Chapter 23
Scarlet
This had to be the single most mortifying day of her life.
Including that time she had gotten sick on stage during the talent section of one of her beauty pageants, prompting two other little girls waiting in the wings to get sick and her mother to yell at her in front of the judges while she cried and got sick again.
Scarlet wouldn’t consider herself a prude.
She just felt that private things should stay private, and she didn’t see anything wrong with that.
What went on between her and Havali had absolutely nothing to do with the others and bringing them into it was not only embarrassing, it was also a bit gross and completely unnecessary.
She was trying, she really was, to see this from Havali’s side. He had done something that was, to him, incredibly wrong and it was probably honorable to turn himself in for punishment.
But all she could think was that he had taken a private, intimate moment and just dangled it wildly in the wind for the others to see.
Humiliating and infuriating.
She dragged him back inside, all the way to her little clinic where she could shut and lock the door before rounding on him with an angry snarl.
“What the hell was that?!” She asked, gesturing backwards.
Havali was scanning her up and down, like he wasn’t quite sure what she was doing. His cautious silence only made her angrier. Where had that been half an hour ago when he had decided to go full martyr and present himself for execution?
“You are not angry that I drew your blood?” He asked, his tone even and careful.
“It was a tiny cut. It was nothing,” she stressed, annoyed. “Certainly not worth you running to Atem over.”
Understanding dawned. “Ah. You think that it’s not bad because the blood I took from you was negligible.”
“No! I mean, yes. It was barely anything. I’ve hurt myself worse cooking. But that is not the point! The point is that you went to Atem.”
“He is your guardian.”
“I am a grown woman!”
An odd look came over Havali’s face, like her words were strange, but she pressed on.
“If something happens between us, it’s discussed between us.” She gestured between the two of them to drive her point home. “I cannot believe that this has to be expressly stated!”
“But he is your guardian,” he said again like she wasn’t getting something.
Scarlet took in a deep breath and counted to ten. Trying to calm herself.
It was a clash of cultures. She knew that. It was just this particular subject they were clashing on happened to be a very hot button for her.
The domini were not a secretive people. They didn’t believe in modesty, they prized telling stories, and they felt shame only over wrongs committed, not over trivial things like strange hobbies or silly preferences. Normally, Scarlet enjoyed that about them.
But there were downsides.
One of which Holly had discovered recently, and one that Scarlet, as a medical professional, was having trouble coping with.
Medical confidentiality was a big thing on Earth. No one, absolutely no one, could be told your medical history from the time you reached adulthood until you either died or were no longer capable of making your own decisions.
The domini didn’t think like that. As Holly discovered when First Healer had told Romival and Atem parts of her medical history without even thinking he might need to tell her.
He just trusted that the two males would inform her if she desired to hear it and that the two of them, as her soon-to-be mate and guardian respectively, would have her best interests at heart.
And, to Scarlet’s shock, working as a healer, she had found that to be true.
Domini as a whole weren’t duplicitous in nature.
They were simple and direct in the same way a hammer was simple and direct – good at its job but not very complicated.
No mate yet, that she had seen, was abusive or controlling to their partner.
It was fascinating how it just didn’t seem to be a thing.
To the point that it seemed unrealistic and strange.
So, to Havali, going straight to Atem instead of Scarlet after he had wronged her wouldn’t be seen as a breach of confidentiality. It wouldn’t be seen as him airing out their private business. It was him doing the right thing.
Except, to Scarlet, he was breaching relationship confidentiality. She was not raised in this culture that would see him running to Atem as, not only understandable, but responsible.
“Havali,” she tried again, “there’s a saying on Earth: Don’t kiss and tell.”
He cocked his head. “Is kissing secret? Vi Dominani and vi Adassani kiss all the time. As do First Scholar and Vora Vakara Holly.”
“No. It doesn’t literally mean you’re not supposed to tell people that you’re kissing.
It means that things between couples should stay between couples.
” She took a step closer, looking deep into his three, black eyes, willing him to understand this.
“It means, what happens between us is supposed to remain private between us. If there is something wrong that I need Atem to protect me from, then I will go to him. Otherwise, we work it out between each other. Together.”
He searched her face. She had no idea what for. This seemed like such a simple concept, she couldn’t imagine what he was thinking, only that it was different from how her people thought.
But she needed him to understand this. She was willing to meet him halfway, more than halfway at times, for most things, but this was a hard boundary for her.
Whatever he was looking for, he must have found it because some of the tension eased from him.
“You are angry not because of what I did, but because I told Atem.”
“I’m mad because you excluded me from this decision,” she said, trying to get him to focus on the heart of the matter. “We kissed.”
“Yes,” he said, a smile growing.
“I liked it,” she continued, grinning herself.
“You did?” He took a step closer.
“I did.”
His smile faded a bit as he looked at her bottom lip. “But I bit you.”
