Present Day
I broke off the kiss, keeping my hands on Scott's shoulders. My lips stayed close to his for whenever the urge struck again. "So what do you want me to do? And wouldn't your bedroom be a better place to do it in?" I tried, as best I could, to keep the seductive Hanging Boy purr out of my voice. I could be as real as I wanted with him. This was Scott.
I sensed the nervous tightness in his voice at his next words, and frowned. Something big was happening, aside from the obvious. "You could take off that slave collar."
I blinked, and backed away slightly. "Well, yeah, I could. But why? It's just saying I belong to you. Don't you want that?"
"Of course I do, but in a different way." He slipped out of my arms and moved to a nearby desk, picking up a paper from it. "I released you from slavery. You're a free squirrel."
I backed off a full step. In a choked, raspy voice, I asked, "What??"
"I would have taken you downtown today to do it, but it can't all be done in one day. They have to verify ownership in city records, see if there are any other claims on you — stuff like that. They did find a slavery agreement between you and your brother on file, but it never went into effect." He handed me the paper. "But you're free now... What's wrong?" The tightness in his voice increased.
I was staring at the document, shaking my head. "You did this without asking me?" I couldn't believe it. The Scott I had known would never have done this.
"Well, technically, you know, as long as you were a slave, you didn't have any legal standing to give permission for..."
"The hell with the legal niceties! The hell with whether the city cares what I want! Don't you care what I want??" A warm breeze floated through an open window, fluttering the curtain. I heard splashing and high-pitched giggles through the window. The boys must have decided on a swim before lunch, oblivious to the drama unfolding inside the house. "Scott, I'm a slave for a reason!" I was shaking, and didn't care whether he saw. I wanted him to know how angry I was. Four years of striving toward a single goal, and he thought I would be happy to throw it all away for a life I'd never wanted?
He started to approach me and then backed away, in obvious distress. Clearly this wasn't going as he'd anticipated at all. "But you have to be free, to be able to..." He stopped.
"To what? To do what?" I took a step toward him, my fists clenched.
"To... Well, I was hoping... Wynn, will you marry me?" He wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "I was picturing that coming out a lot smoother."
I froze, my jaw dropping. It all makes sense now. At least from his point of view. Why can't he see mine? Why doesn't he know what he's asking me to give up? I realized I was slowly shaking my head, and decided to keep on.
"Wynn... say something. Please?" He was gnawing his lip, nearly wearing a hole in it.
I buried my face in my hands and began crying, my shoulders shaking in great heaves. The one person outside the Academy I trusted, and now look what he's done. Sniffling, I stammered out between sobs, "You... you... you always understood me before. When you, when we... In the first two minutes after we first met, didn't I tell you we couldn't have a long-term relationship? Didn't I tell you I was going to be a Hanging Boy? You understood, you always understood!" I took a deep breath to calm myself, and said with as much dignity as I could muster. "Scott, take me home. Now."
His voice as choked as mine, he said, "I... okay. I think I know where your dad lives..."
"No!" I thrust out my jaw, trying to stop my lips from quivering. "The Academy is my home! And I'll never leave it again!" I started crying again. After all those goodbyes, it's going to be so humiliating to return. And the Dean will be so mad! He'll have to give Benjamin his money back. But I'll never trust anyone outside the Academy again. I'll ask the Dean to hang me at a party. He can at least charge extra and get something out of it. Not nearly as much as Maverick, but...
My legs felt weak. I realized I was choosing to give up my dream of ever having a hanging like Marshall's.
Scott was crying as well, now. "Wynn, all those people coming tomorrow... what do I tell them?"
I clenched my fists at my sides. "I don't care! Inviting people to a wedding reception before you even asked the bride — just tell them you did that!"
He blinked. "Wynn, none of them were invited to a wedding reception. They have no idea about that."
I paused in my sobs as my mind processed the incongruity. "They have no... What is it they think they're coming for?"
He stared at me for several seconds, then let out a long, "Ohhhhh." The corners of his lips turned up in the ghost of a smile. What was this about? "I see what the problem is. I've been planning this so long, I somehow figured you'd automatically know... Okay, I need to make myself clear."
