Page 15 of Whisker Me Away

He’s so soft with me.

“I’m proud of you,” he says softly. “You did something scary. I’m so happy you decided to come on this vacation. If you hadn’t done the scary thing, we wouldn’t have met.”

I inch my wrist forward, very obviously rubbing our wrists together. It’s something shifters do in order to purposely rub each other’s scents onto each other. I’m scent marking him. Mystomach swoops as I do it and Cade watches with wide eyes before turning his eyes back to me and smiling softly.

“I’m really glad we met, Cade.”

The barista walks over to our table, dropping off our drinks and donuts.

“Thank you,” Cade says, giving my hand another squeeze before pulling away so he can take a drink of his mocha.

Picking up my drink and bringing it to my mouth, I subtly sniff my wrist. Everything inside of me lights up at the smell of our scents mixed together pressed into my skin. It’s perfect and wonderful and everything I’d want from a mate.

Wait. Fuck. Mate?

I take such a deep sip that I end up choking, cursing myself for thinking about mating someone I’ve only known a few days. But now that the word has been brought up within the safety of my mind, I can’t stop thinking about it.

Cade would look so wonderful with my bite marking him as mine.

“What are you thinking about right now?”

My eyes snap up to meet Cade’s, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “Nothing,” I tell him right away.

“You’re lying,” he says with a smirk. “You’re thinking about something and I’d really like to hear what it is because you’ve got a really dreamy look to your eyes. And now you’re blushing. It must have been a really good thought.”

I clear my throat. “Umm, it was just. I was just thinking. Shit,” I finally say, covering my face with my hands, thankful that they’re cold from my iced latte, helping to cool my face.

Cade’s chuckle makes molten lava lust pool heavy in my gut. Gods, I want to hear him chuckle like that again when we’re back in our room, just the two of us locked away from the world.

I want him. In the carnal sense.

Not only that, but I can admit that I have real, genuine feelings for him. Sure, the feelings are coming on hot and fast, but I don’t care. They’re just as real if we’d known each other for years instead of days.

Cade looks at me with a raised brow, waiting. I bite my bottom lip before blurting out, “I was thinking about how pretty you’d look covered in love bites.” Close enough to the truth.

A sly smile stretches across Cade’s face. “Oh my gods, Spencer.” He leans across the table, talking soft enough that only I can hear him, his voice deep and husky. “Hearing you say that just made me so hard my head grew light.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he says, sitting back in his seat, looking relaxed and at ease. The fact that he’s apparently hard but acting like nothing out of the ordinary leaves me breathless. Fuck, I want him and I’m tired of holding myself back.

Cade’s been open with me about his past, about his life, and about his interest in me. I’ve been terrified of embarrassing myself, of putting myself out there and having him reject me or making things awkward. I don’t want to live in fear any longer. I want to let myself have Cade and take everything he’s been gently offering me.

A thrill goes through me as my decision to fully pursue Cade settles within me. We finish our donuts and coffees, asking each other random questions and exchanging light touches. Someone once told me foreplay started outside the bedroom and I never really understood until now. There’s a hum at the back of my head, a simmering of lust just under my skin, burning brighter and brighter from everything Cade is doing. His teasing looks, gentle touches, and sly smiles.

Instead of going back to our hotel, we decide to keep walking around, exploring the area. We pass an adorable outdoor trinket shop and I pull Cade along, forcing him to stop and look ateverything with me. There’s little keychains and buttons and stickers. Some of them relate to the area we’re at, but others are random.

Cade and I each pick up a keychain. His is the most adorable cartoon manatee I’ve ever seen while the one I find is a cat sleeping in the shape of a heart. We buy our respective keychains and hand them to each other, an unspoken agreement that we were buying them for each other.

“Thank you,” I say, putting the keychain into my pocket right away. “I love it.” Then I look down at him. “Is this because you’re a manatee?”

Cade pauses. “Is that a fat joke?”

“What? Oh my gods,no! I wouldn’t joke about that. Plus, I like your body just as it is.”

Cade puts his hands on my shoulders, pulling me from my ramblings. “I’m just fucking with you, Spencer. Yes, I’m a manatee shifter.”

“Okay,” I say, my shoulders falling away from my ears. “Sorry. I just wouldn’t want you to think I’d say something mean to you. Especially because I like you. Like in a romantic way. But also in a sexy way. You’re very sexy. The most sexy. Fuck, I’ve said the word sexy too many times in a row and now things are awkward.”

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