"Your little dots. They cover you." His hands hesitated on her shoulder blades.
She started to pull away, having always been a little self-conscious about them, especially those on her body. Her face, she could handle. The ones on her body never got good reviews from partners. "Yeah, that's just the way it is," she said.
He didn't say anything.
She was about to turn when she felt it.
A kiss.
He leaned in and she felt the pendant graze her skin — that ornate edge of it, warm from his body. She recognized it without looking. It was there. He had it. She exhaled and let herself be present.
"They're beautiful," he whispered, between kisses. "They're like little secret gems." His kisses pressed all over her back, and each one tantalized her more, raising her already growing desires. She arched as he kissed her and he wrapped an arm around her, holding her steady.
She turned and glanced at him, and met his gaze. The horns on the sides of his head sort of framed their faces, and she pulled him into a kiss.
She twisted into him as they kissed, and in a moment, she was back facing him again, her shirt barely hanging on her.
"You don't need that," he said, and pulled the rest of her shirt off.
She sat there for a moment as his hands, more calloused than she would have expected, ran over her skin, tracing the patterns of the freckles down the front of her body.
She leaned into him and tugged at his shirt. "I seem to be at a disadvantage."
"It seems so."
In a moment, he'd pulled off his shirt, and they embraced, kissing each other even more, and exploring each other's bare chests.
His skin was warm and textured. Not quite smooth, but not rough, exactly. There was just a slightly different feel to it. The only thing he wore on his upper body was that necklace with the crest on it.
He pulled her tight against him and the friction of his skin against hers was delightful. His body responded to hers in all the right ways.
They both explored each other, and with each touch, she felt herself getting more and more antsy, waiting for the final act.
Even his armor seemed to be growing.
He slid his hand in her hair, his hips rocking into hers, and he grabbed the back of her hair, pulling her head back, and exposing her neck.
"I want you," he grumbled against her neck. "More than I've wanted anyone before. And if?—"
She didn't let him finish his thought, because she damn sure wasn't going to stop anything now. "So take me."
Stron didn't hesitate.
He had her flat on the couch, and had his own clothing gone in an instant.
Still wearing her dress from earlier, he shoved the layers up, revealing her hips, his hands warm and certain against her skin. He explored her with his hands first, and she moaned at the contact, her hips rolling toward him without her permission. That was new. She didn't usually lose that kind of control.
But she wasn't thinking about that when he entered her.
She gasped at the stretch of him, the sensation tipping between pleasure and the shock of his size. "Wow," she managed.
"Are you?—"
"Shut up and kiss me," she said.
So he did. And then he started to move.
She'd expected to stay somewhat inside her own head. She always did. It was safer there, behind the glass, watching. Instead she found herself completely in her body, in this moment, in him. Every movement pulled sounds from her she hadn't planned on making. He groaned against her neck with every thrust, like she was doing something to him he hadn't planned on either.