He walked over to the window, and pulled aside the curtain. "I want you to see something."
I came to look, grudgingly, but curious.
There was the pool a short distance away, and a building near it —the guesthouse, I assumed. Marcus, Zuchter, and Runner were in the pool, naked, playing some sort of game with a large inflated ball.
But I could only spare a little of my attention for my friends. Much nearer stood a stage, of standard Academy construction, with a hanging platform, and a noose above it, swaying gently in the breeze.
I couldn't help being calmed by the sight. Quietly, wiping my eyes, still sniffling, I asked, "So what's that there for?"
Scott laughed briefly. "What do you think it's for? Who do you think it's for?"
I continued staring at it. "But... so what's all this stuff about getting married?"
"That's for today. Then tomorrow, when everybody comes for the hanging, we can start it with the wedding party, and then hang you, just as you've always wanted."
I turned toward him, frowning, but excitement was beginning to bubble within me. I had to make sure I was understanding this. "You want to hang me as your spouse?"
"Sure. Lots of folk hang their spouses when it's time for them to become fur."
"But not at the wedding party! I've never heard of that!"
He grinned. "Isn't it cool?"
"Scott..." My mind was spinning. "This is... Is this really what you want?"
"What I hope is that it's what you want. Wynn, look at me a minute." He took both my hands in his, and he took a breath. "Wynn, I'm sorry I made such a mess of explaining this. Let me try to do it better.
"When you left for the Academy, I was so happy for you, it didn't leave much room for thinking about myself. It was all true, what I'd been saying about being happy with the memories. But it all seemed... incomplete. There was something really missing.
"Then one day, after maybe a year, I was thinking about you again, like I did a lot, and thinking about that last phone call, where you said you loved me. And as I thought about it, the idea went through me, man, if I could just be married to you for one day, that would last me a lifetime. It was... Just sort of a throwaway thought, a fairy tale kind of thing. But then I started thinking more about it, and I realized how well it fit with you being a Hanging Boy, so that it could be exactly what you wanted too. And the... completeness. I knew we'd have it then.
"Of course, I wasn't sure how I could manage it. But Dad goes to those Academy parties all the time, and I finally talked it over with him. In case you're wondering, when he first met you, he had no idea you had any connection with me. It wasn't until about a year ago, around the time I graduated from the university, that I explained it all to him. He found out you weren't available yet, and told me he'd probably need to purchase an option on you right then, so somebody else wouldn't buy you first. And I said, fine, I'll pay for that too."
I blinked. "Too? What are you... Scott, you're paying for all this? Not your dad?"
"Oh! I guess I did skip over that part. Wynn, I couldn't have my dad buy a spouse for me! So I worked it out with him. I've been working at his company since I graduated, and all of my salary goes back to him. For this. I get to eat and sleep here, and I get a little allowance if I want to go to a movie or something, but the rest of it is for this. After the option, and buying you, it all works out to me owing him about two more years after this."
I looked at him wide-eyed, my jaw hanging open. "Scott... you... You're giving up everything you earn for three years of your life, just to be married to me for one day? And then to host an Academy Hanging Boy party to hang me?"
He bit his lip again even though it was bruised from earlier, but looked less nervous now. "Oh, Dad's paying for the party — it's traditional for the parents to pay for a wedding party. So... What do you think?"
I stared at him for what must have been a full thirty seconds. Just as his nervousness appeared to be returning, I said, barely above a whisper, "I think that is the... most... romantic... thing I've ever heard of."
"So will you..." He stopped as I reached behind my neck, unfastened my choker, and set it gently on the table. I smiled at him.
He cleared his throat. "So is that a yes... ufff!" He was cut off as I threw myself at him, my arms squeezing him tight, tighter, my lips on his once more.
When I broke off the kiss at last, he tried again. "Will you marry me?"
I laughed with the greatest pure joy I'd ever felt. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes. Now shut up." I kissed him for a long time.
