Page 26 of Last Shot at Love

Cerulean gave me a soft smile, the lights from the room dancing in his eyes.

Finding it difficult to eat while floating, I stood but frowned when I realized I would need to bend down for each bite. Maybe I could squat in the waist-high water and hold my plate?

“Would it bother you if I shifted forms? I could help you be more comfortable while we eat,” Cerulean offered, his brow creased and his voice hesitant for the first time.

Surely he wasn’t worried that his paranormal body would repulse me?

“Of course, I don’t mind.”

Cerulean’s shift rippled over his form, gills appearing on either side of his neck and royal blue rings flashing across his skin before disappearing. Beneath the clear pool water, his legs disappeared, replaced by six thick tentacles.

“Don’t panic. I’m going to slide a tentacle beneath you,” Cerulean warned.

A moment later, one of his powerful tentacles moved beneath my butt and curled around my waist, creating a stable seat for me. With him holding me suspended in the water, I was at the perfect level to eat.

A pair of tentacles held the floating tray between us, keeping it anchored so it didn’t drift away.

“Comfortable?” He still seemed worried I was going to freak out.

“Yes, very.” There was a part of me that wanted to ask to see his tentacles out of the water, but despite my curiosity, I didn’t want to overstep a boundary.

For some species, shifting from their human form to their natural form was considered a private thing—something you only did around those you trusted.

Wanting to make him more comfortable, I closed my eyes and unclipped the leash I kept on my vampiric form.

I was a halfling, so it wasn’t as dramatic of a shift as when my father shifted. Even so, Cerulean sucked in a harsh breath at my change.

Opening my eyes, I found the night had grown far brighter. My vampiric abilities allowed me to see well in the dark in both my forms, but when I shifted to my vampiric form, my eye structure changed completely.

This gave me the light-reflecting qualities of the feline eye and the ability to see my surroundings in infrared if I focused. As a vampire, I was a creature of the dark, which meant I found comfort in the dark in probably the same way he found it in water.

I couldn’t drag my gaze from Cerulean’s face. Having looked at myself in the mirror many times, I knew what he was seeing, but now I wanted to see his reaction.

My usually lightly tanned skin had grown pale, the surface taking on a translucent quality that reflected the moon’s soft light and caused my skin to glow. Some people found this glow beautiful in an otherworldly way, but others found it eerily ghostlike.

Other things besides my eyes and skin had also changed with my shift. Changes like the slight lengthening of my canine teeth into sharp fangs, the tightening of muscles throughout my body to give me the strength of a powerful athlete, and finally, the gentle plumping of my lips and breasts.

My shift served two purposes. The first was to enhance the features that men tended to notice first. This allowed female vampires to lure them in willingly, which often allowed for feeding without a fight. However, the strengthening and toning of my body ensured that should the need arise, I could take down and subdue prey that was larger than me.

In modern times, vampires no longer needed to lure their meals to them as we didn’t hunt other living beings, which had rendered our vampiric form pretty much useless… other than as a tool to arouse potential sex partners.

His eyes drifted lower, and I tried not to be self-conscious at the way my breasts were straining against the itty-bitty string bikini top that was now too small.

“Wow. I don’t know what to say.” Cerulean’s voice was a scratchy rumble that did unexpected things to my insides. “I’d heard vampires were painfully beautiful in their shifted forms, but I thought that was a rumor.”

His eyes focused back on my face, and he swallowed hard. “Beryl, you were already the most stunning woman I’d ever laid eyes on. But you’ve somehow found a way to top even your own beauty.”

Warm pleasure blossomed through my chest.

He wasn’t freaked out by my fangs.

“You’re the first non-vampire to see this form,” I admitted, then wanted to kick myself.

Why on earth had I told him that? What was it about Cerulean that had me pouring out secrets I’d planned to take to my grave?

It wasn’t like I had a large group of friends I got together with for wild girls’ weekends where we could all let it hang out.

As for sexual partners, I’d always told myself I hadn’t bothered to show them my natural form because I already had them in bed, so why bother to seduce them?

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