Chapter 11
“About last night,” he began to say over breakfast the following morning.
“No, listen. It’s no big deal. Just the heat of the moment. You’re lonely, I’m lonely. We just let it go to our heads,” she said.
They were well rehearsed words that had been forming in her head from the moment she had woken up. She had laid in her bed last night wondering how she was going to deal with this latest development and it was what she had come up with. She would merely feign ambivalence about it and move on. He was right about one thing, there was no room for romance in their agreement.
“I’m glad you see it that way. I felt horrible about it. It wasn’t fair to you and it wasn’t fair to . . .,” his voice trailed off before he changed directions with his comments. “It won’t happen again.”
“Good enough. Are we working today?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Yes. I have to run some errands this morning, but I will be back after lunch and we can get some work done.”
“Perfect then,” she replied, finishing her breakfast as he excused himself to get going.
She busied herself the rest of the morning by going for a walk along the edge of the lake. There was something about the air here that made her feel peaceful, something she definitely hadn’t been when she woke up this morning. She was glad they had a discussion about it, no matter how brief. At least the air was clear, and they wouldn’t be tiptoeing around one another for her remaining time here.
At least, that was what she had thought. Buck’s return proved different, as he seemed different, perhaps having had his own thoughts on the subject while away. Working together was awkward, charged with words unsaid, despite their earlier discussion she had felt would put that at ease. After a while, she just couldn’t cope with being so close to him anymore.
“Buck, can we call it a day for now? I’m incredibly tired. I want to go take a nap before dinner, if that’s okay.”
“Of course. This isn’t your first priority and we’ve made tremendous progress, as it is. Take a break. Get a nap. We’ll work on it some more when you feel like it.”
“Thanks,” she replied.
It wasn’t a lie that she felt tired, but she suspected it was just as much mental as it was physical. Climbing into bed, she was quickly asleep, drifting off into a dream about Buck that did anything but make her forget how attracted to Buck she had become without even realizing it until he had kissed her. It was like a Pandora’s Box that had been opened and now wasn’t so easy to close.
She woke up less than an hour later feeling breathless, longing for his touch even more. It wasn’t an option. Instead, she ended up in the shower, washing off the perspiration that had accumulated on her body during the heating dream. Of course, the real relief she desired wasn’t on the menu, so she was forced to take things in hand, masturbating quietly beneath the shower to stave off the screaming hormones that were now in full control of her libido and weren’t going to let her just push them aside.
She dried off and slipped into her bikini, making her way down and outside to the large salt water pool that sat to one side of the house. So far, it still fit well, as she had not even begun to show yet. Slipping into the water, she swam a few laps and then leaned against the edge of the pool, just enjoying the coolness of the water clinging to her still heated skin. The dream had left her in quite a state, or so she thought, but when she climbed out, she found that she felt weak and still very hot, as if her face was on fire.
Stumbling to the house, she went to find the nurse, asking her to check her temperature. As it turned out, it was almost 102, resulting in her being put right back in her tub, but this time in a tepid bath. She tried to protest that she had just been in the pool, which was also cool, but she was shushed.
“Just let me worry about this, right now. I’m the nurse here. Okay?”
The woman was kind as she said it, but not afraid to remind her who knew more about this than she did. She sat in the water until she began to shiver and was quickly pulled out to towel off again. She stripped down and was put back between the covers to rest after being given some sort of medication she wasn’t familiar with.
“I’m going to go get you some dinner and bring it up here to you. I don’t want you out of the bed the rest of the day.”
“What is it? What is wrong with me?”
“Nothing that is as serious as it probably feels to you right now. Your body is just changing, accepting a baby that it isn’t as equipped to handle as a human child. It will be fine after a few days.”
“Are you sure? Will the baby be okay? Will I?”
“Yes. I’ve done this dozens of times, gone through shifter-human pregnancies. It happens to about fifty percent of the mothers at this stage. I promise you that nothing will happen to you other than a few days of fever and weakness. We just have to keep you medicated properly with fever reducers, supplements and make sure you eat well. I should have already put you on a strict diet schedule. We’ll make sure that happens from now on.”
“Okay,” Lorna managed before drifting off to sleep again.
She was awakened a short time later with Buck standing in her room with a tray of food. He sat down by the bed and helped her sit up, looking away as the covers fell away slightly to reveal one of her bare breasts beneath the covers. She blushed and pulled it back up over her naked form.
“I can do this. I can eat alone,” she told him uncomfortably.
“I know you can, but I want to help. I’ll let you eat by yourself, so you don’t feel babied, but I’d like to stay and make sure all goes okay, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind,” she replied, reaching for the fork on her plate and beginning to eat. She found that she was starving and finished it off pretty quickly, dozing back off as quickly as she had before, once he had taken her plate.
She awoke some time later to find him still by her bedside, reading something on his tablet. Rather than attempting to engage him in any conversation, she closed her eyes and returned to sleep. When she woke again, it was to accept some medicine that the nurse had stirred her to take.
“Your fever is subsiding already. I think you’ll be grand by this time tomorrow, if not sooner.”
“Thank you,” Lorna replied, feeling exhausted still. She faded back into darkness, having fevered dreams that seemed to run from one to the next with no conclusion.