CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Shadow
After dinner, I ask Kayla to put on the summer dress she wore to the handfasting.
She comes back downstairs with its flirty hem floating around the top of her thighs, and I suppress a groan.
Goddess, that dress is a work of art, showing off her long legs and deliciously plump thighs.
It doesn’t even matter that I’ve already seen her naked.
The constant tease that the skirt might fly up and show something holds me riveted.
“You look divine.” I pull her into my arms and twirl us onto the shadow roads, enjoying her soft laugh as I dance our steps along the path I desire. In only a few seconds, we emerge into the real world in front of the waterfall that gives the town its name.
The slanted, late-evening sun of a prolonged summer day strikes the falls in a glitter of diamonds. The sweet, piercing notes of birdsong rise above the constant splash of the water. A gentle breeze carries the smell of pine and water and the fainter trace of rabbit.
Yet none of it is as lovely as the sweet lavender scent of my wife.
Kayla’s head swivels. “Are we meeting people here?”
“Most decidedly not.” I crouch to remove my boots. “This date is for us, remember?” It’s a hint of what’s to come once we’re released from Victoria’s marriage contract, a promise that we can enjoy all the things we’ve been doing, but we’ll do them purely for ourselves.
Including, I hope, binding ourselves together forever.
After watching several videos of humans proposing to their chosen mate, I’ve crafted my own proposal.
I also picked up the rings from Bling It On.
I’m ready, more than ready, to ask my witchy beauty to be mine.
This weekend can’t come soon enough. I groan internally, imagining knotting her and finally making her mine.
But for now, we’ll play our delicious game of hands and mouth. Goddess, I love Kayla’s mouth.
She balances with a hand on my shoulder as I lift her foot and slip it free of its shoe. My thumb brushes the inside of her ankle, and her audible inhale makes me smirk.
Standing, I yank my shirt off and drop it onto a clump of ferns, along with my phone. Then I pull her into the shallow end of the pond until we’re wading ankle-deep.
“So what are we doing here?” she asks, her voice a little breathless.
I lean close to purr in her ear. “Someone promised me skinny dipping.”
“I did not promise you that!” She bats my arm with the back of her hand.
I snag it out of the air and bring it to my mouth, teasing her knuckles with lips and fangs. “You mentioned it, which is as good as a promise when talking to a cat.”
“As if you need an excuse to get naked.” My witchy beauty tries to sound stern, but the twitch of her lips gives her away.
When I pull her further into the water, she glances down. “Your pants! They’re getting wet.”
“Since you insist.” My hands frame my noticeable bulge for a second before I pop the button and slide the zipper down. I strip the pants off and toss them onto the bank.
“You’re naked again,” Kayla whispers, her gaze focused on my erection, which swells under her attention.
“If you keep looking at me like that,” I growl, dragging my thumb across her lower lip, “there will be zero swimming involved.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” she teases.
“It is if we’re going to make this a proper date.” I studied several videos. Humans like to be wooed, like to see the other person make an effort to enjoy their company for more than sex.
Kayla deserves such wooing.
“Swim with me.” I step backward past the drop-off, and the water goes over my head, surrounding me in liquid coolness that cuts through the lingering heat of the day. It takes several kicks to break through the surface and constant work to tread water—shifters are muscle-dense compared to humans.
It’s worth it, though. My witchy beauty floats in front of me, stripped of her dress, her lacey undergarments soaked to enticing translucence. Wet-darkened hair clings to the sides of her face, and she pushes it back, making her lush breasts bob in the most fascinating way.
Then she strokes forward, headed for the waterfall, and I follow until we skirt the rim of the splashing falls. Kayla plays a game with the water, swimming forward and back, and I mimic her, the edges of the pounding water dancing over our skin.
Then we play a little game of cat and mouse, taking turns diving at each other. I might have shifter strength and speed, but Kayla is such a natural in the water we end up fairly evenly matched. Delight fills me as she turns into a slippery, giggly mermaid, who moves through the water with ease.
After a while, she swims over to the cliff face beside the waterfall and clings to a rock to rest.
