Page 45 of Codename: Dustoff

EPILOGUE

“What’s in the box?”

Emmett walked into the bedroom, with a gigantic box tucked under his arm. After we returned from New York, he leaned in fully to supporting my RCC. He joined me at the V.A. and made Pam’s day by stopping in and saying hello. She of course, was charmed by his sexy smile and playful devil-may-care attitude and now they have their own arsenal of jokes and topics they’ve bonded over. He even invited her to eat dinner at the Tavern and impressed her with his one armed culinary skills.

“Let’s call it a belated Christmas present.” He placed it on the bed, pushing it towards where I sat folding my laundry.

While I technically didn’t live with Emmett, being at his house was so much easier than being with my family in Haven’s Cove. Not that I didn’t miss them or want to be by them, but the house was small and had too many barriers for me to be comfortable. Most nights, I spent with Emmett. Finn and Gemini offered me the apartment above the Tavern. With their impending nuptials, they decided to build a new house right on the lake that was equal parts both of them. The verdict was still out on whether I’d take them up on the offer. They couldn’t break ground on their house until springtime anyway.

“Where on earth did you get these?” Inside the box was a very large assortment of vibrators, dildos, feathers, gels, creams, and any other relationship aid you could imagine.

“In our last Exploring Intimacy as a Couple class, Dr. Xiao provided a list of suggestions to try. So I went online and bought them and while I was there found a few other things that piqued my interest. I figured why not grab it all and have a whole lot of fun figuring it out.”

Emmett enthusiastically explored any and all ways my care team suggested we try to help both of us grow, together and as individuals. At the suggestion of Dr. Xiao, he signed us up for her exploring intimacy class. While the homework certainly was the best kind extra work you could have, the results were still less than ideal.

While the types of triggers I had from stimulus overload had decreased, and we were able to have sex without me blacking out these days, Emmett worried about my ability to finally summit into orgasm territory. It was common with nerve damage, Dr. Xiao assured both of us, and we simply needed to enjoy the journey without the expectation of, “arriving at Las Vegas with every road trip.”

“I love you,” he whispered as he trailed his fingers down my naked body. “You’re strong and brave, but also soft and kind. Seeing the respect others have for you, just makes me so proud to be the one you chose.”

I spread my legs open, giving him more room to situate himself between them. He kissed every inch of my calf, working his way to both of my thighs, working the muscle just above where I’d removed the prosthetic. While my body tried to figure out its new normal, we’d discovered some interesting quirks. Like how hypersensitive the muscles and skin were just above the amputation site. But sensitive in the most pleasurable way.

Dr. Xiao suggested trying a Hitachi wand on my pubis bone and not directly on my clitoris to disburse the vibrations throughout the full clitoral region. That was what I tried to focus on while Emmett manipulated the achy muscle of my quad. He held me open with his hand, squeezing delicious pressure on that aching muscle while his tongue teased along the seam of pussy. He took his sweet time with his explorations before finally diving in and greeting my nub with a long kiss.

It took barely seconds before pleasure and sensation lapped at my psyche carrying me out to where I could lay awash in sensation. With each swipe of his tongue, or press of the wand, or squeeze of that sensitive muscle, I wound tighter, climbed higher. I tried not to focus on where I wanted to go but rather stay in the moment. I thought about how sweet and patient Emmett was. How enthusiastically he encouraged me every time my doctors suggested I try something new. The way he smiled at me across the restaurant when he spotted me staring at him while he cooked. I thought about how even in the beginning just the thought of him could keep my panic at bay. He was my calm. He was my peace. And I loved him.

“Emmett, I think I’m going to…”

Words escaped me as I fell. He entered me just as I came back down, smiling down at me, kissing me softly. The wand turned off and pushed to the side of the bed, there was no sound but our breathing and the quiet sounds of an afternoon in the woods.

“I love you, Emmett.”

“And I, you, Amelia.

Coming home may have looked differently for a dust-off like me. While the road was long, and filled me with pain, I found in Emmett someone I could lean on any time I was off balance. He was everything I needed and didn’t know I’d been waiting for. While the journey home wasn’t a direct path into the waiting arms of the ones I loved, I made it there eventually.