Ladling soup into bowls, my sister watches me. “It’s going to be even colder tonight.”
We eat soup, dunking our toast in it, and despite the broccoli cheddar flavor, everything still tastes a tiny bit like chocolate. My sister breaks the news that this year, the Mayor is trying to rent the downtown space for his own Easter parade, which is actually his reelection parade disguised as something for the town. I’ll have to go to City Hall and speak on her behalf to urge the town to let us have the space, so that the Eggstravaganza tradition doesn’t die. It’s a big job, but I can handle it.
I hope.
After a very long shower filled with high-end bath products, a face mask that has left my face feeling silky, and a hair masque that makes me feel like a goddess, I slip into my flannel pajamas and robe, and climb into the oversized bed in my guest room.
Snatching my Kindle from the charger, I load up a new mafia romance I’ve been waiting to read, and swipe to the first page. I’m engrossed in the heroine’s first scene—a kidnapping scene—when I’m taken out of the story from a thumping outside.
I try to continue reading, but the thumping continues, growing impossibly louder. Throwing the covers back, I creep to the window and peek out the curtains into the darkness.
No surprise at all, Jack Hopper’s oversized pet bunny stands in the garden, his foot to his ear, scratching repeatedly. I watchthe bunny for a minute, chewing the inside of my mouth as I debate what to do. Chelsey says I have to keep advocating for this poor bunny, but I don’t know that my first visit to Carrot Creek should be policing everyone.
Quickly, I grab my phone and scroll to the Climate app, and check the nighttime low temperature here in town. It won’t be freezing, but it will only be a few degrees above it. I glance up at Jack’s cottage, all of the lights off, the curtains drawn, not a single sign of life inside. I glance at my phone screen again, this time checking the time. Ten after eight.
Handymen must be early risers, and therefore, Jack must already be asleep. Now that I think of it, last night when I trudged over, Jack was getting ready for bed, having just taken a shower. Tonight he could already be in bed.
Still. It’s going to be so cold.
Thump, thump, thump. The big bunny continues scratching his ear, when out of nowhere, completely unprovoked, he stops, and twists to face me. Long, furry ears hang around his face, his pink nose sniffling as his dark, nearly human eyes lock on mine. We stare at one another for a moment, and maybe the chocolate fumes have gotten to me, or maybe it’s all the romance novels, but in this moment, I feel called to rescue him.
Holding my robe closed, my hair damp around my face, I stomp (quietly) through the house, out into the yard, and cross into Jack’s garden, coming nose-to-nose with the big bunny.
He blinks at me, and stretches up, standing on his hind legs, towering at least three feet above me. “Wow,” I breathe, my heart racing, intimidated by his size. No part of me feels scared, though, so I reach out and smooth my fingers down his chest, the fur silken. “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?” I reach around to feel his paw, finding it damp and cold. “And youarecold, aren’t you, buddy? I knew it.” I glance over at Jack’s cottage, a solid fifteen feet away. Taking a few steps toward it, I pat my thigh, urging thebunny to follow. “C’mon, let’s go get your owner. Let’s get you inside. It’s too cold out here, even for a big boy like you.”
The big bunny doesn’t budge. He sinks back to his haunches, becoming my height again. I step back toward him, stroking my fingers through the hair on his ear, making his nose twitch in delight. “Oh, you like that, don’t you? What a good boy. C’mon, let’s get you inside, buddy,” I coax, stepping away from him again, this time quietly snapping my fingers as I near Jack’s cottage.
Still, the bunny won’t budge.
A breeze rolls past just then, chilling me to my bones, making my teeth chatter and my nipples hard.It’s too cold for this, I think. Reaching out, I loop my arms around his center and lift, but he doesn’t budge. “Come on, big boy,hop, make this easier,” I urge, but he doesn’t budge. “We need to take you to Jack,” I tell him, grunting as I manage to get him off the ground, his soft fur smothering my face, going up my nose and in my mouth. At first I cough, wobbling, blindly walking toward the cottage door with the heavy, oversized animal nearly crushing me. But then I inhale, and his fur smells so good, like cologne and aftershave, and men’s shampoo. My belly tightens as I trudge toward the cottage door, big bunny nearly slipping out of my arms. Quickly, I reach for his tail and give it a pat, urging him into my arms so he doesn’t fall, but the subtle movement changes everything.
The big bunny twists in my arms, thrashing, and believing he’ll run off before I can bring him inside, I hold him tighter, trying desperately to calm him.
“Shh, hold still, I just want to take you in,” I explain, but my words fall short when the animals’ paws, pressed against my shoulders as he tries to buck away, slowly go bald. Patches of thick, soft white hair tumble to the ground as if invisibly being shaved, and I glance at the lush grass at my feet, but the hair isn’tthere. It’s seemingly just… gone. His paws thicken, lengthening until…
“Oh my God,” I breathe, releasing my grip on the animal as his paws transform to human hands. It all happens so fast, I don’t have any time to run or scream, I just stand there, completely transfixed as a naked male body emerges from the fur, the entire coat disappearing before my eyes. With a wrinkle of his nose, his face transforms from animal to human, and not just any human.
Hunky human.
Hunkyhandymanhuman.
“Jack?” I breathe, surveying the man standing before me, no longer a bunny, yet the same gold chain rests around his thick neck.
Wait.
Big bunny was a bunny, and had no clothes. If big bunny is Jack… My gaze drops to the Southern hemisphere and I discover the thickest, veiniest, longest, hardest, shiniest, most glorious cock I’veeverlaid eyes on.
I’ve heard about these kinds of dicks in books. Hypnodicks are what me and Chelsey call them. The type of appendage so grand that it commands rooms, steals hearts, and absolutelyshredspanties.
He outstretches his arms, fingers splayed in protective reassurance. “Don’t freak out, Esther, okay?”
I can’t quite understand, and yet there’s nothing to understand. I just watched the huge bunny shift into a man. “Jack…?” I whisper, blinking madly at his naked body, glistening in sweat.
“Don’t freak out,” he advises as I take a tiny step backward, away from him. “You’re so pretty, I couldn’t fight shifting,” he says, “I can explain everything, just… come inside,” he says softly, eyes wide, fear lingering in his features.
Jack is a man-bunny. A shifter, real, in the flesh.
My head grows fuzzy, my vision doubles, and just as I’m about to go under from the insanity of this moment, I can’t help but think…
