Shit,Maisie thought, as she took out the bottle and then shook the bag upside down, as if the bikini could be hiding somewhere in there. Which it obviously wasn’t.
“Uh, IthoughtI brought them,” she finished lamely after a moment or two of futile shaking. “Dammit! That thing wasn’t cheap.” She felt sostupid! The whole point had been to come out here to swim, and now she –
“Hey,” Maisie said suddenly, realizing suddenly that she was hearing someverysuspicious noises coming from Rhys’s mouth. “Are youlaughingat me?”
“No, not at all,” Rhys told her, his sinceritycompletelydestroyed by the smile that he was doing absolutely nothing to hide. “Why would I be doing that?”
“You totally are!” Maisie tossed the – obviously completely empty – bag at his chest. It bounced off his bulging pecs and fell to the sand. “Oh, that is it! Well, if you think this is going to stop me from swimming, think again!”
She didn’t care – she wasnotmissing out on the perfect sunshine on this perfect beach. And she’d just flown here on agriffin’s back. If there was anyone around here to see, she doubted they’d care about a bit of skinny dipping afterthat.
“Hey, hey, wait, what are you doing?” Rhys asked in alarm, his hands covering hers suddenly as she fiddled with the ties on her dress.
“I’m going swimming,obviously,” Maisie told him curtly. “I don’t care if I have to do it naked.”
And I don’t care how frumpy I look compared with you, Mr. Every Month of the Year in the Hunks of the Century calendar, either!
“Maisie, Maisie, just… wait a moment,” Rhys said, as he gently pulled her hands away from the knot at the back of her neck that was holding the bodice of her dress up. “Can we talk for a second?”
For a moment, the thoughtIs he really that horrified at the thought of seeing me naked?flitted through Maisie’s mind, before she decided to ignore it. She knew she was hardly the bombshell type, but she’d seen the way Rhys’s eyes had widened when she’d walked out of the shop wearing this dress.
And there wassomethingbetween them, even if they hadn’t talked about it yet.
A spark. A feeling. Asomething.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, frustration welling up inside her. “Is there a problem? Are you too prudish for a bit of skinny dipping?”
“No! No, it’s not that,” Rhys said, a slightly wild look in his eyes. “It’s just that… Maisie… I don’t really know how to put this, except to say I think we should talk before you go tearing your clothes off. Not that I don’twantyou to tear your clothes off. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite… ah geeze, I’m really making a complete fucking hash of this, aren’t I?”
Maisie stared at him, revolving his last few words in her mind.So… he does want me to get naked. But what is it he’s making a complete hash of, exactly?
“Look, Maisie – there’s something I have to tell you. I’ve been wanting to tell you since the first time I met you… well, the first time I met you that I was with it enough to know Iwasmeeting you.”
“Back in Sydney? In the rain?” Maisie asked, puzzled. “We really hadn’t talked then, and you acted like you’d never seen me before.”
“I know,” Rhys said. “But believe me… I knew you. My mind didn’t remember it, but my soul did.” He grimaced. “That’s such a corny line, but it’s true.”
Maisie shook her head.What the hell is he talking about?“Rhys, I’m a girl who likes corny lines as much as the next one, but my issue is you’re not being very clear about what you’re even being cornyabout. If you want to ask me out on a date – and really, I was kind of wondering if we aren’t alreadyonone – you can just say that. I’m not that complicated, I promise.”
Not complicated at all, when it comes down to it,she thought.You’ve got a nice smile, amazing abs, you give off that ‘I’m a tough guy but I’m kind of sweet and shy inside’ vibe, and you turn into a griffin. Take me home, I’m sold!
“Look, Maisie, you already know about the griffin thing. But there’s something else about me that youdon’tknow,” Rhys said.
“If this is about how you actuallydoturn into a half-man, half-goat, then –”
“You arereallyobsessed with that, aren’t you?” Rhys shook his head, throwing his hands up in frustration. “No, it has nothing to do with goats, half-goats or otherwise. I’m trying to tell you that you’re my mate!”
Staring at him, Maisie felt her mouth pop open involuntarily, before, deliberately, she closed it again.
Mate?!
She wasn’t sure what exactly that meant, but she felt she could take a pretty good guess.
“Your… your mate,” she repeated back to him after a moment. “You mean… like…”
“I mean the person I’m meant to be with,” Rhys said, reaching out and grabbing her hand, desperation in his eyes. “Allshifters have one, but we don’t always find them. We can have a happy life and a relationship with someone who’snotour mate. But every shifter dreams of finding them – the one person they have a fated bond with, that we recognize from the moment we first touch them.”
Maisie could feel her mouth hanging open again.
