Wanted: Undead or Alive

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I'd never thought of "human" as an insult, but the way Mx. Landry said it stung. I plopped down in one of the non-squeaky chairs and waited for the smart board to flicker to life.

My body burned where Nick's hands had roamed over my skin. Embarrassment wasn't doing much to kill my desire. It didn't even matter that I wasn't looking at his sparkly eyes or in the room with his echoing emotions. I dropped my head onto my folded arms.

What is he?

He's special.

"And I'm human," I muttered.

"It's part of your charm."

I jerked upright to find Nick watching me from the screen. Pink spots bloomed high on his softly glowing cheeks, and it only made him more beautiful.

"I'm afraid I've been terribly unprofessional," he said.

A protest formed in my mind. But, after all, he was the boss, and we'd just been making out in his office. That was probably right up there on the list of things that are unprofessional. So, rather than protest, I asked what I really wanted to know—what I've wanted to know since first meeting him. He'd squeezed my boobs. Seemed like that ought to earn me an answer or two. "Are you an incubus?"

His laughter, through the speakers, didn't undo me to the same degree it did in person, but it still brought a tentative smile to my face.

"No. I am not a sex demon." He pushed his hair back, and it immediately flopped down over his forehead again. "I'm a hybrid creature. I can't tell you more than that right now. It would put us both in danger."

"Why?"

"Hybrids are," he paused, and his tongue darted out to moisten his lips. 

Screw professionalism. A girl has needs. 

He went on with perfect poise, so apparently I was the only one having a moment.

"We tend to be greater than the sum of our parts. Or, if not greater, unpredictable. I knew a dryad once who had a child with a shifter. The child had neither parent's ability, but she could plant ideas like seeds in a person's mind and make them grow."

The implications of that were darker than I wanted to consider, and I told him so.

"Indeed," he agreed. 

I swallowed my longing to beg for more information, but he'd made it clear he didn't want to share. I settled for admitting that I was all kinds of wrecked in his presence. "It's not who I usually am. I mean, I'm not a prude by anyone's standards but the way I've acted around you is not how I usually am." I kept my eyes fixed on a point on the wall. No way was I going to look directly at him while I said that. Not even directly at a digital image of him.

"I know. That's part of...  I took advantage. That was wrong of me."

Is that what had happened? I'm wildly tempted in the presence of ice cream. I don't feel taken advantage of by the dairy industry. On the regular, I gave thanks for those who provided life's great delights. And I strongly suspected that Nick could provide some seriously great delight. 

I rubbed the aching spot on my forehead. "I didn't mean to hurt you," I said. 

"You haven't hurt me. I doubt you could if you tried."

"I have a gun now." I peeked over at the screen and was relieved to see him grinning.

"Duly noted," he said.

"When I got here today, before I came to your office, I told Mx. Landry I would be careful."

His brow twitched upward. "You'd have to do much more than... what you did to cause me harm."