I had heard that the city marriage office was nice, but I didn't quite expect such beauty in the middle of the utilitarian drabness of City Hall. One minute I was walking, holding Scott's hand, through a dim, featureless corridor with doors sporting pebbled frosted-glass windows with division names and room numbers stenciled in paint. Next moment we passed through a door marked "Marriages," into something resembling an island paradise — it reminded me of Purity Island, only much prettier, and without the menacing farmers ready to force me into captivity as a work slave.
The room was lit pleasantly by fixtures hidden in what might otherwise have been wooden planter boxes along the wall. The walls themselves were cream-colored, with darker swirls in a wood-grain pattern. The floor was richly carpeted and interrupted by randomly-distributed flower boxes in a riot of colors. There was a miniature forest with stunted but lovely trees behind one of the side walls. Birds chirped happily in the branches. The sound system piped in music quietly, almost subliminally, a tune I found myself still humming hours later.
There was a counter near the back of the room opposite the entry door, with a cheerful mole sitting behind it, about twenty-five, slightly pudgy. "Here to be married?... Yeah, I can tell you meant to be here." An engraved nameplate in front of him read, "Corvin Bowen."
Scott and I stopped at the counter, and smiled at the boy. "That obvious, huh?"
Corvin laughed, and then looked at me admiringly. "That is such a cute shirt. I wish I could wear something like that." He sighed, and went on, "Anyway, have you got your blood test forms?"
I gasped, and looked at Scott. Blood tests! In the whirl of emotion, I had totally forgotten.
Without hesitating, Scott pulled a folded form from his pocket and handed it to Corvin. I started to ask, and decided to wait 'til later.
After looking over the form, the mole smiled and pulled out another form from below the counter. "Just fill this out, and I need you both to sign here, and date it. You need to sign in front of me. I'm legally authorized to witness."
Scott took the form, and thanked Corvin; He led me to a small circular table, covered by a brightly-colored (and superfluous) umbrella, in the corner of the office next to the "forest." Karl took a seat nearby.
Scott began filling in the form. I leaned close and whispered, "When did I do a blood test?"
He smiled and whispered back, "You had one on file from four years ago. They wouldn't tell me what was in it, but they could clear it in coordination with my own test."
The one I did for Andrew! That explained it. "Ummm... what would you have done if it hadn't been there?"
He shrugged, while writing. "I'd been figuring to ask your Dean to test you at the Academy on some pretext. He knew what I was planning. Where were you born?"
Yes, the Dean would have had to know. It was no easier keeping secrets from the Dean than from Runner. I looked at the line Scott had arrived at on the form. "City Hospital."
"What's your date of birth?"
I told him, and he continued filling in the rest of the form.
We returned to the counter with the form filled out. The mole spent a moment typing on a keyboard that was flush with the surface of the counter, and looking at a monitor set at an angle in front of him. After manuevering the computer mouse and clicking it a few times, the boy said, "It looks like Mr. Cameron was a slave until being freed just last week." He gasped and looked up at Scott, his mouth curled up in a smile. "Did you buy him so you could get married?"
Scott smiled back. "Basically, yeah." Clearly he'd decided there was no reason to go into greater detail.
Corvin grinned at him, then at me. "That is so neat!"
He turned the form back around and pushed it toward Scott. First Scott signed the form, then I did, my hands shaking slightly. The mole produced an official stamp, used it, and then signed the form himself. Afterward he looked up. "It's kind of traditional to say this — Anyway, I now pronounce you husband and spouse."
I turned to Scott, my heart pounding, and kissed him. He broke it off, grinning. "I've got something here."
I laughed. "I'm sure you do." Still shaking slightly, I watched as Scott pulled a small, felt-covered box from his pocket, and opened it. I gasped. "Oh, it's beautiful!"
The ring must have added its own significant expense toward the debt Scott was slowly working off. As he slipped it onto my finger, it occurred to me that at least he could get some of the money back by reselling it — except, I knew, he would never do that. I started to ask, "What are..."
With Hanging Boy-like perception, he interrupted me. "Necklace." My head, wherever he decided to display it, would wear the ring from a necklace around my neck.
He continued holding my newly be-ringed hand, took a deep breath, and grinned. "Hey, Spouse Smith."
