Sheer Bliss (9 page)

Trisha. The belle of ball
had bailed. Good for her, but Calla felt for the girl’s cousin, who
no doubt would suffer some of the repercussions.

Maya
,
you
wouldn’t happen to know where Trisha—

When Calla turned back,
she saw only a wide expanse of sand and waves.

* * * *

“
Caleb!”

His heart stilled for a
moment, thinking Calla had finally arrived. Forty-five minutes into
the ball and his mind worked rapidly to concoct a plan for a
discreet exit if she didn’t show. He had no reason to be here
anyway, he mused to himself. It wasn’t as if this was the actual
mating ceremony and he had to give his cousin away.

Somebody called for him
again, and Caleb thought suddenly of Trisha. He’d been so wrapped
up in meeting Calla here that he realized he hadn’t seen his cousin
in a long while.

A hand gripped his arm.
“Wake up!” Sheila admonished him. “I’ve been yelling at you from
across the ballroom for five minutes.”

“
The music’s too loud,” he
said. A lame excuse, yes, but at least Sheila kept quiet as she
dragged him to the outdoor patio.

“
I know what you’re
thinking,” he said as the warm August night quickly inspired
perspiration to bead on his forehead. “I haven’t seen Trisha, and I
don’t—”

“
We’ll worry about her
later,” Sheila snapped, and grasped Caleb’s shoulders as though to
hold him still. “Just stand here.”

Caleb did as told, now
worried for his aunt’s mental health.

“
Do you smell it?” she
said, prodding him. “Concentrate.”

“
Fine.” Anything to humor
her, and keep her from bugging him the rest of the evening. “What
exactly am I…”

That’s when his panther
senses picked on it.
Her
.

Calla was here, but where?
He’d know her unique scent anywhere, only now it seemed different
somehow. Matured, more distinct.

Caleb froze.
Like a
panther’s
.

He turned a hard stare on
his aunt. “Did you see her?”

“
No, but she’s close. I
don’t understand it. Wes told me she was only recessive for
shifting, and as long as we’ve known her I never picked up so
strong a scent.”

Caleb paced the length of
the patio. If this were true, then Calla had this ability for some
time, when they had first dated! Had they only known back then… He
couldn’t decide whether to cry or whoop with joy.

“
Maybe Wes was wrong,” he
said. “Or he read her records wrong.”

“
What does it matter now,
she’s a panther!” Sheila rushed to hug him. “There’s no way in Hell
she could mate with any of the wolves now. Thank God you listened
to me and decided to pursue her. Now we don’t have to
worry—”

Yet, in a split second,
Caleb found they had plenty to worry about when a very furious
panther leaped from behind the shrubbery to pounce on
Sheila.

Chapter
Eleven

Her paws pinned Sheila’s
dress sleeves to the ground, rendering the woman immobile. Clearly,
for all of the woman’s bravado and abilities, Sheila looked
helpless and frightened. Calla wondered at first why the woman
simply didn’t shift and counterattack, but then she thought maybe
the older woman decided this stance might work as a good defense
mechanism.

Caleb towered over them,
trying to shield them from the view of anyone in the ballroom who
happened to turn toward the sea. “Calla, get off her
now!”

You bitch!
Calla
bared her fangs, her anger fueled by Sheila’s unwavering glare. She
hoped the woman could hear her in this state.
What business is
it of yours to pry into my personal life?

“
Calla, I mean it,” Caleb
warned. “If you’re only just discovering you can shift, you don’t
know your own strength. Now back away before you do something
you’ll regret.”

Calla didn’t move. She
snorted in Sheila’s face, daring the other woman to
retaliate.

“
You’re not a violent
person, Calla. I know this is difficult for you to accept, and
believe me, I’m not happy with what my aunt did, either. Could you
please move and we’ll talk?”

Calla craned her neck to
look up at Caleb. From this vantage point, he looked different.
Maybe her new panther eyes projected a unique perspective, but she
swore Caleb looked all the more appealing.

Can you hear me
?
she asked. She had no trouble understanding him.

He nodded and gestured
seaward. “Wait for me out there. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
Already his hands worked on the buttons of his shirt.

Calla did her best nod in
return and cast one last glare in Sheila’s direction.
You stay
put
, she snarled, then quickly rushed away. The hop back over
the shrubbery proved disastrous as her hind legs caught the top of
the green coming down. She did manage, though, to land on her feet,
though ungracefully.

She snorted and trotted
away. This new body would definitely require a lengthy adjustment
process.

* * * *

He left Sheila to collect
herself and dashed out of sight, stripping as he went. Once naked,
he leaped from the patio and hit the sand in panther form,
searching the night for Calla.

She hadn’t gone far. He
found her parked where the tide marked a border of foam separating
wet sand from dry. Quietly he padded next to her and sat, swishing
his tail her direction to get her attention.

How do you feel?
he
asked.

Weird, and comfortable.
I wish I could describe it better.
She raised a paw as though
snatching a pocket of air.
One minute I’m standing in my
backyard drinking wine, and the next I’m tearing down the beach in
fur like I have good enough sense.

I think you described it
fine, Calla. Much of being a panther comes to you easily, like
learning to walk and talk. You seem to have picked up on it rather
quickly.

Why now, though?
The exasperation in her tone panged at his heart.
I don’t get
why this didn’t come to me when I turned thirteen, like with
you.

Caleb didn’t have an
answer for her. He hadn’t heard of “late bloomers” in the shifter
world, and as far as he knew no human could simply become a shifter
even if he or she coupled with one. Were that the case, this would
have happened to Calla much sooner.

Maybe Wes could tell
you
, he suggested.
Run some tests.

