I’ve lost the plot.
“Theo! Fuck fuck fuck!!!”
He silences me with his mouth, but I groan on every thrust. It’s ninety percent pain and ten percent pleasure. I’m giving all my focus to the pleasure. When his mouth moves to my neck, I search for something else to distract me from the pain while the pleasure grows enough to take the lead.
“The male porcupine…” I pant, my heels digging into his back even more “…drenches the… the female with urine from approximately two meters away.”
“What?” Theo grunts on a hard thrust, sweat beading along his brow and dripping to the ends of his hair that brush my face.
“I know. That’s disgusting. But if his pheromones turn her on…” The pleasure is winning. What does this mean? Does porcupine mating do it for me? “Then they mate until he’s physically exhausted…” my pelvis rocks against Theo’s. I’m so close. “But it’s not because of him…she’sthe one who won’t let him stop.”
Theo stills.
“Don’t stop!” What I could barely handle minutes ago, I nowneed.
He shakes his head. “You’re not a porcupine.”
“Theo …” I beg.
His forehead drops to my shoulder, his labored breaths heating my skin even more. I wiggle my hips in search of some friction. Theo’s chest vibrates against mine.
“You’re laughing?”
“Dear god, woman…” He laughs with total inhibition.
I make one last attempt to press the play button on sex by gripping his firm arse, giving it an encouraging squeeze.
Nothing.
I’m pinned beneath two-hundred-plus pounds of laughing beast. It would seem the moment is lost.
“Pissing porcupines…” His cackling continues.
I stare over his shoulder at the cracks in the ceiling, chewing on the corner of my bottom lip. Well, this is rather embarrassing. At the same time, I can’t stop relishing the delightful sound of this man that I love or the feel of our bodies connected, our flesh pressed together.
He pulls out and rolls to the side, squeezing the bridge of his nose and… wiping tears from his eyes.
“Unbelievable. I bawl my eyes out over you leaving, and I thought for a second that you too might shed a few tears. Nope. I’m not worthy of your emotions, but the porcupine mating ritual has you crying.”
“Oh, man…” He sighs, catching his breath. I’ve never seen his smile stretch so far across his face. “Please let there be another life. I need a real taste of forever with you. This… this isn’t long enough.”
I know he’s going for humorous and lighthearted but his words punch right through my chest and rip my heart into a million jagged, unrepairable pieces.
Sitting up, needing gravity to assist my lungs in finding air, I pull the sheet to my chest.
“Tell me about this?” He tugs at the back of my necklace, the necklace I’ve worn every second we’ve been together.
Why now? Why try to know me when we have no time left?
I rub the ruby pendant between my finger and thumb. “It was my mum’s—I think.” I shake my head. “Oscar, my dad, had a habit of telling me the truth when it suited him or benefited me. I’m pretty sure he stole it.”
“It’s worth a lot of money, isn’t it?”
The sputter of a laugh escapes me. “I’m sure you’re probably thinking I should sell it and buy a car or a chair that reclines not folds.”
“Nope.”
Twisting my torso, I peer back at him, fingers laced behind his head. I find the perfect doleful smile to match my mood. “He called me Ruby, still does. I don’t think my mum ever saw this necklace.”
