There were butterflies in his stomach, mist in his head, and shivers went down his spine each time she laughed. 

"Can I hug you?"

After my entire confession, I just really felt the need to be comforted. We had been sitting in silence next to each other, listening to each other breathing, sometimes glancing at one another. I spent most of the time rethinking everything that had just happened, but I also took my time calming down while looking around his office.

As I'd already observed before, his office was incredibly tidy. On the left side of the desk, he had five blue ballpoint pens, ordered by size, with equal spaces between each pen. Next to the pens there were two sharpened pencils, an eraser and a set triangle. A small, closed laptop was aligned perfectly with the desk edge, and even the documents he was reading were ordered neatly, while my side of the desk was close to a mess.

"Why do you ask?"

I touched my dad's wedding ring briefly before answering. "Well," I started. "Until now, each time I see you, come close or touch you somehow, you grow so nervous and uncomfortable that I doubt if you even feel the mate bond. Do you?"

He didn't respond.

I sighed. I knew it.

"I do. And to be honest, each time you manage to surprise me. Or..." he reached his neck with a hint of a blush on his face.

"What?"

The look on his face displayed that he was really uncomfortable saying this, but a different kind of uncomfortable than normally. He seemed more humiliated by it than anything else. "My body manages to surprise me. You kind of have that effect on me sometimes. I'm not sure whether I like that."

I tried to suppress a smile, oddly satisfied with his comment. He was affected by me like a mate should be. Judging his shyness, he didn't have a lot of experience with girls, if any at all, so not knowing whether he liked the feelings or not wasn't weird.

"Can I, though?"

"What?"

"Hug you?"

He nodded. "If you announce beforehand what you'll do, I guess I can prepare myself a bit."

I smiled broadly this time. "Well, Vir, I'm going to hug you now."

He chuckled and nodded again, but went stiff anyway when I hugged him. "I thought- "

I smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I probably should have warned you that I would just hug you while sitting." I said. Indeed, I probably should have warned him that I would just straddle him and snuggle against him. Maybe this was partly to make sure he couldn't run away?

I don't know.

"Just, relax and accept it, Vir." My voice sounded muffled from my face being pressed against his chest. "Put your arms around me and give me a hug."

It took a while, but after a few moments he relaxed slightly. I could practically feel his heart beating against his ribs, trying to fight its way out almost as hard as mine. Oh be still, my heart.

Vir's muscles were still cramped and stiff for a bit, but when I moved my hands to softly caress his sides, they slowly but surely loosened.

What seemed like seconds, turned out to be almost twenty minutes, but Vir spoke up and tried to disentangle himself from me. "You probably don't feel the need to go to the conference this afternoon now, do you?"

I stood up slowly while shaking my head, a light pink colour planted on my cheeks in embarrassment. "No. I most definitely don't. I never understood a word of it anyway, so it was quite boring." I caught Vir looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "No offense," I added as an afterthought.

"I was thinking," Vir said slowly while I sat down on the comfortable chair at his side again. "That if you want to, I can help you learn how to read better? That way, later you might actually be able to help me doing paperwork for the pack."

Thinking about the possibilities, I contemplated his offer. "Wait, you actually have time for that? I thought you were 'extremely busy' as you called it, that 'a couple of things came up that required your immediate attention'?" I fiddled with my blouse. Even though I'd put it on this morning, I still wasn't used to the flimsy fabric.

Vir reached for his neck and then pushed his glasses up his nose as he smiled sheepishly. "Well, maybe that was a lie."

"N-not com-completely!" he added in a stutter when he saw my scowl. "Just, I sort of knew from the start that you were lying about your knowledge, so I set up a trap for you to tell me yourself. I knew you wouldn't resist spending time with me, even if it would possibly blow your cover. You are predictable when it comes to that." He sighed softly, and mumbled something in a whisper. It sounded like 'even if that's the only predictable thing about you,' but I wasn't sure. Anyway, I decided to ignore it, as it was most likely not even meant for my ears to hear.

"In that case," I smiled. "Yes, I would love to."

"Well then," he said, all business-like again. "If you don't mind, please sit on the other side of the desk." 

My face fell.

"I can't concentrate properly with you so close, Livia, don't blame me for that. I progressed just as much as you did in the past hour."

Right.

Reluctantly, I moved my chair back to its original spot in the office and sat down in front of my mate, this time with three feet of wood between us. Directly after I was a bit further away from him, Vir composed himself and looked the epitome of calmness. Leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms in front of him, he explained his plans to me. 

"First, I need to know exactly what your reading level is. I will pull up some files from a large database, and then I'll give you a test, alright?" 

I nodded. "Bring it on."

***
So I'm in San Francisco right now, which is why I update so late (no time, busy busy, I have to play tourist all day)

Anyway, I'm going home tomorrow so hopefully the updates will be more regular again.

Sooo what do you think? Vote for the chapter and let me know ^^

Liefs, Sanne