The Cat and The Bird Admit The Truth

Ilook down as Taurus slides up my body. Every inch of me is trembling from the mind-blowing orgasm we just shared. My mind is fuzzy as I sift my fingers through his hair, closing my eyes as I catch my breath.

My phone buzzed right after Rafe left for the Coyote Den. I was still fretting about him, but I wanted to see Taurus. I didn't expect to do anything besides hash out Rhea's bullshit from her phone call earlier in the day. She"d hurt both of us, but he was in Manila for some godforsaken reason. That's when I went to measure the space with Rafe to distract myself.

All of that to chat about. Yet here we are—naked and finally sated.

"Hello, pet," he murmurs as my eyes open. He brushes a fingertip over my cheekbone, then his thumb over my lips. I tore them to ribbons with my fangs. Dropping his head to rest his forehead on mine, he asks, "Are you okay? Your lip looks pretty ravaged."

I chuckle throatily. "I do it all the time. It'll heal in a few minutes if I let it." I don't mention that I only have to do that with non-mates and it hasn't been a problem for months. He doesn't need to know why I had to shred myself.

"A fact I doubly appreciate because it brought us here, but you've lost me. I thought your healing fixed things automatically, like… phhhhhhffffft." He makes a gesture like something closing and I shake my head.

"No. It took me a while to figure out I can keep things from healing or cause them to heal if I focus." I point to the collection of scars on my neck, shoulders, and chest. "Like these and this ugly sucker on my ribs that has to do with Wilde. I have to concentrate hard after it happens. If my brains get scrambled like now, though, it might heal before I even realize it."

He frowns. "Do you think I'm a prick if I say I don't want to hear that ponce's name while we're in, uh, couch together?"

"My bad. I didn't think about that." I stroke my palm over his chest soothingly.

"It's not like I have a right to be territorial. I'm usually not. It's…" he shrugs, and I watch a complex set of micro expressions play across his face.

Shaking my head, I put a finger to his lips. "No worries."

I have to make this easy for him. I do not want him to ask about the scars below my neck that I so idiotically drew his attention to. We do not need to discuss where they come from, especially not here and now.

"It's like when you're here, you're mine. This is separate from the rest of them." He casts his gaze down and shrugs. "Stupid, I know. It's the knuckle-dragger in me, I'm sure."

The grin he gives me doesn't quite reach his eyes, and I puzzle over that. Finding no answers, I kiss his cheeks, my expression soft. "You're right. It's different." I nip his earlobe lightly, ignoring his chest thumping in favor of the sentiment that makes my heart squish.

His shiver makes my lips curve up. He murmurs, "You've got a way about you, Sandwich, that I'm right fond of. When you're not being all stompy, anyway."

That jackass purposely gets me stompy, but his words make my chest ache. I am so fucking screwed. This is getting deep, and I'm in over my head. Danger Zone, Maverick, I tell myself. "It's all your fault, you know. You get me riled up and stuff."

Smirking, he growls playfully. "Well, yeah. You jiggle when you're stompy."

I chortle, completely at ease despite our nakedness. "You have a jiggling fetish. I think you're obsessed with boobs."

"Why wouldn't I be? I don't have any of my own, so they draw me. Besides, yours are... well, yummy comes to mind." He bobs his brows and tickles his fingers along my curves.

Swatting him playfully on his chest, I wrinkle my nose. "You tease me about liking your ass."

His eyebrows shoot to his hairline and his eyes dance with mirth. "Maybe because you can't get your mind off of it?" He shifts and rolls on his side, tossing a leg over mine and cupping my face with his hand. His eyes grow serious, and I hold my breath to wait for whatever he's going to say. "You're beautiful."

Surprised, I duck my head, eyes cast downward. "Thank you." The compliment was delivered so seriously that it makes me flush. "Sorry. Compliments fluster me."

"Do you always turn that cute pink color when you're flustered? Because if you do, I could say that much more often."

My hands fly up to cover my cheeks, and I grumble in protest. "I'm not pink."

He looks thoughtful. "No, actually, you're more of a primrose. Damien would know some rot about the exact shade, but who wants to listen to that blustering artist when they don't have to?"

I glare, trying to keep my skin from flaring any hotter than it already is. "I wasn't disputing shade, I was... Oh, forget it." He dips his head and licks from my collarbone to my neck. "Distracting me, eh?" I pretend to grouse, but he knows that makes me wriggle.

The fiend is doing it on purpose.

"Hey, I know what's good for me. My mum might have been a sterile test tube, but she raised me right." He wags his eyebrows, lips quirking.

I giggle and pinch his side. "Test-tube baby."

