A Brief Intermission: The Song of Achilles

I just finished reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It's the story of Achilles and Patroclus and it is flawless from the first page to the last. I will have so much more to say about it over the next week or two, but first:

Achilles was looking at me. "Your hair never quite lies flat here." He touched my head, just behind my ear. "I don't think I've ever told you how I like it."

My scalp prickled where his fingers had been. "You haven't," I said.

"I should have." His hand drifted down to the vee at the base of my throat, drew softly across the pulse. "What about this? Have I told you what I think of this, just here?"

"No," I said.

"This surely, then." His hand moved across the muscles of my chest; my skin warmed beneath it. "Have I told you of this?"

"That you have told me." My breath caught a little as I spoke.

"And what of this?" His hand lingered over my hips, drew down the line of my thigh. "Have I spoken of it?"

"You have."

"And this? Surely, I would not have forgotten this." His cat's smile. "Tell me I did not."

"You did not."

"There is this, too." His hand was ceaseless now. "I know I have told you of this."

I closed my eyes. "Tell me again," I said.