His face was still that of the bull, the soft puffs of breath from his nose displacing the sticky hair that was hanging lankly around my face.
“I’msosorry. I don’t know what came over me. It was like I was on drugs or having a mental breakdown or something. You can, uh, shift back if you want.”
“If that would make you more comfortable,” he murmured softly, shifting back to his human form, although his chest was still wide enough that I didn’t really move at all. “Don’t be embarrassed. It’s been a long time since a beautiful woman hasbarged into my room and climbed into my bed,” he joked, and I flushed even redder, if that were possible.
Teron tsked at us. “Stop. You’re messing with the blood pressure reading when you tease her like that.” Finally, he unwrapped the cuff from my arm. “Now that you’re awake, I’d like to check you out properly, if I could.”
Milo was currently human-sized, which meant he was slightly shorter, so when I climbed off him, my thigh moved across, uh, certain parts of his anatomy that it probably shouldn’t have. Hard parts of his anatomy that made him hiss through his teeth when I brushed against it. I chanted an apology while trying to look anywhere but at the people in the room, quickly scooting to the end of his bed.
Teron’s eyes sparkled with amusement. I tried to focus on his lips and not his eyes. No, wait, that didn’t help, because he had such a pretty mouth. A cupid’s bow top lip, and a slightly more plump bottom one. He had lips made for kissing.
I’d look at the center of his forehead instead.Yeah, that’s much better.
He held up a pen light and shone it in my eyes, humming softly as he tested whatever it was you tested with a blinding pen light. “Your responses all seem good.”
“Are you a doctor?” Man, if he’d been my general practitioner, I’d be out there licking doorknobs and doing adventure sports, in the hopes I’d break something.
He chuckled. “Not officially.”
Milo snorted, a definite bullish sound, even in his human form. “Only because you can’t go to school and get a piece of paper.” He stood up, his body uncurling until he was standing just there, wearing nothing but tight boxers and a hard-on. My eyes went wide, and I looked back at Teron, hoping he couldn’t read the dirty thoughts on my face.
“What Milo is trying to say is that medicine is a passion of mine, and I have stayed up-to-date with the latest research and practices, as a hobby essentially. Sometimes, I will help the villagers if they can’t make it down to Heraklion to the hospital.” He raised a single dark eyebrow. “I have a lot of time to fill with many hobbies.”
I met his golden eyes, and a little part of me longed to know every single one of the things he was passionate about. How old was he? Did he have a wife? Could he fly?
The door creaked open, and then Milo’s room started to fill with huge bodies. Too many bodies. Nate came in first, his face completely unreadable. Erus and Tryp came next, both shirtless and disheveled, and finally Demke, his expression completely blank.
Milo snorted again. “Guess it’s a party in my room today.”
Demke stepped forward, his eyes skating right over me to look at Teron. “Is she healthy?”
The big Gryphon stretched up to his full height, rolling his shoulders. “There’s no medical reason for last night’s episode that I can find.” He looked down at me, as if he realized it was rude to speak about my health like I wasn’t even here. “Your temperature, blood pressure, your cognitive responses—they’re all fine. Milonos said you felt chilled when you, er, entered his bed, but that might have just been the night air. Perhaps it was something more. I have ordered equipment from the mainland to monitor the fetuses better, and it should arrive in the next couple of days, but I think they are fine. Physically, you are in good health.”
I looked between him and Demke, then over at Nate. He looked both relieved and worried simultaneously, which shouldn’t be possible, yet there he was.
Demke, however, looked stormy. “I was afraid of that.” I was perfectly healthy; how could that be a bad thing? “Come. Wehave a lot to talk about.” Demke looked past me. “This affects you too, Milo.” There was barely restrained anger in his tone, and I couldn’t understand what I’d done to offend him so badly.
Broke into his house.
Kind of assaulted his friend.
Okay, maybe I’d be pissed too.
Milo gave the God in front of me a quizzical look. “Me?”
Demke’s eyes dropped back to mine, and there was a coldness in them that made me shiver. “It seems that the human has bonded you.”
What the fuck didthatmean?
Chapter 21
MILONOS
When you’d lived as long as I had, you saw a lot of religions come and go. Some stuck around, but most disappeared in the blink of an immortal eye. However, maybe this “new age” religion of crystals and manifesting was onto something, because one minute, I’d been dreaming about the pretty little human, about impaling her on my dick while she screamed my name. The next minute, I was waking up to the woman herself crawling into my arms.
It wasn’t until I’d felt the ice of her skin, the way she was shivering against me like she was frozen, that I’d snapped out of the lust haze I’d woken in.
The big guy had been close behind her, as were Erus and Tryp, and those three being in my room had definitely chased away the last of the fantasies.