She felt sure that he would come to her that first night.
She expected that he would stride in and say that it was time to "claim his rights."
She was certain that he would do everything he could to make the marriage final.
So she waited, tense with anger and confusion, her mind whirling with ideas of what she would do.
She could fight back and hurt him and buy herself a night, maybe.
She could give in and let him do everything because her life was destroyed anyway.
Those were her two choices, and her mind chased them in circles over and over until exhaustion finally pulled her into the uneasy peace of sleep.
And when she woke the next morning, she was untouched and unclaimed and a tiny pang of relief brightened the dull beginning of the rest of her life.
***
The second night, he came to the room, but he didn't try to touch her.
He didn't come near her at all in those first few weeks, not at night.
In the daytime they got into all kinds of fights and he overpowered her and intimidated her and she got used to the feeling of his rough hands on her soft skin.
But at night he kept his distance.
And she was grateful.
***
After it became obvious that there would be no escape, she started to sometimes have odd impulses.
She thought now and then that a good way to derail an argument would be just to reach for him.
He got so confused whenever she voluntarily touched him. If she tried to initiate even the slightest form of a lover's embrace, it would surely stop him dead in his tracks.
But the few times she tried to follow the impulse, he shut her down right away.
He threw her off and said harsh things about how he didn't want to do anything that would cause a lasting change.
He didn't want to confirm the marriage in any way at all.
And yet he wouldn't set her free, either.
At least, not on her terms.
And it started to frustrate her.
***
Gradually she found herself craving his attention.
She wanted him to touch her.
She didn't understand why, couldn't believe it, after everything that had happened.
But the bitterness had faded, and the sweet temptations of the unexpected new life she was building led her to have...new dreams.
And new cravings.
***
She argued with him that the world would assume that everything had already happened between them.
Even if they got free of each other one day, she would never be seen as pure again.
Not in the way he somehow still insisted on seeing her.
But he argued back that she would know the truth, and so would any man who eventually came into her life.
She couldn't believe he could talk so easily of her supposed future with someone else.
As if the marriage still meant nothing to him.
His stubbornness was legendary...but it was no match for hers
***
When he finally gave in to her, she found a new source of frustration.
He was too reverent, too careful.
She knew he had experience, knew he must have learned to be rough and ready from sheer need.
But he never was quite free with her.
He never touched her as if he felt entitled to.
Always as if he felt honoured to.
And she didn't like it.
She had not accepted such a man as her husband only to have him treat her as if he were some other kind of man entirely.
She wanted the visceral reality of him, his roughness and his passion.
So she did what she could to provoke him.
***
His tolerance proved to be legendary too, and she was at her wit's end when finally, finally, he snapped.
Jealousy turned out to be the needed factor.
When he was bent on proving himself as her one and only, he finally lost all restraint.
And she was finally satisfied.
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