Perhaps most women might be intimidated or put off by the fact that he could smell her arousal, which was growing each moment, with every one of his actions. Ninon would not take umbrage with it. After all, it wasn't as though he'd be able to hide his own arousal for long. Perhaps it put them on an even more level playing field and in the end, he would know how she was truly feeling.

As he sets her down on the bed, she looks up at him as he expresses his very real concern, the moment slipping from playful to more serious. For a moment, she thinks he worries about hurting her in a way a man might hurt a woman the first time they are intimate and she almost laughs.

But then she remembers who he is, what he is. Shifting beneath him slightly, she reaches up to touch his face, thumb tracing his lips. She so rarely sees his teeth, he keeps them so well-hidden from the world, a symptom of the prejudice he lives with. "Darling," she murmurs softly. "I am no stranger to pain." She is a woman, after all. "But I give you my word to tell you if you are hurting me, if that will ease your worry."

Slipping her thumb against his lips a little more, she wants to coax his mouth open so she can see his teeth. "Just remember, that the sounds I might make are ones of pleasure and not agony. There's a very fine line. "