Conversation flowed from there, through dinner and dessert (Kenna hadn’t mentioned the raspberry cranachan, which was the perfect addition), with the only continuation of the early awkwardness happening when Bally was the first to leave.
As for me, I waited until after Dair, Sorcha and I were home, Dair had given me an orgasm, so, more importantly, I could give him one too, and we were under the skylight in his dark bedroom, cuddling before sleep.
“That went okay,” I said quietly.
“Aye,” he agreed.
I gave him a squeeze. “Are you okay?”
He was silent a moment.
Then he released such a huge breath, even I felt the relief of it.
“Aye, my love,” he said. “This isn’t a perfect world, as much as we want it to be. That’s as good as it’s going to get, so I’ll take it.”
“Your mum is amazing.”
“Aye,” he agreed more readily to that.
“I love you, Alasdair Wallace.”
He knew it, of course.
But it was the first time I said it out loud.
He was again silent, and this moment lasted longer.
I was disappointed.
Until he turned into me shoving my legs open so his hips could fall between them when he got me on my back.
“Dair, I’m still so full of your mum’s amazing cooking, you were lucky to wring one orgasm from me,” I lied.
“We’ll get ye into shape,” he said against my lips. “In the meantime, I’ll do all the work.”
And then…
He did.
Epilogue
A Hundred Million Words
Blake
* * *
I was in my new Le Chameau Chasseur boots, Sorcha was wearing her normal fur, and we were tramping through the first frost that was covering the turned-over-for-the-winter beds of the back garden behind Treverton when Sorcha loped away from me.
I looked to where she was heading and saw Dair shrugging on a navy down jacket with horizontal stitching.
He was heading my way.
Man and dog made it to me but only the man part of that was smirking at my boots.
He’d given me so much shit since I’d bought them, I should be over shoveling it back.
But I was me, Dair was Dair, and we were us.
