Page 33 of His Human Believer

Somebody has left one small light on in the kitchen. I continue towards my destination. Then I turn the corner and bump directly into Margaret.

She makes a sound, startled, and entirely human. The glass in her hand goes sideways.

I catch her by both arms. My hands are touching her warm skin.

Water splashes across the stone floor and neither of us looks down.

“Vidar.” Her voice is a whisper and her heart beats hard enough that I can hear the thump. “I didn’t…I thought everybody was asleep.”

“I did not expect to meet anyone in the hallway either.”

Neither of us lets go.

Her human hair is pushed back from her face with some sort of head band. She wears whatever humans wear to sleep, which in her case is very little and appears to be made of something soft.

“Oh,” she gasps and steps back and there is a wall.

I follow her.

My body moves, unbidden. And suddenly the lengths of our bodies are almost touching. My pajamas are tented with my leaking erection throbbing in my pants. I let go of her arms and my claws are braced on the stone wall on either side of her head. Her back is against the wall and there is perhaps a hand’s width of air between us.

Neither of us moves.

Her breathing has changed.

Her chin lifts.

Heat comes off her in waves. My forearm is braced beside her head close enough that several strands of the follicles are touching my skin and I can feel each one.

Thinking about sex with Margaret is not a violation.

Standing near a female is not a violation. But all I can think about is my mouth on her delicate skin, my forked tongue licking her nipples and my face between her thick thighs.

I have not touched her mouth. I have not touched her mouth. I have not…

My barbed tail flicks behind me. “Margaret,” I rasp as I gaze at her mouth. “My control is fraying.”

She licks her lips.

“I am telling you,” I say, “so that you can stop it. Because I am not going to be able to.”

She places a palm against my chest. It feels like a brand. “No. Vidar. Step back,” she orders.

My arms drop. I take a deep breath and move back a step. Smoke wafts from my nostrils.

“Oh gods,” she sighs. “I really did think I was just getting a glass of water and going back to bed. I didn’t think you would be up here. I didn’t mean to do this to you.”

“I didn’t mean to do this to you either,” I tell her.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Vidar. I want everything you have to offer, but I can’t let you break your vow. Remember, I promised to be strong enough for the both of us. I promised, out there, the first night.” Her voice is barely above a breath. “I said that I was going to help you win this. I refuse to be the reason you break your vow.”

I rub my hand on my head. “I cannot sleep,” I growl. “I have not slept properly in six diurnals. I lie on that bedding with my claws flat on either side of me like a youngling because it is the only method I have found that functions.”

Her eyes are enormous in the dark.

“And you are two floors above me. Every night. And I know where you are without trying to know it, which is not a thing I have experienced before. I have never felt this way for another female before.”

“Vidar.”