Page 29 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

Did I hear Axel right? Did he really ask me to punch his V-card? Who said things like that?

Axel did, that's who. He was sweet, endearing, and all mine. I couldn't wait to get him into bed and start working him open, but, "We said we would go slow, so nobody's punching any cards tonight."

"Right. You didn't even want to see me tonight."

"I never said that." I sighed. "I'm here now, aren't I?"

I'd tried to slow things down, but it hadn't worked. I was already as hard as I had been the night before when we'd made out for hours. Sitting beside him on the couch, the location of our past passionate necking, was not helping.

"How about we start with mutual orgasms and work our way up to sex?" I asked.

"Mutual orgasms? You mean like foreplay?"

"Except it's the whole enchilada."

His frown was adorable. "Oh. Right. Foreplay leads to something else, and this will … not."

"Not yet anyway." I sighed.

"But soon?" He sounded so hopeful.

I placed a quick kiss on the corner of his lips. "Soon, I promise."

"I feel like a teenager making out on the couch," he said. "Want to get more comfortable on my bed?"

"Sure."

His bed was large for the room, taking up most of the space and both the headboard and one full side butting up against the walls. Instead of taking his clothes off, Axel lay down in the middle and motioned for me to join him. We lay on our sides facing each other, and he caressed my cheek.

"I want to know everything about you," he said. "Want to play a game? We share facts about ourselves as we take off a piece of clothing."

Only my mate would make me more comfortable about getting naked with a game. "That sounds wonderful."

"Why are you so nervous?" he asked. "I can't wait to see you naked."

"I … It's ridiculous," I admitted. "I didn't have the best human body."

"None of us did," Axel said. "The way Merritt explains it, the changeling spell kept us from growing too big and powerful in the human world."

"I know." I sighed. "I had an able body and a pretty face. I wasn't a good judge of character, let's put it that way." I'd been a slut in high school and even worse in college. "I always thought one of my hookups would be more, but all the repeats wanted was access to my hole. They didn't give a single shit about me. I've never topped," I whispered. "It will be my first time, too."

"Awesome!" Axel whooped and kissed me. Before it became more, he sat up and pulled his shirt over his head. "I'll go first. What do you want to know about me?"

"We already talked about your hobbies …" I had to stop myself from staring at his gorgeous chest, or I wouldn't hear a word he said. "What was your childhood like?"

Axel laughed as he lay beside me again. "You're going straight for the jugular." He glanced at my neck, and pushed my shirt collar to the side to expose where my mating mark would be one day. It took all my willpower not to crush our lips together again. I wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Well, you already know I was no athlete," he joked. "My adoptive parents were good people. We went on plenty of camping trips. Oh, shit, that reminds me. I'm supposed to babysit for Lark. He's taking Punky to meet his parents."

"Oh, that's cool! Can I help?" I asked. I loved baby kobolds, but it felt weird asking Grindl and Punky to babysit, with our history.

"Let me text him and ask." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and fired off a message, and then muted it and tossed it on his nightstand. "Where were we?"

After sharing a few anecdotes of camping with his extended family, including two rambunctious cousins who caught the wrong end of a skunk, it was my turn.

"My parents were young and fun. They found friends in the parenting community, people around their age with kids around my age, and we all met up twice a week and on weekends."

"That sounds like a lot of fun." Axel sounded wistful.

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