The Shifter's Kiss (5 page)

He lay his hand on hers as it rested between her legs and found
her clitoris in the damp nest of her curls. He pressed against it, dragging a
sharp gasp from her.

He smiled and bent, ignoring the pull in his side so he could
wrap his lips around a tight nipple and suckle her while he worked her clit.

She moaned then and grabbed hold of his hand, urging it
downward to her vagina and the wetness of it. He eased his fingers into her
while she returned to touching her clitoris. Her juices dripped over his hand
and hers.

He left her only long enough to stroke himself with her wetness
and urge her hand to him.

With a rough exhale against her breast as she encircled him,
stroking, he returned to loving her, driving his fingers in her over and over.
He bit and sucked on her sensitive nipples until she was writhing against the
sheets and her hand was urgent on his erection, moving on him roughly as they
both reached for release.

But he was not a greedy man. As he had told her, it was not
just about this and his own satisfaction.

He left her then, slipping to the floor to kneel while urging
her to the side of the bed. The movement and position exposed her to him,
rewarding him with the view of her glistening and flushed sex. He parted her
lips with his hands, revealing the hard and swollen nub of her clitoris, and she
moaned and shifted restlessly beneath his hands.

He didn’t hesitate, bringing his mouth to that nub while he
eased his fingers inside her once more.

Nali shook with his possession of her and nearly came against
his lips and tongue, but it was too good to rush. Too pleasing as he used that
gifted mouth on her and then reached up and played with one of her breasts while
she caressed the other.

She keened with pleasure like the animal she was inside. The
animal that wanted to taste and bite him. That reached down with both hands and
clawed at his shoulders to hold him close until her body could no longer contain
the pleasure and it spilled over her, bringing a release that had her screaming
his name and arching her hips against his mouth and hands.

His caresses gentled as she came back to Earth, his hands
soothing along her thighs. His kiss at her center was soft as he left her to
rise, and her eyes shot open to watch him.

He guided his cock to her vagina and slowly pushed forward,
stilling when he was buried deep within her and the soft hairs on his pubis
brushed the still sensitized nub between her legs.

“Victor,” she pleaded, wrapping her legs around him, needing a
moment to catch up from the earlier pleasure.

He smiled, knowing her need. Bracing one hand beside her on the
bed, he traced her lips with his index finger. She could smell herself on him,
taste herself as she dipped her tongue out before he drew that hand down to the
love bite on her neck that was still tender.

As he skipped his finger along that spot, she moaned and her
vagina contracted against him with need. Still he did not move, his restraint
far stronger than hers.

Her breath exploded from her body as he strummed her nipple
with his fingers and then bent and tasted her again.

“You are so sweet. So lovely,” he whispered and bent his head,
bringing his lips close to hers.

She wanted to taste him, but she feared that intimacy. Feared
that if she had that taste, she would forever hunger for it. And so she avoided
him again, escaping his kiss as she said, “Make me come. Make me shatter
again.”

He grunted his response and answered her request, shifting his
hips back to withdraw the thick length of his dick before driving into her. His
movements were hard and rough, almost angry as he sought her release and
his.

It came fast and powerfully, dragging them both over while he
continued pumping his hips into her, extending the pleasure of the moment until
his arms trembled and sweat dripped off him and onto her. Until they both could
barely breathe from the shock of the passion still gripping their bodies in its
aftermath.

Finally spent, he dropped down beside her, his body heavy and
damp with sweat. The ends of his longish hair were wet with it as she wrapped
her arms around him and soothed him. She kissed the side of his face and
whispered, “Thank you.”

Chapter 8

Victor wanted more than her thanks, but he couldn’t say
it, aware he would drive her away.

He understood now why she feared the intimacy. Why she had
likely kept herself innocent of the demands of human passion and pleasure.

With passion such as this, it would be tough not to lose sight
of who she was. Not to sacrifice herself the way her father had—giving up his
life beneath the ocean for Nali’s mother, an act that had brought him great joy
but also immense sadness.

Victor had seen that melancholy in her father when he had first
met him, and now he knew the reasons for it. Yet he had also seen the joy when
Saila had spoken of both his wife and his daughter. He suspected the old man
would not have given up that happiness for anything in the world.

That was a lesson Nali would one day have to learn. He just
hoped he would be the man she chose to teach her that joy.

He lay down beside her and splayed his hand across her sculpted
midsection, which shivered beneath his touch as she recovered from the aftermath
of their loving. Along the smooth skin of her hip, his cock grew flaccid, but
even with that, the temptation of her still-puckered breasts was too much for
him to resist.

He bent and kissed the tips, the touch of his lips reverent.
His mind was absorbing every minute detail of her in case she might leave him
only memories.