His confused expression tells me I should explain. Honestly, I don't think about how lacking his pop culture literacy might be. Why would Taurus care about a movie from the other side of the Rift? "There's this movie called Bebe's Kids, and this guy calls the horribly behaved kids test-tube babies. It's hilarious."

He frowns and narrows his eyes at me. "Are you suggesting that I'm horribly behaved?"

His scowl aims for menacing, but it falls short. I smile again, the playful atmosphere making it hard not to do so. Truthfully, how menacing can you be stark naked? "They're basically mini criminals—wrecking things and beating people up and such."

"Nothing like me at all, then." His look of innocence is so strikingly uncharacteristic that I can't help myself: I snort.

"Not even a little, Mr. Halo."

"That's me: Mr. Clean with hair."

I giggle, clutching my tummy. "Mr. Clean. Oh yeah, sure." I tug his earlobes. "You're missing something here, I think, to make that look work."

"Oh, right. Earring." Looking thoughtful, he shrugs. "I could get one, I suppose."

I try to imagine someone as sleek as Taurus getting his ear pierced. "I'd do it for you if you wanted. Before you laugh, I did it for a living in the other place. I pierced lots of people, so I know what I'm doing." He eyes me warily and I shrug. "I'm not kidding. I've pierced lots of the boys here, too. They ask me to do much more delicate things than your ears. Every one of them is unscathed. I mean, you can't tell me you haven't noticed all the metal I sport."

His eyes rake over my form, and I wonder if he's counting. Besides the twelve in my ears, I have four others and holes where three more go when I want to put them in. "Forget it. I'm not one to follow the crowd, thanks."

"People always ask for the most dangerous thing they can think of. I have plenty in my ears, but no one has asked me to do an earring here yet."

"No one here wanted you to pierce their ears? Really?"

"Not yet. Plenty of nipples and belly buttons and cocks and tongues—no ears."

"I have no intention of getting my nipples or dick or belly button skewered." He shudders at the thought. "I'll rip myself open in a good brawl, but no dice on those."

"You didn't seem to mind any of mine," I taunt, flicking my tongue bar at him wickedly.

He gives me a look like I've lost the plot and jumped into another book. "Why in the holy fuck would I mind that? Between that and the distracting shinies below…"

I snort again. "Right. Did I even ask you to consider the big time shit?"

"No, you didn't."

"It takes a particular tolerance to pain to get piercings below the neck," I smirk, wiggling my lower half against his.

He shakes his head. "It's not the pain, puss. Hell, pain doesn't hurt. It's the thought of it." He grimaces. "A dick ring? Talia would cut the thing right off me—either that or laugh me out of the house."

I debate letting him in on the secret that they're not all rings and some are quite pleasurable for the ladies. Nah. That's more than I feel like dealing with while I'm spent. "I'll tell you a secret: I faint when I get a flu shot, but I have no problems with tats and piercings. You'd better not tell anyone." I poke his chest because I mean that.

Weakness is not for sharing in our world.

"Tell anyone you faint when you get a flu shot? I wouldn't dream of it." He gives me the wicked grin again and I narrow my eyes. Laughing, he waves his hand before reaching up to tug his earlobe. "An earring, huh? That you put in for me?"

"I'll even use a nice clean needle because I like you so much."

"Nice," he huffs, almost choking. "Real cute, kitty."

I try not to smile. He's glaring at me as if he might try the pouting thing again. "Are you a hoop or stud man? Jewelry is important, you know."

He looks at me in consternation, then drawls, "You know, I have no urge to eviscerate you. You poke me with your teeny weensy little sticks. I rise to the bait like a bloody carp, and yet I have not one urge to rip your head off your neck and drink from your lifeless corpse." Rolling backward, he leans against the cushion of the couch. "How odd."

"I can guarantee I'm not nearly as fun dead. It'd be singularly disturbing if you did that in combination with the other things you like to do with me."

"Most people irritate me. I want to kill them slowly and painfully. That feeling goes away with my friends because I don't eat them. I'd go through a lot of friends if I did, wouldn't I? And I don't have a lot to start with. But with you..." He trails off, frowning, and I'm not sure what the hell just happened.

I tiptoe my fingers up his chest, not meeting his eyes because eye contact feels too intimate. "Maybe you realize that I only aggravate you because I like you." I slide my eyes up to his, then look down again when I lose my confidence.

What the hell am I thinking saying that out loud? Holy shit, I'm an idiot.

His eyes glow eerily. He rests his thumb against my lips before stroking them gently, watchful of the almost healed tears. Finally drawing away, his hand traces down my chest to my stomach in a gentle caress. His voice is the barest of whispers as he says, "I like you, too."