“Of course,” he says, and quickly leaves.
Over burgers at Dunleavy’s bar that night, Will asks about her first day back at school. “I bet all those horny boys were all over you, wanting all the gory details. Were they jealous of Marko since he got to rescue you?”
Sophie reaches across the small table and uses her napkin to wipe ketchup from Will’s chin. “Yep. A few of them brought the Post with my picture and wanted me to autograph it, which I found pretty creepy.”
Will smiles. “Now why didn’t I think of that. It should definitely go into our family archives.”
Sophie drains her glass of cabernet and motions to the waiter for a refill. She feels almost normal tonight. After all, she’s back at work and she and Will are having a low-stress dinner. She’s been keeping him at a distance, pretending her neck is still sore so he can’t get a good look at it. She senses that her efforts to keep him at bay frustrate him. She’ll have to get over her fear so they can resume their lovely sex life.
“Will, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but would you mind if I have another burger? They are just so good tonight.”
CHAPTER SIX
The after-school teacher’s meeting dragged on past six, so Sophie and Nora decide to have dinner together. After stuffing everything into her backpack, Sophie winds her new scarf --a gift from her mother identical to the destroyed one -- around her neck and pulls on her coat, which she leaves unbuttoned. She can’t believe it’s below freezing because the cold hasn’t been bothering her as much as usual.
Just as she’s turning out the lights, her cell rings. It’s a name she knows she’s heard, but she can’t place it. “Hello?”
“Ms. Parker, this is Detective Regan. We met in your hospital room a few weeks ago.”
Sophie acknowledges their meeting and waits to hear what he has to say. “I’m just calling to let you know that the DNA tests are in from the swabs the doctors used when cleaning your wound. I thought you’d like to know your attacker was a wolf or close to it. Who’d have thought?”
“It is exactly what I thought, Detective. After all I did have a rather up close and personal view,” she responds, knowing she sounds icy.
“Well, you know your canines, Ms. Parker,” he says, unfazed. “Has anything else come to you since we met?”
“No. Nothing. I haven’t seen anything in the papers about wolves being sighted. Is that right?”
“For better or worse, that’s how it is,” he replies. “The number of people going through the park late in the day has gone down dramatically. Folks are really spooked.”
“They should be. Could you please let me know if any new information turns up?” she asks him as Nora enters her classroom ready for their date.
“Was that Will checking up on you?”
“No, it was the detective who interviewed me in the hospital. The DNA tests they ran proved I’m not delusional. It was a wolf,” she tells Nora, picking up her backpack and ushering her through the door.
Nora looks her over. “I understand you not wanting to wear a hat and getting hat hair,” she says, “but don’t you at least need gloves? I’m wearing my ski mittens these days.”
Sophie says she’ll pull out her gloves when necessary and suggests Café Luxembourg. As they stroll, Nora puts her arm through Sophie’s, something she’s never done before. “I’ve been so worried about you,” she confides, her words generating plumes of mist. “I know everything is okay on the outside, but you don’t seem one hundred percent emotionally yet.”
“I’m still a little freaked out. Maybe I have PTSD, which would be the appropriate response. Don’t you think? I still have a hard time feeling safe, I can’t let my guard down.”
She feels relief when they enter the restaurant, with its French vibe, rattan chairs and white table cloths, lively chatter, and close quarters. They are fortunate to be seated right away. Her shoulders relax and descend. She contentedly looks around for potential celebrities and sees Andrew Lloyd Webber. He’ll protect me, she jokes to herself.
When their waiter comes, they first select a cheapish bottle of Cote de Rhone and then peruse the menu while he goes to fetch it. When he returns, Nora quizzes him on the fish of the day and goes with salmon. Sophie definitively orders Steak Frites, very rare.
“I can’t believe you,” Nora says when the waiter leaves. “You hardly ever eat red meat, and certainly never rare.”
Sophie considers this. Nora’s right. As a rule, she’s a chicken or fish kind of gal. She tends to avoid eating the flesh of other mammals. The more she learns about how smart cows, lambs, and pigs are, the guiltier she feels about consuming them. She then remembers how great her burgers tasted the night before. What’s wrong with me?
“You’re right. Maybe all the trauma has made me anemic and my body is urging me to compensate. I’m sure it’s just a phase.”
When their plates arrive, Sophie is embarrassed by the hint of blood around the steak’s edge, but not so much that she doesn’t immediately start sawing into it. She takes a bite. Heaven. She’s eaten half the meat before she picks up her first fry. She looks over at Nora, who’s watching her closely.
How’s your salmon?” she asks nonchalantly. “Does it go okay with our red wine?”
“The fish and wine are just fine together,” her friend responds. “So, you think it’s anemia that’s turned you into a raging carnivore?”
Sophie takes a few sips of wine to give herself time to think. “Nora, I don’t know what’s going on with me. I am a little bit different, but why is a mystery. It’s a little scary. I just want to be the old me, not that I was perfect. But I was happy.”
“And now you’re not?” Nora is swimming in empathy. Normal for Nora.
“I don’t know what I am. I think I just need time. It hasn’t even been three weeks.”
