Green - a werewolf story

36. Day After

Vanessa woke with a strange sense of foreboding. Yesterday something had gone terribly wrong. She silently took stock of her body without opening her eyes. She didn't hurt anywhere. In fact, apart from being exhausted, she was feeling pretty amazing. That ruled out her having been in a fight. Since she was lying in a comfortable bed, it also ruled out kidnapping. So why...

"Do you know you talk more in your sleep than you do when you're up?" a dark, husky voice mumbled.

Vanessa opened one eye and met the green gaze of an uncharacteristically smiley Green. She blinked. Then the memories of all that she had been up to only hours before crashed into her and she closed her eye with a grunt.

"It wasn't loud or anything, but you've kept up a one-sided conversation for half an hour."

"I do that sometimes when I'm really tired," Vanessa muttered and tried not to think about what they'd been through to make her tired. Not to mention what the two of them had gotten up to earlier that morning.

"Mm," Green said and there was an ocean of meaning in that sound.

Vanessa opened her eye again. He was looking disgustingly pleased with himself. She remembered him looking exactly like that after she'd gotten him out of his clothes and into bed.

"Last night didn't mean anything," she said.

It didn't. It couldn't. She'd slept with guys before where it hadn't been anything but a physical outlet for whatever frustration she'd been feeling at the time. This wasn't anything different. Never mind that they'd been at it all night or that it had been his... no, she wasn't thinking about that.

"Mm," Green said in a tone so noncommittal that it practically begged her to ask him what he meant. She managed to hold back from doing exactly that for a whole minute. Then she caved.

"What?"

"I knew you'd say that."

"Yeah? Well, I mean it," Vanessa said.

"Mm."

"Stop humming!"

"Why? I thought you didn't care?" Green asked.

"I don't care about us having sex, I care about you making annoying noises and preventing me from going back to sleep."

"Mm."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Vanessa groaned and Green laughed.

He did have the most amazing laugh, Vanessa thought and felt the corners of her mouth turn upwards. In fact he had a lot of amazing qualities. Last night had been... no, she wasn't going there. Not even in her mind.

"It meant something to me," Green said, shifting closer to her. "In fact, it meant the world to me. And I... I..."

Suddenly she knew what he was going to say. She could see it in his eyes and she knew she couldn't hear it.

"Don't say it!" she ordered.

"... love you."

Vanessa groaned and pulled the pillow over her head.

"Why are you so uncomfortable talking about emotions?" he asked after having removed the pillow from her arms.

"I'm not. I just don't like having people push their emotions on me."

"Telling you that I love you is not pushing..."

"Can you please stop saying it?"

"Why?"

"Because it's making me uncomfortable," she admitted.

Green smiled at her and bent his head to nuzzle her neck in a way that felt entirely to good.