Carrie Vaughn - Kitty Raises Hell

So it was just me who returned to the table and sat next to Ben. “How are you doing?”

He donned a vague smile. “This feels like the first time in weeks I’ve been able to sit and catch my breath.”

“Amen,” I said.

We leaned back, our chairs against the shelter of the wall behind us, and gazed out over our realm. He squeezed my hand.

“I’m thinking of something else,” he said.

“Yeah? What?”

“You want to go out?”

Wolf perked up her ears. She knew what “out” meant, like any canine wanting to go for a run. I played obtuse. “Like on a date?”

“Sort of. Maybe out to that open space west of 93.”

“Full moon’s a week away,” I said.

“I know. But I keep thinking about waking up in the cold air curled up with you. No one around, just the two of us. Leave the kids at home.”

You know, it actually sounded romantic.

“I don’t like to make a habit of that sort of thing.”

He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close until he was whispering in my ear, his lips tickling against me, almost but not quite kissing me. I wanted to lean into him until he had to kiss me.

“Here’s the thing,” Ben said. “Who says we have to shape-shift in order to go out in the woods, get naked, and make out under the stars?”

Oh my. That flush reached all the way to my toes. My face felt like it had caught fire. Metaphorically speaking. There was something to be said for having one’s inhibitions lowered. I never would have done anything like this before becoming a werewolf.

I turned my head, leaning my forehead against his. “I think you just got yourself a date,” I whispered back.

Paradox PI had just gotten to the part where New Moon was on fire. The audience was riveted, staring ahead, completely enthralled. Good thing Ben and I were sitting in the back. Moving quietly along the wall, we slipped to the door, then crept outside. If anyone noticed, they didn’t complain.

Ben and I drove away, to wilderness and star-filled skies.

Carrie Vaughn had a happy and relatively uneventful childhood, which means she had to turn to science fiction and fantasy for material to write about. An Air Force brat, she grew up all over the U.S. and managed to put down roots in Colorado, though she still has ambitions of being a world traveler. Learn more about Carrie’s novels, her short stories, her dog Lily, and her fascination with costumes and stick figure cartoons at http://www.carrievaughn.com/.