Page 133 of Stags

She laughed softly. “Sir,” she repeated, and when she looked at him now, she felt such a flood of fondness and affection, it robbed her of breath.

“Look, Tawny, I’ll do better,” he said quietly, but he still hadn’t lifted his antlers.

“Don’t do that.”

“Is that my lack of backbone again?”

She sighed.

He was silent.

The silence stretched on.

She got up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” he said.

She left the room and went off to the bathroom where she found the pregnancy test and came back with it. She handed it over.

He looked down at it. “Am I supposed to understand what this means?”

“Well, I’m pregnant,” she muttered. “Clearly. Because we have been having a lot of unprotected sex for a really long time now, so it obviously worked.”

Athos let out a funny noise in the back of his throat.

“You okay?” she said.

He nodded, wordless. His eyes were very bright.

She moved in to touch him. “Hey,” she whispered. “Hey, you had to know that it was going to happen.”

“Got what you wanted from me,” he said, nodding. “Time to digest me for protein now.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” She snatched the pregnancy test back. “I don’twantto lose you.”

“You know, you really could have fooled me with the way you’re acting,” he said. “I am so, so confused right now. I think what you’re saying is that you just want me to be, like, more masculine and not let you call all of the shots or something, but—”

“No! You are plenty masculine, you dumbass. What with your rack of antlers and your very functional penis, you know?”

He let out a breath. “Very functional, huh?”

“It won’t work with us, that’s all I’m saying,” she said. “I want it to work. I think you want it to work, but that’s not enough.”

He lifted his head and his antlers pointed up at the ceiling and the look he gave her made her cringe because he obviously thought she was stupid. “How is that not enough?”

“Because I’m too much, like I just said. I am incredibly flawed.”

“Uh huh,” he said. “Well, I’m flawed, too. I thought my flaw and your flaw were actually fitting together kind of perfectly. I’m not enough. You’re too much.” He stuck his fingers together, interlacing them. “That seems sort of perfect, don’t you think?”

Her eyes stung. “B-but… I can’t stop.”

“Can’t stop what?”

“Being too much.”

“No one fucking asked you to!” he practically shouted.

She bowed her head now. Her face crumpled. Her voice was full of tears. “Do you mean that, Athos? Do you really mean that?”

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