He nibbled along her throat while unlacing her gown.
Her bodice slipped free and the girl shuddered from the caress of his calloused palms over her breasts and down her belly.
The unfamiliar taunt of desire had already penetrated her before he reached under her rump and picked her up, pressing her against the Cavern walls, the black stone cold and hard against her back.
The girl knotted her legs around him, yearning to take him inside her.
As they had the first night, the girl and her Phantom Lover made love until exhaustion took its claim.
The girl fought off the urge to sleep, but she succumbed. In her dreams, she relived the pleasure of their coupling, only to wake up to the same loathing that made her want to crawl out of her skin when the Phantom was gone and she saw the Sorcerer of the Caverns watching her.
Thus their time always came to an end.
But hatred would be far from her mind the following night when she wound her way through the lilies to the runaway stallion.
Then she rushed through the woods and spiraled down to the Sorcerer waiting for her with his pointer and easel, the pages of drawings concealed.
The girl always closed her eyes when the Phantom came for her.
When she didn’t see the Cavern walls around her, she could forget the Horse Trainer may no longer be alive.
She could forget he would not be as she once knew him if he were.
With her eyes shut, she could fall into the fantasy and allow his Phantom to consume her.
When she didn’t see him, his touch went deeper and his smell transported her to the summer she learned what it was to feel joy.
The Phantom could have her any way he wanted, so long as her craving was satisfied and the throbbing of her empty space remained quiet.
It was the only time she felt whole.
In the early weeks, the girl detested the Sorcerer’s lessons.
The Sorcerer with his pointer and his easel was a reality she couldn’t deny.
Many weeks passed before she finished the first assignment and gave in to her own pleasure. It was a revelation when the inner fortress she lived in all her life crumbled.
The Sorcerer never had to teach her anything twice after that.
Most of his lectures had little to do with carnal skill. Her mentor was adamant seduction begin in the mind before the body surrendered or the heart claimed.
As she listened to him talk about the greatest lovers in history, the girl realized it was the Sorcerer who was seducing her, even if he needed the essence of the Trainer to do so.
She also understood that for all his knowledge, there was only one truth: she would never gain mastery over another until she was mistress over herself.
This lesson was the most difficult.
Every time the Phantom came for the girl, her self-command dissolved into the throbbing of her hollow.
The girl began keeping her eyes open when they made love.
She was frightened the first time she witnessed his surrender. She even had to fight the urge to close her eyes and fall back into fantasy.
Then she became fascinated with his pleasure, exploring ways she could bring the Phantom to higher peaks.
The first time her Phantom Lover surrendered to an ecstasy she had orchestrated, the thrill spread through her body. A climax like nothing she dreamed possible, the tingling exploding until both body and mind were shattered.
Then she came back stronger.
Her appetite for lovemaking became insatiable.
The girl and her Phantom Lover made a game out of it, a competition to be the one to bring the other to the edge, only to send them into the abyss and fall in afterwards.
They laughed often, for pleasure was assured. But the girl couldn’t get enough of that feeling when it was she who had brought the Phantom to surrender.
The girl often had to fight to keep her hold on reality when fantasy threatened to intrude.
Sometimes she almost succumbed to the belief the Phantom was the Horse Trainer.
When he looked at her a certain way or kissed her with more tenderness than ardor, but especially when he laughed, the Phantom was so much like her friend joy burst inside, and she embraced the Phantom as her beloved.
But waking up to the Sorcerer always reminded her of what she was really doing.
Finally her loathing disappeared.
As summer drew to a close, she had a sentiment akin to gratitude when she saw the Sorcerer.
