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He ducked his head nervously again once the conversation moved away from his work. "Um, about t-two weeks? I'm renting a place in a development called Applebrook? The family who lived there moved away just a few days before I moved in. I'm renting an apartment they had, not the main house."
"Oh, I know that area. It backs right up to the Applethorpe wood, that's really nice. Wait, are you renting from trolls? I know that family, they were customers of my CSA program here." Grace realized he had likely moved in only a few days prior to watching her from the tree the first time.What a welcome to the neighborhood."Well, here we are. Like I said, it’s pretty picked out, you’re not going to find too much ripe fruit in here until the middle of next week, probably."
As they wandered together through the berry patch, she thought he seemed more at ease beside her. He told her a bit about his work studying the migratory patterns of butterflies and bees, making her laugh with stories about the baby bats he’d nursed who thought he was their mother. She told him about the farm, her job there, and how much she’d loved living in Cambric Creek so far. It was the nicest evening she could remember spending with someone of the opposite sex in ages.
"You’re going to love it here, everyone is really welcoming and friendly," she smiled up at him in the darkness, seeking his red eyes and blushing to find them already trained on her intently.
The words had barely left her mouth when she stumbled on an unseen rock in the field. His arm shot out, catching her shoulders and preventing her from falling, and she clung to his forearm as she regained her footing. She had a feeling that her labored panting had nothing to do with her near fall. The forearm she gripped was like a steel cord, flocked in smooth, grey velvet. Heat curled through her, remembering the last time he'd perched in the tree beyond her window.
Grace recalled exactly how she performed for him, how she touched herself, the way she'd straddled the pillow holding her toy, and that she'd opened her legs wide for him. She remembered that teasing flickering against her clit, and the technique with which he had sucked on it with whatever mystery appendage he possessed. She swayed again, her unsteadiness having nothing to do with the rock in the field. She held fast to his strong arm long after she’d steadied herself, wanting to nuzzle his velvety skin. He was so incredibly tall that she barely came up to the middle of his chest, putting her at a perfect height to press her nose to his soft sternum. She wanted to run her hands down the long length of his body, wanted to discover what secrets it held, finally letting go of him with a blush when she realized they’d come to a standstill.Get a grip!
He’d only managed to collect a small amount of the sweet fruit, clicking and vibrating in disappointment, the familiar sounds bringing another flush to her face when something inside her snapped.I'm supposed to be getting out, being more adventurous. Putting myself back out there. He's brand-new to the area, doesn't know anyone . . . who better to show him around?She wanted to find out exactly what he’d done to her that night and what he'd used to suck her until her brain practically melted and ran out of her nose.And I want him to do it again.She wasn't interested in putting her heart on the line, but she would beveryinterested in getting to know this shy mothman a bit better. She didn't want to sleep with her coworker, didn't especially want to spend an endless amount of time on dead end dates from the multi-species app, not when she was really only interested in getting laid. It was kismet that he had found her, and Grace wasn't about to look this particular gift centaur in the mouth.
"I know where you can get a whole flat of berries," she offered with a deep breath. "They’re super sweet too. I know, I had some for breakfast today. They were flash-frozen, but they still taste like they were picked yesterday."
He chirped at her words, an adorable little vocalization that came from his throat, somewhere behind that enormous mound of fluff. Whether it was from nerves or excitement she wasn’t sure.
"I-I don’t want to impose on you any more-more than I already have . . . "
Her cheeks burned. He'd hardly been an imposition, and she was eager to find out if the smooth expanse of velvet skin would remain as flush and unbroken if she were able to see it the next time she spread her legs open for his audience.
"It’s no imposition," she said quickly. "There’s no way I can eat them all by myself, and I hate to see any of them go to waste." He could come back to her place, she thought giddily, stomach swooping in excitement at the thought. She would take him somewhere first, welcoming him to Cambric Creek, something historic . . . "Have you seen the observatory yet?"
"I've passed it, " he answered hesitantly, chirping again. "My office is at the research lab on campus. It-it belongs to the University now?"
