9. Hannah
Hannah
Ispread the blanket on the grass under a live oak in the backyard beside the pool. Otto was already dressed in his swim trunks, smacking a blow-up tusk into the ground. I set the water bottles, towels, and sunscreen on the blanket and pulled him down beside me.
I’d wanted to take him out here for a swim since first arriving at the estate. Since our visit to the healer last week, Otto had been eating heartily and coming out of his shell more each day.
The teething ointment and toys made for budding tusks had done wonders for him. I’d weighed him this morning, and he’d already gained half a pound.
I squeezed sunscreen into my palm and started to rub it into Otto’s chubby green arm. My phone rang from the pile of things on the blanket. I wiped my hand on a towel and picked it up. It was my dad. I bit my lip, considering not answering. But I did anyway.
“Hi, Dad,” I said.
“Hannah-banana. You busy?”
“A little. What’s up?”
“It’s the new pharmacy’s website. It logged me out and now it won’t take my password.”
“Okay. Did it give you a button that says forgot password?”
“There’s nothing like that on here.”
“It should be right under where you type the password. Little blue words.”
“…I don’t see any blue words.”
“Are you on the right page, Dad? The one with the two boxes?”
He went quiet, and I heard the slow peck of him hunting for keys. I balanced the phone on my shoulder and kept working sunscreen into Otto’s other arm while I waited, narrating soothing nonsense to him under my breath.
“All right,” Dad said finally. “Now there’s blue words.”
“Perfect. Click those.” I’d walked him through a hundred small things like this since I was nine. “It’ll email you a link. You’ll click the link, make a new password, and you’re in.”
“They make these things impossible on purpose, you know?”
“I know. You’ve got it now, though.” Otto smacked the blow-up tusk while I rubbed sunscreen into his back, face, and legs. “Did the email come?”
“…Oh. There it is.”
I heard the patio door slide open and glanced over to see Brakkus come out in a pair of swim trunks and nothing else, a towel over his shoulder, and my whole train of thought derailed.
I’d never seen him in his human form. I knew monsters could shift; everyone knew that. But Brakkus lived as an orc, and I assumed he never bothered to change forms. I was NOT ready for the human version of him walking out into the sun, with his muscles rippling and his jaw as sharp as a knife.
He was big even shrunk down to human size, broad through the shoulders and chest, and his dark hair pushed back in a man bun. He looked like… Lord have mercy. I had to divert my eyes.
“…Hannah? You still there?”
“I’m here, Dad.” I dragged my eyes back to Otto. “Did the page load?”
Brakkus crouched at the edge of the blanket. He didn’t say anything to me; he just held out his hands for Otto.
“Come here, little man,” he said in a sultry, low voice. “Let your nanny take her call.”
He scooped Otto up against his chest, one enormous human hand splayed across the baby’s back, and carried him toward the shallow end. Otto shrieked with joy.
I sat there on the blanket with the phone against my ear and my father still talking, watching the two of them enter the water. I felt the strangest thing move through me. Something I didn’t recognize.
“Hannah, thanks for your help. I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, Dad.”
The phone went dead and my mouth went dry. Brakkus waded down into the shallow end with Otto on his hip, dipping him so his feet kicked at the water. Otto was doing the open-mouthed silent laugh that means a baby is too happy to make sound.
I smiled, feeling so proud and grateful that Otto was making so much progress so fast. I made a mental note to contact Hesta next week to update her on his development.
I reached for the sunscreen and began to rub it into my legs, arms, shoulders, the back of my neck, and my face. It was formulated for babies, and I’d forgotten to get the spray kind for myself. I couldn’t reach my back with my own hands.
When I looked up, Brakkus was climbing up the pool stairs with Otto on his hip.
I looked up at him as he approached, blinking compulsively like I had something in my eyes. He set Otto on the towel beside me. Otto began smacking his blow-up tusk on the grass, babbling and shrieking.
Brakkus stood above me, blocking out the sun. He looked like a Greek god, chiseled out of marble. My pussy twitched inside my swimsuit, and I folded my legs underneath me.
“Let me,” he said, holding out his hand.
“Uh?” I asked, not comprehending what he meant.
“Sunscreen…”
“Oh. Okay.” I handed it to him, still unsure what he meant.
Then he sat on the towel behind me, the weight and heat of his body seeming to surround me with his presence even out of eyeshot. “I’ll do your back,” he said in that low sultry voice.
“Oh. Right. Thanks…” I heard the lotion squeeze out of the tube. And then one big warm hand pressed against my bare back. Otto squealed, playing with his toy.
I closed my eyes, my body and mind doing crazy things to me I didn’t want to admit to.
Brakkus rubbed his big, strong hands over my back, spreading the sunscreen across my skin.
“So… this is your human form?” I said, gulping.
