AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Michael noticed, not surprisingly, that Ben was able to hold a lot more in his much longer, thicker arms than Michael.
“Have you had breakfast yet, Michael?” the godly human asked while they walked back to the main house together. They had a couple more trips to go before all of the wood could be put away.
Michael grunted again.
Besides not wanting to look directly at Ben, he also didn’t like talking to Ben. Not because he didn’t want to. Just because he was always tongue-tied around the human, and even if he did speak, he wasn’t confident he could control what he said.
“You don’t like me much, do you?” Ben mused.
He didn’t sound offended, only curious.
“Don’t like anyone,” Michael blurted before he could stop himself.
Ben paused in his steps to stare at him. He could feel it like the heat from a too-hot radiator on the side of his face.
See, this was what happened when he finally untied his tongue. He said inappropriate things that made humans look at him with suspicion.
“That’s not true,” Ben said softly. “I know you like Tal and Ishtar a lot. It’s obvious for anyone to see.”
Because it would be rude to keep walking away while Ben stopped to talk to him, and Michael was already rude enough, he stopped too, though he only raised his eyes to somewhere around Ben’s bearded jaw.
Michael was average human height, so Ben was head and shoulders taller. He was also twice as broad and thrice as brawny. He got more and more “manly” with age, Michael noticed, unlike his own scrawny frame which never seemed to pack any muscle and had a tendency to develop a “beer belly” if he didn’t watch what he ate.
“Mama Bear cooks well,” he explained with utmost reluctance, wanting this conversation to end.
“And Tal is… Tal.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Ben said, and Michael saw his mouth curve in a lopsided smile.
“You seem fine with Inanna and Gabriel too.”
Michael grunted noncommittally again and shrugged.
His arms were starting to ache from the strain of carrying the wood. He noticed that Ben didn’t even seem to notice he was carrying anything. It looked like he could stand there all day with his biceps bulging beneath that soft flannel and the veins on his forearms standing out in stark relief.
Such lovely veins.
Michael’s teeth ached just looking at them out the corner of his eyes. It had been so long since he’d taken that sort of pleasure…
But now that he was human, he didn’t suppose biting into someone’s vein and drinking their blood was a normal thing to do.
Thankfully, Ben didn’t say more, perhaps noticing how Michael’s arms started to quiver with stress from holding the wood. They walked the rest of the way to the house without further conversation.
But once they went back out to collect more, Ben started again.
“Is it something I did that makes you uncomfortable with me?”
Michael shrugged, walking faster.
But Ben’s legs were much longer, so he kept up easily.
“You know about us, immortals and all. And yet we know nothing about you.”
Ah. So that was why Ben was interrogating him. He didn’t trust Michael. Not that Michael could blame him.
He wouldn’t trust him either.
“Won’t tell anyone,” he muttered.
