I nodded, while watching his him strip—and then he was a jerk and changed into a tiger before taking off his boxer briefs, in a blur of sudden motion.
“That’s cheating!” I protested lightly. “You’ve seen all of me!”
The creature he was now—massive, furred, and sleek—chuffed in amusement, padding toward me on the feathers, and then stopped when he was close enough for me to touch.
He still had Namir’s green eyes, and they watched me reach out and stroke a finger up the fur on his nose the wrong direction, then sweep my hand up to catch and rub an ear. I felt emboldened then, and started running my hands down the solid length of his neck, shoulders, and back. Petting him felt miraculous, and he was endlessly patient with me doing so, as my fingers traced the outlines of his thick, blunt fangs, and his legs down to his claw-tips. He closed his eyes and wound his way around me, offering all of himself to be touched, bit by bit, until all of him was on the feathers with me, and he lay down, stretching out to lick a paw, just like a housecat.
“You’re ridiculous,” I told him, lying down beside him. I couldn’t stop petting him, though, as I wriggled up against him, so I could feel his fur against my skin.
Namir stopped licking his paw and looked over at me, to run his raspy tongue up my cheek. I laughed, wiping his spit away—and when I next opened my eyes, he was a man again, stretched beside me same as his cat had been.
“You lured me in,” I complained lightly, from my position, laying on my feathers.
“Absolutely,” he confessed, coming in for a kiss.
I felt him rock over me and I reached up, tracing my fingers over him again, on skin instead of fur. His free hand roamed as he pushed himself up, pinning me against my feathers below, his hips asking mine to open.
I did so readily, all of me already achy and hot, anticipation overwhelming any fear—but instead of taking it like the invitation that it was, he started kissing lower, at my jaw, my neck, while my fingers curled in his hair, until he found a nipple and lapped at it, using the rough part of his human tongue thatstill mirrored his cat’s, to pull it into a soft peak for him to suck on.
“Namir,” I breathed, watching him, my jaw dropped a little, my gaze feeling heavy.
He purred a response, and then went to suck on the other, holding the first breast with his hand, teasing the same nipple between thumb and forefinger. “Am I the first person to kiss your breasts, little bird?” he asked, lifting up, his pupils as wide as my own surely were.
“Yes,” I whispered, squirming beneath him lightly, encouraging him to hurry up.
He chuckled at that, and then started kissing lower, pausing sometimes to gently rasp me with his tongue, until his face was almost between my thighs. “And will I be the first person to taste you?”
I nodded, because I knew where his mouth was going, and the thought of it stole my words. His hands held me open and he breathed me in for a moment before his lips descended on me, pulling at my clit, exposing it for his tongue’s soft-rough attention.
I had a hand in his hair before I knew what I was doing—I just needed to keep him there. “Namir,” I whispered again, but this time with a greedy whine, while he made a satisfied sound between my thighs.
I’d come before, with my fingers and with toys, but none of those sensations had been like this, like how it felt to be able to watch him as he ate me out, feeling his bearded chin rubbing against my folds as he made hungry sounds, licking and sucking and pulling at my clit.
I’d imagined what this moment might be like on a thousand different nights, wondering if I’d ever find someone who I could trust to let it happen—and now that I thought that I had, I wascompletely without shame. “That feels so good,” I whispered, tensing up. “Don’t stop.”
He made an acquiescing sound against me, as I began to squirm.
“Oh God,” I said, rising up, my ass clenching, my calves tight, as he growled and held me open for his tongue. I was so close I was panting—but I didn’t want to come from this—not when the rest of him was so near. “Namir—stop,” I whispered. I wanted him in me so badly,now. “Do it—don’t make me wait again.”
His tongue stilled and he looked up, his mouth close enough to my clit that I could feel it as he breathed his words. “Are you sure?”
I nodded again, frantically, letting go of his hair. I licked my lips, held one breast with one hand, and reached for him with the other.
He rose up, his lips and chin glistening with my juices, as he crawled over me. “You don’t have to rush. There will be other nights.”
I shook my head, that wasn’t good enough. “I want it to be this one.”
His expression became one of restrained concern. “Do you feel for me, as I do for you?”
“I—I don’t know, Namir. I still hardly know you—and like this, I’m more human than swan, so maybe I don’t get the magic feels like other shifters do. But I know I want to know you, which is more than I can say for anyone else I’ve ever met. And I desperately want you to fuck me. Doesn’t that count?”
“For now, yes,” he said, eyeing me studiously. “But I want it all, Lily. I want what’s in between your legs,andyour mind,andyour heart. I want to be the first thing you think of when you wake, and the last before you go to sleep, and every moment in between.”
My heart began pounding in my chest. “You could’ve had that already, if you’d just taken my feathers,” I quietly confessed.
He gave me a wicked grin. “I had some time to hit up Google today—so I know. But my pride requires that you choose me freely.”
I put my hand against his cheek. “Predator-prey relationships never work out, Namir.”