Yeah, Wes.
Calla
growled.
What’s all this about Sheila and Wes? How does she know
my medical history better than I do?

Hey, I’m not my aunt’s
keeper. I had nothing to do that. Please, though, argue with her
when you don’t have claws.

The she-panther moved away
from him.
From what I heard, it sounded as though she put you up
to seducing me.

Hey.
Caleb pawed at
her, but she moved away. Before them the tide brushed in closer and
the seawater matted his fur, irritating him to no end.

To hell with this, he
decided, and shifted back. Sitting cross legged in the sand, he
snapped for her attention. “Calla,” he said, “can you shift
back?”

The panther paused and
looked down as though contemplating the question. Caleb suddenly
worried, for if she had not been aware of what precipitated her
first shift maybe she’d end up stuck as a panther for a
while.

Soon, though, a change in
her sleek feline body allayed his fears, and she now reclined naked
in the sand, as a human.

Calla raked a hand through
her hair. “I think this feels less natural,” she said with a weak
smile.

The moon above, paired
with distant lights from the hotel, provided enough light for Caleb
to see her clearly. Now that Calla had developed her panther
senses, she’d see him better as well. “Shifting is sort of like a
drug,” he told her. “When you first learn, it’s all you want to do.
You have to learn to control it, among other things.”

Calla looked toward the
hotel, worried. “I wasn’t going to hurt Sheila,” she said, “but she
really pissed me off.”

“
Me, too. I want you to
know, also, that my coming to the salon today had nothing to do
with her. Now, when she told me about your genetic makeup that
partly influenced me to
consider
extending a romantic
overture or two.”

Calla laughed and shook
her head.

Caleb chuckled in kind.
One couldn’t argue that wordiness wasn’t a panther trait. “I have
to confess, though,” he continued, “that what set off the spark for
me was watching you the other night…while you were in your
bedroom.”

Calla gasped softly and
her eyes darted from side to side, no doubt clicking through
memories.

“
You were pleasuring
yourself, or trying to.”

“
Oh.” Her face softened
with the realization, and she looked hard at Caleb. “That also
explains your question about me being bisexual.”

“
I apologize for that.
None of my business.”

“
Neither was spying on
me,” she shot back.

Caleb’s heart numbed, and
it hurt to say what next came to mind. “I’ll understand if you want
to cool down things, or stop altogether.”

“
Caleb.” She slapped the
sand, then grabbed a handful and watched it spill through her
fingers. “That night, I think I sensed you outside. I mean, I
consider myself pretty observant, and I’m aware of the usual night
noises and stuff. But, when I was trying to make myself come, I
couldn’t. Maybe my panther senses were starting to mature then,
because I felt a
presence
. I didn’t know what to look for,
though.”

He let out a relieved
breath. “I’m glad you didn’t look then. I might have scared the
piss out of you.”

“
Not a pretty
sight.”

They shared a laugh over
that, but when their mirth subsided Caleb extended a hand and drew
Calla’s body to his. Everywhere she pressed against him, his skin
prickled. Tiny stabs of pleasure coursed through his body and down
to his cock, which quickly hardened.

He nuzzled her neck,
planting light kisses down her jaw line. “I don’t care if you shift
or not,” he said, “or if you’re a panther or wolf or a goddamn
koala bear. I saw you that night trying to stoke your desire, and
since then I’ve thought of nothing but making that happen for you.
I hope you understand that.”

Calla turned into his kiss
and parted her lips to welcome his tongue. Twisting in his embrace,
she positioned herself to straddle his thighs, not unlike their
earlier tryst, and pushed into his groin. His cock responded by
bobbing against her pussy—any more encouragement and it might seek
her warmth on its own.

Caleb held her close,
enjoying how her bare nipples brushed against his chest, and how
every dip and curve along her back seemed to elicit a new, ecstatic
response from her. As they kissed he touched her everywhere, first
stroking her breasts before sliding down to test her pussy’s
wetness. His other hand reached behind her to find her other
entrance, which he gently teased.

“
Maybe soon?” he asked
coyly.

Calla let out a throaty
laugh and grasped his cock at the base, roughly sliding her hand
upward. “I recall you saying something about next time in bed.
We’re a long way from home.”

He hadn’t forgotten. He
also knew, from experience, that lovemaking in the sand proved more
irritable than people were led to believe. They should have called
that movie
From Here to an Eternity of Sand in Your Nether
Regions.

Caleb lifted her in his
arms, and teased her pussy lips with the tip of his aching cock.
Irritating for humans, yes. However…

“
Calla.” He kissed her.
“How would you like another panther lesson, right now?”

Chapter
Twelve

Holy shift. Would you look
at that?

How could Trisha
not
look? The two panthers rolling in the sand offered one
hell of a view.

In panther form herself,
watching from the safety of a dune close to more solid land, Trisha
fixed on the pair as they teased and played and nicked at each
other. One of them was Caleb—she zeroed in on his scent
immediately. The female…Trisha couldn’t guess. The scent had a
familiar tang to it, but it mixed with the sea air and the smoke of
a distant barbecue, leaving Trisha to file that one away for
further research. She hadn’t spent enough time at the party to
notice who had come that might match the scent.

After a few minutes of
tussling, the female finally presented herself to Caleb, who wasted
no time in mounting her. Trisha looked on with awe at the two sleek
panthers locked in unbridled animal passion. It felt funny, for a
few seconds anyway, to witness a blood relative going at it with
somebody, but the more Trisha watched the more the panther shifter
way intrigued her. Her mother had naturally gone over the big sex
talk with her, but she’d yet to see any actual sex in action,
panther or otherwise.