Jack blinks down at me with wide eyes, and the crease I’m so used to seeing in his brow has smoothed out. I scoot closer in the bed, then boldly, I slide my hand down his fuzzy chest and abdomen. He inhales sharply and his square pupils dilate, his gaze never leaving mine.
“Bree…” he begins, and by the uncertain tone of his voice, I wonder if he’s going to tell me off. But then he puts his hand on mine and curls his fingers around it. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about something for a while, but I didn’t know how to start.”
“What is it?” I’m a tad nervous about where this is going, but it must be important. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry.” He turns his head away, like this is a difficult subject to broach. “I’m sorry for how I treated you. I was reacting out of fear and hurt.”
I draw back. “You had every reason to be hurt.”
But he keeps my hand firmly encased in his as he shakes his head. “Yes and no. I lashed out at you when you weren’t the enemy. And I want to explain why. Not so that you’ll forgive me. It’s just…” He swallows. “I want us to understand each other. I want to tell you, so you know the baggage that comes with me.”
I wonder what kind of baggage he could mean. So I stroke his fur some more and say, “If it’s important to you, then I want to hear it.”
Jack nods. “Many years ago, before I met Bennett and Arthur, I was engaged to a woman. Marilee. She… meant the world to me.”
He closes his eyes as he continues, like this memory is painful.
“I was so excited to start my herd with her, to see where our love could take us. I wanted to have fawns with her and spend the rest of our lives together. She told me she wanted that, too.”
Jack pauses, his eyes still closed, his jaw tense.
“But it was a lie. All of it. I supported her through graduate school, believing we had a limitless future together. The entire time, she was sleeping with one of her professors. Promising him the same thing she promised me. But I was the one who could pay for her school, so…”
I think I have an idea where this is going, and so I grip his hand tighter in mine.
“The day she graduated, Marilee left. She didn’t even tell me to my face, just spelled it out in a note on the dining room table. She had been lying to me for years.”
Jack opens his eyes again, and there are streaks of red through the whites.
“I felt like I would never be the same again after that. But then I met these two”—he nods at the satyrs sleeping beside us—“and found love and trust again. Still, I held what Marilee did to me too close. I let it color my view of the entire world, including you.”
I understand much better now why he reacted the way he did. It was a scabbed-over wound that got violently reopened.
“Thank you,” I whisper to him, leaning down to rest my head on his chest. “Thank you for telling me this, Jack. That must have been painful.”
“It’s no excuse for how I treated you.”
“No, but like you said, I get you now.” His heart beats quickly under my ear, like he’s tensed and waiting for my reply. “And I want that. I want to know you better.”
Abruptly, Jack rolls onto his side so we’re facing one another, and his head lowers until our mouths are only inches apart. His brown eyes are intense, focused only on me.
“I would like…” he begins, hesitant, “to try that kiss now.”
I grin, lean forward, and press my lips to his. Jack’s hand curls around my hip, his body relaxing under my touch as we dive into each other.
Now I’m completely awake. His chest is soft under my hands, but the muscle is hard and distinct, and I bury my fingers in his fur as he kisses me harder. My thighs rub together as the place between my legs gets the message, and it’s like a sleeping creature has woken up again. When Jack’s tongue coasts over my lips, my desire emerges from its hibernation and I wrap my arms around his neck, my body now flush with his and my tits squished between us. His fingers dig into my ass as he deepens the kiss, demanding that I open for him.
I like his quiet dominance, how he doesn’t ask, but commands. And my mouth obeys, parting to let him in as his palms coast up and down my back, over my thighs and butt. His erection is even more noticeable against my abdomen, pressing insistently while we gravitate closer and closer together.
Damn, he’s a good kisser. Our tongues wind around one another, and my leg is suddenly slung over his hip. His hand slides up and down the inside of my thigh like he’s thinking about touching me but doesn’t want to cross the line. I know it’s foolish, that whatever we have is new and young and we shouldn’t push it, but I desperately want to be touched.
It’s a good feeling to know I still have this in me, that I’m not a barren wasteland.
“Mmm?” a voice says—Mangelli’s voice. “What’s going on over here?”
Jack and I hastily pull apart.
“Oh, don’t stop on my account,” Mangelli says, and I feel hands slide around my waist. “Please, keep going.”
