Reluctant Mates - 21 Paranormal Romance Stories (Werewolf, Vampire, Minotaur and Monster collection) (2 page)

“Lacy? You awake?” It was my roommate calling from down stairs. Jack Hardman, he’s another beefcake, except he’s one I dated for three years. “You gonna go to class today? I got some eggs cooking if you want ‘em!”

Eggs. Of course he’s got eggs. What would a day be without a dozen-egg omelet in the morning and a few sets of squats out back.

Briefly, I considered that I seemed to be surrounded by giant, rock hard lumps of man who were strong enough to lift cars off the ground, but were also pretty good guys. The only reason Jack and I split up was because I thought I needed space, or freedom, or some other silly thing that never made much sense.

And anyway we were great friends. As boyfriend and girlfriend it got a little weird sometimes, with him yelling at me to ‘just do one more, come on!’ at the gym and then coming home and pushing me up against the wall of the shower and taking care of my other needs with that long, thick dick that ran a quarter of the way down his leg when it got hard in his jeans – and it got hard in his jeans a lot – that I still, six months after we broke up, couldn’t stop looking at. I don’t think he minded much, since he’d always adjust himself right in front of me.

“Lace?” he shouted again from downstairs. “You up?”

“Y-yeah,” I answered. “Sorry, I was getting dressed. Did you say something about eggs? I thought you went vegan.”

From the kitchen underneath my feet, the sound of Jack’s ridiculous, snorting laugh made me almost double over laughing myself. I knew that he was bent over with his hands on his knees, wheezing like a bulldog and turning purple. I ran downstairs to see if I could catch him before he got control of himself. I was just in time to see him straighten back out and shake his head to clear the purple.

“Vegan huh? I’ve never heard that one before. Want some breakfast?” He opened the fridge and jutted a chicken leg at me, then ate the whole thing in one go. “Chickens aren’t meat, right?”

“Uh, yeah. I think they’re vegetables. Little turnips that walk and cluck.”

He snorted again but didn’t collapse that time.

“Anyway, thanks, I’d love a couple eggs.”

“Want them with or without protein powder?”

“Eggs with protein powder? Do you
need
to not be able to buy shirts at the store for normal people?”

Jack just grinned at that and pumped one of his biceps. I shook my head and feigned a frown. His cock had started twitching in his jeans I noticed, but looked back up at his face before he saw where my eyes were. I caught his fixed on my tits.

“Pervert,” I said.

“So? I know what you look like naked. Don’t act like you don’t stare at this all the time.”

Yep, and there’s the adjustment. I’d hate for one day to be different.

“Thanks for the eggs, Jack. And just because you know what I look like naked doesn’t mean you’re not a pervert.” He laughed at that one. “Hey, what time is it?”

“Eight...forty-two. Why? When’s class?”

“Shit! Nine! Alright, see you tonight.”

I grabbed my stuff, pushed out the door and vaguely heard him say something about not being home tonight, but didn’t pay much attention. On the way to school, I noticed that the moon was doing that weird thing where it’s visible even in the daytime. It was a big, round thing hanging low on the horizon. Something about it caught my eye and held my attention, but when I blew through a red light, I started watching the road.

And then I turned on the radio.

Jack had borrowed my truck the night before, and the radio was on one of those boring news stations he listened to all the time. The talking head said something about an increase in crimes of “wild, wanton, even sexual nature” during a full moon, but I just switched it to the classic rock station and belted out a few bars with John, Paul, George and what’s-his-name.

Sexual crimes, huh? By who? Werewolves?

I laughed a little, and then suddenly remembered the dream I’d had the night before, and stopped laughing in favor of a blush.

Too bad they don’t exist. I could use a little jostling right about now. Especially by some big, hairy, over-muscled, testosteroned-up ball of man. God could I ever use a little jostling. Maybe even some throttling, or a rogering? Well, I guess I can always ask Jack if he’s up for a little reminiscence when he gets home tonight
.

With a naughty smile on my dimpled face, I shamelessly pulled into an empty faculty parking space and hung the little sign I’d bought from someone on the internet identifying me as licensed to park on my mirror.

I yawned as I opened the door. “Well, good thing I’m ready for a nap. That’ll make Professor James a lot easier to take.”

