Chapter 22
Asterion
Katie rests for a few more days, takes some short walks around the vegetable garden with my help, and eats.
I make sure I am already preparing her next meal by the time she is finished with the current one.
Fresh vegetables I have grown, cured meats I have hunted, and citrus fruits I have picked from the orchard above.
The mate bond sings every time she lifts a piece of food to her mouth, the hollow planes of her face and body already showing signs of filling out.
“I’m going to the spring,” she announces.
“Yes, you smell.” If she did not suggest it, I was soon going to.
I have been unable to drift far from her side since bringing her back to my home.
The mate bond is a constant, thrumming energy beneath my skin since we have not consummated it.
It is only sated enough for me to continue functioning when I am feeding her.
I also need to bathe, but it is further than she has walked yet while building her strength, so I have waited for her to be ready. “I will carry you.”
“You always say I smell,” she argues. “I don’t need your help, I can walk.”
“It is not just a short lap of the garden. I will carry you.” As if I would let her walk on her own.
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. But can you give me a piggyback again? I don’t need to be thrown over your shoulder for old time’s sake.”
I gather up some things to take with us, and she adds her pile of clothes to be washed.
I will be disappointed to see her covered up again, so used to her wandering around in her underclothing.
Securing the bundle, I crouch down for her to climb atop my back, and I take hold of her thighs to stop her from slipping.
My mind flashes back to her grinding on me that very fateful night, right before she fell off the mountainside.
I take a deep breath, willing my cock to stay down.
A hopeless endeavor when I have her very naked skin in my hands and against my back.
Her cunt is a hairsbreadth from where my fingers sit against her thighs.
“Giddy up!” Her small hands have taken a horn in each, pulling me out of the haze.
I scowl. “If you are not careful, little viper, I will give you something else to ride if that is what you are so eager for.”
The tension has been riding me almost daily now.
The urge to mate continues to grow stronger the more she does, and I often have to sneak outside in the middle of the night to take my cock in hand to relieve the pressure aching in my balls.
She sniggers in my ear like she knows exactly what she is doing.
My back vibrates beneath her in a growl, cutting her giggles off with a soft exclamation. Two can play at this game, mate.
I carry her the short way to the spring where I first found her, humidity misting the air and raising the temperature.
Glow worms across the ceiling provide us with enough light to see by.
The little specks of light reflect in the wet-slicked walls, making it feel as if we have been transported to another realm.
I can almost feel Katie thrumming with the excitement and anticipation of feeling clean. She slips down my back and runs into the water as fast as she can without slipping, splashing warm water over the edge as she sinks beneath the surface and comes back up with a gleeful sigh.
I chuckle, rummaging through the things I brought to throw her some soap berries.
“We have soap!” She laughs, catching them and lathering them in her hands before soaping up the rest of her body.
I untie my loincloth, letting it drop to the floor. I will wash it after I have washed myself. Katie yelps, dropping the soap berries and covering her eyes as I enter the water.
“Why are you naked!” She spins so her back is to me.
“I also need to wash.” The water feels decadent against my skin, and I dive beneath the surface to fetch the soap berries, coming back up in front of Katie.
“I am covered,” I huff with a laugh. “You can open your eyes.”
She peeks between two fingers before splashing me. “You could’ve warned me.”
“It did not occur to me that you would not be accustomed to seeing nudity.”
“I am accustomed, thank you very much. I was just shocked. If you don’t care, then I don’t care.
I need to wash these anyway,” she says haughtily and begins to unfasten her underclothing, stripping away both halves until she is all bare skin everywhere, though the spring shields everything below the water from view.
She raises her eyebrows at me as if to say ‘see?’ and I roll my eyes and shake my head at her with a chuckle before soaping myself up.
We keep a short distance from each other as she takes her items of clothing, soaps them up, and washes them out before slapping them on the wet stone floor.
“We can hang them up to dry back at home,” I tell her as I do the same to my own.
“Yeah, I just didn’t think about what I was going to wear after this. I don’t have anything else.”
“I have an extra loincloth. I can wrap you in it if you like?”
She turns to face me, a pink flush creeping up her neck. “Oh, thanks. What will you wear?”
“I will air dry.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her, and she splashes me again, grumbling.
She begins soaping up her hair and rinses it out, attempting to untangle it with her fingers, cursing as the knots refuse to budge.
“Come here.” I grab the comb I made for her while she was unconscious from the bundle of things I brought with us and slide up behind her.
Taking the strands of hair from her hands, I gently work the comb through the knots from the ends to her scalp, taking extra care at the sensitive spot where her head wound was.
“Why do you have a comb?” She tries to turn her head to look at me, and I move her back to facing forward.
“I made it for you.”
“You made it—for me?” She attempts to turn again.
“Stay still. Yes, how do you think I managed to comb the knots out of your hair when you were unconscious?”
She’s quiet as she shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never had anyone take care of me like that. It never occurred to me that you would make something I needed.”
I grunt, knowing the topic she is skirting around, her shoulders bunched up tight.
I manage to get her hair tangle-free and then take the soap berries and lather up her back, using firm strokes to work away at the knots that have made their home along the back of her neck and around her shoulder blades. She hums in contentment when I am finished and turns to face me.
“Thank you.” Never have we physically stood so close to one another, and it is a dangerous game when neither of us has any clothing on. The physical touching triggers the mate bond to stir to life.
“You are welcome.” I clear my throat, so glad that she cannot see my hard erection beneath the water. “We should go now. You need to eat.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I just ate before we came. I want to stay until I’m a prune.”
I splash the look off her face. “Fine.”
She gasps and splashes me back, until we’re fighting and laughing and water is going everywhere.
I grab her, pinning her against my body by wrapping my arms around her so she can’t splash me anymore.
Her laugh trails off, and, looking into each other’s eyes, we realize our naked bodies are pressed against each other, my throbbing cock wedged between us, with one of my hands holding her firmly on her behind.
She tries to wiggle free, and I close my eyes, nostrils flaring as she rubs herself against my cock.
Instantly, I let her go, stepping back slightly so we are no longer touching.
I grip the base of my cock tightly, aching to spill my seed everywhere, to cover her in it, to fill her with it until it drips from her cunt.
I turn away from her, running my hand over my head.
I hear water dripping onto the rocky floor as she gets out of the spring.
I keep my back turned to give her time to dry herself and cover up.
“Asterion?”
I turn in the water to face her. She’s wrapped up in the fabric I use for my loincloth.
It’s twirled around her so she looks like a little silkworm, her violet hair slick over her shoulders, turning the fabric semi-transparent.
In her hands, she holds a crumpled-up dark lump of something.
She spreads it out, the fabric stiff, and I suddenly know what it is she is holding.
“You should put that down.” I scratch the back of my neck as shame floods me.
“This is my jacket.” She turns it over. “What is this?” She picks at the off-white stains spread over and dried into the fabric. She brings it to her nose to sniff.
“No, do not!” I yell, climbing out of the water to take it from her.
She looks at me as if I have grown two heads, then seems to suddenly realize why I am so horrified.
“Asterion! Did you come on my jacket?”