Page 64 of The Demons in the Deep: Extended Edition
“You want me to mate with you?”
“You can’t impregnate me because I’ve been taking a tonic ever since our first night in Stragnoag, when those men on the docks—”
Rake’s whole body reacted, tensing. He felt his predator’s instinct soaring up to the surface, his hunting teeth starting to emerge. “Don’t remind me,” he said thickly.
“Sorry, sorry. Here, look at these.” Mai seized his hand and placed his palm over her breast. “I’m told men like them.”
Rake laughed, even as delight flooded through him.
The females of his race had flat, hard breasts, and though he had admired Kestra’s large ones, he’d never been allowed to touch them, of course. Mai’s breasts were the perfect compromise—smaller than Kestra’s, but far prettier and squishier than those of mermaids. The predatorial frenzy ebbed, and he focused on Mai instead—the malleable flesh of her breast, the tiny beaded nipple. With his right palm still molded to one soft mound, he rolled her other nipple between the knuckles of his left hand.
She whimpered, and at first he thought he’d hurt her, despite his care. But she looked up at him with glossy eyes, and all he saw in them was love and desire. Which made his length throb and twitch against the inside of his pants.
“How do humans mate?” he asked shakily.
“Sometimes standing, or against a wall, but usually lying on a bed,” Mai whispered. “Should we—”
The idea of sliding into her made him weak. He had craved nothing more in his whole life. But he said, “If we do this, I could remember things, and react, and hurt you.”
“We’ll go slowly,” she said. “And if you need to stop, we will. I won’t be angry or disappointed. I care about you and your comfort more than I want any pleasure for myself.”
The words shattered Rake and healed him.
He took off his boots, his pants—he was not so clumsy about it now as he used to be.
Mai went to the bed, her face entirely red, and she lay down. She parted her legs, opening her sex to him. “You can put it in when you’re ready.”
But Rake did not feel ready—or he did not feel thatshewas ready. She seemed tense and anxious. She needed to be soothed.
He eased onto the bed, between her legs. So tiny she was, compared to him. His human penis was large, and he was not sure it would fit inside her. He needed to prepare her opening, test it—taste it.
“May I touch it?” he asked.
She nodded, red-faced, her mouth tight.
No, this would not do. He wanted her rosy and pleased, not anxious.
Rake crawled over her body, his long hair sliding down across her shoulder and breast. He settled his form lightly against hers, bracing himself so he would not overwhelm her with his weight. He kissed her forehead tenderly, then looked at her mouth—looser now, not so grimly set. Good.
He kissed her lips, tenderly, and allowed the tip of his tongue to quest inside her mouth, exploring the smooth, flat ridges of her teeth, so different from his. Her tongue, too, was different—wet and soft, so slick that his cock bobbed again.
Her lips were wide open now, accepting him, and the rest of her form had relaxed, too. Rake kissed her mouth again, then kissed her cheek, the edge of her jaw, the delicate skin of her neck. He moved down to her collarbone, then to the pillowy softness of her breast. Her nipple looked so delicious he had to tease it with one tooth, very gently.
He tasted her flesh, licking swaths of wetness across her belly. Her skin was sweet and salty, fresh and savory—and his jaws began to loosen, to unhinge, his teeth sliding out.
Rake whipped his head away for a second, huffing harsh breaths, trying to regain control. What he wanted had changed, shifting from sexual desire to mortal hunger, the craving to slice into her flesh with his teeth and swallow the slippery chunks.
“Rake.”
He blinked at her, snarling faintly.
Mai gripped his jaw. “You’re not eating me,” she said sternly. And with her other hand she seized his length.
Rake gasped at the touch, and his monster self sank back into the depths again. But the spirit of the predator remained, and he laid a clawed hand on Mai’s chest, pushing her back down on the bed.
He slid lower and sniffed the delicate pink parts between her legs. There was a special flowery scent here that kept his mating instinct front and center, with the feeding desire firmly repressed. He felt sure he could taste this lovely wet area without losing control, so he let his long tongue slither out again, teasing Mai’s dainty flesh.
She squealed, and he looked up, questioning. She nodded, fast and desperate, so he smiled and said softly, “Experimentation and observation.”