In all honesty, I hadn’t thought of Brakkus as a “man” or a “monster” up until this moment. He was firmly in the client/employer category.
“I like to swim in human form.”
I gulped. His hands were working lazy circles over my back. The sunscreen had to be applied by now. But I wasn’t going to stop him. My whole body was tingling and my ears were ringing.
“That’s interesting,” I said when he finally stopped.
“All done,” he said, handing me the tube over my shoulder. I turned around on the towel to face him.
He was grinning, showing straight white teeth. He still had incredibly dark eyes and dark hair. His skin had a distinctly green tint to it. But there were no tusks and his bone structure was clearly more human. He could definitely pass if he had to.
“I’ve made it a point to keep my natural form since crypto-terrestrials came out twenty years ago.
It’s been a political statement. But I don’t have anything against my human form.
It’s all right as far as human bodies go.
” He leaned back on an elbow and ran his hand over his chest and chiseled abs.
My mouth was watering, and I felt every instinct inside me screaming. I realized for the first time in years that I hadn’t had sex in a really, really long time. And now seemed like a great time to break that streak.
“Yeah…” I said, trying to keep my jaw off the floor. “So why swimming?” I asked, trying to pry my eyes off the V running down into his shorts.
“This form is sleeker, more graceful in the water.”
“Oh. That makes sense.”
He climbed to his feet and started toward the pool. He took a breath, dove into the deep end, and started swimming laps across the pool.
I looked over at Otto and smiled. He babbled and handed me his tusk. “You want to go in?” I asked him.
He held out his hands for me to pick him up.
I pulled him up into my arms and took the stairs down into the shallow end.
I helped Otto float around while Brakkus shot back and forth across the pool.
He was fast and sleek. That human body really did serve him well.
I had to keep myself from drooling the entire time.
After a while, I announced that I thought it was time to get Otto some lunch and we all came out of the pool. Brakkus took Otto over to the blanket in the shade while I went inside to get us something to eat.
In the kitchen, I pulled everything I needed for turkey sandwiches out of the fridge and cabinet. Lola had weekends off and left us pre-made dinners we just had to pop in the oven. But for the rest of the meals, we were on our own.
I started to put together the sandwiches, glancing out the windows at Brakkus and Otto on the grass. Brakkus was on his back, lifting Otto into the air above him. Otto was squealing and bashing Brakkus on the face with his blow-up tusk.
I laughed, watching them play for a moment. It warmed my heart to see them both smile. When I’d gotten here two weeks ago, the temperature of the house was much cooler. Otto was distressed and withdrawn. And Brakkus was too.
I turned back to the food, thinking about my reaction to Brakkus’s human form. I didn’t know how to feel about it. He was obviously attractive as a human man. I’d have to be dead not to notice. But this was more than noticing. My whole body was still humming from when he touched me.
I told myself I really needed to get back out on the dating scene.
Not that I ever really had been. My last boyfriend was in college, and I couldn’t really call that anything more than a semi long term hookup.
It was pathetic. But I’d always been so busy with school, and work, and taking care of everyone, I hadn’t had time for romance.
With how I was reacting to my boss, I realized I would need to do something about that.
I glanced back out the window. Brakkus was on his feet, flexing in his human form while Otto cracked up below him on the blanket. He clearly thought human dad was hilarious.
Not what I’d call it.
I finished the sandwiches, grabbed a bag of chips and a pitcher of lemonade and put everything on a tray.
A moment later, I was setting everything up on the patio table off the kitchen. Brakkus saw me and picked up Otto, bringing him over. One of the patio chairs had a booster seat on it, and Brakkus situated Otto in it before sitting across from me.
“Turkey sandwiches,” I said, serving a toddler-appropriate serving to Otto.
“Looks delicious,” Brakkus said.
I sat down, poured Brakkus and me lemonade, and gave Otto his milk in a sippy cup.
“Did you have a good time in the pool, Otto?” I asked him. He smacked the table and babbled, sipping his milk aggressively.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I smiled at Otto and then turned to human Brakkus.
He was looking at me with those dark, penetrating eyes.
My heart fluttered and my cheeks burned, and I looked down at my sandwich. “This hits the spot,” I said, taking a bite.
“You really are good with my son,” he said.
There was something in his voice that I couldn’t quite recognize. Almost like resignation, regret, and surprise all rolled into one. I had no idea why. I had the experience to do the job, and I’d been doing it well since I first arrived.
“Thank you. I do try. Otto is a wonderful boy.” I reached over and cupped the little monster’s cheek.
He grabbed my hand and bit down gently on my finger. “Betta. Ah betta, Hatta.”
My mouth dropped at the sound of the toddler version of my name. Then he let go of my hand. “Very good, Otto. Very good.”
“He likes you,” Brakkus said, staring at me. “A lot.”