“You’re gorgeous,” he said quietly. “Those curves. They make a man want to put his hands all over you.”
Lillian stared down at herself again—her breasts, which were not perky little B-cups, required a hell of a lot of underwire to keep them contained. Her wide hips, her thighs.
“I don’t see it,” she admitted, and that moment of vulnerability was somehow much, much harder than just taking her shirt off had been.
“Then I have to show you, I guess,” Cal said. “See?” He reached out and traced the inner curve of her breast. Lillian shivered as his fingers glided down into her cleavage, settling there for just a second.
“This right here,” Cal said. His voice had gone even deeper, if possible. His hand kept going downward, slid out to her waist and cupped her hip.
“And this,” he said. “Can I unbutton these?” He tugged at the waistband of her jeans.
Lillian nodded, and Cal slowly undid the buttons, his hands brushing the skin of her stomach—an area she normally would’ve said wasn’t attractive to anyone.
But when he had the button undone, Cal leaned down and pressed a long, open-mouthed kiss to the place the button had rested. Lillian made an involuntary noise as muscles inside of her jerked in pleasure at the touch of his mouth.
He straightened, and looked her in the eye. “I badly want to see you without any clothes on at all. Okay?”
Lillian could only nod, overwhelmed.
Cal stripped her out of her jeans easily, by means of simply nudging her over to that enormous bed, tugging them down, and then kissing the incredibly tender skin on the inside of her hip. When his stubble rasped over it, her knees went weak, and she sat down on the softness of that duvet.
Cal got her jeans, socks, and shoes right off after that, quick as anything, and then came back up to unhook her bra.
He kissed her between her breasts when it came off, right where his fingers had rested a few moments ago. “You look perfect,” he said into her skin. “You feel perfect.”
Lillian wondered if she could believe it. Maybe not, but could she believe that he believed it?
Cal’s fingers came back, then, and this time they were tracing over the waistline of her panties. Lillian blushed to think of them—they were nothing sexy, no lace or bows, just plain high-waisted briefs. She didn’t shave anything down there, either, so it wasn’t a smooth perfect sight, like actress in a movie in her underwear.
“Can I take these off too?” Cal asked.
But he still wanted to look at her.
“Yes,” Lillian said, almost not recognizing her own voice. She lifted her hips for Cal to tug them off, feeling hot trails of sensation wherever his fingers brushed her.
And then she was naked, as she hadn’t been in front of anybody else in a long, long, long time.
Cal’s eyes were hot on her, though; Lillian almost though
t she could feel his gaze, traveling over all the parts of her body she’d always thought were unattractive. Her upper arms. Her knees. Her hips. The unruly bush of her pubic hair.
Then he stepped forward and bent down, wrapping her up in his arms...
...and lifted her up and deposited her in the very center of the bed.
Lillian let out a decidedly girlish noise. “Careful!”
He pulled back immediately. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, no—I just meant—I’m too heavy to do that.”
Cal shook his head. “You’re not too heavy for me,” he said. And looking at his body, Lillian had to admit that it was probably true. Even if he hadn’t been a shapeshifter—were they stronger than regular humans?—he looked like he could bench-press her no problem.
He bent down to kiss her, and then started moving down her body. His lips were hot and his stubble was just the right amount of rough, and, Lillian quickly discovered, he was determined to pay close attention to just about every inch of her.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured against her skin, “here,” her collarbone, and then the hollow in the middle. “Here.” Her shoulder. “Here.” The inside of her elbow.
He kept repeating it, as he kissed her wrist, the palm of her hand, and the tip of her ring finger, and then the ticklish skin high on her side, almost under her arm—Lillian squirmed, and then shuddered as he pressed that kiss in harder, until the tickling turned into a thrill of pleasure.