I lost track of how many times I came. The sharp clarity that had returned with the disc melted into goop as my mind became a pile of jelly, incapable of forming thoughts. All I could do was come. Again and again.
And still he remained hard.
“Orpheus… I can’t…”
The moons were gone, and the first rays of daylight had begun to stream into the cave.
Orpheus had me in his lap again. His skin was so hot, smoke was hissing not just from his nose, but his shoulders and chest. His entire body.
There was another orgasm building, and he’d called me brave, but it scared me. White stars tingled at the edge of my vision, and I feared I would lose consciousness before I got to feel his release inside of me.
“Orpheus… Orpheus… please… come home… come home!”
The words babbled out like drool. I wasn’t even sure what I was saying.
But then his unrelenting thrusts stuttered.
He put me on my back… and slowed.
“You are welcoming me home, Treasure?” he asked, holding my gaze magnetized in his. “You remember me? Remember this is where I lived?”
I nodded, unable to look away, helplessly drowning in the emerald-green sea of his eyes.
He cupped my face, and I cupped his, my palm finding his jaw as if I’d done it thousands of times before.
His hips moved between my legs, and we fell into a synchronous rhythm without either of us having to look away to keep it.
It felt like all of my Dories were rising up through me. Every version of me who had ever loved him, pressing their memory into my skin. And every version of him—every cycle of patience and grief and stubborn, relentless devotion—was right there in the way he held my eyes like I was the only prize worth possessing in any timeline.
The orgasm was building, faster and faster like a train, but now I felt it coming for him, too, as we undulated together, not caring how hard we were about to get hit.
This was the answer to every question I’d ever had.
Why me?
No…
Why… us?
Why… love?Smashing our two distant stars together across space and time.
This is why. A sudden knowledge washed over me.
And I understood something my mother, Aunt Naomi, and even Orpheus never had. This love we shared was a privilege. It wasn’t to be rued or grieved.
Because of the time loop, we had loved each other across 1,000 lifetimes. Every variant of Dorie. Every copy of Fenrir. We’d been given a thousand chances to get it right.
And this was the one where we did.
“Treasure… Treasure…” he chanted. “I am undone.”
I thought the final orgasm would kill me. Reduce me to ash.
But when it came, breaking through like daylight as Orpheus finally spilled into me, nothing fractured.
A new peace stole over my mind with the wave of pleasure, warm and golden, leaving nothing but healing behind.
I did not pass out, as I feared I would.
