He lay down on his side and looked over the edge, peeking down at Colleen’s beautiful body. Her breasts were just below him. They would have broken his fall in the most erotic fashion, but subsequent developments would negate the value of that approach.

He could only wait.

Colleen decided to swing, and suddenly pushed back on the hammock. The unexpected movement jolted Patrick off the top of the hammock, and he fell down. When her breasts moved backwards with her swinging body, the lap of her long nightdress took the place of her breasts, and caught him like a safety net.

 “The best meals always land in your lap,” said Colleen, “Now that you’ve come from up there, it’s clear how you got as far as you did.”

She made no move to get up and carry him inside.

She stopped the movement of the hammock and sat in the same position as she had done the day before on the other hammock, and held him again in her hands, facing the house.

This time there was not only the contentment on her face, but also a satisfied look of conquest. She had hunted him and caught him by default.

“Are you really not angry with me at all?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? That chase you gave me was so much fun. I’ve planned this day many times, and I’d never thought to include it.”

“I guess you’re welcome,” he said.

“Your little escape attempt has not worked. I’ve caught you, and I’m going to swallow you down my throat and leave you to contemplate your time in my stomach. You’ve lost your willingness to comply with it, but I’m going to eat you all up anyway, Patrick! Let’s find out what you think of that,” she said.

He turned again and faced her stomach.

Eventually she took him inside for lunch, and then placed him on her laboratory desk. He watched her write up the records of the final successful test experiment, which again was merely a performance on her part. Then she went and sat in a window bay, let him rest between her breasts, and they watched the sun go down together.

“You’ll have to wait while I get dressed at last in one of those revealing period costumes you like so much,” she said, “And I know just the place for you to wait.”

She went to the pantry with him, took a large oval shaped serving plate, and set him gently down upon it. Then she picked up the plate in one hand and an even larger oval shaped glass dinner cover in her other hand. She took both to the dining room, and put the plate in her place at the table. She lowered the dinner dish slowly, saying, “See you soon, Patrick. There’s plenty of oxygen for you until I return. Just don’t use it up trying to lift the dish. You won’t budge it.”

As the glass dish surrounded him, he realised that he would never see her in that nightdress again. She walked away like a vision of mixed fantasy, destiny and danger.

He looked around the room. It was a very romantic setting. He had enjoyed so many meals there with her after work, never fully absorbing the fact that he would one day become her most significant meal.