Page 61 of Minding the Minotaur
“I should have put my foot down years ago. But I had no reason to. Now I do.” He pauses and hauls in a ragged breath. “You, Sammy.”
Before I can say anything, he rushes on. “The moment I first set eyes on you in that parking lot, I knew you were the one for me. I fell head over horns in love with you Sammy. And I, er, wondered if you… felt, in any way, something similar?”
My heart bursting with joy, I jump up, throw my armsaround his neck and hold on tight. “Oh yes, yes, yes, Arlo. I thought that was obvious.”
“Well, I’m kind of not great on seeing the obvious,” he says, swinging me round as we both laugh.
“There’s a special place I want to take you to, tomorrow,” he says when he finally places me back on the ground. “My favorite place from when I was a kid.”
“Is that where you can see the light from Earth?”
He nods. “Yeah. It’s called One Moonbeam Lake because at this time of year, a single moonbeam hits a large rock in the center of the lake, and it illuminates the water around it. We call it midsummer.”
“As in likerealsummer?” I ask.
“Yep. Real summer, when everything on Earth becomes green and lush and beautiful.”
“That would be so nice,” I sigh, trying to imagine it for real.
“Sometimes, I think it might be possible for our kind to live above ground, the way we used to.” Arlo’s brown eyes take on a faraway look. “I feel it in my blood, the memory of running across vast expanses of grass, with blue skies overhead.”
“Arlo, your imagination is blowing my brain cells.”
“It’s not just my imagination, Sammy. I’ve read about it all in our ancient texts. And yeah, I’m a dreamer. Because with you by my side, I dare to dream.”
He kisses me again. And for the first time in my life, I dare to dream too. That maybe the world isn’t a polluted husk out there. That I could share it with Arlo.
As if reading my mind, Arlo whispers into my hair, “I want us to have younglings together, Sammy.”
I stare up at him, my eyes shining. “You think it’s even possible?”
“Why not? If my enzymes help humans conceive, then why not make one special human conceive with the wholebrew, so to speak.” We both laugh. Then he sobers. “I’m going to give up on the clinic appointments very soon. I am not wasting my precious come on them when I could be giving it to you. Us. Our younglings.”
“But… can you afford to, Arlo?”
“If I’m not forking out for Clarisse, yeah. I’ll get an ordinary job, like other monsters.”
“I guess I could try and get a job here in the Labyrinth, after this. Jax works here, so why not me?”
“Sure,” Arlo says. “But let’s not talk about that now. Let’s talk about tomorrow. It’s a long day’s walk to the lake, but I can carry you if you get tired. I’ll—” He looks shy suddenly. “I’ll bring lube. And I promise to go slow, not to hurt you.”
“I know you won’t hurt me.” I stroke around his cheek, down to his scruff. “I’m so ready to take all of you, Arlo.”
For the next half hour we snuggle on the sofa and make plans for our big adventure—what food we’ll take, whether we can let Tippy in on the secret or not. In the end we decide to leave her a note before we leave.
For the rest of the day, I think about all the things out there on Earth that Arlo described so eloquently. It’s hard to believe, after all the crap we’ve been fed, that Earth could be a safe, beautiful place. In fact, it’s hard to believe I’m not dreaming. That after all the years struggling to fit into a city purported to be paradise, it’s in the tunnels of the Labyrinth that I have found love.
Tomorrow night, I will take my minotaur’s cock deep inside me, feel him come inside me, in a celebration of our love for each other.
And who knows what will follow…
I spend the rest of the day in a daze of happiness.
I know Arlo feels the same way. We touch, in a gentle, leisurely way as we go about our usual routine. He works out in the gym, then we play cards, reveling in the anticipation.
Because anticipation is part of the foreplay.
And I am a strong woman.
