Page 31 of The Ground Beneath Our Feet
After an hour, we’d taken care of most of them, and she’d moved on to the cats, cleaning their litter boxes and petting them.
When it was time for a miniature long-haired dachshund named Bradshaw to go for a walk, the dog trembled in the corner of the kennel. He seemed more fearful than the rest. “Hey there, little guy. I got you,” I said. And I reached in and pulled him out. He licked my nose.
I looked up and saw Jessica staring at me with admiration. Since I was such a fuck-up, I wasn’t used to that. But I liked it.
While I double-checked the kennels and made sure everything was in order, Jessica wandered to the back storage room. It’s where we kept our billing files, storage of unused equipment, and a set of taxidermied animals—squirrels, rodents, and other small mammals—leftover from the original veterinarian who practiced there.
I’m not sure why we still had them, except that no one could bear to throw them away.
When I came in, Jessica was hunched over the counter, positioning a paper crown on a stuffed marmot.
I burst out laughing. Holding a scrap of paper and some scissors, she gave me a sheepish look, then a huge grin.
“What the actual fuck, girl?”
“I thought he needed a little sprucing up.”
Then I noticed that she’d given the chipmunk a paper bow tie and the ferret a beret.
All I could think was, yeah. There’s a personality hidden under that shy fortress. If I could ever see it in its full glory, I’m sure it would blow me away.
Before we left, she picked up a flyer at the soup kitchen and tucked it carefully into her purse.
That night, I heard the moans from her room again.
Every night since she’d moved in, Jessica had a nightmare. Every night I’d come in and held her. Now I was at the point where I didn’t even wait to knock, I just opened her door and went in. Of course, she was thrashing, so I grabbed her, holding her, as she beat against my chest, pounding on it, saying, “No, no, no! Go away!”
But she wasn’t talking to me. She was talking to her nightmare. She burst into tears and put her head on my shoulder. I smelled the sweet scent of her hair and skin. I didn’t let my hands travel over her scantily-clad body, even though I wanted to.
Like before, I gently laid us down. She snuggled into me as I spooned at her back, her pulse beating wildly. My arms covered hers. I pressed my body into hers, forcing my dick to behave, and she fell asleep.
Since I’d left the door open, Schmedley came in, jumped up on the bed, and curled up at Jessica’s stomach.
Good cat. He started purring contentedly.
I watched the rise and fall of her chest as she slept peacefully. A tendril of dark hair tangled around her ear. I reached up and smoothed it down.
She didn’t deserve whatever it was that was keeping her up at night.
What was it?
I lay until her breathing evened again. While I wanted to stay, if she woke up and found me, that would be weird, and I didn’t want it to be weird.
Resisting the urge to touch more of her body than I already had, I squeezed her tight, gave her a soft kiss on her shoulder, and left.
It wasn’t just her body that needed to be healthy, but her soul.
The next morning, not for the first time since my roommate moved in with me, I took a cold shower.
Fuck.
I was gonna be living in that shower. Beating off to how aroused she made me without even knowing it.
Example. She’d just come out of the bathroom after her shower earlier wearing nothing but a towel that barely closed. I’d just come back after my workout, and running up the stairs, I’d got a good view.
Holy moly. I wanted to kiss her and soothe her and take her in that big bed she slept in.
But I couldn’t do any of that. She might be a pretty princess, but I was no prince.
