A perfect, blissful month has passed since the night I claimed Lizith as mine once more. We’ve alternated between her apartment, and the one I kept for the past eight years, from the first time Jacqueline and I separated. I could never get rid of it; too many memories of the beautiful girl who brought me to life haunted the walls like ghosts clinging to this realm. Every time I entered the place, I could still feel her presence.

Jacqueline never went there. I never bothered to tell her where it was, and she never cared enough to find out on her own. She’d disappear for numerous days at a time, staying with her family—or so I believed. And that’s when I’d spend time in my secret domain, a shrine to the only woman I ever loved.

It was surreal having Lizith there again. On one hand, it was like she came home after too long away, but on the other, I didn’t like that the place had bad memories attached to it as well. It was in that apartment when I’d told her we couldn’t see each other anymore. It was there I broke not only my little bird’s heart, but mine as well.

“I’ll die without you, my love. Please! You can’t do this! You promised. You promised you’d leave her, that I was the one you desired. Please! Master!”

Her heart-wrenching sobs still echo through these walls, along with my cold responses as she wailed at my feet.

“This can’t go on, little thing. It was never meant to be. I have to go back to my wife.”

I had to hurt her. It was the only way to keep Jacqueline from figuring out who Lizith was and ruining her life. I didn’t care about my own. I could’ve found something else to do with my life besides teaching. But Lizith… she was still so young, so new at adulthood. She didn’t have anything else to fall back on if my cunt of an ex marred her name. And Jacqueline could be a vengeful bitch. It didn’t matter that she was the one who left me for another man. I could never let her find out who Lizith was. Because she’d then have the power to completely destroy me. A reason Lizith would never forgive me for.

I shake out of my darkening thoughts, refocusing on how good life has been for the last two weeks. Because my apartment held those bad memories, and since Lizith’s is so small, I decided it was time for us to start anew. In the hours after teaching class and before my bird gets off from work, I’ve been scouring the city for the perfect fresh start. Somewhere Lizith and I can fill with only good memories, never to be scarred by our past. And I’ve finally found the perfect place.

I meet her at her apartment when she gets off, pulling in right behind her as she parks. Her face morphs with happiness when she sees me, and that look never gets old.

“Evening, handsome,” she purrs, her usual casual greeting I’ve grown to love. It was strange at first, my now mature woman having an adult mind of her own. Before, she’d been my toy that I molded to be exactly what I wanted. She lived and breathed for my attention and affection, completely selfless, almost as if she was a robot I’d programmed myself. But now, after living by herself for all these years, she has opinions, desires of her own. She’s still my little bird, perfectly submissive to what I want, but when we aren’t in the bedroom and she isn’t under my thumb, I’ve learned I love to hear whatever is on her mind.

When I had her all those years ago, if we weren’t in the bedroom—or any other room I decided to fuck her in—the only time I saw her was in my class. She was a very busy student, and I kept myself occupied with consulting jobs between lectures. There was no time for affectionate banter and shared meals. The closest we’d ever gotten to that was that one time when she was sick. Any other time, she was either naked beneath me, or sitting in the front row of my classroom. Now, we have a real relationship, one between a man and a woman who love each other equally. And I want to show her how much I love the new us.

“I have a surprise for you, my sweet,” I tell her, my voice soft as she comes to stand before me, wrapping her thin arms around my neck to pull me down for a kiss.

She smiles in response, not asking for any hints, because she already knows I won’t give her any. She’s my well-behaved little thing, who occasionally disobeys on purpose in order to receive welcomed pain with her pleasure. But for the most part, she sticks to the rules to make me happy, my love growing even stronger with the control she lets me have over her.

I open the passenger side door of my Tesla, and she slips inside. “Buckle up,” I order, before shutting the door and circling to the driver side.

She sits quietly with her hands in her lap as I pull out of the parking lot and onto the main road, never once asking where we are going. She’s content just to be with me, anywhere I decide to take her. We’ve kept a low-key existence in these two weeks, not going out but a couple times to dinner, making sure to keep to places Jacqueline would never go. I can’t risk running into her, can’t allow her to find out who my little bird is.

Pulling up to the gated community, the wrought iron fence separates as soon as roll my window down and wave my card in front of the scanner. A few more minutes of driving leads us to the back, the newest addition to the neighborhood, and finally, I pull up in front of the brand new, just finished two-story brick house.

Still, she sits quietly, waiting for a cue from me. She won’t ask why we’re here, in this strange place we’ve never visited before. And I believe it’s just as much because she loves surprises, as she wants to please me.

I turn off the car and get out, walking around the front to open her door. She places her tiny hand in the center of mine as she stands, her eyes twinkling at me before she faces the beautiful house.

Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of joy fills me, a giddiness I can’t remember ever feeling before. I suppose this is what it feels like for children on Christmas morning, who have parents who actually make a big deal of the holiday and get them presents, yet it’s strange, because I’m the one who’s giving the gift. I’ve never been so excited to give anyone something before, and in this moment, my heart races with eagerness. I can’t hold it in any longer. I pull her close as she takes in the house, and I lean down to whisper in her ear, “Welcome home, Lizith.”

Her face snaps toward me, her eyes wide, her lips parted. “Home?”

I grin, my face just now getting used to the unfamiliar expression. I hadn’t smiled much in the last eight years, but in these past two weeks, it’s been hard for me to stop. “Come inside.”

I take her up the front porch steps and unlock the door, opening it to reveal the exquisite foyer and beyond, where a wide staircase leads to the second floor. It’s completely empty, but the walls are freshly painted with the neutral color scheme I picked out, giving Lizith a blank canvas to decorate any way she likes. We’re so like-minded I know I’ll love whatever she decides on. Her office at work could’ve been my own.

She takes a tentative step inside, her eyes unable to land on one single thing as she tries to take it all in at once. But the look of wonder on her exquisite face lets me know she likes what she sees. She lets go of my hand to walk up to the staircase, placing her palm on the dark stained banister, gliding it up the smooth, shiny wood. Tilting her head back to look up, she turns in a slow circle, trying to see what’s behind the second-floor railing, but she decides to save that for later as she spins toward the right. She shoots me an excited grin before hurrying in that direction.

Her movements are no longer slow and uncertain. They’re now animated and eager as she skips through the gourmet kitchen with its giant island in the center. She opens and shuts all the cabinets and drawers, laughing gleefully when she turns on the sink and the faucet immediately runs with filtered water. My heart thuds with love as I continue to watch her, taking in her beauty and her delight as she flits through the kitchen, and when she’s finished in here, I follow her, chuckling, as she dances back into the foyer and then through to the living room.

She stops in the middle of the room and gasps, turning her amazed expression toward me before hurrying over to the wall lined with floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases. She runs her hand along one of the empty shelves and beams over at me. “Oh, Xander. How beautiful these will be filled with all our books!” She circles the room then, opening the walk-in closet near the staircase to peek inside then making her way to the other side, where the giant bay windows take up the entire far wall. “We could put cushioned window seats here,” she murmurs, more to herself than to me, and I love that she’s already making plans to turn this house into our home.

She walks through the arched entrance and into the formal dining room, the space wide enough to fill with a huge table with as many seats as she wants. This is what I had in my head when I first toured the model of this house, because that’s how they set it up, so it surprises me when she says, “This would make a wonderful office for you, my love. We can fill it with dark wood and leather furniture, with a big desk right in the center.” She spreads her arms, indicating where she’d put it.

“You wouldn’t want this to be our dining room?” I ask, looking around with new eyes, picturing the space as my own study.

She giggles. “What in the world would we need a fancy big dining room for? Neither of us has any friends, unless you count your work colleagues. I certainly wouldn’t invite anyone from my work over. I’d end up stabbing our receptionist if she looked at you the way she did when you came in for your appointments.”

I lift a brow at that. “Yeah, not quite ready for your coworkers to know about us being together, seeing how I was just there last month leaving a sample….” I halt that thought, not wanting to speak of anything negative in our new house. Only good memories inside these walls.

Her face goes soft as she glides over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and looking up at me. “I have no problem keeping you all to myself, Xander.”

My heart skips a beat at the overwhelming sense of love I feel rolling off of her in droves. “Good, because I am as much yours as you are mine now, little bird,” I rumble, watching her eyes fill with tears as she smiles. She shakes her head and lets out a gentle laugh, before stepping back once more.

She leaves the room and moves into the next, one that is set up to be the laundry room. On one side are the hook-ups for the washer and dryer, and on the other are shelves, rails for hanging things, and a wide tabletop with a sink on one end. “Oh my God, Xander. This is wonderful! This will be much better than what I have now!” she exclaims, spinning and putting her palms to the table, before lifting herself to sit on top of it. She swings her legs back and forth like a giddy child.

I saunter over to her, parting her knees and maneuvering my body to stand between them. “I taught my little bird how to keep her cage nice and clean, and after all these years of abiding by my rules on order, even without me there to praise you for your efforts, you deserve only the best of the best.”

She crosses her ankles behind me, using the muscles of her legs to pull me tightly against her. “You’re too good to me, my keeper,” she breathes, leaning in to press her lips to mine.

“My actions are justified, believe me. Now, would you like to look upstairs?” I nuzzle her nose with mine.

“Yes!” she squeals, and I step back, helping her down.