Nali sighed with pleasure at the tender caress of his mouth
against her breasts. The tips were overly sensitive and even his most gentle
actions awoke need deep between her legs.

She was sore there. She had never been sore before. Never
allowed herself such multiple intimacies with any man or even any of her people
on land or in their true form in the sea.

As she shifted her legs, trying to assuage the want to have his
touch again, he raised his head and met her gaze. He let the hand that had been
on her abdomen drift down until his fingers just brushed the nest of curls in
her center.

Her breath soughed from her, faster and faster as he skimmed
his fingers against her and she came from just that touch.

She knew then that she could not stay the week. She could not
stay another second.

“I am lost in you,” she said as she bolted from the bed and
raced out the door of the shack.

Victor could not move as fast, hampered as he was by the wound
in his side. But he chased after her as best he could, only to see her dive
cleanly into the midnight blue of the ocean and disappear beneath the glass
surface of the sea.

He cursed beneath his breath. He hadn’t meant to drive her
away, but he just couldn’t keep his hands off of her.

He stood at the shore’s edge, searching for any sign of
Nali.

Only the silvery glitter of the moonlight greeted him, but he
could not leave until he knew she was safely home.

* * *

Nali propelled herself through the water, her strong
arms and legs pulling and kicking her forward and through the intricacies of the
coral reef. It was harder to navigate at night in her human form, the darkness
making it difficult to see beneath the surface. As she turned one corner, she
nicked her arm on the coral and a ribbon of blood leaked from the scratch.

It would attract the sharks, especially at night, leaving her
no choice but to morph back into her true form. Back into the predator that she
was—the hunter and not the prey.

Pain radiated throughout her body as bone, muscle and skin
transformed, legs joining together into the thick powerful tail of her shark
form. Her face flattened into the broad snout and jaws as her shark spirit
assumed control.

As the faint trace of her human blood brought a few inquisitive
sharks closer, her change completed and she emitted an immense underwater roar,
chasing away most nearby marine life.

But even in her natural state, a new sense of restlessness lay
deep in her heart. One that she tried to drive away by racing through the sea,
putting distance between herself and the shore, where she knew he waited.

She had seen him there for only a moment, but it was long
enough to see the determination on his face. To see the yearning in his eyes for
something that could never be.

Never ever, she said to herself as she reached the edge of the
reef and the drop-off to open ocean—the route to safety.

Few of the local fishermen ventured this far out in search of
her, and luckily, outsiders were still few in this part of the world.

For good measure, she dived down into the midnight inkiness,
where even during daylight there was little light. In that murky darkness she
swam, circling the ocean floor over and over. Hoping to drive away the sight of
him, the feel and taste of his humanity, which had proved far more tempting than
she had thought possible.

She understood her father better now, although it didn’t make
her situation any easier.

Over and over, round and round she went, but as the hours
passed, she realized just how futile an exercise swimming away might be. Even
with that insight she had to try to forget him. Forget that which she could not
forget.

And so she swam, giving rein to the animal spirit within her.
Protecting the unique gift the sea had given her people and which she could not
reject for any reason.

Not even for love.

* * *

After an hour of standing, searching the ocean for the
familiar sight of her fin cutting a swath through the water, Victor had plopped
down on the sand to wait for her.

It wasn’t much later that her father joined him, settling
himself on the sand, a bottle of his homemade liquor in one hand and two glasses
in the other.

Victor waved him off, recalling well the bite of the alcohol
and the aftermath of its sting.

With a shrug, Saila poured himself a glass and sat there,
sipping it for long minutes until he finally said, “You may have a very long
wait,
mi’jo
.”

“I’m a patient man.”

Saila chuckled. “The last time she ran off like this was when
her mother died. I didn’t see Nali for nearly a year.”

He jerked his head around to stare at the old man. “A year?
Didn’t you worry something had happened?”

Saila nodded and then took another sip. “Every day. Every day I
rode out into the deep ocean, slid into her embrace and called out for my
daughter, but she didn’t come.”

Victor arched a brow. “You can call for her?”

With a shrug, Saila explained. “It’s one of the few powers left
from what I once was—a sonic cry if you wish.”

Interesting, Victor thought. He had picked up a stray sound
pattern or two from his monitoring stations and had thought they were from
dolphins or a passing school of whales. Now he had another possibility.

“Why do you think she would not return?”

“Pain. Anger,” Saila answered quickly. “There was nothing we
could do when her mother got sick. Illness and that kind of death are hard for
Nali to understand.”

“Your people do not get sick or die?”

Saila shook his head. “Not like that. We are a strong race, so
strong that even our hybrid children possess the full powers of our people.”

