The Shifter's Kiss Read online

  “You’re a woman now, but you weren’t before,” he said, gently rubbing his hand up and down her side as she did the same with the damp cloth, cooling his heated flesh.

  She could have denied it, passed it off to the effects of his wound, but something about him made it impossible for her to deceive him.

  “Not before,” she confessed but then urged him to rest.

  With a nod, he closed his eyes while she continued caring for him. As the hours passed, she was pleased as the tremors in his body gradually abated and his skin cooled. Soon after, the slight sheen of sweat on his body confirmed that the fever had broken.

  Tired from all that had happened and loathe to leave him, she tucked herself against his side to rest, but her inner spirit swam within her, alert and restless as was the way of the shark.

  It was that spirit that detected the change in his body—the awareness of her and the arousal that rose up in him. The smell of it, so richly masculine, awakened her desire.

  As he stirred and went to move away, she rose and lay a hand on his chest to keep him near.

  “Why do you wish to go?”

  She sat up slightly and her breasts brushed against him. The action tightened them immediately and, for a moment, his gaze dipped down, his look as powerful as a caress, before jerking back up to her face.

  “I don’t want to take advantage of your kindness.” His voice was stronger, all traces of weakness gone. The flush on his skin now was from passion and not fever. Her one concern was that he might reopen the wound with anything too strenuous, but she relished the idea of his touch against her.

  “I think I’m the one who owes you thanks for saving me.”

  With a shake of his head, he said, “Do you really want me to believe—”

  “My name is Nali. You know what that means in Kuna,” she said and for a moment he furrowed his brow, searching for the word. Recognition slammed into him.

  “Shark. Nali means shark.”

  “When you are better, I will show you. It’s the least I can do as thanks.” After she finished, she trailed her hand up and across his shoulder and smoothed her palm over the rough scars there.

  “How did this happen?”

  “A fire. I went in to rescue a child, but part of the building collapsed on me.” He said it nonchalantly as if it had been just a routine thing.

  “You saved the child?” she asked, trailing her hand down his arm to his uninjured forearm. The hair there was soft beneath her palm.

  “My team got her out.”

  “You like being a hero,” she said and shifted her hand down the final few inches to cradle his hand in hers.

  Victor didn’t know what to make of her. She seemed almost innocent in some ways. Possibly crazy, he thought, although he couldn’t deny his dreams and the vague recollections of what had happened in those moments after he’d been speared.

  But there was one thing of which he was certain.

  “You can keep the whole hero gig. I prefer being alive.”

  A knowing smile blossomed on her lips, and those almost-black eyes gleamed with an intriguing mix of amusement and passion. Taking his hand in hers, she guided it upward along her lean, curvy flank and to the swell of her breast.

  “Then why are you afraid to live right now? To share yourself with me?” To prove her point, she pressed his hand to her breast and, beneath his palm, her nipple puckered into an even tighter nub. She shifted her thigh across his to cover the erection he had been fighting. The softness of her and the damp heat at her core made him groan with need.

  “Let me love you, Victor. I will be careful,” she said, smoothing her thigh across his erection before dancing her hand down his midsection to take his cock in her hand.

  “Yes,” exploded from his lips as she encircled him with her hand and stroked, her movements sure and determined.

  She smiled then and bent her head to sample the shape of his lips with her mouth. Her touch was questioning and uncertain, unlike the sure caresses of her hand. Over and over again she drifted her mouth across his lips, avoiding a true kiss.

  When he dug his fingers into the short, dark strands of her hair to urge her in for a deeper taste, she pulled away to instead drop a kiss on the underside of his jaw. Then she worked her way downward to his nipple where, with a little nibble, she flitted to her next stop: his navel.

  He moaned and shifted his hips upward against her hand as he realized her intent.

  She slipped her long, powerful body between his legs and guided his cock to her mouth. With a quick swipe of her tongue, she nearly had him coming, but he held back, needing her. Wanting to be buried inside her as he came. It had been so long since he’d allowed himself the pleasure of a woman’s body.

  But Nali had other plans for him.

  She took him into her mouth, her tongue dancing all along his head and length. Her smooth hands worked his cock and balls until he had to close his eyes against the sight of her, the sensations were so intense.

  “Nali, ride me,” he pleaded and bent to urge her upward but groaned at the pain in his side from the movement.

  “Soon, Victor. Soon,” she promised and sucked him deep into her throat while caressing his balls. The pleasure of her mouth was so intense, he had to dig his hands into the mattress to keep control. He wanted to haul her down onto the bed and plow into her, bring her the kind of pleasure she was offering him.

