Dalton Fic World of Darkness: The Academy - A Whisker Away

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds. ~Jean Burden

(Continued from Chapter 9)

All was quiet for some minutes after the heavy wooden door shut behind Renata, bar the crackle of the fire and the faint moan of the wind outside the shutters. Mari found herself focused on the boy (Boy. He's a boy, not a panther) in her arms, her small hands caressing the solid muscles through the beautiful midnight-black pelt as she rested her head against his shoulder, draping herself over his form. Ravi was rumbling softly, content and at peace with his massive head on her lap. The angelic girl was struck by how different he was, moment to moment, hour to hour. This complicated, mercurial young man with a violent dark side she'd seen several times in the last week, the raging fiend who'd killed an expert warrior-woman in the span of seconds, the boy whose fervent, delightful kisses in the movie theatre had become a stinging bite and who she'd caught tormenting another pupil with malice and rage in his gleaming eyes was the same person who made her smile with his words, who lifted her little heart simply by being around, who sauntered through the hazy minefield of high school adolescence with a bold, devil-may-care attitude that was as inspiring (in it's independance) as it was scandalous (in it's irreverence). He's all kinds of the wrong sort of boy she thought to herself with a small smile. Was that it? Was it the 'bad boy' thing Yani had talked about? Mari didn't think so. All the 'bad boys' she'd seen back home were kind of silly, posturing kids playing at being men who still jumped when their mama said 'Boo'. Ravi could stand up to the scary Ms Dorn and defy her - he probably wasn't a mama's boy.

You're gonna hurt her, kitty-cat. Hector's words to Ravi came back to her then, and she felt a small chill. Until tonight, she wasn't sure she'd believed that. But Yithaja had tackled her out of Ravi's path like she knew the enraged panther would go through anyone between him and his foe. What had she said? "...when some Beast-Skinned slay their mates in unknowing rage, they end their own lives. Ravi's people are far too few to allow one to die thusly..." Would Ravi have killed her, then killed himself? Mari wasn't stupid - the creature she'd seen in the tavern (and how she wished she hadn't) was out of control, full of rage and frustration, a trapped and angered animal.

"I was worried about you." she said quietly into the thick fur of his shoulder. "When you killed that woman, I was so scared they'd put you down like you had rabies. I was scared that you'd hurt us all... hurt me." She felt the panther shift position a little and clung to his neck. "Wait." she urged, feeling him still again before she continued. "I know you wouldn't want to hurt me. But that wasn't you in there... Was it?" she asked, drawing back a little and looking into the large eyes. Ravi looked back at her, the clear intelligence of his shimmering gaze a counterpoint to the madness she'd seen in the drinking hall. He sighed, a great gust of a sound, and sat up. Mari noted the wound in his side had almost disappeared now, shrinking to a scabbed cut that didn't look much larger than her hand.

Ravi regarded the girl with a pensive air, the words he wanted to say dancing on the inside of his head, trapped by the form he wore. He wanted to explain, to tell her how it was to be beast and man, but this shape, so suited to many endeavours, was not very good at cross-species communication. He sighed again, blowing out the last of his defensive wariness, and feeling the urge as he relaxed some parts of his soul, he went with it and Changed.

To Mari, it was as though his outline blurred, the fur receding all over the great body as it shrank. The process was as fast as it was smooth, and in a few eyeblinks it was Ravi sitting in front of her, the firelight playing over his coffee-coloured skin and turning it bronze as sparks danced golden in his green eyes. He was dirt-smudged and bloody, dried blood on his upper arm under the wound, but he was human, or at least human-shaped again. He drew Mari to him, feeling her lithe arms wrap around his neck as she gratefully hugged him back, and he buried his face in her wealth of dark hair, breathing in her scent.

"I'm sorry." he murmured. "Sorry I scared you. Sorry I made you fear for me. I'm sorry I lost it like that. It was like a berserk fit... It was like the whole world slowed down and became white-hot, and my whole being just wanted to hurt the person who dared to touch you like that. It was like with Kurt, but a dozen times stronger." he sighed, his face still hidden in her hair. "But it was me, Mari. I'm not going to dodge the responsibility. I was in there, and I wanted to hurt that woman. The urge to fight for you might be stronger because of what I am, but the feelings are mine. I'm not going to try and claim 'the devil made me do it'. If Yithaja hadn't saved you... I hope that I would have been strong enough to steer myself like I did when I first Changed. Thanks to her, we didn't have to find out. I owe her." He hugged her tighter for a moment. "Please... don't do that again. If I'd hurt any of our friends I'd be mortified, but if I hurt you..." he left that hanging as he relaxed his grasp a little and straightened enough to look into her eyes. "Well... Just be careful. For me. I'm different now, and I need to learn how to control that." He glanced at his wounded shoulder and made a face. "I wish my family had told me more about being... well, what I am. Maybe there's a trick or secret to controlling the darker impulses."

