Page 38 of Lessons with the Mothman

Even though it was the answer I wanted to hear, it gave me an uncomfortable twist in my chest. I turned to Hannah and found her expression too sober, tooknowing.

"Really good sex is about trust. Taking someone at their word, not trying to prove them wrong or yourself right. Just observing their boundaries, even if they're smaller than you'd like, would matter the most to that individual," Hannah said softly.

Disappointment was strangely a relief in the moment.

"Ohhh, yeah," Natalie murmured, nodding. "She's right."

"The partner would have to decide if he?—"

"They," I said quickly—too quickly, probably.

"—could be satisfied with that. At least until there was enough trust to discuss the boundary."

"You're right, of course," I said.

Hannah relaxed back in her seat and offered me a smile. "It's certainly an interesting hypothetical."

NWU's campuswas a perfect setting for the fall, far enough out of the crowd of the city to have broad green lawns and a quintessential autumnal range of changing trees. Classic graystone buildings with green ivy crawling around mullionedwindows set an ideal scene for academia. It was too easy to imagine Victoria walking over the curving sidewalks, arms full of books and crossbody drumming against her hip. Or there, sitting in the shade of a grand old oak as she typed a paper, or in the crowded halls of the old Gothic buildings, stuffed with seated amphitheaters for lectures.

It'd been a week since I'd seen her. A week since we'd fucked on the desk in the little schoolroom I'd set up just for that occasion. Since she'd shivered and clasped my cock inside of her.

I was undoubtedlytooeager to see her again. Especially when I knew we'd be meeting with not only an interview subject, but also under the supervision of her professor. I should've declined the meeting altogether. It was clear that Victoria wasn't quite sure whether or not she wanted me to come, and I wouldn't be needed. Not when I did my utmost to be unobtrusive to her interviews.

Was it curiosity over her reticence that drew me today, or just the basic urge to see her, even in such a stifling setting?

A startled squeak stopped me in the hallway, and I blinked at the young woman who'd nearly collided into me. She was tall and quite pretty, with large dark eyes and a smooth sheet of black hair. A hand rested on her shoulder, and I followed the arm up to the man at her side, handsome, older, and distinctly academic. The girl's eyes widened as she stared up at me, her lips slightly parted in some human combination of shock and awe.

Glancing around the hall, it was clear that the majority population of NWU was human, and what other species I spotted easily blended in with the crowd. Even then, this young woman would never have seen my like. I stared back at her and watched her shake herself and stare down at the floor, realizing her own rude gawking.

"Sorry—"

"You must be Elias," the man said, his hand retreating from her shoulder as the other lifted in my direction. "Phillip Stanton."

Now it was my turn to be startled. I'd been imagining someone…older and less good-looking as Victoria's thesis advisor. Why, exactly, I didn't know.

Personal preference, perhaps,a dry tone mocked at the back of my thoughts.

I shook the man's hand as he gently ushered the girl away from us. "I'll see you in class next week, Swathi." He turned back to me. "We're just here, actually. I offered my office, but I suppose it would've been a bit cozy for all four of us," Stanton said with an almost pointed glance at my wings.

He gestured to a door I'd already passed, apparently too lost in my own thoughts, and we both did our best surreptitious study of one another as we wove through a pour of students to reach the door. I was subtler. I had the advantage of my gaze being unreadable.

Phillip Stanton was busy looking me over as we stepped into a comfortable study room, but I caught Victoria's flush as we entered together, the nervous bounce of her gaze between us before she calmed and called up that frustratingly smooth facade she often wore. She was standing with Dana, our selkie interviewee, who offered me a quick smile and nod of acknowledgement.

"Oh good, we're all here," Victoria murmured, with a final flick of her eyes in my direction.

The room had a large dark mahogany table at the center, with a matching set of weathered wood and leather chairs surrounding it, and Victoria pulled out the seat at the head of the table for Dana before taking the one at the corner next to her. The back wall had three slightly outdated computers available, and the rest of the room was bare. Stanton closed the doorbehind our entrance, and the roar of the hallways muffled to a gentle white noise.

Stanton was sliding around the table toward Victoria without a beat of pause, her shoulders stiffening and spine straightening. I felt a foreign urge to drag him back by his collar, to toss him out of the room, and it was such a strange and unusual sensation that it made me want to wallow and explore in it.

Was this jealousy?

How fascinating.

I settled at the far corner of the table and wondered if Victoria looked relieved or regretful. She made it too difficult to tell.

"I'll take notes," I offered, drawing out an old notebook and inkwell pen.

CHAPTER 14

---