We arrived at my cabin, and the moment the door closed, Adrian pushed my back against it. I stared wide-eyed at him. “Is this how the night is going to end?” I asked.

Adrian shivered and pressed his lips to my neck. “You know,” he rasped, “if you’re pregnant, there’s no need to worry about getting you pregnant again. We might as well end the night with some amazing sex if you’re game.”

I grinned and pushed my hips against his. “Absolutely,” I said.

He tore my shirt open, sending buttons scattering to the floor. I gawked. “Thar was my only good shirt!”

“I’ll buy you another,” he said.

He sucked mercilessly on my collarbone. “It’d better be a nice one,” I said, as I curled my hands in his hair.

“It’ll be gorgeous,” he replied between kisses.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back against the door, content to let him do whatever he wanted. Heat flared over my body, bringing with it the scent of my arousal. His hands unbuttoned and unzipped my pants and yanked them down in a sharp, single movement. “Oh, God,” I moaned. “Are you about to bang me against the door?”

“Considering it,” Adrian growled.

His tongue teased my neck, while his fingers coaxed my nipples into peaks. My breath quickened, and when he pressed closer I felt his hard cock against my belly. “God, how long have you been thinking about this?” I asked.

“All night.”

“And I thought I was wanton,” I replied.

Adrian rumbled with laughter. “Turn around,” he ordered.

I did and braced myself against the door. I looked over my shoulder and saw him produce a bottle of lube from his pants pocket. “Are you going to use condoms?” I asked. “I’m clean, and I’m already pregnant. So…”

“If you’re offering,” Adrian replied.

I nodded.

Adrian unbuttoned his pants and lowered his boxers to reveal his cock. He squirted the lube over my ass and slowly eased a finger in, then out. I fell into the familiar rhythm, although the door was firmer than the bed and made every movement feel far more intense. My cock pressed against the door with every thrust of his finger. I was half-intoxicated by his touch, so caught up in the heat of the moment that I barely noticed him slip in another finger.

I whined and pushed back against him. He pulled his fingers out abruptly and replaced them with his cock. I groaned, and Adrian leaned close to my shoulder. “Quiet,” he growled. “The door is thin. You wouldn’t want someone to know you’re getting fucked out of your mind, would you?”

I squirmed and rubbed my hips against the door. “I don’t really care at the moment,” I said.

I took in Adrian’s full length and felt his very expensive trousers brush the back of my thighs. His linen shirt clung to the sweat on my back. My breath gave way to panting, and I came just seconds before Adrian. There was a sudden rush of warmth and liquid, and I gasped in surprise. Logically, I should’ve expected the feel of his semen, but even that knowledge had somehow left me unprepared for it.

I groaned and leaned my forehead against the door. As Adrian eased his way out, his semen dripped down my thighs. “Different?” Adrian asked.

“Yeah,” I said, absentmindedly reaching between my legs.

When I turned around, Adrian was shoving his cock back into his boxers. Then, he frowned and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “So messy,” he muttered. “Especially for you.”

His eyes trailed down my naked body. With a sudden surge of boldness, I stepped out from my jeans and boxers and met him square in the eye. “What do you propose I do about it?” I asked.

He smirked lasciviously. “You’ll have to take a shower,” he said.

“That’s a good idea.”

“Yes, but I should watch,” Adrian said, “just to make sure you get all of it.”

Adrian spent the night in my cabin. We sat on the sofa together. I’d finished the Sopranos and began Goodfellas instead. Adrian wasn’t interested in them, but when I offered to watch something else, he responded with a flippant wave. He’d retrieved his laptop from his room and sat there typing throughout the whole film. I laid my cheek against his shoulder, comforted by the familiar tap-tap-tap of his large fingers striking the keyboard. “Don’t watch me write,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

“I’m not,” I replied, because I really wasn’t.

We sat there for hours. When Goodfellas ended, I watched through a half-dozen TV shows in a futile attempt to draw his interest. It seemed he wasn’t really one for television, that night. Eventually, I resigned myself to that fact and began a marathon of all the Jurassic Park films.

“Let me show you what I’ve been working on,” Adrian said.

Without any further explanation, he passed the laptop to me. I felt the heat from his hands as he passed it to me, and my insides fluttered.

