Chapter 23
twenty-three
. . .
peony
Ifind Rupert likes to putter around in the morning, rather like an old man, reading the newspaper with a pair of cute, tiny glasses perched on his big nose.
While he catches up on the news and the Stock Exchange, I get to work.
Now that I’ve been at the manor for some time, there’s much less need to get onto a stool to pull down cobwebs, and I spend my time on maintenance, laundry, and other more immediate and pressing concerns.
But Rupert drags me away in the afternoon, insisting that I ought not to work so hard.
“You are paying me to clean!” I insist, but he demands even more strongly that I take breaks and rest.
“Money is nothing,” he says. “I would be happy to hire someone else altogether, if this arrangement is uncomfortable.”
I balk at the idea. “I like my work, Rupert. Please don’t take it from me.”
He waves his hands. “I won’t, I won’t. I just don’t want you to think your job is contingent upon… you know.”
“Fucking you?” I ask cheekily. He bites his lip, and I think he would be blushing if he could. “I know it’s not. But the house still needs to get cleaned, and I’m saving up while doing it.”
He arches a brow. “What are you saving up for?”
Once upon a time, I would have said, an apartment of my own. But I like my life at the manor. I wouldn’t want it to change.
I have new goals now.
“Maybe, someday,” I say in a quiet voice, as if being too loud about it will prevent it from coming true, “I want to open a restaurant.”
His ears perk up. “Oh, that’s a wonderful idea. You would make a phenomenal head chef.”
My face heats. “It’s just a dream.”
But Rupert kisses me on the cheek. “I believe in you, even if you don’t yet.”
One day, on our afternoon walk, the air smells of coming rain. But it’s still sunny and even a tad warm, so I forego my scarf and hat when we head off together into the garden.
Rupert shows me where he keeps the fish food, and we giggle together as the massive koi fish swim up to the surface.
“They’re beautiful,” I say, almost wishing I could pet one.
Then Rupert winds my hand around his arm and we embark on a walk into the woods. This is where we have the deep conversations about our lives, our parents, our histories. I’ve learned much about him on these walks, and as our relationship deepens, so do the subjects of our discussions.
“I’m sure my mother leaving had something to do with why I fell in with Andy,” I say. “That’s what a therapist would tell me. Something about not having a secure parental attachment.”
“That does sound like something a counselor would say, if I’d ever had one.”
I chuckle. “Could have saved you some grief.”
He laughs at this. We both have a bit of a dark sense of humor sometimes, and I like how we share that.
“Why did she leave?” Rupert asks after a time.
“I really don’t know. Dad has guesses, but she didn’t leave a note. When she called, she wouldn’t say. Eventually she stopped calling, too.” I lean against him as we walk. “I wondered for a long time what I did wrong.”
“You were a child. You did nothing wrong.”
“Yeah, I know. I think. But it makes me wonder. What is it like to be a parent? Was there something about me that she just… couldn’t handle?”
“Perhaps some people are simply not cut out for it.” He peers down at me. “Is that something you want? A family? Children?”
“Kids are a complicated thing for me,” I say, not releasing his hand. “But I’m not against it. I do still dream of, you know, having a happy family that I could bring children into. With someone I really love.” I crane my neck to look up at him. “What about you?”
“I don’t know if I could,” Rupert says, bowing his head. “What if they turned out like… me?”
I rub his arm. “Maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
“Of course it would be. I couldn’t create another monster, someone who must hide themselves from the world.” He shakes his head firmly.
“Then it won’t be on the table,” I say. Though maybe it’s a big assumption that whatever is between us will last that long.
“You’d give up your dream of having a family to be with a monster?” Rupert rubs his face miserably.
“All I want in my life is love. If that means no children, I’m fine with that.”
My monster smiles down at me, and though it is a sad smile, his arm wraps around my shoulders and he pulls me in to kiss the top of my head.
Soon, the clouds do roll in, and not too long after, rain starts to fall. Rupert takes off his coat to drape it over both of us as we jog back to the manor, the rain coming down harder and harder. Despite the coat, we’re both soaked when we step back inside.
