Chapter 20 #2
Shaking his head, Van glared with an apology among his eyes. “Not unless you’d like for me to crash this plane.”
I kept my reaction to those words to myself. Did that mean that Van’s true form was so massive that it would literally tear the plane apart if he were to shift into it? An image of a different, otherworldly form of Van flashed before my eyes and it wasn’t disgust that was fueling those images.
It was lust.
I sighed to myself. In the end, it wasn’t actually that big of a deal to me that Van was an Orb.
Did I like that he lied? No. Did I like that we’d had sex together before I found out?
Also no. But after seeing his reaction, seeing the sorrow and general upset he was wearing like funeral attire at how unsettled I’d been about everything, I knew that he was still the same guy.
Harboring secrets related to your past, or just your very existence, that was something I knew too much about.
So I couldn’t really fault Van for keeping some details about himself from me.
I definitely hadn’t told him the horrors of my childhood, and I wasn’t planning on it.
But I couldn’t exactly be upset with him without being upset with myself too.
“I get it.” I said, uncrossing my arms for the final time.
“I may not like that you didn’t tell me up front or that you waited until after we slept together, but I understand not wanting to talk about things like that.
” I watched as his entire demeanor changed, like he’d been holding onto all the tension in the entire universe and I was slowly calming him back down to a normal feeling.
“You don’t owe me anything. And I’m sorry if I implied anything different. ”
“I’m sorry for deceiving you, Alistair. Truly, I am. That’s why I was trying to tell you as soon as possible, so that I didn’t have to keep it from you any longer.”
And to his credit, he’d tried to talk to me about it more than once, but I’d been too busy with worrying about tour to entertain it. So again, I couldn’t point my finger at him without making sure I did the same in the mirror.
“It’s okay.” I smiled, trying to shift the energy surrounding us. I didn’t want this to change things between us. Even if we hadn’t exactly solidified what we were doing about the fact that, Orb or not, we’d had sex that night.
“So I’m still employed?” The corner of Van’s lips turned devilishly, that stupid handsome smirk that I liked so much.
“Yes.” I said, shaking my head at him. “You being an Orb isn’t that different from you being human. Especially with the way you look right now.” Which reminded me. “So wait, why was Xoah giving you weird looks then if you just needed to tell me this?”
“Because he recognized me as an Orb and I wanted to be the one to tell you.” Van explained. “Other Orbs can always tell us apart from regular humans, even with whatever illusion we’re wearing.”
I made a noise of interest, discerning that there hadn’t been something deeper there like I’d initially thought. I wasn’t sure what else to say, so I was relieved when Van brought up the last topic we had yet to address.
“So then…about us sleeping together.” He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable with the notion of bringing up our past tryst. “What are we going to do?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I’d like to do it again.” Van chuckled, and then he wiped the humor and charm from his face, replacing it with uncertainty. “If you’d still have me.”
Another sigh fell out of me as I leaned my head back, the ceiling of the plane coming into my immediate view.
Truth be told, the sex with Van had been fucking awesome.
I wanted to do it again. Honestly, I was more worried about the whole employee fucking the employer dynamic than I was about the Orb fucking a human one.
Plus, he was a hell of a kisser and I felt that that was sometimes hard to find.
Besides, Van could turn into any fucking human on the planet. That opened up the floodgates of role-play in a way that I never would have imagined otherwise.
“I really enjoyed our night together.” I mustered the courage to say, trying to ignore the fact that I could feel my cheeks donning some blush.
Van smiled at it knowingly. “And we’ve both got the rest of tour to endure.
Even if I really wanted to, I wouldn’t have the time to go out and hookup with someone out in the wild.
You add the matter of getting them to sign an NDA and it’s just overly complicated. ”
“Ahh, and I’ve already signed an NDA.” Van smirked.
“Exactly.” I laughed. “I guess what I’m saying, is that I’m down for a friend with benefits situation if you are.
” I stared at him, waiting for his reaction, but he was keeping himself completely tell-free so I couldn’t read him.
“I think we could both use the excuse to let off steam while we deal with my grueling tour schedule.”
“Hmm, an interesting proposal.” Van tilted his eyes away from me, like he was truly debating on whether he was up for it or not. After a few beats, he looked back at me with a smile. “I suppose I’d be down for that sort of arrangement.”
“Great.” I smiled again. “Let’s get settled in Pittsburgh and then maybe we can…utilize some of those benefits.”
My dick stirred in my pants, and if the crossing of Van’s legs was any indication, he was feeling along similar lines. With a final clearing of his throat, Van nodded. “Right. Sounds reasonable.”
I don’t know why, but making this sound like it was all business instead of the pure pleasure it was going to be only made it hotter.
I truly didn’t care, anymore anyway, about Van being an Orb.
Admittedly, I was intrigued to see his true form, and wondered if I’d ever get the chance to see it, but otherwise, I was removed from the fact.
Now we just needed to hurry up and get to Pittsburgh so I could remind myself how fucking good it was to be underneath my bodyguard.