Epilogue

“Idon’t want to take it off,” Mia whined.

Genevieve raised an eyebrow. “So you’d prefer to spend the rest of our honeymoon searching for it in the snow?”

Mia considered this for a moment. “Maybe you have a point,” she conceded, taking her shiny new wedding ring off her finger and tucking it safely into the hotel drawer.

Genevieve kissed her and put her own wedding ring next to Mia’s. “Now, are you ready?”

“Yeah—let’s do this!”

It hadn’t taken long to agree on a honeymoon location. Both Mia and Genevieve had always wanted to try skiing, so Switzerland had been a natural choice.

They were booked for a skiing lesson in less than half an hour. Mia hated to see Genevieve’s beautiful body covered up in bulky layers of clothes, but she didn’t want her wife getting cold, so she didn’t complain.

They held hands as they walked the short distance to the beginner’s area, where their instructor was waiting for them.

“Genevieve? Mia? I’m Ivette—it’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Genevieve shook Ivette’s hand, and Mia did the same.

“Where do we start?” Mia was eager to go flying down the slopes, but it seemed that there was more to skiing than people on TV made it appear.

“Well, first let’s get you onto your skis.”

Sounded easy enough, right?

Wrong.

Mia giggled hysterically as Genevieve toppled over trying to click her second boot into place on the ski, bumping into Mia and sending them both sprawling in the snow.

“It’s okay. It takes some getting used to.” Ivette held out a hand to help each of them up. Mia was still giggling under her breath, and looking at Genevieve only made it worse, so she fixed her eyes on Ivette.

“Now, you’re going to use these to guide you.” She handed Mia and Genevieve two long poles. “Put them in the snow and use them to steer, like this.”

She demonstrated while standing still. Mia and Genevieve tried to do the same thing.

Genevieve fell over, this time taking Ivette as well as Mia down with her. Ivette was up on her feet quickly, but Mia lay draped over Genevieve’s chest, shaking with laughter. “You suck at this, you know.”

“Some wife you are,” Genevieve grumbled, but she was laughing almost as much as Mia.

Ivette surveyed them with increasingly strained patience. “Up you get, ladies. We’ll be going down this slope.”

Mia looked at the slope. Slope was generous. It was more of a mildly angled road. “What about that one?” She pointed to one of the neighboring slopes—the real ones—that stretched so high it was hard to see the top.

Ivette raised an eyebrow. “You want your wife going down that as her first try?”

Mia glanced at Genevieve, who was still covered in snow from her first two falls. “I guess not.”

Genevieve gave her a sour look, but the corners of her mouth were twitching.

“Okay, now just follow me and do exactly what I do. Don’t try anything fancy.”

They pushed themselves onto the slope and angled their bodies like Ivette’s.

Mia didn’t know how it happened. One moment, she was wobbling along down the slope, and the next, she was being dumped onto her butt.

She blinked snow out of her eyes to find Genevieve sprawled over her lap, looking just as confused as Mia felt.

“What happened?”

“Don’t ask me! You’re the one who fell into me.”

“I did not fall into you! You got in the way and I tripped over you!”

“I didn’t! You—”

Genevieve shut Mia up by kissing her. Behind them, she heard Ivette sigh.

This learning to ski thing could take some time, it seemed.

They returned to the hotel about an hour later, red in the face and covered in quickly melting snow.

“I think we’re going in her book of worst clients ever. Or at least, you are.”

Genevieve rolled her eyes. “You’re never going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope. This is the first thing I’ve ever found that you suck at. We should totally come again—it’ll be good for you.”

“Next time I want to find something you’re not good at.”

“That’s easy. Just put me in an office and watch my spirit wilt.”

“On second thought, I prefer you here, like this.” Genevieve trailed a hand down Mia’s face. Mia was starting to get cold now, the rush of activity fading and making her notice things like the cool squishy feeling of her shoes against her frigid feet.

“I could use a shower. How about you?”

“I could be convinced to join you.”

“I’m in a convincing mood.” Mia leaned in and whispered in Genevieve’s ear. “How about we try that suction dildo against the shower wall. I’d love to fuck myself on it while licking your clit until you come.”

“Oh, fuck yes.”

“That wasn’t very hard.”

“Let’s just say I’m in a convincible mood. I’m quite partial to the color of your face when you’ve been out in the snow.”

