A Life of Love - IV. A Testament to Love - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Oh, Sweeting!” Severus said after a minute or so of kissing.  Tear-stains were on his face.  “You don't know what life has been like without you!  I missed you so much.”

Her smile faded for a moment as she said, “Yes, it's been hard on me too.  Not just me either...  I mean besides the fact I had to worry everyday if you were in prison or dead.”

“I always hoped you would move away to find a life like the one you have found.”

“I always hoped you'd share it with me,” she said sounding wistful.

“I will now,” he said soft tones.  “If you'll let me.”

“That's the plan isn't it?” she said demurely, taking his arm in hers and walking with him towards the house.  She hesitated.  “Well, we'll have to see.  Perhaps now is a good time for your surprise.”

“Dearest, I don't need surprises.  I have you.  What could be better?”

Bethany smiled and started to speak.  

Severus interrupted, overwhelmed for a moment, “You look so radiant.  And you seem as young as the day I first met you.  It must be the unicorns and fair conditions keeping you so vibrant.  I know I feel old in my heart.”

“Ah,” she said.  “But you're not old.  You're only six months older than I am.  We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

“You say that as if no time has passed at all.”  It was his turn to feel wistful.

Bethany looked in his hand and saw the blue rose.  She put her hand over his and said, “The flower will ultimately perish, but it's enchantment may still be preserved.”  She looked at him with eyes that glittered, either from the sun or the start of tears or the hope that love will triumph.  “Did you like my Portkey memento?”

Severus nodded and swallowed, as he remembered seeing the rose again for the first time in years.  He realized that not only had she dried it and kept it all this time but she had also picked it of all possible items to be the way that led back to her.  

“You had better put it back in the envelope.  It wouldn't be any fun if one of us suddenly transported back to the Unicorn Guard headquarters.  I, for one, have been without you long enough.”

Her words touched a hollow place in his heart, echoing his fears.  He fumbled with putting the rose safely back in the envelope.  Then he looked at her earnestly and spoke his concerns.

“When you left, you were still my fiancée.  But one of the potentialities of you leaving was that we might never see each other again.  Now we’re together again, but the years have changed us.  What is our relationship to be now?  This whole time I have considered that I was still engaged, even when your parents wouldn't tell me where you were.  But you asked in your letter if I had found anyone else.  Does that mean you have, or did?”

They were now approaching the front lawn of the cottage.  Suddenly, out from the far side of the house ran a small girl with long black hair and blue eyes.  She looked no older than four, Severus wasn't good with guessing the ages of children that young.  The girl was screaming in delight, the way that young children will do, and clapping her hands together at odd intervals.  Then the reason for her joy and her clippety-clopping soon came around the corner.  Head down and nudging the little girl lightly with her muzzle came a dazzlingly white creature with silvery hooves and a long spiral horn.  Apparently, the unicorn and the girl had worked out their own special form of tag.  It looked as though the unicorn was either winning, or herding the girl around to the front of the house.  

This sight had to be one of the last things Severus had expected to see.  A strange child and a unicorn at Bethany's house.  The unicorn made the most sense, actually.  But why was it so comfortable around people, unlike the one he thought he saw disappear into shimmering when he arrived?  He supposed children and maidens were the best lure for unicorns.  So maybe Bethany let village children come to play at her home in order to draw out the unicorns from the forest that Bethany said, in her letter, was their haven.  

The unicorn had no sooner caught a whiff of Severus and looked up to see him than she raised her head and tossed her mane.  She reared up and neighed challengingly to the stranger that Severus was.  Severus had never heard of unicorns confronting people.  He thought they usually disappeared, especially at the sight of a man.  This one seemed to be protecting the child, who was well out of the way of the unicorn's hooves.  The unicorn lowered her front legs for a moment, sniffing the air again, then looked to Bethany and finally to the little girl.

“He's alright, Elysium,” Bethany said to the unicorn in gentle tones.  “This is Severus Snape.  We were paramours when we were younger.  He's here for a visit by my invitation.”

The unicorn nodded her head in understanding.  She seemed to be satisfied with this answer.   Still, the close proximity of a grown man made her turn and trot around the corner of the house.  The little girl followed quickly, laughing and grabbing at the unicorn's tail as they turned out of sight.

“Vi,” called Bethany.  “Don't pull Elysium's tail and come back and...”

It was too late, they were on the other side of the house by then.

