Page 56 of Prayers for the Prickly

His words crashed over me like one of the nearby waves, and I scrunched my nose at him as best as I could with a big heavy scarf resting on it, sticking my tongue out at him for good measure.

“Awe, now don’t be like that, August, he’s just trying to make sure everything’s ready for you before you see what we’ve been up to.”

See what…?

“Aunty Eunice? You’re here, too?”

“Oops. Cat’s out of the bag I guess.”

“Now can I take this off me?” I pleaded, shoving halfheartedly at the heavy material that covered my eyes.

I was waiting for Gregor, but not patiently as I shoved at it again.

“Not yet,” Gregor called out like he was several feet away.

Groaning, I crossed my arms and pouted.

“Come on, bro, I didn’t drive all this way to see you for you to act like this.”

Ohhh.

What?

“Ever?”

“Yes, he’s here,” Gregor said, his voice, suddenly right by me ear, startling me as I hadn’t heard him move. “And before you ask, no, you can still not remove the blindfold yet.”

“Goddammit!”

“August!!!”

Okay, a lot of people were here it seemed. Now I was anxious to take the blindfold off and squirmed as my face heated up ‘cause I was sure I’d heard my Gram-Gram’s voice among the ones admonishing me.

“Sorry,” I muttered, as Gregor nudged me with his body until I scooched and made room for him in a chair I wouldn’t have expected to be built for two.

We fit it comfortably, though, and dammit, now there was something else I wanted to investigate. The anticipation was making me irritable, right along with the feel of his arm coming to rest across my back. Didn’t he know it was fuckin’ hot out here? Even in a tank top I was gonna be sweating in just a few minutes. For as much as I loved his hugs, I preferred to enjoy them in the air-conditioned comfort of our home where his skin or the water in the pool would be the only thing touching mine.

Thank the goddess for that pool, too. I loved floating in it in the evenings, and not on a hunk of blown-up plastic, either. I loved getting in naked and floating, but what I loved more was the way he’d started shifting in the evenings, and getting into the pool in fur. Who knew wolverines could float on their backs and use their tails like a rudder?

His fluffy wolverine belly was the perfect spot for me to plant my pregnant hedgehog body, roll on my back, and watch the stars drift past without having to do anything at all. At first, I’d been afraid that my prickles were uncomfortable for him, until I’d run my fingers through the thickness of his pelt and felt the same soft padding around his middle as was around his abs when he was human, and everything was perfect again.

“Wiggle all you want,” he whispered in my mind one night. “I’ve been needing a good scratch.”

I’d grown up in a wonderfully affirming family, and even my short-term boyfriends had made me feel alluring at times, some while also complaining that I could be too much. Nothing I’d ever experienced was more powerful than the feel of my mate’s body tensing when I accidentally rolled past his hips, and my prickly bristles brushed over his cock.

Mortified, I’d floundered, trying to crawl off him while thinking I’d hurt him, only for him to curl his body around mine, preventing me from slipping into the water as he grunted and deliberately rubbed me over his cock again. His wolverine had used my hedgehog prickles to get off on and neither of us had felt a bit of shame after he’d come all over me and let me track his release up his belly on my little feet as I crept back into prime floating position.

Yup, getting hot already.

Grunting, I shrugged my shoulder until he got the hint and moved his arm, pausing the retreat to slide his hand beneath my hair so he could squeeze the base of my neck briefly before turning me loose completely.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” I hissed, “And let me take the stupid scarf off, my head’s getting hot.”

I made sure he couldn’t miss the whiny tone in my voice when I said it, because that was the last warning he was going to get. Hot hedgehog was grumpy hedgehog, especially when I also happened to be hot pregnant hedgehog.

Very, very pregnant hedgehog.

Remembering the blurred images and heartbeats of our rapidly growing hoglets made me giggle at the image of my hedgehog in my head, already looking round when we floated on our mate. At least in my human form I’d been able to keep the rounding of my middle from showing beneath flowy tops. Beach gear, my cousins had taken to calling the tops I wore, but dammit, the thin colorful material was also perfect for the warmth in my kitchen.

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