[Atomicweasel]

What Mari felt in those moments, as Ravi transformed again right before her eyes, and then took her in his arms, she couldn’t have put into words. It was a confused rush of emotion, but mostly she was grateful to have him back. He was again her Ravi. She held him tightly, her head against his shoulder. He was opening himself up to her, speaking sweetly and truthfully, and she could feel the warmth of his skin radiating through her. She didn’t want to let go. She didn’t even want to look at him, out of some irrational fear that he might disappear, like some prince in a fairy tale. My cursed prince. Mari thought.

And like any dark fairy tale, there were rules. Don’t get in the panther’s way when it’s angry. Mari had never been as scared as when she’d placed herself right before the full wrath of the beast. Even the time Yani threatened to beat her ‘like a retard beats a drum’ scored a very distant second.

Ravi had to peel Mari off his neck, holding her by her arms, to look at her face to face, and try to read her reaction to his words. He saw immediately that she’d been crying. Generally, crying girls were something Ravi tried to avoid. When the waterworks came on it usually meant heart-broken recriminations, pleas to know ‘why?’ and ‘how can you do this to me?’ and other such questions those girls should have known the answer to without him having to painfully and awkwardly spell it out for them. Their beauty would be contorted by their sobs, transformed into a caricature of red-faced angst...sometimes accompanied by snot. Mari was not such a girl. Her tears had fallen silently and though the hazel pools of her eyes were full of sadness, Ravi thought he saw relief there, too. If anything Mari’s quiet crying had lent her an air of vulnerability that made her achingly pretty.

They held each other’s gaze for a long moment, not speaking, communicating what they felt without the need for words, until Mari chanced to look down. Immediately, her face colored with a bright blush and she turned her face to one side. “Ravi! You’re...you’re...” her fingertip bobbed up and down, blindly indicating the source of her embarrassment.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

"What?" Ravi's voice was a masterpiece of startled worry as he looked down at himself, then at Mari who, crimson-faced, was staring fixedly at a point beyond his left shoulder while her fingertip indicated his lower half. "I'm what?"

"Um... you're... ahh..."

"Circumsized?" Ravi asked earnestly, repressing his grin as Mari made a squeaking noise and shook her head frantically, face now glowing like a stop light. "Too big?" His face took on an expression of worry. "Too small?" Mari started to giggle, torn between that and burning an embarrassed hole through the floor, and shook her head again. "Oh good, so I'm just right?" Mari glanced at his handsome face, which was set in a grin that was altogether too infectious by half, and burst out laughing. Ravi smiled and wiped the remaining tears away gently with his fingertips, then leaned forwards and kissed her. Mari was still blushing and giggling, trying not to look down or at his devil's smile, but she forgot all of that as soon as his lips nuzzled at the corner of her mouth, then pressed against hers. The giggling faded away, the thought of nakedness being wrong faded away, and all that remained was his lips on hers and his hands on her waist. And the heat.

It seemed to come from him - he seemed so awfully warm to the touch - but at the same time it seemed to rise up from within her at his beck and call, uncoiling and shifting within Mari like molten rock trying to find a way out from her core. She'd felt it before, that evening in his bedroom - was it only last night? - when they'd made out for an hour or two. All untaught, the girl slipped her hands around Ravi's neck once more and drew herself closer, feeling that delicious hungering that came with the liquid warm feeling. And this was just from being close and kissing him. Mari was no expert when it came to boys, but having listened in on her sisters and other girls more experienced she had formed certain opinions, namely that boys were inclined to be slobbery and need coaching to kiss right, that they tried to stick their tongues down your throat (ick!) and generally acted like overly-enthusiastic puppies: affectionate, but not romantic or sexy.

Ravi kissed like he was playing an instrument with his lips, only now and then teasing her with his tongue and a hint of teeth before breaking off and nuzzling along the curve of Mari's jaw to her ear, kissing the lobe once or twice as she drew in a sharp breath, before returning to her mouth once more. It was... Well, she wasn't sure what it was, but she wanted more of it with a nearly-primitive desire.