“You should change so you don’t get cold,” Rupert says.
“All right, all right.” I rise to my toes to kiss him on the cheek. “So should you.” Then I scurry inside my rooms and change out of my wet clothes, hanging them up in the bathroom to dry.
When I emerge, Rupert is waiting for me, still soaking wet. I prop my hands on my hips.
“You need to get out of those clothes, too.”
“I wanted to go with you.”
I melt into a puddle as we start off toward the east wing.
“Besides,” Rupert says, leaning down to talk closer to my ear. “I’ll never pass up a chance to get naked with you.”
And sure enough, he invites me into the shower with him so we can both get clean and warm.
When we’re done, Rupert leads me back to his bedroom and pulls out a bottle of lotion, which he then rubs all over my bare skin.
I think he wants to go slow tonight, and I’m not opposed.
Though his cock has already fully emerged and shines at the tip with his excitement, he lowers me onto the bed and then licks me, pumping his tail inside me, until stars blot out my vision.
Then, he slips his tail out… and ventures lower with it.
“What do you think?” Rupert asks in a husky voice, coasting the tip over my asshole. My eyes must go huge, because he quickly backs off.
“Sorry,” he says, rubbing the back of his head, “I thought—”
“I’ve never done it before.”
He cocks his head, then a wide smile crosses his face. He leans down closer, his breath tickling my nose.
“Never?”
I shake my head. Even before Andy, I dated rather vanilla people.
“Do you want to give it a go?” Rupert asks. “It will feel good. I promise you that.”
“I’ve always heard it’s painful.” I try not to let that frighten me from doing it with Rupert, but he is big.
“Not if you go slow. Then it can feel wonderful.” Gently, he dips the tip of his tail inside, and it resists immediately. But he doesn’t push it—he simply teases, and I find it oddly exciting.
“All right.” I exhale a heavy breath. “I’ll try it.”
Rupert gives a solemn nod, understanding my hesitation.
“One moment.” He reaches all the way across the massive bed to the bedside table and opens the drawer, withdrawing a clear bottle. He squirts some liquid on his hand, then rubs it all around the tip of his tail before trying again.
He resumes his tease, pressing in and then withdrawing, opening me a tiny bit at a time. Now, a surprising amount of it fits inside me. I gasp at the unfamiliar sensation of something alien trying to go… there. My body doesn’t quite know what to do with it, but I can’t deny that it’s also pleasant.
Once he’s fit some of his tail inside me, Rupert pauses.
“Now I’m going to fuck you,” he says with a heavy breath. “And I promise it will feel good.”
I’m excited to find out.
He enters me slowly, and I realize why when he’s only barely sheathed in me, and it feels like nothing else will fit.
“Oh, wow,” I moan into his arm, my whole body curling toward the sensation of it.
I can feel every bump on the crown of his cockhead, every bit of the ring in the middle.
As he slides it back out and then in again, deeper this time, pleasure rockets through me like a stick of dynamite.
I bite my lip and my back arches, the feeling of complete fullness taking me over.
“Do you like it?” Rupert asks, keeping his thrusts shallow. Then I feel his tail working its way in deeper, and now I’m so full I think I might burst—and yet, when he pushes in once more, I swallow him up.
“Yes,” I moan, my very skin shivering under the onslaught of new and unfamiliar feelings. “Oh, it’s so wonderful, Rupert.”
A feral grin reveals a pair of sharp incisors. “Good.”
Then, he’s fully inside me, and now I can feel every undulation of his cock, especially the ring, as he drags it in and out.
His tail is adding so much pressure that every thrust feels ten times more exquisite, and soon I’m whining and mewling, fisting my hands in his mane as tremors take over my limbs.
He continues ever so slowly, though, urging me higher and higher into the stars.
I’m so close, dangling at the precipice, nearly sobbing out each moan as I’m filled up so obscenely. And then…
Rupert stops. He withdraws, nearly leaving me, and I gasp my indignation. “I was so close!”
A ferocious grin crosses his big muzzle. “I know.”
