Free The Shifter's Kiss by Caridad Pineiro

was a wonderful cook and so funny.
She could always make me laugh.”
    “So the way to your heart is with food and jokes?” he teased,
trying to keep the conversation from getting too serious.
    “Definitely food, as long as you don’t feed me fish. I am so
tired of eating fish,” she said with a laugh and a shake of her head.
    Victor joined in her laughter but murmured, “Damn, there go the
dinner plans.”
    “Baba—”
    “Baba?” he asked.
    “My father. He usually goes to town for meat when I come to
shore.”
    Victor nodded. “I’ll go see him when we finish.”
    “No, I’ll go. I need to spend some time with him, but first,
let me check your side.”
    Without waiting for his reply, she popped out of her chair and
back to the cupboards above the counter where she had stored the medical
supplies. She removed them and then walked back.
    He eased the chair away from the table and waited for her,
moved by the sight of her, by the ease with which she moved, as comfortable on
land now as in the sea.
    It was impossible to fight his arousal nor did he wish to. She
had told him it was as natural as breath and maybe it was, at least with
her.
    She said nothing about his state as she kneeled beside him to
examine his side. With calm efficiency she removed the wrappings and gauze and
examined the wounds.
    “They are closed. It won’t be long until they are completely
healed.”
    She popped up again and returned to the counter to fill the
basin with water and grab a clean towel. Once she was kneeling beside him again,
she tenderly washed away the healing paste and he noticed the stellar-shaped
wound where new skin was already knitting closed.
    “Chicks dig scars,” he said, recalling what one of his
firefighter buddies had told him as he lay all bandaged up in the hospital.
    One side of Nali’s mouth tilted in a smile. She rose to her
knees and brushed a kiss across his lips.
    “Chicks dig heroes,” she said and then returned to her task,
cleaning and drying his side, then applying a different kind of ointment before
binding him up once more.
    She set the supplies on the table behind him, and as she did
so, her breast grazed his arm. The touch, innocent as it was, tightened his
balls and made him ache as his cock swelled.
    As she stepped back from the table, she didn’t fail to notice.
But she didn’t act on it either. Instead she surprised him by saying, “Are you
up for a walk?”
    He was up for something totally different, but he didn’t want
her to think all he wanted from her was to fuck.
    “Let me just get some clothes.” He began to rise, but she lay a
tender hand on his shoulder.
    “You’re fine the way you are.”
    He skimmed his gaze up and down her loose, flowing dress and
then arched a brow. “Seems kinda unfair, doesn’t it?”
    “It does.” Grinning, she quickly ripped off her dress and
tossed it on her chair.
    The beauty of her slammed into his gut once more. He had never
seen such a gorgeous woman, much less one who seemed to be so comfortable in her
own skin.
    Her human skin, he thought, although she had been just as sure,
maybe more so, in the water.
    Rising from the chair, he slipped his hand into hers, lacing
his fingers with hers. Together they walked out of the shack and into the late
morning sun, which was already strong enough to burn if you weren’t careful.
They kept to the shade provided by the palm trees and underbrush not far from
the shore, strolling away from the shacks, talking once again about their lives
and what had brought them here.
    Nali listened, lightness in her heart and soul as he regaled
her with a story from his days as a firefighter. When he finished, she said,
“You loved your friends there.”
    Victor smiled and shook his head. “I did but not the job. This
is where I was meant to be,” he said and opened his arms wide.
    She stepped to him and tenderly ran her hand over his scarred
shoulder and arm, her breasts barely grazing the hard wall of his chest.