She takes off out of the utility room and runs around the house to the bottom of the steps, and I chuckle, chasing her as my little bird takes flight up the steps. I keep myself alert in case she slips in her hurry to reach the top, ready to catch her if she were to stumble, forcing myself to keep my hands off her perfect ass as it bounces in front of my face. But we make it to the second floor without a single hitch, and when she stops in the center of the landing, I nearly run into her.

From where we’ve halted, you can see into all four bedrooms as they make a circle, the staircase coming up through the center. But instead of looking inside the empty rooms, she makes her way to one of two hallways between two of the doors. I smile when she gets to the end and sees that it opens up into a room I pictured as an entertainment area, a place to sprawl on overstuffed couches and watch television.

“This wall would be perfect to project movies on!” she exclaims, and my smile turns into a grin when her mind goes in the same direction mine did.

“Yes it would,” I murmur, my eyes following her as she peeks into the half-bath off to one side, and then I trail behind her as she makes her way to the second hallway. This one leads to a door at the end, a bedroom set off from the other four on this floor. It was a selling point of this house. I saw a glimpse into the future, of being able to take Lizith as loud and wild as I want, even as our children slept, none the wiser, just right down the hall. I had seen many models where the master bedroom was on a separate floor than the rest, but I didn’t like the idea of sleeping that far away from my kids, unable to hear them if they called out in the middle of the night.

She places her hand on the doorknob but hesitates, her eyes downcast as I stand beside her, waiting for her to enter. After a moment, I hear her shuddered breath, and my heart plummets to my stomach.

“What is it, little one?” I whisper, placing my finger under her chin and tilting her face up so I can look into her shimmering eyes.

“There’s… there’s only one room this could be… and… and I’m—” she lets out a sob, even as her lips form a smile “—just s-so happy, my love. I’ve dreamed for so long… to be yours, really yours, where we’d live together, sharing a bedroom. And I just can’t believe that dream is finally coming true.”

Without another thought, I lunge, and the force I kiss her with sends her stumbling until I have her pressed against the wall. My hands dive into her hair at the back of her head, and I use my grip to turn her head how I want it, plundering her mouth with my tongue. By the time I release her, we’re both panting for breath, unable to speak at the intensity of our love for one another.

Instead, I step away and allow her back to the door, and this time when her hand meets the knob, she spins it and pushes inward. It opens to a massive room with vaulted ceilings. Over in the far-right corner is a wide platform, two steps up, where our king size bed will go. My little bird deserves to sleep on a pedestal.

I step to the side and lean my back against the wall to watch her take everything in. I can practically see her imagination running wild with the way she’d like to decorate it, where all the furniture will go. When she reaches the two doors on the left wall, I hear her sharp intake of air when she opens one and sees the gargantuan closet, with its rows upon rows of railings, shelves, and glass drawers. There is an island in the middle, with small drawers surrounding it for jewelry and lingerie. And one entire wall is sectioned off into cubbies, each with their own individual light, to showcase shoes and handbags. Things I plan on spoiling her with for years and years to come. My little bird has lived modestly for nearly a decade. It’s time she lives in the lap of luxury like she deserves.

“Everything I own will only fill up one of these rails.” She giggles, and then she moves on to the wall of cubbies, sticking her hand in and wiggling her fingers under the light. “And I certainly don’t own any shoes that would merit being displayed in a spotlight,” she adds, turning her gaze at me. “We’ll put all your fancy Italian loafers in here.” She nods to herself.

“Oh, little thing. If you think for one second that this house is the last thing I’ll ever spoil you with, you are so very wrong.” I smirk.

She doesn’t respond. She just smiles at me coyly as she passes back through the door and opens the next one. This time, she lets out a squeal that makes me chuckle. I knew she’d love the en suite. There’s a giant Jacuzzi tub, a glass enclosed shower that takes up the entire back third of the room, and a double sink vanity, with heated floors and towel racks, and the toilet is behind its own frosted glass door.

As she opens the little private room containing the toilet, she glances back at me shyly. “Give me a minute, my love. Nature calls. I have a pack of tissues in my purse.”

I nod and step backward into the bedroom, closing the door. After several minutes, right when I’m about to go back in to check on her, the door finally opens, and Lizith stands in the frame with something in her hand, her eyes brimming with tears. Her lower lip trembles, and I take a step forward to embrace her. “What is it, little bird?”

She holds out her hand, her fingers trembling, and when she places the small object in my palm, she lets out a sound that’s a cross between a sob and laugh. I pull my eyes away from her emotional state and look down at what she’s given me.

A pregnancy test.

With two pink lines.

My widened eyes shoot up to her now overflowing ones, and the beauty of her face is so striking it knocks me back a step, and without realizing what’s happened until I feel her soft stomach against my cheek, I fall to my knees at her feet and wrap my arms around her hips.