She was kissing him or he was kissing her, and he barely noticed that they had fallen back onto his hardwood floor. In fact, he would have lost track of everything if Munin hadn"t decided to create a threesome by licking both of then-faces at the same time.
Darius shoved the puppy away, but Munin wouldn"t back off.
"Not now," he said to the dog.
"What?" Ariel looked mussed. She would be so beautiful after lovemaking. She"d be beautiful during lovemaking. She was beautiful all the time.
"He doesn"t want any secrets between us."
She froze. "There"s more?"
"There"s about three thousand years of more," Darius said, giving her one last chance to back out.
"I"m not talking about history," Ariel said. "We all have that. You said secrets."
He nodded. "I had to wait until you answered my question. The Fates made me wait."
"The Fates?" She sounded as if they were the devil incarnate. "What about them?"
"They said that our lifespans will match."
Her eyes teared. "You"ll die young? Dar, that"s still not fair--"
"No, Ariel," he said. "Yours will match mine. You"ll never have magic, but you"ll have a long life like Blackstone and Nora and me. If you want it."
"If I want it," she said.
He nodded. She was so ethical that this might bother her too.
"They made you wait because they believed I"d marry you for the long lifespan." Her eyes narrowed. "Where are these Fates? I"d like to give them a piece of my mind. They don"t treat you right."
"They treat me fine," he said, gathering her in his arms again. "Considering everything I"ve done, they treat me more than fine."
Ariel frowned. "I still don"t like them."
"You don"t have to."
She slipped her arms around the back of his neck. "But I"ll take the gift because I can spend more time with you."
He kissed her again. Munin sighed happily and headed back to his puppy bed. Ariel slipped her hands through Dar"s curls and pulled her face from his.
"And for the record," she said, "I love you. Every facet of you. And I"ll take you, long life or not. You can tell that to your Fates."
"I"m sure they know," he said. "They told me they always watch the good parts."
Ariel"s eyes widened. "They"re spying on us?"
Darius reached a hand over his head and spelled the room into complete darkness.
"Not anymore," he said. Then he dipped his head, found her lips, and began a kiss that neither of them pulled away from.
And as he kissed her, he realized he had been the one who had fallen off a cliff, and she had been the one who had saved him. Not with magic, but by believing in him, and by caring for him, no matter how ugly he was.
"One more thing," she whispered out of the darkness, as they paused to catch a breath. "I believe in happily ever after, not just happily in the moment."
He smiled, hoping she could feel it, even though she couldn"t see it. "So do I," he said as he bent down to kiss her again. "So do I."
end.