“You,” I pant between the words as my brain tries to catch up. “Scared me!”
“I didn’t mean to startle you, I thought you would have heard me come in. You know, shifter senses and all.”
I’m still gasping for breath and trying to slow my racing pulse. I push a hand against my chest, the hard drum of my heart beating against my palm.
“You good?” he asks, and I look up to see him standing in the water next to me, startling meagain,and I hiccup in response.
He pats me gently on the back to help clear my lungs, and the zing of his large hand and warm skin against mine causes a certain, unwelcome tingle to shoot through me.
“Oh Mother Moon, please.” I look to the sky, drawing out the last word in desperation, but it does no good. Before I even finish speaking, my ears have shifted. Lowering my chin back down, I reach up with both hands to feel them, trying to figure out what sort of animal has graced me this time, but I wrinkle my nose in confusion when I feel narrow, pointed ears with thick fur sticking out of the top of my head. Kind of like one of those cat-ear headbands I saw a cosplayer sporting on their way to the Con earlier.
Asher angles his head, eyes flickering over my hair and ears, and whatever I was feeling earlier instantly turns to mortification.
This, of course, only seems to encourage my inner shifter. Next thing I know, I’m covered in sopping wet grey fur, and I feel exactly how I imagine I look—like a soaking wet rat.
When I look back at Asher though, his lips are tilted, curving up into a small smile.
“I look like a drowned rat, don’t I?” I say, my voice clearly conveying how miserable I am about it.
“Nah,” he says, but at my skeptical look, he turns course. “Okay, maybe a little.”
Then he has the audacity to chuckle. I fume, feeling my skin heat with anger instead of embarrassment.
How dare he laugh at me? Make light of my situation, humiliate me.
“Stars and teeth! You are the worst!” I feel ready to combust, and I hardly notice when my fingernails sharpen into what might be cat claws.
Covering his mouth with one hand, Asher appears flabbergasted when he repeats, “Stars and… teeth?”
“It’s a phrase! People say it.” My emotions are going haywire. Is this the moon? I’ve always been a ‘big feeler’, as my mom says, but my emotions aren’t normally this chaotic. I can’t tell if I’m annoyed or angry or amused by his reactions to me. The water sluicing down his sculpted chest certainly isn’t helping.
“Riiiight.” He draws the word out, nodding seriously to make it clear he doesn’t believe me, before cracking up again.
“Why are you laughing?”
He tries to reign in his chuckling, but he can’t erase the mirth from his eyes.
“You’re just so cute, I can’t help it," he says, gliding closer.
“I’m.. what?” There’s no way he thinks this soggy mouse look with… whatever ears are on my head, iscute.
“I mean, the red fox ears, and that little scowl you keep trying on. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
“Cute," I deadpan.
He seems to realize that I think he’s making fun of me, so he wades even closer, following as I back into the wall, then pauses right before our bodies meet. With his hand barely under the surface, centimeters from the fur covering my arm, he meets my gaze again with that intense stare.
“Yes, sunshine,” he says, his voice more quiet and serious than it was before.
I stare at him, unable to decode what I see in his eyes, or untangle the confusing knot of emotions swirling insidemyself. My body makes the decision for me as I move slightly, just enough for his fingertips to graze my upper arm. As he traces his fingers down to my wrist, it’s like he erases the fur from my skin. It recedes in the wake of his touch, the cat claws disappearing too, and I shudder as I watch it happen.
My eyes travel up his roped forearm, taking in the strength in his form, his broad chest with a dusting of dark hair, the lines of his throat bobbing as my gaze moves over it, and my ears twitch on top of my head. My eyes latch onto his lips, then I flash my gaze up to his, only to see a burning heat reflected back at me.
I gasp, eyes flaring, but have nowhere to go. My back is already pushed up against the edge of the pool, and my hands fly to his chest. Whether to push him away or to feel more of his skin against mine, I can’t say. Maybe a little of both.
Asher’s eyes cut to my neck, where my pulse is pounding through me, and I clench my thighs beneath the water. He notices the movement, and his lips part. His tongue licks over the fangs that have extended in his mouth, and it’s my turn to gulp a hard swallow.
He takes a shuddering breath as he jerks away from me, dragging a hand through his hair again before dunking his entire body under the water. I’m still frozen against the wall when he emerges a few feet further away and straightens in the waist deep water, facing slightly away from me. It runs down his shoulders and back in tantalizing rivulets and I cross my arms over my chest to hide my reaction to him.
