I leaned in closer and caught the scent of her skin, a soft odor of hardwood oils and roses and sweat. It curled and teased my nose, my tongue, and I felt a fresh moistness in my mouth as I thought ahead to tasting the sweetest parts of her. But first her collar bone, her breast, her fingers, the soft insides of her elbows, her yielding belly, her hips, all to be kissed and tasted and caressed.

I was gentle until I heard her begin to sigh, her voice a low moan of unmetered music punctuated by staccato breaths. In my mind I heard the ghazal she'd sung for me, the meandering cadence of sad couplets and a melody that wove a fabric of pure, deep regret.

"Dear one, forgive me. My flesh cannot be tamed. That I am worthy of you I am hopeless to prove."

Her song ringing in my head, I parted the flesh between her legs and buried my mouth in her. She was tart like apricots and slick and hot. I lapped up her moisture, then bared my teeth. I wanted her, all of her, to possess her, starting here at the tenderest part.

I lapped and bit at her in earnest and her hips bucked up at me. I heard her voice grow louder and more urgent the deeper I went, but I was beyond listening. Just her scent, her taste, the intimate flavors of womb and bowel, the most beautiful things I'd ever been this close to, these things overwhelmed my senses and I lost track of the city, the room, her voice. I only cared about consuming her, taking her. Blood filled me and I was hungry, so hungry, for the juice and the meat of her.

Minutes later, as I emerged from my frenzy and reverie, I recognized that her voice had become quiet. Sated for the moment, I leaned back and surveyed my work. She lay beneath me, bare and vulnerable and ravished, her wraps fallen in pooling shapes around her, mimicking the pools of black blood that flowed from her thighs, soaking the mattress and shining glossy in the moonlight.

I breathed deeply again, drunk, this time savoring the taste: blood and flesh, bowel, bone. I had only begun. This fever to make her mine would not cool until I'd taken all of her.

"Blood fills chambers in the temple of my heart. The sin that I can never atone is love."