She opted for the chicken, and Ashko took the beef. After a moment, she blurted out, “Do you fear the change that the balance ceremony will bring about?”
He cocked his head and tented his fingers. “I have been what I am for a very long time. I am ready to embrace change, especially if it comes wrapped in a package that looks like you.”
She twisted her lips. “Well, for me, things can only move up the food chain, so to speak.”
“Do you have any idea why your beast is what it is?”
Berry blinked. “Yeah, we have a pretty good idea.”
“We?”
“My family. Didn’t my brother tell you?”
“No. He said it was your business.”
“Ah. It sort of is. I was a preemie. I was born two months early and was an early shifter. Normally, the first shift doesn’t occur until you are up and walking, but I suppose I wanted to move, so the moment they put me on the floor to crawl, I shifted and flopped toward my toys. My beast never aged, so we are guessing she was damaged when I came out early.”
He frowned. “That was what caused your mother the medical issue.”
“It was. There was a vehicular accident, and she went into premature labour. They pulled me out, but her body couldn’t hold another child. Too much scarring.”
It wasn’t really the right topic for a romantic dinner, but he was genuinely curious, and it wasn’t a huge secret. All of her friends and family knew, and she thought of him as a friend already.
Fuck. He had gotten past her defenses. Sneaky bugger.
The rest of the dinner was spent asking him questions, but he had normal answers for everything. He lived in a small castle, had kobolds for servants and enjoyed fly fishing as a hobby. He liked to read sci-fi adventures and wanted to live long enough to see humans living in the stars.
When they left the restaurant, he knelt so that she could step up and onto his back, settling and holding on as he got to his feet as evenly as he could. He walked them slowly to the Isthmus in the moonlight. She had to admit that it was romantic. All she needed was someone playing flute in the background and the evening would be complete.
As they walked along the shoreline, the whistling of the wind in the reeds was close enough. It was a perfect first date.
Now, what was she supposed to do when the kiss arrived?
Chapter Six
At the doorway to the tower, Ashko knelt again and she slid to the ground. When her feet touched the ground, his arms came to steady her.
“Fast shift.” She smiled nervously.
“I am moving magic, not bone. It is like flicking a switch.” He asked quietly, “May I walk you to your door?”
She wiggled her toes on the stone before answering. Her beast wanted to do more than say goodbye at the door. It wanted to cuddle with him all night long. The problem was that her beast wasn’t alone. Berry wanted him in bed with her to see what it felt like to have a man there when she woke.
She cleared her throat. “Yes; yes, you may.”
He took her hand, and they walked into the tower. A short walk up the steps to her room and she turned to him with a small smile. “This is me.”
Ashko smiled wryly. “I suppose it was too much to hope that you were at the top of the tower.”
She shrugged. “Sorry. I wanted to be closer to the water.”
He grinned. “It has been a wonderful evening. Goodnight.”
He came in for a kiss, and her mind blanked. Her beast took over and nuzzled against him, pressing her nose and lips against his neck.
Embarrassed, she mumbled, “Sorry. Beast wants to cuddle.”
He laughed and wrapped his arms around her. “It is fine. Would you like to go inside?”
She muttered against his neck while her beast nuzzled him. “That might be for the best. She overreacts to contact.”
Berry opened the door with her left hand, and Ashko wrapped an arm around her, carrying her into her room before heading for the couch.
“The bed please. She doesn’t have knees, so things get really weird.”
“Far be it for me to argue.” He carried her to the bed and reclined against the headboard with her snuggled against him.
As she squirmed on top of him, her beast came out and butted her head against his. He grunted and wrapped his arms around her tightly, rubbing her back and massaging her fluffy fur.
He took his time with her, and she wiggled against him happily.
“You are larger than I first thought.”
She snuffled at his jaw and looked him in the eye. His smile was soft, and he stroked her between her eyes carefully.
She helped him examine her fins, patting his hand with her locked but flexible limbs. She wiggled her whiskers when he stroked them with his palm, and she butted her head against his shoulder when she wanted a hug.
Inside her beast, Berry was mortified. Ashko was taking it in good humour, but the innocent mind of her beast was seeking comfort and companionship. It wanted to make friends with him, and Berry’s human mind knew he wanted more.
He treated her beast with kindness and stroked it until it grew dozy.
Berry expanded into her human form, and she sighed in relief. “Thanks for that. She was insistent.”
He rubbed his jaw and stroked her naked back with his other hand. “Yeah, I could feel that.”
“Would you happen to know where my dress went?”
“I removed it when you shifted so that your beast wasn’t tangled.”
She drummed her fingers against his chest. “And you didn’t put it back on me because...”
He smiled. “Because I was hoping you wouldn’t need it.”
She levered herself up until she was looking in his eyes. “Not tonight. I will cuddle with you, touch you, but no sex on the first date.”
He blinked. “If you include meeting last night, this is our third date.”
“What?”
“The bar, this morning and this evening.” Ashko chuckled.
