Happy 2023!

This has been in the works for nearly four years and I finally found time to finish it.

I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading. As always, reviews are welcome and much appreciated.

To be completely honest, Christine could not have said for certain what she had expected to find upon entering the bedroom of the enigmatic, Mr. Y, but it was certainly not the sight she beheld as she rounded the doorframe late one Friday evening.

Instead of her brooding fiance, she found a pair of gentlemen, a generation apart in age and stature, each laboring over an untied bowtie about their necks. The younger's face was screwed heavily in concentration while the older rattled of instructions with a surprising amount of patience.

"Bring the longer end down, Gustave. Yes, yes. Just like that. Good. Now, this proves to be the tricky part," With one hand clutching the necktie, the boy glanced up at his masked companion as the older man attempted to shift long fingers in illustration. "Take both ends of the bow and bring them together like so...excellent. Now, look for a small hole that should have formed in the back..."

Propping an elbow against the doorframe, Christine could only smile at the adorable picture the two of them made. Before the mirror, the ties at their necks began to take shape, leaving Gustave beaming with accomplishment and Erik with pride.

"Very good, Gustave. Now, simply adjust all ends until you are satisfied and then voila !" Erik gave a satisfied nod as his hand landed on the boy's shoulder. "With a little more practice, you'll be the picture of dignity by tomorrow."

Gustave admired his handiwork and then flicked his gaze up with a proud smile. "I won't go to bed until it's perfect."

Announcing her presence with a chuckle, Christine strode into the room. "You will if I have anything to say about it," she said lightly, but her eyes danced as they met the stunned expressions of her elusive "boys". "You may have a half hour, Gustave. Then it will be bed for you. Tomorrow will prove to be a long day and I don't want you half-asleep for most of it."

Gustave pulled a face, but yielded without much protest. "Look what Mr. Y taught me!" Taking a few steps back, his chin lifted, displaying his best attempts at formal neckwear for her inspection. "How do I look, Mother?"

Christine met Erik's amused smirk above their son's head before glancing down with a grin. "Devastatingly handsome, of course. I'm sure you'll have no trouble looking even more dapper than you do tonight."

This earned her a beaming smile and a kiss on the cheek. "I can't wait to see you in your gown, Mother! I'll bet you'll look just like a princess!"

"She will be perfection, I'm sure." Erik remarked, speaking for the first time since she had entered the room, his gemstone eyes holding her gaze a moment longer than necessary.

She answered with a half smile before tearing herself away from his piercing stare. "Gustave," she said, affectionately running a hand over his hair. "To bed for you, mon cher . The sooner you are asleep, the sooner tomorrow will come."

Gustave sighed, but only allowed himself to be led to the door after throwing his arms around his father's waist with a slight squeeze. "Goodnight, Mr. Y. Thank you for the lesson."

"My pleasure, Gustave." Erik replied with an awkward pat on the child's head, but did not move from his post near the mirror. Ignoring the queer glance Christine threw him, he added. "I shall see you bright and early, hmm?"

The boy nodded as a yawn crept from his mouth. "Will you tell me a story, Mother? Just a short one! Please?"

With a sigh and chuckle at his wide eyes and cherubic grin, Christine ruffled his hair before playfully thumbing his upturned nose. "A short story, my love. As Mr. Y said, we all have to wake up bright and early after all."

Gustave grinned, but dashed from the room without reply. Shifting her gaze to the other occupant of the room, Christine fixed her attention on his expectant gaze. "Erik, would you be so kind as to delay your rest a bit longer? There are some things I wish to discuss with you before tomorrow, but I do need to see Gustave to bed first."

His visible brow quirked as he dipped his head in a slight nod. "I have waited over a decade for you, my dear. What is another half hour?"

With an exasperated sigh, she crossed the room to his arms, which opened immediately to her. "My Erik," she drawled affectionately, cupping his face in her hands as her lips inched closer to his mouth. "Must you always be so dramatic?"

A kiss was his answer, fingers tightening on her ribcage when she deepened the embrace with teases of teeth and tongue; brief, but ever potent.

Christine pulled away a moment later with a dreamy sigh and lips slightly swollen from her fiance's attentions. "Our son awaits," she reminded him gently. "I shall be back. Wait for me?"

The corner of his mouth twitched up to form a shadow of a smile. "Always."

With a gentle grin and final chaste press of lips, she disappeared down the hall.

Ten minutes after Christine left to tend to Gustave, Erik had managed to pace the length of the room no less than fifty times.

At twenty minutes, he had removed his cufflinks, shed his jacket and rolled his shirtsleeves to the elbow.

When forty minutes had passed, he settled himself into the decadent armchair with a glass of brandy in one hand and a well-worn copy of Dante's Paradiso resting on his lap. The fingers of his free hand drummed restlessly on the cover before beginning to trace the embossed lettering of the title.

