A Change in Plans
It was Sunday about nine months later at the beginning of May, 2078. We spent the day on the climbing wall. Han and Lee were home from school for a long weekend. It was the end of their senior year, and they had some free time during finals. They’d done so well in their classes, they were exempt from most of their tests. I was happy to have them home.
They spent a few hours climbing with us. It was a nice family event. We had a light lunch at the summit of the Demon’s Citadel Mountain, then the boys took the elevator down while Church and I climbed down. The boys had to return to school the next day and needed some time to get ready. We promised to be down in time to have dinner together. Church wanted to ‘cook out.’
A cookout was when one grilled meat over an open flame. It was a tradition from his world and one he was happy to share with his children. I liked it even though I found the open flame intimidating. The way it flared when it consumed the grease from the meat made me want to jump away. Church didn’t mind. His old career as a welder gave him the confidence to deal with fire. He respected it, but he wasn’t afraid of it.
Once the boys left the summit in the elevator, Church and I were on our own with the mountain. With our children gone, our climb became more focused, and I enjoyed it more. I liked to share my love of climbing with other people, especially my children, but it was always more stressful to have others there. We didn’t climb with ropes or safety gear. We relied on the inertia padding at the base of the mountain to protect us when we fell. It always had, but that didn’t stop me from worrying. Intellectually, I knew my sons would be fine if they fell. It was still emotionally jarring when they did.
Church was good enough to refrain from speaking for the entirety of the four hours it took us to descend from the summit. Climbing with him was a pleasure. When he was focused on a task, his emotions became as steady as the mountain itself. I liked to commune with him in the same manner I communed with the mountain. I preferred to be completely present for the experience instead of distracted by banter. He respected my preference.
He seemed to prefer to climb that way as well. Lately, he and I had been on the wall much more frequently. A long climb was a great full-body workout, and it was much more fun than a workout in the gym. Church had gotten much better at it than he ever was before. I didn’t know if his improvement was due to practice or because of the changes brought about by our constant mental and emotional sharing within his magic. I didn’t really care. I was happy to share one of my greatest pleasures with the man I loved.
I had a brief crisis when I realized how much he and I were changing. I noticed it first in our sexual preferences. I started to like the things he liked, and he started to like the things I did. The blending of preferences wasn’t too troubling because it was just sex. Church reasoned away my concern with a few pragmatic words. “Isn’t it better if we’re more versatile for each other?” I agreed and dismissed the matter entirely. I didn’t think about it again until I found him reading a medical journal.
I was working on expansion plans for my medical practice, and I wanted Church’s opinion on a matter having to do with the construction. I found him on the back balcony next to the pool. He was engrossed in a journal article. The fact that he was reading was surprising in and of itself. Church was much more a doer than a reader. He would read, but only if he could find nothing to do. When I tried to interrupt, he made me wait while he finished a paragraph, then he ignored the fact that I had come to see him. He talked over me to gush about what he learned.
“This is fascinating! The article was written by one of your fellows at the practice, a neurologist. He’s talking about how they perform repairs on the central nervous system. They can’t do things the regular way because the body has no mechanism to regrow central nerves. Most medical magic adds energy to existing body processes to accelerate them. Basically, they force the body to do the work of healing itself.
“They can’t do that with central nerves because the body has no mechanism to heal them. If someone has a spine injury, they have to change the nature of the tissue. They convince the central nerves that they’re really peripheral nerves. Only then will they regrow. Then they have to change them back so they function correctly. These doctors are performing transmutation of human cells!”
I was so surprised that I swore. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
He held up the journal like its physical presence was adequate explanation. I shook my head. “No, I mean, how do you know what you’re talking about? I tried for years to interest you in medicine. As soon as I start talking, your eyes glaze over like they do when my mother tries to tell you about our finances. You stop listening almost immediately.”
He set the softcover book aside and rubbed the back of his neck with the heel of his left hand. “That’s true. I found the book in the kitchen. I remembered you saying that two of the articles were written by doctors who worked for you. I want to care about the stuff you care about, so I tried to read it. I’ve tried to read this stuff before, but I never get past the first couple of paragraphs. I don’t have the base knowledge to know what they’re saying. It would be like me trying to tell you about welding. You’ve never studied it or done it, so you wouldn’t understand. This time, everything made sense. I guess I should have been surprised, but I wasn’t. I was just happy the article wasn’t boring.”
