Page 28 of Dante
I cringed. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help but do so at the mental image that created for me. I moved, taking a huge chance that Dante would accept me moving to where I was straddling his lap. He grabbed my hips, holding me stiffly but not pushing me away. I placed my hands on his shoulders and smiled at him.
“Thank you for telling me. Your scars don’t bother me though. I have some as well. Mine are small though, but when you live in shackles for months on end, it happens.” I pulled up my sleeve. They were faint, but if you looked close enough, you could see the scars from the metal.
Dante ran his finger over my skin, and I would swear he suddenly felt immense sadness. “Do you want me to heal them? I can make them go away for you.”
I tilted my head, then glanced between us where he was rubbing my wrist. “Do they bother you?”
“No,” Dante said quietly. “I thought they might you, though, since they are a constant reminder.”
I looked at them again and thought about it for a moment. “I guess they are in a way. I don’t really think about them too much, actually. They’re faded; they don’t hurt or pull or anything.” I turned my gaze back to my mate. “If they bother you, I’m all for them being healed, I guess.”
Dante stared at me for a moment before he nodded slowly. “We’ll leave them for now and come back to it later if you’d like.”
“How about…we have our scars healed together? We could ask Master Edison? Or maybe he could get the goddess to fix them?” I shrugged. “Mine really don’t bother me.” I reached out and touched Dante’s cheek. Knowing there was what was probably a nasty scar under there made sense as to why his smile always looked more like a grimace. His eyes would twinkle, saying he was genuinely happy, but his mouth said otherwise.
“I will if mine bother you.”
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen them, and although I would never ask you to shave so I could see this one, I hope that one day you will let me see your stomach.” I smiled, hoping he took my comment as being lighthearted as it was intended. “I would very much like to see you in a whole lot less clothing.”
Dante took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I am open to that. And more. But first…” Dante cleared his throat. “I know how to please you. And I’ll certainly see to your pleasure first before anything else, but I am afraid that if we start, I won’t be able to stop. That I’ll end up biting you.”
I snorted. “And that is a bad thing, how? Unless you just don’t want to be mated?” I asked, tilting my head in question.
“I do. I’m difficult though, and I don’t think you realize what you’re going to be stuck with.”
I shrugged at that. “Do we ever? I’m sure there is some reason that we were paired together. Maybe I’m the difficult one? Perhaps you just feel like you’re hard to live with, but in reality, you’re super easy. Do we really know?”
Dante was quiet for a moment before he chuckled and shook his head. “All right. You’ve argued every con I’ve had about taking things a step further. There is one more thing that we have to discuss before things can go further. It’s about claiming. Specifically, the biting.”
I blinked. “All right. What about it? I’m all for that. It doesn’t bother me. I’m a bear shifter, and I’m good with bites.” I smiled. I was actually hoping that Dante would bite me frequently.
“Good. But I’m a hellhound, and things are a bit different for me.”
Of course they were. “How so?”
“When we…you know. And when things are at that point and there’s a knot and all.”
I snorted. “You mean when we’re both blissed out because we’re coming? Yeah, what about it? Other than the fact that we haven’t done that yet, and I have complaints about that.”
Dante sighed. “Yeah, that.” My smile fell a little. “When we exchange bites, mine isn’t going to heal properly until after.” Dante scowled a little. “My knot will have to go down so I can shift. After my beast licks over your claiming bite, it’ll change, and yours will be visible. It’ll look like black teeth marks and will have flames around it. We don’t know why, but that’s how things are with us.”
I blinked a few times. “Really?”
“Yeah. Atticus and Brice didn’t realize that Atticus needed to shift so his beast could lick over the bite. Brice’s claiming bite hurt because it didn’t heal properly until then. Damien and Warwick both shifted and licked their mates’ bites as soon asthey could. Neither of them said theirs ever hurt. Brice’s just didn’t heal until then, which caused a lot of pain.”
I thought about that for all of a fraction of a second. “Okay. Then you’ll have to shift and show me your beast up close. I’ve seen you before, but only from afar.” I wasn’t going to shy away from being claimed by my mate simply because things were going to be a bit different.
Dante stared at me for a moment before he smiled. “I’m trying to think of a romantic way to get things started. I’ve not done anything such as this before.”
I snorted. “It’s all right, Dante. Maybe just start like this,” I said as I leaned in and pressed my lips to my mate’s. His were still incredibly warm, but they were plump and soft, and when I moved mine to deepen the kiss, Dante moaned, and I felt his hands move from my hips to around my back. I let my body drop down completely onto his lap and was actually surprised by certain things. So much so that I pulled out of the kiss and looked down at my mate’s lap. “Uhh…”
“I won’t hurt you, but you have to understand that even if I’ve been hesitating, that hasn’t meant that I haven’t wanted you.”
“Dante, just how big is your dick?” I asked because that seriously felt like a monster there.
“It’s not big,” Dante argued.
I rolled my eyes and moved up onto my knees to put a bit of room between us. When I did, I touched what I’d been sitting on, and Dante hissed, but it quickly turned into a moan.
