His Arrogant Human Mate novel Chapter 82

Following the training sessions, I would go on a half hour run. This way I could tell Dominic that I had been working out and he would believe me.

When I woke for day fifteen of training, a pain similar to menstrual cramps lit up my tummy. I frowned and groaned in discomfort, rolling over onto my stomach and bumping into Dominic. He tensed and quickly moved away from me, making me pout at him. "I'm sorry," I squeaked. "What-"

"It started."

I blinked in confusion at him, my mind foggy. "What?"

"You've had a fever all morning, Caroline. This is the heat. Dammit, you smell so good," he groaned, putting his hands over his face. "We never discussed what we were going to do so we need to do it now, before you're overcome with the heat."

I sat up, looking down at myself. It did feel unreasonably warm in here, the back of my neck was damp. "Maybe it is just a fever. Maybe we ate something bad yesterday-"

Dominic shook his head stiffly. "No, sugar. I can smell it."

"What?"

"The arousal."

My face flushed and my thighs pressed together, as if that would stop the smell. "I'm not ready to have sex with you," I blurted. "I'm not ready. And I can't get pregnant. I can't do it, Dominic, please."

My mate's face softened and he let out a sigh. "It'll be alright. Relax. We don't have to have sex. If anyone can get through the heat, you can. You're strong. And we can use protection, so you don't get pregnant. But before I can help you work through this, let's set the guidelines."

For some reason, my eyes became misty. "I don't care about any of the other stuff. Just the actual sex part. If... if it gets to the point where I'm in pain, we can do other things. Am I going to be in pain?"

Dominic gave a shrug. "It is hard to say. You'll feel like you're in pain, but it isn't physical pain. It'll be emotional pain, really, but the fever will get worse and you'll need ice baths to help with those. I already had my men stocking up our freezer with ice this morning."

"You won't do anything if I say no, right? Like you'll listen to me?" I quizzed.

"This is going to be hard," I mumbled.

"But if anyone can do it, you can."

The first twenty four hours were easy enough. I took two ice baths and had a mostly normal day, except Dominic wouldn't let me out of the house. The night was already the worst part. The extreme warmth radiating from my body made it hard to sleep and I kept waking up feeling disgusting. So while I only had two ice baths, I had about five or six cold showers.

"I'm doing okay, right?" I asked Dominic halfway through the next day, while I was drifting in and out of sleep on the floor of the bedroom. It was too hot to sleep on the bed.

Dom was reclined next to me, holding my hand. At first, he hesitated to answer. "Of course, baby. You're doing wonderful," he hummed. But I could sense what he was saying to himself. That this was only the beginning.

Another symptom of the heat was my ravenous hunger. Poor Dominic was having food delivered almost every hour on the dot because my stomach would start grumbling. "I'm sorry," I apologized each time. "I'm just so hungry."