SEVEN
Luke
Jack: Hey could you bring your 6m ladder up to the motel when you have a minute? I think there’s something stuck in the downpipe and I can’t get up there.
I sigh and stuff my phone into the bag with my clothes, then towel off so I can shift faster. There’s no shortage of beautiful beaches around Kraken Cove. So I can have the whole tiny beach to myself if I get up early enough, which is lucky because shifting means I have to get naked or ruin my clothes. Most people around here do not appreciate that.
It’s only when I get back to my truck I realise I’ve left my ladder at Mia’s place. I was up there taking down the old fly screens on the bathroom window, when the message about the failed tile delivery came through. With one thing and another, I never folded it up and put it back in the truck.
I glance at the time on my phone, 3:45. It wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to drop by and pick it up. I might not even have to bother Mia. In fact, she might have made the trip back to Sydney by now.
That shouldn’t make me feel empty. Like the beach at low tide when the waves seem to be sucked completely away, leaving only sand and bubbles. She’s not mine. She can’t be mine. No matter how much I wish things were different.
I don’t call. No need to make contact if she’s already left. I’ve got the key after all. They expect me to access the property. So I slip on my jeans and get into my truck.
When I park my truck in the driveway, though, it’s clear she hasn’t left yet. Her little white Audi is still there, parked in the same spot as yesterday. I frown at the right rear tyre that looks a little worn to me, then tell myself to mind my own damn business. Still, I might just mention it if I see her before she heads back to Sydney. I know Jim up at the local garage would fit her in real quick if I called and asked him.
Shaking my head at my stupidity, I hop out of the truck and flip down the tailgate, ready for the ladder to slide in. Then I stride to the front door and brace myself. I knock, waiting for the sound of footsteps or the turn of the handle.
Nothing.
I knock again and there’s still nothing. Frowning, I lean in to squint through the glass panel beside the door, but I can’t make out any movement inside. I let myself in through the back gate and walk around to the yard, spotting my ladder straight away right where I left it. Maybe she’s gone out for a walk or something. If I’m quick, she won’t even know I’m here.
I feel pretty stupid about forgetting my ladder really. You’d think running the business would have taught me to take better care of my equipment, seeing as I’m paying for all of it. Apparently not.
I’m about to fold it up when the sound of water running through pipes snags my attention. This must be why Mia didn’t answer the door. She’s having a shower.
Of course, my mind immediately fixes on the image of her naked and wet beneath a stream of hot water, hands raised to lather her hair with shampoo, exposing her gorgeous body. Shampoo trickles over her flawless skin and between breasts I’d love to cover with my palms and suckers.
I don’t have clear memories of the night we were together. I’ll admit I’d been drinking a little. All the Kraken Cove kids used to hang out and drink down on Bailey’s Beach on summer nights while we were on school holidays. I remember thinking it was just like an angel from heaven fell right in my lap, standing down there on the beach, looking up at her in her red dress. I don’t know how I worked up the courage to talk to her that day at the jetty. Just knew I had to shoot my shot.
I still can’t believe I got so lucky.
I know I’ll never get that chance again.
And I wasted it. Fumbled around in the dark on the sand and ran off so she wouldn’t see me, before I got a proper look at her. God, what I wouldn’t give for a look now.
Fuck !
I’m getting hard at the thought. My feet carry me halfway up the ladder before I realise what the hell I’m doing and stop myself.
I can’t.
I will not creep up the ladder and peep at her like a bloody pervert.
But, God, I want to. I want to so badly it takes me another second to process the next thing that happens.
A low moan drifts through the window. Then a louder, higher-pitched noise.
Is she hurt? Has she fallen? What if she’s slipped in the shower and she’s been calling out for someone to come help her? Of course, there’s no one there. She’s all alone. Her friends and family are hundreds of kilometres away.
I hesitate another agonising moment before another moan decides me. I have a key. I could let myself in. But if I’m wrong, if she’s not in trouble, that will freak her the fuck out.
No. I’ll just climb to the top of my ladder and check first. Before I barge in like an intruder. I’ll just make sure.
The last few rungs take my head above the window ledge.
As soon as I’m there, I realise what a fucking idiot I am. She’s not hurt. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Mia Sinclair.
In fact, at the moment, there’s every goddamn thing right about what I see through the window. There she is, naked and beautiful, just like I pictured her. Her dark nipples peaked and taut. Streams of water run over her shoulders and down her body to where she has her leg propped up on the edge of the bath. Her hand flutters over her pussy, rubbing at her clit.
I’ve just about died and gone to heaven .
Holy fuck.
What I wouldn’t give to be allowed to touch her that way. Or to be allowed to watch until she makes herself cum instead of sneaking around outside her house. To be allowed to hold her while her body convulses and spasms with pleasure. While she moans and clutches at my hand and whispers my name.
