Page 523 of Once Upon a Fable

Our bedroom had also been extended—the ceilings vaulted with a massive openable skylight above the bed so we could sleep beneath the stars without having to be outside.

I knew Gem had designed this place with all my comfort in mind. She ensured she brought the outside in, knowing that the wilderness and nature calmed me if humanity pushed me too close to my limits.

It’d become my most favorite place in the world.

Our home.

Our sanctuary where nothing but good times could find us.

“Get out of the way,” I laughed as Fang licked the droplets off my legs while I rubbed a towel over my hair. Catching a look at myself in the mirror, I froze.

The guy staring back was once again unfamiliar.

The glint in his eye was calmer, wiser. The long hair that almost touched my shoulders was a throwback to my days of refusing to groom myself, and the silver scars would always remind me of what I’d endured.

But...that was where the bad parts of me ended.

My mouth no longer turned downward with suspicion and anger.

My skin was no longer tight on cheekbones from lack of food in those colder months.

I’d put on weight. I’d healed.

The proof of that reflected in the mirror.

I smiled, watching how it came naturally to me now. It wasn’t forced. It wasn’t fake.

Smiling was one thing I’d become a master at because living with Gem made me so goddamn happy.

I can’t wait to tell her that I came.

An odd thing to confess that I’d jerked off in the shower. And I’d done it without too many heart palpitations, supervised closely by a dog who barked whenever I tripped into the past. But I wanted to share every detail with the woman who I adored—the woman who was about to become mine in every way.

Holy Christ, I’m getting married today.

I couldn’t breathe at the rightness of it.

At the joy of experiencing something I’d only read in books back at Fables.

I was about to become a husband.

Gem was about to become my wife.

Could life be any more perfect?

Fang trotted into our bedroom while I wrapped the towel around my waist and followed him. My suit was already laid out on the bed. Gem had gone to the main house to get ready, saying it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.

She’d only been gone an hour, but I missed her.

I’d missed her enough to come to thoughts of her.

Then again, I’d jerked off, partly because I wanted to prove to myself that I could achieve an orgasm without her holding my hand, but I’d also obeyed her whispered command as she’d kissed me goodbye. She wasn’t lying that it turned her on to think of me touching myself.

It wasn’t a regular occurrence yet. I still suffered too many memories to willingly do it often, but today had been another cleansing, washing away yet another piece of darkness so I was ready to claim my wife.

Fang licked his paws as if he was getting ready for the ceremony too, watching me carefully while I slipped into ironed pants, shrugged into a new white shirt, and finished it off with a dark gray blazer.

We weren’t doing overly formal, but we weren’t doing wild valley heathen either.