Page 142 of Tempting Fate

I gathered her to me, stroking her back, her arse, her arms. “But why now?”

“Because you were perfect? So good for me. God, your tongue. Tongues.”

“You were perfect, too, my moonlight.” How could I think of glowing headspines when I had Imani in my arms?

“Give me a minute and I’ll tend to you, I haven’t forgotten, kitten.”

A laugh shook my chest, ringing out around the cave. “You already took care of me.”

“Oh. Did you…?”

I tucked my hands behind my head, regarding her with a confident smirk. “Fucking your cunt with my tongue was as pleasurable as if it were my cock. I most assuredly did.”

“God, why is that so hot?”

I chuckled, the easy warmth between us wrapping us in its heady embrace. “Because knowing you arouse your mate so much he can come without you even touching him is a great power.”

We both stilled.

“Your mate? Is that really how you see me?” she breathed.

I traced her spine with gentle claws. “Yes, my Imani. I want you to be mine in all ways. You do not need to be scared, my beloved. I know it is right, I feel it in my bones.”

She drew tiny circles on my chest. “I think I do too. Kira told me too, that mate bonds don’t go wrong. That it would work between us.”

“You need that certainty, don’t you?”

She bit her lip, looking just as small as she really was. “I do.”

“I meant what I said. I promise never to hurt you.”

“I know, baby.”

That strange feeling curled in my stomach again. “Why do I like that?”

“What, when I call you baby, or kitten?”

I nodded, eyes wide.

“Because some people do,” she said, as if that was an answer in and of itself. “You like feeling small, like I’m in control?”

I nodded again, and she gripped my chin.

“Answer me.”

That delicious feeling squirmed in my stomach. “Yes, Marni.”

“Tell me.”

How could I put it into words? “It is as though… I wish we could swap sizes. Not all the time. I love that I can hold you close and protect you, but sometimes…”

“I know. Do you know how big a kitten is?”

I thought back to the tsatis I had seen in nature holovids. “Not so large I could not pick one up, but close.”

She giggled and held out a cupped hand. “That sounds enormous. On New Earth, they’re about this big.”

I stared at her little hand. A kitten was… tiny? “So you do not think me a fierce tsati?”