“Not going to miss a chance to bathe a pretty woman.” He kissed her deeply. “Give me a minute, okay?”
She watched him as he got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom to draw her a bath. And she was rewarded by the sight of his tight ass and powerful thighs. Good lord, that man put the candy in ‘eye candy.’ She salivated
a little and her pussy ached again.
Arielle swallowed hard. Trent might be a sex fiend, but he brought out the beast in her too.
Chapter Nine
She stirred from her sleep hours later and found the bed empty. Where is he? Arielle wondered, grabbing her cell phone from the nightstand to check the time. It was a little after midnight. She looked around. Trent was nowhere to be seen. The door was slightly ajar, but shimmering light from the living room gave some illumination to the darkened room. She listened to the silence of the apartment. She didn’t think he was in the bathroom because she didn’t hear any noise.
Sighing contentedly, she closed her eyes and dove back into her pillow. Their earlier love-making had drained most of her energy and she was sore in all the right places. She smiled. After Trent was done, she didn’t think she could even walk. The man was an animal. He could go on and on forever. He really put even the most experienced porn star to shame.
Suddenly, she missed him. What was he doing out of the bed?
She had noticed Trent was often up at night at randomly unholy hours. She was a light sleeper and had been woken up by him opening the refrigerator or going up to the roof. She wondered if he had insomnia or something. He never discussed his deployment in detail, but she guessed it must be unpleasant for him. Could he possibly have PTSD and he wasn’t telling her?
Arielle kicked off the covers, got out of the bed, and went looking for him. Now that they were officially a couple, she didn’t feel awkward anymore intruding on his personal life. She got dressed and went to the living room. “Trent?” she called.
No answer.
Next she went to the kitchen, and found that the door to the roof was slightly ajar. Could Trent be in the garden? The landscape contractor had just finished the project yesterday. Trees and flowers were planted and new decking was installed. The whole rooftop was ready to be used for relaxation or entertaining. Arielle climbed the stairs and pushed the door open. A gust of warm blew past her as she pushed on to the terrace looking for a sign of Trent. She only heard some grunting.
Uneasiness sneaked into the back of her skull.
What the hell was that sound?
Then she heard it again. Panting. Growling. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound human at all.
It sounded like an animal.
A big animal.
She recognized the sound from her visit to the zoo when she was a kid. It was a big cat. Like a lion. Or a tiger.
She pushed away her fears, thinking she must be silly. There was no tiger roaming around Manhattan. They didn’t live anywhere near the zoo. There must be some kind of explanation.
She inched her way among the planters, walking slowly toward the source of the noise. And what she saw made her heart stop beating in her chest.
Her entire body froze, petrified.
Standing before her was a man in the middle of some kind of transformation. From the neck up was a tiger head and his lower portion was that of a human. And the weirdest part was, the human part wore the same boxers that Trent had worn just before he went to bed. Her eyes were transfixed to the scene unfolding in front of her.
The creature’s feline eyes snapped at her. The tiger head slowly receded into human form. His elongated snout turned into a human mouth. “Arielle,” he croaked with a voice throatier and deeper than his usual voice. “You shouldn’t have seen this.”
Suddenly, she could move her fingers, then her body again. Everything went blurry. She didn’t remember how she ran toward the roof’s entrance. When she was able to gather her thoughts, she found herself slumped behind the thick door, her back against the wood, completely shaking. She had seen some weird shit in her life, but this trumped it all.
What the hell was that?
Who are you, Trent?
She didn’t realize she had voiced her thoughts out loud, because Trent was answering her from behind the door.
His voice was muffled. “Forgive me for keeping this secret from you. I was going to wait until I found the right moment. This is what I am. I’m a shape shifter.”
A what?
A shape shifter? What the hell is that?