Diplomacy

215

Epilogue
    “COME back to bed, Luke,” Jack said lazily. He was stretched out on the bed they had spent the last six and a half years sharing.
    “Can’t,” Lucas answered determinedly from the small balcony. He was gazing out over the city, sipping from the cup of tea in his hand.
    “What’s wrong?” Jack wasn’t entirely sure if Lucas was joking or not.
    “I promised myself nine years ago that I would never sleep with a married man again.”
    Jack chuckled. “Imagine how I feel. I told myself thirty years ago I was never going to sleep with a man and now I’ve fallen in love with one and married him, too!”
    “So you’re still in love?” Lucas asked as he casually let his bathrobe slide open, revealing his long legs and slender thighs.
    Jack wanted to joke about being ruthlessly seduced by a beautiful body, but decided against it. Right now he wanted to get Lucas in his arms as fast as possible. He wanted it to be his hand rubbing Lucas’s flat stomach and sliding down his treasure trail. “Yes, I am,” he answered, lifting the duvet for Lucas to crawl underneath.
    Lucas’s skin was cool against his and they snuggled close together in each other’s arms until it was time to get up.

    THEY were married that morning at a friend’s house in the Hamptons. It had been an informal gathering, a small ceremony with their closest friends barefoot on the beach.

    216 | Z a h r a O w e n s

    Mark, now married to Zanna and with a baby on the way, was Jack’s best man.
    Liz had shown up in a tuxedo, complete with glittery top hat, looking deliciously androgynous except for her burgeoning stomach, a testament to the happiness bestowed on her by Rodrigo, a Brazilian/Portuguese U.N. interpreter, and with whom she had indeed eloped the weekend after Jack and Lucas’s New Year’s Eve party.
    The six of them, along with AnnElise and Liz’s two sons, celebrated with an elaborate picnic lunch on the beach, joined by Sean and his girlfriend and Maria and her ‘Doctors without Borders’ boyfriend. The atmosphere had been relaxed and happy with alcohol consumption at a minimum because of the pregnant female company, but with lots of speeches and ribbing from all the friends who had been party to the different stories that had shaped their lives.
    Now in the early hours of the next day, they were making love in the bed that had always been their haven.
    They took their time, slowly kissing, touching and rubbing up against one another. They each knew the other well, knew what felt good and what felt like heaven, all this familiarity representing warmth and safety.
    Jack looked up at Lucas’s dark lust-filled eyes as his lover impaled himself. He felt the deliciously warm tightness surround him as Lucas adjusted to the welcome intrusion.
    As Lucas began to move, Jack could see the young man would not last long.
    “Come for me, Luke; come for me, my husband.” Lucas smiled at the word ‘husband’, unable to respond in words as his movements became more urgent. He leaned forward, taking Jack’s head in his hands and whispered, “Come with me, Jack. Please.” Jack had a hard time keeping his eyes open as the familiar bliss tightened his groin, but he didn’t want to miss the beauty of his husband’s face as they convulsed through the abandon of their mutual orgasm.
    They woke up a few hours later, the rising sun shining in through the half drawn curtains.
    “I’m glad you said no to the President,” Lucas lazily admitted to Jack.

    D i p l o m a c y | 217

    “I figured our lives were pretty perfect just the way they were,” Jack whispered as he kissed Lucas’s hair. “I like the anonymity; I like the fact that we could get married without causing a stir. I like the idea that AnnElise is growing up with friends she’s known since nursery school.” Lucas just smiled as he snuggled up closer and drifted off to sleep again. Yes, life was pretty perfect just the way it was.

    218 | Z a h r a O w e n s

    Zahra Owens was born in Europe, just before Woodstock and the moon landing, and given a much less pronounceable name by her non-English speaking parents. Being an Aquarian meant she would never quite conform and people learned to expect the unexpected.
    She started writing fairy tales in first grade; the same year she came into contact with her first group of English speaking friends, a group which would eventually grow to include people from all over the world. On the outside she was a typical only