He gaped in surprise for several seconds, having watched her lovely lips pronounce those words which had just changed his life.

“But you said you wanted to have me with you.”

“And I will, in my tummy.”

“What would Melany think?”

“She won’t be thinking about you at all. That’s why I had you write that letter.”

“I did that so I could have dates and romance with you. You’ve been planning this the whole time.”

“You agreed to do it, so that you could have dates and romance with me, and you’ve had several weeks of those. I have indeed been planning this, since the moment I saw you in the dolls house.”

“But I didn’t know it was coming to this.”

“Obviously not. If I’d told you, you wouldn’t have enjoyed the dates.”

“I think I would, but not quite as much.”

“That was a generous compliment.”

“Thank you, but what if I don’t want to play the game?”

“It won’t alter the outcome, only the time leading up to it. Lunch time is less than three hours away, and there’s nothing you can do about it, little Elmer. I’m going to gobble you whole!”

He looked up at her beautiful face as she asserted herself, and then looked at her towering neck. It was a view of great beauty, yet with ominous implications for the traveller who made his way down inside it. He looked at things from her perspective. She was looking down at him, looking forward to enacting every aspect of the plans that she had announced, and had taken every measure to ensure that it would go off like clockwork, no matter what he said or did to try to avert his fate. She would be completely indifferent to his protests and the effect that the experience would have on him. The only concern that she had really shown at any point in the last month was to minimize the sense of loss that Melany would feel at not having him around as a live doll any more. He knew for an absolute certain fact, that she would be gulping him down with the same contented carefree air of the widow she had been for the last few weeks. He would gain nothing by continuing to try to change her mind, but could still perhaps enjoy the rest of the morning with her.

“Is there time for some more kisses first?”

“Of course there is. That’s why I told you this early in the morning. We can start the chasings game half an hour before lunch. It shouldn’t take long to catch you and cook you.”

She sat against the wall on the carpet, and placed him on her shoulder, and turned her head to kiss him slowly. Eventually she withdrew her lips and looked at him with a twinkle of great amusement in her eyes.

She undid her dress to reveal her swimmers underneath, and took him out to watch her swimming in the pool again.

“You won’t try to run away while I’m swimming a few laps, will you? I’d be out of the pool and after you in no time, to fetch you back.”

“I guess I might as well enjoy the sight of you swimming one more time,” he said, with the knowledge that it would certainly put a different complexion on the situation to be having that view of her belly only two hours before journeying down into it.