“It is not that I don’t believe you can,” she muttered. “I just do not know what advice to give you.”

I knew this was a bad idea.

“What about you, Zev?” I demanded. “Your wife is entirely useless on this matter. What say you?”

“You should show her your tools,” Zev said, serious and earnest. “And your fishing gear. That’s what worked for me.”

“That is most certainly not what worked for you!” Jolakaia sputtered.

“Yes, it is.” Zev said resolutely. “Do not listen to her, Skalla. I swear, my queen was all polite prudishness until she saw my workshop.”

“Excuse me!”

Zev ignored her wife’s indignant interjection. A sly look entered her eye.

“Getting her on my two-wheel was even better.”

“Hmm.” I considered that idea, then laid it aside. “Suvi seemed a little tense after the first two-wheel drive. I am not so sure about that idea.”

Zev jerked her snout up and to the right.

“Alright. Definitely just the tools and fishing gear, then.”

“I have fished for her,” I replied, drumming my fingers against the underside of my snout. “And she did seem suitably impressed by that. But I do not actually have any tools or gear.”

“I can lend you some,” Zev replied helpfully. “Just make sure you give them back. And don’t get any fluids on them.”

“Stop, stop! Both of you!” Jolakaia cried. “This conversation is too absurd to be allowed to continue! Zev, I did not begin to love you because of your hoard of tools! But rather, when you first showed them all to me, you explained every piece with such purity of passion that I could not help but be moved! It was the same with the two-wheel! You were showing me your life’s work with pride, and I found that immensely appealing. It had nothing to do with the objects themselves.”

She swivelled her eyes onto me with regal haughtiness, and I suddenly understood Zev’s nickname for her. That was my maternal side’s commanding bloodline in her veins, alright.

“What excites you, Skalla? What is your passion?”

“Suvi,” I said instantly.

Jolakaia cast her eyes skyward, and I could practically hear her unspoken prayer. Mother help me, for I find myself surrounded by fools.

When she returned her gaze to me, it was sober with conviction.

“You must offer her your true self, Skallagrim. The core of your being. Let her see it. Let your true nature draw her in.”

I stared at her flatly, biting back the retort that it was my true nature, my authentic core, that I thought Suvi was most likely to reject.

I told her rather snippily that I liked Zev’s idea better and then began to mount the stairs.

Just as I opened the balcony door that would lead me to Suvi, I heard Zev’s whisper from below.

“He’s in trouble, isn’t he?”

And curse that Jolakaia – my own kin who should have spoken only in support of me! – for she answered, “I rather fear he is.”

I did not mean to, but I pulled the door shut so hard behind me that the glass rattled like angry bones.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Suvi

Ididn’t think I’d fall asleep before Skalla came up to the room. But after a busy day of working, then playing, all topped off with a solid dinner of grilled fish and riverweed salad, I found myself dozing off on the bed in the darkened room alone. I slipped deeper and deeper into sleep until a rattling bang jolted me awake. Head swimming, heart racing, I sat bolt upright in the bed, grasping at the bedding, my eyes going to the door.

Relief bloomed in my throat.

Just Skalla.

He didn’t make his way any further into the room. He just stood there, a hulking silhouette made velvety by night. Moonlight spilled in behind and around him, making some scales at his edges jump into cutting silver clarity while the rest of him was solid shadow painted by points of glowing gold.

“I’m awake,” I said softly, feeling rather silly for announcing it considering I was sitting up and staring at him.

“I know.” A pause, then something that sounded like the click of fangs against each other. “I am sorry for the noise.”

“That’s OK. I didn’t think I’d actually fall asleep like that! Are you tired?”

“Not particularly.”

“Oh.”

I wasn’t tired now, either. My heart was jumping around in my chest like that rock skipping across the pond’s surface. At first, my increased pulse was from being jarred awake.

But now...

Now, it was from being alone with Skalla in the darkness. I squeezed my thighs together.

“Skalla...”

“Do you have any interest in fishing?” he asked out of nowhere. “Or the tools used to procure the fish?”

“Uh...”

Well, that was a random turn for the conversation to take.

“Not really? I think I went fishing a couple of times as a kid. But it isn’t something I’m specifically interested in.” A small smile touched my lips. I wondered if he could see it. “Besides, I don’t really need a fishing rod or anything if I have you with me, right? Since you can just wave your hand and lift them right out of the water.”

He made a gruff sound I didn’t have time to interpret, because he’d suddenly decided to move, and he was moving quick. In the time it took me to inhale, he’d crossed to the bed and pulled apart my robe. He palmed the rapid pulsing of my throat with one hand, the other sliding greedily down my abdomen until his fingers found the already-swollen point of need that was my clit.

“Wet,” he gritted out.

“I...”

I couldn’t deny it. Just this simple touch, just the shadowy scrape of his scales against my throat and his huge hand between my legs had my stomach swooping, my insides curling. It didn’t even occur to me to close my robe. Or my legs. I sat there, moon-drenched, panting as Skalla’s fingers worked firm, nimble circles over my clit.

“You’re so blasted soft,” he said, voice tight with longing. “But I like when this part of you gets hard.” He lowered his snout, flicking the tips of his tongues over first one nipple, then the other, making them pucker until I was arching towards him for more. His fangs grazed my skin, sending bright bolts of sensation, almost painful and entirely erotic, down my spine. As he worked his forked tongue across my chest, I heard him shuck himself out of his trousers, the fabric hitting the floor with finality.

He shifted his hand, and my entire body twanged, tautly shuddering, when he dipped one thick finger inside me. He ground against my clit with the hard part of his palm, finger plunging in and out, filling the room with slick sucking sounds that grew louder as he moved quicker. His fangs were at my throat, now, his breath a hot, ragged roll down my neck, fanning over my saliva-dampened nipples. The robe slid down my arms, even the fabric’s fall feeling like a caress, and goosebumps quickly followed.

“Oh. Oh...” I moaned, trembling violently under the sway of the cool air and the exhilaration of Skalla’s hands on me. I reached blindly for him, clutching at his shoulders, running my fingernails down the scales of his chest. I sucked in a needy breath, my hips rocking urgently when I found the hot, hard shafts of him, already fully extended, engorged and slippery.

Skalla went rigid under my clumsy touch. I stroked him with both hands, trying to find my rhythm, unused to handling two cocks at the same time. But I must have been doing alright, because Skalla’s entire frame spasmed, and a ragged moan tore from his throat as I dragged my fists up and down the silk-wrapped ridges of him.

“Little star,” he groaned, driving his hips hard against my hands, “I... I am supposed to be the one seducing you.”