Ravi broke off for a moment, smiling at Mari's half-lidded eyes and reddened lips. She was gazing back at him with a clear mixture of love and want. Her effect on him was similarly powerful: her innocent sweetness, combined with her feelings for him made the passionate young aristocrat experience both tender protectiveness and almost-savage hunger. He'd been tempted to try and push things back on Earth, in his room at Dalton, but Mari's evident inexperience and his wish not to harm her was an effective restraint. Still, every restraint has a snapping point.

"I'm likely to be naked until Yithaja brings me more clothes." he murmured in Mari's ear, pressing his cheek to hers. "But I don't mind if you don't. If it really bothers you, we could get into bed." he added semi-suggestively.

[Atomicweasel]

We could get into bed the words hammered in Mari’s head, thundered in her heart. Ravi was staring at her, his eyes like jade and liquid gold. He was kidding, but he wasn’t. The casual tone of his words belied the intensity of his stare, the tension in his hand as it gripped her hip.

We could get into bed Mari could not meet Ravi’s gaze. She dropped her eyes, to his chest, to his strong, flat abdomen, to his…her eyes shot back. She gulped, flushed and flustered and not knowing what to say. She wanted Ravi so acutely; it was like a pain, a sharp point of pressure in her chest. Her doubts warred with her desire. It was too soon. She wasn’t Yani; she wasn’t ready for this. It would be wrong in the eyes of her Faith or, at least, her Church. Often, Mari was beginning to discover, the former was different from the latter. She was scared, but she was excited, too. Would it hurt? Would she be clumsy and awkward? Would she be a disappointment to Ravi? That was her greatest fear. She wasn’t so naïve as to imagine Ravi wasn’t familiar with women. He obviously knew what he was doing. And I don’t. But how would she ever know unless she tried?

We could get into bed Maybe Yithaja had been right. What did it matter if Ravi was her mate in name or not? She had given him her heart, and that was all that mattered. Why not give him the rest? Mari chewed her lower lip, still a little bruised from Ravi’s bite. She wrestled with her indecision. “Okay.” She was trembling when she said it.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Dawn OOC]

The moment she said that word, a sliver of unease filled her soul...

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Ravi rose slowly, so gracefully that his bones and muscles might have been liquid under the skin, and drew her up with him, wrapping an arm around Mari's waist and drawing her close for another kiss before leading her to the bed. Despite his apparent single-mindedness, though, he wasn't intending to deflower the lovely girl in his arms. He hadn't missed the flicker of fear in her eyes or the hesitancy of her reply, and selfish as he may be, and lecherous cad though he was, there was no chance in hell he would ever do something so akin to rape as to press fo sex with someone that was this uncertain. Mari wasn't like Frida, who'd been a little nervous, but passionately experimental, satisfying her desires and her curiousity at the same time. She wasn't like that blonde girl Whatshername, who'd been vapidly enjoying herself and, in self-centered confidence, believed she'd hooked him with a little casual sex. Mari was younger than them, for one thing, and for another she was scared. Not of him, but of IT, the boogyman, S-E-X. Fear was not a turn-on, plainly put. For Ravi especially, as it hit other instincts rather than the sexual.

He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled at her, drawing her over to sit beside him, simultaneously charmed and amused by the faint high-speed tremor of fear running through her body. Mentally, he sighed. If he didn't care for her so much, there was every chance he'd simply tell Mari to call him in a year or two. Abstinence was not one of Ravi's virtues, as he would be the first to admit. To tie himself to a sweet, nervous and virginal girl, exercising patience and celibacy until she felt more ready, was fairly close to his idea of hell on earth, to be frank. Especially as he was also trying to be faithful, of all damned things. Why am I doing this? Why don't I just say: "Sorry Mari, but I can't go without sex and you're not ready, and that's NOT a dare or a remark calculated to push you into sex, it's a simple analysis of fact. We should remain friends."? I should do that, it'd be better in the long run. So why don't I?

"S-so what do... I mean, what happens now?" Mari said in a small voice, looking up and meeting his gaze. Her hazel eyes were large and liquid, a combination of love, trust and fear in them, and Ravi felt an unaccustomed part of his soul do a little side-roll. That's why, he answered his previous question. She brings something out in me, something light and good, and I hate myself for being selfish and hanging onto that even though I will probably hurt her.

