Moon of the Sea by pandemonium_213

Chapter 8: Crescent

His kisses traced the moonlight’s path down her belly. She parted her legs, gasping with anticipation as his lips and tongue danced along her inner thigh. Then he stopped.

Trembling with desire, she ran her fingers along his jaw in question, but she knew what he had found. His fingers traced the shape of the crescent moon –- the mark of Rána –- that was tattooed on delicate skin, luminescent in the night.

He looked up at her, his eyes catching the moonlight, piercing and silver.

“You worship Rána,” he whispered. He covered the mark with his hand but pulled himself level with her face to search her eyes.

“Yes.”

“But there is only Eru.”

She did not welcome a theological discussion, but she knew the inevitable -- that he would find the mark of Rána on her. Better now than later.

“Eru is everywhere and everything, the male and the female. Rána is an aspect of Eru –- one that women can hold close. But she keeps her secrets, and that is what I am giving you this night, you who will be my husband. Only you among men will see the mark.”

He kissed her in reply, rekindling her desire, the rhythm of the nearby surf matching her escalating arousal as he caressed her.

“Forgive me for the interruption, my Isilmë. I will seek the moon again.”