I rinsed out my mouth, washed my face and hands and went back into the sitting area. JT called me over and said, "We're going to have to work on that ...hrowing up thing. It ruins the mood."And so we did. He stood up, pushed me back down onto my knees and we did it all over again.It seemed to go on forever. He held me the same way that Luke had, holding onto handfuls of my hair like reins. But I was beaten, broken. I didn't fight him. I didn't have it in me to fight them any longer.I continued to. It still had small groves of trees left after the fallen trees were removed. They hadn’t cleaned it all up yet, just the 200m to the river and along it, for about a klick or so.Our fenced paddock had a lovely stream running down the middle of it out of the forest, and special fencing designed to discourage crocs and fangrinders from visiting our farm animals. James told me the shields should keep them out, but it didn’t hurt to be sure. He had already signed a lease with Justin for claiming all. What it means to be a man... And thegirls! Sidekicks, eye-candy," I don't do chick comics," Excuse me?" Tina laughed, eyebrows arching high. She poked at the Mangacompilation Mike had been leafing through all day. "'chicks' love thisstuff. Girls who look like boys, boys who dress like girls? You don'thave to like the gender idle, but you can't dent it,"Between the volume and content of the argument, they'd attracted a small,rapt audience of sixth-form boys. Mike was too flustered to notice.. What," I responded earnestly, "this whole, magical experience should befake, just like my sham of a marriage? Dianna, we are going to do this; if notfor you, for me. I'm not expecting you to commit to me for a lifetime. Thiswhole weekend, starting from when I walked through your door last night, isshaping up to be exactly that; Magic. When it's over, I want to be able to lookback and say: 'This was real.'" But Baby," she protested, "I'm not real. You don't know anything about me..."I shushed.