"Now we get under the covers." he said with a slight smile, sliding under the furs and scooting over in the bed so she could do likewise. Mari hesitated, then bit her lip and, as though racing ahead of her doubts, stripped off the shirt over her head and dove under the furs in just her panties, her face red as she laid it on the pillow next to his, peeking out at him. With a grin, he lay back and crooked a finger at her. "Over here, Mari."

Slowly, feeling the chill of the vacated bed puckering her skin, she slid over so that she was resting against his warm body. One arm cradled her, the other gently stroked her chocolate-toned hair as she rested her small hands against Ravi's torso, one against his ribs and the other on his sleekly muscled chest, feeling the heat of him chase the outer chill away as she pressed herself against him and buried her face against his neck. His scent excited and frightened the girl, and Ravi felt the trembling of her body increase.

"Ravi, I'm... kind of scared." she admitted in a small voice, afraid to look up at his face. Would he despise her, or laugh, or smile knowingly and tell her that was all normal and it would go away soon...?

"I know you are." came the reply, his voice gentle. "But there's nothing to be scared of."

"There is. You're... experienced. You've done it, and I haven't, and I'm worried that you won't like it with me because I-" she was stopped by a single finger on her lips, and looked at him in surprise. He was smiling, and bent his head to kiss her.

"There's nothing to be scared of, because we're not having sex." he said simply as their lips parted.

"We're not?" Mari blinked, feeling a mixture of relief and foolishness. "But I thought you- Well, you know."

"I do." he sighed, still with a faint smile on his lips as he looked up at the rough-hewn ceiling. "Oh, do I ever. But you aren't ready. You love me, but you're scared, and one of my few rules about sex is that the partners involved shouldn't be any more than nervous."

"But I thought- When you said- Oh!" Mari blushed and buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm so dumb!"

"Not at all. I was thinking about it. But the main reason I suggested we get into bed is so you could get used to the feeling. Get used to me being naked, so when we do, you won't be so worried about that." Ravi said in a low soft tone, enjoying the feeling of Mari's body against his. "Seeing as my clothes get shredded whenever I change, I think getting used to me being naked is probably going to be a useful skill for you." He tilted his head and smiled down at her.

[Atomicweasel]

I don’t think I can ever get used to that. Mari thought as Ravi pulled her closer against the warmth of his skin. She kept that uncertainty to herself, giggling when Ravi drew his fingernails lightly over her midriff and up across her ribs. She felt almost weightless with relief. Looking up at Ravi, Mari didn’t have to ask if he was angry or disappointed. His smile was full of tenderness. She had imagined all sorts of scenarios for her First Time with Ravi. She had dreamed him taking her, sometimes slowly and lovingly, other times with animal urgency and lust, but she had never been able to place herself into those visions, except as an object for Ravi’s passions. It was like she’d been fantasizing through his eyes. She hadn’t taken ownership of her own desire because it was shameful, frightening, and so new to her that Mari didn’t know how to handle it. And now she was in the panther’s den, naked and in bed, and the panther had no plans to devour her after all. Mari was surprised to feel a twinge of disillusionment.

“We can still make out...if you want.” The tone was timid, but the words were bold. Ravi’s smile turned wicked and he answered her with a kiss, as long and lingering as any Mari had dreamed. It was somewhere in the midst of that kiss that she found a jolt of unexpected courage; she took Ravi’s hand, which had travelled back to her hip, and raised it until the weight of his palm pressed onto her naked breast. Ravi lightly squeezed, grinning at Mari’s breathless blushing. His left leg lay between her thighs and he could feel the heat of her, the tense arousal of her little body, growing, responding to his light caresses. But her trembling had not stopped.

“Why are you so frightened of me?” Ravi asked, tracing his thumb along Mari’s jaw. He kept the edge out of his voice, but Mari’s trembling stirred some primal impulse that lurked beneath his skin, something that screamed PREY.

Mari shook her head. He half expected her to say, Because you’re a killer. Because you have a dark hungry animal inside of you and all it wants is blood... and then launch into some lecture about wrong and right, but instead she said “I’m not.” Ravi could smell the truth in her words as easily as he could smell the fear.

“Then why are you still trembling?” Ravi leaned close to whisper into Mari’s ear. She felt so small in his arms, but so alive. He could hear the beating of her heart when he nuzzled between her neck and shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Mari confessed “I can’t stop.”

