Page 118 of The Alpha and the Baker
As if he could hear my thoughts, Cas shuffled forward slightly, until his nose was pressed to my middle. He was close enough that I could wrap my arms around his neck. And God, it was the best hug in the world.
I couldn’t say how long we stayed like that, but it was quite a while. Long enough that my shoulders began to ache and my mouth became dry after all the boogieing I had done. But I didn’t move. Didn’t stir. Not until Cas gently pulled away and took a few steps back. The area around us filled with steam as he shifted back into his human form.
“So, what did you think?” he asked nervously.
I chuckled a little at his silly question. I knew he could hear my heartbeat and smell my pheromones. But still, I supposed there was no harm in giving him a little extra assurance. After all, it wasn’t every day that one transformed in front of their partner for the first time.
“That was incredible. Thank you, baby.” I threw my arms around his neck. “That was exactly what I wanted.”
“Happy to oblige,” he said, giving me one of those winks that never failed to make my heart race. Gosh, it was hard to believe that I’d spent twenty-seven years of my life not knowing what it was like to be so utterly in love with someone. It was like I had an entirely different perspective of the world. “But you know, the night’s not over...”
I could see the exact moment his gaze switched over from purely loving to having quite a bit of heat with it. And that heat made my stomach flip.
“That’s true,” I agreed, leaning into him. “Wanna go back to your cabin and see how far of a berth we can make the rest of these shifters give it?”
His responding grin had goosebumps rising all along my arm. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He gave me a quick peck on my lips, then suddenly I was off my feet. I let out a startled laugh, which only increased in volume once I realized that he had picked me up in a bridal carry. It reminded me of the time I’d been tired out of my gourd only to perk right up once he ferried me inside and started kissing me.
Maybe one day I would be old and tired enough to turn down sex with my incredibly hot boyfriend, but that was not today. I could save that for my thirties, when my back and knees go on strike, like it did with pretty much all culinary folk.
“Take me home,” I said, voice already husky.
“With pleasure.”
I wasn’t exactly heavy, sitting right between being slender and plus-sized, but it still amazed me that Cas just took off with me in his arms like a bride, his stride so sure that I was barely even jostled. Jeez, just how strong was he? Even after so much time together, it always surprised me.
We made it to his cabin incredibly fast, and while I knew that several pack members had spotted us, no one stopped us. I’d heard a couple mention in passing about being able to smellother people’s emotions, so my cheeks colored at the idea of how many shifters could smell how horny we were.
Oh well. It was something I’d come to terms with whenever we visited Cas’s house. With such enhanced senses, privacy was rare. People heard what they heard, and that was that.
If I had also grown up with such abilities, it wouldn’t be so mind-boggling, but alas, I was but a human. And unlike the werewolves of lore, it seemed that whatever made a shifter a shifter was a genetic thing. Not a curse or disease that could be spread with a bite.
Shame, really.
The thought surprised me enough that I nearly tripped when Cas put me down on the porch. Did I really want to be a shifter? I’d never really thought of it since that first night I’d gotten suspicious and dived into the murky waters of cryptozoologist forums and subreddits. The vast majority of them stated that lycanthropy was technically a myth and couldn’t be transferred.
Hmm… I really wouldn’t mind if I could be turned. There didn’t seem to be a lot of downsides other than the whole first-shift-during-puberty thing. The idea of a double puberty wasn’t exactly the most appealing.
But being the same species as my boyfriend? Being able to spend a full, extended shifter life with him? That certainly had its appeal.
It was a shame. Nothing could be done about it, but I figured it was okay for me to acknowledge the sentiment at least.
“Have I ever told you that you’re stunning?” Cas asked, pulling me against his chest. I went with him easily, pressing my body against the hard planes of his powerful form.
“Once or twice,” I said, tracing my finger down the line of buttons on his flannel. For being such a warm-blooded species with a high temperature, shifters wore way warmer clothes than I would. “And usually with a baking pun involved.”
“A pun? Me?Never!”
I flicked his nose playfully. “You callin’ me a liar?”
“Well, I certainly ain’t callin’ you a truther.”
We both chuckled, and I loved how easily laughter and mirth mixed with our intimacy. Sure, it was fantastic when it was vicious and intense and full of heat, but I loved when there was some levity to it because that was when we were so unapologeticallyus.
Reaching behind me, Cas opened his door and walked me backward. He didn’t have to lock his place up, which was quite different from my own place in the city. Then again, I pitied the robber who tried to break in. Not only did Cas not have a lot ofthings, but with all the enhanced senses in the surrounding area, there would be a shifter on the intruder in no time. They wouldn’t even know what hit them.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Cas mused as he kicked the door closed with his foot.
