“Very much, yes.”
I want to know everything about this girl. I am annoyed that I have to wait and find out details, instead of absorbing them all at once. I want to possess more knowledge of her than anyone.
Slowly, the sparkle dulls in her eyes, and I almost beg her to change the subject, so I can watch her smile again. My human is causing quite a disruption inside of me.
Is this normal?
“My parents have brought me to Hawaii every summer, since I was a baby. Three summers ago, my jet ski collided with someone else’s and I needed emergency surgery to save my leg. The rest of me got pretty bruised up, too, but my leg had the most damage.” She raises her knee out of the water to show me the scars that bisect each other. The ink that maps them like a constellation. “I design tattoos for people with scars. That’s…well, it’s not exactly a job yet, but I’m calling it Beautiful Scars. I designed this tattoo myself.”
I’m having a very hard time focusing on anything but the pain she must have gone through. “Does it still hurt?”
“It gets stiff. And…you probably noticed my limp.”
“Yes. It is cute.”
“Cute.”
I grunt. “Who did you collide with?”
“A drunk vacation dad.” She shrugs. “It’s not important now. I forgave him and moved on. He felt terrible.”
“I do not forgive him. I wish him a painful death.”
She observes me with startled pleasure. Then, stepping closer, she lowers her voice to a conspiratorial murmur. “Just between us, I always found it kind of odd that we kept coming back here after the accident. I don’t think my parents know how traumatizing it was. We passed the location of the accident today and everything. When we were out on a whale watching boat.”
“Whale watching, you say.”
Darla hums, smiling to herself in a way that makes me hopeful. That she recalls our interaction and treasures it, as much as I do. I am too curious about her feelings to refrain from asking about her experience on the boat. How she felt about me, in my other form. But before I can ask, an annoying male human voice rings out down the length of the beach.
“Darla?”
With a gasp, she crowds up against me, using my astonishing physique to hide, her small breasts brushing and flattening against my stomach, her palms coming to rest on my pecs. Damn, her touch is divine. A luxury. Muscles tighten within me, right down to my loins, hoisting my cock higher. “Oh my God, that’s Leonardo. He’s looking for me.”
I am overcome with hunger, just feeling her breath on my chest.
Leaping lionfish.
The front of her is so smooth, her big green eyes luminous and trained on me.
For assistance in avoiding Leonardo, I assume. Isn’t that one of the main reasons I shifted? To help her avoid this odious little gremlin that thinks to marry this goddess?
I must see to her every need.
“How should I kill him, little human?”
“Not kill,” she squeaks. “Just…discourage.”
“Discourage,” I repeat. “Very well. Shall I have a talk with him?”
“Maybe there’s a better way to show him I’m just…not interested.” Her breath catches. “Would you kiss me?”
My heart knocks side to side, clumsily. “Is that a trick question?”
A wrinkle of confusion appears between her brows.
I take her by the chin, tilting her head back another inch, letting lust bleed into my expression. “It is my intention to mate you, Darla. Kissing is a given.”
She stares, blinking once, slowly. “M-mate me?”