Jesus, I’m so fucking hard I’m aching. I threw on my jeans when I got back to my truck and my cock presses angrily against the fly. I lean just a little further, hoping to see a little more, get a little closer.
Then Mia’s eyes open and she stares straight at me. Straight at me peering at her over her window ledge while she showers.
Shit!
I try to straighten, but leaning over unbalances the ladder. My sudden movement tips it completely and I clutch at the sill. It’s not enough to straighten the ladder. It slips out from under my feet and I’m left dangling.
That’s what I get for making dumb choices. For being the guy who creeped on Mia as she touched herself in the shower. I know one thing, though. Even if I fall and break my leg, it’ll be worth it. That vision will live on in my memory until my dying day.
“Luke!” Mia’s small wet hands clutch my arms.
The moisture on my skin takes effect instantly. My jeans rip as my body transforms, eight tentacles replacing my two human-like legs. I use my suckers to drag myself over the ledge and collapse into the bathroom as Mia takes a step back.
“Oh my god, Luke! Are you OK?”
I’ve somehow won the lottery. Mia Sinclair is standing in front of me, wet and naked and enticing, asking me if I’m OK! My mouth opens, but absolutely nothing comes out for way too long. God, I’m just making this worse, ogling her like a weirdo. I should look away. Only I can’t. If this is the only opportunity I have to take in every graceful line and the exact colour of her perfect skin, I’d be even stupider than I look to waste it.
Then her eyes widen and she gasps. “Oh my god, Luke. Look at you!”
I glance down at myself and belatedly realize I’ve fully transformed. I’m standing in front of her with a tiny scrap of my ruined jeans around my waist to cover my very excited erection, tentacles glowing, skin green and fins for ears. “Ah, there’s something I didn’t tell you about me...”
When she doesn’t scream or try to run, I take it as a good sign. What she does do is stare as avidly at me as I was staring at her a moment ago. I mean I can hardly blame her, given the way I must look to her.
Finally, she looks down at herself and back up at me with an adorable little lopsided grin that turns into a giggle. “Um...” She fumbles with her hands, clearly undecided about whether to cover her chest or her pussy.
The words spill from me before I can stop them. “Y-you’re beautiful.”
She freezes, hands hovering over her breasts. “I am?”
I nod, mouth dry and heart pounding in my chest. I fumble on. “I mean, you were always beautiful. Even when we were kids, but fuck, Mia. Now? Now you might be the prettiest bloody thing I ever saw.”
I should be apologising for spying on her. For creeping up a ladder and watching her at the most inappropriate of times. I should be explaining why I never told her I’m a monster. Instead, all I can do is blurt out stupid compliments.
Mia flings herself at me, cutting me off. Her arms wind around my neck and her wet body is plastered to mine. Her hot, demanding mouth covers mine and she kisses me so passionately there’s nothing I can do for a long moment but surrender to it.
It’s like that night ten years ago and, once again, I’m completely hers. Only this time, I’m in my true form and there’s no way to hide my body’s reaction to her.
Her lips move against mine, her breath is sweet and her tongue darts into my mouth to play with mine. I groan. Her slim curves press up against me in just the right way to make me mad, and I’m ashamed to say my tentacles snake up her legs and to the slope of her waist and over her ass to haul her even closer, reaching for those sweet secret places.
“You remembered me! You remembered that night,” she says, when I finally let her come up for air.
Did she think I forgot? Not a fucking chance. “’Course I remembered. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw you again.” Then I remember her fiance. “Fuck. I’m sorry.” I step back and take my hands off her, holding them out to my sides. My tentacles refuse to budge, though.
Mia frowns up at me. “What for? Oh, God, do you have a girlfriend?”
“No!” I take a breath and regulate my tone. “No. Nothing like that. But you... you’re engaged.”
Her lower lip trembles. “No. Not anymore.”
Fuck me sideways all the way to the deepest depths and back. She’s not engaged !
Mia’s perfect face crumples and her eyes fill with tears. I feel just as shitty as the piece of scum I am for spying on her, then internally cheering when she told me about her breakup.
She collapses into my chest and I push down my feelings to concentrate on her. I stroke her hair for a minute while she cries.
When I realise she’s shivering, I gently disentangle myself from her arms and find a towel. The air is chilly and the window is still wide open, letting out all the steam from her shower. I switch off the water and shut the window, wrapping the towel around her before fetching another one for her dripping hair.
“I’m sorry.” She sniffs. “I didn’t mean to jump on you or cry on you. I’m a mess.”
“It’s me who should be sorry.” I tell her. “For so many reasons. I shouldn’t have been watching you for a start.”
She slaps my chest gently. “Do you spy on all your clients this way?”
