Epilogue
IS THERE ANYTHING more glorious to wake up to then a soft summer sunrise with a firm German candymaker tight to your back?
No. There is not. The sound of robins in the yard and the soft lapping of Harmony Lake was still so new to me that I found sleeping tricky.
Also, the cats chattering at the robins in the yard made sleep close to impossible.
Not that missing sleep was a big problem.
I was happy to be sleepy later in the day if I could come awake in Phillip’s arms.
“Guten Morgen, Liebling,” he said beside my ear, his hold on me tightening, that strong arm around my middle tugging me into his chest. The hairs on his belly were warm and crisp, his cock was hot and hard as it slid sensually up and down between my ass cheeks.
His fingers found the blue beaded bracelet on my right wrist. I smiled as he fingered it gently then released it to locate my stiff dick.
“Mm, your voice turns me on,” I sighed, rocking my hips, working to get a sweet tingle from his prick gliding up and down as well as his fist working my cock. “I adore waking up with you,” I purred as he dropped a series of tiny kisses along my bare shoulder.
“I love you,” he whispered as we began to move in beautiful syncopation.
“I love you too,” I confessed, my body responding to him as it never had any other man.
He knew how to touch me in ways that sent me soaring.
We’d fallen into bed last night after he had arrived back after finalizing his grandfather’s estate.
Or what he could wrap up in a few short weeks.
He’d be racking up miles for several months as the vast personal fortune was divided legally between himself and his mother.
Luisa got the mansion and was probably going to sell it quickly.
Phillip was still in control of the business, and that meant he would be jetting to and from Europe a lot.
That part sucked. This part though? This part where we were loving each other with gentle words, soft caresses, and tender kisses?
This part would make up for the separations to come.
He ran his thumb over the tip of my cock, gathering pre-cum to ease the slip and slide of this glorious dawn hand job.
It was perfect. Last night we’d hit the bed in this rental home on the western side of Harmony Lake like two oversexed jackrabbits.
He’d just returned and was feeling all the emotions.
I’d welcomed him back with open arms, taking him into my heart and body fully.
His lovemaking had been driven, as if he were working out a plethora of emotions in every thrust. Which was no surprise given how things had gone with his grandfather.
Losing someone who has been such a large presence in your life is never easy.
Dealing with the normal grief then compounding it with the realization that the person who recently passed was less than ideal was doubly tough.
So when he came to me in need I took him in in all ways.
“I cannot believe I am this close,” he panted, his cock pressed tight to me, his hips now pumping madly. “You are everything good and sweet.”
Oh the things that man said. They could melt chocolate without the use of a flame. I ate up every damn endearment too, just like a kid being offered a tub of licorice.
“Don’t stop,” I gasped, reaching back to find his thigh.
My balls drew up as he sucked a mark onto my neck.
Hot words in German flowed over me as I blew apart, coating his hand and fingers with cum.
He growled low and deep. The warm rush of his spunk hitting my lower back brought another pulse of cum into his palm.
We laid there for a long time, his cock growing soft amid the mess on my ass.
Eventually he peeled himself from my backside, but only after dropping a few dozen kisses along my arm and cheek. “Rest, here, I will be right back.”
I mumbled sleepily, my gaze resting on the cats sitting in front of the large sliding glass door leading to a cozy second story patio.
They looked like Russian nesting dolls with the two bigger tuxies, Bo and Luke, followed by the petite calico princess Daisy.
Seeing them here in this luxury A-frame cabin Phillip had rented for the summer made me feel as if I could call this place home while he was in the states.
It was so beautiful inside and out, the cats loved the space, and the lakeside view was perfect for taking paddleboat rides or inviting friends over for a holiday picnic followed by fireworks over the lake.
I heard Phillip returning from the small bath attached to the lone bedroom in the cabin.
Tucked up here in a pointed loft the tiny toilet, sink, and clawfoot tub space was just a few steps away.
All open and done in honeyed wood with white, tan, and hunter green accents.
I loved it here and already loathed returning to my place above the shop when Phillip had to return to Germany in a few weeks.
“Your brow is puckered,” my lover told me as he padded to my side of the bed with a washcloth in his hand. He gently cleaned his spend from my back.
“I was thinking of you leaving,” I confessed, taking the warm damp cloth from him to wash my tacky dick.
He plucked the cloth from my hand, dropped it to the floor, and pulled me into his arms. I rose willingly, the sheets tangled around me, and climbed into his lap, my cheek coming to rest on his shoulder.
His furry chest felt grand as it warmed my sparsely haired tummy.
His skin smelled of warm sandalwood and Phillip.
“Let’s not think of that right now,” he whispered, sliding his hands into the sheet to cup my bare ass cheeks.
He turned his head just enough to bury his nose into my curls.
I sighed aloud, linking my legs around his waist, locking him tightly into my embrace.
He was going nowhere without taking me with him. “Let’s instead think about breakfast.”
At the mention of food my stomach rumbled. “I could eat.”
“Then we shall feed you,” he replied, dropping a peck to my hair before rising with me in his arms.
I squealed. The cats took off like shots at the sound.
“Sorry gang,” I called over my shoulder as Phillip toted me down the slim circular stairs.
Giggling madly I clung to him for dear life until he placed my rump into a stool at the island in the middle of the white and hunter green kitchen.
It was a small area with a short island that seated only two.
The cabin was obviously intended for honeymooners.
And while we were far from that, hell we’d not even really dated officially yet, the cozy space appealed to me.
“What will the chipmunks think seeing us parading about in our birthday suits?”
