Excerpt of Forced Mate by Rowena Cherry

"Tigger, it might be romantic to . . ." She closed her
eyes
in shyness. "Perhaps, we could bathe each oth--"

Fully clothed, not even breaking stride to kick off his
high boots, he plunged into the murk-bath with her.

"My God!" she spluttered, as soon as they surfaced and she
could draw breath. "Do males of your species routinely
half-
drown your females during sex?"

It was a feeble attempt to make light of how much he'd
frightened her. Shocked silly, her eyes adjusted faster
than her mind. Below them, his robes drifted out in the
slow, sinister diamond of a Manta Ray shark, casting
shadows upwards, and effervescing tiny air bubbles like
black sequins.

"I never knew the bath had underwater floodlights!" she
added distractedly before she caught her train of
thought. "Look here, Tigger, I'm not at all sure about
this-
-"

"I know," Tigger said breathing hard and stroking her
throat with trembling fingers, "You're afraid of what I'm
going to do."

"No. Yes. Well, you might have warned me. I agreed to let
you have sex any way you want, but I need preparation--"

"I know you do." He unsheathed a carnal grin. Under murk-
water, the fingertips of his left hand traced lines of
fire
over her belly and her insides shivered. Then he dipped
his
fingers into the opening of her coatdress and
tugged. "Lots
and lots."

"That's not what I meant." She didn't know how to ask what
an An'Koori did when his moment came. "Tigger, don't you
think this is dangerous? You may be in your element, but I-
-
"

"I'm going to give you a very thorough seeing to. But
first . . . Ahhh, I come first." His thumb circled a
button
at her waist and she felt the caress as though he'd
stroked
her between her legs. "Well? Your dress is ruined anyway.
Shall I ruin it some more? A lot more?"

"I don't--"

"Don't talk. Kiss me."

He angled her face up to his, and Djinni had the oddest
impression that she'd been ordered to do the sexual
equivalent of rubbing noses with a tiger. However, she'd
promised to do what he wanted, so she took his darkly
stubbled jaw between her hands. Shyly, she bent forward,
and touched her lips to his.