I crossed my stomach with my left forearm and gripped my right side with my left hand. I rested my right elbow on my wrist and gestured with my right hand. I’d unconsciously assumed what Church called my thoughtful pose. I pointed at him, cupped my right cheek in my palm and thought hard. I wanted to analyze the situation, but I had no idea how.
When he and I first met, we shared memories when I tried to remove his addiction to nicotine. The sharing meant we knew things from each other that we could never know on our own. The odd thing about the memory sharing is that we had each other’s knowledge, but it wasn’t as accessible as our own lived experience. He had my memories of the years I spent studying and practicing medicine, but that didn’t mean he understood the art of it. If I asked a question, he could find the answer in my knowledge, but it was like looking it up in an encyclopedia.
His memories were the same for me. I had all his knowledge of welding, but none of the feel of the trade. I could use his knowledge to talk about it, but I would be as limited as someone who learned about it from a book. I wouldn’t truly understand what I said. That’s why Church couldn’t read medical journals before. Since the memories of my medical training weren’t his memories, he would have to constantly refer to them like one would a reference book.
The way he absorbed the journal told me something had changed. The only thing it could have been was our more frequent sharing of our deep consciousness within his magic. Somehow, the time we spent with our minds open to each other had made our shared knowledge more available to each of us. It was like we shared lived experience and not just information.
Because I’d already drawn my conclusion about what was going on, I skipped the spoken analysis and pointed at him with a question. “Does this bother you?”
He shook his head without a moment’s hesitation. “Not at all. Why would it bother me? You always tried to talk to me about medicine. I never understood before. Now I do, and…and it’s interesting as hell! I’m thrilled I can finally share your fascination.”
“Aren’t you worried about losing yourself?”
He shook his head again. “I’m still me. Nothing will change that. It’s like the sex we’ve been having. I’m still a bottom; I’m just a bottom who likes to top now.” He sought for an example and landed on one to prove his point. “You know the old stereo in the Crown Vic?”
I said that I did.
“It’s got two knobs for the sound, a bass and a treble. You can turn one up to increase the bottom end of the sound, or the other for the upper end, or both for both. Before we started spending all this time inside my magic, only my bottom knob was turned up. Now, my bottom knob and my top knob are turned up. The changes have been additive for both of us. I haven’t surrendered anything. Have you?”
I hadn’t. His pragmatism defeated my anxiety. I loved how direct and linear his mental processes were. I loved the way he instinctively reduced everything to its most basic level. His logic was rarely nuanced, but it was just as rarely wrong. He took a strange and amazing thing, like the sharing of our lived experience, and compared it to a pair of knobs on his car radio. Not only was the comparison perfect, but it brought the experience out of the realm of the wonderous and grounded it in firm reality. My anxiety disappeared because we were no longer potentially merging ourselves together. We were simply adding what we didn’t have before.
He added topping to his sexual repertoire, I added scent play and bottoming. He added a better understanding of medicine and a greater love of climbing. I added a love of weight training. I held tightly to his demonstrative question and let it guide my emotions on the matter.
He asked the same question he asked before. “Isn’t it better if we’re more versatile for each other?”
“Yes; yes, it is.”
That’s how it came to pass that he and I were reading in bed after a long day of family time. He was reading an article in a medical journal about the treatment of bone cancer. I read an autobiography written by my niece, Hannah, about her career with the Epistylium police force. It was her first book, and it hadn’t done particularly well. She’d only been on the force for forty years. The critics thought she was too young to have anything much to say. I didn’t care what the critics said. I was on the edge of my seat. Her work was so gritty and raw, I couldn’t help but devour it.
Church lightly touched my bare shoulder and whispered like he didn’t want to tear me from the world of the book. “Will you be at a stopping point soon?”
I had just two more paragraphs in the chapter, but I planned to keep going. Hannah ended every chapter on a cliffhanger, so I usually read right through to the next. He seemed to want something, so I made my mind up to stop no matter how tantalizing the next chapter might seem. “Yes, why?”
“I’m hungry for you.”
The huskiness in his voice and the desire I felt across our emotional link excited me. I slapped the book closed with the paragraphs unfinished. “What will you have?”
“What’s on the menu?”
Before I could answer, he reached out to take one of my sensitive nipples between his thick fingers. He pinched the hardening nub and rolled it gently. I gasped as the stimulation sent lightning bolts of erotic energy to my cock.
The sensations got even more intense as he sent his magic into my body through the same fingers. I leaned against the headboard and moaned. My eyes fluttered and my cock hardened. Magic poured into me through my nipple. The small amount of physical contact between us meant it took a while for my capacity to fill. The experience was like being right on the edge of orgasm for literal minutes.