Severus felt as though a stone were weighing his heart down.  His stomach felt ill.  Bethany had told the unicorn that he and she had been paramours.  He assumed Bethany didn't say lovers because of the child's presence.  Yet, she also didn't say they had been engaged nor that they were, he considered, still engaged.  They were supposed to be waiting for each other until the right time came, when the Dark Lord was destroyed, to be together again.  

Clearly, she had moved on with her life since then, far more than Severus had.  He was glad she was content with her life but perhaps he wished she was not quite so happy without him.  Maybe Bethany's parents had persuaded her that he would never be free from the darkness and had encouraged her to love someone else.  Who was that child after all?  He had a growing sense of horror that she was not the daughter of a friend or family member.  But then what about the sentiments Bethany had written in her letter about still being in love with him and constantly being reminded of him?  Maybe that was just a rebound feeling after some other man had recently left her?  He had to ask his myriad questions or he would sink into oblivion from their negative pull.  

He wasn't sure where to begin so he said the first thing that came to him. “You told that unicorn that we had been lovers.  We were more than that.  We were less than two months from being married!”

Tears stung Bethany's eyes at the memory and at Severus's harsh tone of voice.  “Unicorns don't get engaged,” she said quietly.  “Elysium wouldn't have understood that.  Unicorns have courtships but then they mate for life.  The meaning of a 'wedding' would be lost on her.  However, 'love' she understands better than any human ever will.”

“You used the past tense,” he said forlornly.  “You didn't explain what we are to each other now.”

“I've just been reunited with you after three years.  It's like you've come back from the dead.  I'm still in shock that you are even here.  I've grieved for you all this time in case I never saw you again.  Yet at the same time I tried to live the way I thought you would want me to live—fulfilling my dreams.  I have no doubt that we both have changed much.  And I have no idea what we are to each other now.  You haven't even told me what you want us to be.”  She shook slightly from an overload of emotions as she spoke.

“Sweeting, Sweeting,” he said in a consoling voice.  He took her by the shoulders and pulled her into a soft embrace.  “Don't you know that my love for you has never flagged, nor will it.  I want us to be what we were before, to pick up where we left off.”

“I don't think getting married in two months is a good idea,” she stated.  “We have too much to catch up on.”

“No, maybe not in two months but perhaps next May 19th.  I know that's your favorite day of the year, and also when you originally wanted the wedding to take place.  Next May is practically a year away.  That should give us enough time to get reacquainted.”  

As he said this he let his hands run down over the curves of her sides.  He tilted her neck with one hand and began kissing it tenderly.  She shivered, sighing.  Severus couldn't help it.  The feeling of her soft body brushing against his and the knowledge that he was with Bethany again gave him an erection.   Instinctively, he grabbed her buttocks and pulled her hips against him so that his bulge pushed determinedly into her seat of femininity.

“Mmm,” he moaned at first.  Then he let out an, “Ahhh,” of inexpressible pleasure and fulfillment because he could feel the heat and gentle resistance of Bethany's sex against his hardness.

Bethany forgot herself too in the moment.  She ran her hands through Severus's dark hair and kissed him deeply when his mouth dropped open for another sigh.  In a fit of lust and love, he grabbed her, forgetting everything around them.  He dipped her down onto the grass and followed so that he was lying beside her but he had her pinned with his upper body.  He began kissing her in little dabs all over her face and neck until she giggled.  Then he grabbed a breast.  It seemed to have grown enough to be noticeable larger even after years since he had last felt it.  Bethany started what sounded like it was going to be a weak protest so he stopped her mouth with a kiss.  

Everything turned quite passionate as they rolled around on the lush grass.  When Severus was back on top, he glanced to the right of her head.  He saw a four-leafed clover and picked it, dangling and twisting it over Bethany's face flirtatiously until, laughing, she batted at him to stop.

Severus said, “Look, it's a four-leafed clover.  That means I'm going to get lucky.”  He smiled a charismatic yet lustful grin.  

He set the clover on her chest and started whispering enticing words in her ear.  As he did this, he let his hand roam down over her mound and began to rub her womanhood through her soft dress.  She closed her eyes and moaned for a moment, not just because it felt good but because Bethany had thought she would never feel Severus's touch again.  She licked her lips in bliss.  Suddenly, she seemed to come out of the reverie and remember where they were.

“Wait,” she said, pushing Severus's hand away from between her legs.  “What was I thinking, or rather not thinking?  We can't do this here, now.”

