Ireally shouldn’t have offered to walk with Declan around the lake. However, the words were out there and we’d agreed a time, and I couldn’t back out now.
The biggest problem was that Iwantedto go for a romantic walk with Declan. Showing him round the lake after he’d been away for years seemed like a dream.
I had fallen in love with this place the moment I’d set eyes on it whereas he spoke of it with a sense of acceptance that he was stuck here now. I felt I could re-introduce him to a wonderful world he’d forgotten. I wanted to open his eyes to the beauty just outside his window. Wanted to be there as he took his first tentative steps into his new life, whichever direction that might be. Wanted to wait for him to come home to me every night, a warm cottage and scorching kisses.
As I stepped out of my cottage, I chastised myself for being so ridiculous in getting emotionally attached to a client, and one who so very clearly wasn’t interested in me.
The cold bite of the air on my cheeks was like a slap, waking me up from the silly daydreams I’d been having all afternoon about Declan holding my hand as we walked around the lake and coming back to my cottage with me.
My animal stirred inside me, unfurling its limbs and seeming to stretch inside me as though stretching out its tentacles for Declan. It was always difficult to keep my hands to myself around Declan because I wanted to run my hands over his body to test its strength and soothe him and hold him, and my octopus wanted to wrap its tentacles around him, holding him tightly to us and claiming him as our own.
It had been a mistake to even consider that Declan might come back to my cottage with me because my octopus had grown alert, liking that idea. And, now it was out there, I couldn’t un-think it.
I slammed the front door behind me, hoping to cut off any silliness. I never locked my front door, despite everyone warning me that it was a risk. I didn’t have much to steal and getting to the cottage was awkward, down a narrow path leading right up to the lake’s edge. People didn’t stumble upon it by accident, which was exactly why I’d rented it in the first place. It was perfectly situated, right at the edge of the lake, with the water practically lapping at the back garden and inviting me to slip outside naked and slide into the waters to transform.
Every time I left, I told myself I was going to walk straight up the path and between the trees because it was too cold to stand there and look out across the lake but, every time, I stopped for just a few moments to do exactly that.
It was so beautiful.
The lake disappeared into the distance, the edges hazy in the dusk, the flat surface reflecting the rising moon on the white ice. It had frozen over a couple of weeks ago and it looked like it would stay that way until the new year.
I was only a tiny bit disappointed. Yes, I liked to get into the water and let my animal out, to feel my tentacles uncurl and splay in the cool water but, even for me, icy-cold wastoocold. I’d wait until spring before I went into the lake again.
Sighing, I turned away and went on my way. I didn’t want to be late to pick up Declan.
As I drove to his parents’ house, I convinced myself that I was just physically attracted to him because he was incredibly handsome and that was it, there was nothing else to it, and this was absolutely not the start of a horrible crush that would plague me.
The second I saw Declan standing outside his parents’ front door, the lecture I’d just given myself went out of the window.
He was wrapped up warm with his hat pulled low and his scarf pulled high, but already the chill air had turned his cheeks a rosy pink. He looked incredible. Not just that, but I felt the longing deep in my core to reach out to him to wrap my tentacles around him…
Yeah, this crush was going to be a killer.
Because Declan had made it incredibly clear that he was in love with his best friend.
In fact, I was here specifically so he could practice for hisdatewith his best friend.Iwas not the date.
That didn’t stop me from being pathetically eager, and I was out of the car and over at Declan’s side in a moment.
“Hey,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you’d—”
He cut himself off and I raised my eyebrows at him.
“What? You didn’t think I’d come?”
“Well, I mean, I’m glad you did.”
His words lit a warm fire in me, glowing like a brazier. I had to take a deep breath before I could speak and then I pointed to the crutches which were propped against the doorframe.
“Are we taking those?”
“Um, if you wouldn’t mind. I know you’ve been trying to get me to walk without them but—”
“No problem,” I said.
I didn’t want him to feel awkward about it. Being around people with disabilities was so commonplace for me that I hardly noticed it any more. People were just people and some of them needed different adjustments than others. Declan was clearly still getting used to stating his needs, though.
Grabbing the crutches in one hand, I offered Declan my arm to walk to the car.
