He looked out through its glass window front and watched her whipping the cream, licking the spoon, pouring it onto the pavlova and placing the strawberries on top. He saw her licker her finger a few times too, and couldn’t help admiring the sight of that tongue and looking forward to the early parts of her plans for this dinner date.

She still had half the strawberries to go, when he felt the need to press the buzzer.

She stopped and came over and took him out and lowered him gently into the pavlova at a point where there was no cream or strawberries in the very centre of the circle. Then he looked up at her towering beautful face and watched her dainty fingers placing the remaining strawberries in suitable positions.

“This is the first time I’ve had my meat and dessert combined, and yet I think it’s going to be very nice. It was a very good suggestion you made,” she said.

She took it to the dining table, where she’d already laid a spoon and sat down.

He watched her spooning pavlova and fruit into her mouth several times and licking the spoon clean, until there was only the small amount of it which still surrounded him.

“If I slide the spoon over gently, can you sit down and lie back on it?” she asked.

“I think so,” said Tarquin and saw the spoon approach.

She raised the spoon to her mouth.

“You look luscious!” she said.

“Couldn’t we just go on like Frances and Nathaniel?” he asked.

“I can’t blame you for asking, but I’ve been doing this for a while now, and you know the way it always ends,” said Colleen.

She spooned him into her open mouth. He lay on her tongue, as she swished and rolled him around on it, drawing almost all of the pavlova off him. Then she opened her mouth again and took him out with he finger and thumb.

Had his last appeal finally persuaded her of the benefits of keeping him uneaten?

“That’s most of the pavlova gone,” she said, “Let’s see what I can do to clean off the rest.”

She put out her tongue and licked him several times, turning him with her finger and thumb until she’d cleaned it all from him, and then passed him into her other hand. From the palm of her other hand, he watched her licking her first hand’s finger and thumb clean too.

“There, you’re sparkling clean and ready to be swallowed,” she said, “I’m so glad I caught your eye in the public gardens that day. I’ve enjoyed these last few weeks with you more than any of my other adventures with leprechaun substitutes. You’ve made me very happy, and I’ll always remember your fond affections for me. I’m very fond of you too.”

She rubbed him against her dress to dry off the tongue water, and gave him a long slow kiss.

“I even felt them, when you were snatching up the leprechauns from the cavern. I couldn’t help peeking out from behind the palace window curtain at your beautiful face and the look of triumph in your eyes.”

“So that’s why you barely made it out of the upstairs room when I pulled the roof off. You’re so sweet to tell me that, and to stay there watching me. And now I’m going to gobble you all up. Goodbye, little darling.”

She licked him a few times more, then placed him gently into her mouth, slid him around on her tongue for a while, then drew him into her throat and waited until he stopped part way down.

They all like to stick a little, she thought.

Tarquin felt the inside of her throat all around him and wondered if he could yet have appealed to her to go on romancing him. Suddenly she began gulping him further down her throat with tremendous heaving pressure. He reached her tummy and knew that there was no changing her mind.