Severus recoiled as though stung.  “Why not?” he asked, a hundred worries running through his mind.  “We haven't seen each other in three years!  I think now is quite the opportune time.”

“You're forgetting,” Bethany nodded towards the side of the house.  “The girl.  The innocent but curious little girl, who would no doubt either be traumatized or ask questions I don't want to answer about what we are doing.  What was I thinking?”  She sat up and put the back of her hand to her forehead.  

Severus stood up quickly, brushing himself off.  As he gave her his hand to help her up, Bethany said, “What kind of role-model am I?  Huh?”  She laughed.  

Severus noted that she had said 'role-model' as a definition to her relationship to the child.  He did and didn't want to know the answer to his next question.

“So who is the girl?  Why didn't you introduce her to me?”

“I'm not sure I want to tell you, yet.”

“Why not?” Severus said, offended and accusingly.

“First, I have to know something.  I told you that I receive very little news out this way.  I know generally what has happened to the Dark Lord but I don't know details.  I don't need to know them except for this.  Where are all the Death Eaters, especially that Bellatrix Lestrange woman?”

“You really are out of touch with the outside world.  Most of the Death Eaters were caught and are now serving life sentences in Azkaban, including Bellatrix Lestrange.  The rest went into hiding or tried to weasel out of trouble by saying they were under the 'Imperius Curse' the whole time.  I served as a spy for Dumbledore near the end, and so escaped imprisonment.”  He stopped.  He didn't want to say that he had switched sides in order to try to save Lily.

“How dangerous are the ones who are still free?” she asked with a worry-wrinkled face.

“Not very without their master.  Why do you ask?”

“Because I want to make sure that no one has leverage over you through the ones you love ever again.”

“Love is everyone's weakness, but that's no reason not to embrace it.”

Bethany's brows were knitted.

“Honestly, I don't think you have anything to worry about,” Severus said.

“Good,” she said. “I trust you.  So now I suppose I can introduce you to Vi.  However, I'm not quite sure how to broach the subject to her.”

“Who is Vi?” Severus asked.

“The little girl you just saw.  My daughter, Vivienne.”

Severus felt as though he had been punched in the gut.  So Bethany did have a child without him.  He couldn't breath.

“I'm so possessive,” Bethany laughed.  “I've been alone with her for so long I feel she is solely mine.  I guess I shouldn't say my daughter.  I should say our daughter.”

The last words reverberated in Severus's head trying too find a place to lodge themselves in his mind so that he could comprehend the ramifications of Bethany's statement.

“Our daughter?” he repeated, dumbstruck.  After a few moments of silence, during which Bethany smiled brightly, Severus said, “That's not possible.  We were always so careful.”

“Well, the living proof is right around that corner.  I've had a lot of time to think about it, as you might have imagined.”  She smiled again. “Remember a few days before my W.I.S.H. project was due.  It was about three days before we released Eon, the phoenix.”

He nodded.

“Well we hadn't had sex for over a week before that because I was so depressed about you being a Death Eater.  I didn't take the anti-pregnancy potion that you made that week and, remember, its powers only last a week.  It had been almost two weeks since I had taken a dose, because we didn't think we'd be having sex for a while, especially once the point of you moving out was brought up.  But then we made up and had a lot of sex that night, and the day of my project proposal, and the day that I had to leave because that Lestrange woman came.  We, I just forgot all about the potion.  I found out I was pregnant in late April after I had already been forced to leave for my own safety.  So that puts the date of conception in late March and Vivienne was born November 11, 1980.”

Severus was stunned into a long silence.  He couldn't believe he had a daughter.  He felt a surge to ask Bethany why she hadn't told him about the child but then remembered that Bethany had been in danger from Voldemort.  She certainly wouldn't have let their child be a target too.  Still, he wished he had known about his daughter all these years.  Though visiting and writing would have been out of the question while the Dark Lord still reigned, Bethany could have told him after Voldemort's downfall.

“I wanted to tell you,” she said apologetically, as though she could hear his thoughts.  “My parent's didn't want you to know she existed.  They still think you're a Death Eater.  But it was for fear of other Death Eaters that I haven't contacted you until now.  Once I found out you were loyal to Dumbledore again, I figured there would be some Death Eaters on the loose who might want to revenge your change of heart, by hurting your family.  Our daughter's life wasn't worth risking.  There is only one baby that has ever deflected the 'Killing Curse,' and Harry Potter is an orphan now, despite his own survival.”