He sinks in deep again, deeper than before, and I nearly come apart at the seams. His tail is moving now, too, gently applying more pressure before backing away.
My orgasm feels like a shadow encroaching on me from all sides, and I long to feel it wash over me.
Rupert begins his languid movements once more, filling me with every stroke.
I cling to him, trying not to get whirled away.
Then, when I’m close again, tightening up all around his cock and the tip of his tail—he slows down.
“Rupert!” I’m clenching all over, so close to breaking that tears are slipping down my cheeks.
“I know, my little flower.” He steals a tear off my cheek with his claw. “I’ll let you have it. Soon.”
I moan with anguish as he teases just my entrance, testing it with the head of his cock, that tail somehow squeezing even deeper inside me. It feels not just incredible, but earth-shattering when he shunts his hips forward, burying himself all the way up to the hilt.
I scream so loud that it rattles the walls. All my nerves are taut strings about to snap, if only I could inch just a little closer—
Another sturdy thrust, and then another, and though my eyes are closed, I can see fireworks exploding under my lids. I’m pure electricity and Rupert is the wire, feeding me more and more excruciating energy until even my fingers and toes are buzzing.
I’m so close again that I feel as if I’m standing in the shadow of a mountain, one that’s about to topple down on top of me.
“Please, oh, Rupert,” I’m moaning, snapping my hips up into his to try to force him to speed up, to bring him in even deeper, though that thick fur at his groin is already rubbing over my clit with every thrust. “Please, more!”
Instead of increasing his pace, though, Rupert smirks and buries his tail even deeper inside me, and that appendage that once felt so foreign is now driving me to the edge of sanity. I wail, my senses overcome, and when Rupert slams into me again with his cock, I finally, finally explode.
It’s like a bomb going off in my brain. I dig my fingers into his fur, probably scratching up the skin underneath as I scream.
He pumps faster, fucking me harder now that my orgasm has me in its clutches, and that springboards me into an even bigger, agonizingly blissful climax.
Rupert groans, pinning me to the bed as he pounds into me.
“Peony, yes!” He roars my name. “Come all over me.”
I’ve almost returned from my high when his cock swells inside me, and I whimper. My limbs are all so tight that when Rupert finally releases, my leg muscles seize.
“Ah!” I reach down and grab my calf, startled by the sudden pain. This motion ejects Rupert’s cock from my body with a wet noise, and Rupert gasps in surprise. His cum rushes out of me, covering the bed. Now, too, his tail in my ass is far too much.
“Please, I can’t—” I’m a complete mess as he withdraws his tail slowly, working it free of my tense body. Finally, I collapse on the bed, unable to move.
Rupert lands next to me, draping his arm over my hip. He nuzzles the side of my face.
“Whoa,” I mutter, still unsure what just happened to me.
“Was it worth it?” he asks, his breathing just as labored as mine.
I nod, unable to speak properly. Rupert laughs and bundles me up close, smelling my hair and kissing the crown of my head.
After we clean up, Rupert gets up and puts on a robe. “It’s a cold day,” he says thoughtfully as he gives me a spare that’s far too big. “Watch some telly with me?”
Happily, I plop myself in his lap in his big chair, and he flips on the TV. I snuggle into his chest, one of his big arms holding me in place while the other turns up the volume.
I’m shocked when what comes on is Two People, One Room.
It’s an awful reality show where contestants are matched up by “experts,” then given a single-room cabin to reside in while they explore their new relationship.
The longer they can tolerate living together, the greater their chance of reaching the end—and winning the money. It’s all manufactured drama.
Rupert is instantly engaged, telling me all about each of the contestants and what’s happened on the show so far.
I never expected he’d be so passionate about, uh…
reality television. His tail curls around me as he talks over the commercials, which is amusing, annoying, and adorable all at once, and I stroke the scaled appendage the way I would a pet cat, much to his pleasure.
The more time we spend together, the more I like Rupert Edgewood. I like him quite a lot, both in and out of the bedroom, and a tentative, cozy happiness settles on me.
I wonder if I truly could stay here. Is it possible to build a life with someone who never goes out?