  “Nali,” he said roughly, and against his cock came the coolness of the night air as she finally relented and moved up his body. She straddled his hips and held herself there, poised over his erection, the dark copper tips of her breasts tight. An almost sad smile appeared on her face before she reached down and guided him to her center.

  The heat and wet of her bathed the sensitive head of his cock for only a second before she plunged down and took him into her body.

  Nali gasped at the fullness of him. She held herself still against the sensation of being one with a man again. How long had it been, she wondered? So long that she was tight and the feeling had been slightly painful at first, but now pleasure slowly suffused her from the feel of him stretching her, filling her with the heat of his body.

  Yet she still felt empty in some ways. Alone. She had spent so much of her life alone, she thought.

  The gentle swipe of his thumb wiped away the tear as it ran down her cheek.

  “Have I hurt you, Nali?” he asked and raised his other hand to rest along her shoulder, the touch filled with comfort.

  She shook her head vehemently. “No, Victor.”

  He dropped his thumb to brush it across her lips, the touch as potent as any kiss. A kiss she had avoided before because it would be like giving her heart to him, a heart that would break as soon as she had to leave him to return to her true home.

  “I will not hurt you. Ever,” he reassured.

  “I know,” she said and meant it. He was a hero. His body and actions in the ocean had provided proof of that.

  “Tell me what you want. Anything.”

  She met his gaze and his face shimmered in her sight from the tears she battled. The one thing she wanted she could not have, but she would settle for this—for his body and his passion—until it was time to return home.

  “Touch me, Victor. Love me.”

  His full lips, those lips she wanted to taste so badly, thinned into a tight slash of control. His eyes turned the color of the sea during a storm and were as turbulent. He sensed her pain and her need.<
br />
  But there was only one thing he could provide her.

  He moved his hands down to her breasts and tenderly cupped her, exploring the weight of them, strumming his thumbs across the taut tips and dragging a pleased sigh from her.

  “You are beautiful, Nali. So strong,” he said as he dipped his hand down for only a moment to rub the back of it against her muscled midsection and then back to her breasts.

  He deepened his caress there, tweaking her nipples. Inside, her muscles jerked and stroked him.

  Sucking in a breath, he said, “That feels good. Does it feel the same for you?”

  “Yes-s-s,” she replied on a long sigh, before she added, “But I want...I want your mouth on me.”

  He smiled then, the first real one she’d seen from him. In the ocean, only his eyes had smiled thanks to the mouthpiece, but now there was nothing to hold it back. To hide it.

  It transformed his face, filling it with joy. Bringing out the deep dimples that made the years fall away from his features. She realized then that he was younger than she’d first thought. The weight of his pain, both past and present, had made him seem older.

  “Lean forward so I can have my taste.”

  She shuddered in anticipation and did as he asked, aware that his mobility was limited. But as she neared, he propped one elbow on the bed and rose up partway to drift a kiss against her nipple before licking and sucking it.

  Moaning, she threaded her fingers into the thick strands of his dark hair and held him close, loving the feel of him against her breasts. Each tug and pull of his mouth brought more heat and dampness to her core, made her vagina jump and clench against him until just having him inside her wasn’t enough.

  She had to move, had to release the animal inside her restlessly searching for satisfaction.

  She shifted her hips, riding him as he continued pleasuring her, as he offered words of encouragement, urging her to find her own. He stroked his hand along her hip and buttock to guide her until passion stole their breath and she had to see him. Had to watch his face as pleasure swamped them and pulled them deep.

  He met her gaze, his eyes serious now. All traces of the boy gone as the man sought release, sought her pleasure with a forceful roll of his hips that buried him so deep it broke free the passion within her.

  She came hard and fast, her breath exploding from her body. Trembling roughly above him, she jerked her hips along him one final time and he followed her down, calling out her name.

  “Nali.”

  By small degrees she lowered her body until her breath fanned his face. He shifted up again, intent on kissing her, but she turned her head at the last minute and his mouth brushed her cheek.

  With a wiggle, she made to move off him, but he eased his hand to the small of her back to keep her near.

  “Don’t leave me. Not yet.”

  She braced one hand against the mattress and glanced down at him, her eyes narrowed. Doubt was alive in the dark grey of her eyes.

  “Why?” she asked with that trace of innocence—or maybe it was better to call it awkwardness, as if she was unused to the ways of men and women. Maybe she was. If he believed what she had told him, maybe she was not used to human ways.

  He cradled her face and smiled, swiping his thumb across the stain of color on her cheek. “Has it been that long that you don’t understand?”

  A mischievous grin erupted on her full lips. “The wham bam thank you, ma’am?”

  He chuckled and ruffled the spiky strands of her hair. “I don’t want to feel used. I don’t want you to feel used. So will you stay?”