I hang from the one beside her.
“I haven’t done this in ages!” Her eyes gleam. “I forgot how fun it is!”
“That’s all I ever want, for you to enjoy yourself.” Naomi’s words come back to me. I need to explain who I am to Kayla, need to show her more of the real me. The constant patter and splash of the water isolate us in our own little world, helping me to get the words out.
“My people purposefully hide much of our true selves, wanting to show no vulnerability. I do so perhaps more than most.” My lips twist in a wry smile.
“Before the doors of Farie opened and everything changed, I was used to being the best. Then suddenly, there were so many things I didn’t know: how to wear clothes, how to cook food, how to build a shelter.
Learning to be a man made me feel like a kit, stumbling through my first steps. ”
“I had no idea! You’re always so self-assured.”
“I didn’t let you know. But now I want you to see my truth.” I brush back a wet lock of hair clinging to her cheek. “Games are a large part of what it is to be cat sith. We search for the joy in life. From the time we’re little, we make everything play: learning to hunt, learning to fight.”
Her expression grows thoughtful.
“My people think of so many aspects of our lives in terms of games. It doesn’t trivialize what these things mean to us. Games and play are intrinsic to our nature. We may learn to hunt via play, but we still need to be good hunters, or our bellies will go empty.”
“What are you trying to tell me?” Her beautiful brown eyes search mine.
“When I say I play the courtship game with you, my witchy beauty, I don’t mean it’s a casual endeavor.
” I cup her cheek and move closer until our legs touch, her skin shockingly warm compared to the water.
“A cat sith chooses to play the courtship game only once in their lives, when they find the person they wish to make their mate.”
“Shadow,” she whispers, her lips trembling, her eyes large and liquid. “I had no idea.”
“How could you? I recently studied how the men of this society speak of women and games and being players. It’s the opposite of my intent.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Her intelligent eyes go thoughtful. “You’re right. I didn’t understand how you were talking about games in terms of romance and courtship. I’ve only ever heard men say it in negative ways, but I really love the way you see games and play.”
“I feel a kindred spirit in you.” I grin. “You also have a love of games.”
“Games are really important to me. Like you, they’re more than simply something fun,” she says slowly, turning her words over.
“When I was younger, I don’t know how I would have survived without games.
They were one of the only sources of joy in my life, and once I joined a few online guilds in high school, I finally found other people like me. I didn’t feel so alone, so different.”
I grin. “It seems we both recognize their importance.”
“We do.”
“So it’s in all seriousness that I say this.” I drop my voice to a deep purr. “Play with me, Kayla.”
Amusement flickers through her eyes, and she lunges for me, her hands landing on my shoulders and pushing me down into the water. Then she kicks off the rock face, darting across the pond and daring me to follow.
My pulse pounds, my entire body tightening as primal instinct wells in my chest with the need to chase, to claim. I take off after her.
My strong, competent Kayla races ahead of me all the way to the other side of the waterfall. She dives for the cliff face, ready to flip and kick off from it.
I catch her mid-movement, wrapping around her from behind, crushing her to me, the soft warmth of her body a heady delight compared to the cool water as we sink under.
Kicking upward, I bring us back to the surface, pressing her up against the rock.
“You ran from me, my wife. You begged me to chase.” I nip at the crook of her neck, letting her feel my fangs.
She gasps, arching back into me. “And now you’ve caught me. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to give you exactly what you deserve.” I spin her around and lift her onto a ledge. Nudging her legs wide, I run a finger up and down the edge where her soaked underwear meets her inner thigh. “Do you like these little panties?”
“Yes.”
“Too bad.” I grip the drenched lace and tear it from her body, exposing her glistening folds, coated in a wetness that has nothing to do with water.
The heady scent of her arousal perfumes the air, making my cock leap.
“Dirty girls don’t get to wear underwear.
Dirty girls go naked so that their pretty little pussies can be eaten.
” I brush my thumb lightly over her clit in a tease that makes her hips jerk. “Are you my dirty girl?”
“I am,” she gasps.
Smirking, I lean forward and turn her sweet gasps into screams of delight.