When my capacity filled and magic flowed between us, I caught my breath and sat forward off the headboard. I tried to shove his hand away from my chest, but I wasn’t strong enough. Even with all the weight training I’d done in the last nine months, and the significant amount of muscle I put on, my strength was still no match for his. He continued to tease my nipple and pour magic into my body through it.
The feeling wasn’t as intense once my capacity was filled, but the stimulation remained compelling. The magic radiated out from my body and back to him. It fed my emotions and thoughts to him differently than when the magic came from him to me. The sharing was more complete this way. We were still able to communicate verbally or mind-to-mind, but we didn’t have to. Our thoughts were immediately known to one another.
Even though he initiated the session, he wanted me to be in charge. He wanted us in our old roles. He wanted me to pound his ass and slap it raw. He wanted me to exert myself until I was a sweaty mess, then he wanted to devour my body. I agreed with everything he wanted.
His mind wanted to know how to position his body. I wanted him on his knees with his meaty butt in the air and his face in the mattress. He scrambled around and obediently pointed his butt at me. I admired it for just a second before I screwed my tongue into the sensitive brown pucker. I’d just had my first taste of his hole when impatient fists banged on the bedroom door. Twin voices called through it. “DA-AD! POP! We need to talk to you!”
I took my tongue out of my husband and called out. “Can it wait?”
“It’s important!” One of the voices insisted.
Church swore both mentally and verbally. He stopped the flow of magic. Our minds separated and our bodies broke their synchronization. His telekinetic magic lifted me from the bed while that same magic piled the pillows against the headboard. He flipped around to sit with his back to them, then arranged me next to him. He pulled the sheet over us and gathered it to our waists so only our upper bodies were exposed. We checked to make certain our deflating erections weren’t obvious through the covers, then he released the door lock with his magic.
Han and Lee crowded into the room. Han held his phone up. “Dad, Pop, we’ve got news!”
Lee, who was always just a little more polite than Han, worried about what they might have interrupted. “We could come back.”
Han punched his twin brother’s shoulder. He was a hitter, like Church’s sister Mary. “DON’T SAY THAT! You know how they are once they get started. It might be midnight before they’re done!”
Lee rubbed his upper arm and shoved his brother in retaliation for the punch. “Don’t hit me, peckerhead! I’m just sayin’ that we could. If Dad and Pops want to get it on, we could come back later.”
“Don’t call me a peckerhead, dildo breath! We already stopped ‘em. We may as well say what we gotta say.”
Church clapped his hands to stop the banter between our sons. “Alright, alright, you’ve got our undivided attention. What’s this news?”
Two sets of pale blue eyes put their attention on us. Han and Lee had my coloring, but their builds were all Church. They were both taller than him and very broad. They wore their black hair short because they were proud of their height and didn’t want to tone their size down by wearing it long. At six feet six, they towered over their peers at the university. They also wore close beards like their uncle Bem. As soon as their facial hair started to sprout, they let it. I couldn’t remember either of them being shaven smooth since they were teens.
Han kept control of the conversation, like he usually did. Also as usual, he started with a tangent instead of coming to the point. He waved his hand at me. “Wow, Dad, you’re JACKED! Lee and me noticed you’d gotten bigger, but holy crap!”
I self-consciously ran my hand down the front of my body. “I took extended leave from my practice to spend more time with your Pop. We’ve been working out together. I’ve changed a little, but not that much. You boys haven’t been around much lately. You probably think I’m different because you haven’t seen me.”
Han responded with his natural sarcasm. “Yeah, sure. What have you been doing, bench pressing each other?”
Church answered the ridiculous question with innuendo. “Something like that, but only after we’re done in the gym.”
Han made gagging noises to show displeasure over the reference to sex. Lee lost his patience and shoved his brother again. “Will you get to the point? You always do this. You get everyone’s attention then talk in a big fuckin’ circle.”
Han punched his brother again. “Yeah, we’ll you never say anything at all. Why do you let me do the talking if you don’t like how I do it?”
“Cause you never shut the hell up! I can’t get a word in edgewise.”
Church clapped his hands again and shouted. His voice was the only one big enough to separate the boys once they got into a disagreement. It was a power he relied on regularly when they were growing up. “Boys, please!”
The twins apologized like the good boys they were. Han held up his phone and touched the screen to make an image appear on the wall. It was a letter addressed to him. He explained before I had a chance to read.