The class was full and loud with a din of discussion when I sauntered in and took a seat at the back. My eyes moved around the room, looking for Rock’s monstrous form, and I was a little surprised to see that he was absent. He’d been there every time I was, I thought. I shrugged.

Maybe he’s sick. Or maybe he had an extra set of bench-presses today and his muscles got too big for his shirt so he had to stay home. Or maybe he’s there now, squeezing and gritting his teeth and sweating all over the place.

I felt myself blush. And then I felt warm in a most unfortunate place to feel warm in the middle of Forestry class. Thankfully, Dr. James walked in at just the right moment, and instantly, every thought of sex or pleasure drained out of my body into a figurative pool on the floor at my feet. As he began to talk, or to drone, depending on how you view things, my consciousness immediately joined the puddle, and my head slipped down between my hands, my cheeks pushed up so that I looked like a pug, and I was out like a light.

***

“L
acy Chisolm? Chisolm? Is that you?”

I snorted, rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and looked around at a lecture hall that was, unbelievably, void of all life. Professor James was at the lectern up front calling my name and frowning.

Corpses don’t count as life.

“Uh, yes Dr. James, that’s me. Sorry I fell asleep, I was just-”

“I don’t care about you sleeping, Miss Chisolm.” His voice was sharp and irritated, the way only teachers can manage. “But I do care about your utter failure to do anything, or turn in anything, in my class. I don’t want to have you coming up to me during finals week and crying about wanting to pass the course. I expected more out of a Forestry major in a Forestry course.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry Dr. James. I had a long night last night,”
Being jostled by a werewolf
, “and I’m not feeling well. I should have stayed home but didn’t want to miss again.”

“Hasn’t bothered you yet.”

“Fair enough. Look, I’m sorry. I really am.”

“Fine. You people always go on about being sorry until it’s too late. Tell you what. I’ll make sure you don’t have the chance to go on too long. I’m giving you an extra assignment. Due Monday. Turn it in, or I drop you.”

“Well, okay,” I said with a gulp. “Thanks for the second chance.”

“You won’t be thanking me when you hear it.” He leaned back on his podium and crossed his arms. “First of all, you’ll have a partner. Rock Davidson, the young man who sits near you. He’s also a truant. A mountain of a truant, but still.”

I snickered. The professor just glared.

“You and Mr. Davidson, who I assume you can contact somehow through one of your Face Twit Books, are assigned to go this weekend to the university’s forest preserve, and check each of the trees listed here,” he handed me a packet of three pages, each with the tag numbers of ten trees. “Check those trees for mites, and root rot, and report back on their condition. You’ll have to walk a few miles, but that’ll be good for you anyway.”

I gulped.

He sneered over his glasses.

“Get out of my sight. I want the list in my office on Monday morning. Do you understand?”

I don’t know if I responded to him, but I most certainly ran out of the building with muscles on my mind. Unbeknownst to Dr. James, I’d never looked Rock up on my Face Twit Book, but a quick check turned him up and five minutes later I had an email from him saying that tonight would be a good night to go out there, and that he looked forward to seeing me.

Bored in the car on the way home, because the road all looks the same with the yellow lines and black pavement, I pulled up Rock’s Twit Face page, and was excited to see that of the eighty-seven photos he had taken of himself in a bathroom mirror, most of them were shirtless.

Good God he looks good. Those lines on his chest, veins in his arms. He doesn’t even look real, he looks like something out of a movie.
My thoughts turned to Jack, who was very similar, maybe even a little more muscular, and a little fatter.
Two big muscle men. Maybe I can convince Jack to come out to the forest. I’ll buy them a case of Buds and I’m sure they’ll be fast friends. And – maybe I can convince one of them to give me that jostling I’ve wanted.

I blushed at my naughtiness, as though I were trying to fool myself into believing in my own purity.

A deer darted out in front of the car, I laid on the horn, flipped the deer the bird, and drove around him on the shoulder, then drove another mile before I even realized what happened.

What can I say? I had two big, hunky, and honestly very sweet, mountains of muscle on the mind. And then I had images of myself pinned between the two of them on my mind.

There’s a thought...

