My Human Mate novel Chapter 13

I woke up the next morning with a strong arm draped over my torso, crushing me in place to a warm and firm body. Groaning, I rubbed my eyes and opened them, blinded from the light streaming through the window. Shit, we didn't close the curtains last night.

"Well, that's a mighty attractive way to wake up." Tanner joked with humour evident in his voice. I blankly looked at him struggling to keep my eyes open from the brightness in the room.

"What?" I asked him, still half asleep and struggling to process what he was saying. This earned a deep laugh from him, then he playfully shoved me off the couch we had fallen asleep on. As I was falling, I looked for something to hold onto involuntarily and grabbed Tanners arm.

In my state of panic, I let out a small yelp and dug my nails into Tanners arm, praying to God that the fall won't hurt. As I landed with a small thump, Tanner even didn't move an inch and lazily looked down at me with a smug grin on his face.

"Enjoy feeling my bulging bicep love?" he asked with a wink and tensed playfully under my hand.

"Grow up, you pig." I muttered and released his arm, only to swiftly grab the doona we were snuggled under and pulled it down to me. I cocooned myself in the warm doona and closed my eyes, preparing myself for sleep once more.

"You know Lani," Tanner sing songed to me. "If you fall asleep, you're going to be even later to work than you already are now." I was met with the smug smile on his face as my eyes shot open, my body completely awake. Glancing over at the clock, the illuminated green block numbers read 10:02.

"Noooooo," I groaned and quickly pushed myself off the floor and bolted into the bathroom with my bag. Grabbing my designated purple towel, I had the quickest shower I had ever had, brushed my teeth, threw my light brown beachy hair into a messy ponytail and bolted into the kitchen.

10:11

I was greeted with Tanner sitting at the bench stools, wrapped in the doona with a grin on his face, sipping a steaming cup of coffee.

"Did you make me one?" I hurriedly asked him.

"Nope." He said popping the P. He was getting to much enjoyment out of this for my liking. I scowled at him and cursed him out under my breath.

"Lani the great, running approximately 11 minutes late to work already, and still has a 15 minute drive ahead of her." Tanner stated, fake scolding me.

"Shut up you tool, you didn't set the alarm." I snapped back at him. I was running around the kitchen getting 2 slices of bread and the jam to make myself a quick sandwich to eat on the drive to work.

"Me? You're the one who had to be up early." He defended with his voice an octave to high.

"It's your fault, I'm blaming you. Come to my house at 7 tonight, your sleeping over." I quickly said in a hurry. While running to the door, I yelled bye over my shoulder and quickly made my way to work.

"I'm so sorry Sally, I over slept and Tanner didn't set the alarm and the traffic was abnormally busy today." I said as I burst through the "staff only" door. I was 37 minutes late today. New record.

"What's wrong with that? It's not my fault girls clothes are all tight, slutty, non-cool pieces of material these days. Lenny burst out laughing and shook his head side to side, grinning as he scanned an item for a customer.

The thing Sally loved about our work floor, was that everybody got along 100% well with each other. We would get all the needed work done, as well as mucking around and teasing one another while we were at that. At first, Sally liked us working professionally, but learned that all the customers loved when we all play argued. It was like a free comedy show as she once described it.

"She's like a man." I heard Lenny stage whisper telling the customer. "There's not a single girly part about her apart from her rack." As I glared over at Lenny, I was met with his amused face as he winked at me then high-fived the customer. The customer looked at be about Lenny's age, and looked like the typical 18 year old male in my opinion. I shook my head looking down at the shirt was folding while smiling. Oh boys, I thought to myself.

"I'll buy it for you." I instantly stopped folding the shirt and looked straight ahead of me, not wanting to see that face that belonged to the voice standing right behind me.

Michael.

"I didn't appreciate you driving off on me yesterday." He lowly spoke, his breaths short and sharp, going onto the back of my neck in hot puffs. "I will give you credit for going through that car wash though. Lost you as soon as you came out the other side." He stated.

Although his voice didn't have any anger in them, I could somewhat sense how pissed off he was. I still didn't say anything, but I forced my now shaky hands to resume their previous task of folding and hanging clothes.

"I'll have you know though," he said darkly. "I will not tolerate any more of this running away business. I was patient with you, but you need to accept this." A little voice in my head was telling me to turn around and face him, and for some unknown reason I followed it's command.