A Hundred Types of Kisses
Lon and Ivy
Monstrous
Lon still wasn’t sure about the supernatural message boards Michael had introduced him to.
Intellectually, he understood its functionality, but he couldn’t quite grasp why he’d want to know the minute details about people from different parts of the world. As interesting as it was at times, most of what he read didn’t apply to him.
Today, though, he thought he might get it.
The boards were buzzing with mentions of a sasquatch sighting in a small town not far from them.
Tapping his fingers against the screen, he tried to remember if he’d been anywhere near that town in the last few months.
Against his side, Ivy looked at him in concern. “Do we need to be worried?” she asked, her normally smooth voice tinged with something close to fear.
Lon understood her fear. She’d been broken in spirit when they met—heartbroken over the part she’d played in abusing Ari’s mate—and it had taken long months before she’d started to blossom into the woman he knew she could be. The thought of possibly having to uproot their lives because of something like this would weigh on her.
Not that he had any intention of packing up and running just because one tabloid was running a news story about his kind.
Or, well, more than one and not all of them tabloids, but still.
He and Ivy had a home here. Ari and Liam opened their house and their arms to them and he wasn’t going to repay that by slipping away when things got a little dicey.
“No,” he gently told his green love, “there’s nothing to be concerned about.” But he would have Michael look into it a little more deeply.
Because if there was another sasquatch out there, he wanted to meet them.
Logic said the reports of this sasquatch were incorrect. He’d been the last of his kind for so long he’d forgotten what it was like to be part of a tribe.
But just in case…
Closing the laptop, he kissed the side of Ivy’s head and pulled her more securely into his arms. It was a story. Nothing more.
Because if there was another of his kind out there, he’d have known about it long ago.
Wouldn’t he?
“Ari asked us to stay for dinner tonight. Would you like that?”
Because of the way she was leaning against him on the couch, Lon couldn’t see Ivy’s expression. But he knew what it would be. She’d look undecided.
He understood that, too.
Liam may have forgiven Ivy for her part in his ordeal, but she hadn’t quite forgiven herself yet. “It’s only dinner, love,” he told her. “You always like the nut cakes Liam makes, don’t you?”
She shrugged, her movement muted. “They’re good.”
They were. And the only time she got to eat them was when they shared meals with Ari and Liam. His darling mate had shamefacedly admitted she’d never gotten the hand of making them on her own.
That decided it for Lon. If the only way Ivy could get her favorite cakes was by sucking it up and facing Liam across the wide dining table, she was going to do it.
It was good for her, anyway. She needed to accept that bad things had happened which she’d unwittingly played a part in.
She’d apologized in a thousand ways for the path her mentor had led her down and Liam accepted her apologies every time.
Still, she fretted when she knew she was going to come face to face with the other Liath Mor.
There were ways to ease her guilt, though. Lon had found several of them in the months they’d been together.
Sweet kisses when they were alone in the grotto.
Hungry kisses when they were alone in the cave.
Desperate kisses when they were anywhere they couldn’t indulge themselves.
For all her people didn’t usually bother with clothes, Ivy was surprisingly restrained when it came to what Ari liked to call public displays of affection. It was like she didn’t want to draw attention to her sexuality and remind everyone that she’d been one of the females who’d once abused a breeding male of their species.
Lon didn’t blame Ivy. He couldn’t. She’d been in her first heat and hadn’t known any better. The female she’d been paired with as a mentor had been a sadistic bitch who enjoyed the power she gained during a mating contract.
Lon didn’t blame Ivy. Neither did Liam. Even Ari had come around when she saw how remorseful his lovely mate was over her part in Liam’s imprisonment.
No, Lon blamed the older Liath Mor female for the spiral his mate had been in when they’d first formally met.
That was in the past, though. He wanted to keep it there. Dwelling on the other and what she’d done would only remind Ivy of things better left unspoken of tonight.
Stroking a hand down the rough ropes of her hair, Lon kissed the side of her head again. He loved the different textures his mate wore. The roughness of her hair contrasted with the smoothness of her skin. Her adventurous tentacles where slick and strong, her body sturdy.
His Ivy had the eyes of a woodland creature and he’d be happy to stare into them all day.
But not tonight.
Tonight they were going to join Ari and Liam for dinner. Ivy would get her nut cakes and maybe she’d find the courage to look Liam in the eye when she quietly thanked him for the meal.
If she couldn’t do it tonight, they’d try again tomorrow.
And the day after that. And the day after that.
One day, she’d shed the last of her guilt and she’d be the strong, confident female he knew she could be.
Until then, he’d be content to lend her his shoulder to lean on. His hand to hold her up. His body to wipe the memories of the past away.
Until then, he’d be content to love her with everything inside him.
The End
Want to see how Lon and Ivy found one another? Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series gives us their story. (Or grab Operation Sasquatch if you prefer to read it as a serial.)
Missed any of the other shorts? Check out the Series Shorts page and get caught up.
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