Page 145 of Raw

“That’s good. How’s your mother?”

“She’s fine. Papa, there’s something we need to ask you,” I said, looking at Vespyr and receiving an encouraging nod from her.

“Shoot.”

“We know you want to be alone up there, and we respect that decision, but we can’t stay here. We need to be alone too, and the only place we can be just that is up there in the forest.”

“We’re like you, Papa,” Vespyr added, her voice hopeful.

“I don’t want you at my camp again,” he stated, and as harsh as it sounded, it didn’t hurt us.

“We know. That’s why I had this other idea. You have so much land up there, and if you allow us to settle further away from your camp, we’d like to build our own up there somewhere. We can’t stay in this town, or anywhere else other than the forest.”

Papa didn’t respond, and the silence was making Ves and me nervous.

“Your Mama okay with that?” he then asked.

We didn’t need her consent to live out there on our own. “She’s gonna be happy we’re leaving this house, Papa,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, probably.” He sighed and we heard him walk across his wooden cabin floor. “Fine. It’s not like you’re gonna listen to what I have to say anyway.”

That wasn’t entirely true.

We learned a lot from him, but when it came to my relationship with Vespyr, there was no one telling us what to do.

“Thank you, Papa!” Vespyr said happily, clapping her hands before hugging me tightly.

He scoffed. “Yeah, just let me know when you’re ready to come up here.”

“Will do. Thanks, Papa,” I replied before saying goodbye and hanging up, then putting my arms around Vespyr to pull her close.

“We’ll be home again soon,” I whispered into the crook of her neck, holding her tight against my body.

“Just the two of us.” Her shaky voice was a sign of happiness, and I couldn’t stop myself from shedding happy-tears either.

Our life was up to us to decide where and how we’d end up, and living together without others around was where we were meant to be.

I leaned back to look at her beautiful face, and when I moved closer to kiss her, she placed both hands on each side of my head before straddling my lap.

My hands were on her lower back, feeling her heat against mine as we melted into the kiss.

A soft moan escaped her as I moved my hands to her ass, and just as our kiss got more intense, she pushed against my chest to look at me again.

“Not now,” she whispered, leaning her forehead on mine and closing her eyes.

I couldn’t keep my hands off her during the day, but whenever Mama was back from work, I had to try and keep them to myself until she was asleep.

Not that she didn’t know we were sleeping in the same bed every night and doing things she wasn’t okay with, but we respected her that much to not rub our love into her face.

It was the least we could do after what she had done for us.

“When we’re finally on our own, there will never be a ‘not now’,” I promised her, making her laugh and throw her head back with bliss all over her face.

Yeah…you’re the luckiest motherfucker on this planet for calling her your true love.

And for Vespyr to call me hers.

Epilogue

---