“You cut me.”
“The same thing. Just as dishonorable because I did it with intention.”
“Why did you do it?” She took her own step forward, giving him her own searching look. Trying to figure out this male that occupied so much of her waking thoughts. “You could call the first time an accident. But the second? You did that on purpose.”
He didn’t answer, but his eyes turned away in shame.
“Hey.” She closed the last distance between them, taking his chin in hand and forcing him to look back at her.
The tortured pain in his eyes hurt her heart and drained away the last of her anger.
“This is really serious to you, isn’t it?” She asked on a whisper.
“I hurt my own female,” he said softly. “I bled you intentionally. I fed from you. Such a thing is only done by the lowest on Turv.”
She snickered. “But you just heard Alanna tell you that we have a whole genre of romantic stories based on a human-like creature that drinks blood.”
“That… confuses me,” he admitted. “These are not real creatures, yet you fantasize over them. Why do you enjoy the idea of feeding on those you love? Stealing something so precious. Such a thing is wrong on the very face of it.”
“Sure. If you look at it that way,” she nodded sagely, putting her hands to her hips. “But what about the other way?”
He cocked his head, not understanding.
“You think of it as you stealing my blood to feed yourself. A selfish act.”
“Yes. Of course. The most selfish.”
“But from my angle, I see it as giving my blood to someone important to me. To help nourish them. To help them grow strong. To join with them in an intimate way unmatched by any other. Something selfless and loving.”
“But that’s…” His voice trailed off as her words combated with what he understood as truth.
“Domini females nurse their young,” Scarlet said suddenly, surprising him. “She feeds her baby from the breast. Just like humans do. Is that not similar?”
“Of course, not!”
“How is it different?”
“Milk is made to be shared. Blood is something that sustains your life. Your milk running dry will not kill you, but your blood running dry certainly will.”
“Havali, I bleed every three tendays.”
Her pointing that out made him open his mouth, but no counterargument fell past his lips. She laughed at the odd look on his face at the reminder of her period.
“The blood I lose during that time is designed for my baby. That’s what it’s there for. To nourish a growing fetus. But when there is no fetus, my body gets rid of it. That blood was used to sustain me too, and it’s just wasted.”
“That’s not the same…” he said weakly, like even he wasn’t sure.
“If you took a little, it won’t hurt me,” she promised, stroking his cheek. “I don’t mind if you want to drink from me.”
“Scarlet…”
“You like that idea. Don’t you?”
She grinned, because even just offering it to him had made his eyes brighten. His body stiffen. His cock harden. She felt it jump, brushing against her belly as it started to rise.
“It’s wrong,” he said as though trying to convince himself.
“It’s funny how different we are sometimes,” she grinned, lowering her hand. “There’s a whole kink on Earth called blood play.”
“Blood… play?”
“It describes people who get aroused by blood. Either seeing it on their partner, seeing it on themselves, even drinking it from each other. Not much. A few drops, usually. They’re not trying to hurt each other. They just want to be closer.”
He said nothing. Just continued to look at her, stunned.
Scarlet chuckled. “As much as I hate to admit it, humans really are the sexy species. As many styles of combat and battle the domini have, humans have just as many, if not more, methods of having sex or satisfying kinks.”
He swallowed convulsively, needing to try a couple times before he could successfully ask, “And you are one of those? That enjoys this blood play?”
She shrugged a bit, stepping backwards. “Never was before. I did go through that teen girl phase where vampires were unbelievably attractive though.”
“You did?”
“Don’t tell anyone,” she chuckled. “It’s kind of embarrassing.”
He stepped after her, but she shook her head, stopping him.
“Nope. Not tonight.”
“But you-”
“You need to get your head in order. You’re too excited right now to have a reasonable conversation with me. And as hot as I find the idea of you biting me-”
He growled, fangs bared, as his bulge pulsed in his pants.
“-that is not happening until we go over ground rules.”
“Ground rules?”
“First rule of kink: Consent.” She gave him a firm look. “Anything we do together that we both enjoy is okay. No matter what anyone else thinks. But we have to consent to it. We have to talk about it. We have to have a safe word.”
“What is that?”
“It’s like a secret word between the two of us that means we have to stop.”
“You cannot just say stop?”
“Stop doesn’t always mean stop.”
He looked so confused. She wanted to laugh because it was adorable.
“What else could stop mean?”
“Don’t stop.” She laughed harder as he looked more confused. “You’ll understand. When we talk about it. Trust me. I’m human. We’ve got sex down to an art.”
Havali looked at her for a long minute before a grin formed. “I do not pretend to understand, vi Healer. But I will listen. And I will think on what you have told me this night.”
“Good.” She grinned. “See you tomorrow, Havali.”
“Tomorrow,” he growled, the promise of that sound making her shiver as he left her clinic.