I thought about responding, "Hey, Mr. Smith," but Scott had always been that, and it didn't seem terribly original anyway. I gave him a long kiss instead.
Corvin murmured, "I love this job."
Riding in the limo, with Karl driving, I sat with my hand curled around Scott's, my head on his shoulder. I reached up with my free hand to scratch a momentary itch on my throat, and reflected on how odd it felt not to be wearing anything around my neck.
A sudden thought made me sit upright, with a gasp.
Scott was immediately concerned. "Honey? Everything okay?"
I frowned for a moment, ignoring him, and then smiled and squeezed his hand as the solution occurred to me. "Yeah, it's okay, or at least easy to fix. You must have got an outfit for me for tomorrow, right?"
"Oh, sure. Is that what you were worried about?"
I shook my head. "I just need a... fashion accessory, to go with it. I don't suppose it came with a choker."
"Ummm... you brought a choker..."
"No, I don't want that one. That one said you're my owner, and..." I laughed suddenly. "...and I'll bet the color doesn't go with the clothes. I haven't seen a lot of glossy black suits lately. Could we go by wherever the shop is where you bought the suit and see if we can get a choker that will go with it?"
Scott looked lost. "What for?"
I explained.
Four Years Ago
I smiled. "There's never any guarantees. I don't know if I'll even graduate. All I know is that when I do go, whether it's as a graduate, or at a demo or a party, you'll be there with me."
Sumner turned to look at me. "What do you mean?"
I fingered the envelope on my desk. Sumner knew what was in it — he'd seen me collect it, at the hair salon. "When I'm hanged, I'm going to have this lock of your headfur wrapped around my collar. You'll be just a couple of inches away from the rope."
Sumner put his arms around me and squeezed tight, tears running freely from his eyes now. "Shit. I wasn't going to cry, but that is just so sweet. Thank you."
Present Day
Scott looked at me in wonder. "So this is to keep a promise to a boy you knew for a month, who died three years ago?"
I nodded vigorously.
Scott grinned. "No wonder I married you." He kissed me. I let my lips melt against his, holding the kiss a long time.
We entered the Smith house — No, my house — holding hands. As soon as the front door closed behind us, Scott paused and took my hand.
"Now that we're married, there's one more thing I'd like to ask of you."
"What's that," I asked, kissing him.
"A baby. Your baby. I'd like us to have a child together."
I felt myself tearing up again. "Oh, Scott... you did it again! How can you do that twice in one day?
"Do what?" Scott looked puzzled.
"Come up with the most romantic thing I ever heard of. You've freed me, married me, we're going to have a night of total bliss, and then you're going to hang me... And now you say you'll raise my child after I'm gone. How do you come up with these things?"
"But I wasn't trying to be romantic or anything. I just asked for what I want. All of it. Well, the hanging is for you, — but that makes me happy because it makes you happy. But part of a marriage is having children — or at least it often includes that — and I'd like to have that too.
"So," he finished, "What do you say?"
"But Scott, by midafternoon you're going to be single again. You have to work to pay for... for me and my hanging. Who is going to raise the baby?
"Well, I mentioned the idea to Dad, and he brought up the same objection. I didn't really have an answer, so I dropped the subject. But the next morning, Matty dropped a bombshell at breakfast. He said that he and Seamus would by happy to help raise my child. More than happy... They wanted it more than anything except being together. So if it was okay with Dad for them to spend part of their time on my child... Well... you know Dad, he said it was okay without even taking time to think about it.
"Yes, but being raised by a nanny, even two nannies, isn't the same as being raised by your dads."
"But that was the point. Matty doesn't just want to be a nanny. He wants to be Other Daddy to my child. Not genetically, of course, but he and Seamus would raise him as their child, sharing the job with me just like we were Father and Other Father. And if they ever decide to ask Dad to let them have a son of their own, he'd be our son's little brother. So, will you have a baby with me?"
"Oh, Scott.... Yes! Yes!" We kissed again, a long time. When we were finished, I was breathing hard like I'd just been through the Fifteen again. The same exhiliration, too. Wow!