We spend the night planning the wedding, with the sort of fantastic excitement that most young women are supposed to plan their weddings with. I want something with dark blues and purples and lots of glittering snowflakes. Jóhannes wants to arrive at the ceremony in a helicopter, like a wannabe James Bond. We pass the whole night like that, just talking about a billion and one things, and in the morning, we’re tired and excited and rush off to buy engagement rings. Elisabeth is delighted to see us go, and I wonder if she was all along.

I still don’t understand a lot of things, and for the first time in my life, maybe that’s okay. For the first time, I can’t even consider running, and I have no reason to run. I have an incredibly brilliant fiancé. I have his loving parents. I have a family and a future, and while there are still a lot of details to sort out, I can live with that. It’ll take time, and it won’t be easy, but we’re all going to be fine. For the first time in my life, everything is okay.

When I finished reading, I looked up at Adrian’s face, softened by the lamp-light and shadows. His eyes were no less discerning or intense, even in the half-light. “You rewrote the ending for me,” I said.

“I did,” Adrian replied. “Do you like this one better?”

“Yes, but you didn’t have to do that for me. It’s your art. You said you set the pattern to end in a tragedy.”

“I did.”

“Then, you shouldn’t have changed it.”

Adrian took his laptop, sat it on the floor, and pulled me into his arms. “No, that’s why I had to change it. It’s the ending I want. For the both of us. Happy, planning together, taking care of one another. Isn’t that the ending you want?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Then, we’ll make it happen,” Adrian said. “I promise to do that much for you and more if I can.”

“I know you will,” I replied. “I don’t doubt that at all. The only thing is…we have to plan how and when to tell Angelica.”

“She likes you. That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Just because she likes me doesn’t mean she wants me to be her dad,” I said. “She might think I’m trying to replace her mom.”

Adrian sighed. “Well,” he said, “that is a possibility, but I’ve no doubt she’ll come around. We’ll just sit her down and explain it.”

I nodded, but really, what other solution was there? Of course, we’d have to sit her down and tell her. Adrian reached beneath my shirt and patted my stomach. “Maybe learning she’ll have a baby brother or sister will help her deal with it all,” he said. “It’ll be just like the ending you wanted, married with children.”

I put my hand over his and sighed. “And then what?” I asked.

“After you have the baby? Maybe we’ll go and see the world. You all go with me, of course. If I’m going to marry you, or even just have you live with me for a while, I should learn to fix all the mistakes I made before. I should spend more time with my family. I should be a better partner and parent.”

“You’re fine,” I said.

Adrian kissed me softly. “There’s always room for improvement, Lancelot.”

Angelica sat across from Adrian and me. We’d decided to have this meeting in the guest dining hall. That had been Adrian’s idea, and until he’d pitched it to me, I hadn’t realized that Adrian made most of his confessions over meals. I had no idea what to make of that. It seemed critically important, but maybe my newly developed appreciation for structure and symbolism was getting the better of me. I kept my hands beneath the table, so Angelica wouldn’t see how badly I kept fidgeting. I felt sick, and I wasn’t sure whether it was the baby or her. Either way, I had never before been so intimidated by a small child. “Lance and I have something to tell you,” Adrian said.

Angelica wrinkled her nose. “Lance?”

“Oh, that’s me,” I said. “My real name. Remember I told you before, didn’t I?”

“So you’re not a real pirate,” Angelica said. “I knew it.”

Okay, this conversation had just plummeted downhill, and I had no idea how to salvage it.

“No, he isn’t a pirate,” Adrian said, “but he’s still very important to me. You’re a big girl, Angelica, so I won’t drag this out. Lance is going to have a baby.”

Angelica’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s cool!”

“Yes,” I said.

“And we’re going to take care of Lance’s baby,” Adrian said. “He’s also going to be staying with us for a while, so we can help him.”

Angelica furrowed her brow. “Okay,” she said. “That sounds fun! Do I get to help with the baby?”

“If you want,” I replied.

I hadn’t expected it to go nearly this smoothly, but maybe it was the way Adrian had introduced it. Lance is going to live with us for a while. I glanced at him and wondered if he shared my reservations. He noticed me, but offered little more than a squeeze of my hand. “It’s going to be great,” he said. “Different, but we’ll figure it all out.”