#jonvandernoorde

"Bend over."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Hannah asked, smirking over her shoulder at Jon.

"Strip."

There was always a little bit of chatter when Corinna went over to Jon's, before they got into things. How's it going? Rough day at work, I really need to unwind. Think I can help with that...

Tonight there was less. Tonight, she came over in her usual thrift-shop finery, an oversize tee and black jeans and Doc Martens, and found Jon — usually in workout clothes, tanks and sweats, things easy to take off — in a whole suit. Dress shirt, slacks, vest, tie, shiny shoes, the whole bit. Very dapper.

"Business meeting, or you got a hot date tonight?" she wondered, and then laughed, "You're makin' me feel super underdressed here."

Something was in the forest. It was quiet and unobtrusive, but she could feel it tickling at the corners of her mind like an itchy tag in a new shirt. The pull wasn't overly strong for her, but the other animals were meandering toward it, and she followed along for their sake. Through frost encrusted underbrush and down a hill heavy with a fresh blanket of snow, she wove through the forest with her ears and nose twitching as she searched for the source of the call.

A child. A very young child, and not a human one either. Even without the subtle tug of magic on her mind, she'd have known the scent was off. She couldn't place what it was at the moment, and it didn't really matter. The child was asking the small gaggle of animals that had been drawn in by her power to help her. Hidden in the underbrush, Beck pressed her own magic against them---pushing them to flee. It didn't take much. Drawing wild creatures close took much more effort than driving them away. When the last cotton tail of a deer disappeared into the tree line, Beck scurried out from the bush where she was hiding, and sat watching the girl.

"Who are you?" Her ears perked as she tilted her head from one side to the other. "You're too young to be so deep in the woods on your own."

Sunlight barely crests through the curtains before they're torn asunder. Flooding the master suite with the beginning daylight of the early morning, Roxanne's favorite time of the day. Her voice a low whisper as she attempts to rouse her slumbering employer. "Good morning sir. There's breakfast ready for you on the cart."

That smile found home on her lips. Her eyes downcast on the small child, the rich smell of magic rolling off in waves from the small figure.

She crouched down to speak eye-to-eye. "Of course, sweetie." Her own unseen magic reached out around them, tasting for the same as this Selkie, but she couldn't pinpoint anyone yet within the immediate area.

Bast would never turn away a child.

@jonvandernoorde

Becky let out a squeak of surprise as she was pushed into the stall, stumbling a little and catching herself on the wall as she heard the click of the lock - eyes a little wide with a mixture of curiousity, fear, and arousal as she turned to see who had locked them in there.

“We have plenty of time for those places and others,” Jon assured Mnemo with a smile. Then he leaned forward gently and gave her a chaste kiss.

She had almost enough time to think that Jon’s smile was as handsome as the rest of him when he kissed her and oh, it had been so long since she’d been able to do something like this that it felt brand new. She couldn’t help but smile too as she kissed him back—

And it was over as quick as it began, a light, chaste, momentary thing. Immediately she wanted more, if just to the feel of his lips on hers a little bit longer, commit it to memory. She leaned up to kiss him again, and that was when his last words registered in her brain. One stood out as especially intriguing.