“Maybe he secretly wants pretty cat socks too. It’s difficult to tell with Vergis. Those socks wouldn’t fit a bagu’s feet well though.”
I nodded. “Not to mention the claws. Hey, Ink?”
“Yes, Sadir?”
I closed the zipper and carefully set the backpack down on the floor. Then I hugged him.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Inkiri hugged me back, his hands warming my skin and making me feel as if I glowed. Maybe I did. Was love a thing that made you glow and shine and shimmer? An actor should know. I’d probably only ever been shrubbery because I didn’t glow. That I might be learning now thanks to everything that had happened made me feel all kinds of things—too much all at once.
“It was a very little thing.”
I looked up at him, shaking my head. “It really wasn’t, and—” I thought about it for maybe a second, then did my best to look as sexy as anyone could on such short notice. “Yeah, you deserve a reward.”
Inkiri’s eyebrows quirked up. “You’re happy. That’s a good reward.”
Gosh-darnit, why was he being so gentlemanly? “Yeah, but—I mean—” I glanced over my shoulder at the bed. “I mean…”
Inkiri clicked. “Sadir. Pleasure play is no reward a hangu-na is due. I know Earth customs are different, and Donna talks a lot about the patriarchy, but you don’t have to think like that anymore.”
The issue was probably that I’d not had the time to prepare the looking sexy bit. I was pretty sure that as a competent trophy mate, I should’ve been able to get Inkiri ready to want me with the faintest sigh of desire, but clearly, there was more practice required to make that happen.
“I know that, but… I didn’t actually mean it that way? You did something very special, and it makes you pretty hot.” I fanned myself. “What am I to do about that?”
He tilted his head one way, clicked, tilted it the other. His cat eyes narrowed. “You want my cock? You want me to make you feel good?”
“Only if you want to.” Coy, I thought. Be coy.
Inkiri leaned forward. “I always want to, Sadir.”
Then he kissed me, the human way, but he never deepened that kiss, moving to my throat instead.
The satisfaction of succeeding in my awkward seduction filled me like water filling a leaky sports bottle. There’d be some spillage at first, but after a while, I’d be good enough to be like a new and fancy sports bottle when it came to seduction.
For now though, I was looking forward to the leaky bit—not sports bottles; my husband’s cock. The spillage too. I fumbled while he licked and clicked, and when I couldn’t get his pants open, he had the nerve to chuckle.
“’S not funny. Stupid knots.”
“If my pants were too loose, they’d easily slip in battle, but I can see the appeal of looser clothes now.” He pulled back. “Can I undress you first, my Rory? I like seeing you.”
My cheeks turned the color of billet beans, but unless I was mistaken, that made Inkiri’s nostrils flare and his eyes go wide. I didn’t like that me being embarrassed was sexy to him, but maybe learning to blush on cue was something I could manage, right after I figured out how to effectively faint into my mate’s arms.
“Okay. But…you won’t stare?”
He brushed my chin with the pad of his thumb. “Do you really not like it when I look at you?” He tilted his head. “Sweet thing, if you were ever worried about not looking like a bagu, then know that I don’t care. I want only you, and I love how you look. Your little cock—normal-sized cock—and your pink nipples, and?—”
I clamped both hands over his mouth while turning a comprehensive crimson. “I see! Yes! Makes sense. Let’s stop talking and do the undressing, okay?”
I could feel his smile under my palms. That sly monster knew exactly what him talking was doing to me, and he did it anyway. I really, really loved him.
He flicked the hem of my T-shirt and ran his fingers from my side to just above my navel. It didn’t exactly make me shiver, but it made me drop my hands from his mouth.
“My pretty human mate.” He made his purring noises, interspersed with a click here and there, and that did things to me. “I enjoy touching your skin. Your hair is such an unusual color that I could look at it all day long.”
“You don’t have to butter me up, you know.” I pointed my thumb at the double bed we shared, just barely large enough to accommodate Inkiri’s horns. “I could just lie down?”
“Butter you up? We can try that. We’ll ask Charles for an extra sheet, and then I’ll rub some butter or oil all over you.”
