Chapter Twenty
Echo
We didn’t need words as we sat by the cold stream after playing with each other. It was just nice to be us.
I knew I’d be cold if I shifted, but I didn’t care. Strong feelings were running through my veins, and I needed to do something so badly that I felt like I would combust.
My body started to transform, and in seconds I was a naked woman sitting on a rock next to a man that had accepted all the sides of me he’d seen so far and hadn’t run away.
His eyes were on the babbling waters as they flowed, even though I could sense he was very aware of what was sitting next to him.
I scooted closer and raised my hands to his shaved jawline. His features were so sharp and precise, as if he was carved from stone.
His eyes met mine as I gently turned his face to mine.
Without another thought, I leaned in and married my lips to his.
It was slow at first, the need to feel each other connected warming up my soul.
Then the desire hit, that strange tingling that flowed from his body to mine, that feeling of pleasure than ran down my skin, making goose bumps rise.
When our mouths opened, and tongues met, a spark went straight to my heart, jumpstarting me into a frenzy of need.
His hands touched my skin all over, feeling every curve, every rise and fall of my labored breath.
I wanted him everywhere—over me, around me, inside me.
The need to touch—to connect—was driving me wild in a way I’d never known was possible.
His lips moved from my lips to my jaw and to my neck, his hands bringing me closer to his body. In a matter of seconds, I was straddling his lap, his strangled groan only fueling me more as my bare sex met with his jean-clad hard-on.
I felt like an animal in heat, and I couldn’t find the will to stop it. I didn’t even know if I wanted to stop it.
We were consenting adults and working on a relationship. Sex was a good idea, right? I was ready, wasn’t I?
As if he’d been reading my thoughts, Asher started to slow our frenzied movements.
When he pulled back to look into my eyes, I saw the answer to my questions. I wasn’t yet. There were still more layers to my self-preservation that we needed to remove before sex.
But the look on his face made one of those layers melt.
He would wait. He would be patient with me until I trusted him enough to give myself to him.
“I’m not a blushing virgin, you know.”
I did feel the need to throw that out there. I had sex once when I was a rebellious teenager, and it sucked. I was angry about my situation and thought that if I’d screw someone then I’d feel better. Turned out I felt worse, especially after I realized the boy I chose just wanted to add me to his list of chicks on the reservation he’d banged.
I did get a teeny bit of revenge, though. When he was at football practice, I turned into a big bear and made him pee his pants in front of everyone. I was satisfied after that.
Asher grinned. The warmth from that smile settled over me like a warm blanket, fresh out of the dryer.
“So you’re saying I have to protect my virtue around you?” He wagged his eyebrows, and I laughed.
“What are you doing to me?” I asked, and he thought for a moment before hitting me with an answer that tattooed itself on my heart.
“I’m making you fall in love with me, one smile at a time.”
I didn’t even do it subconsciously this time.
I purred.
The chill in the air finally soaked into my skin, and I told him it was time to start heading back. I needed to eat again and sleep, plus putting clothes back on would be nice. He agreed, and once he stood and took a step away from me, I turned back into a bear. We walked back to the tree where I’d left my clothes, so I could change back and get dressed.
Dusk was falling above the city, and everything seemed calm. The protesters were gone, but the nightlife people weren’t out yet. The calm before the storm, in my world, where things like to go bump in the night.
Asher walked me to my car, and I knew he would have lingered with me longer, but his bar needed his attention, since there were actual people inside it tonight.
His goodbye kiss was sweet but full of promises of continuing what we’d started earlier.
The cherry on top of my lovely afternoon was my favorite parking spot being open.
“Fuck you, Kevin,” I said as I pulled in to park.
Once I was in my apartment, I grabbed one of the packets of beef jerky I had for snacks and ate quickly before jumping in the shower.
I was just settling into bed when my phone beeped.
Groaning, I rolled over and looked at the message that said I was needed at the Hero headquarters, and to bring the car.
Running on not a lot of sleep was something I was used to, so despite my longing for a full night’s rest, I got up and dressed myself in my usual wardrobe.
Lilith was standing in front of the restaurant waiting for me when I pulled up.
“Perfect timing. Let’s go! Follow that blue sedan!” Lilith was bundled up in torn skinny jeans, a thick sweater, and biker boots.
“Is the sedan a threat?” I started asking questions to get a sense of what the hell I was here for as I pulled off to follow the mystery sedan.
“Yes. A threat to the Hero Society. You’re a detective, so I knew you’d be perfect for this job, and I thought it would be a good bonding experience for us.” She smiled broadly while keeping her eye on the car ahead of us.
Bonding. It was something I knew I needed to do, if I was really attempting to make changes to my life.
“Okay, give me all the details about what’s happening here.”
“AJ is on a date! Mina has been taking over some of his work, so he’s had a bit of free time lately, and he met a girl! I told him he wasn’t allowed to date, and here he is, betraying me.” She scoffed dramatically, like it was the ultimate betrayal in her book. When we stopped at a red light I turned to look at her like she was a bag of crazy.
“We’re staking out AJ’s date?”
“Hell yeah, we are! Becoming besties usually is sealed over doing something mischievous together.”