“And as it ends, so it begins with a swan feather.” She nuzzled his neck carefully, not sure that his skin was up to much.
He rose up and whispered, “Can you grab my jeans?”
She blinked and leaned down to grab the fabric as the last ash dimmed and the embers faded away. He dragged his tail across it and scattered the traces of his previous skin into the grass.
“Are you going to take us home like this?” Ivy was both appalled and amused.
“Why not? This is what I am, and I am finally embracing it.”
She grinned. “Go for it. Shall I pretend to be a poor human sacrifice in your arms?”
He chuckled. “Let’s save that for another day. Good thought though. I am going to remember that.”
Ivy laughed as he slithered in a slow sway toward the centre of the Crossroads. They were taking the long way home.
People froze in the streets as the king of serpents carried his bride home. Ivy wondered if they could work this into the book somehow.
Chuck whispered in her ear. “You are thinking about the book, aren’t you?”
She grinned. “Stop reading my mind.”
“I am reading your expression. You get all narrow-eyed and plotty when you are scheming up a scene.” There was pride in his tone.
Jim came out of the Crossed Star and met them in the street. “Well, Chuck. I have rarely seen you looking…I have no idea how to finish that sentence.”
Ivy smiled down at Jim. “He is pretty, isn’t he? Like an emerald topped with a male model.” She stroked Chuck’s neck and shoulder.
Chuck blushed and squeezed her tight. “Flattery will not get you out of doing dishes.”
Jim nodded and clapped Chuck on the shoulder. He had to reach up to do it as Chuck’s head was at a seven-foot elevation with the extension of his tail.
“You look good, Chuck. When will you be back at work?”
Chuck looked to Ivy, and she nodded. “I need two more days. Tomorrow Arkenon comes to do some work on my new skin. He has been creating designs all week, and it will be a very long process for the work I have in mind. I might need four days in total.”
Jim was surprised. “Arkenon is coming here?” The eagerness in Jim’s eyes was unmistakable.
Chuck nodded. “Yes. It is a favour that I asked of him years ago, and he said that if I ever had room for a tattoo, he would be delighted to do it. I made room.”
“Do you have his contact information?”
“Teal has it. You can go through him to make arrangements. What do you want done?”
Jim grinned. “Butterflies.”
Chuck snorted and chortled as he made his way past his friend and toward his home.
Ivy sighed. “Are you going to explain that?”
“You will have to ask Lee. She will explain it better than I ever could.” He kissed her temple and swayed all the way home, his tail leaving a trail that led right to their door.
Chapter Nine
“What do you mean you are stuck?” She blinked at him in shock. It would have been amusing if he weren’t so damned big.
Inside the privacy of their home, he had turned to her and whispered his problem.
“I mean that I can’t seem to locate the urge to shift back. I am stuck.” He crossed his arms and tried to look serious.
She stared up at him and put her hands on her hips.
He shook his head. “That is a cobra trick to make yourself look bigger, it won’t work on me.”
“Fine. I will try another more basic tactic.” Ivy walked away from him to the large living room and stood in the centre as she unbuttoned her vest as slowly as she could manage.
He was staring at her and rose so high his head hit the ceiling. “Ow.”
“Stop daydreaming and pay attention.” She opened the row of five buttons and let the fabric hang.
He moved closer, but she put her hand up. “Now, I know you are thinking of what you can do with your hands and mouth and that would be fascinatingly fun.”
She worked at the tie of her skirt and let it whoosh to the ground around her. She slipped the vest off and let it fall to the floor. “But, love. I ache for you. It is trite, and I wasn’t quite sure what it meant until now, but you did this for me, and I want you with me in celebration.”
Ivy stepped toward him, mimicking the slow sway of his propulsion in this form. “You know, I love the feel of your scales against my skin.”
She rubbed her belly against him, and he lowered himself until she could reach his shoulders. He groaned and twisted against her, his coils shifting to pin her against his body.
