Page 34 of Tail Me No Lies
Ruth couldn’t explain why, but she laughed. That did sound like him. “She didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. I made her swear not to tell anyone.”
“Is she to be trusted?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. Serene would keep this secret.
“If she betrays you—” Nox’s posture went stiff, like he was preparing for an attack.
Right. Broken bones and blood, his favorite tools.
“She made pretty much the same threat. Treat me right, Mr. Nox. Serene has an unlimited supply of cousins, and she’s not afraid to use them.”
He huffed, as if mildly amused, and the tension left his body.
They fell into an easy silence, the crackling of the fire the only noise.
Despite the heat from the fire, Ruth shivered.
“You are cold. Remove your clothing,” Nox said.
She gave him some of her best side-eye, trying to gauge if this was a come-on or a joke. The emergency pack had a container of wipes, and it would be nice to clean the mud off her legs. So maybe not a joke.
No, he appeared serious. Her immediate reaction was to balk at the idea of stripping in front of him, even though he had seen everything already. When they had been swimming, her outfit didn’t hide much but the murky water concealed her belly rolls and thick thighs. Now, in front of the fire, there’d be nothing to cover her…well, all of her. Rolls and cellulite.
The desire to be clean and dry won out over her insecurities about her body. “It makes sense to get out of our wet clothes. We won’t get dry otherwise,” she said.
She screwed her eyes shut and lifted the hem of her shirt, exposing a small patch of her stomach. She paused, waiting for the laugh or the noise of disgust.
None came.
Ruth cracked open an eye. Nox stared at her, hunger plain on his face. She relaxed. Whatever she thought of her body, Nox seemed enthusiastic.
“You too. I’m not the only one stripping,” she said.
He grinned, fangs catching in the firelight. “Ruthless female. So demanding.”
He unbuttoned the shirt and let it fall to the ground. Firelight played over the planes of his chest, creating valleys of shadow and peaks of light. The striation pattern moved as he rose to his feet and removed his trousers. The wet fabric fell to the floor, followed quickly by his briefs.
Ruth averted her eyes. Technically, she had seen it before when a nail went rogue and tore his swim trunks, but accidental nudity was different from deliberate nudity. And his dick was just…perfect. Thick and long enough to be alarming, his cock had a blunt end rather than a human-like bulbous shape. He was amber at the base and magenta at the tip.
That wasn’t even the biggest difference. The blunt tip angled up and raised nodules radiated around the edge, traveling down the length of him. She read a few biology textbooks and knew that Tal females needed to be internally stimulated, so the nodules were an evolutionary adaptation.
So many bumps, all to serve one purpose: to make her come. Well, not her specifically, but sort of her, especially if Nox’s hardness were any indication.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Nox
He wanted his mate to see him. All of him, just as he was.
She turned back, her eyes immediately focused on his cock. Her eyes went round with either delight or alarm. This was not the first time she had seen his member, so it could not be that much of a surprise. Humans were difficult to read as they lacked tails, and their ears were so tiny and in the wrong place. They could not even move their ears.
She licked her lips. Firelight gleamed on her spectacles, masking her eyes. She looked hungry.
He approved.
“See something you like?”
“A lot of something,” she murmured, her voice sounding uncertain. He knew that a Tal penis was different from a human’s. The shape was similar, but he had ridges and nodules, designed to stimulate. Did those bother her? Was he too different? Nox knew he suffered from an abundance of confidence, yet in that moment, he worried that he did not please her.