“Maybe we need to distract you.” Ravi suggested. He kissed across her collar bone to her sternum, rolled the nub of her hard little nipple; he drank in Mari’s answering gasp and delighted in the way she wriggled beneath him. He had only just begun to touch her, but the sensation sparked a tremor of excitement that coursed all the way through Mari. He could see it in her blush, in the little lurch of her hips. He didn’t have to look to know her toes were curling into the bedding. It was as though Ravi were connected to Mari through their intimacy; with his heightened awareness he could sense her every reaction, as if her feelings were his own.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Enjoying the effect he was having, savoring the scent of excitement rising from the tender skin under his lips Ravi playfully flicked the tip of his tongue along the sweep of Mari's collarbone, causing something between a giggle and a gasp to escape the lovely young girl. The giggle became a faint moan as he dipped his head and ran his mouth over her breast, and when he began worrying the stiff little nipple with his lips the moan became deeper, throatier as Mari started undulating her body against his, trying to quench the heat that Ravi's touch, his scent and kisses was sparking off in her blood. Her thighs tightened on his leg, her panties rubbing against his thigh and hip as Mari tried desperately to anchor herself.

Abruptly she grabbed the back of his hair in her hands, clutching as a small shiver ran through her - not an orgasm, but a foreshadowing of one, a mere taste of intense sensation that left her feeling scared... and hungry for more. She rolled atop Ravi, using all of her leverage to force him to his back and straddling his stomach. She gazed down into the irridiscent catlike eyes and felt, not fear, but a deep overwhelming sense of closeness, passion and want, and gave vent to it in a sweetly passionate kiss, now the aggressor herself, feeling the taut muscles of his waist under her sleek thighs and aware of his arousal in the fervor of his returned kiss, in the rough-and-tender caress of his hands as they played her body like a harp. She still trembled, but now it seemed that the trembling was all inside, down in her abdomen where it seemed to belong.

For Ravi, it was gratifying to have coaxed this first flowering of passion, or so it seemed, from the angelic girl. Her hands ran over his chest and shoulders as she kissed and kissed on him, her hair fell around him like a warm dark blanket, tinted gold here and there by the firelight. Mari's hazel eyes were dark, the pupils wide above panting, kiss-reddened lips as she pressed her whole body to his. It took every ounce of his self-control not to simply roll her onto her back and tear her panties off. That she would enjoy it, he felt was certain, but there was still consideration. At the worst of times, Ravi liked to view himself as a considerate lover. He might not have much to do with some girls afterwards, but it was a point of pride for him that they not regret the experience itself. And so he kept his own desire, intensfied a dozenfold by his inner animal, on a slow burn, meanwhile through touch and kiss and murmur building Mari's pleasure to a fever pitch.

[Atomicweasel]

Mari was chasing a feeling. It had begun as a shiver and grown into a butterfly that beat its wings inside of her, keeping time with the pulsing rhythm of her heart. Ravi’s hands were everywhere: stroking the outside and inside of Mari’s thighs, following her spine to her shoulders and arms, tracing the line of her jaw and tilting her head back to kiss and nibble and suck at her neck, fondling her gently, only to smother her breasts under his hands a moment later, squeezing the hot aching buttons of her nipples between thumb and forefinger hard enough to make Mari cry out in a confused mix of pleasure and pain, touching her, touching her, touching her…

And as Ravi kept piling sensation on sensation, that butterfly of a feeling became an angry buzzing bee and it was racing ahead of her and she was right behind it and getting closer and then Ravi was holding her squirming hips in place and reaching between them to dig his thumb into the gusset of her panties and Mari went suddenly still, her hazel eyes huge with stunned surrender as the feeling overcame her, overtook her, and claimed her completely. It was terrible. It was wonderful. Need and passion and desire filled her, rushing out from the trembling center of her core and expanding and carrying Mari away with it. She was nowhere and she was everywhere. She saw herself in Ravi’s arms, mouth open in a silent scream…and light was pouring out of her.

From Ravi’s perspective, Mari’s orgasm looked like a religious experience. The beautiful nymphet on his lap was in rapture, and it made her look like an angel. Her long hair was tumbled all over her face and shoulders, mussed and thrown into disarray from all his ministrations. And perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but those chocolate colored tresses seemed to be ablaze, catching the glow of the fireplace so that they shone like a radiant corona. Her lithesome body was luminous, her eyes shining brightly. For a brief moment, when he slid her off his hips and back onto the bed beside him, he thought Mari had passed out. She was limp and boneless in his arms. But when Ravi turned onto his side to hover over her, in part concerned and in part gloating that his lovemaking skills had so affected his little girlfriend, she blinked up at him and he watched her smile a languid, blushing smile.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Ravi teased her with a self-satisfied grin.

