Page 55 of Mutant Mine

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I am simply surprised. You are so attractive, I assumed you must have had lovers before.”

“Oh.” I’m stunned into silence. Then I find myself asking in a small voice: “…So it’s not a bad thing?”

“It is neither a bad thing nor a good thing. Either way, it would not affect how I see you.” Roth studies me thoughtfully, then admits: “I have not had sex in this version of my body.”

“Does it feel different?”

“Yes,” he says, his eyes intense. “Everything, every sensation feels new. But I do not know how much of that is my body, and how much is because it is with you.”

My heart does a backflip. Oh god. I think I just felt the dopamine being released directly into my bloodstream.

“So we’re both figuring it out as we go.”

“We are.” He smiles. “But we do not have to carry on tonight. We could stop right now. Just lie down and sleep.”

“No,” I say quickly, “I don’t want to stop. Just… be patient with me?”

Roth gives me a long, assessing looks, then sighs. He leans down to rest his forehead against mine, with his eyes closed.

“I will stop whenever you say.”

“I know you will.”

“And if anything I do from now on makes you uncomfortable, I expect you to tell me.”

“Deal,” I say, my own eyes drifting shut.

Roth’s hand creeps back under the hem of my t-shirt. It ghosts over my ribs, and then onto my breast. He rubs my nipple in slow circles with the pad of his thumb.

“Tell me when it is good, too. Is that good, Rory?”

“Yes,” I breathe.

“Good.”

Roth kisses me again — distracting me as he begins to ease my openjumpsuit off my shoulders. He kneels to pull it off my legs, leaving me lying here in nothing but my t-shirt and undershorts.

Sat back on his knees, Roth takes in every inch of me: the length of my legs, the strip of belly visible under my pushed up t-shirt, the tips of my breasts pressing against the white cotton. His midnight blue eyes are unreadable.

What does he see, when he looks at me?

Feeling exposed, I reach for Roth, drawing his heavy bodyback down on top of me.

Soon he’s pulling my shirt up over my head. He kisses down my throat, and then — glancing up to check whether this is okay — lowers his mouth to my naked chest. He sucks one nipple then the other, biting them lightly and soothing the sting with a kiss.

I want to touch him too. Clumsily, I feel my way down his chest. I manage to reach one palm to the front of his jumpsuit and stroke the thick swell I find there.

Roth twitches under my touch — but he takes my arm and pulls it away. Gently, he pins both my wrists above my head in one of his hands.

“You do not need to do that,” he says. “Just let me do this for you. Please.”

Then he hooks the fingers of his other hand under the waistband of my shorts.

“May I?” he asks.

I can only nod.

Roth slides the shorts down my legs, leaving me totally naked. The cool air of the room washes over my bare skin. I feel hot and cold all at once, not knowing whether to flush or break out in goosebumps.

---