14. Harley #3
Val huffs and pats at my hands as if silently asking to be released, so I let him go.
It takes him a moment, and he looks like he wants to groan more than once, but he gets up from the floor and sits on the side of the bathtub.
I stand and, for lack of a better place, put the lid down and sit on the toilet.
“Tell me.”
Whatever it is, I’d rather know now.
Val glances nervously around, not quite meeting my eyes.
“I think, maybe, it’s possible—but it’s hard to be sure, because my wolf isn’t, I can’t feel him very much. I mean, he’s there, but he’s, it’s like he’s coming out of a sleep but isn’t awake, kind of.”
Val groans again and drops his head into his hands.
“God, I sound like a babbling idiot. I just mean I think it’s possible we might be mates, destined for each other.”
I frown.
“What was that? Can you raise your head up and say it again?”
Because surely I don’t hear him right the first time.
“I said,” Val says, tipping his head up enough to look at me, “that I think we might be mates. It would explain the instant attraction, and normally I would be panting after you more than I am, but everything shifter about me is fucked up!”
He roars the last two words and slaps his hands against the tub.
“God damn it!”
“Yeah, God damn it,” I repeat, stunned and trying to figure out what I’m feeling.
I mean, weirdly, I’m not scared or freaked out.
“That makes me feel better, I think.”
Val rolls his eye up at me.
“How in the hell does that make you feel better? Fuck, I wish we had the mental link mates have.”
“Mates have, what? Like telepathy?”
That’s kind of cool, and sure would prohibit lying and cheating, wouldn’t it? If we really are mates, and if Val recovers from the accident enough that his wolf can be felt. Or do I have to become a shifter? I’ve heard horrible stories about how that can be done.
“Yeah, something like that. Kind of sensing each other’s emotions, although the bond is supposed to get stronger and the mental link does, too.”
Val runs his fingers through his hair, then grimaces when he reaches the back of his head.
“Forgot about that. I think the cut’s already healed.”
“Why didn’t you heal there?”
I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t understand why there’s a scar since shifters heal so quickly.
Val shrugs.
“Datura, probably. It’s a plant that is toxic to us in even small doses.
Doc thinks maybe Dobson dusted his vehicle with it or something, got it on me somehow.
That, and I was lying there with a chunk of metal in me for a while.
As fast as we heal, sometimes that’s a bad thing.
Parts healed that would have been better off not healing so fast. Because of the foreign object, as Doc Shania called it, sticking in me, vessels and tissues began healing around it and it totally screwed up everything else once the metal was removed.
It was just a clusterfuck of reasons, I guess. ”
“I didn’t mean to be rude, I’m just trying to understand.”
I stand and walk over to Val. I trace the silver scar. It feels soft and cool beneath my fingertip.
“I meant it when I said this doesn’t detract from your looks at all. I’m sure you were handsome before, but with the patch, and this? Devastating, babe. Utterly.”
I bend and brush a kiss over the thin line. Val shudders for me very prettily.
“Oh, I think I like making you do that. A lot.”
I kiss the scar again.
“Let me clean this blood off you, then...”
Val takes my hand and brushes my knuckles with warm lips.
“Then what, Harley? Don’t think you have to do anything. I do believe we are mates, and I’m sorry you got a damaged one—”
“Stop that.”
I tug his ear in reprimand. Val gives me a startled look and sputters as I keep talking.
“No. You don’t get to insult yourself any more than I do. Yeah, we both have wounds, but that doesn’t mean we’re damaged. We’re just... altered, maybe.”
I’m never going to win any prizes for talking, that’s for sure.
“Altered.”
Val seems to consider that for a moment, then he snickers.
“You know that’s another way of saying a dog or cat is neutered or spayed, right? I don’t want to be altered.”
I clench my thighs as my nuts try to crawl up inside my body.
“No shit. I mean—”
“I know what you meant, and I get it.”
Val eases himself up gingerly. I hover nearby and try not to be obvious about it.
“But, I do mean it about us not having to do anything. I’m not sure I could do a lot just now, except lay there.”
His eye widens and a flush climbs from his neck all the way to his forehead.
“Uh.”
Being a strict bottom, I suddenly start thinking maybe I shouldn’t be so set in my ways. I have to work through a few things before I’ll be comfortable being fucked, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try something new, does it?
“You want me to fuck you?” I ask for clarification, because Val sure seems nervous all of a sudden.
Val shifts his weight, grimacing when he puts too much pressure on his left leg.
“Uhm. I think so?”
“You think so?”
God, the man is kind of adorable, especially when he chews on his lip like that.
Val nods.
I don’t know whether to shout with joy or tremble with fear.
I’ve never once fucked anyone.