There was the ripple of hard muscle underneath the layer of soft flesh that made her belly appear smooth, and that subdermal sensation continued under his hand as it explored up over the ladder of her ribs and the ovoid mounds set upon them.<br/><br/>"The only song you could wrest from me would be a dirge," she said, her voice quiet and flat. "A woman is not meant to be but a vessel for a man; a woman is the beginning and giver of all life, and rightfully its protectorate as well."