AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He fake-scowled up at me. “You will what?”
I smiled. “Marry you. I will marry you.”
I wiggled my fingers and made it difficult for him to slide the ring on. But finally he grabbed me by the wrist, wrestled the ring onto my finger, then held up my hand for us both to admire. It fit perfectly. I was his, and he was mine.
Epilogue
Sylvester
We listened to the baby cry.
I looked in the direction of the adjoining baby room, then swiveled my head in Luna's direction. “What do you think?”
“What do you mean, what do I think?” Luna gave me a sideways look. “Wait, are you still on about–”
“Musical baby!” I grinned at her, and she flopped over onto her back.
She rolled her eyes up at the ceiling, then spoke in quite a flat, reasonable tone. “I’m just not sure how a baby cries is evident of future musical prowess. You'd need to conduct a study, except you wouldn't know which babies would go on to be musical, so you'd need to study so many babies... it's just not realistic.”
“Nuh-uh. We only need one test subject. Our little Ziggy.”
She looked unconvinced. “If anything, having that name is gonna put him off a career in music.”
“Hey, you said you liked it!”
Luna held her hands up in mock defense, giving in and bursting out into laughter. “I did! I mean, I do, I love the name, you dolt. I'm sure he'll go on to be the next Mozart…”
I grinned and pounced on her, darting between tickling her on the sides and holding back her arms so she couldn't escape. Finally, she gave up, and we lay there for a moment, torsos pressed tightly against each other.
God, she was gorgeous. Always, but even more so in the half-light of our shared bedroom, her black silk slip luxuriating her skin, her hair tied back in a messy mom-bun, free of make-up, breasts tender and sensitive.
I slid a hand between us, slipping it up under her nightclothes so that I realized she wasn't wearing panties under there, and as my fingers glanced across her, I could feel how wet she was already. I stiffened even more against her.
She bit her lip coyly. Her eyes were taking in every inch of me. “Sylvester…”
Then Ziggy cried out again and we both cringed. I rolled off her, pulling on my silk dressing gown and shuffling my feet into slippers. “My turn.”
Luna propped herself up on her arms, still flushed. “Isn't it mine?”
I smiled. “Maybe. What can I say, maybe I just love fatherhood.”
She smirked back at me. “You're going to try and teach him chords before he can talk, aren't you?”
“I may have a hidden agenda. His first word is gonna be 'guitar'. Go on, you rest. I'm feeling wide awake anyway.”
Her smile now was warmer, her eyes more open. “Did I ever mention I love you so much?”
“You did. But I won't tire of hearing it. Or saying that I love you too. Very, very much.”
I kissed Luna's forehead, grabbed my phone, and padded through to Ziggy’s little adjoining room, closing the door behind me so Luna could try and get some shut eye.
Ziggy’s desperate crying burbled to a milder wail as I appeared on the edge of his developing awareness. And when I picked him up, enveloping him in my embrace, he practically silenced.
“Hey, little prodigy.” I spoke to him softly then started singing, as gently as I could, the opening lines of ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, his namesake.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, interrupting my flow as I launched into the chorus. I pulled it out automatically, a throwback to when we had all been on Apollo high alert. Since then, he had stepped down as CEO and his adoptive mom Priscilla had taken over the company, vowing not to continue his grudge. We were safe from Apollo now. He no longer commanded the resources to come after us, even if he still wanted to.
But old habits die hard, and I unlocked my phone to reveal a mysterious message.