“Lee and me got identical letters from Lapis Figuli. That’s the big mining and glassmaking outfit from way down south. They know we’re gonna graduate in two weeks and they want us to start with them right away. They want Lee to work on their geology team, and they want me to work with the engineers at the glass factory.”
We didn’t understand. The boys previously told us they weren’t sure what they wanted to do with their lives. They planned to take the summer off to figure it out. Church gave voice to our confusion. “I thought you weren’t going to apply anywhere for a while.”
They both became silent and awkward. Lee kicked at the carpet and Han looked at his hands like he wasn’t certain they were his. I read some of the letter while they dawdled. The first paragraph gave the impression the boys hadn’t applied. It looked like they’d been recruited. I leaned into Church’s side to get his attention. “Love, this letter makes it look like they were scouted.”
He glanced at me long enough to register his surprise, then looked to our sons. “Were you? Were you scouted?”
The boys lost their bashful manner and stood tall and proud with their chests puffed up like posturing birds. Han answered for both of them. “We were. Right after we got the letters from Lapis, our student advisor called. He was the one who recommended us. He knows a guy on the company board. The guy called him and said he needed an engineer and a geologist for a new project. He said they needed the best and they needed it right now. Our advisor gave him our names and showed him our scores. They want us. The money is great and it’s a hell of an opportunity. The catch is, we gotta start right away.”
Church asked what we both wanted to know. “How right away is right away?”
Han deflated a bit. His shoulders slumped and he looked to his brother to be the bearer of bad news. Lee heaved a breath and gave it to us at the end of a sigh. “We have to start the Monday after we graduate. We’ll get to walk to get our degrees, but the next morning, we have to get on a plane. That’s if we want the jobs.”
I asked the obvious question. “Do you want them?”
Lee answered. “We do. It’s an amazing opportunity. Lapis is on the cutting edge of everything. Working for them would be a dream. Han and I thought…I don’t know, maybe someday we’d be good enough to work there, but they want us now.”
Lee made a fist out of his left hand and closed his right hand over it. He was nervous about what we would say. “I know we were gonna take the summer off. I know you both were looking forward to having us here. We wanted that too, but…” he shrugged, “I don’t know what to say. I’m disappointed as hell, but…”
I felt Church’s heart break. I was upset too, but not in the same way. Han and Lee were our last children. After them, there would be no more. When the boys talked about taking the summer off after they graduated, we were all for it, but Church was especially excited. They were our sons, but very much his boys.
Church doted on the twins because their interests were similar. They loved all things physical and mechanical. For their entire childhoods, he regaled the boys with stories of the factories he worked in on Earth. When they were old enough, they helped him work on the Crown Victoria. They built go carts to have races on the plains. They did all manner of greasy, oily things. Church hoped he’d get to relive some of those times during the twin’s summer off. He’d built up grand plans of all the masculine fun they could have together. Now, because of an unsolicited letter, his plans were ashes.
I reached into his lap to find one of his hands that was clenched into a disappointed fist. I threaded my fingers into his to offer support and understanding. My touch brought him back to reality. He gave the boys the support they needed. “It’s ok. I’m proud of you both. I’m so proud I could burst. This is an amazing opportunity. If you really want the job, you should take it.”
Lee kicked at the carpet. “Han and me didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“I won’t say that I’m not disappointed. I am. I love you both and I enjoy your company and I was looking forward to spending the summer together, but you have to do what’s best for you. You’re adults now. You’re men and you’ve got to live your lives for you. If you think working for Lapis Figuli is the right thing to do, then do it.”
The twins smiled. Han resumed talking for both of them. “Thanks, Pop! Means a lot to have your support.”
I squeezed Church’s hand and asked a question of my own. “Where is this dream job?”
“It’s all the way down at the southern end of the continent in Vitrum. It’s a mining town. They have the Lapis mine and the Figuli glass factory. There’s also a big power plant and a monorail yard for shipping the glass all over the protectorate. They make structural glass and technical glass. My phone was made there, yours too. The glass for this house was made there. They’re the biggest outfit in the world.”
Church had a practical concern. “Where will you live?”
Han shrugged like his and Lee’s living situation hardly mattered. “We’ll have to get a room for a while until we can figure it out. There’s not much down there. The land around the mine is like it is here. It’s empty and nothing grows. The town is only there for the mine and the factory.”
I was appalled by the stark description. “You’d want to live in a place like that?”