“Remember, kids,” the man on the radio said, who I was sure I’d tuned away from earlier, “tonight’s the full moon. Things – both good and bad –
always
happen on a full moon. Just be safe. Dave Davis, signing off. Good night and stay classy.”

“Ha!” I said, “good and bad, huh? We’ll just see about that.”

***

“I
, uh, I’m a little nervous about going out tonight, Stacy.”

“Lacy.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Look, I’m not feeling too well, but if you want to do it tomorrow, that’s better for me.”

I sighed. “You said you’d go when we talked earlier. Did you get invited to the TKE party or something?”

“No,” he chuckled, “nothing like that. I just have a hangover. I think. Yeah, it’s a hangover. Sorry, but-”

“Can’t do it tomorrow, can’t do it Sunday. Gotta work. If we’re going to get this stupid assignment done and not get thrown out of our major, it has to be tonight. Drink some water; eat a bowl of menudo or a greasy chili dog. Or, stop pretending you’re sick.”

He didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, and then grunted something that sounded a little like ‘okay’. “But we gotta get done early, okay?”

“Why?”

“Just...I wasn’t planning on this, and I’ve got stuff to do.”

“Fine, fair enough. Come get me at five? Six?”

“Make it five. Your roommate coming like you said?”

“I don’t know. He’s not here now, but yeah if he’s not working I’ll get him to come along.”

Rock grumbled, said goodbye and the line went dead.

***

“W
ant to stop for a drink or anything? And where’s your boyfriend?”

“Oh shut up, he’s not my boyfriend.” I punched Rock in the arm. His name was apt. “He used to be. We haven’t been a thing for six months now. But no, he just never came home. Guess he had to work after all.”

A few minutes later, we pulled into the back lot of the university’s tree research lab and started on our silly errand for the terrible Dr. James. As I stepped out of Rock’s car, which was a comically small thing for his size – he was at least six three, and if I had to guess, topped two-fifty of pure muscle – a very reasonable coupe with two doors, because as he said on the drive, it was more fuel efficient.

I pulled my jacket around myself even though it wasn’t particularly cold out, and followed him first to the ranger’s pavilion where we grabbed a map of the tree layout, and then to the first square of pines that we had to check for mold or bad breath or whatever it was. The first thing that struck me was how serious Rock was about all this. He’d pluck a leaf, rub it between his fingers, smell it, rub bark, and check for sap, just like it said on the sheet.

To every tree, he gave the full work up as we moved from one lot to the next. Branches to sap to roots, he didn’t leave anything off.

“You’re really into this stuff, huh?”

“Aren’t you? I mean you’re a Forestry major, right? Why go to all that trouble for a degree that will have you living in woods half the year and having to do a side job if you want a retirement fund if you don’t love the forest?”

“No, no, don’t get me wrong. I do really love being out here. It’s so calm and quiet most times. Nothing but birds and wind and little things rustling around.”

“Bigger things, too,” he said under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing. Hey, is it getting dark already? I thought for sure we’d be out of here by the time the sun went down. There’s no way we can come back tomorrow?”

“No, I’ve got to work all day and you said you had something to do at night.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Well we’re here anyway, and we’re on the last page, so why not just get it over with?”

“We’ve got to go over to that other patch of woods, I don’t know. It’ll take a while to walk and I really need to get out of here before it gets dark.” He stretched his neck from side to side like boxers do, and scratched himself behind the ear.

“You got fleas? Lice? Jock itch?”

“Ha, yeah, I’ve got jock itch behind my ear. I don’t know. I might be allergic to something out here. Itches like hell. But anyway, if you’re intent on this, let’s hurry. I’ve gotta get out of here soon.”

“Why? Why are you so intent on leaving?” I moved closer to him and put my hand on his arm. “Don’t you kinda like being out here alone with me? I’ve seen the way you watch me in class. And, well, there’s the forty-three times you’ve asked me out before that I keep turning you down. Why are you in such a hurry to get away? Reality not living up to the fantasy?”

“No, no, nothing like that at all. Sorry, I’m just in a hurry. I’ve got some...uh...stuff I have to do tonight that can’t be put off. For school.”

Up and down I rubbed his arm. His massive biceps, the forearm that was bigger than any normal man’s thigh, and then his big, rounded shoulder and powerful hand.