“You are torturing me, Ivy.” His coils pushed her up, and she clung to his shoulders while wrapping her legs around the spot where his hips should be.
“You are doing the torturing. You only need to shift and you will be inside me. Our celebration can begin the moment I feel skin between my thighs again.” She kissed his neck and bit a moment later.
He shuddered violently and dropped to the ground with her still wrapped around him. Standing in his human form, he whispered, “That did it.”
She laughed as his erection slid along her folds. She twisted against him until he slipped inside her, and she hung on as he pressed her to the wall and held her hands above her head while his body rubbed against hers in slow, rocking thrusts.
“I had forgotten what it felt like when the skin was new.” His chest rubbed against her breasts, and he groaned as his body shook hard, his hips jerking into hers.
She sighed softly and held him tight. She was ahead of him on orgasms three to one, so it was about time he started catching up.
He looked up at her. “I owe you one.”
“You owe me nothing except a day in bed and a hot meal. It has been a long night.” Ivy ran her hand along his skull, and she grinned.
He exposed his fangs. “I can make the night last for hours more and you will crave me.”
Ivy pinched his ear. “I already crave you, but I react better when I have had some sleep.”
He cupped her ass and held her tight to him as he walked up the stairs to the bedroom. His erection woke inside her, and the hike up the stairs started a reaction that she was too sleepy to appreciate.
She yawned against his shoulder as he lowered her to the bed. “Can you save that until I am awake again?”
He grinned. “It will be around when you need it. Go to sleep, angel. I will thank you properly when you wake.”
She smiled softly at him, caressing his cheek. “You had better. I had to sit around a campfire all night. You owe me.”
He chuckled and turned them, lifting her thigh to ride on his hip. “I will see you in the morning, after your beauty sleep has failed to improve on perfection.”
Secure in his arms, she let his heat carry her into sleep.
She blinked awake to a startling taste in her mouth. “Did you brush my teeth while I slept?”
Chuck gave her a look as innocent as someone with serpentine eyes could. “Of course not. That would be considered extreme behaviour.”
She grinned and pinched him. “You are one twisted fuck.”
“You haven’t even seen twisted yet. Are you awake?”
“I am not talking in my sleep.”
“Good.”
His hands stroked over her skin, waking her desire, using nothing more than his touch, his scent and his kisses. No venom, no tricks, just Ivy and Chuck rolling around in the sheets.
She finally pinned him on his back and eased him into her. She undulated her hips slowly.
He narrowed his eyes. “Where did you learn to do that?”
Ivy laughed and didn’t answer him, rocking against him, her clit enjoying the pressure between their bodies as she rocked faster and harder, slamming against him while he gripped her hips and bared his fangs.
Bright daylight painted their bodies. She delighted in the golden-dappled skin over the hard muscle that she had come to love. Her fingers caressed the ridges of his a
bs as she rode him, pleasure moving from her core outward until she reached the tipping point and her body jerked as she screamed.
“Thank the scales!” He shuddered and thrust into her, holding himself in place as his cock spilled inside her. He slowly relaxed and lowered her so that her knees once again touched the bed.
“You worship scales?” She blinked. “I just realized we have never discussed religion.”
“Of course. What do you swear by?”
Ivy blushed. “The first feather.”
“So, I follow scales, you follow feathers. Together, it would make for quite the piece of jewellery.” He smiled and stroked his hand down her spine.
“I didn’t want to ask you before, but how do you know your last name?”
He sighed. “I had a friend look into it for me. Dira has far more contacts than you can imagine, and she has been around a long, long time. She found my family, and I have been in cautious touch with them.”
Ivy leaned forward and draped herself over his chest. “How did you arrive in the circus?”
“It was a simple matter of a young family camping and a bear attack. My mother was a constrictor and my father was a rattler. From what investigators determined, my mother was struck by a surprise attack, and my father bit at the bear but he couldn’t kill it fast enough. I was left on my own.”
