Page 74 of Mutant Mine

Without saying a word, Rory gets up from the other side of the table and walks towards me. She lifts one hand, sogently, to my jaw, and strokes my lower lip with her thumb. The tenderness of it knocks the air from my lungs, harder than if she had struck me.

“Roth.” She stands above me, still cradling my face with one hand. “Do you know what I thought, the very first time I saw you, standing in your cell?”

I shake my head, staring up at her.

“I thought you were beautiful.”

And then she dips her head to kiss me.

37

Rory

EVERYTHING FEELSdifferent this time. Every kiss, every touch, is supercharged. It’s like we’re doing this for the first time. I guess itisthe first time for us, in many ways; both of us are exposed now, with no secrets left between us.

Roth sits rigidly in the dining chair below me, his chin tipped up and his hands gripping the backs of my thighs. He allows me to hold him still and kiss him gently for a minute. But when my tongue flicks against his fangs for the first time, he groans, and his control breaks.

In one motion, Roth rises to his feet and lifts me backwards onto the table, pulling my legs around his hips and licking into my mouth.

He’s wearing his jumpsuit with no t-shirt underneath. Tentatively, I slide the jumpsuit’s front zip down to his waist, then slip my hand inside.

Normally, at this point, Roth would be pushing my hands away and distracting me with his mouth. This time, he freezes beneath my touch — then relaxes in increments, as if it takes a great effort. I smile into the kiss.

Roth’s skin radiates heat against my palms. Strong muscles shift smoothly underneath. I stroke and explore his bare chest, trailing my fingers along the winding lines of blue. The blue-tinted skin doesn’t feel scaly like I expected; instead, it’s exceptionally soft. It seems to ripple slightly beneath mytouch.

Roth is tense, focused on the sensation. When I experimentally lower my mouth to one blue nipple, take it between my lips, and suck — thinking about how good it feels when he does the same for me — he presses forwards into the touch with a soft sound. Cradled between my knees, his hips twitch.

I reach for the zipper again, to pull it all the way down — but his hands stop me.

“Sorry,” I whisper, thinking I must have gone too far, too fast.

Roth shakes his head.

“Bed,” he says.

He scoops me up, my legs still around his waist, and carries me across the room. He lays me down on the mattress, but doesn’t climb on top of me like he would have done before. Instead, he stays standing over me, staring down from under his dark horns.

Propped up on my elbows below him, I catch my breath. Roth looms above the bed, holding my gaze as he slowly pulls down his zipper. But I can see the subtle flicker of nerves in his watchful eyes — examining my face so carefully for my reaction to his body.

Pulling myself up to kneel on the edge of the bed, I help him pull the jumpsuit off his hips. Finally, Roth stands before me, naked.

Oh.I wet my lips. He looks…

The blue lines that swirl over Roth’s torso and up his legs converge into a solid blot at his groin, not an inch of human skin in sight. It’s a darker blue than the rest of him; the same deep indigo as his horns.

His genitals are… distinctly alien. There’s no hair — just silky, blue skin. Directly above his shaft is a vertical line of hard, rounded bumps: one larger, then several smaller. His cock itself is large and thick, and more ornately shaped than any simple human organ. It’s broader at the base, dips in slightly in the middle, before flaring out to a pronounced head. All the way up, the underside is textured with smooth ridges.

I press my thighs together. The reality of him is intimidating — how is that thing ever supposed tofit? —but it makes me ache.

I reach out to touch, tracing lightly over the strange curves, ridges, and bumps. The shape may be strange, but it feels just like it should: warm, velvet soft, and sensitive to my touch. The skin ripples in the wake of my fingertips, just like the blue stripes on his chest.

I suddenly realize that Roth has been standing there stiffly, holding his breath while I scrutinize him, for a good thirty seconds. I look up, my hand still curled loosely around his cock. I want to tell him that I’m grateful that he’s trusted me with all of himself. That he’s magnificent, that I want him — that there’s less than nothing to be ashamed of, and he ought to be proud of every searing hot inch. But tonight, I don’t have the words.

Instead, I remember how out-of-this-world amazing Roth makes me feel when he kisses between my legs — and I bring him to my lips.

I’ve never done this before, and I don’t know how to make it good for him — but Roth’s first startled groan soon soothes any anxiety from my mind. Guided by what makes his breath hitch and his fists tighten in my hair, I explore the tastes and textures of him: kissing at the swollen tip, licking it, before pulling it into my mouth. I suck as steadily as I can, sliding my tongue up and down the ridges on the underside. He’s too big for me to take very far down, so I stroke with my handwhat I can’t fit inside.

Eventually, I pull off him with apop, gasping for breath. It turns out I’m a talker, and I do need to say it in words after all:

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