Page 86 of His Pet

EPILOGUE

two years later

Nate

Scanning the coffee shop, I found the two of them: an older theorist, and a burgeoning one. The shining golden brown hair, those honey-colored eyes that sparkled from any direction, the mind that worked and analyzed in ways that I admired and respected. My life partner. Mara.

My Mara.

Mara smiled as she saw me, and Flora lifted a finger to stop me from speaking. “Just a minute,” she said. The two of them peered down at the essay. Flora wrote a note, and Mara squinted her eyes at the cursive; Flora had an elegant scrawl, but it was nearly illegible.

“Oh,” Mara said. “Okay. I see where you’re going with that.”

“Now, think it over and bring me another draft next week,” Flora said. She kissed Mara’s cheek. “Nate.”

“Flora,” I said. Though she had finished her short-term contract with EDCSN, she had taken a liking to Mara. In private, she had told me that Mara reminded her of herself.

Though it had taken another year, Dr. Smith had been fired from the university after several students, including Jessica, came out with different stories of coercion in the name of academia. I was still at EDCSN, enjoying the position as director of humanities. The pay was low, and at times, I volunteered pay cuts to help budget for new faculty positions, but my investments took care of the rest. And Mara? She had a year and a half to go with the doctoral program. We’d figure out where to go from there.

I offered a hand to Mara, and she took it, a five-carat diamond on a white gold band, shining in the light. It filled me with pride to see her wear it, to know that she was mine.

“Next week?” Mara asked.

“Of course,” Flora said.

“It was great to see you again.”

Flora stood. “And you, my dear.”

We headed to the apartment neighborhoods by LVU. In her apartment, there were only a few boxes left, and cleaning supplies spread throughout the studio.

“I’ve got to pack the bathroom and clean the kitchen,” she said.

“I’ll clean the kitchen,” I said.

An unexpected smile lit her face. “Thanks.”

As I scrubbed the counters, I couldn’t help but think of how lucky I was. Mara was my fiancée, and after two and a half years, I had convinced her to move in with me. Staying independent, living on her own without my help, had been a goal she wanted to prove to herself. I was patient. Mara was worth the wait.

She came out of the bathroom with a plastic container filled to the brim with beauty products. Her hands wrapped around that container, bigger than she was, made me grin. Even packing for a move, she was beautiful.

“All finished?” I asked.

“Done. And the kitchen?” she asked.

“Done.”

“Let’s load up, then.”

We loaded the car with the last of the boxes, then dropped off the keys at the leasing office. A few students sitting on their balconies waved to Mara, and she waved back.

“It’s surreal,” I said, “isn’t it?”

“Not really,” she said. She reached over and squeezed my hand. “I’m excited. I get to see your face every morning and every night.”

“Officially now,” I said, because we had spent almost every night together since we admitted that we loved each other. A full dresser in the lakehouse was already claimed by her, and I had once had my own drawer in her apartment.

At the lakehouse, while Mara studied, I helped unpack her boxes, a sense of contentment filling me as hers and mine, became ours. It was the late afternoon. I had an exam to prepare, but it could wait. Mara appeared in the doorway dressed in nothing but a collar, a leash linked to it, offering me the handle. I admired her body; thick and decadent, and utterly irresistible.

I took the handle. “Shouldn’t you be studying for your oral exam?” I asked. The oral exam was one of the final steps in her doctoral program, and it was scheduled for later this week.

“Later,” she said.

I tightened my grip around on the leash, and pulled her forward. On her hands and knees, she followed me through the house to the bedroom. Right now, it was time for other things. In the form of spankings and collars. Like many things, her oral exam could wait.

But Mara and I would not wait. We would do what we wanted right now.

THE END