CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 21
“Dude, in a hurry much?” Julie hollers from quite a distance behind me.
I have stayed close to her the entire walk home, urging her to keep a fast pace, but now we have arrived at the rookery so I don’t feel an overwhelming sense of guilt for abandoning her as I rush forward to the rookery door, unlock it, and barge in to claim Hannah.
Hannah looks up from where she’s petting Saphkarra on her lap. The pair are seated on the tri-seat, quilting together. Hannah smiles at me, lifts Saphkarra, and sets her on the sofa’s middle cushion so that she can stand and greet me.
Saphkarra sends us both a miffed look and begins grooming herself.
“Jonoh!” Hannah says brightly as I move for her. Before my arms reach her, she fairly squeals, “Guess what?” She throws her arms around me with a welcoming, triumphant air.
Burying my face in her mane, I inhale. I wrap my arms around her even more tightly than she”s holding me. “What?” I ask, feeling my insides calm.
The door closes loudly as Julie walks in. “Ugh, you two are so cute it’s sickening.”
Hannah tries to pull back from me, but I don’t release her. She gives up trying to leave me, even emitting a laugh of delight. She squeezes her arms around me, telegraphing that she is enjoying my clinginess as much as I’m enjoying the act of being clingy. “Seeing you be brave helped me be brave,” she says into my chest.
“It did?” She smells like an empyrean dream. I press my mouth to her neck—not kissing yet, because I am certain if I start, I will haul her off to her room to mate her, and I don’t know if she’s been filled with a nutritionally satisfying meal yet. I know that once I get her in her room, we aren’t leaving until tomorrow, so feeding her seems necessary. I’m hungry too—starved, really—but not only for food, and I’ve made the decision that I’d prefer to eat Hannah.
“Yeah!” Hannah declares excitedly, jolting me back into her conversation. “I told my boss she had to hire you or I’d quit!”
Julie’s voice travels from somewhere in the food preparation area beside us. “Bold. Now what’s your plan for how we’ll cover the rent if she calls your bluff?”
“I will afford this,” I vow to them both.
Neither of them reacts to my pledge, and I gather that Julie is cultivating courage and resolve in Hannah, which is best exercised without a ‘safety net.’
Hannah shrugs in my arms. She tries to turn to look at Julie. “I wasn’t bluffing.” Through my shirt, I feel the smile stretching her face. “I figured if you got Jonoh a job, you could get me a job too. And then one way or another, I’d get to work with Jonoh,” Hannah adds shyly. “I want to protect him.”
Maybe Hannah can wait until tomorrow to eat. Or perhaps we can mate for a few hours, and be sated enough to leave and consume food. To think! All these nights we’ve managed to sleep beside each other, burning up with sexual tension, yet too afraid to act rashly and risk destroying this relationship we’ve slowly been building. Now the sexual barrier has been breached and there will be no holding back from each other. My hand caresses down the length of her wingless self, stopping at the lower curve of her luscious rump.
Hannah reacts to my touch by hugging onto me more tightly—and her breath catches.
“But your boss agreed to your terms then?” Julie interrupts.
Hannah clears her throat. It takes her a moment to draw back from me, and when she does, she”s blinking a lustful look from her eyes. But after a moment, she processes Julie’s question and her face clears as she announces “She did! I took the liberty of filling out Jonoh’s application for him. I gave it to her, and she looked it over and said if ‘Jonah’ wants the job, he’s hired.”
“You rocked it!” Julie praises, applauding heartily. “Atta girl, Hannah!”
I squeeze Hannah to let her know I applaud her bravery too. But… “Jonah?” I ask, puzzled.
Hannah winces. “She misread your name. I did correct her, but you should know that she called me Tiffany for almost a year before she started calling me by my actual name, which is nowhere close to Tiffany, so…”
“There isn”t much hope of her managing to remember my name,” I surmise, seeing the problem.
Julie snorts from the food preparation area. “Get up in her face, look her dead in the eye, and tell her your name. Then tell her to repeat it. Don”t look away until she gets it right. I promise you, a little intimidation goes a long way.”
“It makes sense,” I say thoughtfully. Direct eye contact is a very powerful tool for communication. “Thank you.”
Hannah bites her lip and gazes up at me. “Do you want to come work with me?”
“I do,” I tell her.
I’m not certain how any work will get done, but other mated pairs seem to manage working together without constantly breeding.
Although they do frequently take breaks to mate.
Hannah’s workplace requires a sturdier breakroom table, I decide.
***
We eat dinner. My rear cheeks tingle each time Hannah sends me a heated look. Either unaware of her effect on me or deriving pleasure from what I’m certain is my obvious tension, Hannah finds word games to put my abilities to the test. She is delighted with my mind.
“Julie! Come watch Jonoh! He’s killing it at this game! He’s so smart!”
“So is a computer,” Julie says, attempting to sound scathing, I believe, but she misses the mark with the way she sighs and lets a reluctant smile grow over her face.
I like that Hannah is choosing to spend her relaxation time in her rookery playing games with me. But my patience for playing games has reached an end. I take care to return the game pieces to their storage box, and I return the storage box to its place. Then I carry Hannah—who shrieks in shock as I lift her off her feet—to her bedroom. “You,” I growl into her ear, “made a vow to me. It’s time to fulfill it.”
“Okay!” Hannah agrees happily.
Initially Saphkarra trots after me, expecting hand feeding, as per our usual routine. But she has dry kibble available if she is truly hungry, and for now, I”m starved for my mate, so I”m afraid I ignore my cat.
My cat does not offer us the same courtesy.
Instead, as I make love to Hannah, Saphkarra stares at us in a very obvious, very horrified fascination. If I had the ability to peel my attention off of my mate, I would see the moment my cat gives us a most disgusted look and leaves the bed.
But I don’t notice. Because tonight, gone is the polite routine that Hannah and I have shared. We’re acutely aware of each other”s interest, and finally we are acting on it with all joy.
And teeth. Lots and lots of libidinous nips of Hannah’s teeth. All night long.