He watched her take him, felt her take him, listened to her take him, and knew it would go fast for her.

He was correct.

“Mars,” she breathed and then bucked against him.

He pulled out, turned her to her back, she lifted her eyes dazedly, raising her legs and pressing them to his sides as he drove back in bent over her, now watching her face in climax.

That was, until he planted himself deep and experienced his own.

He had his forehead resting against his desk, his breath stirring her hair, and his cock still buried in his wife when the orgasm released him, only then hearing the familiar whisper of the muted explosions of fire all about them disappearing.

He also had her arms tight about him.

She turned her head his way.

“Can we watch again?”

He lifted his head. “Yes.”

“It is proved. I am brazen,” she mumbled.

He smiled.

Largely.

“Yes,” he repeated.

She took in his smile and giggled.

When she was done, she decreed, “I think I like Miet.”

He pulsed into her, enjoyed watching her lips part at the feel of him and remarked, “I noticed.”

She wrapped her legs around his hips but shifted one hand to his throat.

“This is our lesson,” she whispered.

“What?” he whispered in return.

“That it will always be too much. There will always be something to do. A decision to be made. A responsibility to fulfill. An obligation to be borne. So, when we have the time, be it moments or more, we must enjoy our lives together. Yes?”

“Yes, amore,” he agreed.

His Silence’s beautiful face gentled before it grew impish.

“I liked watching the men,” she shared.

He had not missed this.

“I liked watching the women,” he retorted.

Her expression turned pensive when she said, “I do not understand this.”

He grinned at her. “And I do not understand your preference.”

“We will enjoy variety when we watch,” she decided.

When he agreed with that, he did it with a kiss.

Much later, Mars had closed the windows to shut away any noises that might come from the city.

Though he had ordered his servants to clear out the garden some time ago.

Thus, for Mars and his queen, there was dark and quiet in their chamber.

Or for his Silence, there was naught but dreams, as she was asleep.

And for Mars, the same thing, even if his were in the awake.

For he lay with his wife tucked into the curve of him, his hand open, the cool of the hoop with it’s perfect, brilliant Firenz ruby affixed to her navel resting against his palm.

And he settled into the knowledge that this day, her piercing, that very moment would be one he would call up again and again in the time to come.

For Silence had told him that the tremor of the earth they had experienced some time past had not been of the Beast, not something to fear, but a moment of goodness and joy, even if she could not say what that goodness was. She did feel, quite strongly, that she was learning to read these omens correctly, as the couples fell deeper into the prophecy.