Page 36 of Out of My Flocking Mind

A whimper escaped me, the pain in my head having grown by the day. Tomorrow, Friday, marked five days of selling product—we’d even created another batch the day before. However, no matter how well my career as a dealer was going, my health had continued to deteriorate.

Something cool rested against my forehead, and I arched into the touch. It was heavenly, as though it pulled that heat right out of my body. Of course, I’d tumbled between freezing and overheating, bouncing back and forth like a fucking ping-pong ball.

“You’re running a fever,” Harrison said from beside me. Him there, in my bed, should have bothered me, but right now? I couldn’t give less of a fuck. His palm against my head felt too fantastic to care where he was or what he was doing. Hell, he could have been masturbating beside me and so long as he didn’t move his hand, I didn’t care.

“It’s probably your fault,” I muttered, groaning at the end.

“My fault?”

“I don’t think I’ve gotten sick since I turned into this. If I’m sick now, it’s got to be because of you.”

“I don’t think that’s the case.” His words were calm and slow, and I got the sense he meant something more by them. I didn’t know what it was, and I had a feeling he didn’t intend to tell me, either. I also lacked the energy to care. “You should eat something.”

“Why? Are you into cleaning up vomit, because I’m pretty sure that’s what we’ll get.”

He sighed, then shifted, removing his hand. I whimpered, reaching out blindly, wanting nothing more than to feel him again.

“Easy,” he whispered, his voice soft. His strong hands grasped my arms, pulling me closer. I forced my eyes open to find he’d removed his shirt, then tugged me against his now bare chest.

If I didn’t feel like death warmed over, I might have enjoyed the sight more. It was worth drooling over, after all. His skin was impossibly pale, as though he never spent any time in the sun. He was lean, without a speck of fat on his body that I could see. Instead of his body feeling jagged, however, I molded against it, pressing my cheek to his left pec, his cool skin helping to cool the heat inside my body. He ran his fingers through my hair at the same time, easing me.

“This can’t continue.” His voice was so soft that I struggled to make it out at first. Was he even talking to me? Did I even care?

No, I really don’t.

He shifted again, and his voice echoed in the quiet room. “Hello? Yes, trust me, I never intended to call you, either. She isn’t doing well. Could it really be anything else?” His voice was soft and soothing, and I stopped trying to make sense of it. He wasn’t talking to me after all. It went on, the back and forth, and I lost myself in the sound of it. “This is your fault. I don’t care what the crystal said, you caused this—you need to resolve it. I expect to see you within the hour.” Harrison moved again, but I just wrapped my arms around his torso, grasping him closer, clinging to him. He sighed, then went back to stroking his fingers through my hair. “I am not leaving, Grey. Just relax—you’ll feel better soon.”

I wanted to call him a liar, but even that felt like too much work. Maybe this was some weird drop from the attack? Maybe it was a reaction from being around Harrison so long? Whatever it was, his cool skin seemed to be the only thing that helped right now.

So, without another choice, I did as he said and let myself drift off, pressed against his skin, disappointed to waste this perfect opportunity. I’d always said I’d pick orgasms over rest, but fuck, maybe at my age, it wasn’t as easy a choice as it used to be.

Voices roused me, but I lacked the energy to even open my eyes. It felt like far too much work. Fuck, I couldn’t even tell who exactly spoke, only knowing that they’d made my headache somehow worse.

“What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to fix this.”

“I can’t—assuming it is due to the bond.”

“You can’t be serious. Just look at her. That is clearly withdrawal.”

I squeezed my eyes tightly closed, trying to block out the noise. The movement must have caught the attention of the two, because their voices lowered more.

“You can’t just let her suffer like this.”

“I can’t do what you’re asking me to. After everything that happened? How can you even ask me to?”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t ask this if I had another option. Do you think I enjoyed having to call you? This is the last thing I wanted, but I can’t just allow her to suffer. Who knows what stress this could put on her, how much it could harm her?”

A loud sigh answered those words a moment before the bed shifted beneath me. A delicious scent reached my nose, something sweet and heady, like caramelized sugar. I wanted to bury my face in it and breathe it into my lungs. Something touched my forehead, more of the smell surrounding me. “Grey, can you look at me?” The words coaxed me, as though they promised me so much more than I could possibly imagine.

Fuck, they silenced my crow, made me want to believe anything they said, to follow them wherever they went. Even still, the idea of opening my eyes felt far too difficult.

“Look at me.” A tempting darkness in those words drew me in, and without resisting this time, I opened my eyes to find familiar bright blue eyes staring back at me.

Kelvin. I had every reason to pull away, to reject him, but something in his voice and his eyes kept me from doing it.

Or maybe it was that mouthwatering smell that kept me docile.

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