Birthday Shift Read Online Free Page B

runs
it – she is a realmbinder.”
    “A what?” It
sounded like something from a kids’ cartoon or fantasy novel. “Now I do need to
sit down.” She chose the floor, folding her legs underneath her, keeping him at
a distance. “Cade, look, you can’t just say things like that to someone.”
    He looked at her
with what seemed like infinite patience. “Perhaps I should explain it to you
again.”
    “No. I
understand, all right. But you hardly know me. We can’t talk about forever just
like that. It’s…. it’s not how things work in the human world.”
    “Oh but I do.”
His green eyes darkened, his voice deepened as he spoke to her. “Alianore had
me look in on you, follow you on your day, lay beside you in bed at night. I
wanted to know you even before you found me in that box on your doorstep. I
wanted to be close to you, to feel your touch. To make you happy.”
    Gazing back at
him, Molly knew she should feel frightened or at least very creeped out by what
he’d told her. Why don’t I?
    But she only felt
a strange sort of excitement, building inside her.
    After we make love, I will be bound to you forever.
    Would he always
find her beautiful? Always be faithful to her? Love her the way she wanted to
be loved?
    Although if Molly
was truthful with herself, did she have enough experience to know how she
wanted to be loved?
    “How will it
work?” she found herself asking, even though her stomach twisted nervously. “I
mean… will you be a cat forever or a man forever, or can you shift freely?”
    “I can shift
whenever I choose to, and also whenever you command. I will be realmbound to
you, Molly.” He stood then, one hand holding the tea towel in place. The cupcake
design looked laughable against his firm, tanned flesh. He knelt before her.
“It is a big step, my lovely one. Being realmbound to someone is no small
matter. Perhaps I could give you a taste of what you would experience with me.
The pleasure I could give you.”
    With his free
hand, he cupped her face, stroking the pad of his thumb tenderly over her jaw
and up her cheek. His touch sent tiny rivers of sensations flowing inside her,
rivers that all led to the same sensitive spot between her legs. When his thumb
moved to her lips, caressing gently, her mouth seemed to open of its own
accord. She heard herself sigh.
    “More?” he
whispered.
    Helpless to do
anything but nod, a gasp escaped her when his lips replaced his hand, and the
sweet flavor of him filled her. He stroked his tongue over hers in a soft,
sensual dance, and the rivers of sensations became tidal waves. They continued
to flow to the same spot, and she ached for him to touch her there.
    He nipped her
bottom lip playfully, erotically, and then his kisses moved down, dotting over
her chin, down to her neck, where the slide of his lips and tongue
simultaneously tickled and aroused her. As she giggled, he captured her lips
again, the kiss so tender that her heart bumped in her chest.
    As he returned to
kissing her neck, his hand lifted to cup her breast, his thumb finding the
already firm point of her nipple and teasing it to hardness through the soft
fabric of her boat neck t-shirt. She strained towards him, only wanting more,
more, more-
    He stopped.
    Molly’s eyes
snapped open. “What…”
    “I cannot
continue unless you want me to, my lovely one,” Cade told her, green eyes
seeming to stare straight into her soul. “When that is, you can come to me.
Until then…” He turned away, and in the blink of an eye her black cat sat
before her, those same green eyes focused on her face.
    Aching with need,
every nerve thrumming, Molly covered her face with her hands, so confused and
tired.
    She needed her
best friend.
    But don’t forget, Lil isn’t what she seems.
    “It doesn’t
matter,” she said to herself out loud. “I need some answers, and I need them
now.”
    Before she did
something she might really regret.
     
    ~ * * * ~
     
    Forty minutes
later, Molly sat in a