The irony in his choice of reading material was not lost to him. Turning the book over in his hands, he realized, with no small amount of amazement, just how close his own Pardiso lay for the taking.

He would be married in the morning.

Eyes falling shut, Erik let his head fall back against the top of the chair as he attempted to exhale the nagging speck of disbelief that lingered in his heart. Who could have imagined it- him, of all people! With a wife! A son!

A true family to call his own.

"Perhaps redemption does exist for even me." he mused aloud to the darkness.

"Oh, but you are redeemed, my love. Even gold must be refined in the blazes of the flames." Gentle, rhythmic pressure landed on his shoulders and Erik opened his eyes to see Christine smiling down at him. "May I join you?"

"Of course," he replied, setting the book and the brandy aside and drawing one hand from his shoulder, placing a kiss to the delicate knuckles. "What did you wish to discuss?"

"In due time," With a hike of her skirts, she settled himself quite comfortably across his lap, legs crossed at the ankle. His left palm landed in her knee while his right moved up to sweep a few riotous curls from her neck as she drew closer. With shining eyes, she confessed, sotto voce , "Right now, I simply wish to kiss my fiance."

All too happy to oblige, Erik drew her to him, taking her mouth with a quiet reverence, prayer and praise to her in a gentle sweeping of lips and tongue. With a slight twist of her torso, Christine pressed closer to him, offering blessings and benediction in return. One of her small hands crept up from his neck to hold his bare cheek in her palm, the other draped listlessly on his right shoulder.

He abandoned her lips a moment later, tilting her face to press a light kiss to her forehead, venturing to her nose, then each cheek before returning to the corner of her mouth. She inhaled sharply, tilting her head just enough to meet him fully, elongating her spine and forcing his fingers down to anchor on her ribcage as he chased her mouth beyond the arm of the chair. The hand on her knee moved north in a smooth slide to rest on her thigh and Christine released a startling breath at the inadvertent sweeps of his long fingers along her skirts.

She knew what those masterful fingers were capable of doing, of their ability to serve pleasure and pain in equal measure. He knew she had been on the receiving end of both sensations and both caused his heart to seize with a million regrets. But now, as fingers and palm swept up her body with infinite gentleness, he vowed she would never feel pain at his hand again.

When it came to pleasure, however…

…he would see her cup runneth over. Those, he vowed, would be the only type of tears she would ever cry over him again.

Christine allowed him a final pass of lips before pulling back with a dreamy sigh into the collar of his shirt. "Why must tomorrow be so far away?"

"Because we have waited half a lifetime for it," Erik responded, mouth quirking she shivered, letting his words caress the outer shell of her ear. "I would wait infinite lifetimes more for the chance to call you mine."

"I have half a mind to," she replied tartly as she lifted her head. "You and your damned propriety. We have already known each other, my love. We have a son," Her brown eyes sparked as she caught his gaze. "Why must we wait to do so again?"

With every thread of control he possessed, Erik gently grasped her shoulders and eased her feet to the ground. "Christine…we've discussed this."

" You thought it over and informed me over dinner the night after our engagement."

Ignoring the barbed reply, he moved her to the arm of the chair, taking the placating tone she often used to make him see reason. "Our entire relationship has been based on rash impulses and selfish motives. While I don't regret that night or Gustave, I want to do this right." He attempted a conciliatory smile. "I want to give myself to you as an honest man, wholly and completely yours."

She eyed him in silence, almost gauging his sincerity. Suppressing a sigh, he tried, "Wasn't there something you wanted to discuss with me?"

Blinks and breath were the only sounds in the silence until Christine flashed him an appeasing smile. "Later." Instead she stood and extended her hand to him. "Come with me?"

He would follow her anywhere and she damn well knew it. Still, he took her hand and allowed himself to be led to his bed, large and sumptuous in the center of the room. Suspicion colored his tone as she gestured for him to sit. "Christine…what…"

"I'm aware and agreeable," she countered, following as he climbed onto the bed and settled himself against the headboard. On hands and knees, she approached, eyes sparkling with a familiar heat. "While the feast must wait, surely a taste will suffice for the moment?"

Any indication of agreement he might have given was swallowed in her kiss. She advanced on him like a storm, settling herself between his knees as her hands cradled his face. The mask was gone in a heartbeat, replaced with a comfortable familiarity that made him love her more, if such a thing were possible. Her small fingers worked their way into his hair, tugging him closer as his arms finally circled her, pressing her soft curves close to lean, sinewy lines.

"How I love you, Christine," he murmured, kissing the words into her mouth, her soul with his misshapen lips.

"My darling Erik," she countered, tracing her tongue along his bottom lip. Another full kiss before she pulled back. "A bit of a deeper taste, don't you think?"

