She looked all around the room without answering the question.
He said, “Do you think to find an answer in a corner of the ceiling, perhaps behind the bed or under the chair?”
“What I am afraid is not your concern?”
Alain allowed her to slip through his arms until his hands found her lovely rear end. Her skirt didn’t follow the rest of her body and bunched around her waist. He said, “My sweet, it is very much my concern. Why do you think I have hesitated to do this? I don’t want to live with a shrew, but I can’t live without you. So I have decided on this course of action. I can think of no other way to change our lives. You would run away if I gave you the chance.” He paused. She watched him with worry in her face. He continued, “If I did nothing, sooner or later, you would run away in actuality, and I would lose you.” He filled his hands with her panty covered body. She tried to dislodge his hands and couldn’t budge them. He moved, first one hand then the other, inside her panties so that he held her perfect butt, skin to skin. She wiggled to make him let go. He didn’t.
He tilted her over on the bed, slowly and with painful gentleness, on her back. His hands were in the perfect spot to slip inside the waistband of her panties and pull them off her legs. She gasped. “Alain! What are you doing?”
“I’m taking your lovely panties off, Mignon. I’m doing what must be done for us to be together.”
He reached between her legs toward her pussy. Her hand was quicker. She covered her fragrant garden with her hand. “Stop. Please. All of what has happened up till now has been fun and games. Touching me between my legs puts us across a line of some kind. How do you say it?”
“When I touch you, I will have crossed a line.”
“Bon. What you said.” She looked in his eyes then looked away. Her voice as she said her next words sounded disconnected, as if the woman who spoke them couldn’t bear to own them. “You can’t do that unless you’re willing to stay with me forever. It is too much to ask for me. To let you have that liberty and not be assured of your presence in my life.” She swallowed and swallowed again.
“I know that.”
“No. You still don’t have it completely. You’re assuming I will become pleasant and agreeable. What if I don’t. Will you stay with me if I still persist in complaining and screeching? What if you succeed in getting inside me with your big penis, and you give me a baby? Will you be there to help?”
Alain found her eyes with his. He was serious. “Did you know that Reynard and I are both of the military?”
“No. I didn’t.” She hadn’t moved her hand. It was still a barrier to his progress.
“We were with the Commandos Marine in Afghanistan. We don’t take on a responsibility and let it go afterwards. It is not in our nature.”
For the first time, Mignon showed herself, naked and vulnerable. She crossed her chest with her arm, hiding her exposed, defenseless breasts. “Please. Take care of me. Don’t leave me. I will let you go forward because I love you. And... and...” Alain allowed her pause to continue until she said, “...because I have wanted you to do this from the day I stepped into your kitchen. But you must promise. Will you take care of me as a husband should?”
Alain smiled at her. “I will. Until we occupy two plots in the cemetery, side-by-side.”
She moved both hands. They lay on the bed, palms up, by her head. Alain kissed her once more to tell her that he appreciated her sacrifice.
His fingers found her pussy and stroked her delicate tissues. She closed her eyes and smiled. “Yes. Like that. You will make a good husband and lover.”
“Mon Cherie, I have never asked you to marry me.”
“You will.” She put her fingers on his lips. “I don’t have to pretend any more. I want you to love me and maybe give me a baby to raise. But we must do it without words. I need to feel everything you do to me. I can’t if I have to listen to you talk.”
Alain chose the best way of responding to her words. He kissed her again with commitment and love. She kissed back.
He backed off a few inches. “You said ‘no words’, but these are required at this point. I love you. I will love you no matter who you choose to be. That is permanent.”
She surprised Alain by drawing him close and bursting into tears. She raised her face toward the ceiling and wailed in joy and relief. She stroked his cheek with hers. “You love me. I have wanted to hear those words for so long.”
“I’ll say them again. I love you. I love you. I love you.”