Mahon moves in close again and plies me with a series of rapid-fire kisses that have me giggling by the time he backs off. “This is the most delicious honey I’ve ever had in my life. And I’ve only had it once because I took some from a hive when I was a teenager. When Violetta found out, she cursed me to lose my coat for an entiremonth. I was a butt-ass naked bear! Then, she hired a protection witch to set a spell around her bees. I never got another taste. Until now.”
And with that, he scoops up my hand and dips one of my fingers in the nectar, and then he sucks my digits into his mouth, tonguing the sugary coating off so thoroughly that I’m worried I might orgasm just from the hot slide of his licking.
As I try to recover, Mahon screws the lid on and reaches back into the bag. Realizing the other small gift can’t compare to the honey, I move to tug it away.
“Don’t worry about the other thing. It’s a joke.”
He grins, hand already coming up with the bundle of blue material. “I love jokes.”
“You don’t have to wear it,” I persist.
Mahon lets the fabric unroll, and I watch his eyes track over the letters I ironed onto the material. Suddenly, he’s setting aside the honey, as if forgetting the golden treasure he just proclaimed it to be. The shifter shrugs off his suspenders, unbuttons his dress shirt so fast that I’m worried he’ll pop off a few buttons, and then tosses the top aside, replacing it with the simple T-shirt, displaying the two words on the front—Satine’s Bear.
“I want six more,” he declares, voice serious. “One for each day of the week.”
“You’re ridiculous.” And I can’t help pressing myself into him and kissing the hell out of my bear.
A throat clearing breaks up our make-out session. I’m glad I can’t blush when I realize Calder and a stranger hover just a few feet away. Then, it registers—a person I don’t know can see me in all my wide-winged, blue-scaled glory. My body stiffens, and I’m about to launch into the sky to escape when Mahon wraps a staying arm around my waist and grins at the pair.
“Delta! Calder! Check out my badass shirt.” The bear points to my craft project like I gave him a designer suit.
Calder reads the words and then turns to his partner. “I want one.”
The dark-haired woman rolls her eyes, even as she smiles. Delta steps forward, extending a hand in a kinder greeting than I expect from strangers.
“Nice to meet you. You’ll have to tell me where you got that.”
“I made it. But I can show you how,” I offer as I carefully shake her delicate hand.
Everything about her appears human, and I wonder if she is or if this face hides another form. Despite my lack of time among Folk Haven’s population, I do know it’s rude to interrogate a mythic about what they are, and I don’t want to alienate Mahon’s friends.
But maybe Delta, who hasn’t even tilted a brow at my appearance, would be willing to get to know me well enough that I could ask if those are acrylics or claws on her pale hands.
“We’ll leave you two to it.” Calder steps forward to give Mahon an affectionate slap on the shoulder. “Happy birthday.”
As his friends climb into the truck, Mahon uses his arm around my waist to guide me toward the barn.
“This is your day, but I feel like I’m the one getting the surprise.” My eyes take in the suspended sheet and what appears to be a giant pile of pillows.
“You can surprise me next year,” Mahon offers, as if us being together a year from now is a guarantee.
My heart thunders with happiness that his mind has reached the same conclusion that I want. That we aren’t a quick fling. That this is more.
“But since it’s my birthday, we’re watching my favorite monster movie.”
The bear directs me to sit on the cushions as he fiddles with a projector. When the sheet lights up like a movie screen, I can’t stifle a delighted squeak at the title.
Hellboy.
“I like this one,” Mahon explains as he reclines on the pillows next to me and encourages me to sprawl on his chest, “because the monsters save the world.”
Which is the exact reason I love this movie too.
Could I also have fallen in love with this sexy, silly, sentimental bear?
Did I ever have a chance?
As the film plays, we cuddle and share snacks and drinks pulled from a cooler. Strategically placed citronella torches keep most of the bugs away, not that they’d bother me with my impenetrable scales, but I’m glad for the protection of my shifter’s vulnerable skin.
