by Dani Stowe
“Listen,” she says. The spark in her tone makes her sound annoyed. “If I had to learn to read your hands to understand what the hell you’re saying, you’re going to have to learn to read that book.”
I sigh. Shelley did not pick up on sign language as quickly as I did, so it was frustrating for her. I believe she had a hard time learning to sign because she was so easily distracted by a person’s fate, which she picks up on whenever she sees a person’s palms.
But she did put in the work with me. We made it through the full eight-week sign language course at the university, which Athena referred to us. Shelley’s become an expert at reading hands and just as she has the gift of reading palms, like her aunt, she has acquired the gift of reading me, too.
I open the book back up over my lap to appease her and sign to her. How long will you be gone?
Shelley turns and tilts her head up to look at Lovers Peak. I know she’s nervous. Her aunt’s final wishes were to have her ashes spread over the bay from the top of the lookout. This task is the reason we met and it’s unfortunate she must still make the trip alone.
Of course, I’d go with her if I could, but the bullet wedged in my lower spine prevents me from walking. Doc, who grew up in this town and graduated from the nearby university, has a very open mind about everything that’s happened. He says he doesn’t want to remove the bullet for fear I could lose complete function of the lower half of my body.
Shelley grabs the handle to my wheelchair and leans down to kiss me. “Two hours max,” she says to me and turns to her friend, Kumiko, who’s stretched out like a starfish, covered in oily darkening lotion atop a picnic blanket. Kumiko won’t climb the mountain because she despises Aunt Cora, but I genuinely wish I met the old woman.
“I’ll be back in two hours,” Shelley says to her friend. “You’ll keep an eye on him for me, won’t you?”
Kumiko seems perturbed as she tries to stuff the side of her breast back into her red bathing suit, which is hardly a suit and looks more like a harlot’s undergarments.
“Where’s he going to go?” Kumiko questions with sarcasm. “He can’t go anywhere.”
Both Shelley and I chuckle at the notion and I grab Shelley’s palm and kiss it. I love you, I mouth to her.
Shelley reaches down to the coin around her neck, pulls it up to her lips, and kisses it. I love you too, she mouths back to me, and I watch Shelley adjust her backpack and start to make her way up the trail.
AN HOUR PASSES AND I’m finishing up my third children’s book when Kumiko decides I might be worthy of conversation.
“Can I ask you something?” she questions.
I turn to see she put her dark glasses atop her head and is studying me with her beady eyes, which makes me nervous, but I nod in acknowledgment.
“How do you guys do it?”
It. I know what she’s asking. Sex is not exactly what I thought Kumiko was going to inquire about, but I can see how someone might be curious. I shrug my shoulders.
“I’d really like to know,” says Kumiko. “I mean I get why my friend is so into you. You’re hot and everything, but does your thingy still work?”
My eyes fly wide open. I’m sure she can read my face, but I nod with exaggeration to be clear she understands, Yes!
“So, does Shelley always get on top or,” she coughs, “how do things maneuver between the two of you?”
I belly laugh because Shelley warned me about what a promiscuous little nymph Kumiko is, but I have no idea how to tell Kumiko the ways in which Shelley and I have sex. Kumiko probably wouldn’t believe the half of it if I could speak and describe it to her.
Suddenly, I hear a scream. I look up and see Shelley tumbling down the mountain. This time, I know it’s not my fault, but I do know which way she’s about to shoot off the mountain and land into the bay.
“Holy shit!” cries Kumiko. “She’s going to die—again!”
I push myself off my chair and start to drag myself to the water.
My arms sting from the hot sand and Kumiko is yelling for me to come back.
I stop at the water’s edge and take off my pants. I’m pretty good with a zipper now and I scoot myself into the water. My legs hurt as they break and crumble then reshape and transform into a fishtail. I can even feel the bullet move in my back as I gain movability of my fin.
Kumiko is wailing at the top of her lungs at what she sees. I’d wish she’d be quiet; wailing wakes the gods, but I’ll have to worry about that after I catch my lover.
Shelley goes flying into the air as she had once before, so I don’t waste any time flicking my tail to torpedo through the water to catch her. I’m a little late as Shelley lands in the water, but I’m there to pull her up to the surface.
Shelley wipes her dripping wet face and I stop her hand from wiping it a second time so I can kiss her. I love the taste of the ocean in her fire-breathing mouth.
You did that on purpose, I sign to her. You were testing to see if I’d come to your rescue.
“Well, of course,” she says as she wraps both arms around my neck. “How else am I supposed to give you a reward?”
Shelley kisses me again, until we feel a disturbance—a wave, push from beneath us in the water. Shelley clings to me, wrapping her legs tightly around my waist. I laugh at the sight of a large purple creature, nearly the size of a barge, scud beneath us. I use the opportunity to kiss Shelley’s wet neck and nibble on her ear, but she’s too distracted to bite back.
“What the hell is that?” shrieks Shelley and I grab her bottom cheeks to pull her even tighter onto me then tilt my head sideways so I catch her attention, forcing her to look in my eyes and read my lips.
My brother, I mouth to Shelley and grin.
Shelley turns to Kumiko on the beach, who is wailing even louder as giant purple tentacles reach up on the sand.
Shelley sighs. “Maybe we should rescue her,” she says but I just smile and sign back.
Oh, no. Trust me, she’s exactly his type and my brother deserves a reward of his own. We’ll let him save her.
*End of Book 1*
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ABOUT DANI
DaniStowe.com
I TRAPPED A SEXY BEAST who answers to the call of “husband.” I have mini-monsters who possess me with joy. I own furry critters that are running me into the grave and my house into ruin. And I have a freaky fetish for writing about fantastical creatures (human and otherwise) who are unduly obsessed with fornication.
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Did you love Lovers Catch? Then you should read Big Gun by Dani Stowe!
Gunner. He’s hot, he’s young, and he has so much to offer but his forty-year-old cougar can’t commit. Why? Because she’s his Battalion Commander and she’s more than just afraid of getting caught with her subordinate; she’s afraid of robbing Gunner of a future she thinks he deserves. But none of that matters to a man who wants what he’s done his duty to protect. So, no matter how hard things will get between him and the woman he loves, Gunner is not going to go down without a fight.
Hard and Heavy: Boom No. 1 is for mature audiences.
Read more at Dani Stowe’s site.
Also by Dani Stowe
Bang Lords
Up Her (Coming Soon)
The Sea Men
Lovers Catch
Lovers Peak
Standalone
The Fourth Knight
Watch for more at Dani Stowe’s site.
