Reclaimed (Shadow Beast Shifters, #2)(32)

Once I was standing, I stripped my long-sleeved shirt off, leaving myself in just a black bra. Shadow didn’t say anything, but his eyes were warning me not to take this too far. If only I was any good at listening to warnings.

My pants were next, and when I slipped them off, I neatly folded them on my shirt. Turning my back on him, I reached behind and unclipped my bra, sliding it off my arms and letting it fall, leaving me clad in black panties and a fucking smug smile. Not that Shadow could see that since my back was still turned to him. But it was definitely there.

“Are you going to wash up?” I asked, turning my head enough to catch a glimpse of him standing, arms crossed, watching me intently.

He didn’t reply, so I just shrugged and stepped out of the panties. Not like he hadn’t seen me naked a hundred times, but he hadn’t seen me naked since we’d kissed, and that was apparently a big deal to him, so I was curious if anything would change.

The water was warmer than it had been last night, while still feeling refreshing on my skin as I dove in. I glided along for about thirty seconds, before deciding to do some laps. My natural love of water had me forgetting my plan to tempt Shadow into a clandestine sexual encounter, and it wasn’t until a dark shape glided by—and I about died of a heart attack—that I surfaced to find he was here. With me.

His hair was slicked back, water dripping along his skin, and from what I could see in the thickly corded muscles, he was at least naked from the waist up.

He glided closer. “You find such joy in the most basic of life’s activities,” he said, his movements barely even rippling the water. “And after hundreds of jaded years, I find myself strangely desperate to feel what you do.”

Unable to help myself, I moved forward as well. Far less gracefully, but who the heck cared about that when I was in here with a naked Shadow. “I’ve always loved to swim. Odd for a shifter, but the freeing sensation I get from being in the water is greater than I’ve ever felt on two or four legs.”

“You are odd for a shifter,” he murmured. “Probably because you’re not fully a shifter. It took me some time to figure it out, but you’re not completely one of mine. I just don’t know to whom you belong.”

“Here’s a crazy-ass concept,” I said with a smirk. “Maybe I don’t belong to anyone. Maybe I’m a free wolf making my own path without outside influences.”

Shadow tilted his head as we all but met in the middle of the lake, circling around, our gazes focused on each other. I couldn’t speak for him, but my limbs trembled being naked near him, and… the curiosity of wondering if he was naked too was probably going to kill me.

My eyeline kept drifting into the water, but he was moving too fast for me to be able to see clearly. Fucking hell, could someone just give me a break here and flash some cock my way?

Anyone? I needed a little somethin’ somethin’ for the long, lonely nights…

“You might be right.”

I stopped moving, almost drowning as my legs froze. Right about what? Needing some spank bank material?

“Maybe you are a lone wolf,” he said. Oh, right. Yep, yep. “And the fact that someone chose to place you amongst my shifters is a sure sign that you and I have been on a path to meet. Whether by fate or intervention, our meeting was inevitable.”

Water filled my mouth as I sank into the lake. Shadow was right, and the more I thought about it, the more I needed the answers as to why. Why was I the way I was? Why did I have these connections to the realm and to Shadow and the mists?

I was still a shifter, clearly, with a true mate and everything. But I was like no regular shifter. None of it made sense.

“What am I?” I asked him, my flirty eyes dead in the literal water as I focused on the fucked-up truth of my reality. “Should I even exist?”

Shadow was in my face in a heartbeat, and I sucked in a lungful of water, almost drowning this time for real. He wrapped an arm around me, hauling me higher while I coughed up my lungs in an attempt to purge the water from them. History repeating itself. Even if that history had been only last night.

“Jesus, fuck,” I snarled, my voice hoarse from the manic coughing session. “That was not planned.”

“Nothing with you ever is,” Shadow drawled, and now that I wasn’t in immediate danger of dying, I noticed the position we were currently in.

He was holding me, and he was most definitely naked. I could feel the long, smooth lines of his body pressed against me, the hardness of his muscles so delicious against my softer curves. I tilted my head back to meet his gaze, and my breath started to burst from me in little pants. My entire vision was filled with Shadow, and once again, his taste was on my lips.

“We need to go,” he said softly. “We’re both clean, and now we’re wasting time.”

Neither of us moved.

“Shadow,” I breathed.

His eyes darkened. “You keep looking at me like that, Sunshine, and I promise that this fun little swim will end completely different from how it started.”

I groaned, trying to climb him, but he held me immobile. He’d done the same thing when he’d devoured my pussy, and it was the only time in my life I would admit to actually wanting to be restrained.

“End it differently,” I said with force. “Fucking live up to your reputation.”