I’d seen Jules shirtless more times than I could count. We’d spent most summers down at the creek, swimming in various states of undress since we were kids. Hell, I’d seen him buck naked more times than I could remember. We’re shifters. We’re comfortable with nudity. It’s no big deal. Everyone knows that. It was just that that was the first time I’d ever seen him naked like that. Naked for sex. Naked and hard. Hard everywhere. Jules was very good-looking, he always had been, but usually there was something almost comical about him. It didn’t detract from him. Far from it. It was part of his charm. Right then, he didn’t look comical. He looked anything but. He looked manly. Manly as fuck. Muscles rippled and veins crisscrossed up his arms. I could see his blood pulsing at his jugular. Sex was coursing through his veins. Masculinity had never looked better.

Storm crooked her finger at him, and he took the step he needed to touch her. He reached up and traced her jawline with his finger. He ran his hand all the way down her neck, between her clavicles, between her breasts, across her belly and down to the button of her jeans. He flicked it back and forth a couple of times until she arched her head back against my chest and nodded. I ran my hands up and down her sides. Her skin was smooth and warm. So warm. Way warmer than a human would be. I cupped her breasts from behind, holding and teasing, as he undid her fly. Then I helped him as we wrestled the tight denim over the curve of her hips. By the time she was naked, I was too. I stood at her back, and he stood in front of her. I ran my hands over her body, drawing a map for us both, listening to her breathing, learning where she liked to be touched and showing him, too.

He leaned in to kiss her. I could tell he was going to do it because his jaw dropped open ever so slightly a second before he moved. He parted his lips and then closed them again. They looked puffy and darker than usual. He was looking down at her mouth. He focused on it as if it were the only thing that existed. He kept his eyes open until the last second. I was pressed up against her. My hands were all over her body. I was standing so close that when he kissed her, I saw his lips part, and I saw the pink wetness of his tongue as he slipped it into her mouth.