I let Scott guide me to a small den, down a short hallway from the huge living room. My three friends, now dressed casually, were engrossed in a movie on a big-screen television. Marcus and Zuchter were squeezed intimately together in an overstuffed chair; Runner sat on the floor in front of them, leaning back against the front of the chair. Marcus's legs were draped over his shoulders; his hand rested on Marcus's shin, stroking it absently. All three looked to the doorway as Scott and I entered it.
Runner gave me an open-mouthed grin. "Hi, Wynn! Look at this TV! It's huge!"
I grinned back. "I see that." I turned to Marcus, now dressed like the others in t-shirt and shorts. I said, "Thought you said you wanted to stay in character."
"Oh! It turns out I won't be wearing that tomorrow. Didn't Calvin tell you this already? They're doing some kind of wedding scenario. Matty had us try on groomsman tuxes in the guesthouse. They already had our sizes. Matty wasn't sure, he said he thought Benjamin or Calvin called ahead of time and got the info from the Academy. Anyway, they've got a rip-away suit for you. You'll need to try that on later."
I laughed and stepped farther into the room, holding my left hand out. "I've already got part of the... costume."
Zuchter and Marcus both gasped as they saw the ring. Zuchter said in awe, "Now that's a pretty high-priced prop."
I reached back to take Scott's hand again, as he came up behind me. "I wouldn't exactly call it a prop. A prop is when you're faking something."
Marcus frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I mean it's not a fake wedding, or fake reception. We were just down at City Hall, where we got married."
Marcus hurriedly threw his right leg over Runner and stood upright out of the chair in one motion. "WHAT??" Zuchter quickly stood beside Marcus, gaping at me.
Runner scrambled to his feet to join the others, with an astonished look on his face. "Wynn? Did you say you're married?"
Zuchter managed to squeak, "For real??"
I concentrated on burying the laugh that wanted to bubble out of me: that would have suggested the whole thing was a joke. I stepped back and rested my hand against Scott's back. "You guys didn't get a chance to meet earlier. Marcus... Zuchter... and Runner..." I went slowly, pointing, so Scott could catch their names. "I want you to meet meet my husband, Scott Smith."
Scott held out his hand to Marcus, standing nearest. "Hi... Marcus?" He looked back at me to make sure he'd attached the name to the right boy. I nodded.
Marcus automatically shook hands with him, saying vaguely, "Nice to..." He looked at me again, "Wynn, you can't... you just can't!"
I read Marcus's concern, which wasn't based on a belief that I was still a slave. I said reassuringly, "Marcus, I'm still going to hang tomorrow. Nothing's changed." I laughed suddenly. "Except my name. My next of kin. Stuff like that."
Zuchter, looking very confused, asked, "Where's Calvin?"
I rubbed Scott's arm. "Calvin Scott Smith. But I've always known him as Scott."
Marcus said, "Always... Didn't you just meet him like four hours ago?"
I laughed. "Uhhh, no. It's closer to four years ago. We..."
Marcus interrupted, his eyes wide. "Scott! Wynn, is this the guy you were trying to reach when you graduated?"
Scott gave me an astonished look. "You tried to call me?"
I smiled and turned more fully toward him. "Uh-huh. I wanted you to come and see my graduation. But I couldn't figure out how to find you! You weren't living at that apartment anymore, the university won't give out any personal information, and... ummm, do you have any idea how many Smiths... well, of course you do." My hand flew to my mouth suddenly. "Oh!! I remember I saw 'Benjamin Smith' when I was looking for you in the phone book! I was looking right at your phone number and had no idea!"
He laughed. "It's okay. It's really nice knowing you hadn't forgotten me."
I squeezed his hand. "Of course I didn't forget you." I leaned forward and kissed him.
Zuchter waved his hands. "Okay, wait a minute. Wynn, if you lost track of him... so this wasn't all planned in advance somehow?"
I smiled and shook my head. "Not by me, anyway."
Marcus, in an awestruck voice, said, "Scott... You waited all this time then, to buy Wynn, and marry him, and then hang him the next day?"
Scott kissed me again, and responded "Uh-huh" to Marcus. And one other thing.
"What's that?" Marcus asked.
"We're going to have a baby."
"What? How?"
