Page 13 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

“You look amazing,” Matheus said, holding two coffees and a bag from the Witches Brew Bakery.

“I am not touching those things.” I had a knee-jerk reaction to Trina’s drinks and baked goods.

He glanced at the coffees, the pastry bag and then back at me. “Why, what’s wrong?”

“I got food poisoning last night.” I made up the story quickly in order to cover my visceral reaction to seeing more of Trina’s potions from the Witches Brew Bakery.

“Why don’t we go for a drive,” I said, taking the Witches Brew material out of his hands and putting them on the counters. “We can go to Jameson and stop off at Glenn’s Café. I haven’t been there in about six months, and I heard they just redid it all really nice.”

Matheus looked a bit confused. “Are you sure you want to go out and eat something after having food poisoning last night? Especially since Glenn’s is pretty heavy food.”

“I most definitely do.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door. “You drive.”

The truth was, I was ravenous. I felt like I could eat twenty steaks. Whatever had happened to my body last night had left me with an appetite like nobody’s business and my muscles felt leaner and tighter. Clearly my curves were still there, but underneath them was a tightening mass of muscle that I was just beginning to feel. If this kept up, I’d be completely changed soon. I found myself hoping not. I didn’t want to look too lean and too skinny, too muscular and too fit. I liked my woman curves. I liked the way they felt soft and pliable and smooth. I didn’t want a hard body, but I would love some extra fitness and stamina.

The road out to the coast and Glenn’s Café was well paved and broad, with two-way traffic going in smooth curves around a lush green valley. The low hills of the surrounding countryside edged up around us, creating a safe haven along the river and the basin of the valley. The road meandered, following the river out to the bay where the town sat in lazy sprawling lines coming off the river and along the highway. The Pacific Coast Highway was famous throughout the world for the beautiful drive through the Pacific Northwest. I loved coming out here. I loved being from here. It was part of the fabric of who I was. My family had been residents in Cougar Creek for as long as I knew. Maybe not as long as The Estate, but we didn’t have much other history, other than my great grandparents being from somewhere in Europe.

This was my little bit of the world, and there was nothing I liked more than the beautiful curving drive that took us to the Pacific Ocean. The ocean had always filled me with happiness and joy. It felt like the beating of the heart, the breathing of the lung, the consistent and persistence of life. It was one of the reasons why traveling with my ex-husband hadn’t worked for me. I had missed that beating heart of the ocean being so close to me.

“I don’t think I’ve been down here in ages,” Matheus said, peering through the windscreen and looking out at the weather-beaten town.

“How can you not come down here?” I asked. “It’s literally twenty minutes from Cougar Creek.”

He looked at me, flashing his movie star smile. “When was the last time you were down here?”

He had me there. “Six months. Although it might have been less, I don’t remember,” I defended myself. “I used to come down here with my son on Saturday mornings. We would get a coffee. Well, I would get a coffee, he would get a smoothie or a shake or a hot chocolate or something else, depending on the day. We would go and feed the seals or the seagulls or walk along the beach. It was our Saturday morning ritual.”

“That sounds great.”

“It’s one of the things that makes life beautiful and painful at the same time,” I said. “There’s those moments where everything is perfect, and you want to hold onto it. You know you can’t just grasp it in that moment and clutch it to your breast and keep it forever.”

“Isn’t that what your memories are for?” Matheus asked.

“The thing about memory is you can’t remember everything. It’s not because you don’t want to, it’s not because it wasn’t important, it’s just because you do so many things in life. You go on a trip, and have ten new experiences, but your brain is having sixty thousand different sensations a second.”

“I think it can process eleven million bits of information every second. The conscious mind only handles fifty bits of information a second,” Matheus corrected me.

“Okay fine, I was in the range,” I said. “You know what I mean. That’s a lot of stuff to remember and I’m like twelve years older than you.”

I stood there staring at him, waiting for him to choke on his coffee or stumble or freak out or laugh or do something, but he literally had no reaction.

“Did you hear me?” I asked.

He turned towards me, moving his coffee to the side. Leaning down, he brushed his lips against mine with slow luxurious movements, as if that was all he’d been thinking about for the last hour, and he’d been waiting for this moment. Now that it was here, it seemed like he wanted to save it and savor it. He tasted of bread and honey, with a slight bitterness of coffee. The moistness of his mouth on mine brought dampness to my legs. The desire rose like a wave engulfing me. I wanted him and I wanted him very much now.

I pulled back, panting heavily and looking around. My head was dizzy and my skin was hot. It wasn’t a hot flash. It felt like the sensations I’d felt last night when I’d turned into a werewolf, but there wasn’t any pain. There wasn’t the bone crushing snap of the joints I had experienced the night before. This was more of a warm heart feeling. I wanted to rip off his clothes and mount him and ride him to the edge of oblivion. I turned away, taking a deep slow breath trying to steady myself. There was no way I could just give into the way I was feeling. First of all, we were in public. Second of all, we didn’t really know each other and third of all, it was broad daylight on a Saturday morning.

All I could think about was jumping him.

“Are you okay?” He lifted my chin with the crook of his finger.

“I think that kiss just took five years off my life,” I said with a smile.

“Then maybe we shouldn’t kiss again,” he said, his green eyes dancing at me.

“I think we should,” I said. Reaching towards him, but he stopped me.

“You need to be comfortable with me first,” he said. “I’m not just some young guy to have a fling with. I want you to take me seriously. I turned away from him. I wanted to kiss him again, but I was scared of anything else. I needed the cool mist on my skin and the breeze in my hair to calm the rushing of heat in my blood and the desire that I had to bed him.

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