“Mmmm,” Mari mmm’d, her blush deepening. “Ravi?”

Ravi’s grin stayed in place, though inwardly he stifled a groan. Here it comes. he thought. Why was it every lovelorn girl felt the need to divulge her adoration for him after he had made them cum? It was not love, but lust, and there was nothing wrong with lust, but why couldn’t they, as he did, embrace the passion of the moment, rejoice in it, and not endlessly complicate a beautiful experience with all the somber weight of those three un-retractable words. He made allowances for Mari’s youth, and it was her first big O, after all. He would have bet his family fortune on that. The poor thing couldn’t help herself, he concluded as he watched her chew her lower lip and steel herself with bravery and get all doe-eyed. It was banal, but it was adorable too. He waited.

He wasn’t disappointed. Predictably, Mari couldn’t help but say it. And yet, when she did, Ravi had a curious reaction. He was touched. She hadn’t said it mewling and clingy; she hadn’t said it to anchor him, as so many other hapless girls had. She said it simply and honestly and Ravi knew she was telling him the truth without reservations, without confusion, without the expectation that he parrot the words back at her. The timing could have been better, but she said it so sweetly, and she was smiling so infectiously, and blushing so prettily, it made his heart lurch.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

In truth, he didn't know how to respond to it, coming from Mari. In the past when the L-bomb had been dropped, he'd have smiled and said something like "Oh, not yet you don't." before proceeding to take mutually pleasurable advantage of the desire-drenched girl in question. But with Mari... He just wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss.

"I know." he said with a small grin. "And I'm humbled by that." He folded her in the crook of his arm and got comfortable, Mari making a kittenish noise and draping herself over him. The brush of her leg against his groin was a poignant reminder of his own arousal, to them both. Mari's eyes flickered open and looked up at him, her lovely face a study in nervous fascination.

"You didn't... ummm." she started hesitantly, then prompted by her innate sense of fairness, as well as eagerness to return the pleasure he'd bestowed on her asked "Do you want me to..?"

"If you want to." Ravi said gravely, a smile playing around his lips. "But only if. This isn't about tit-for-tat." "Your gonna hurt her..." Fuck you, Hector. Every time I'm with her now, I'm thinking of your stupid blind self and your dumb predictions. Die in a fire, you arsehole.

Mari studied his face, her own flush deepening a little as she considered. She did want to reciprocate. Maybe she didn't want to make love, but that didn't mean she couldn't fool around a little. After what Ravi had just done for her, it'd be selfish and mean to leave him so... swollen. She remembered Yani giggling about leaving her boyfriend with 'blue balls', and while Mari wasn't exactly sure what that meant, she knew she didn't want to do it to Ravi. Besides, Yani's boyfriend had never made her feel like this... Or if he had, Yani had been uncharacteristically quiet about it.

Ravi felt the hand on his chest start to slip lower, trailing deliberately over the lines and muscles of his torso as though Mari were a sculptor savoring the lines of her work. Which wasn't too far from the truth. He's so beautiful. Like God made him perfect in every way... except one. Beauty AND a Beast. Her hand trembled a little as it slipped down over the taut stomach and to his groin. She'd never touched a man before. What if it was ugly? Or icky? What if he hated it? What if she hurt him or was really bad at touching?! His emerald-gold eyes were watching her face as she, biting her lip, glanced down at what lay below the line of the furs. He saw her expression change from nervousness to something between relief and fascination... and maybe a little fear, and he fought the urge to laugh. He wasn't that big, large-average, perhaps. But to a virgin seeing her first erection, it was probably scary.

Mari looked up at his face again as she tentatively stroked her fingers along his length, noting the way his eyes half-shut and the muscles in his stomach tensed a little, and a small smile graced her lips. Okay, this wasn't so hard. Made bolder by the rumble she could feel vibrating through his chest against hers, Mari wrapped her fingers around Ravi manhood and began to slowly alternate between stroking and up and down, pumping motions.