"The usual way," I answered. "A cell from my body, and Scott's semen."
"But... you're going to be hanged tomorrow."
"Yup. But Scott gets my body. So right after the hanging, part of me goes to a lab with a little of Scott's semen. The fertilized cell goes into a uterine replicator, and nine months from now Scott gets a baby to raise."
Runner said uncertainly, "Wynn, is this what they call..." He frowned and looked down, muttering, "What's that word?" then looked up again. "...romantic?"
Still looking up at Scott, I said softly, "You've got it exactly right, Runner."
Dinner was served in the formal dining room by Matty and Seamus, Benjamin's slaveboy cook. The moment the two slaveboys were present in the same room, I knew they were lovers. It seemed typical of Benjamin that he would take the trouble to make sure his slaves could work well together. I wondered whether he had bought them as a set, or whether their relationship had blossomed after their purchase.
Benjamin sat at the head of the table, with Scott and me to his right, Zuchter, Marcus, and Runner on his left.
Benjamin, unsurprisingly, found Runner fascinating. "Have you always been called 'Runner'?"
"Mostly, sir... Benjamin." It amused me a little to see that Runner had so fully absorbed his training in how to address club members that he found it as hard as the others to bend the rules for Benjamin. "It's not really like here. Here people name babies as soon as they're born..." Runner hesitated a moment, seeking a confirming nod from Marcus, before going on. "When we got our littles... babies, to take care of, we didn't call them anything for a long time. When they started getting bigger, there would be things about them we would use for names, and after awhile we'd stay with one thing, and everybody knew them by that one thing."
I noticed Runner watching closely as Marcus broke a roll and buttered it, doing the same thing himself afterward. He's intentionally using Marcus as a model, and not me. He's consciously trying to break his dependence on me for behavioral cues, knowing I won't be here after tomorrow.
I breathed a relieved sigh as I cut another bite of meat. Runner's perceived need for me had been one last thing that nagged at my mind, one final loose end before letting go. Of course, it won't be too much longer before Runner stops being actively dependent on anyone at all.
Runner looked at me. "Will you come out to the pool with us later?"
I looked at Scott, keeping my eyes on his, and said, "I think Scott and I need to spend some time together. This is our one day."
Runner looked irritated with himself, and banged the heel of his palm against his forehead, a gesture he'd picked up somewhere. "Oh, and it's your wedding night! I know about that."
Zuchter leaned ahead to see Runner past Marcus. "I meant to ask if you'd been swimming somewhere before, Runner. It looked like you already knew how."
I suspected that whatever Runner had been doing had been picked up instantly by watching the others, but Runner nodded and answered, "There was a river running through the pen. Most of the time, anyway." He looked at Benjamin, his eyes shining. "But your pool is so cool, Benjamin! It's all blue, and smooth, and it doesn't try to push you over when you're in it."
Benjamin laughed. "I'm glad you like it. The three of you certainly made it more beautiful by being in it."
Marcus and Zuchter laughed, and Zuchter made the rest laugh by looking at me and asking, "So why was it again you like him, Wynn?"
Scott said to Runner, "Wynn mentioned you're not a student, Runner?"
"Not yet, but I will be. I have to pass the high school equivalence exam first."
I told Scott, "He's studying hard. He's getting started on fifth grade workbooks now. You've got to keep in mind, he couldn't read when he came here." I realized I was getting that proud-parent feeling again.
Scott shook his head in wonder, and looked back at Runner. "So what are you studying?"
That got Runner started. He was always eager to describe his latest reading.
I looked around Scott's room as I closed the door behind me. It was amusingly bare, looking more like the inside of a bachelor's refrigerator than one's bedroom. "Kind of... utilitarian."
He laughed. "Well, I had a different room growing up, downstairs, next to Dad's. Mom and Dad's, before we skinned her. This was actually a slaveboy bedroom, and the one next to it, but Matty and Seamus share my old room now, so this was empty when I moved home after college. I keep planning to put stuff in it, but I never get around to it." He grinned. "I'll have something now, though."
"Oh!!" I laughed. "Right." I looked around. "You should..." I shook my head — the very head being referred to. "I shouldn't tell you. You should decide where you want it."
