held a danger to it; he presented her a challenge similar to their first meeting in the tea shop. This time his voice was tempered with a warmth and familiarity that promised no cutting observations, though it did hold a new subtext. This one was more reminiscent of the experience they had most recently shared together, downstairs.

[Ivone]

There was not a moment's hesitation.

"I'd love to."

Stay with me? Yes.

Dance with me? Yes.

What other questions did he have?

Ivone had already decided to be herself, not some coy courtesan. The latter did not suit her personality. She was investing herself wholly in the venture.

Reckless? Yes.

But there was a thrill in the recklessness, deciding to do something for herself because she wanted to - not because it was expected of her, and a resurrection of that feeling of one's first crush.

Ivone reached for the bathwash and continued washing the sweat from her skin.

[Aurelio]

Her movement prompted his movement, as he drew forward and turned. The water sloshed around him, some of it spilling over the edges of the tub to splat against the ground. With a delicate neatness Aurelio plucked the brush from Ivone's hand, his eyes offering a teasing dare for her to try to stop him. He took one of her arms and focused on her skin. "There is a gathering tomorrow, with music and dancing. It is only semi-formal, but it will not be stuffy. No one will have the time or the breath to bother us. Go with me?"

He looked up to meet her eyes at the last question, no hint of shyness or bashfulness in him. They were close to each other, and nude, but his body language was so relaxed as to indicate this was the most natural thing in the world for them.

[Ivone]

The spill of the water was unimportant. Floors could be dried off. WIth a bemused smile, Ivone did not fight for the brush. She accepted the attention he offered just he had accepted hers. His eyes dropped as he began to run the brush gently over the skin of her arm. Ivone watched his expression before her gaze dropped to look over his body. She liked what she saw, looking at him just as he had looked at her before she'd climbed into the bath. Her gaze lifted to her arm, watching the slow circles he made with his hands.

"There is a gathering tomorrow, with music and dancing. It is only semi-formal, but it will not be stuffy. No one will have the time or the breath to bother us. Go with me?"

Ivone looked up at him from under her lashes, the look a wholly feminine one. Their eyes met. She still wore the hint of a smile. She didn't feel awkward or shy. That moment had passed when he'd looked at her and the scar. She'd think to herself, later, that the ease of their interaction in such an intimate setting as bathing together was unexpected.

"I'd love to." Ivone held his gaze with hers. Impulsively she leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. More water sloshed and splashed. Breaking the kiss, she murmured against his lips. "What time should I be ready?" Timing was everything. She hadn't renewed her wardrobe except to add mourning clothes to it. Nearly everything she owned was last season.

[Aurelio]

"That depends on when and where you want dinner," he returned, voice breezy and expression suggestive. It would be, then, as the brush made quite the leap from her shoulder and down to her front. Of course, at that point he was not washing her so much as teasing her skin; not for the purpose of arousal, but for laughter or the curious relaxing sensation that some individuals receive at light skittering touches.

[Ivone]

Ivone grinned at the playful and suggestive look on his face. "Do you mean tonight's dinner or tomorrow's? Because if it's tonight's, I think it should be in bed." Ivone raised her brows and returned a cheeky, suggestive grin back at him. "Tomorrow, though, I will leave to your impeccable taste."

Ivone sighed and slowly waved her hands back and forth in the water. Her lips pursed.

"I need to go shopping. All my clothes are last Season and I am required to wear mourning blue for six more months." Thinking about mourning threatened to bring back the sadness. As if attempting to keep her thoughts light, Aurelio moved the brush.

The touches tickled. Ivone scrunched up her nose, smiled broadly, squished her shoulders inward, and made a meepy-squeak of a noise.
More water sloshed about. Ivone splashed Aurelio,

"Eee! hee hee! That tickles!"

Playfulness turned amorous.

Needless to say, his clothing did not get fixed and anyone seeing him leave in such a disheveled state could only come to one conclusion.

[Ivone]

Ivone and Aurelio continue here: http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3472