Bennett kept reading. Perhaps Senator Drake actually had a problem with illicit drugs or alcohol and this was simply a hallucination. It was a problem that plagued quite a few in positions of power.
But that didn’t appear to be the case. The main character had continued on with his day as if nothing had happened. No longer able to keep his word, Bennett went back to the book’s product page and read the description. The character wasn’t having a hallucination. The book was a fantasy novel about a society of sentient dragons.
Bennett laughed aloud. No wonder Katie had told him he wasn’t allowed to read the description. The entire thing sounded ridiculous. He went back to the book. His assignment was to read two chapters. How hard could it be?
After reading a few more pages, he put down his tablet in frustration. He just couldn’t get past the fact that none of it was real.
“What’s the point of reading an entire story when after I’m done, I haven’t learned anything useful?”
Then he imagined having to go to work tomorrow and tell Katie that he couldn’t even read two chapters. He’d promised to give it a try no matter how hard it was. He could almost hear Katie’s voice telling him to try having a little fun.
“It won’t kill me, she says. Well, that remains to be seen.” He picked up his tablet again and started reading, determined to pretend that dragons were real and somehow able to live unnoticed among humans. At least the main character seemed to be a sensible type of man. Bennett actually liked him quite a bit. He was a lone spot of sanity in a crazy story.
The next time he glanced up, it was four hours later, his eyes were burning and every one of his joints ached from sitting in the same position.
“What just happened?” He looked around in confusion.
He’d only meant to read the assigned two chapters so he could tell her that he’d given it a try. But then the main character had revealed that he was actually a shapeshifter also. Then when it had been revealed that he was there for the sole purpose of influencing human politics in ways that would benefit the hidden shapeshifting dragon population, well he hadn’t been able to stop reading then. Especially since he’d identified with the main character’s sense of isolation.
A smile tugged at the edges of his lips. He felt quite silly getting so into a book that was completely frivolous but at the same time he couldn’t deny that he was actually reluctant to go to sleep. If his eyes weren’t burning so badly after a long day, he’d probably read for a little longer. It turned out that having a little fun wouldn’t hurt him after all.
He put his tablet aside but he was thinking about the story the whole time as he took a shower and pulled on a loose pair of pajama pants.
His last thought as he climbed into bed and turned off the light was that he couldn’t wait to tell Katie about it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
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The next day, Bennett barely managed to get downstairs before Katie was knocking on the door. He rolled his neck and grimaced at the tight pain between his shoulders. For someone who had always been a morning person, he wasn’t used to feeling like roadkill in the morning.
His crankiness must have been obvious because Katie skirted around him gingerly once he opened the door and let her in.
“Rough night?” she asked as she hung her jacket in the front closet. She had to stretch up on her toes to hang it and it made her long tunic top ride up to show the curve of her bottom.
“You could say that,” he muttered.
When she turned around, Bennett averted his gaze quickly. He rubbed his eyes. “I just haven’t had coffee yet.”
Katie hummed in agreement, the soft sound settling in his cranky, tired brain like a pornographic moan. Bennett stiffened and willed himself not to get hard. Please not now. This was almost as bad as the time he’d gotten an erection watching his math teacher write equations on the chalkboard. Luckily he’d been sitting down at the time but it was still mortifying, especially since that erection had persisted all through class. He was a big guy all over. It wasn’t so easy to hide a massive boner while trying to carry an armful of books between classes. For the first time in his life, he’d actually considered just going home early and skipping the rest of his classes that day.
But just like then, he managed to get himself together. “Would you like some?”
Katie shrugged. “I could do with a cup. Is it weird that I don’t drink anything in the morning? Everyone I know swears by either tea or coffee but I just drink whatever’s in the fridge.”
Bennett regarded her with mock horror. “Yes, that’s weird. And I’m the authority on weird.”
She giggled and the sound lifted his mood instantly.
“See? I guess we have something in common after all,” Katie said.
He moved around his small kitchen, brewing two cups of coffee and arranging the sugar and creamer on the countertop for Katie. He didn’t take anything in his coffee but watched with interest as Katie dumped several spoonfuls of sugar and a bunch of creamer in her cup before taking a big sip.
She glanced at him before taking another sip. Bennett smiled slightly before putting everything back. When he turned around again, she was still looking at him with that funny little smile.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. Fine. Totally fine. So what are we working on today?”