Chapter Nine June and Duncan #2
JUNE AND I WORK ALMOST all night, putting up arbors and sowing heather seeds.
While our hands are busy, so are our mouths, which is a blessing, because after the way I started my morning—hips deep in her soft little pussy, holding her while she whimpered from discomfort at the beginning and bliss at the end, has left me with urges I can scarcely control.
“I want a little house with a garden. And I’d like to come back here each year, even if it’s for a weekend, not a whole summer.
I hate to tell you this, but things are way more expensive now than they were in your day, and I don’t have a job that pays a lot.
I do, however, have a lot of expensive jewelry that Daniel gave me—okay, not a lot, a lot, but probably enough to put up ten thousand dollars on a house. That’s a cruddy down payment.”
“I can build you a house. In Scotland, I’m sure we’d have access to a patch of clan land.”
“Okay, another pain in the butt thing—work permits and immigration work laws. I don’t know anything about the Scottish system, but I know I would need paperwork up the wazoo to get a job there, and if you come to a country just to mooch off of them, like intending to stay and be supported by the government, not just as a tourist pumping money into their economy, it’s harder to get in. It would probably take months.”
I’m tempted to ask what a “wazoo” is, but I skip it. “Aye, well... I like what I’ve seen of Pine Ridge. There are allies here, friends to gargoyles, and it’s got plenty of open spaces. Would ye live here with me, and go with me to visit my home every August?”
“Yes! Except I’d need a new job, and you’d need one, too. It sucks, but money is a fact of life. They don’t pay you to guard castles out here. I mean, unless you were like police, or security, or—”
“Police. They guard a city?” There were police in my time, constables, of course, but perhaps things have changed.
“Right, or a town. But you have to know tons of laws and pass exams, and—”
“And maybe in a little town like this, with a population of magical creatures roaming about, there might be some way I could take those exams and study those laws?”
June’s eyes shine up at me as she kneels to secure the final arbor. “You’d do that? Go to school for me, and start a whole new career?”
“Protecting people isnae new to me, love. Nor is reading and writing. I could even learn to use a laptop and phone.”
“I know you’re smart—it’s the effort. A lot of guys wouldn’t.”
“Then I’m honored to be the one who would. But what about you?”
“I can get a job at any school—but then I wouldn’t be with you most of the night.
I’d love to be... A florist. Growing my own flowers, selling them in shops, making bouquets.
I could have a shop that’s open, like, from noon to seven, and most of the night would be ours.
Maybe even later. Remember, Mr. Fenclan said the main part of town is almost as busy at night as it is by day.
Cops always have night shifts available.
But... but I couldn’t afford a florist shop, or to go into my own business, or—”
“My lady. You can and you will. If we have to work at other tasks first, that is all right. It doesn’t have to happen swiftly. It has to happen steadily, with us, together. Let us call Ian Fenclan and ask about the police job, and where there are houses, and if there is a florist in town.”
Her shining eyes are much closer now. June brushes her hands on her short pink shorts and wraps her arms around my waist. My tail immediately curls around her leg like the vines she hopes to coax to grow around the arbors.
“That’s like gardening. It can’t happen all at once.
You have to plant, and work, and wait. Duncan, you’re wonderful. Do you know that?”
“I believe it when you tell me,” I whisper, stroking back her bouncing brown curls. “You are worth all the tending to, my angel. Tending to your dreams brings me as much joy as you get from tending to your hydrangeas.”
“You’re going to make me cry.”
“Then I can also make you laugh.” I suddenly lift June into my arms, fill my lungs, and run.
“What are you doing? Dude, slow down. If you want to take this to the bedroom, I’m pretty sure we should use the door, not make a hole in the side of the house!” June screeches.
But I crouch, cradling her closer, and with a roar, I leap, and let the air catch my wings as I dig my talons into the edge of the roof, and then spring again.
My wings hold me, as I knew they would. It aches, and I know I’m only going to be able to stay in the air a few moments, but for those moments, I watch June’s face transform with the pure freedom of flying, of leaving the world behind, and looking down at the beautiful garden she’s made.
“When my wing is better, we can fly for hours. If we live here, I will take you to your clan whenever you want. You said money is always a fact of life? You have your own ‘airplane’ now.”
“Okay, baby, but you need to land,” June cries, her voice enraptured.
“In a moment. My wings are fine.”
“I’m glad! But, I want to thank the pilot.” June winks at me, and I’ve never been in such a hurry to come back to earth.