Page 31 of The Hellhound's Mate
“No,” I said honestly. “You said what I wanted to when I was too overwhelmed to speak.”
He sighed and smiled softly. “Okay. Good. I thought at first that you were just surprised, but then it looked like you wanted to get it all off of you.”
“I did. I could feel the slightest breeze and everything was so cold.”
Ambrose buried his fingers into my fur. “Just so you know, you’re a good-looking human.”
“Oh?” I asked with a smirk. “Would you have me in that form?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’d have you as a ghoul because you’d still be you.”
I kissed him for his sweetness, but licked into his mouth when he moaned for me. “Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “We both desperately need a bath.”
Following him from the room, I had to wonder what it might feel like to have sex in a form without fur. If it had felt like the individual molecules of the air could touch me, what might it feel like to wrap myself around him? Perhaps I might find out someday.
EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER
Vera practically abductedme from the gallery floor and shoved me into the back storage room, closing the door between us with a very final-sounding click.
So, okay, I might’ve been enjoying myself a little too much between the free drinks and the abundant praise for my latest paintings. But, she’d said, only three had sold and she needed the performance to start before anyone got it in their head to go home.
I didn’t mind. Not when a very handsome man standing in front of me dropped his pants and grinned at me. Saph in human form was still an impressive creature—hung like a walrus and knew how to use it, too—and I’d gotten used to looking for my mate and finding this face looking back at me. He assured me that he’d found good things in his new form as well, but that it allowed him to leave the property and travel the world was the best reason to look human.
His shift now only made me cringe in sympathy a little bit, and he swore he was getting used to the pain of redesigning his entire body. And I could tell he felt so much more like himself as he shook from his ears to his tail and flexed his claws in the air between us. A smirk lifted his dark lips as he sniffed the air,no doubt picking up on how much he turned me on every single time he got furry.
“Change your clothes,” he rumbled. “I’ll take you after we perform.”
I took a deep breath to try and fight back the urge to bend over right now. We were supposed to run around the gallery, letting everyone see the live inspiration from my paintings, and not hide back here and fuck each other’s brains out. Duty called! I found a stack of gauzy white cloth sitting on a crate and set about undressing.
“I can see every pink inch of you,” Saph practically growled behind me.
I chuckled naughtily, knowing he could. Celestine had created this robe-like outfit so that it would heavily hint at the fact that I was naked under it without actually scandalizing anyone. Of course, this was the first time I’d worn it with an erection, but oh well. No amount of draping was going to hide that.
Turning around when I was finished fluffing up my hair, I found Saph standing there with his eyes closed and taking deep breaths. “Are you nervous? I promise everyone’s going to think it’s a costume. Special effects. No one will ever suspect it’s really you.”
He opened his fiery eyes and grinned at me. “I’m trying not to get hard, Mate. There’s nothing that could hide me from view.”
I blushed as I spied the very tip of his cock peeking out of its sheath, pleased to have that effect on him. But he was right—his cock was practically fuchsia against the black of his fur and seeing that might sell a lot more of the dildos Vera had commissioned, but it would also be pretty suspect on a monster costume.
Sure, yes, part of me wanted to show off my boyfriend’s assets, but the rest of me didn’t want to get him arrested or something. “Down boy,” I said in my sluttiest voice.
Saph laughed and manhandled me to stand facing the door. A moment later, I could hear the distant sound of recorded thunder and saw a flash of light through the seams of the doorframe. That was our cue!
“Oh goddess,” I whispered as I opened the door, knowing this was absolutely insane of me. But when heads turned in my direction, faces already startled and unsure, I let out a scream and took off running through the crowd.
The lights were low and occasionally strobing to mimic lightning, howling wind and rain sounds coming from speakers that had been playing classical music minutes earlier. Lightbulbs that gave the impression of candlelight flickered over each of my paintings, adding to the sudden horror of a figure from them now dashing through the gallery.
I knew the moment Saph left the storage room because people started screaming. He barked and growled, and they screamed again.
What told me this was working as planned was the fact that no one else was fleeing. Eyes wide, drinks clutched, hands on their chests, people watched me weave around them, hide behind them, and they stayed exactly where they were.
They didn’t want to miss a thing.
My sudden bout of nerves as I’d left the storage room had taken care of my boner, but when I looked behind me as I ran into another gallery, I caught sight of Saph’s pursuit. I was instantly back in our cemetery, being chased, and wanting to be caught. My little problem came roaring right back.
Saph crouched low in a doorway, fangs bared, and sniffed the air.
