“You have to work here, part time at least,” he said simply.
Was that all? Take a job here? Whatever. Who cared, so long as he spilled the damn beans! I could use this newly acquired position to spend more time getting to know Aster.
“She’s out that way yonder, past all of that, in her marsh.” Lifting a thick, gnarled finger, he pointed at some spot far off past the nursery, too far for me to see past the unending rows of flowers, trees, bags of manure and seed and whatever else.
“Thank you!” I called over my shoulder, already headed in that direction.
“Don’t mess it up, boy,” he shouted after me, like he was channeling my daddy.
“Going to do my damnedest not to!” I promised. I was too relieved to finally have answers to feel henpecked by a bunch of Garden Gnomes.
Aster. Aster. Aster.My heart pounded as if it was saying her name. It drummed in my ears, faster as I reached the end of the enormous farm of a nursery. My shoes stunk like the freshly fertilized pumpkin patch, my poor lungs ached, and my thighs were burning—I hadn't run like this in years—but I didn’t care.
The second my sneakers filled with marsh muck, a smile spread across my face.
“I’m coming, Aster,” I whispered to her blossom, as I’d taken to talking to the flowering plant of late. I probably sounded crazy. I really didn’t care.
Chapter 10
Aster
Iwas most comfortable in a partial shift. This left me mostly Human looking, if green, my skin exposed, but I loved traipsing through my Marsh and the wild foliage brushing my sensitive human skin as I passed.
Even when I felt the most lost there was a sense of peace for me here. Stuck in my full shift for days on end had frustrated me to no end. I had excellent control and always had, until him. It was maddening.
I was so thoroughly distracted I didn’t take note of him until he was right upon me. I was losing it, and I knew it.
Pretending as if I was too busy to notice him, now that I had, which was total bullshit and we both knew it, I kept my back to him. A soft song only Marsh ears and plants could hear left me with every exaltation. The plants I was tending shivered with breezy little sighs.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted, shuffling closer to the edge of the pond I stood on the opposite side of. He was covered in muck, sludge clear up his pant legs. “For everything,” he added when I continued on as if he’d never spoken. Kneeling, setting the potted love blossom down he had once gaped at like it was an abomination, like my love for him was something ugly and wrong, he settled it and plopped to his butt. Toeing off his shoes, he licked his lips.
Without pausing in my work, I simply studied him from the corner of my eye. Even his feet were attractive, long, wide, tapered, hairy but not so hairy I’d be calling him Bigfoot. The stumps where my toes would be if I was Human curled into the ground as if to hide what had seemed to be a beautiful gift to me, for him, but now filled me with shame.
“It’s dying,” he mumbled morosely, like the idea of it dying out completely pained him. “I was hoping- I thought-” Stuffing his soggy looking socks into his soaked shoes, he stood. I was suddenly nervous as he slipped into the pond, waist deep in muck, jeans and all, and began wading over to me.
My leaves began to quiver at his approach. Throat working, I swallowed thickly. Surrounded by plants and fresh air, in my own marsh, and I was suddenly finding it hard to breathe.
Focus, Aster. Focus. It’s-
I nearly roared when a heavy hand dropped lightly onto my shoulder, I was so startled, my thoughts and fears had dragged me down that deep. Whirling around, I grabbed Greniv up by his t-shirt, fisting my thick hands in the material, and jerked him clean off the ground. Snarling directly into his face, his glasses fogged up as spittle flew. The Man of the Marsh looked anything but frightened, intimidated, or cowed in any way. If anything, he actually looked kind of… Leaning in, I gave his face a long, loud sniff. Letting him drop to watch him stumble to his ass, he was sporting a rather telling tent, if his scent hadn’t already given him away. My sex clenched at his nearness, at the scent of him. I hated just how much my body yearned for him.
He thought I was a monster, a monster he’d never want to be bound to. Well, he may say all he liked, but the scent pouring off of him told differently. Soon tiny buds were sprouting up all over me, blossoming to perfume the air with my arousal.
Greniv made a low groaning noise. I wished I could snicker, standing over him, glaring down at him with an unreadable look on my face. I wanted to jump him so badly my skin itched. My gaze kept going to that prominent bulge in his pants.
Just one taste… I was practically drooling at the thought.
Dropping down with a jarring thud, I watched him as my hand raised and reached out. Hands loose at his sides as his labored breathing grew so loud, short, huffing pants, he nearly wheezed, his chest stilled altogether as my fingers jerked the front button of his pants open and yanked the zipper down. His pants were nearly painted on him, plastered to him from being waterlogged.
I didn’t need them all the way off, I thought as I grabbed the open, parted halves of his jeans and tore them down the crotch, I just needed access to what I wanted. A briefs man, I nearly took him with the waistband of his comic themed underwear as I slid a thick finger under the edge and tried to tug them down.
“Wait!” he said quickly, then added, “I really like these ones,” when I started to snarl. He tried to waddle to a stand to peel his jeans and underwear down his unnaturally pale, hairy legs, but I was petty enough to grab the band of his underwear and rip them anyway. Ignoring what I’d just done as his boner waved like a flag in front of my face, jerking with all the attention that sucker was currently getting, he looked like he wanted to cover himself up but boldly refused to. “I should probably warn you,” he started to mumble awkwardly, his cheeks flushing a mortified pink and green, but whatever it was, I simply didn’t care in that moment.
Gripping his thighs tight enough I might be hurting him, I dipped my head, parted my lips, and swallowed his length whole.
“Ohholymotherof,” he garbled out as his knees began to knock. His hands slapped to the top of my head as I pulled back, my tongue rasping across his veiny cock to take him deep once more. “AH- There is a- Go-ah-d!” he shouted, his hands burying in my vines for hair as his ass cheeks clenched and his hips bucked. He was salty like this, his Human skin foreign on my shifted tongue. “Aster!” he implored, his voice a hoarse, choked cry, trying to loosen my grip on him with the next drag of my tongue as I pulled back, sucking him all the while. I could feel them, the tiny sprouts bumping along my tongue. He was starting to shift. Ah…Thatlittle problem. It wasn’t uncommon. Strong feelings and emotions were known to cause a spontaneous shift if you weren’t one with iron control.
Pulling back, letting him go with a wet plop, I slid my hands down his thighs, shooting his legs out from under him to send him crashing down bare assed into the mud and the muck.