He eyed Nali’s father up and down. Roped muscles were evident
on his wiry body and Victor had seen first-hand proof of his strength as he had
worked beside the man on several occasions. But he was old. Human-old as far as
he could tell.

“So you will not die?” he asked, seeking clarification.

“I will die just like any human. When I chose to stay on land,
I gradually lost almost all the gifts of my people.”

Nali would see that as both a betrayal and something to fear,
for both her people and herself.

“I do not wish to change Nali. I only want time to explore what
I feel for her.”

Saila finished his drink and poured himself another. “It always
begins that way, but then the time together is too short. The absences are felt
more strongly. Some cannot handle the separation and part ways. Others sacrifice
themselves and lose who they are. What they are.”

Nali’s parting words came back to him, jabbing at his heart as
painfully as the spear that had pierced his side.

I
am
lost
in
you
.

He didn’t want her to be anything other than what she was, but
the heartache he sensed in Saila was too keen not to ignore. The old man had
lost both daughter and wife because of his decision.

A difficult and almost impossible choice. One that Nali
obviously did not wish to consider.

“I think I’ll take that drink now,” he said, and the old man
poured him a full glass.

He grimaced at the first bite of the alcohol, which deadened
his taste buds and warmed him from his gullet to his stomach. With each sip the
world became a little fuzzier and the ache in his heart dimmed. But only a
little.

He was only about a quarter of the way done with the glass when
he decided he’d had enough. He had never liked being drunk and it wouldn’t solve
anything. Plus he wanted to go into the water tomorrow in search of Nali. A
wetsuit would protect his side and, although he couldn’t manage the air tanks
thanks to the injury, he could snorkel.

Pushing off from the wet sand, he stumbled on his feet, head
dizzy from a combination of alcohol and fatigue.

Saila was immediately at his side, shaking his head and tsking.
“Shame when a grown man can’t handle his liquor,” he teased.

“If you can call that rot gut liquor,” Victor said as they
walked together to the steps of Nali’s shack. He paused at the base of the
stoop, looking back out to sea. The surface was smooth as glass with not a break
to be seen in the moonlight.

Saila tracked his gaze and then sighed. He understood what it
was to wait for her and be disappointed.

“Rest,
mi’jo
. You’ll need strength
to be patient.”

Victor nodded and hurried to bed. The sheets were in disarray
from their lovemaking, and it took all his resolve to straighten them and climb
back in.

They smelled like her, clean and sharp like a brisk ocean wind.
The alcohol had loosened some of his control and he grew hard at her lingering
fragrance and the memories of her. At the image of her playful grin and her
tears.

He hated that he had brought her those tears.

Forcing Nali from his mind, he urged himself to rest. He needed
to finish healing so he could go in search of her. So he could show her he was
not a threat to what she was and what she wanted in her life.

Sleep claimed him with each breath until he was snoring softly
and deep in dreams.

* * *

That sound sleep kept him from hearing her soft footfall
at the threshold of the shack.

Nali braced her hand on the jamb and stared at his back. His
muscles were relaxed, the skin tanned by the potent Caribbean sun. That golden
expanse of skin was marred by the glaring white of the bandages around his
midsection and the scars along his upper body.

The scars of a hero.

And like the hero he was, he had both saved her and doomed
her.

No matter how hard she’d tried, she had not been able to stay
away, even for a night. She itched to walk over and lay with him. Make love to
him again.

But if she did, would it only entrap her more? Set the hook
like a fish caught on a line? Or could she break free of the net in which he’d
snared her?

With a hesitant step across the threshold, she walked toward
him until she was at the bed. He was sprawled across it now, his big bulk taking
up most of the space. She hadn’t realized how immense he was and how much room
he took, maybe because they’d been plastered together the entire time.

She eased beneath the sheets and, with a shove, woke him.

He jumped at the action, rolling to face her. Surprise gave way
to joy on his face. “You came back.”

“It’s my house, remember?” she joked, unable to give the true
reason for her return.

He grinned and nodded. “It is. Thanks for sharing.”

As much as she wanted to make love to him again, she needed
rest also. The jumble of emotions and the energy needed for her to shapeshift
had drained her.

He seemed to sense that as he hauled her near and whispered,
“Let’s get some rest.”

With her head pillowed on his chest, she listened to the steady
lub-dub of his heart and the sound of his breathing. Both had a peaceful rhythm
now, unlike the frantic hammering and roughness after they’d made love. She
matched her breath to his, allowing that calm cadence to lull her to sleep.

In the morning they would talk. And make love, she thought with
a smile. That was the one thing of which she was sure.

In the morning they would make love.