woman. Flat-faced, defenseless, and utterly unsuited for the life he led. Ugly.
She looked up at about the same time he finished his contemplation of her body, and their eyes met.
“Come here,” he said quietly.
She told her feet to move. They simply stood there, rooted to the spot.
He tried diplomacy. “Come here, please.”
She unlocked her knees and stumbled forward, stepping into the pit to join him. They stood spare inches apart, looking at each other.
He reached up, put a hand on her arm and rested it there, studying her. She smiled timidly, trying to quiet her leaping stomach. He brought up the other hand and caressed her hip.
Olivia began to cry again.
The hand that was not exploring the lower curves of her body came up to brush at the tears. He seemed almost embarrassed for her, fanning out his folded wings slightly as though to shield her.
It took less than a minute to get herself under control. She wiped her eyes dry, unable to meet his gaze, shivering. She looked down, saw his club-like penis half-erect, and looked away, cold with panic.
“Olivia,” he said, not with desire, but gentle all the same. “Come here, please.” He said something more, in his deep, grumbling language, but she couldn’t understand.
Anyway, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as though he were giving her a choice. She inched another step closer. He closed the distance with a step of his own. She felt heat and hardness pressed against her thigh.
He touched the tip of one finger to her breast, brushing almost curiously over one fear-hard nipple. He traced the line of her jaw, her lips, her nose, her brow. He combed his claws through her hair. He outlined the contours of her back and buttocks, explored her ribs and the jumping muscles of her abdomen.
He hesitated, then knelt and pulled her down with him. She rolled instantly onto her belly, but he didn’t try to turn her. He just kept stroking her back. She could feel the weight of his stare.
He’s not going to do anything, she thought, and never mind his erection. Nothing was going to happen here. Nothing.
He made a humming sound, very low, right at the edge of her ability to hear it, and she felt him combing her hair over one shoulder. He bent, his breath hot on the back of her neck, and hummed again, toneless and so deep. She locked up like a fist, expecting him to lick at her, but he just moved a littler lower down, humming at the space between her shoulderblades. His hand, petting her in those long passes, moved lower, over her bottom, to cup her sex.
She jumped. Her legs were already together; tightening them up only trapped his hand against her. He hummed again, rubbing his fingers up and down along her folds. Up and down, nothing more, and she couldn’t stay tense forever. As her thighs unlocked, the creature hummed louder, shifted again, and finally touched his mouth to the back of her neck.
He didn’t do anything then, not even hum. He was motionless except for his hand. His breath was steady, hot, and shallow. After a moment, he opened his lips a little and grazed his teeth across her, humming once, raggedly.
This was going to happen and she didn’t want it to happen like that, feeling fur on her back and teeth on her neck. Olivia, trembling, rolled over and made herself lie flat, her hands digging at the bedding.
He waited until she had settled herself, content to watch her. His eyes had taken on that smoky, unfocused look of arousal, strangely comforting in its familiarity. When she was quiet again, he slipped his hand back down between her thighs and found her sex. He stroked once, twice, and then probed between the lips of her labia. Her thighs clenched once, instinctively, and he hummed at her and waited, not moving, while she tried to relax. As soon as her muscles unlocked, he penetrated her with his finger, slowly but deeply. She could feel the blunt pebble of