Lee found his voice to answer. “It’s not that we want to live there. We want to work for the company. It won’t be forever. After fifteen or twenty years, we could go anywhere.”
“TWENTY YEARS!” Church cried. He balked at Lee’s dismissive mention of what he considered a huge chunk of time. Even though he’d lived on Solum for more than sixty years, he still struggled with our concept of time. Twenty years was significant, but not really that much when compared to a three-hundred-year lifespan.
Han tried to put things in perspective. “Yeah, that’s nothing. We’ll only be forty.”
Church dropped his head in his hands and rubbed his face. “I’m sorry, boys. You’re right, twenty years isn’t so long. And we’ll visit.”
Lee perched on the edge of the bed. “You and Dad can come anytime you want. We’ll always be glad to see you. And we’ll come home at least a few times a year. We’ll come back for your birthdays and Christmas. It’s only a twelve-hour plane ride.”
“Twelve hours!” Church exclaimed in disgust. He didn’t like to fly and he hated the idea of having to travel that far to see his sons.
Han had a wise answer to his father’s upset. “Don’t worry, Pop. It won’t feel like twelve hours with how excited you’ll be to see your favorite sons!”
I laughed because I had to. Church did too. Han was a lot like his Pop. He had a sarcastic streak a mile wide.
I finished laughing and reached out to take Church’s hand again. I held it and offered my own support. “Alright, boys, alright. You’ve got an amazing offer here. If you want to take it, you should take it. Me and your Pop are as proud as we can be. Congratulations!”
Church echoed my sentiments. “Your Dad is right. I’m proud enough to burst. That said, I’m sure you have plans to make, and we’ve got something we want to get back to. Why not run along and we can talk tomorrow? Tomorrow is Monday and I know you’ve got to get back to school, but you don’t have to leave first thing. We’ll get up early and put our heads together to come up with the best plan we can for your upcoming move. How’s that?”
Lee stood from the bed. He and Han both rubbed the backs of their necks with the heels of their left hands. Han spoke for them. “We kinda wanted to do it all on our own. You know, like adults. We don’t want you and Dad to do anything for us. We decided we’ll take a week’s worth of clothes and our own money, and we’ll fly down from school. Once we find a place and settle in, Ancillarum can ship the rest of our stuff. We already talked to him. He said he’d be glad to help.”
I was a little disappointed that the family butler knew about my sons’ job offer before we did, but I understood their desire to have their ducks in a row before they brought their plan to us. I still wanted to have some input, but Church agreed to their idea without reservation. “Sure, anything you say. Stand on your own two feet and all that. Good for you. Can we talk about it tomorrow?”
The boys agreed. Lee opened his arms and approached Church for a hug. He put his hands up to fend off our son. “NO! Not the time. Wait until I have pants on.”
The boys laughed at his prudishness and left the room after we congratulated them again.
I kept my eyes on the closed door until Church set the lock with magic. “Dildo breath?” I asked in reference to the name Han used for his brother.
He put his free hand up. “That’s not one of mine. I’ll take the blame for peckerhead, but dildo breath is new.”
I sighed like the worried father I was. “They still fight.”
He shrugged. “They’ll probably always fight.”
“Are you alright?” I asked even though I could sense he wasn’t.
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. I’m destroyed. I want to shake my fist at the sky and ask God why he’s taking my children away. If I had that student advisor here, I’d wring his neck!”
“I expected some tears. You seem to be holding together. Why?”
“Why?” He asked to echo my question. “Because as sad as I am that my children are moving out and I’m not going to get to spend the summer with them, I’m as proud as a peacock over what they achieved. A massive, multi-national company scouted my boys…I mean, our boys. They could have had anyone, from anywhere, and they picked Han and Lee. They didn’t ask for just one, they want them both.
“I’ve been worried because they’re so close. I’ve been worried they wouldn’t be able to stay together when they entered the working world. They’ve never been apart. Maybe we did them a disservice by not forcibly separating them at some point, but as much as they fight, they’re the best of friends. I hate that they’ll be so far away, but I take comfort that they’re going to be together.”
I squeezed his hand again. “And you’re just going to let them get on an airplane and ride off to that strange place on their own?”
“Pfft! FUCK NO! When they go back to school on Monday, I’m going to Vitrum. That place could be a hellscape for all I know. No way in the world I’m letting my boys go into the unknown. I’m also going to call your Uncle Ars and find out everything I can about the company. I’m going to talk to Bem about moving some security assets down there. There is no way in the world I’m going to let my precious sons move thousands of miles away until I know every single thing about where they’re going and what they’ll encounter when they get there.”