"Oh, I already know. I moved the furniture around last week, to make just the right place for it. See if you can figure it out."
I blinked; he meant that there was some visual clue in the room. After a moment of looking around mystified, I noticed a long rectangular depression in the carpet adjacent to the right-hand wall. Exactly in the shape of the base of...
I pointed. "That dresser wasn't there before, was it? You moved that."
He smiled and nodded. The dresser, about six feet long and three high, was against the far wall beyond the foot of the bed. "It'll be easy to look at you every morning when I wake up. And most of the year, the sun shines through that window in the morning..." he pointed, "...right across the dresser. So you'll be sunlit."
I crossed the room to the dresser, and squatted down in front of it, with my neck at the level of the dresser's top. "Here's what you'll see." I giggled.
"Yeah, at least until I replace you with a lamp."
I laughed, and ran across the room to give his chest several playful punches with both fists. He caught them, laughing, and used them to pull me closer for a kiss. My arms went around him for a time as we kissed, then dropped down so I could loosen his belt without breaking the kiss.
Minutes later, both naked now, we managed to navigate to the bed and lie down on it without letting go of each other.
He broke it off at last, and looked into my face, stroking my hair. "Can you still do the super-tight thing?"
I laughed, and looked directly at him, holding his eyes with mine. "Sweetie, it's been four years..." I paused just long enough to see his frown of disappointment, then went on, "...so I've had lots of time to get better at it. Get on your back."
He laughed and complied, his wolf-cock completely out of it's sheath and nearly pointing to the ceiling. Moments later I was over him, impaling myself on him, slipping up and down on it briefly to spread the lube. Then I tightened my sphincter and started moving on him. He squeezed his eyes shut, his mouth in a wide O of astonishment, letting go of a loud groan; I could feel him growing still longer inside me.
We rested awhile, holding each other, on our sides, each stroking the other's hair idly.
I gave Scott the next in a succession of hundreds of small kisses. "You are going to get married again, right?"
"Sure. I think I've got a free day next week."
I grinned and punched him on the shoulder. "Be serious. I don't want you to go through the whole rest of your life without anybody to share it with."
"I know. I don't think of it as something you plan ahead for. It just kind of happens."
"You planned ahead for me."
He shook his head, and returned my latest kiss. "I planned ahead for the day. You'd already happened to me, long before today."
I tightened my arms around him and gave him a more serious kiss. "I just don't like to think about you just going to work, coming home, watching TV, going to work, coming home, reading a book."
Scott shook his head. "It's not like that. I do go out, and I do have friends."
"Okay. But no real close ones, I guess, or you would have been married before now. Tell me you've had some sex in the last four years. Do you at least use Matty or Seamus sometimes? They're right here."
"Well, they're... you could probably tell, their thing with each other. They can't legally marry, as slaves, but I think of them that way. I don't want to get in between them."
I sighed, and smiled. "You're just literally too sweet for your own good."
"I do go to parties at the Recruitment Center. Dad's thing is the Academy, mine is the Center."
I nodded. "Okay, but as far as something deeper, richer, and more permanent than playing with a slave trainee, just promise me you'll be open to love happening. It will."
He smiled. "Promise. He or she will just need to be open to sharing a bedroom with the head of my first spouse. That's non-negotiable. You're not going in the living room, or..." he made a face, "...a closet shelf. You're staying here."
I laughed. "I better. I'll be with you too..." I patted his waist where he wore a fur belt. "...and I can get you sick anytime I want."
He covered my hand with his. "Hey, I think I can feel you moving around there already. Oh, no, wait." I slid my hand down lower, between his legs, where his malehood was growing and hardening again. "That's not my waist, it's a different organ altogether. And it's meant to go inside you."
I laughed again. "Well, let's not disappoint it." I rolled onto my back this time, as he rolled on top of me, his mouth finding mine.
We fell asleep at last, hours later, still holding each other. As much as I begrudged losing any time that could be spent making love with Scott, I had to be rested for tomorrow. And I had always found sleep pleasurable in its own right. I wanted to do it one last time.