This is placed after Brian has taken Susanne in to be his “secretary”. Brian’s feelings for Susanne are almost paternal. Susanne’s confused about how she feels about Brian. She sees him as a father figure, but since the only men (besides Bruce) who have been nice to her have been lovers, she’s beginning to have romantic feelings as well. It’s also about mid-Decemer (December) and the first completely cold night had hit and castles are very difficult to heat.
That night turned colder than Brian had expected and by midnight he was freezing. The night shirt they expected him to wear was worthless and the idea of making him pajamas was lost on their tailors. The fire didn’t matter either, it was half way across the room and burning low despite the fact that he had put a couple big logs on it an hour ago. He didn’t trust braziers, he’d seen too may house fires started by burning cigarettes and bad space heaters.
A space heater would be nice, he decided, Put it right by the foot of the bed and… Dammit he needed to stop that kind of thinking. Susanne was right. He had to accept that this was his home now. Tomorrow he was definitely asking about more blankets. He curled up in a ball and tried to sleep despite shivering. At some point he heard Susanne up from her bed, tending the fire and putting another log on it as well. Before she went back to her room she whispered loudly, “Brian? Are you up?”
Brian nodded, but remembering the darkness said, “Yeah.”
“Oh,” he could see her look at the fire for a moment and then back at him, “Can’t sleep?”
“Yeah,” he let out in a breath.
“It’s cold,” she said walking to the foot of his bed, “I can’t sleep and you don’t have fur either.”
Brian nodded knowing she could see it now and said, “It’s … damn cold.” She sighed and walked to the edge of the bed and very gently pulled up the cover. “Susanne, no. You know I don’t think of you like that.”
She stopped for a moment and said, “I’m not thinking about that either.”
She pulled the cover open further and Brian stopped her with a, “No.”
She sighed and said in an angry whisper, “Brian you’re cold and so am I. I don’t want to … Gahn, that all men think about! I wouldn’t do anything anyway, unless you did it first and even then…”
“Okay,” he said out loud, “Fine!”
“Thank you,” she slid in next to him and pulled herself close to him and sighed as she put her arm across his chest. This was weird. She was plenty warm and very soft, but it was her. She shouldn’t be here. She was — his mind went through several states of her being until it settled on — nice. And she was being the sweet girl that she’s always been to him. He was being naïve thinking that that’s all she wanted. She had only come onto him that one time, and… She whispered, “Why don’t you turn on your side and …”
“Susanne, no. I don’t want to,” he lowered his voice as if anyone else could have heard him, “spoon.”
She sighed again and cleared her throat, “It’ll keep us warmer and be easier. Gahn, Brian does everything have to be about sex with you?”
He rolled on his side and she tucked her tail along his thighs and pushed against him. He hesitated before he settled on putting his upper arm around her waist and tucking the other awkwardly against his chest.
Next Chapter.
When Brian woke Susanne was facing him with her face resting on his and snoring. He also found his hand wrapped around her waist and holding her butt. He slowly moved his hand to her waist and cursing himself for doing it. Susanne cracked a smile and said, “I didn’t mind that.”
“I did,” he pulled himself away from her and lay next to her looking at the ceiling. “I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay,” she rolled onto her back, but cuddled against him. It was definitely a cuddle.