I shook my head. “It makes me uncomfortable how much you and my uncle have in common. Neither of you leaves anything to chance.”
“Yeah, well, as much as I want to be pissed at you for comparing me to your uncle, you’re not wrong. I tried leaving things to chance and you got kidnapped and held for ransom by a gangster and…”
“And my idiot father. Yes, I remember.”
“That event made me much more cautious. Han and Lee can handle themselves to a point. They’re big men and Bem trained them in the arts of self-defense. They’re both capable fighters and they carry energy weapons one hundred percent of the time. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to have permanent assets wherever they live. I had them at their university, just like I had assets at all the other schools our kids attended, just like I have assets in all the places where our children live. I love my kids, and I trust them to take care of themselves up to a point. Beyond that point is where my network of protection comes in.”
I released his hand and gathered both of mine in my lap. I closed my left into a fist and wrapped my right over it. “I worry about what they’ll do if they ever find out.”
He shrugged helplessly, climbed out of bed, and stretched his arms over his head. “I’ve done my best to let my children lead lived that are unencumbered by our wealth and fame. We raised them to make their own way in the world. We help a little here and there. We paid for their schooling and started them off in life with modest resources. They’ve had to earn the rest. None of them lives like their parents are billionaires. That doesn’t mean they aren’t still targets. I’ll be damned if I let anyone hurt my children or any of the people I love just because we have too much money.”
He strolled to the bathroom and left the door open so we could continue to talk while he relieved himself. I called in after him. “I worry is all.”
“I worry too. That’s why Bem and Ars and I built the security detail.” I felt him shrug even though I couldn’t see the gesture. “We’ve been over all this before. The organization is established and it works. They’ve neutralized several attempts over the years. Those attempts have not been innocuous. They’ve been very bad people who wanted to do very bad things to our kids. My network stopped those attempts. The best part about how the system works is that our kids never even knew they were in danger. The system did what it was supposed to do, and I will not change it.”
The toilet flushed and the sink turned on for him to wash his hands. “Can you come to Vitrum with me, or do you have to stay here for the practice?”
“I’m sorry, Love. Remember Met Iners? He’s been running the practice in my absence and he’s taking next week off. He and his family are going to the capital for a cultural vacation. They’re going to see plays and go to debates and visit museums and stuff like that. I’ve got to stay to fill in.”
“That sucks!” He complained as he snatched the hand towel from the bar to dry off.
There was a note of frustration in his voice and in his emotions. His disappointment over his lost summer with the boys blended with his upset over the prospect of a twelve-hour plane ride and a long trip without me. I wanted to do something to relieve his stress. I scrambled around on the bed to set myself up the same way I’d told him to present himself earlier. I stuck my butt in the air with my shoulders on the bed. As an afterthought, I pulled my cheeks open to show off my hole.
The towel bar squeaked as he put the hand towel back. He entered the bedroom to find me on decadent display. His footsteps stopped. I looked back to see him leaning against the bathroom doorframe. A broad grin creased his face. “I thought you were going to top.”
I pushed out my hole to make it wink at him. “I was. I will if you still want me to, but it feels like you need a place to put some frustration.”
“Where do you suggest?”
I slapped my right ass cheek. “Right here.”
He leapt upon me. Almost before I realized his big body was in motion, his arms were wrapped over my hips, and his face was between my cheeks. He breathed deeply through his nose and approved of the scent. “You didn’t shower after the mountain, did you? I mean, you just rinsed off. I know you did. I can smell the day all over you. Fuck, I need this ass!”
I didn’t answer his question because he was obviously right. I expected to be engaged with him at some point that evening and I didn’t want to wash away the sweat he loved. I rinsed my body and rubbed myself with a towel so I wouldn’t stink during dinner. The quick rinse left enough salty aroma for him to enjoy.
He ate me like a starving man and pounded my ass like he was mad at it. He also slapped it raw to my shouted delight. After the initial, frantic, stress-relieving part of the session, we began to make love instead of fuck. We took turns topping and bottoming. We explored each other slowly.
After his second completion inside me, he nuzzled his face into my butt and spoke to my hole. “You know I love you, right?”
I didn’t answer. He said it again in case I hadn’t heard him the first time, but I still didn’t answer. He eventually got sick of waiting and cracked my butt with an impatient palm. “Are you listening to me?”
“Are you speaking to me or my butt?”
He laughed and rested his forehead on my tailbone. “I’d call you an ass for that, but you still wouldn’t know who I was talking to.”
