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That didn’t stop me from wanting to touch him in his shifted form, though. I’d never touched a shark in real life, and I was curious. His rows of sharp teeth were a little bit of a deterrent, but I wanted to feel him under my fingers anyway.
Jack’s fin disappeared under the water, and when he came up again, he was back in his human form, a wry smirk tipping his lips.
“Are you planning to get in, or are you just going to watch me swim?”
“I’m going to get in.” I bit back the question dancing on the tip of my tongue. It would be too weird to ask him if I could touch him.
“Then come on! I’ll race you to the other side.”
I scoffed. “Won’t be much of a race. I’ll be, like, twice your size, and I can swim much faster.”
“You wish, sweetheart.” He disappeared under the surface again, and I stepped back, getting a running start before pulling my animal side forward and shifting on the fly, landing inthe water with a massive splash that rocked Jack off course. I internally chuckled as I propelled myself through the water until my nose touched the far end of the pool. I turned, looking for Jack, who I’d left in the dust.
Told you so, asshole.
He hit the wall a moment later and opened his mouth, revealing those rows of sharp teeth. I couldn’t really scoff in this form, so I blew a big breath out through my blowhole. Jack took off through the water again, and I chased after him. Every time I got close, he dodged out of the way. I hated to admit it, but he was able to change direction faster than I could, and he wove through the water until I was almost dizzy from chasing him in circles. Pausing for a second, I scanned the water for Jack. He snuck up behind me and whacked my side with his tail, then swam away.
If that’s how he wants to play…
I dove low and stalked below him, deep enough that he couldn’t see me.
Coming up slowly, my tail under his body, I pulled back and gave him a light smack. In my defense, it was hard to gauge my strength in my orca form, so I was mildly surprised when he went sailing across the pool. Whoops!
When he came up, he was back in his human form.
“What the fuck, Cal?” He shook his head like he was trying to shake something back into place.
I wanted to laugh, but the best I could do was a high-pitched whistle that echoed off the stone walls around us.
“You think it’s funny that you just fucking punted me across the damn pool? See if you think this is funny, you dick!” He dove under again, and so did I. I caught the last part of his shift as he took off my way, his teeth bared. I swam away, and he chased after me, trying to nip my tail.
For a second, I lost track of him, and then I felt a sharp sting on my right pectoral fin. I couldn’t see it in this form, the curse of having a big head and little fins, so I pulled my human side forward and shifted back.
“You absolute asshole! Look what you did!” There was blood in the water and a gash from where several of Jack’s teeth had grazed my arm. Blood mixed with the water on my skin and ran in rivulets to my elbow before dripping into the pool.
“Oh, fuck. I’m sorry, Cal.”
I swam one-handed to the edge of the pool and hauled myself out, the salt water stinging the wound. “And you say I’m the reckless one.”
“To be fair, you punted me first.”
“Whatever, Jack.” I had my board shorts back on and turned to leave the cavern.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to my room. I’m hungry and tired.” The words weren’t a lie, but I knew I was running.
I didn’t wait for Jack to reply, turning to leave before I did something stupid like bite him back.
In the spot on his neck that would show anyone who looked at him that he was mine.
And my brothers said I had no self-control.
By the time I got back to my room, the gash on my arm had stopped bleeding. The cut had been deep enough to bleed like a son of a bitch in the water but not deep enough to need more than a few minutes to start healing. Tomorrow morning, there would be nothing left except a patch of new pink skin, and by tomorrow night, there would be nothing left of the mark at all,not even the tiniest nick like the one he’d left on my side with a knife in Budapest.
And something about that made me sad.
Ugh.
