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Authors: M.L. Brennan
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over.
Also, the truth of the matter was that I’d gone to bed with a naked woman, and waking up next to a fluffy fox was not exactly how I liked to start the morning.
I said her name loudly. Then, with no response, I nudged her slightly. I was rewarded by the lazy opening of one amber eye.
“Suze, I’d like to do some early-morning postcoital cuddling,” I said.
Her luxuriously long tail wagged happily, and she rolled over so that she was regarding me upside down, her jaw open and her tongue lolling partially out.
“Rubbing your belly is not exactly what I had in mind.” My voice sounded about as dry as the Sahara.
She made a little disappointed sound in her throat; then with a huff she transformed. Between one breath and the next the winter-coated black fox on my pillow was replaced with a naked woman draped over the top of my bed.
Suze quirked an eyebrow. “Spoilsport.”
I hooked an arm around her hips and tugged her around and down. “Don’t worry,” I promised her with a grin. “You’ll still get plenty of rubbing.”
* * *
An hour later I was whistling while I put together a dual breakfast of English muffins, cereal, and orange juice. The stiffness in my neck was still present, but it now seemed like a decent tradeoff for the relaxation of every other part of me. Suze was in the shower, which thanks to our crummy pipes produced a rattling sound that was almost impossible to ignore, but I was determined to hold on to this good mood as long as possible, and I just whistled louder.
Dan came out of his room, slick and put together for another day spent studying the law and surviving the Socratic method of teaching. He shook his head at the sight of me.
“Fort, you need to work on getting more of a poker face. It’s a little too painfully obvious that you just got laid.”
“I’m just whistling,” I defended. “Besides, don’t pretend that you’re so good at keeping it hidden. You always look smug as shit after Jaison puts out.”
“You have no definitive proof of that,” Dan said as he pulled on his wool jacket and wrapped his scarf in a perfect just-so knot. Smugly. “Hey, I’m hitting the grocery store after classes. I’ve got the list, but can you think of anything else we need?”
“I’m out of tofu again.”
Dan made a face as he pulled the list out of his wallet and updated it. “You drink blood. I would think that that would make you comfortable with the consumption of meat.”
“Wow, that argument is so compelling, and one that I’ve never heard before. Let me forget the tofu and fry up some bacon.” Besides, I only drank my mother’s blood. For now.
“The bacon in the fridge is just waiting for you to backslide.”
I threw a balled-up paper towel at him, and he laughed as he headed out. My vegetarianism was definitely imperfect—I was never going to give up eggs or fish—and the truth that Dan was certainly aware of was that avoiding meat was an ongoing struggle for me. I’d made the switch to vegetarianism for the sake of a former girlfriend, but before my transition had begun in earnest it had helped suppress some of my more predatory instincts when I didn’t eat red meat. It was hard to tell whether it was still true—my instincts had taken control of me once, and I’d attacked one of my mother’s employees, James, before Thanksgiving, and had actually bitten him hard enough to draw blood. It had scared the shit out of me (it hadn’t done good things for James either, though thankfully he hadn’t been seriously hurt), and while I could’ve just thrown up my hands and assumed that if this was happening, then my meal plan was useless and I should just give in to my cravings (and believe me, my cravings for bacon were hard to ignore at times), but the truth was that it was possible that my vegetarian diet was actually helping me avoid causing more serious damage—and since none of my family members had been either willing or able to give me a
Also, the truth of the matter was that I’d gone to bed with a naked woman, and waking up next to a fluffy fox was not exactly how I liked to start the morning.
I said her name loudly. Then, with no response, I nudged her slightly. I was rewarded by the lazy opening of one amber eye.
“Suze, I’d like to do some early-morning postcoital cuddling,” I said.
Her luxuriously long tail wagged happily, and she rolled over so that she was regarding me upside down, her jaw open and her tongue lolling partially out.
“Rubbing your belly is not exactly what I had in mind.” My voice sounded about as dry as the Sahara.
She made a little disappointed sound in her throat; then with a huff she transformed. Between one breath and the next the winter-coated black fox on my pillow was replaced with a naked woman draped over the top of my bed.
Suze quirked an eyebrow. “Spoilsport.”
I hooked an arm around her hips and tugged her around and down. “Don’t worry,” I promised her with a grin. “You’ll still get plenty of rubbing.”
* * *
An hour later I was whistling while I put together a dual breakfast of English muffins, cereal, and orange juice. The stiffness in my neck was still present, but it now seemed like a decent tradeoff for the relaxation of every other part of me. Suze was in the shower, which thanks to our crummy pipes produced a rattling sound that was almost impossible to ignore, but I was determined to hold on to this good mood as long as possible, and I just whistled louder.
Dan came out of his room, slick and put together for another day spent studying the law and surviving the Socratic method of teaching. He shook his head at the sight of me.
“Fort, you need to work on getting more of a poker face. It’s a little too painfully obvious that you just got laid.”
“I’m just whistling,” I defended. “Besides, don’t pretend that you’re so good at keeping it hidden. You always look smug as shit after Jaison puts out.”
“You have no definitive proof of that,” Dan said as he pulled on his wool jacket and wrapped his scarf in a perfect just-so knot. Smugly. “Hey, I’m hitting the grocery store after classes. I’ve got the list, but can you think of anything else we need?”
“I’m out of tofu again.”
Dan made a face as he pulled the list out of his wallet and updated it. “You drink blood. I would think that that would make you comfortable with the consumption of meat.”
“Wow, that argument is so compelling, and one that I’ve never heard before. Let me forget the tofu and fry up some bacon.” Besides, I only drank my mother’s blood. For now.
“The bacon in the fridge is just waiting for you to backslide.”
I threw a balled-up paper towel at him, and he laughed as he headed out. My vegetarianism was definitely imperfect—I was never going to give up eggs or fish—and the truth that Dan was certainly aware of was that avoiding meat was an ongoing struggle for me. I’d made the switch to vegetarianism for the sake of a former girlfriend, but before my transition had begun in earnest it had helped suppress some of my more predatory instincts when I didn’t eat red meat. It was hard to tell whether it was still true—my instincts had taken control of me once, and I’d attacked one of my mother’s employees, James, before Thanksgiving, and had actually bitten him hard enough to draw blood. It had scared the shit out of me (it hadn’t done good things for James either, though thankfully he hadn’t been seriously hurt), and while I could’ve just thrown up my hands and assumed that if this was happening, then my meal plan was useless and I should just give in to my cravings (and believe me, my cravings for bacon were hard to ignore at times), but the truth was that it was possible that my vegetarian diet was actually helping me avoid causing more serious damage—and since none of my family members had been either willing or able to give me a
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