"It's maintained by the University and used as a classroom, but it's open to the public. Do you want to meet there? Say . . . tomorrow night? Then you can come back to my place." She was half inclined to invite him home with her right then and there, putting an end to the mystery not only of his velvety physique but how he'd made her come so hard she nearly blacked out. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but there was something in his reticence that made her swallow them down, something . . . oddly adorable? about the way his antenna had flattened around his head, flush against his pointed ears.
“I — wait, I-I can’t. I have . . . I have things to do at home.”
The excuse must have sounded as shitty to him as it did to her, for the instant the words were out, hanging between them like a particularly fetid dumpster, he clicked in distress, his antennae practically brushing his neck.A dumpster oflies.Heat suffused her face in great red splotches she could feel without needing a mirror to see them.He’s a peeping tom and you’re an exhibitionist, of course he’s not interested in coming over, what’s wrong with you?
“You-you can come back to my place though?” He’d knitted his long fingers together, twisting his bony wrists and pulling nervously, like an intricate game of cat’s cradle without the string. “It’s a part of my lab rotation,” he went on hastily, “data that needs to be recorded at specific times. I keep everything at home though, so if . . . if you wanted to, we could, I mean you could . . .”
He stopped again, sucking in a deep breath. A shudder moved through him, and he trembled like a leaf, clinging to the end of a barren branch. Grace felt her stomach flip-flop again, a low swoop, and she found herself inexplicably holding her breath for his next words. Her own embarrassment seemed a distant place in the face of his near tangible anxiety, eyes closed, and she was certain she would be able to see his adam's apple bobbing in a hard swallow if his neck were not concealed behind that thick, appealing-looking mantle. She wondered, if she were to bury her face against it, if it would be as soft as it looked; wondered what he smelled like, if his velvety skin carried the scruffy warm smell of a small animal, or if he smelled like the open air, through which she assumed he flew.Wait, who cares? You want to fuck him, not cuddle with him, remember?His bony shoulders raised in a resolute sigh before pushing back firmly, and his eyes popped open, trapping her in their garnet gaze.
"I-I came to say I was sorry. I didn't mean to watch you, and I shouldn't have come back, that was appallingly bad manners." Her lips quirked up in a small smile. Ascribing what they had done together as a simple case of bad manners, like the little clicks and chirps he made, was sort of adorable.Definitely a cute weirdo. "I know you said you're not mad, but I just want you to know — Iamsorry. But-but I'd like to see you again, get to know each other, if-if you wanted to. We can meet at the observatory and then . . . then you can come with me, maybe? If you’d like? It won’t take me long to record the data, and I have a telescope and there’s an excellent view of the Northern Cross asterism from the deck. Scorpius tends to be a bit low and the light pollution from town makes it a bit harder to appreciate until much, much later, but if-if stargazing is what you’re interested in, we can still do that. Stargazing and berries?"
Grace stared, somewhat incredulously, shaking herself after a moment.He thinks you’re interested in stargazing.She suddenly found it very hard to form words, hard to take a breath, hard to think of a good reason why she shouldn't go to the observatory with this tall, attractive stranger. He seemed sweet and shy, if not a tiny bit oblivious, and it was hard to reconcile the actions he'd taken from outside of her window, but Grace had a feeling most of her friends and coworkers would say the same thing about her. She was upbeat and organized and cheerful, and probably the last person they could imagine putting on a pornographic show for a stranger.
"Stargazing and berries," she repeated, smiling up at his uncertain nod.He’s a cute weirdo for sure . . . but why not.His shoulders were sharp when she gripped them for leverage, pulling herself up to brush his mouth lightly with her own. It was forward of her, and her cheeks burned as she dropped down from her toes, trying not to notice the adorable way his fluffy mantle puffed up, and antennae bobbed above his head. They had gotten the trivial ice breaking out of the way already, hadn't they? They’d already been far more intimate than this, even if they were strangers then. "I can’t wait."
She left him in the darkness, raising the spindly digits on his hand in a hesitant wave as she pulled away. At the first stoplight on the way home, she pulled out her cell phone, thumbing it open to Caleia’s text thread.
“You’re going to be so proud of me.”
♥ ♥ ♥