The subject was on the knife's edge of turning into a conversation about Lily Potter and her death.  Severus did not want it to turn that way, so he spoke up.

“Well, when do I get to see our daughter again?  I want to look at her closer this time to see which of us she resembles more.  I want to hold her and tell her stories, say 'I love you,' for the first time, start being a part of her life immediately.  I've already missed--”

“Two and a half years,” Bethany stated.  “And during that time do you know how many times I had to tell her why she didn't have a daddy around?”  Bethany sounded angry.  She was thinking of Severus's choice to follow the Dark Lord and how that had separated them.

“You didn't tell her that I was a Death--”

“No, of course not.  She wouldn't have understood that and it would have given her nightmares, besides precluding any chance of her ever trusting you if one day you did meet.  I had to look into those eyes full of innocence and hope, and lie to a child who has spent all her life surrounded by purity and honesty, playing with unicorns for god's sake!  Do you know how that made me feel?  I was the only thing in her life that was deceitful because I harboured a terrible secret from her and lied about it as well.”  Bethany was crying now.

Severus took her into his arms, gently hushing her.  

He said, “But you did it to protect her from knowing about evil.  You let her be innocent and even grow up around unicorns like they are normal playmates for a child.  You have given her a wonderful life.  I just want to be a part of it now.”

“Do you?” Bethany asked seriously.  “Because your future intentions towards us determine how I am going to introduce you to her.  If you are not coming back to me to stay, then I will tell her you are just an old friend of mine.  If you want to be a part of this family, then I will tell her you are her daddy, Severus Snape, who long ago was captured by a dark force so that you couldn't escape to be with us.  However, as I have told her many times, one day you might find your way back to us and then we would be a family again.”

“The second choice, please,” Severus said.  “Or rather I should say, the truthful one.”

Bethany called out, “Hey, Vi!  Come back around to the front of the house.  I have someone I'd like you to meet.”  

There was silence.

“It's a surprise!” Bethany yelled.

Soon little Vivienne came running around the side of the house.  Moment's later, Elysium stuck her head around the corner.  Vivienne ran into her mother's waiting arms and was picked up and swung around.  She laughed delightedly.  

Bethany looked to the unicorn, who seemed anxious to be near Severus, and said, “It's okay Elysium.  I have her now.  Thanks for watching her for me.  Go on back to Albion, if you like.”

The three females looked to the woods in front of the house.  There was another unicorn standing there that Severus could have sworn hadn't been there moments ago.  Elysium whinnied and began running towards the new unicorn.  When they met they nuzzled each other, but surprisingly did not vanish.  The second unicorn reared impressively letting out a long call.

“That's Albion,” Bethany said to Severus.  “He's Elysium's mate and Lord of the Forest.  He watches over us and all creatures who abide in his territory.  He and Elysium won't go far away as long as you're here, or until they get used to you.  Vivienne is somewhat of a mystery to them, since they have never been around human children for long periods of time.  They are very protective of her.  Vi, let's wave at them to thank them for coming to see us today.  Okay.  Everybody wave.  Sevy, that means you too,” she said out the side of her mouth.

They all waved at the unicorns, and Severus didn't even feel foolish doing so.  After all, they had displayed intelligence and were guardians of his family.  Plus he figured that Vivienne would be upset if he didn't wave to her friends, and he was terrified of starting off on the wrong foot.  

The prospect of being a parent was scary.  He had been watching Vivienne closely but had no idea what he was going to say to her when she talked to him.  He was a stranger currently.  Would he just say, 'Hi there, Vivienne.  By the way, I'm your dad.  Yeah, the one who has been missing all of your life.'  What kind of questions would she have for him?  Children have a way of posing the most direct and embarrassing, yet innocently asked, questions of anyone.  

Severus looked to Bethany pleadingly.

She caught his glance.

“Hey Vi,” said Bethany. “I want you to meet someone very special.”

Vivienne turned from the unicorns and looked at Severus appraisingly for the first time.  Severus felt very awkward at first.  Then he noticed her eyes were as blue as her mother's but her gaze as intense as his own.  She had his black hair and he could tell she was already tall and lanky for her age.  Her complexion was a mixture of his and Bethany's and she had her mom's nose.  He could see how his and Bethany's features reflected as a joint masterpiece in this little girl.  The feeling of seeing this made his heart feel light and airy.  He was a father!

