That actually made him laugh. “Well, that depends on whose definition of appropriate you’re talking about, I suppose.”
“Well I…I mean you and I…we…I don’t know if I can. . .” All of a sudden she was self-conscious and nervous. He’d seen her disrobed several times, but they always kept it hands-off.
“Hey…” He put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek again. “Don’t worry about that. I don’t lose myself on the Fulness like some wolves do. I would never force you to do anything like that if you didn’t…”
Candra cut him off with a passionate kiss that lasted long enough to send sparks down his steel chair, and when it broke, she looked into his eyes. “I do, thought. I do want to.” All she knew about it was what she had read about, but if emotions counted for anything, she wanted everything with him. Everything.
He couldn’t help but be a little overwhelmed by the power in a touch like that, and he held her just out of pure reflex and instinct. She was a smaller woman, and unassuming in the extreme, and the one thing more than anything else that he had learned about Candra was that she had almost no real concept of just how strong she really was. She was without question the most powerful wolf he had ever met, and she had no idea. “Something like that isn’t something you want to just rush into, Candra. We might be half animal, but when it comes to sex, it’s the human side of us that’s really made to enjoy it for all it’s worth.” He should know. He had been a virgin himself until just the month before.
She nodded slowly and then kissed him gently. “I just wanted you to know that I want to. I can be patient.” She sighed and held his hand. “I feel things for you that I’ve never felt about anyone else. There won’t be anyone else, not for me.”
Every time he kissed her, he felt like he betrayed Aura a little bit more, but still he pulled Candra in closer and returned the kiss. “I’m sorry. That I found you when I was…busy making other plans. It’s not fair to you. I just need time.”
Candra kissed him several more times and just hugged him. “I’m not going anywhere. And anyway, what’s the saying? ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’? I need to get that down first.” She said with a teasing smirk.
Her smirk did lighten his mood a little, and he kissed her as he started back in on his French toast, this time one-handed since he had his other arm still around her shoulders. “This…is a very, very good start, if that’s what you’re aiming for.”
“Good. The day I get a feast down, then maybe you won’t be able to resist me.” She giggled and kissed the side of his neck before she started digging into her own plate.
Not like I can really resist you now. He thought to himself, grateful for the moment that he was in his human and not his wolf, so that she couldn’t hear the thought. Like everything else in life, he imagined that once Candra knew what kind of power she really had, over the world and over him, there would be no stopping her.
* * * * *
Aura spent those weeks mostly in her hut or with Ziem, though things went slowly with the two of them. They held hands or they walked arm in arm, but it was fairly obvious that they were just being close and friendly. She was too scared to be romantic with anyone new, even though Ziem was more like a first than someone new. He had been a serious interest before Nick was really an interest. It was nice to have company, though, and Ziem always made her laugh just by his stories and his general apathy regarding the opinions of others. She didn’t want to make his life hell, though, which was another reason why they hadn’t even kissed. He deserved a chance to belong in society, even though he didn’t seem interested in belonging. Not on the social side of things, anyway.
Recently Ziem came over to take care of her, since a few days prior, Aura had taken ill. Ziem was a gentleman the way he took care of her, crass jokes and all. He made sure she had plenty to drink and to eat, even if it came back up a little later. It always made her feel a bit better to see his face. The Fulness was coming up, though, and the closer it got, the more she realized that something was off. The pull of the Fulness was already bothering her, and she could feel her body responding to the metal that surrounded her even more than she normally did. Something was off.
“Hey you in there!” She registered a voice outside her house and realized that someone was knocking on her door. It had barely registered as a dull noise behind her thoughts. The sound was followed by a stiff kick to her front door, which swung open obediently to allow Ziem to step through. He carried a grocery bag that was filled with ingredients for a meal shortly to come. “Hey there, sick puppy. Can’t even answer your own door now?”
“I guess not.” She shook her head. Just the thought of a meal kind of made her stomach turn. She ambled up to look in the bag anyway. “What are you making?”
“Well, I cleaned out your cupboards with the roast last night, so I pretty much just restocked you. What do you want?” He was starting to put food away, and it was almost funny how well he knew his way around her small house. Not like there was enough room to really get lost. The
