“Hmm?” He pulls back a little so he can hear me.
“I said I don’t think you entirely came back,” I repeat. “You’re not the man you were before the forest.”
“No,” he says. “My cock certainly isn’t. Are you very sore?”
“I can feel it,” I tell him.
“Poor baby,” he says, dropping a sweet kiss on my forehead and running his hand down my back to cup my ass. He pats me there, where it is still sore, but I feel comforted anyway, because brain chemicals are odd like that sometimes.
I snuggle up into him for a bit longer and close my eyes. He is different. He smells different. I think he even sounds different, if I am completely honest. I didn’t want to notice the changes all at once, or I put them down to the fact he had just emerged from three weeks in the wild as a beast. But I am wondering if he really did not shift all the way back to being entirely human. I’m wondering if he ever will.
I drift off again for a little bit, and when I wake up again there is the smell of coffee, toast, and eggs, because he has brought me all three of these things in bed.
“Aw, thank you, that’s sweet,” I say, very much pleased to be taken care of.
“You’re welcome,” he says. “Do you need to see a doctor, or do you think you are okay?”
“From our sex? I think I am okay,” I say. “It aches, but it’s not too bad.”
“Good,” he says. “I don’t ever want to think I’ve hurt you. You deserve to be taken care of and looked after.”
I think back to the ravaging he gave me last night, the relentless mating and endless orgasms that left me feeling wrung out. His version of taking care of me might not be all eggs on toast the morning after.
I start eating. The eggs are really good, lightly scrambled and fluffy. The toast is crispy and the butter has melted just right. I feel content, a warmth sinking through my tummy to find my soul. I’d been single for a while before this, and I hadn’t planned on that changing any time soon. But now, I think I am in a relationship. We haven’t made it official, but endless amounts of sex and a vigil by a forest are pretty relationship-like things to do.
Simon slings himself across the bed and watches me eat with a sweetly satisfied expression. I think his jaw is a little more prominent than it used to be. His shoulders are wider. His neck is thicker too, and his hips are…
“You taking an inventory?” He winks at me as my eyes run down the length of his body.
“You’re different,” I say again.
“I know. I can feel it,” he confirms. “I am in a human form now, but obviously there have been changes. They might be permanent if it has overwritten my DNA. Further studies are needed. I’m going to be taking samples from myself today and running them as best I can here.”
“Because you don’t want Veronica knowing what you’ve done.”
“Because I don’t want Veronica knowing what I’ve done,” he winks.
I don’t know that I approve of any of this, but I am absolutely certain that my approval doesn’t make a difference one way or another. This is Simon’s life work, and the little matter of the fact he is turning into a monster probably won’t dissuade him.
“Stay in bed,” he says. “You need rest.”
“So do you,” I point out.
“No. I need to understand what I’ve done to myself so I can avoid doing it again,” he says firmly. “I know those weeks took an emotional toll on you. Best to regain some internal strength.”
I’m happy to lie around in bed. I really don’t have to be told twice.
Unfortunately, people have other plans.
Around 10:00 a.m., he gets a call from the company. I know that because we are both in bed watching the nature channel.
It’s Veronica, of course. Z-Corp is a massive multinational company, offices around the world, and the only person anyone ever hears from is Veronica.
“You’re not at work,” she says to Simon. He’s put her on speakerphone of course, which I appreciate. He has his finger over the button that would put it back to a normal call though, and I know why. If she starts saying anything about their dastardly plot for my uterus he will be able to make sure I don’t hear.
I feel myself boil a bit at the way I am being treated, but I manage to keep my face relatively neutral and if I seem annoyed I have no doubt he will put it down to her presence rather than anything else.
“I’m not,” he says.