Cane23

Ok, I understand Ash is the dominant top and Desmond is the bottom but...it's obviously, looking at Rory, that half-Fae males can stay pregnant. So, if he wants a child, Ash will have to do some sacrifice! 😜

Fantastic sex scene. Is it the chemistry between those two, experience or something else...seems to me that their sex was better than George and Travers ever had. I was thinking, why don't they catch a fish for food... Suppose the problem is the number of the crew members? Not easy to catch enough fish to feed them all...

Sure, if Theodore doesn't kill you first! 🤪

What's with American (and Canadian obviously) obsession with donuts?! 🤔

Guys, such a complex chapter needed a huge job to be done to make adequate analysis. This is going to be a long comment so, those who have no patience for it can skip it! If we use The Hero’s Journey (monomyth) by Joseph Campbell, we can see the opening scene as Bobby’s return – it is Return stage of hero’s journey. He is stronger now. Not the boy, not the broken thing, but not fully whole either. "You quoted me. Page sixty-two." Nick has immortalized Bobby; it is almost act of canonization. Bobby says “You shouldn’t have” but what he means is - you remembered, so did I. And now I can’t pretend I didn’t. The past is not dead; it was only sleeping. “And somewhere in their silence, a beginning lingered, frayed, tentative, and full of ghosts.” “But still. A beginning.” At the end of the flashback, @CasualWanderer82 doesn’t give us an answer, he gives us the heartbeat of hope. It's not naive optimism. It's not a fairytale. It's a quiet rebellion against despair. A beginning doesn't promise a happy ending - it just promises the possibility that something might be mended, grown, understood. The scene of love making is culmination of Bobby’s emotional healing. It is the moment of mutual surrender and equality between Nick and Bobby. If the flashback part of the chapter offered hope, this scene offers proof that such hope is not pure fantasy. It doesn’t promise forever but for two wounded souls it is enough. "I wish you had been my first" This line is not just a wish. It's a mourning. At the same time, it’s the kind of compliment no grand gesture could ever match but also a cry from the deepness of the soul, for the lost (brutally taken) innocence. Nick had fucked Adrian enough times to know he would never go down on another guy. Let alone Bobby. That would be, for Adrian, a sign of weakness. In short: Adrian takes but does not give. Even in bed, he protects his pride above his partner’s pleasure. Where Adrian withheld, Nick gives fully. And Bobby, in turn, meets him there. Seeing Bobby finally be loved the way he deserves is joyful, but also grief-inducing, because it makes us retroactively aware of everything he went without. Sex scene is a spiritual climax, the culmination of emotional longing, trauma, trust, and love finally realized. Very intriguing thing that gets to the heart of Nick's emotional complexity is that Nick knows what making love feels like — and yet, if we track his past with Adrian, we don’t see a clear moment of that kind of reverent, soul-merging intimacy. So, where does that knowledge come from? He may be speaking not from experience but from yearning. From the place inside him that wanted love to be that and waited for someone to be open enough to receive it. Bobby, in a sense, becomes the first person to let Nick’s fantasy become real. Nick is the kind of man who knows how to make love, even if he's always been fucking people who don’t know how to receive it. He didn’t learn lovemaking through experience. He carried it in him, waiting for someone to meet him in the silence. Bobby finally did. Going back to the sentence "I wish you had been my first" we can notice that, emotionally, they have been the first to each other, actually. They had sex with Adrian (or others), but they were emotional 'virgins'. Neither of them had ever made love. Neither had been seen with affection, reverence, and tenderness. By choosing each other (fully, vulnerably, gently), Bobby and Nick are reclaiming the meaning of “first.” And yes, everything has changed… The hospital scene. Nick could stay. He could console. But he doesn’t because he finally sees that Adrian’s harm wasn’t just incidental. It was chosen, repeated, and excused one too many times. “You burn everything down and then cry at the ashes.” That line exposes Adrian for what he’s always done - harm others, then beg for forgiveness without accountability. The stroke has robbed Adrian of his usual weapons: charisma, eloquence, sexual tension, intimidation. But he is still trying to manipulate “Are you leaving me?” but Nick doesn’t play these games anymore. Six months later, bedroom is a rehab space. From a once-dominating force, Adrian has become a man being moved by others. Nick doesn’t hate Adrian or loathe as Adrian insinuates - not anymore anyway. He pities Adrian. And that’s worse than hatred. “You’re just waiting for me to rot out of this chair…” That line is pure projection. Adrian is voicing what he fears, what he might feel about himself, what he might do in Nick’s place. Nick is staying out of principle, out of decency. Maybe even to avoid the guilt of being the one who abandons a broken man. He may even feel bound to the ghost of their marriage, rather than its current reality. In sickness and in health - not as a vow to love forever, but as a final act of mercy before letting go. This is no longer a marriage. It’s a haunted hospice. Despite the wreckage he caused, Adrian still positions himself as the betrayed one. Nick is cold, distant, calculated. Bobby doesn’t call, doesn’t visit. The world has moved on, while he is in a wheelchair, unable to walk, speak clearly, or command the room anymore. In a house that’s become a half-home, half-hospice, where time is bent by painkillers and memory and regret, the intimacy between Nick and Bobby becomes something almost dangerously sane. It's gentle. It’s familiar. A piece of normality in mental hospital. Finally, as everyone calls it – a mirror scene. First reaction – classic Adrian: "Fucking traitors." This is Adrian armor, a reflex to protect the ego. He sees the act and immediately retreats into rage. Not sorrow. Not grief. Anger is his shield. But then, realization that stabs directly into the heart: "There was a roughness to it. One imbued with a gentleness Adrian didn't recognize and, in fact, knew nothing about." It is not just rough – pure physical thing. It is not only gentle either- something could make Adrian challenge their masculinity… No, it is rough gentleness, something Adrian knows nothing about! The roughness is physical, but the gentleness beneath it reveals something sacred - Bobby is giving himself, not seducing; and Nick is worshipping, not dominating. It's mutual, innocent, devotional and Adrian knows instantly that this is something he was never part of. What breaks Adrian isn’t infidelity—it’s fact that he’s been removed. This is the last page of a version of Adrian that once believed he was loved most. And now he lies on the floor, unseen, unloved, unheard … watching a new story unfold, without him.

