"Okay," he said, his voice thick. Maybe thirty seconds later he was crawling into bed, and a heartbeat after that he was wrapped around me, a bare leg hooked over mine, both his arms and a wing-arm around me, and his face up against my neck. He was shaking, his whole body, like an aspen leaf.

I put my arms around him, expecting to hit cloth and instead getting scales and skin. My brain immediately short-circuited.

No shirt. No pants.

"Dain, are you naked?" I asked, the words coming out a little strangled.

"I am not," he answered, his voice muffled but sounding embarrassed.

I ran my hand down his back in something of a daze. Scales, scales, scales, waistband, skin. My hand was now on Dain's ass, I realized. I was feeling up Crown Prince Dain Sundamar.

I did not cease feeling up the crown prince, my rational brain still not catching up to whatever my hand was doing. Skin, skin, wow Dain had a nice ass, another broad elastic band, silken fur. It really did go all the way up.

Dain made some sort of moaning noise in the back of his throat, trembling in a different way than before.

"Are you wearing a jockstrap?" I asked. My hand was still on the back of his upper thigh, the bare leg that was currently slung over me. If I slid my hand around and back up I would have my fingers between his legs and holy shit what was I doing?! I yanked my hand off him, my flaming blush hitting me an instant later.

He made another little sound, shifting his hips away from me a fraction.

Well, duh, I told myself. You were just fucking grabbing his ass and liking it, no fucking wonder he's turned on. That did not really help my own turned-on status, which registered belatedly as a sharp throb between my legs and a shivering tight feeling all through my chest and throat. Oh, wow, okay, I liked that a lot. I wanted to put my hand directly back on Dain's bare ass, please and thank you.

"It is difficult to find undergarments suitable for two tails," Dain said, in a tone of forced casual conversation. "I should maybe have put on sleep clothing, but I wasn't thinking about modesty."

"Not unreasonable, we haven't seen each other in a long time," I said, also sounding somewhat like a robot reading lines. I heard him swallow as he shivered.

"Stress aside, you smell incredible right now," he said in a thick voice. "But it is the sort of incredible where I am not going to be able to think or sleep." Dain inhaled and made another low sound in the back of his throat. "Fuck," he whispered. "I want what your body is offering very badly right now."