Jenny puts her hand over mine, touching me. "It's not that I'm surprised. It's that…" She pauses, thinking. "Well, no, I guess I am surprised. It's been so long since anyone held me that I've forgotten how good it feels." Her thoughts drift to her family. Even when she was with her father, he wasn't demonstrative. Her mother was the hugger, the affectionate one. Her father was always the stoic protector. In the After, he was cautious with showing too much in front of others. Jenny didn't realize how badly she needed touches until I arrived.
I will give you all the touches you need, and more.
Her breasts brush against my arm as I hold her against me, and I remember that she said that she likes for them to be played with. I reach out and run my fingers over one nipple, like she did, and I am rewarded with a loud gasp and a surge of desire in her thoughts.
"Oh. You…" She leans back against me, giving in to my touches. "I thought we were going to go hunting for…things." Her thoughts are distracted, her focus on my touch as the tip of her breast hardens under my caresses. It fills her with all kinds of needs, my hands on her breasts, and she wants more, even though she thinks she should not.
We will hunt soon. Right now I would rather we mate. I turn her in my arms, because I want to see her face. She gazes up at me, her dark eyes wide with excitement, her heart fluttering in her chest. The faint scent of her arousal blooms on the air, and then she gazes at my mouth.
I do not understand why, so I pry deeper into her thoughts, and discover images instead. Images of us…our lips brushing, our tongues twined. Kissing.
Jenny wants to kiss. She wants me to put my mouth on hers, to lick her there, to tangle our tongues together. She wants us to taste one another.
Her mind flares against mine. She realizes that I have never done such a thing. Never thought of such a thing. "Mhal. We don't have to—"
I look at her mouth, soft and pink and full, her lips inviting, and I put my hands on the sides of her face and lower my face to hers.
She goes still the moment I do.
I pull back, not liking that reaction. In her head, it was very passionate, but when I do it now, she stiffens against me. Did I do it wrong? Is it my fangs?
"No, no." Her gaze slides to my lips again. "I just haven't done it before." She is ashamed that she does not know how it is done. She has only seen it happen in movies and television, and it always looks so natural. She does not know how to kiss me, though. When the Rift happened, she was thirteen and had never had a boyfriend. After that, her father was so protective and the world was so dangerous that she never even tried to kiss anyone.
I pluck these thoughts from her head, because I do not understand why she is unhappy that she has no experience.
"I can't exactly demand kisses when I've never done it either."
But you have seen it done, I respond. And you want to try it?
"Is that weird?" Her cheeks hurt with embarrassment.
Nothing between us is weird. Everything is pleasure. Even if we do it wrong, I will enjoy it because I will get to lick and taste my pretty mate. I rub my lips against hers lightly. If we enjoy ourselves, I think we should do it.
She smiles up at me, her eyes dark. "You make it sound so easy."
It is easy. Fighting my way free of the Salorian's control is hard. Putting my mouth on my mate? That is a pleasure. I run my nose along hers, breathing in her scent. Hers is a fine scent, a mix of human things and the sweat and musk that is uniquely hers. I could breathe it in all day long, every day, and never grow tired of it. There would always be new nuances to discover, and to see if her scent changed when my tongue was upon her skin.
Is this what having a mate is? Being endlessly fascinated by their scent and their body until you lose yourself? If so, I can see the attraction.
Jenny puts her hands on my chest, her fingers light against my skin. "If we do something you don't like, you'll say so, right?"
Of course. But I will like it.
Her gaze slides to my lips again, and hers part. She leans in, and I sense she wants us to meet. I oblige, moving forward so that she can easily reach my lips as I am much taller. Jenny's hands curl at the base of my neck and then her lips are on mine.