Page 136 of Tempting Fate

All my muscles went languid, my heart beat faster, every nerve tingling in stunned awareness.

If bliss had a taste, it would be Imani.

“You do that back,” she breathed.

My mouth was much wider than hers, my tusks in the way, but I cradled the back of her head and drew her close. I savoured her scent, the way she gasped and softened, and for the first time, I touched my lips to hers.

This was perhaps more intimate than mating. A meeting of mouths, the place where we spoke our truths, told each other of our joy, our pain, our ideas, where we laughed and teased and moaned. What better way to help usher in the bond than to meet her in a new intimacy, one we had not shared before?

Imani sighed, licking the seam of my lips. At my gasp, she delved into my mouth.

Taste exploded on my tongue. Colour and sound and light filled my senses, more delicious than the sweetest fruit or pastries. I needed more.

Acting on instinct, I coiled my main tongue into loops around hers, sucking gently.

Drawing away, I murmured, “Did I do it right?”

“Oh god. Your tongue. I mean, I imagined but I never imagined…”

This was a good thing? “You like it?” Please tell me you like it.

“I might need to try again to decide.” She gave an impish smile and traced a finger over my tusks. “I like these.”

My bare, shameful tusks. But Imani liked them. “Kiss me again?”

“Say please.” The stern glint in her eyes demanded my obedience.

Something coiled in my stomach, the same feeling of rightness that flooded me whenever she spoke to me in this way. My cock bucked into hardness. “Please kiss me, Marni.”

She ran both hands down my ear ridges, teasing the tips in the way that always sent pleasure radiating through me. “God, Airi, I have wanted this for so long.” She gripped my cheeks and dragged my face to hers.

I lost myself in the softness of her mouth. Acting without thought, I drew her close, pulling her into my lap in the water.

My Imani, naked in my arms.

My Imani, tangling tongues with me.

When hers touched my smaller tongue, a similar size to her own and which lay on top of the other, I flicked it over hers.

She pulled away, gasping. “How have you got two tongues? Is that why your voice is so gorgeous?”

I shrugged. “It is a shaa thing, I am told.”

“It’s a great thing. Oh my god, the possibilities.” She tapped my chest with an accusatory finger. “You’ve been keeping this secret from me.”

Hardly. I’d have kissed her weeks ago had she let me. I smirked, flicking the end of my tongue over her lips. “And what are you going to do about it? How will you torment me now you no longer withhold kisses from me?”

“Oh, just you wait. But for now, this.”

My world ignited in the heat of her, and we lost ourselves under the canopy of crystals and lights. How had I spent my whole life without this woman? Without knowing the sound of her laugh, the touch of her lips, the softness of her skin under my hands, as perfect as I’d imagined?

She shifted in my lap, lining up our bodies.

Though my cock ached to be inside her, I held her hips firm. “No.”

“No?”

I drew her into another deep kiss. “No, my beloved. I want to take my time with you. I want to learn your body as you know mine.” With a firm touch, I slid my hands up, over her stomach, to cup the swells of her breasts. “Gods, these are perfect. I will never get enough of the feel of you.” I buried my face between them, rubbing the pads of my thumbs over her nipples.