“How old were you?”
“I was under three at the time. No one is quite sure as it was simply written off as camping mishap when their bodies were found. I think I was just two.”
“Wow. What happened next?”
“The bear gave in to the bite, and I stayed in my carrier until I got hungry. This is just a guess, but it is how young shifts happen. I changed and slithered out of my carrier and continued until I found food. I slithered into a tiny freak show and ate out of the garbage. Once I was full, I shifted back in front of humans, and that is when I was put in a cage and the signs went up. Because of the early shift, I never quite fully shifted back.”
He shrugged, and she sniffled at the thought of a tiny Chuck looking for food.
“Don’t cry for me, Ivy. I survived and I grew up big and strong.” He ran his hand through her hair, lifting the strands. “Sometimes the highlights are black, sometimes red and sometimes brown. How do you do that?”
She chuckled. “Nice change of subject. Very graceful.”
“I aim to please. Now, how about a shower and that hot meal I owe you?”
She grunted and separated their bodies. “Shower it is.”
With the trail of cum sliding down her inner thigh, she headed for the bathroom and turned on the water. When she stepped under the spray, she was crowded against the taps. “You could have waited your turn.”
He nibbled at her shoulder. “Yes, I could have.”
She laughed and started to soap him up. He returned the favour, and by the time the shower was over, her skin was hot and wet in every manner conceivable.
It was quite the start to her day.
Chapter Ten
Arkenon was a true artist. He was also a member of the Talifor family, Chuck’s foster brother.
He grinned as he prepared to work on Chuck. “I don’t know how he did this, but I have you to thank, Ivy. It was his tribal artwork that inspired me to become a tattoo artist. I wanted to make art that didn’t cause pain when it was seen.”
Ivy was sitting in the meditation centre watching Arkenon prepare to work on Chuck. No one looking at him would think that he was a crane. He had the physical demeanour of a bulldog but the grace of a large feline. “You don’t have me to thank. It was his decision to peel himself.”
Chuck looked at her.
“Fine. Moult his human form.” She flapped her hand. “Whatever.”
Arkenon laughed and pressed the template to Chuck’s back. “Is he still fussy about terms?”
Chuck said, “I am here, you know.”
Ivy winked. “He is. It comes and goes though. He can usually be distracted out of his mood.”
After checking the placement, Arkenon prepared the inks. “How do you distract him?”
Giggling, she said, “You aren’t equipped to manage my kind of distraction.”
He blinked and then colour crept over his cheeks. “Ah. Yeah, that wouldn’t work for me.”
Chuck grinned and then the process began.
Ivy kept her mate company as his foster brother worked on him. It took six hours to finish his back, and at Chuck’s instruction, Arkenon covered it up.
Next were his bicep tattoos.
“Aren’t you tired?” Ivy felt it necessary to ask, as it seemed a lot of detail work.
“This is what I do, Ivy. To be able to put the designs on Chuck and have his skin clean after all these years is an opportunity that I don’t want to miss.” He winked and set another stencil on Chuck’s right bicep. It was two large cats twisted together.
The buzzing started up again, and when Arkenon paused, Ivy asked, “Do you have a mate?”
“I am not yet ready to settle down. My life is full and women come and go.” He grinned. “That is enough for me.”
Ivy sighed. “For now. You never know when the world will turn and you will find yourself craving the happily ever after.”
He snorted, but Chuck met her gaze and he smiled. “Sometimes, you find the woman for you just because you let yourself see her, and she is smart enough to make you admit it.”
Hours passed, and he now wore a brightly coloured pair of big cats. A tiger and a lioness twisted on his skin. “Jim and Lee?”
Chuck grinned. “My first friend with no strings attached and his wife.”
The other arm was soon sporting a dragon and a unicorn cavorting in a twist. “Dira and her new mate.”
“That is all for today.” Arkenon rotated his hand. “Do you have a spare room for me?”
