“You are getting ridiculously ahead of yourself,” he cut her off. “We are going to be fine, Gwen. I’m not interested in any job that takes me away from you, and I love the way you chew. My grandmother is going to love you, and if your Aunt Simone wants to start a rumor that I splooged all over the museum, we’ll just have to prove her right. If you want to pick up and move across the world, we’ll go with you. It doesn’t matter how far you wander, because I’ll always find you. Isn’t that what we’ve always done? Nothing is going to change.”
He was wrong, she knew, foreverythingwas about to change, but he was right about the rest. It was what they’d always done, and they’d be fine. Living and loving, and the whole world was possible. She raised her head when he nudged her chin, allowing him to press a soft kiss to her mouth.We’re going to be fine.
“Let’s go home. We have four months before the wedding, and I want to see if we can use your bracelet as a cock ring before it goes on your wrist. That thing’s gotta pay for itself somehow.”
She squealed in laughter, giving the thick shape of him a squeeze through the front of his rumpled pants, heedless of the cameras that tracked them.
“You’re gonna go to the sucky-sucky vacuum place; that’s how it’s going to pay for itself. I’m going to make you an appointment right now!”
She pulled out her phone as he moved the velvet cords into place at the exit of the exhibit, their very own labyrinth. She was looking forward to visiting him at work, again and again, examining each vase and fresco from every angle, learning the details of the different women depicted. She’d spent a lifetime learning about other species’ cultures and histories. It was well past time to learn about her own.And then you can teach your children, and they’ll keep bringing it forward.
“You’re not going to believe this,” she announced as he turned out of his office, work bag over his shoulder, the silhouette of his horns cutting across the floor, “there’s one of the suck-sucky vacuum places right here in town! Or at least, there will be soon, it looks like? We can make an orientation appointment right online.”
“First, home,” he insisted, setting the alarm at the exit once she was on the other side of the double-paned door. “Then cock ring. You can make an appointment later.”
“First, ice cream,” Gwen corrected, feeling a kiss of the past at her neck as they walked away from the museum and the display, the evidence of all who’d come before them. “Then, appointment.Thencock ring, and that’s a maybe. I don’t want you getting splooge all over my bracelet. I have to wear that thing forever.”
“Forever,” he agreed, leaning down to kiss the top of her head, opening her car door.
She was going to like this place, she decided as Madoc walked around the car in the growing twilight. They were going to raise a family here, were going to live and love, and they were going to be fine.
“Forever,” she confirmed, lacing her fingers with his.