His gaze became questioning, eyes dark with barely leashed passion and a brow quirked at the endearing smile that bloomed on her lips, flushed and swollen from his kisses.. Cupping his cheek, she stroked soft down, down, down, over his throat, south over his chest and abdomen to lightly brush over the raised fabric of his fine Italian trousers. His next breath was nearly shattering as her fingers found his belt, toying with the buckle.

"Christine!" He pushed her away with a strangled cry, desperately trying to cover any evidence of what she had done to him with her soft sighs and passionate kisses. "We agreed-"

"Yes, yes, I know," she replied, sitting back with a petulant frown. "If you hadn't pushed me away, you would have found I have every intention of keeping to that agreement." Her eyes found his, boring into the gemstone depths. "It is important that we keep each other honest , after all."

What was the minx up to? "Precisely."

Heartbeats passed. Then, "Do you trust me, Erik?"

She knew he did. "You know I do."

She crept closer, a lioness on the hunt. "Then trust me now."

He said nothing, only watched as she pulled back and loosed the ribbons that held her hair back. Taking a gentle hold of his hands, she flashed him a sweet smile as she encircled each of his wrists, using the ribbon to tie them to the spaces between the post of the headboard. Only when she had secured the knot on his right wrist did he manage an incredulous gasp. "What has gotten into you, Christine? Do you intend to have your way with me here and now?"

She sat back on her heels, considering his question as he stared at her, wide-eyed. "In a manner of speaking, maestro." Leaning down so they were nose-to-nose, she added, "If I'm being honest, I do not honestly think I can wait until tomorrow night. At least, not completely."

HIs eyes sparked. "You've come dangerously close already."

"Oh, darling," she whispered, scooting closer and elongating her body against his so they were touching nose to navel. "You've no idea how much closer I intend to be."

She surged forward, kissing him again. Her lips were no longer gentle, but hard. Impatient and insistent, mch as they had been that night, ten years gone beneath a moonless sky, She had been breathless and desperate, as had he, hellbent on quenching the flames that had licked at their souls after that kiss in his lair.

Like it or not, that kiss had sealed their fate, hurtled them toward that inevitable reunion and even to this moment, the promise of a life together deceptively within reach.

His finger flexed in their restraints, itching to feel her, to hold her, to share in the sensations of touch and taste rather than a passive participant in her effective seduction. Christine's fingers moved in a continuous symphony, languidly caressing his throat as their kiss grew before picking up tempo to mirror their earlier path down to his chest.

Erik inhaled sharply as her fingers found the buttons of his shirt, plying open the first two before traveling up his shoulders and up his arms, stroking the bare skin revealed by his shirtsleeves. He felt her fingers find his hands, tickling over his palms to lace their hands together, pulling her up slightly to feel the full press of her breasts against his chest. It lasted a moment, only one heartbeat of delicious pressure, but desire exploded in his bloodstream.

He reached for her, tightened his grip on her fingers, damning their agreement, but she only chuckled and shifted away with a kiss to his cheek. "Now, Erik," she chided, "'wholly and honestly'

He only groaned in response.

Above him, his fiance had turned her attention back to his shirt, freeing the rest of them and spreading the linen wide to reveal his skin to her hungry eyes. Those brown eyes snapped back to him as his lips tried to form her name. "Think of how wonderful it will be, Erik. Finally, We will be husband and wife with nothing between us."

"No more lies…" Leaning down, she slid herself languidly along the length of his body and pressed a heated kiss to the flesh of his chest.

"No more secrets." Another kiss to his abdomen as he squirmed beneath her. She flicked her gaze up to his again. "You wouldn't keep a secret from me, would you, Erik? Not when we're so close to having the life we dreamed."

He drew a long breath through his nose. "Of…of course not, Christine."

Her finger found the waistband of his trousers, running a teasing finger along the line. "That makes me happier than you know, love." Fingers pressed into the curve of his hipbone. "Because I am not sure I could agree to share my life with someone who fails to be completely and thoroughly honest with me."

He was literally putty in her hands. "I…I could not agree more."

Christine let out a hum of agreement, moving her hands to his belt, running fingertips over the buckle as he released another guttural moan. "Wha…what are you doing to me, woman?"

"Giving you a taste, of course," Her tone was deceptively innocent and she brought their gazes back together as her fingers worked, Erik's eyes widening at the knowing clink of the buckle giving way.

She has him in her hand now, hard and soft all at once. She met his wide eyes with an enthralling grin, then pulled herself up to him again, taking his mouth with a renewed purpose. Her tongue plundered his mouth, boldly pushing forward, then retreating, mimicking the slight movement of her hand on another part of his skin. Erik's arms flailed, desperate to break free to his bonds, lips bruising hers. Despite his efforts, Christine was content to explore on her own, to catalog every hitch of breath and each desperate gasp caused by her touch.

