Her answering smile was soft, like her gasp when his teeth sank into a dimpled, delicious spot on her inner thigh. Like her sprawled, tempting body. Like her gaze on him in the dawning light of her bedroom each morning.
Like her heart. Like his.
Together, they were forging a joyful path through lives that were sometimes hard. But they were both clever, both tough for all their softness, both willing to work. For each other, and for their own happiness.
That was all the meaning he needed. Enough to last a lifetime.
“My goodness, Grandma.” Fist in his hair, she was urging his mouth where she needed it, confident and playful and gorgeous. Exactly how he wanted her, now and forever. “What big teeth you have.”
His favorite bit had arrived, and none too soon. “All the better to eat you with, my dear.”
Then he settled down and got to work, as determined as ever to give Little Red Riding Hood—April, Ulsie, his fiancée, the woman he would always, always love—her very own happy ending.
Just like the ones in their fics.
Just like the one she’d given him.