She started wrestling him out of his t-shirt which was quite hard when their bodies were pressed together but she somehow managed it. He was already struggling to get her out of the dress.
‘Careful, I have to return this,’ Flick said.
‘Oh hell no, we’re keeping this dress. In fact, I might have to make love to you while you wear it.’
‘The pointy ears do it for you? Do they turn you on?’
‘You turn me on, regardless of what you wear. In fact the moment I realised I was head over heels in love with you was when you were dressed as an octopus.’
She laughed and then stopped. ‘You… love me?’
‘I love you, with everything I have.’ Tears pooled in her eyes and he stroked them away. ‘I love you so much.’
She reached up and kissed him again and he quickly removed her dress. He laid her down on the bed and paused just long enough to take off his jeans and she wrestled herself out of her knickers so she was naked before he was climbing back up over her and kissing her again, his hands caressing all over her. His hand slid up her thigh and touched her where she needed him the most. She moaned in relief, against his lips. He took her higher and higher, working his wonderful magic with his fingers until she was crying out against his lips.
He pulled back and leaned over the bed to grab a condom from his jeans. A few moments later he was inside her, staring down at her with complete adoration.
She stroked his face. ‘Tell me again.’
‘I love you.’
Her heart soared with happiness. ‘I love you too.’
‘Enough to give up your immortality to be with me?’
She grinned, stroking his face. ‘Yes, the big, epic, fill-your-heart-to-the-top, last-forever kind of love.’
He smiled and kissed her and then moved his mouth sohe kissed right over her heart and it was that sweetest gesture, knowing she was loved, that made her fall apart around him. Then she was flying, soaring high, shouting out his name, telling him she loved him as he fell apart too.
They stared at each other breathless. She only realised she was crying again as he gently kissed her tears away.
After a few moments she found the energy to talk.
‘So does this mean you’ll be open to a long-distance relationship now? We can work it out. You can spend a weekend down there, I can spend the next weekend up here with you.’
‘Oh god, absolutely not.’
‘What?’
‘I’m coming home with you, to stay.’
Her heart soared. ‘But I don’t want you to stay just for me.’
‘But I do, because I love you and wherever you are, that’s home for me.’
She smiled with love for him. ‘But what about your house?’
‘I can run it as a holiday let, an artists’ retreat. Maybe get some of the local artists up here to run workshops with any potential artists who want to go. Maybe in a few years, once Wonky Tree Studios are up and running properly, we can spend a few months a year up here running workshops for those with acquired brain injuries.’
She smiled. ‘I’d like that.’
‘Yeah, I would too.’
‘And I like that you’re planning for our future.’
‘Oh by then we’ll be married, maybe with a baby on the way.’
Excitement bubbled through her and she scrambled up his chest to kiss him. ‘I’dreallylike that.’