Bethany was saying to Vivienne, “Do you remember the stories Mommy told you about how before you were born she was in love with a very handsome, very intelligent Prince who loved her back deeper than oceans and higher than the stars?”

Vivienne nodded and stuck her thumb in her mouth, still looking at Severus.

“Do you remember how I told you that a very bad but powerful wizard and his followers came and took the Prince away to lock him in the deepest of dungeons called 'Remorse?'  I told you that Mommy had to run away so that she wouldn't be hurt by the Evil Wizard while her Prince wasn't there to protect her.  Then Mommy came to this forest and Mommy didn't know it but she was going to have the Prince's baby soon.  You were that baby and Mommy was so happy when you were born.  But at night when you slept, Mommy cried and cried because she thought her Prince would never escape and find us.  That way he would never know that you had been born and needed him to be your Daddy.  Mommy thought you might never see your Daddy."

Bathany continued, “But guess what?  Something wonderful happened.  A child, a little boy about your age, did something amazing that no one can explain.  The Evil Wizard had come to hurt the boy with magic, but when he cast a spell on the boy to harm him, it bounced off the boy and hit the Evil Wizard.  Then all of the Evil Wizard's powers were taken away from him.  He ran away to hide from all the people he had hurt who would come after him.  Some of these good people helped your Daddy escape from the dungeon of 'Remorse.'  But Daddy didn't know where I had gone or that you had been born.  So he decided to help the World's Greatest Wizard teach children about magic, while he looked for Mommy when he could.  But Mommy found him first and wrote him a letter telling him where she was.  She didn't tell him you were born though because she wanted to give him the best surprise ever—you, Vivienne.  And now Mommy wants to give you the best surprise ever.  So while you were playing with Elysium, she had Daddy come here as fast as he could.  Mommy met Daddy again after three years of being apart.  That's a longer time than you have been alive.  Just imagine how long ago that was and how happy we were to see each other.  Now Mommy has brought you around to the front lawn to meet him too.  So Vivienne..  this is your Daddy, Prince Severus Snape.”  Bethany looked at Severus, “Love of My Life, I present you with our daughter, Princess Vivienne Wright, or Vi for short.”     

“Hello, Angel,” said Severus softly.

Vi looked from Severus to her mother who nodded and said, “Go ahead.  Your father's really here now.  Give him a hug.”

Vi opened her arms out to Severus, grabbing at the air in her excitement.  “Daddy!” she said merrily as Bethany passed her over to him. 

Severus held his only child in his arms for the first time.  She hugged him about the neck, her head lying on his shoulder.  He didn't realize that he had begun to rock her back and forth.  

Then Vi lifted her head and kissed Severus on the cheek.  “I love you, Daddy.” she said for the first time in her life.  

Severus's heart melted into a puddle when he heard those words from his daughter.  Then, it was too late.  It had happened at that moment, when Severus was just getting over being bewildered and beginning to enjoy the idea of being a daddy.  She said those words and very stealthily Vivienne had wrapped him around her little finger.

---

Vivienne wore her daddy out playing with him all afternoon.  She monopolized his attention.  He found her games fun but kept looking over at Bethany who was watching them.   She looked so alluring and he had missed her so much.  The children's games were fun so Severus tried to get Bethany to join in as many as possible.  However, he knew Bethany could use a break from entertaining Vi all the time.  Plus Vi practically insisted that just the two of them play together.  Severus supposed she was making up for lost time.

Severus knew he had plenty of time to make up for the lost two and a half years because he planned to devote his life to doing just that.  So at several points in the day, he tried to take a rest. However, Vivienne was right there to pull him back up.

“That's why I named her Vivienne.  It means, ‘Full of Life,’ Sevy Darling.”  Bethany laughed.  

“Well, she certainly does have lots of energy.” Severus said, spinning Vivienne around again and again.

“No, really,” Bethany said, getting up from the porch swing and coming to sit on the stone steps.  “I was filled with new life which you had given me so the name seemed appropriate.”

Severus beamed at her and winked, before beginning to twirl Vivienne around in a circle for about the tenth time.

When sunset came, Bethany called them both over to where she was sitting on the front porch swing.  

“Come on, Vi.  It's time to say goodnight to the Sun.  He's going to bed.”  Bethany called to Vivienne.  “You too Sevy, we always sit here and watch the Sun go down over the forest.”