Mia took Genevieve’s hand and walked backward to the shower, pulling Genevieve with her and grabbing the suction cup dildo out of the drawer on the way. They had been here for four days now, and she knew the layout. The honeymoon suite had a huge shower, which she and Genevieve had made use of multiple times now.

Genevieve turned on the hot water while Mia stripped off her soaked clothes. She paused before getting in, watching Genevieve wrestle herself out of her wet pants. Mia could have offered to help, but she was enjoying the way Genevieve’s ass wiggled too much to want to change the view right now.

By the time Mia stepped into the water, it was delightfully steamy. She fiddled to get the temperature just right while Genevieve took off the last of her clothes.

Mia dipped the dildo under the water briefly and leaned down to press it against the shower wall. She tested it briefly and found that it seemed to stay on. She was super excited to try this.

Genevieve joined her, pulling Mia to her feet.

“But the dildo,” Mia pouted. She was already looking forward to having it inside her at the same time as experiencing the delightful feeling of Genevieve’s clit under her tongue.

“I want to kiss you first.”

Mia couldn’t find a single thing to object to about that sentiment, so she let Genevieve pull her close. They kissed slowly at first, exploring each other’s mouths. Genevieve tasted like snow and steam and the chocolates they had shared on the way back.

Mia moaned and tilted her back, giving Genevieve access to deepen the kiss, which she did without hesitation.

Genevieve slotted one leg between Mia’s, and Mia eagerly pressed herself down onto the leg, positioning herself so that it gave her some delicious pressure over her clit.

Mia reached for Genevieve’s breasts, thumbing her nipples until they became hard under her touch. She pulled one nipple into her mouth while still riding Genevieve’s thigh.

Genevieve put both hands on the back of Mia’s head, guiding her to the other nipple. Mia lavished it with equal attention, licking and sucking, moaning at the wildly erotic feeling of her wife’s tender flesh against her tongue.

“Did you say something about the dildo?”

Mia had forgotten, but she certainly remembered now.

“Yeah.” She got onto her hands and knees, positioning herself against the dildo. “A little help?”

Genevieve chuckled and leaned down, slowly guiding the dildo into Mia’s pussy. Then she went to her knees on the shower floor, spreading her legs wide.

“Get me off.”

Oh fuck, Mia loved it when Genevieve used that commanding tone, the one that allowed no argument—not that Mia wanted to argue.

It was tricky, as she was using her hands to brace herself, but she used her tongue to lick Genevieve open and start laving over her clit. Genevieve whimpered and thrust her hips forward. Mia licked harder and started rocking her hips against the dildo.

It was bigger than what they usually used, and it stretched Mia to her limits, giving her a delicious feeling of fullness.

It took a few minutes to work up a good rhythm, with her moving back and forth and Genevieve’s hips chasing her tongue as it went in and out of reach.

Once they got it right, it was more than worth it. Mia swiped her tongue down momentarily to taste Genevieve before coming back up to her clit. They were both panting as they moved, the hot shower water streaming over them as they breathed in the steam.

Genevieve suddenly stiffened, crying out as she came. Mia redoubled her licking, making sure to get the most out of the orgasm. Genevieve came for a long time, longer than Mia ever remembered her doing so.

She finally collapsed backward, her back hitting the shower wall with a wet smacking sound.

“Ow!”

“Are you okay?” Mia started to scramble toward her, but Genevieve put a hand on Mia’s shoulder, holding her in place with the dildo still inside her. Mia stilled, her eyes roving over Genevieve’s body. She didn’t seem hurt, but Mia needed to be sure.

“I’m fine. I just got a surprise, that’s all. Go on. I want to see you fuck yourself into an orgasm.”

Mia didn’t need to be told twice. She went at it on the dildo with wild abandon. She didn’t often come without pressure on her clit, but she had done it before—with Genevieve, anything was possible. The wet sound of the dildo moving in and out of her pussy could barely be heard above the shower water and Mia’s harsh panting.

Mia felt herself approaching release, but she couldn’t quite get there. Her knees were protesting to being on the hard shower floor, but there was no way she was stopping now.

“Genevieve,” Mia gasped.

Genevieve didn’t need her to vocalize further. She knew what Mia needed—something to push her over the edge.

She reached down to where Mia’s breasts were swinging with the motions of her body and took Mia’s nipples between finger and thumb, squeezing and pulling lightly on them.