I chuckled at his joke and finally answered his question. “I know you love me. I love you, too. What’s your point?”
He stroked the backs of my thighs with light touches. “The point is that I love all of you, but the bigger and more muscular this ass gets, the more I want to crawl inside it and curl up like a rabbit in winter.”
The mental image I got from his description was strange. I imagined the bunny from Bambi with Church’s face trying to make a burrow between my back pockets. “You want to hibernate in my butt?”
He blew on my hole to make me shiver. “Fuck yeah! Han is right, or maybe Lee said it, all the working out you’ve been doing is really paying off. You’ve put on a lot of mass. Your thighs have gotten huge.” He traced my hamstrings one at a time with fascinated fingers. “And this beautiful, perfect, delicious ass has gotten so full, I want to wrap myself in it like a blanket and never leave.” He drew a deep breath through his nose to sample my scent and lapped his tongue over my hole.
I clenched and released a few times to make my glutes bounce. “I’m glad you like it.”
“The only trouble is, it leaves me with a question.”
“What question?”
“Whether to eat it, then fuck it, or fuck it and then eat it.”
I offered a suggestion. “Eat it first.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ll inevitably eat it again after you fuck it, and I want you to rim me twice.”
He blew on my hole again and I shivered again. “Brilliant and beautiful; you’re perfect, Love.” He put his tongue back to work.
After a few more rounds, he lay flat on the bed and welcomed me into his arms. I lay on top of him with my head on his chest. The heat of his body radiated into mine and the scent of our lovemaking filled my nose. We remained saturated in his magic. I felt his contentment to be with me. I also felt the love we had for each other. I listened to his heart as it beat in time with mine and reveled in being of one mind with my husband.
I loved that he was bigger than me. I loved that there was enough room on the broad expanse of his body for me to curl up like a cat on a fresh load of laundry. I loved the safety of his boundless strength, both physical and magical. He always made a big deal about the emotional safety I provided for him. I loved that I could meet his need and in return, he could gather me and hold me close. In those intimate moments, the whole of my world shrank to be just he and I with no cares or concern for anything beyond.
He ran his fingers through my long hair while I rubbed my palm over his voluptuous pectoral. I pinched his hard, brown nipple to get his attention. “I don’t know what I’ll do with myself while you’re in Vitrum. We’ve spent all our time together for almost a full year. I’ll feel like a clapper in a silent bell, just me alone in space with no one to lie against. How will I sleep without your body next to mine? How will I get through the day if I can’t look forward to our long evenings together? Who will I lust after during my daily workouts? Who will I show off for when I’m through?”
He seemed surprised by my questions. “Does our time really mean that much to you?”
“Of course, it does. How could you ask that?”
He slid his fingers through my hair and down the channel of my spine until it came to rest on the small of my back. “I’m sorry. I know it means as much to you as it does to me. I can feel it during all the time we’re together. I feel it especially when we meet in the gym every afternoon. Your excitement always reminds me of a puppy welcoming its owner home after a long day of work.”
I smiled at the metaphor. “I look forward to our togetherness from the time we separate after breakfast to the time we come together for our workouts. These months have been the best since the beginning of our relationship. Maybe they’re even better because we know each other so well. There’s none of the old worry about being good enough for the other or whether the relationship will thrive or whither. We’ve been together for fifty-nine years. We raised ten perfect children. We’ve grown so close and more deeply in love now than ever before.”
“So, no regrets about the changes from the magic sharing? I know you were worried when you first noticed the differences. If it helps, I enjoy the hell out of your medical journals. I love finally being able to share that part of your life like I never could before. I also love that you share my bedroom preferences more now. As much as you used to reassure me that my lusts were acceptable, I always felt a little deviant when I would get off on your scent. I could tell you were happy that I liked the way you smelled, but you also didn’t quite understand the depth of my lust for it. Now you’re every bit as lusty as I am.”
“No regrets, Love. You’re right that I was worried at first. You’re also right when you said that we haven’t given anything up; we’ve only gained.”
He pulled me tighter against him and exhaled a sigh. “I’m glad you’re alright with everything that’s happened. I’m glad you’re happy. I’m happy too. I’m also going to miss the hell out of you while I’m in Vitrum. I’ll hate going to a strange place alone. I’ll hate being without you. I’ve loved this time we spent together while the boys were in their senior year. It’s funny though, I remember what you said before we had kids. You said we can’t live in each other’s arms. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I suspect you’re right. I’m having a great time getting to know you again, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more we should be doing.”