When they leave the restaurant, Sophie immediately hails a cab. Will doesn’t even want her on buses at night these days. The friends hug.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The only lights on in the apartment when she gets home are strategically placed candles. As she removes her coat, she calls out to Will without success. She knows he’s home because he’d never leave with candles blazing.
When she hits the living room, she sees him perched on the sofa wearing only the apron she herself had worn so recklessly before the incident. “You like?” Will says, stretching out his track-star legs for a full viewing as he beckons her over.
Sophie doesn’t know if she’s up for what Will intends, but knows he’ll be crushed if she spurns the invitation. “I love,” she responds, as she goes over, takes his hand, and leads him into the also candle-lit bedroom.
She kicks off her boots and allows him to remove her sweater, skirt, underpants and tights. When he unhooks her bra, turns her around to face him and then cups her butt, she feels a hopeful flicker of desire. When Will hears her sharp intake of breath, his hardon becomes visible under the apron. She reaches up, unties the apron, then throws it across the room. Then, with speed and strength, she startles Will by pushing him down on the bed so hard he bounces back up. She places her hands on each side of his waist and then, without touching him, she licks up one side of his rod, once around the cap, and then down the other side.
“Oh God, oh God,” Will moans. “This is so worth the wait.”
He reaches up and pulls her up on top of him and they roll together onto the middle of the bed, with their tongues in each other’s mouths. Sophie reaches down to cradle his balls and wins another deep sigh. He parts her legs, manipulates her clit until she writhes and then plunges in. After Will has pumped for a few minutes and Sophie can tell he’s on the cusp of coming, she – sad but sure an orgasm isn’t in her near future – begins matching his cries. When she feels him squirting, she arches her back and lets out a contented scream.
It’s the first time she’s ever faked an orgasm with Will.
“Oh honey,” Will says, nuzzling her neck. “You were so great, almo
st kinky.”
“You were pretty wonderful yourself,” she says, feeling icky for lying.
When Nora comes into her room the next day before school, Sophie fesses up about faking. “I knew I wasn’t really up for it, but Will has been so patient with me I couldn’t say no. I must have really put on a good show. When we finished, Will thought we were kinky. Of course, with Will anything beyond missionary is wild.”
“For your sake,” Nora says, “I hope you didn’t set any precedents last night. Why do you think you couldn’t get into it?”
“I just didn’t feel present,” Sophie explains. “It’s like I was watching rather than really taking part, which made it difficult for my nerve endings to crackle.”
“Crackle?”
“Okay, light up, respond, catch fire.”
Nora reaches out and touches Sophie’s shoulder. “It was just one night, one time. That’s not exactly a pattern. You two will be fine.”
****
Sophie’s in a fine mood when the last bell rings. Every class had gone well. On top of laughing at all her witticisms, the boys seemed engaged and on top of the material. She loves them and she loves teaching. Maybe life is finally getting back to normal.
On her way out, Sophie passes the gym and sees the basketball team practicing. While she watches, a boy misses a pass and the ball bounces out to her. She lets her backpack slip off her shoulder and reaches down to pick up the ball. The players watch her with interest, curious to see what she’ll do.
Sophie knows they expect her to toss it to one of them but hesitates; she starts bouncing the ball. She wants to get out there, she wants a turn. Her body, seemingly acting on its own, begins quickly moving forward. Jake, one of her junior students, with a smile on his face, comes forward and puts his arms up like he’s guarding her. But Sophie will not be denied. She pivots and gets away from him, only to be confronted by Marko just before getting into shooting range. Although he has a good six or seven inches on her, and no trampoline is present, she jumps at least two feet off the ground, shoots and scores.
At first, the gym is totally quiet. Oh my God, Sophie thinks, what did I just do? Something isn’t right. Finally, one student starts clapping and is joined by the rest of the team and the coaches. “We’ll have to sign you up Mrs. Parker,” says Coach West. “You’ll make one Hell of a ringer.”
Several players clap her on the back and express wonder at her talent. While accepting their accolades, Sophie looks around for Marko, who stands off to one side looking stricken.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Too anxious to teach the day after her attention-grabbing performance on the court, Sophie screens a video of Philip Roth discussing how he used his Newark, New Jersey youth as the inspiration for his early work. After the video, she has them write essays comparing their cosseted lives in Manhattan to Roth’s more humble origins.
She spends most of the day in a back corner of the room trying not to think, evaluate, or analyze what happened in the gym. Every so often she strokes her throat where the scar should be.
Relieved, for some reason, when Marko leaves with the rest of the class, she absentmindedly begins gathering up the boys’ essays and sits down to review them. She gets lost in the boys’ reflections on the Roth interview and time goes quickly. She’s coming close to being relaxed when she looks up and sees Marko come in and close the door behind him. He looks both nervous and determined.
“Mrs. Parker,” he says, “please, we need to sit down and talk. I’m sorry but I have something very serious and important to tell you.”
Sophie’s immediate reaction is fear, because she senses he knows what she’s been going through. She is desperate for explanations, but terrified to learn the truth. She sits down at her desk and watches him drag a chair over beside her. At first, he sits but then jumps up as if he’d sat on a hot stove. He paces a bit buying time to gather his thoughts.