[Atomicweasel]

When she scootched down and laid her head against Ravi’s chest, the rumble inside of him became a roar that Mari felt reverberating through his skin like something fighting to be born. It gave her a frightening and thrilling sensation, like being poised at the lip of a precipice and looking over into a yawning abyss. Mari felt Ravi’s heat rising, pulsing and throbbing in her hand. She glanced at him, half expecting to see him transform into a panther. His lips were pulled back in a snarl, but he was still very much Ravi, golden and brown and beautiful to behold. Mari drank in the sight of his splendid nakedness. “Are you okay?” She whispered, “is it good like this?”

“Yesss,” Ravi growled back, and Mari had to turn her head and press her left fist to her mouth to swallow down a wild and nervous urge to laugh. She needn’t have asked. It was clear from the tension in Ravi’s muscles, the way his hips twitched up at her hand, that he was enjoying Mari’s ministrations. She wasn’t experienced, and that told in her timidity and gentleness, but her hand was delicate and small and her fingers cool and smooth and Ravi could hardly bear the wonderful alien tenderness of her touch. The girl’s careful caresses felt electric. A powerful warmth and energy flowed through Mari and into Ravi with every diffident little stroke. It was making him mad with desire. “Mari!” Ravi all but barked, squeezing his eyes shut, “You can go harder.”

“Okay,” Mari murmured impishly. She was enjoying the reversal of power, the control she had over Ravi. He was so tense with the desire for release, his essence so concentrated into one hot handful that to Mari it was as if she were holding his soul instead of his cock. And his soul yearned to be free. Mari let slip a little giggle.

“Marrri,” Ravi growled a reminder.

“Okay,” Mari said again. Her eyes were bright with mirth when she lifted her head from Ravi’s chest and placed a sweet warm kiss on his lips. Her stroking grew a little faster and a little harder and Ravi’s manhood swelled impossibly in her hand. He couldn’t hold it back any longer. He didn’t want to hold it back any longer. When he came, the roar that had been building with his orgasm came too. It was a roar ripped from a deep place of need inside of him, loud and strong and animal enough to wipe the precocious little grin off Mari’s face and kill any lingering urge she might have to giggle.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

He hadn't meant to lose it so completely. The restraint he'd been practicing, the pent up lust and desire, the frustrations of his life flowed together and mingled with his passion for Mari and the knowledge that it was her hand wrapped around the core of his pleasure. When she'd pressed herself to him and kissed him so sweetly, it had pushed his sensory overload into an explosion that almost, but not quite hurt.

Later, he mused that his increased senses probably contributed to the pleasure of the experience for both of them, giving or receiving.

Mari felt warmth spatter against her shoulder and ribs once, then again, before she felt rivulets of her lover's pleasure run over her still moving hand. It should have been icky, the knowledge of what that liquid warmth was, but somehow it wasn't icky, because it was Ravi she felt pulsing in her hand, Ravi whose gasps of pleasure and wildly thumping heart she felt against her breast as they lay together. His seed, she thought as she stroked his brow and smiled with tentative wonder and warm love into his fierce jade eyes. I did that to him, for him. She felt her own heart hammering a little, and only partly because of that roar, as she continued to move her hand around him.

"Mari..." he murmured her name as his senses returned. The werepanther blew out a hard, whooshing breath and turned his face towards her, cupping her face in one hand and giving her a loving kiss of his own. A twinge of sensation caused him to wince and he gently grasped her wrist, stilling her movements. "That was wonderful." he said in answer to her curious expression. His smile was radiant, dispelling any doubts she might harbour. "But I tend to be a little sensitive down there immediately after a strong one like that, so you need to slow down or stop the movement."

Now Mari giggled, relieved and a little giddy, and after giving her another heated kiss Ravi slipped from the bed. "Wait there a moment." he told her as he crossed to the carved wooden basin and the water jug that stood on a table near the bed. Bringing them back with a cloth, he sat on the edge of the bed and cleaned Mari's arm and hand with firm strokes of the wet washcloth, before cleaning her shoulder and ribs. His hands were gentle, though the water was cold enough to bring goosebumps on Mari's tender skin. When he stood up and moved away to clean himself, his hissed cursing made the girl bite back another giggle despite her sympathy for how it'd feel to have cold water there. Finally, ablutions all done, Ravi practically leapt back under the warm furs and snuggled up with her.

"There." he murmured into Mari's chocolate wealth of hair as she nestled against him. "That wasn't so bad. You're not trembling anymore."