“What do you mean, getting to know me again?”
He sighed again before he answered. “I don’t think we ever grew apart, but when you were running your practice and I was raising the kids, I think we lost each other a little. I think so much other stuff was going on, we kind of…I don’t know…went through the motions. Does that make sense?”
I nodded against his chest. “I feel that way too. I didn’t notice while we were in the middle of the day-to-day of our busy lives, but now that we’ve reconnected, I see what was missing from our relationship. Do you regret anything we did?”
He shook his head along the pillow. “No. I wouldn’t change a thing. You needed your practice. It gave you purpose and achievement. I needed the children. They gave me purpose. The great thing about our lives here on Solum is that you were able to have a career and I was able to raise ten children, and we still have literal lifetimes ahead of us. We could have ten more kids, or twenty, or thirty. You could have another career. We can do anything we want. It’s scary, but it’s also exciting.”
“I hope we can find something we can do together.”
“Me too.”
We quieted for a few moments. Our thoughts drifted to possibilities for the future. His mind turned toward his upcoming trip to the distant south. I pinched his nipple again to get his attention. “Penny for your thoughts.”
He chuckled over my use of the Earth saying. “What’s the southern hemisphere like? I don’t think we made it that far down during our endless honeymoon tour.”
“It’s May, so they’re going into winter in the south. You’ll have to dress warm. I don’t know anything else about it. Like Han said, the whole area is dedicated to mining and resource production. We didn’t go there because there’s nothing for tourists. I’ve heard there are some breathtaking mountains, but they’re difficult to get to and there’s nowhere to stay. Visiting them is basically a wilderness survival trip. I like nature, but I couldn’t see myself living off the land.”
“Cold, huh? I hate the cold. I spent too many years working in it. When I was a welder, a lot of days I’d be cold five minutes after I got out of the car, and I’d stay cold all day. It sucks working like that.”
I rubbed my hand over his pec again and focused on the feeling of his smooth skin. “Maybe I should give you a thick pelt of body hair to protect you. I’ve kept you mostly smooth the entire time we’ve been married. How’d you like to be a tame bear?”
“Me, tame?” He asked like I’d insulted him.
I could tell by his tone that he was teasing. I could also feel through our shared emotions that he was intrigued by the idea.
“I used to have more hair, but I’ve never been a hairy guy. There was a guy I worked with once who was like a werewolf. In the summer he’d take his shirt off before he got in his truck to leave for the day. I used to steal glances. He was a big, barrel-chested guy. Not really my type, but very manly.”
“Would you like to be like him?”
“I don’t know. Might be fun to try it. If I don’t like it, how would I get rid of it? Would I have to shave my whole body?”
“No. I could suppress the growth, and it would all fall out in a day or so.”
He laughed out loud and shook us both. “I would shed my fur like a mangy dog?”
I laughed with him. “You could take it off with your white magic and you wouldn’t have to shed.”
“You’re right, I forgot about that. Let’s try it.”
I rolled off his body and had him stand up. I sat on the edge of the bed, so his stomach was at eye level. I almost put my hands on his chest to push my magic into him but changed my tactic when I remembered the way he pushed his magic through my nipple. I wrapped my hand around his cock. He started to ask what I was doing but his words became a groan of pleasure when my magic flowed through the organ into his body.
Silky, dark brown hair sprouted from everywhere at once. I used my memories of Bem’s body as my inspiration and let the hair cover him from his collar bones to the tops of his feet. By the time I finished he looked very much like the tame bear I imagined. His cock was hard and throbbing in my hand. I leaned forward and licked some precum from the tip.
“HOLY HELL! That was intense. I almost shot a load in your face.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” I teased.
He looked down along his body and rubbed his hands through his new fur. “Feels weird.”
“It looks hot. It really accentuates your muscles. I thought it would hide them, but it doesn’t. It shades the clefts and makes your definition stand out.”
He stepped back and flexed. My opinion didn’t change; he looked fantastic. “Turn around so I can see the back.”
He turned and flexed his legs and his glutes. The hair was all down his back. It highlighted the crack of his ass and ran thick down the back of his legs. He opened his shoulders and raised his arms to make his back as broad as the rear doors of a delivery truck. My cock stirred from the sight.
He felt my arousal. “You want to fuck me again?”
“Yes, I do. I want to see what all that sexy fur looks like when it’s drenched in sweat.”
“Do it. Make me work for it.”
I pounced upon him.
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