AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Are you all right?" he asked, shifting a little so that bulge rubbed her clit just right.
"I'm...I'm..." Then she detonated, so all she could see was stars.
Somewhere far away, she heard Harlow say, "My God, Octavia, that feels...like heaven. I want to stay buried this deep in you forever."
And then he began to move, those ridges rubbing all the right places so she could scarcely think. She could hear her voice chanting yes, yes, yes, in between begging for more, until he gave it to her. Pounding into her harder than the waves on the breakwater, as orgasms flew thick and fast. She scarcely had the breath to scream between one and the next, but she didn't care, for Harlow was everything she'd ever wanted, and she only wished this night might never end.
THIRTY-TWO
The afternoon light streamed through Octavia's window, waking Harlow from sleep. He always woke before her, but he had only to slip a finger between her thighs and she was awake and ready for him. Last night, she'd finally agreed to marry him, and his mind was still filled with joy at the thought.
Joy and more than a little madness, for he stuck his hand in the sun. He expected to see it turn to stone, but this time, it didn't change. Somehow, he'd broken the curse. Just like Grant.
He made leisurely love to Octavia before they both rose and dressed. Tonight, all of her housemates were home, and she'd promised to show them her work. The first stage of her virtual world was finished, and starting next week, it would be released to the public.
Grant was already in the lounge room, with Callie sitting in his lap.
Rory was lying on the rug, her drawings and pencils spread out across half the floor. Tacey was in the kitchen, preparing snacks to go with the presentation, or at least that's what she'd said. Alethia and Stan had claimed one of the couches, so Harlow perched on the end.
Someone knocked on the door, and Octavia went to answer it. Rochelle and Ben – their party was complete.
Wystan and Tacey came out of the kitchen, carrying huge trays of food that took up the whole coffee table.
Harlow inhaled. Oh, he wanted to eat everything, and from the look on Grant's face, he felt the same.
First, he had to be polite and watch what Octavia wanted to show them. She'd worked so hard at it, it was only fair.
"All right, now we're all here..." Octavia pressed a button, and the screen filled withShadows of the Swan, the name she'd given her world. "This is Fremantle, as the first settlers found it..."
Fremantle and Hooghly Town and the Mill. She'd release with only the three places to start with, and add his Murray River farm as an expansion after release, she'd said. She'd decided to turn it into a sort of game, where you could choose which settler's path to follow, and then you had to survive in the early colony – no easy feat, he knew.
The pictures on the screen brought tears to his eyes, they were so lifelike. That was Octavia and Ben's work, he knew, taking his descriptions and a mysterious sketchbook full of pictures from 1850s Fremantle that had appeared one day, to turn the world he remembered into reality once more.
When Octavia was done, they all clapped. Now she was the one who had tears in her eyes.
"So many people have signed up to be notified even before it goes live on Kickstarter. Hundreds of them! I can't believe it," Octavia said.
Rochelle glanced at Ben. They'd been instrumental in helping with the social media campaign, whatever that meant. All Harlow understood was that a lot of people liked Ben's art and when he'd told them he'd helped create the game, they'd all signed up overnight.
"It makes me wish we'd actually gotten to live there, instead of selling the land," Grant said. He, Wystan and Stan had made agreements with developers to build houses on their farms. Harlow had sold a little of his land, but he'd kept the half with the cottage, at Octavia's insistence. She'd made him promise they could spend their honeymoon in the cottage, and even if he wasn't a gargoyle any more, he still couldn't refuse.
Not that he wanted to. Taking her home to the cottage seemed...fitting, somehow. He couldn't change the past but he liked the future they were shaping together.
A future they'd never have had if Grant hadn't decide to raid the mill that fateful night in 1834.
"If we'd never raided the mill, we wouldn't be here now, with these wonderful women," Harlow said. "We'd have lived and died on those farms, and never known what might have been."
Grant looked at him strangely. "You almost sound like you think one of my crazy schemes was actually a good thing."
"Maybe it was. Even if I couldn't see it at the time, because raiding the mill still was a stupid thing to do, but it turned out all right in the end," Harlow said. "Besides, I need a man to stand witness at our wedding, and I believe that's traditionally a role for a man's brother."
Grant's eyes widened. "You're getting married? I don't believe it! You hear that, Callie? There's going to be a wedding! Want to make ours official, and make it a double?"
The sound of a ringing phone drowned out Callie's response.
Tacey frowned. "It looks like an international number."
"Probably some scammer, trying to get your bank details. Just ignore it," Octavia advised.