Something you have in common with @JJQuinn! She says 'Magnolias' are her greatest inspiration in writing!

Because mask has fallen and we see him as a human for the first time! His character is so well written, so much that he poisons not just their lives, but every chapter he shows in. Such a sharp contrast to calm, etheric scenes between Nick and Bobby. Now, I'm going to read this chapter a few times more and, try to find time to analyze it properly as it deserves! 🙂

Doesn't seem that Geroge's standards were much different. Ok, the 'punishment' Geoge chooses for Carmody is best possible diplomatic decision in that moment, but it is not because he approves his behavior. Interesting that George is using a word pedophile here (that's why I used it in my comment) ... was the term used than?

Ship with pedophiles and troublemakers. There's always hope that some Franch boat will sink them along the way to GB.

Charming, lovely, optimistic. Sometimes, we need just a dash of normality - and you did it beautifully @Page Scrawler!

Bottoming here is not about sexual position or preference, it is about control. Lyn releasing his control and bottoming for Alexander would be the best step forward for his psychological integration (if he doesn't make defeat and drama out of it).

Amazing scene...this, epic dominance battle! On the surface, it's a mutual jerk-off session between two old college 'friends'. Beneath it - it’s a war of power, denial, and identity. Emotional and physical explosion of years of unresolved tension. Both characters are pretending this is casual, but everything about it screams unfinished business, emotional risk, and latent longing. “Later, then?” Alexander asked, sounding, for some reason, pitifully hopeful. It says that maybe Alexander isn’t just using Lyn. That maybe he’s a little lost, a little bruised, and seeking connection in the only way he knows how. @akascrubber nailed it with his comment: "And turn over a new leaf, he had. If even the arrogant Alexander Montgomery III acted like that around him, it was clear as day that, in this life, Lyn had managed to become a winner." Lyn, blind and delusional, believes he is in control! He thinks this was all proof of power, that he’s won some long-standing competition. But he’s wrong, he didn’t win. He just opened a door that will now refuse to close.

"I can see my family, they are all here, friends too. I can see that my wishes have been honoured. No one is in black. It's such a dreary colour. Everyone is wearing brighter clothes, ready for a party, which is so much better. Just like I wanted, the service is short and includes songs that have meaning for me. Now celebrate the times that we had, and carry forward those memories. I can see that they are sad. There are a few moist eyes and others crying. I wish they wouldn't. The body laying between us is just a shell. I'm still alive in their hearts and always will be as long as they love and remember me. I will always watch over them, even if they do forget me. It's time, time for me and everyone to move on." The Last Goodbye - Mancunian

There is no conventional, there's only casual!

I didn't know this. Very sad news! RIP mancunian!

I'm humbled to be mentioned with such amazing company! Honestly, I'm not sure how big my contribution is... Sometimes, my insecurities make me overthink - is my English good enough, did I express my thought well, was my humor offensive... Nevertheless, I've got nothing but the support from GA members, I've learnt a lot and had some great fun. Cheers to all!

All of my alarms are screaming red alert - Blake is a danger! I'm still deeply in love with your love story Our Summer Rhapsody and I'm still waiting for a love story that will manage to outshine it. With every new 'psychological' story @CasualWanderer82, you achieve new literature, philosophical and intellectual highs!

Man plans, and God laughs...to paraphrase - readers say conventional, and @CasualWanderer82 laughs! 😉

Yes, in expressing emotions, we are very much southerners - the Mediterranean sort of mentality (as Greeks for example). 😁

Very touching chapter. In an English restrained way, without big emotional scenes with hugging, tears and drama...still, very tender and heartwarming.

WOW, what a magnificent chapter! Dark, with lot of tension and action packed! Finaly, crowned with triumph of love! I could say - this chapter is a story within a story! @mastershakeme, you've outdone yourself!

I like this chapter very much because it shows there are always consequences for our deeds, but these consequences don't have to be a punishment. If Jonah learns from this, mature and get some experience, he'll come back to NYC much stronger and, maybe, a little bit wiser!

Aww, a Wolf's Sleeping Beauty! I like it! 🐺🐺

Great thing about fiction is that it can describe sex as not just a passionate, sensual experience but also a transcendental - metaphysical. Their bodies know what their minds are still not aware of - they are absolutely the mates. It makes not just a good sex, it makes this two, rather inexperienced lovers, sexual beasts! The only 'human' thing in their encounter is overthinking. In the moment of bliss, they think of Theodore, curse... Just relax guys and enjoy the moment! 😉

Dear friend, this story is so inspiring, I don't know how I'm going to write concise Review!