Mated to a Human

☽ 32 ☾

I spend the majority of my day at work training a new barista to replace Kiki who is presumably staying in Rochester. Mom and Dad have gone to the lodge for the night to spend their anniversary alone, dropping Perry off at Erin's and giving me free rein to stay at Norwood House without admitting where I am. Harper — who has the house to herself — says she'll be leaving soon to meet Delsin.

I remind her to lock up before she leaves, and then I'm off to see Harvey.

I park out front, grab my night bag from the passenger seat, and trek up to the front door. Curious, I try the door handle, and it gives way, welcoming me inside.

"Harvey?" I call.

"In the study with Kieran," he shouts.

Not wanting to interrupt whatever pack-related issue they're discussing — there seems to be plenty to choose from these days — I head upstairs and place my bag in the master bedroom. I set my tote on the end of the bed and dawdle a bit, placing my hand on the duvet and thinking up all kinds of positions Harvey and I might find ourselves in tonight.

The front door downstairs shuts hard enough to hear it while I'm in the midst of a particularly carnal thought; it's better to prepare myself so I'm not a bundle of nerves later on, I think.

However, at the sound of the door, I return downstairs, assuming Harvey and Kieran have finished their meeting. I descend upon the foyer and see no one, so I wander towards the study. Turning the corner and stepping into the open study doors, I see Harvey hunched over behind his desk, writing something quickly and then dropping his pen.

He looks up at me. "I was just about to come find you."

"You fixed the books," I comment, gesturing at the shelves behind him. Luke had turned them all pages-faced-out.

He glances behind him with crossed arms. "Well, I was going to leave it, but..."

"Seems like his joke was at least a little clever; he knows what bothers you." I go to the front side of the desk. "You like everything in order, don't you? That's why you're always cleaning up after them."

"If I didn't, this place would have burned down years ago."

"I didn't say it was a bad thing."

Harvey comes around the desk. "Did you get here okay?"

"Same drive as usual, no vampires jumping out in front of me or anything," I joke, having to make light of our bizarre situation. "I have finals to do the next two weeks, which is a pain, and, like I told you last night on the phone, Delsin's birthday is sometime this week."

"Right," he sighs, stepping behind me. I turn to see what he's up to but halt and crack a smile as he starts rubbing my shoulders.

I would usually brush off such an action and insist I'm fine, but his massage feels pretty good, and I am quite stressed. My eyes fall shut. "I've been looking forward to this all day," I murmur.

"This exactly?" He questions near my ear.

"No, just being here with you...alone."

He works out the knots in my shoulders a little more seriously until I wince. "That hurt?"

I turn and ease his hand off of my shoulders. "It's okay, I can teach you how to touch a woman."

"Really?" Harvey grins, amused.

"How're you healing?"

Rather than describing it, Harvey raises his shirt and shows me his wound, no longer bandaged. All that remains is a faint red mark where his skin was jaggedly torn open. I gasp quietly and touch the skin around the mark with childlike wonder. His stomach muscles clench.