Page 22 of Earth-Bound

Then I went to the master bedroom.

My eyes were instantly drawn to the window, not to the plants but to the view outside. I could see the apple tree and the three people standing underneath it.

My fantasy man was talking to Randall and it occurred to me for the first time that maybe Randall was annoyed that Terrund was there, since he must be interrupting his routine of talking to his tree.

I couldn’t bring myself to wish Terrund away, though.

From where I was, I could look straight down and Terrund was standing side-on to me for the first time. I could see the swell of his ass in those stupid leggings andfuck medid he have the most incredible ass. It was round and perky and my dick was swelling just looking at it, even from this distance. I would swear his ass was as strong as his thighs.

Quickly, I backed away from the window, behind the wall. I didn’t want Terrund to look up and see me jerking off, staring at him. Not that I was jerking off! Not that I’d considered it!

No, it was just that my dick was pressing uncomfortably against my jeans and I needed a moment to get it to go down.

I took some deep breaths and willed my wayward erection away. Then I put my focus where it should have been to begin with. On the poor plants who’d been waiting for me to take care of them.

I looked and did a double take. What the fuck?

The nearest was a radiator plant whose small, round leaves were normally a gorgeous dark colour that shone with lustre. Now, they were dull. And the edges were brown and crinkled. It was practically shrivelling up.

That shouldn’t have been possible, though. I’d only put it here the day before. It had been perfectly healthy up until then.

I checked the room, which I’d done before, but I couldn’t see anything that would harm it. No toxins, no animals (not that this damage was caused by an animal anyway), nice big window, lots of sunlight, plenty of water…

In short, nothing that could explain why these poor plants were dying.

Normally, I talked plants back to health, but I didn’t want to do that right then. Instead, I lugged every one of them into the back room and swapped them with the ones there. And all the time I did it, I didn’t once look out of the window. I really didn’t need to see Terrund again.

I didn’t need to feel all the weird mixed-up things I felt when I looked at him.

???

The next day, I was surprised to see Broadmire come to find me. He strode up and I thought he was going to tell me to do something work-related but instead he just said, “You need to come to the Honey Pot for dinner tonight.”

“Hmm, why?”

“Randall says so.”

I thought for a second. I liked Randall and I needed to eat, so I didn’t see that it was going to be a problem.

“Do I need to bring anything?”

“No.Seven o’clock.”

With that, Broadmire turned and walked away.

It looked like I was going to the Honey Pot tonight.

A little flutter of anticipation ran through my belly. If Randall and Broadmire were friends with Terrund, then he might be there too…

Chapter 12: Terrund

It was late afternoon the next day when I saw Randall approach my tree again. I slipped out of the trunk to wait for him, smiling.

“Hey,” he said.

“Good afternoon. What can I do for you?”

“Well…”

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