So the three of them settled in on the swing, snuggled together.  Severus had his arm around Bethany.  Vivienne sat right between their laps.  Severus and Bethany held opposite hands and Vivienne put her hands on top of theirs.  The two adults chuckled.  

They settled in as they watched the brilliant colors of the setting Sun wash the sky in red and gold, while the purple of night crept in.  Soon there was only a faint light coming from the West like a half halo over the trees.  The porch swing squeaked as they swung gently on it.  Fireflies began to dot the evening.  Crickets resumed their nightly serenade.  The unicorns had finally vanished.  Everything was incredibly still.  A kind of peace filled Severus that he never thought he would experience again. Vivienne yawned.  Her mother told her that it was time for her to go to bed.

“But I want to catch fireflies with Daddy,” Vivienne protested, as she rubbed her drowsy eyes.

“You can do that tomorrow night,” said Bethany.  “Mommy and Daddy are very tired too.  We want to go to bed.”  Bethany gave Severus a significant look.

Bethany let Severus carry Vivienne to her bedroom.  Together they tucked her in.  Bethany told her a story about a fairy and a waterfall that was really a just a drizzle.  But the fairy was so small that it seemed like a waterfall to her.  She lived by the waterfall and... By that point Vivienne was asleep.  

Severus and Bethany quietly stood up.  Together they looked down on their sleeping daughter and smiled.  They looked at each other and then back down again.  Then the pair tiptoed out of the room and shut the door.  Down the hall was Bethany's bedroom.  Severus scooped her up and carried her to it.  He lay her down on the bed.  

He noticed all the artwork on the walls that had been done by Bethany, with themes ranging from fairies to unicorns and from Vivienne to himself.  However, now was not the time to admire the art.  Still, Severus did take time to look at that the three framed magically animated photos on Bethany's nightstand.  One was of herself and Vivienne smiling at the camera and waving.  In the picture, Bethany turned and hugged Vi, giving her a big kiss on the cheek.  She let her go and Vivienne very daintily returned her mother's kiss.  All the while, Vi was glancing at the camera as though she wanted to make sure her kiss made it into the picture.  It had to be a recent photo because Vivienne looked about the same age as she currently was.  There were no baby pictures on the nightstand.  

The next picture was of Bethany and Severus together.  It had been taken on the night that he proposed.  In the picture, he bent down on one knee and put a ring on her finger then stood back up and they kissed.  He even dipped her, still kissing her.  It was a few moments before he lifted her back upright.  Then they stood, in a world outside of time, holding each other's hands as they ignored the camera and stared into one another's eyes.  

The last picture on the nightstand was taken of Severus's face with a deviant but charming grin on it.  Bethany, as photographer, must have said something amusing because in the picture he looked down a little and laughed.  Then he looked back smiling and blew her a kiss.  Severus couldn't remember when that picture was taken.  It must have been one of dozens they had taken of each other.  He wished he could place the photo but decided that the whole point of taking a picture was to preserve a memory.

“I never forgot,” Bethany said as Severus crawled into bed beside her.  “I couldn't go a day without seeing you in Vivienne and I wouldn't let myself go a night without looking at your face.”  Tears sprang into her eyes, “I can't believe you're really back, that you are here in my bed, holding me in your arms.  I thought I'd lost that forever.  And now... I'm overwhelmed.”  She cried softy against him and he let her because tears ran down his face silently as well.  After a minute, he hushed her with his soothing voice.  He called her “Sweeting” and kissed her cheek as he ran his fingers through her hair.

“I am back to stay,” he said.  “And I won't let us be separated like that ever again.  I swear it.”  He nearly crushed her in a hug.  He felt as though he was fighting the whole world, which was trying to take her from his arms.  

She sighed and laid her head on his chest.  She was silent a minute and Severus thought she had drifted off to sleep.  He reached for the lamp managing, he thought, to turn it off without waking her.

“Would you really prefer it with the lights out, Honey?” Bethany whispered seductively.

“I thought you were asleep,” he said in a voice filled with tenderness.  “You seem tired.  Maybe you should just rest.”

“I just got you back after three years.  It's our first time alone together in all that time and all of today,” she said and the light turned back on.  “I think now is the opportune time,” she playfully referenced what he had said earlier in the day.  He looked at her and she flashed him a beguiling smile.

“I think,” he retorted, kissing her mouth.  Once.  Twice.  Thrice.  “You are absolutely right.”

Continued in Chapter 4

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