She thought about it. “You know you may be right. If I count it off like that, this is the end of our third date.”
“Is that more acceptable for additional cuddling?”
Berry looked at his absurdly handsome features, and she leaned in for a kiss. He met her halfway, and the sparks crackled between them.
She changed position to straddle him and pinned him against the headboard as she used her lips and tongue to taste him. He moaned as the energy made the contact between them nearly painful. The power promised that additional contact would bring either agony or orgasm. Berry was willing to roll the dice.
He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his skin to hers. His clothing vanished in an instant. She smiled against his lips then bit at his chin with a careful pressure of teeth.
Ashko let out a soft growl and turned her, pinning her to the bed and kissing her savagely before he nuzzled her cheek and bit his way down her neck.
She enjoyed the feel of his teeth on her. He was careful and precise. Her blood warmed, and her pulse quickened as her body took up an increasingly quick throb.
He lapped at her breasts, dragging his tongue over her skin as he tasted her. She threaded her fingers through his hair and moved his head to the tip of her left breast. He took the hint and sucked the nub into his mouth, pulling with a hard enthusiasm that would leave bruises.
She hissed and let out a mewling sound when he switched to the other side. Berry could feel the wet heat slicking the tops of her thighs as she shifted restlessly, and when she couldn’t wait any longer, she pushed at him and rolled him to his back.
His cock was dark and hard, pulsing when she gripped it. Berry slid it against her and took the head inside her.
He looked surprised, but he shifted his grip on her to her waist and balanced her as she lowered herself onto him.
Berry shuddered while she braced her hands on the muscled plane of his belly. When she had taken as much of him as she could, she rose up on her knees again b
efore sliding over him again.
It seemed that she was riding him once again.
He held onto her hips, keeping her balanced but nothing else. She could see the sweat gleaming on his skin as she rose and fell, her inner muscles clutching and squeezing at him with every beat of her body.
Berry could feel the escalation of urgency and moved harder, faster, slamming her body onto his, and he groaned, sliding his hand between them to press her clit on the down stroke.
In less than a dozen strokes, she froze, shaking around him and digging her nails into his chest. Energy crackled around them and burned lines in the sheets.
Ashko held her hips and shifted her until she was under him. He thrust after she had an aftershock, and then, he waited. He thrust again, and soon, her body was engaged in lazy pulses that he responded to. She was trapped on the slow decline of euphoria, unable to come back to the real world while he stroked into her with focus and control.
Berry had thought that he would chase his own release, but he was slowly and carefully building her arousal again. Sweat covered both of them and increased the slide of their skin. He watched her, lowering his body to hers and moving forward so she was looking up at him, but his torso was stroking hers. The pressure on her clit spiked her arousal again, and she rapidly approached a second orgasm while Ashko rode her for a change.
She braced her feet flat on the bed for a moment before lifting them toward her chest.
He growled and thrust to the hilt, grinding his pelvis against hers.
She gasped as a second set of shattering tremors ran through her, and he groaned, pressing into her in short jerks. Energy sparked and lightning flashed in the room around them before he dropped his weight onto her.
She lay still and caught her breath. The scent of sex mixed with the odour of ozone and burned sheets.
He raised his head after a few minutes. “Third dates are delightful.”
She laughed then groaned when he moved inside her. “I have rarely gotten this far. The head butting tends to dissuade guys from continuing.”
He stroked her cheek before stroking her hair from her face. “I found it endearing.”
She smirked. “Yes, but you are perverse or you wouldn’t be mating outside your species.”
“I was willing to deal with whatever the seers found for me. They have been busy now that the shifters are in their search pool. Their entire focus is to find mates for the fey that will match them in temperament and power. The future of the fey is in their hands.”
He shifted and pulled out of her, though his cock indicated it was rested and ready for a second round.
“You were not kidding about fey being as randy as shifters. Wow.”
He grinned. “You inspire me.”
She laughed and turned her back to him, snuggling up against his chest. “Ditto.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and a light blanket settled on them and kept her comfortable as the sweat dried on their skin.
She settled against him, her heartbeat thudding slowly and gradually syncing with his. He softly kissed her shoulder, and she smiled. Yup. It was definitely a good night.
Predawn, she was wide awake. Her beast wanted to go swimming, but Berry didn’t want to leave the warm embrace she was in.
Ashko slid his hand down her belly and whispered, “Care to go for a swim?”
She sighed. “How did you know?”
“You tensed the moment she started to ask to go and play.” His morning voice was deep, dark and exceptionally sexy.
She muttered. “She doesn’t do this when I am at home.”
“Do you have an inland sea a few steps away?”
Berry wrinkled her nose. “No.”
“Then, you are sleeping above a playground, and she knows it.”
Berry wiggled back against him. “This is very comfy. I don’t want to leave.”
“There will be many other mornings. We will both change after balancing, so this might be the last morning swim with this kind of innocence and enthusiasm.”
“Wow. That is kinda dark.”
He chuckled. “It is reality.”