Teal came out of the shadows. “We have a place for you here. As you are not seeking a mate, you are not allowed to wander freely.”
“Fair enough. Dinner?”
Teal inclined her head. “Tony is bringing it.”
Chuck moved gingerly.
Ivy frowned. “If you can have those ones exposed, why not the one on your back?”
He grinned. “It is a surprise.”
Arkenon was talking quietly to Teal as he tidied up. He asked Chuck, “You will be back tomorrow morning for the rest?”
“Of course. We are putting on five years of artwork in two days. I will be here. Thanks again, Ark.” He shook his foster brother’s hand, and Arkenon hugged him carefully.
Ivy took his arm, and they walked out into the quiet night of the Crossroads.
“When do I get to see your back piece?”
He grinned, “When we are alone. This is a big moment for me. I hope that Arkenon didn’t turn it into something stupid.”
“There is a lot of trust in something like that, isn’t there?”
“There is. It is a piece of art that you will wear all your life. If your artist is crap, the marks they make will be on you, and you will remember it every time you see the design in the mirror.”
“Wow. Heavy.”
“Indeed. I trust Arkenon with my life and my skin.”
“Perhaps I will get something done one day if he will be amenable.” Ivy had her mind on the possible designs she could request.
“Well, see what he created on me and I will ask him for you.”
They arrived home, and he still wouldn’t let her peek. She had to undress and kneel on the bedding to remove the tape and gauze that covered him up.
“Oh. My. Feathers.” She sat back on her heels and stared at the swan that cruised in a pond with a snake looped into a freeform heart on the bank. In the sky was a flying swan and next to it was an angel picked out in miniature. The detail was amazing. She could almost see the grass and rushes waving in a lazy breeze.
“It is lovely, Chuck.”
“I am glad you like it. It will be healed by tomorrow and my chest p
iece can begin.” He smiled. “Tonight, I sleep on my stomach.”
They lay together in companionable silence. Ivy pulled the sheet up over her nude body and up to Chuck’s hips. He rested and slept with a smile on his lips. However much pain he had felt, it didn’t leave resentment behind.
She watched over him until he was firmly asleep and then stared at his back with tears running down her face. He might not see it like she did, but she knew it was there, and he knew she was with him. It was a powerful symbol of their union, and she liked it.
“I have never done this kind of combination before, but the Naga and the angel over your heart does look stunning.” Arkenon smiled at his handiwork. “I love your skin, it takes the inks so well.”
Chuck looked in the mirror and smiled. “I like the tail wrapping around and between her legs. Suggestive but not lewd. Well done.”
The angel was wearing scraps of silk and the Naga was wearing his scales from the waist downward. It was a very PG13 tattoo.
“I like it.” She smiled brightly at Arkenon.
Chuck laughed. “I think Ivy wants one, but she isn’t sure what she wants.”
“Oh, I know what I want.”
Arkenon blinked. “Really? Do tell.”
“Well, a snake wound around a long feather. On my calf.”
He moved over to the design table that he had brought with him, and he quickly sketched something out. “In colour?”
“Yes, please. A white feather and a green snake with a detailed pattern on its back.”
“If I do this, you won’t be able to shift until it heals, all right?” Arkenon looked up from his table.
“Sure.”
Chuck got up from the client chair and helped her prepare her left leg for the tattoo. When Arkenon held up the sketch, she grinned. “Just like that.”
“Do you want this?”
“Yup. It is now or never, so I pick now. It’s the same thing I said to myself when I started flirting with Chuck.” She extended her leg as he ran the razor over it and then on went the stencil.
Chuck held her hand and it was a damned good thing that he did. She would have been out and down the street seconds after the first contact with the needle.
She breathed deep and kept calm as long as she could before she buried her face in Chuck’s neck. He held her tight as she got the symbol that she wanted to wear forever that matched his in artistry and colouration.
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