Christine withdrew lips and hands then, eyes alight with mischief. A glance down causes a satisfied blush to darken her cheek and she peered up at him, finding his pupils blown and an incredulous expression. "You tricked me."

"No, Erik. Merely a preview of all that could be yours."

Despite his agitated state, a brow lifted. " Could be?"

"That's right." Christine rolled away and off the bed, tightening the belt of her robe. "Because despite several attempts, you have not, in fact, been honest."

His mouth gaped, certain he looked no better than a fish struggling for air. "Christine, what-"

'Did you really think I would not find out?" she cried, stepping away to pace the room. "I am well aware of how far you will go to see things done to your satisfaction, Erik, but this was insane, even for you!"

He pleaded with his passion-addled brain to form some sort of coherent thought as to what she could possibly be ranting over, but…"Chrisinte…please. Help me see-"

"I am not a prize to be won in a bet, Erik."

Oh. Oh.

HIs blood froze and he withered under her glare. "Christine…"

"I am well aware of my name," she seethed. "Did you truly think I wouldn't find out?"

"I had hoped you wouldn't," he muttered, stringing forward when he heard her frustrated cry. "Christine, I am sorry. From the depths of my bleak, black soul, I apologize. I was afraid of losing you again." He piped up, "For the record, that boy was just as eager to -"

"That still does not entitle either of you to reduce me to a bargaining chip," she seethed. "And don't you dare concern yourself with Raoul. I will deal with him in my own time. He is not the one I am about to marry in the morning." She advanced on him and Erik felt himself shrink under her rage. "You should have trusted me, Erik. How am I to feel when I am to bind myself to you for the rest of my life when you've done something so incredibly asinine ?"

He had no answer and he knew it. Though he swore he could feel his heart break, he hung his head, eyes falling shut so she wouldn't see his tears. "There is nothing I can say that would be sufficient to change your mind. Thank you, Christine. These past few months have truly been a beacon of light in my miserable life. I will not stop you from leaving, but please swear to me that Gustave knows how much I loved him- and his mother."

Christine's answering scoff snapped his eyes open and up to her face. "Please do stop with the theatrics, Erik. They are too much- even for you."

He blinked. "But you just said- with the wedding off."

"Did I say anything about calling the wedding off?!"

He swallowed, afraid to hope. "So we're still….tomorrow…."

"Oh, Erik," He could see the effort that kept Christine from lifting her eyes to the heavens rather than his face as she sat next to him on the bed. "The wedding is still on. I love you, you foolish man. Even when you frazzle every last one of my nerves."

He chanced a glance at her. "I thought Gustave did that."

Her smile this time was genuine. "And where do you think he gets that particular talent from?"

He felt a ghost of a smile curl his mouth before Christine leaned over to press a kiss there. "I am sorry, Christine. Truely and terribly sorry."

"I know you are," she conceded, snaking an arm around his waist and settling her head against his shoulders. "But I mean it, Erik. No more secrets. None. Or you will quickly find yourself banished to the performer's barracks."

"Noted and understood," he mumbled into her curls.

"Accepted and forgiven," she countered.

Erik was silent, enjoying her presence before asking, "How did you find out about that damn wager?"

Christine chuckled. "One of the first things you'll learn as a parent, love. Children hear everything. Especially from small spaces that allow them to hide undetected."

"Of course," he groaned, earning another chuckle and a squeeze of his waist from the woman beside him. "If not him, then it would have been Fleck. That woman knows all."

"All the more reason you should exercise more caution in the future," Christine quipped. She stood on a long exhale, pressing a lingering kiss to his lips. "It is getting late and we've a big day tomorrow."

"Christine!" She stopped in the doorway, a questioning gaze thrown in his direction. Erik felt the tips of his ear heat as he gestured south with his chin. "Do you really mean to leave me…like this?"

"Oh! Apologies." She sauntered back to the bed, eyes sparkling as she tucked him back into his trousers. "There you are, sweetheart." she chirped with a wide smile. "Get some sleep!."

"Christine!" he called again, face heating as he stared incredulously after her. "You can't expect me to stay like this until morning."

"Of course not," she replied smoothly, eyes roving over his prone figure, shirt open and buckle laid wide. "I'm sure Gangle or Squelch will be along shortly to discuss the plan for the morning. They'll fix you right up."

"Christine…"

"Good night, Erik," she responded, leaning down to leave him with a heated kiss and a brush of her fingers over the tent in his trousers for good measure. He groaned against her lips, acutely aware of his body's reaction to her touch. The minx would leave him vulnerable after all.

"Christine…" He pleaded again.

"I love you, Erik," she repeated, "but while the Devil may take the hindmost, he will also always come to collect." He watched, speechless, as she swept from the room, pausing in the door with a final farewell- and a promise

"Until tomorrow, my love. Then I will come to collect mine ."