  Nali hesitated for a heartbeat, then nodded and rested her head on his chest while her lean length nestled on his, their bodies still joined. His arm wrapped around her loosely, as if he sensed that the wildness within her could not rest if captive.

  Even as her human body accepted the comfort of his arms and allowed calm to wash over her, the shark spirit within her stayed alert, remaining active long after she had closed her eyes and surrendered to the fatigue brought on by assuming a mortal form and the events of the day and night.

  * * *

  It was that spirit that experienced the stirring of dawn as the first rays of the sun peeked above the horizon and pulled her from the first real sleep she’d had in months.

  With that awakening came hunger gnawing in her belly, especially as the smell of food cooking from her father’s home wafted in through the open windows of her shack.

  She eased from Victor’s side but sat on the edge of the bed, examining him. Skin tanned to a golden hue by the Caribbean sun showed no signs of fever and his breathing was deep and regular. As a soft snore escaped him, she smiled.

  It was good to know he wasn’t perfect, although most of him was. Including that magnificent cock, she thought as she lifted the sheets for another look at the length of him as it rested along his thigh. Her insides twisted again with need at the thought of the pleasure they had shared the night before, brief as it had been.

  She had wanted for too long, and he had been too fragile to make it last.

  Hopefully some rest and food could improve both of them.

  With another hungry growl from deep in her belly, she rose and slipped on her dress. She was about to go in search of her father when he entered, bearing a tray with plates. The mouthwatering smells of fried empanadas and ripe fruits teased her nostrils.

  She brought a finger to her lips to ask for his silence, then gestured in the direction of the steps to the shack.

  He smiled in recognition of what she wanted. How many times had the two of them sat on those steps, sharing some moments or a meal? Enjoying a quiet night or sun-filled day?

  It had been too long, but in the past year fishermen had grown too aggressive in their pursuit of her as game. It had driven her out to deeper ocean and kept her from visiting. Only the anxiety of her cousin sharks at Victor’s presence had urged her to come in to see what had them so riled. Yesterday’s attack only proved her foolishness in venturing close to shore, but now that she had, she was going to take advantage of it in any way she could for as long as she could.

  So she sat on the step beside her father, the tray with the breakfast he had made balanced across their legs. They were silent as they ate and enjoyed the quick rise of the sun into a crisp blue sky. The morning air was cooler and slightly damp, bringing a nip to her bare arms.

  She rubbed them before snatching up another empanada.

  Her father laughed as she made short work of the meat-filled pastry. “I guess you were hungry.”

  With a nonchalant shrug, she said, “You get tired of eating fish all the time.”

  Her father shot a look back at where Victor slept in the large handmade bed. “From the looks of it, food wasn’t the only human thing you craved.”

  They had never kept anything from each other before and she wasn’t about to start now. “He is a handsome man. Strong. Caring.” She knew that even though they had barely spent any time together.

  “From what I can see he is a good man.”

  She arched a dark brow. “Playing matchmaker? You know how impossible that is.”

  Her father chuckled and shook his head. “If it were impossible, you would not be here today, daughter.”

  She couldn’t deny the truth, so she wouldn’t. But there was one thing about which she had to warn her father. “He knows what I am. He remembers how I changed.”

  “And if he re
peats it they will think he’s crazy.”

  Neither of them mentioned what would have happened ages ago, when their numbers were still large enough to protect. Now their people were too scattered and few to carry out a death sentence for such knowledge.

  Especially when no one would believe him.

  The rustle of sheets and a soft moan alerted them that Victor was awake.

  “Take the rest to him. Feed him. Make him well,” her father said as he rose and handed her the tray.

  Although he hadn’t said it, she knew what else he was thinking. Make him yours. Make him stay. Make lots of babies.

  She would do none of those things in the week she had before she had to return to the sea. But she would satisfy those human needs gnawing at her gut much as the hunger for food had that morning.

  Turning, she walked into the shack with the last of the empanadas and fruit.

  Chapter 6

  Sunlight pierced the handwoven fabric of her dress, silhouetting the lean, womanly shape of her as she stood at the door.

  Even with the slight pain in his side, the sight stirred him.

  She walked toward him, lush hips swaying from side-to-side, reminding him of how she had ridden him last night and brought him such pleasure.

  A sexy smile pulled at the corners of her full lips and her dark eyes glittered with awareness of his attraction to her. Her gaze dipped down to the light sheet covering him, which failed miserably to hide his growing arousal.

  “I see you’re feeling better.” She sat on the edge of the bed and placed the tray across his lap to offer him some privacy.

  “I am.” A rumble from low in his stomach followed his statement.

  “Hungry, too, I see,” she said with a chuckle.

  “In more ways than one,” he mumbled as she grabbed a piece of mango and brought it to his lips.