I laugh. “You’re a lot more agile than the last client I spied on. Mrs Miles is eighty-three and when she caught me she nearly did her hip again leaping out of the shower to scold me.” There’s a pause. “In my defense, I thought you’d fallen over or something.”
Mia giggles. “Ah yeah. Something like that. You um... you didn’t see anything, though did you?” She flushes.
She’s clearly asking me if I saw exactly what she was doing in the shower. While the memory of it will be replayed over and over in my head until the day I day, I’ll take that to my grave based on the way her blush tells me it makes her feel. “Just a little bit of nipple, I promise. I was climbing up fully prepared to find you with a broken leg or something.”
Her colour deepens. “Well, thank you, for coming to my rescue.”
“I think I should be thanking you for coming to mine.” There’s a pause. I should leave. I don’t want to, though. “Do you wanna talk about what happened? With your fiance? About...this?” I gesture down at myself, quietly amazed at how well she’s taken the whole monster thing.
She sniffs again and nods. “Yeah. Maybe. That actually sounds good. I should probably get dressed, though.”
“Why don’t I make us a cuppa?”
“Thanks. I... I’d like that.” She gives me another watery smile and then heads for the master bedroom. I find a towel and dry myself again so I can shift. I tear off the bottom of my ruined jeans to make the shortest pair of shorts a guy in Kraken Cove has ever sported. Then I force myself to turn and walk down the stairs to the kitchen where I put the kettle on and try not to mentally retrace the contours of her body while I wait for the water to boil.
When Mia comes downstairs, she’s got on little pyjama shorts and my jumper over the top. I have to turn back to the counter for a moment and will my cock to behave.
I pour the tea and hand her a mug. “No sugar, right?”
She smiles. “That’s me. You’re sweet for remembering.”
I don’t tell her I’d like to memorise every damn thing about her. The way she takes her tea, the flare of her hips, the face she makes when she cums.
Fuck. Don’t do that now . She’s hurting. The last thing she needs is me drooling over her .
“’Course,” I mumble. “Come sit down.”
When we’re sitting on opposite sofas, each holding a steaming mug of tea in front of us, I figure she’s as safe as she’s going to get from me. “What happened?” I ask her gently.
She stares down into her tea for a moment. I can tell she’s fighting for control. Her lips press together in a firm line and her expression is tight. When she speaks, though, her voice is resolute and I have to admire her strength. “He’s cheating on me.”
I stare. “No! Are you sure?”
The look she shoots me is so incredulous, I realise what an asshole I sound like.
“Sorry. Sorry. It’s just that he must be crazy. If you were mine—” I shake my head and try again. “He must be crazy to cheat on a girl like you.”
Her fiery look subsides into something much softer. “Really?”
I nod. “Seriously. Crazy.” I make a loopy gesture with my finger at the side of my head that earns me a giggle.
“Thanks. You don’t know how much better that makes me feel. I started to think—well nevermind.” Mia tells me the story of how her friend found Oliver with another woman. I listen incredulously. Couldn’t he see how lucky he was?
“That sucks.”
She shrugs, taking a sip of tea. “Yeah, but I guess I’m glad I found out now. Better that than after the wedding right?”
I nod.
“I have no idea how long it’s been going on for. I haven’t spoken to him yet. I can’t bear to.”
“Do you have to go back to Sydney tonight? ”
She shakes her head. “I’ve taken the week off. I’m going to stay here in Kraken Cove for a little longer. Just until I figure out what I’m going to do. That is, if I won’t be in the way? Oh, you probably need to know what I’m going to do about the house and the renovation and everything.”
“Don’t worry about that now. Though, I should probably finish the bathroom since you’ve paid for the tiles and it’s not watertight the way it is.”
She nods. “Of course. I promise I won’t bother you while you work. You won’t even know I’m here.”
I can’t help it. Setting aside my mug I get up and go over to her. When I sit down beside her, she doesn’t shift away, even though she’s sitting in the middle of the sofa and our thighs are practically touching. “Mia, I don’t think you could be anywhere within a one hundred kilometre radius and I wouldn’t know about it—” I break off, scrubbing my face with my hand. I’m being too honest. “You won’t be in the way. The only thing you need to worry about right now is doing whatever you need to do to feel better.”
She glances at me and I swear her gaze drops to my lips like she wants to kiss me again. It takes everything I have not to put my arm around her and pull her into my lap.
If I thought I was tempted before when she was engaged to that asshole, I was wrong. Now she’s technically a free woman, I’m in the deepest depths just stopping myself from getting on my knees in front of her and showing her how much better I’d treat her. I’d never make the same mistake Oliver made.
Not a chance.
If she was mine, I’d make sure she knew what a bloody treasure she is.