“They’ll think they’ve never seen bigger nuts,” he countered with a wink and that cheeky smile that had been lacking for the past few weeks.
“I do have a lovely set,” I boasted as he went to the drip coffee maker to start a pot.
“That you do,” he replied as he scooped grinds. “We will need to shower and get the food prep ready for the party.”
I nodded, crossing my legs as he moved around the kitchen making coffee, whipping up some French toast, and then herding me upstairs to shower.
It wasn’t the comfiest of fits the two of us standing in a tub while trying to ensure the shower curtain stayed inside as we moved around.
Eventually he hurried to wash and shampoo then left me to linger in the tub.
I had some sore spots that could use a good soaking in some Epsom salts Phillip had bought for me.
What a thoughtful man he was. To think that I had replied to his emails with forty-seven poop emojis all in a poopy line.
I lingered for a spell, letting the tenderness from last night melt away as I replayed our sensual reunion in my head.
The water was chilled when I stepped out, wrapped a towel around my waist, and went in search of Phillip.
He was on the patio, dressed in a dark blue linen popover shirt paired with white shorts. His calves and feet were bare.
I slid up behind him, closing the door quickly in the faces of three disgruntled cats, without him even hearing me. He jerked slightly when my arms slipped around him from behind.
“You were a million miles away,” I said as I went to my toes to kiss the back of his neck. “Are you okay?”
“Mm, yes, I am fine.”
“You don’t sound fine. It’s okay to be knotted up over the loss of your grandfather. What you and he had was really complicated I know but you did love him. And I suspect he loved you too, in his own way, whatever that was.”
He patted my forearms. “Yes, he did love me. I know this. And I loved him as a child who loves the adults in their lives. The man was a bastard but he did give me a pampered life and a business that will see my grandchildren well taken care of.”
I snuggled in closer. “Do you want kids?”
“Yes, I think so, in time.” He turned to face me, bringing his hands up to cradle my face. “What do you think of children?”
“I think that someday I’d like them, a few, no more than three. Two girls and a boy, all with curls like mine, and eyes like my grandmother’s but not her stubbornness.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “You’ve thought about this in some detail by the sounds.
Three children sounds lovely as long as they all take after your side of the genetic pool,” he whispered, lowering his mouth to mine.
The kiss was soulful, heavy with feeling, and I clung to him like a burdock until a plaintive meow drifted through the screen door.
With a sigh, I lowered back from my toes to peek over my shoulder.
Three cats hung off the screen door midway up, mewing piteously.
That sight brought the kissing to an abrupt end. After we peeled the cats from the screen we went for a walk, with three cats on leashes because outdoors was a dangerous place for fur babies, then returned to the cabin to begin making salad for the picnic later.
Sam and Ben were coming, as were Conor, Jaylin with her dad Dallas as well as Ryan. Mamie and Edgar would be here soon to help with the food prep. Crocus and his lady along with the other employees of Harmony Chocolates were invited too, and all were thrilled to attend.
Philip’s phone pinged just as we were chopping onions and celery for the macaroni salad.
Mamie was bringing a bowl of her famous Ambrosia salad.
I had no clue what the other guests were going to bring but it didn’t matter.
What did matter was coming together with friends and family to formally introduce Phillip as my boyfriend.
“No business today,” I chided as I dumped the celery atop the cooled and cooked elbow macaroni. The cats were parading about the kitchen, begging, although they didn’t like anything that we were making. “You just got here,” I added when I realized that I sounded like an old fishwife.
“This is not business,” he replied, moving over to show me his phone. “The first payment from your silent partner has been sent to your shop’s account.”
I faltered in my celery chopping, laying down the knife on the cutting board as I read over the amount Phillip had invested in my candy shop. It was a hefty sum. Certainly enough to get my back bills caught up and some improvements made in the kitchen.
I choked back some tears, turned to him, and threw myself into his arms. “Thank you for your confidence in me.” I kissed him a few dozen times all over his face.
He captured my lips as they passed by his mouth for a deeper, intimate exploration that would have gone on much longer had two tuxedo cats and a calico princess not decided to leap onto the tiny island to see if we were adding smelt to anything.
Celery, onions, and a spatula went flying to the floor.
“Is having kids anything like having naughty cats?” I asked as the felines leapt down and raced off after trampling all over the countertop and cutting board. Looked like we’d be tossing that round of prep and starting over.
“I would assume it is much harder. People tend to frown at you if you spray your child in the face with water for being bad.” He gathered me close.
“You and Capucine can start work on expanding your shop whenever you wish now. I know she is in a hurry to take Edgar to Brancion to see where her family roots are but perhaps she can put off her trip to France for a few months?”
“Expanding isn’t in the cards for now. The record shop—”
“Oh, did I not tell you? The record shop has been sold to some foreign investor with a keen eye for acquisitions? Odd, I thought I had mentioned that last night when we got back to the cabin.”
I gaped up at him. “You sneaky shit.” I thumped his chest softly. “The only thing you told me when we got home was to get on the bed with my ass in the air.”
“Oh yes, that’s right.” He rubbed his hands over my ass.
“I remember now. Well, the record shop has been flipped. Of course, once you start renovations you will have to live somewhere else as the workmen come and go. The sounds of labor would scare the cats. I know of a tiny cabin by a lovely lake with a large comfy bed, a patio with a birdfeeder, and a fetching German candy maker who is madly in love with you.”
How could I say no to that?
I had developed a sweet tooth for fetching German candymakers it seemed.