Jewel Monster (House Beasts #2)

Leap of Faith

It was soon lunchtime, and Dimor had still not come out of his room. Eric was starting to move from worried to mildly annoyed. What a drama queen, really. The more time the vouivre spent prostrated in his room, the worse he made himself look. Not that Eric... really minded... being butt-grabbed by him. Dimor's reaction was strange, and might make one draw the wrong conclusions.

Or were they really wrong?

With the other out of the picture for a while, Eric had the leisure of getting some work done. And, without having the threat of Dimor breathing down his neck, his thoughts were clearer than what they had been in a while.

He paused during the writing of an email and looked out the window. He rose his hand to where Dimor's heart laid hidden and stroked it through his clothes, pensive. He didn't exactly have an idea, more like the sensation that something was nagging at him, something that could turn into a plan if he knew what it was.

For one, the more time passed, the more he was starting to suspect that Dimor wasn't as angry at Eric as he was at himself. A second theory added itself to the first, and that was that Dimor was angry because he had slipped. Fucked up, to say it crudely. He had felt Eric against him, smelled him and, in his half-slumber, had reacted accordingly to his true desires.

And his true desire was an interesting thing to consider. In fact, Eric felt his cheeks heat as he thought of the implications that this might have. His first thought was that he might have a chance, even if that chance ended up being purely physical. His reasonable side dismissed that. Too risky, and not worth considering. To build a plan based on this assumption would be folly. And that type of folly might end up badly - curse level of badly.

But he might have a chance.

And what to say about how Dimor reacted to touch in the first place? Eric was not blind. He knew that the vouivre loved being touched, at least when he was still in his most human form. There was a reason Eric liked offering shoulder massages... and there was a reason Dimor accepted them eagerly each time. He didn't complain when he was touched, even if he never reached out to touch Eric.

Until today.

He closed his computer and thought hard about it, crossing his hands to rest his chin on them. Maybe risking Dimor's ire would be worth it, if that was his only option in this situation. Maybe he could even make his move discreetly enough to gain some much-needed advantage without appearing to be suspicious.

There it was. The plan he had been expecting.

_____

If there was one thing that Eric had learned about Dimor during the time they had lived together, it was that Dimor was an incorrigible hedonistic. He didn't declare himself to be so, but it was pretty obvious from the way he behaved. It something was comfortable to sit or lay on, he generally collapsed on it; if something was tasty looking, he brought it to his mouth and ate it - Eric had had many of his unmonitored coffees stolen that way; if something smelled nice, he flickered his tongue in its vicinity more often than not.

And he loved, loved, loved shiny things. Even shiny plastic things contented him, but when he could get his hands on the real thing...

Knowing all that, Eric had set off on a quick shopping trip to serval different places. And he knew that he was being unreasonable, that it would put a dent in his expenses, but now was the time to make a move.

He was surprised to see that Dimor had emerged from his room in Eric's absence. He didn't seem too happy, even if he was in his snake form.

"I'm hungry," he said the moment he saw the human.