“Mrs. Parker,” he says earnestly, meeting her eyes for the first time. “I’m going to tell you something you may find unbelievable, but still, you will know I tell the truth. This is because the way you have been feeling since your attack will make sense.”
As he speaks, Sophie feels tears gather and then slide down her cheeks. She does not want to hear what he has to say.
“Do you remember,” he asks her, “that I introduced you to my friend that day as you were heading home? You told us you couldn’t stop because you wanted to go through the park before dark.”
He waits for her to nod yes.
“Well unfortunately, my friend, who is no longer my friend, thought you very lovely and was attracted. Soon after you said good-by, he broke our plans and began going in the same direction as you. This made me nervous, but another friend came up and asked me about schoolwork, and I was stopped for a few minutes before I could follow after him.”
“I’m confused,” Sophie tells him. “What does he have to do with what happened to me. Remember, I was attacked by a wolf.”
Marko repeatedly runs his hands through his fabulous hair. “Mrs. Parker, do you believe I am not a crazy man?
“Of course,” she confirms.
“What I tell probably may make you change your mind,” he says softly. “It was Guillermo who attacked you. I promise you.”
“I remember he was a hairy guy, but …,” Sophie gets out before Marko cuts her off.
“Have you ever heard stories about people who are shape-shifters, who poof go from being a man to a wolf?”
“Sure, in horror movies,” she lightly responds, although icy fingers are beginning to palpitate her heart.
“Guillermo is such a creature, a shifter, and I will become one in a few years. While I have yet to have my first transition, I had sufficient powers to find you before he could hurt you more.”
Sophie can’t help herself, she laughs through her tears. Marko is being absurd, he’s making fun of her. For a moment, anger replaces fear. He’s sensed her vulnerability and now he’s using it against her. Why, what does he have to gain from this?
She stands and backs away from him. “I don’t know why you are doing this to me. Please leave right now.”
“No, senora. It is important that you listen and believe me. There is no time to waste because we are almost at the full moon.”
Sophie rolls her eyes. “I suppose at the full moon Guillermo will become a wolf again and come find me. I can hardly wait.”
Marko’s gaze is laced with pity and compassion. “No, that is not the problem. I believe, I fear, that he may have made you a shape shifter when he bit you, and that you may make your first transition to a wolf at the full moon.”
“I can’t believe you, you just can’t let go of this. Why are you doing this to me?” she almost screams.
“It is not I who have done anything to you,” he says, hanging his head. “It was Guillermo who did this, he was the one who bit you and made this happen. He turned you.”
“Turned me?” Sophie sits back down. “Why are you doing this to me?” she asks again.
“Mrs. Parker, I see your neck. Why do you think there is no mark or scar where Guillermo bit you?”
“Because I had a great plastic surgeon,” she responds, although she’s known for weeks no doctor can be that good.
“I see you come and go to school. Your coat is never buttoned, there are no gloves. The class window is always open.”
If she were with Nora, Sophie would joke about early menopause, but it’s certainly not something she’d say to a student. “The air is too dry, I open the window to let some moisture in.”
“And your jump last night, when you flew like a bird, did that not seem strange?”
Sophie puts her head down on her desk and cradles it in her arms, so Marko can’t see her face.
“And,” he prods, “have you not felt stronger than before? Healthier?”
Sophie keeps her head down, she’s afraid of becoming hysterical. “Please leave me alone.”
“I’m sorry,”
he says, touching her shoulder, making her flinch. “It would be cruel and wrong for me to leave you alone at this time. You must prepare, be ready.”
“I suppose you’re the one to prepare me and be there when my clothes come off and I start morphing,” she says sarcastically.
“No, that would not be appropriate. My mother and I have been speaking about how to help you. My mother, you see, my entire family, we are shifters. For many, many generations. Some of us were born this way and others, like my mother, chose to turn to keep the family united. You see she didn’t want to grow older while my father stayed a young man. They want to stay together forever. We move from country to country so people they meet are not disturbed when they grow older and my parents stay the same. Ever since I got older, and my mother began looking too young to be my mother, we started telling people that she is my older sister and that she takes care of me because my parents are dead. That’s what the school believes. That she is my sister and my father is her husband.”
He seems relieved to have shared this information with her. “When you meet her, you will see how very young she looks.”
“Let me get this straight,” Sophie says, incredulous. “You spoke to your mother about me, about what happened to me in the park. This is unbelievable. What? She’s going to be my shifter mentor?”
Marko nods, happy she seems to be getting the picture. “Only if you like. She has been through the experience and can guide and prepare you. It is true it was her decision to let my father make her, but still, the first transition was very terrifying and painful.”
Sophie feels crazed, angry, and frightened. Of course, Marko is delusional and should be humored. He seems so certain, so sincere. He means her no harm and isn’t trying to scam her. He needs help, she decides, so he doesn’t harm himself or anybody else with his fantastical stories. Maybe, a confidential chat with his mother would be a good idea. For Marko’s sake.
Sophie's First Shift: There’s No Turning Back (Shifters Take Manhattan Book 1) Page 3