That was all Mia had needed. She slammed herself onto the dildo as her orgasm overtook her. Her thighs and shoulders strained as she kept pushing back and forth for several delicious thrusts before finally slowing.

Mia pulled off the dildo, landing inelegantly in Genevieve’s lap and getting a mouthful of shower water. Genevieve chuckled as Mia spluttered, sitting up so that she didn’t choke. “Now you know how I felt landing face down in the snow for the dozenth time.”

“That’ll be a story for the ages. I wish we’d gotten it on camera. Maybe tomorrow I can—”

“Absolutely not. I will be throwing your phone off a snowbank if I even suspect you of filming my humiliation.”

Mia held her hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. But that won’t protect you. I’ll remember every minute of it and remind you about it until we’re old and gray.”

“You—”

They both broke off at the sound of a phone ringing. Mia was the first to bolt out of the shower, with Genevieve hot on her heels. They had both set special ringtones for this particular number.

It was Genevieve’s phone that was ringing. Mia tossed Genevieve a towel to dry her hands and hurried back to the bathroom to turn off the shower while Genevieve answered.

“Hello?”

Mia threw herself down onto the sofa next to Genevieve. Both of them were still dripping wet and naked, but neither cared right now.

“Yes, this is Genevieve. I see—that’s excellent. We’ll be back on the fifteenth, so any date after that would work for us. No, we both work, but we can rearrange our schedules for this. Okay. Excellent, I will await your email, then. Thank you.”

Mia was practically exploding with excitement as Genevieve hung up the phone.

“Our application was accepted?”

“It was!” Genevieve flung her arms around Mia, squeezing her so tightly it took her breath away.

“I can’t believe it… you’re going to be a great mother, you know.”

“I suspect you’ll be better than I am. Adoption is always tricky, and we’re specifically adopting from a home that has kids with trauma. You have so much more experience in that area than I do.”

“Personal experience, sure, but you have more experience in caring for someone with trauma, which will probably be more valuable in the end.”

“Well then, I suppose our child will be lucky to have both of us.”

“I’m a bit nervous about the appointment,” Mia admitted. “There will be a lot of children there, and we’re only looking to adopt one, or two at most if they’re siblings. How would we even go about choosing? It feels wrong, like you’re picking pets from a shelter. This is so much more than that.”

“Well, they’ll likely give us some files to look through. They’ve done a thorough look into our lives, so they will probably know which kids might be a good match for us. We’re unlikely to just be dumped among then and asked to choose. I’ll confirm details with them when I get the email, but from what she said, it sounded like we’d meet a couple of children, then choose one or two to foster. If that goes well after a few months, we can proceed with the adoption process.”

Mia nodded. It was difficult to be anxious when Genevieve made it sound so simple and easy.

Of course, raising a child, especially one with trauma, was not going to be simple or easy, but Mia couldn’t be more excited for the challenge. She was going to give this child the home she had needed when she was younger but had never had.

“Let’s go do something to celebrate.”

Genevieve grabbed the towel and got up. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Mia beamed at her. Genevieve’s life, so sterile and cold before, was now filled with spontaneity and passion. Mia, on the other hand, had the stability and care she had craved all her life.

“What are you thinking? You’re suddenly looking at me with gooey eyes.”

“I’m just thinking about us. This path of ours has had so many twists and turns, but they’ve made us stronger, you know? I certainly haven’t behaved optimally in the past, but I don’t regret it, because it brought us together and made us the couple we are.”

“I know what you mean. I never thought I would find someone like you, Mia. I’m so proud of you, and of how far you’ve come.”

Mia had certainly come a long way. She had wanted to be fully healed from her trauma before she took on raising a child, especially one who already had experiences that might be triggers for Mia.

She had been nervous when she had first explained her wish to Genevieve, but Genevieve had been on board from the start, taking on a lot of the organizational stuff that she thrived on but wasn’t Mia’s strong suit.

“Where do you want to go?”

Genevieve shrugged. “You decide.”

“Let’s take a stroll down the street, then. I saw a lot of potential nice-looking restaurants there when we came in.”

“That sounds perfect.”

Genevieve and Mia got dressed into casual but warm clothes and headed out of their hotel room.

They joined hands as they walked down the snowy avenue.

The present was bright, and the future was even brighter.