Rather than work her way up, she left his feet bare and started again from the top. It always looked so awkward when men took off their pants before their shirt. Besides, there were no tattoos on Nick’s feet or ankles, and she was curious about those. She stripped him of his mother-of-pearl cufflinks and pearl studs (placing them respectfully by her own hoard pack), then bow tie, tailcoat, and waistcoat, as he sat laughing.
“There’s just so much of it,” Nick said at last.
“Not fo
r long.” Raluca unbuttoned his shirt, sliding a finger down his chest as she did so.
He sobered then, his thick black eyelashes fluttering as he briefly closed his eyes. His muscles tensed and he shivered once as she pulled off his shirt. She couldn’t tell if it was from nerves or desire.
“Nick...” she began. Then she stopped, staring in fascination at his tattoos.
They did cover his entire chest. It was a single work of art, showing a pack of wolves hunting deer in a forest, all done in the same meticulous, exquisitely shaded and detailed style that she’d seen on his arms and hand.
The wolves had different colors of fur, some gray, some white, some black. But they clearly hunted as a unified pack, their eyes of yellow or green or blue fierce and intent. A herd of deer fled before them, and four deer lay dead on the fallen leaves, moss, and rich earth. Some of the wolves had either been injured in the hunt or spattered with blood from the deer; the scarlet drops on their fur stood out with stunning clarity. The gray wolf who led them all stood with his paws atop a fallen deer, his fangs showing white and his green eyes ablaze.
Raluca touched the lead wolf. The muscles on Nick’s chest jumped, making the wolf seem to move.
“That’s you, isn’t it?” Raluca asked.
“Yeah.” Nick swallowed, his breath coming faster. She could see the vein pulse at the fine skin along his throat, and feel his heart pounding. “It all has a meaning, it’s not there to just look good. But don’t ask me what it means just yet. I’ll tell you after, okay? Not now.”
She nodded. “It is beautiful, though. Whatever the meaning. And so are you.”
He didn’t laugh, though she belatedly recalled that in America, one didn’t use that word to describe men. But he was. His shoulders and chest were much more muscular than she’d realized, but more wiry than burly. He wasn’t as lean as a dragon, but he looked as agile and quick as she’d already seen him to be.
Raluca stroked his chest, then stopped as her fingers encountered something rough and pitted. It was invisible to the eye, hidden in the trunk and branches of a gnarled oak, but she could feel it. Scar tissue.
Nick flinched, and Raluca jerked her fingers away. But she couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t felt it. Shifters normally didn’t scar at all. It would take either repeated injuries to the same place, or one bad enough to nearly kill...
“Later?” Raluca asked.
“Yeah. Should’ve warned you, sorry. One day I’ll have a HANDS OFF sign tattooed on that oak.” Nick took a deep breath, then managed a smile. “That’s it for the landmines. Anywhere else is fine.”
Even without knowing the story, Raluca felt a sympathetic twinge of her heart for him, both for the original wound and for the pain it obviously still caused him. But he didn’t wish to speak of it now, and she trusted him to tell her later.
She continued her exploration of his body. He had little hair on his chest, and the black scattering he did have blended into the tree branches. Like his scars, the line of hair that ran straight down through his navel was invisible against a dark tree-trunk. Raluca only discovered it by touch.
“Keep going,” Nick breathed, as she ran her finger down it.
He leaned back, levering himself up on his hands so she could pull off his pants. She took off his boxers with them, leaving him completely nude in one smooth motion.
His legs were as finely muscled as the rest of him, but it was his cock that caught her attention. It rose up hard and throbbing, exactly the right size for her hand.
When she closed her fingers around it, Nick made a sound halfway between a groan and a snarl, pulled from deep within his chest. “Raluca... I love how you touch me, but...”
It was exactly the right size for her. The lazy relaxation of her first climax vanished, replaced with an urgency that made her squeeze her hand tight. He groaned again, but not with pain.
“We can touch more later.” Raluca lay back, tugging Nick down on top of her. “I too want you in me now.”
His whole body moved into hers, his skin smooth, the muscles firm beneath it. He kissed her hard and stroked her face, and she felt not only desire but love in the touch of his fingers, the pressure of his lips, the heat of his mouth.
He pulled back, reaching down into the pocket of the pants that she’d tossed beside the bed, then frowned. “I picked up some condoms. Even though I was sure I’d never get to use them. Is that okay? Or do you not believe in any sort of birth control at all?”
Raluca stared at him blankly, then remembered their exchange in the dressing room. Now that she understood more about them both and the very different places they’d come from, she instantly knew how she’d misled him, and why. All that confusion and frustration seemed absurd now. All either of them had needed to do was ask.
“A misunderstanding, Nick,” she said, trying not to laugh. “It’s not that I don’t believe in birth control. It’s that I don’t need it. Dragons conceive by will, not by accident. I won’t get pregnant unless I choose to. When you mentioned it before, I too misunderstood. I thought you were insulting me by implying that I wasn’t a true dragon.”
Nick pulled his empty hand back up, put his head in his hands, and groaned. “Why the fuck didn’t I ask? I could’ve had you then!”