Chapter 4 #2
Gillian shuffles her feet self-consciously, but she's glances from my eyes to my lips before ducking her head self-consciously and I catch a hint of a new purplish shade around her eyes.
She seems calmer, still nervous, but present enough to give me some signs she'd welcome a more brazen overture.
I reach over to tip up her chin, not quite bold enough to kiss her, but I want to see her pretty eyes.
As our gazes lock and she leans toward me, openly inviting more of my touch, a loud clank from poolside startles us apart.
"Here's that bucket, the medic is just parking, you two all set?" Marilee interrupts with a knowing look between us. "Elric got your brother on the phone, so it sounds like they're going to need a ride to the zoo to see Leighton's doctor once we're done here."
"Thanks, Marilee," I say as I tear myself away from Gillian.
Ugh. Who decided to make me responsible for kids? Still, I have the perfect idea to wrap this up and give myself another crack at talking to Gillian. "Duty calls. Now that the misunderstanding is cleared up, I guess we should both check on our respective charges so our siblings don't murder us."
"We should." Gillian agrees, eyes darting among the little octopuses swimming around her tentacles.
Is that a tinge of disappointment in her tone or am I projecting what I want to hear?
The slick skin of the half of her that's still in octopus form and her mercurial eyes are doing that color change thing again, but I can't read what the subtle shifts in her hue mean, if anything.
I don't have the luxury of talking more when the kids need me, but I'm not leaving our next encounter up to chance. There's something captivating about Gillian. My raven agrees, she's a gem both halves of my nature want to keep now that we've found her.
"So, I'm going to have Leighton make an apology card for Marina; how can we make sure that gets to her?" I ask.
"Oh, uh, do you want my sister's number?" Gillian gives me an uncertain look, and I'm fairly sure this shade of burnt umber really does convey disappointment now.
Ugh. The coy request for her number doesn't sit right as soon as I voiced it, considering we just agreed on a policy of being forthright.
And my social skills are rusty, but even I can infer that if octopus shifters can't control the way their colors reveal their reactions, it's probably hard for them to interact with other shifter species and static humans who hide their true intentions more often than not.
"No, I want your number, Gillian." I wink at her as I launch myself into a social free fall, hoping that she won't let me land flat on my beak.
It takes all my courage to fake the ill-advised confidence of a fledgling testing their first flight feathers.
If I want this to go anywhere, I need to be brave.
"You do?" Gillian's face lights up and I find the confidence to keep talking. It's not like flying at all, this is more like diving off the blocks at the start of a swim. I can handle the inevitable splash and find my stride.
"Yep. To be crystal clear, that was my oh-so-subtle way of asking for your number while leaving you a polite out where we can both save face.
Because I want to get to know you. But if you aren't comfortable with that, my brother and his mate are still going to insist on checking in on Marina after today's kerfuffle with their cub.
So if I don't catch you before I have to get my gaggle of hatchlings home, I'm going to leave my number with Marilee at the front counter for you.
You can do the same. If I get your sister's phone I'll stick to discussing any concerns about what happened between the kids. "
"And when I pick up?" Gillian arches a challenging brow at me.
Her eyes contain galaxies and it's all but impossible to tear my gaze from hers.
Lavender and teal tones seem to reflect joy.
The hand she formed to shake mine earlier has reverted back to her aquatic form and I reach out toward the delicate tip of her tentacle, pausing to glance from her face to her limb in silent query.
Gillian completes the touch, curling those suckers around my palm with the most delicious sensation of her suckers tasting me.
"When I take you on our first date, I'm going to take my time learning what every one of your delightful colors means and we are going to discover all the things that turn you into my personal tentacled kaleidoscope.
" I stroke my thumb along her suckers, moving into her space.
Gillian squirms, but she looks delighted at my boldness and one of her tentacles wraps around my waist to tug me so close we're almost chest to chest above the waterline.
I'd barely have to lean down to kiss her sweetly parted lips.
"The only problem I see with that is that they're technically my arms, not tentacles," Gillian corrects me with a mischievous grin.
"Mhm," I lean in close enough to whisper right into the shell of her ear, so the octopus shifter kids gamboling around us won't hear.
"And is that distinction going to matter when I have all eight of your delightful limbs writhing in ecstasy?
When you slip them inside of me and my pussy is so wet your octopus side mistakes it for a tidepool? "
"Oh." Gillian makes a soft little sound that bodes very well for how responsive she'll be if I ever do get her into bed.
Behind me, Myra calls my name from the poolside benches and I have to swallow down my frustration at having other obligations keeping me from continuing this now.
I take a deep breath and remind myself that I'm here for the kids right now, not myself.
I can focus on Gillian later. Still, it can't hurt to leave her aching for more as much as I am.
"Don't forget to leave me your number," I whisper into her ear. Then I step back, exercising every ounce of my willpower to keep from kissing her cheek. Gillian's tentacles are still coiled around me, but she doesn't resist when I step back again, then again, until I slip out of her reach.
"Call me tonight." Gillian's eyes glow, like trapped starlight as she rattles off her number and I do my best to memorize it instead of staring at her. Oh, this shade of soft teal definitely means something akin to longing. Interesting.
I can't wait to experience every color she turns when she comes.
Ugh, my body's reaction to that thought is inconvenient.
I need to nip the lusty fantasies in the bud for now.
I wasn't lying when I told her I'm an omega.
It's just that my shoulder isn't the only part of me that got wrecked when jagged rocks and harsh tides broke my fall seven years ago.
The damage from plunging off a cliff and onto jagged rocks at high tide messed up my insides too, and since my static human doctors didn't realize the unique implications for avian shifter biology, my hormones were a rollercoaster of weird until I saw a shifter specialist years after the fact.
By the time I had real answers, some of the changes to my body were irreversible even with the omega hormone replacement therapy I'm on now.
Which is all to say, getting turned on has my alpha-female sized clit hard enough to bulge uncomfortably against the concealing panel in the front of my swim suit.
That's hardly a level of detailed medical history I'm going to disclose when we're just flirting though.
At least I have really nice swim trunks for just this sort of awkward moment.
I take Gillian's tentacle and bring it to my lips to kiss the back of it with all the gallantry of a knight in a fantasy movie.
Then I turn to collect the kids and talk to the medic so we can get the heck out of here before the overwhelm of what just happened hits like a truck and I blow the confident image I just somehow pulled off to get a potential date.
"I will, and Marina will be fine. They'll both be fine.
Leighton owes your little one an apology when everyone is feeling more calm, but for now spend some time seeing that for yourself.
" I gesture to where all four little octopuses are swimming after eachother, seeming delighted to have the entire pool to themselves.
We both chuckle at that. "Talk to you later, Gillian," I say, and then I brace myself to face my brother's wrath.