“Is something wrong?” Remington asked when I froze.
“No,” I blurted out. I resumed stroking his fur, which I was only just realizing was a strangely intimate action. It was like the equivalent of petting Remington’s hair. Did people who weren’t dating do that?
My mind raced. How was I so attached to a man I’d only met recently? Even though I knew Remington was fully capable of looking out for himself, I had an intense urge to defend and care for him. Like I’d drop anything to rush to his aid. I’d had crushes in the past, sure, but not like this. This was on a whole new level.
I thought back to that asshole Klimt. I sure as hell had never transformed into a shark to protect anyone else except Remington, that was for sure.
But I couldn’t justtellRemington I had a crush on him. The last thing I wanted was to make him uncomfortable around me, especially while we were travelling together. If I fucked things up and he left, he’d be alone. What if Klimt harassed him when I wasn’t around? The idea made my blood boil. No, it was safer to keep my feelings to myself if it meant keeping Remington safe.
Remington’s fur felt unusually warm under my hand. Was it always this hot? And had his tail always been wagging like that?
“It’s getting late,” I said, gazing out into the twilight sky. “Maybe we should get some sleep.”
“Oh,” Remington said quietly.
His tail stopped wagging. Fuck. Had I said something wrong?
“Or not,” I amended. “I mean, whatever you wanna do.”
Remington was silent for a moment. It was torture. If I’d upset him by accident, I’d do anything to fix it.
“No, it’s fine,” Remington mumbled. “Let’s sleep.”
My heart sank, though I didn’t know why. Maybe in the back of my mind I was hoping he’d confess his love for me or something, which was fucking stupid. Of course he wouldn’t do that—he barely knew me. Just because I was magically a shapeshifting shark now didn’t mean the rest of my life was a perfect fantasy.
We got up and returned to the cabin. Remington was still in his wolf form. I wondered if he preferred it, or if he was avoiding me somehow. Damnit, how badly had I screwed things up?
It struck me at once that we had a massive problem. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” Remington asked.
I felt like an idiot. “The cabin, uh… Only has one bed.”
Silence. Then Remington said quietly, “It’s fine. I’ll sleep in wolf form in the living room.”
“No, you can’t do that,” I objected.
“It’s okay. I sleep outside in the grass all the time with my pack.”
If Remington slept on the floor, I’d feel like the world’s shittiest host, even though this wasn’t even my cabin.
“No, I’m serious. You should take the bed,” I insisted.
Remington stared at me with hard, yellow wolf eyes. I withheld a shiver. He looked intense this way. There was a melancholy wildness beneath Remington’s gaze, a mystery about him that I was increasingly drawn to.
“I refuse,” Remington said, already turning to pad out the door. “Goodnight, Nero.”
He kicked the door shut with his back paw. The latch didn’t close all the way, but it was as close to a slammed door that this cabin would allow. My heart sank. I got the message. He didn’t want to be near me right now.
I shucked off my clothes, sighed, and collapsed in the bed.
And then the scent of Remington flooded my nose.
My body froze. It wasn’t just his smell—it was his heat scent. His delectable, irresistible, mind-blowing heat scent.
I got hard instantly. It happened like a snap of my fingers, bypassing my thoughts and hijacking my senses. Almost as if Remington himself had wrapped his fingers around my cock.
The mental image made me shiver. Nope. Couldn’t think about that. Not happening.