He pulled his hand to her hip and eased away from her; cold air rushed across her back when he left.
She wrinkled her nose again and scooted to the edge of the bed, standing and stretching in one move.
She heard a groan from Ashko’s side of the bed. “That is torture.”
She glanced over, and he was staring at her, the sheet loosely draped across his hips. “Tough. If I am going to shift, I am going to stretch.”
His grin was unrepentant. “You do have the figure that my kind dreams of.”
She snorted. “It makes it really hard to find jeans that fit. These kinds of curves were not made for off-the-rack clothing. I tend to err on the side of shapeless unless I am dealing with mages. Then, I expose the cleavage for distraction purposes.”
He raised his brows. “You use your body for your own advantage?”
“No, I use their ability to be distracted by it for my own advantage. Shifters don’t really have an issue with nudity. Society is where we get our rocks off. Mages are foolish and abide by human norms, so I manipulate their existing preconceptions.”
“So, you are working with men.” He smirked and rolled out of bed, materializing a soft wrap around his hips.
She grinned and went looking for a t-shirt. She hauled a black shirt out of her bag and slipped it over her head.
It covered her to mid-thigh, and she smiled brightly. “Ready to sneak down the steps and go swimming?”
“You go ahead. I will meet you there.”
She waved and headed out the door and down the stairs. A morning kiss would have probably been in order, but it was still night out, and she was pretty sure her breath was deadly.
Things would be better after a nice swim and saltwater rinse.
Chapter Seven
She played tag with the fish and relaxed in the water, surfacing when she needed to and moving through the cold, dark water to seek out the silvery flashes of her playmates.
She felt Ashko approaching her and turned to meet him. He paused, his hooves moving slowly as he treaded water. She rubbed her head along his and swam circles around his neck.
She lay across his back, and he started galloping through the water. Berry’s beast was having fun, but to her conscious mind’s surprise, he brought them out of the water and ran across the surface toward the shore.
There was a light on the shoreline, and he ran toward it.
Berry shifted into human form and squeezed his barrel with her legs. He increased his pace, and they thundered onto the sand, stopping in front of a very grumpy mage wearing a fuzzy bathrobe and what appeared to be dragon slippers that lit up as she shifted in place.
Berry dismounted and smiled. “Good morning, Melwiss.”
Melwiss rubbed her hair, aggravating the bedhead and glared. “Morning implies daylight, Berry.”
A ball of light was bobbing near the mage and illuminating the small spot of beach.
Ashko came back toward them wearing a silken tunic, embroidered trousers and high boots. Over his arm was a bundle of fabric, and he asked, “May I help you put this on?”
Melwiss yawned and flapped her hand. “I am just sleeping here. Wake me when you are ready.”
Berry grinned and nodded. “Sure, Ashko. I can’t really see what I am doing, so go nuts.”
She stood in the dimness as he draped the fabric over her head.
Berry could feel the approach of the daylight. A thin pink line was creeping up on the horizon.
She stood still while Ashko fiddled with her clothing, and when he stepped back, she was dressed like an undersea princess.
Berry gave him a serious look. “Isn’t this a little much?”
He grinned. “I am practicing for the gown you will wear when we formalize this in the human world.”
“Wow, you are planning big.” She smirked.
He stroked h
er cheek. “This is forever, Berry. My life to yours, yours to mine. Your family will be there when we begin our public life together.”
She scowled. “How public? What do you do for a living?”
He chortled. “I am an inland waters ecologist. If the local governments want to tinker with a body of water, they call me in.”
She blinked. “Huh. That sounds almost respectable.”
He grinned. “I know. It is a far cry from the wild days, but I am finally stable and enjoy looking to the future with you coming home to me.”
Berry looked at Melwiss, but the mage was asleep on her feet.
“Seriously, you want me to keep working with the guild?”
“If it makes you happy, it will not matter to me. With a bit of training, you will be able to manage your own transporting so you can come home whenever you wish.”
She took his hand. “What if my beast changes?”
“What if it does? Mine will. We will find our balance after we have been balanced.” His smile was gentle.
“So, are you two ready?” Melwiss stretched and rubbed her eyes.
Berry smiled and did one more thing. She grabbed Ashko by the head and pulled him down for a kiss. Sparks flared between them and lit up the last shreds of night.
Ashko looked dazed when she released him.
She turned to Melwiss and smiled. “Now we are ready.”
The mage looked toward the sun slowly climbing over the horizon and smiled.
“Right. So, Beryl Maestro, give me your hand.”
Berry touched the mage’s fingers.
“Ashko, hand out, please.”
He touched the mage’s hand carefully.
“Now, hold each other’s hand and don’t let go. This is going to get freaky. Elements always do.”
Berry looked toward Ashko with surprise, and he did the same to her, but the next minute, the power was swirling through them; Berry understood what the mage was saying.
She heard the words, “Beryl, do you take all of him and bind to him?”
“I do.”
“Ashko, do you take all of her and bind to her?”
Sealed with a Kick Page 4
