A "buttah-cup" by any other name...Part 2

"I love the sound of your name"...

It's the line sung in oodles of country songs and probably plenty of pop songs, too. It's a staple of any reputable love song or story. I never really, properly understood it until I fell hard and fast into true love. In the beginning, when the nights were still rough and the distance felt like galaxies and the time apart felt like centuries, I would lay in bed at night and simply turn it over and over in my head. Not my pet names for him, his real, given, birth name. Like a mantra or a prayer. Never said aloud and, actually, to this day I tend to refer to him as "Mr. Wonderful" to my friends and I speak his real name to few of my friends. The few that I do, know that it's a special treat and trust. You see, I keep his real name inside my heart and when I speak it aloud even to him it's almost exclusively in intensely private moments of profound intimacy.

Occasionally, when I want him to really hear and get me as I tell him "I love you", I will add his full name to the end, just as I do with my children. I'll lean close, whisper it soft and low right next to his ear, my lips brushing against it, my eyelashes tickling his skin. He'll blush and with one arm pull me closer so his own lips can trail kisses down my neck, while his other hand will squeeze the hand holding mine as tight as he can. He won't answer me, lost in the emotion of the moment.

In other intensely passionate moments, just before all of heaven opens up before me and the glory of his love rains down around me I can't help but use it reverently and with a great ardor. Sometimes I cry it out, louder and louder and sometimes I whisper it, each way matched in intensity and passion. Whether I whisper it or whether I scream it, I never care who hears me in these moments. In that particular moment, it is all about the purity and fervor of our love-making.

It is the name his parents gave him on the day he was born, not a pet name I have christened him with. While there are many of those, in our most private moments, I use the name chosen for him on the day God brought him into this world. He, on the other hand, uses the name he christened me with in almost all our moments.

To be continued...