CHAPTER 8 #3
Her eyes soften. "I guess I should."
My khui thrums hard at her expression, at the way her khui is growing louder by the moment. We stare at each other, panting as if out of breath, even though neither of us has moved a muscle.
"Get a room," someone calls out nearby.
I turn and see we are being watched by several of the tribe who have followed me over to April's hut. Nosy creatures. Jason has his hands cupped to his face, and he is the one calling out.
I should crush him like a sand-scorpion. Insolent fool.
April scowls at the group watching us. "Hey, why don't you take a photo?" she calls out in return. "It'll last longer!"
"No one has a camera," Jason calls back.
She rolls her eyes, as annoyed with him as I am. "Thinks he's a damned comedian."
"Should I go silence him?" I ask and pound a fist into my palm meaningfully. "I would be more than happy to."
"No, leave him alone. Come on in so we can talk privately." She steps aside and gestures that I should enter the hut. April waits for me to join her and then calls out, "Show's over!"
I stand just inside her hut, tense, listening as the others slowly depart.
Their sounds and scents grow distant. All of it is muted, of course, compared to the incessant, intoxicating hum of resonance.
I can hear April's song as much as my own, I can drink in her scent, tinged with arousal.
I can practically feel her pleasure as she twirls the leather rose in her fingers, expression thoughtful.
Get a room, Jason had called out. It reminds me that I am to build a hut for my mate, a home for the two of us. "We cannot get a room yet," I tell her, mindful of the rules Devi had informed me of. "Not until the snail-vasion is over."
"Getting a room is a figure of speech," April says.
"Yes, and right now, it is against the rules."
Her brows go up and she gives me an amused smile, as if I've said something funny. Her head tilts to the side as she considers me. "You're big into rules, aren't you?"
"You aren't?"
April shrugs. She takes a slow step to the side. "I just didn't think a guy like you would be so into boundaries and being told what to do."
My tail flicks, my heart beating faster as she circles around me. "Why not? A good parameter lets me know what's acceptable and what isn't."
"Parameters are important," she says, her voice growing soft.
My breathing speeds up, and I can scent her arousal growing thicker.
Her voice is changing, growing huskier, and her khui and mine are both humming wildly.
It seems we cannot be in a room together without wanting to touch one another.
The urge to claim her as mine grows stronger.
No other male gets to look at her. Not when she's mine.
"Let me mark your door again," I rasp. "I need to layer my scent. "
"Not today." April continues to circle around me, regarding me. It makes my skin prickle with awareness. To think that she is so near and yet out of my reach. "You haven't asked to touch me."
"You haven't given me permission."
"And it'd be against the rules if you touched me without permission," she muses. "So very interesting. Aren't you curious, though?"
My cock throbs in my trou. I'm curious about a great many things, but I need to be certain as to what she is referring to. "About...?"
"About touching me? Or have you had so much experience with female prizes as a gladiator that this is ho-hum to you?" She drags the leather flower back and forth across her lower lip, and I cannot stop staring at it. Or her.
But her teasing words bother me. Do I confess everything?
Admit that I have no memories of battles or competition guidelines?
That Chalath is full of this information and I am a blank, which makes me suspect I am newly cloned and was found lacking and that is why I am here?
I don't want April to think me inferior.
I don't want her thinking she has been paired with someone who is a mistake.
"I have not won a female," I admit grudgingly.
It feels safe to confess that much. "Nor a male, before you ask. "
"Okay, so you're just not curious, then." Her fingers go to the collar of her thick tunic, and she toys with the fur lining, her fingers stroking it in a way that makes my groin prickle.
"I did not say that."
"Oh?" Her tone is playful. "Then you are curious about learning a human woman? Or do you already know all the answers there?"
"I have no answers," I admit slowly. "But I am an eager learner."
"I do like the word 'eager.'"
I do, too. It explains how I feel right now. How I'm itching with excitement at this exchange between us. What does she have planned? And will I be able to keep control of myself the entire time? Or am I going to spill in my trou the moment she allows me to touch her?
Entirely possible. But I'm not going to tell her that. I keep my tone cool. "Did you have something in mind for my reward, then?"
"Maybe a little education, pussycat."
I hate the word "pussycat" but I like where she's going with this regardless. Education is important. "I'm listening."
She flutters her lashes. "I'll let you touch me as your reward, but there have to be some rules involved."
My cock has never been so stiff. "State your rules," I manage, voice hoarse. "I will heed all of them."
"Over my clothing, obviously." Her fingers dance around her collar, a tease all their own. "Can't give away too much at the beginning, you know?"
I do not know, but I am still listening.
"And you can only touch where I say you can touch. Anything else, and all bets are off and we end our game entirely. No grabbing. No taking a mile if I give you an inch."
I don't know of miles, but I know that if she lets me touch her, I'm doing exactly as told. My cock aches at the thought. "You are in command."
"And you're not allowed to come unless I let you." She gives me a stern look and taps a finger on my nose. "I might not be comfortable with that."
April is demanding. Yet...I appreciate it. April is establishing everything this encounter will cover, so there is no guesswork. "It will be as you ask."
April stops her pacing and wiggles a finger in front of my face. "And if you tell that idiot Skarr about this I'll kill you."
"I would not. I'm offended you think I would do such a thing." I frown. As if Skarr deserves to know anything about how April and I touch.
She shrugs. "You taters gossip more than a bunch of schoolgirls, that's all I'm saying."
"You make it sound as if you don't even like me."
"I don't. But I also don't know you." She gives me a patient look. "Does it matter if we like each other or not, pussycat? We're resonating, I gave you a task, and you did it. I gave you my word. Might as well fulfill my side of the bargain."
Her words are clinical, but I can smell the heated arousal between her thighs. She might be pretending to be unaffected, but April is turned on. She likes the thought of toying with me. She likes that she is in control.
I like it, too. I like that she's confident enough to know what she wants and what she doesn't. "I am yours to command," I tell her, and offer both of my palms, face up. "Place my hands where you like."
Her expression turns thoughtful, a smile curving her mouth.
She gazes down at my spread hands and takes one in her grip.
With one of her fingertips, she traces a line down the center of my palm, sending twitches down my spine and making my tail thrash in response.
It's like I can feel that touch right down to my groin.
With a coy smile, April lifts her finger from my skin, and it takes everything I have not to demand that she put it back. "Me touching you will be a future prize, I think."
"Something to look forward to," I rasp. Something that will haunt my dreams tonight and every night until it happens. "Where do you want me?"
She considers this and puts a hand on my shoulder. "On your knees."
Now we're getting somewhere. I drop to my knees immediately in front of her, my head only coming up to her abdomen like this.
It puts her in a position of power, and I immediately understand her need for it.
April wants to remain in control. She is allowing me to caress her, but in exchange, she still needs to feel as if she is the one in charge, and the easiest way to do that is to take my power from me.
In this particular case, I am more than happy to give up all control.
"One hand behind your back," she says, voice light.
I do as she bids, my other hand still in her grip.
"You can explore me as you like, but if I tell you to stop, you stop," April says. "And remember to stay on top of the clothing."
"Of course."
She releases my hand. "I'm all yours, then."
Immediately, the feel in the room changes. It's no longer sultry with anticipation. There's a tension in the air, an anxiety that wasn't there before. Is she nervous about letting me touch her? Does she think I'm going to do something she won't like?
I am not such a fool. I know the easiest way to ensure that I get to touch her again is to make sure she is pleased with me this time. I start slow. I put my hand on the outside of her thigh, resting it there for a moment atop her leather leggings. I move towards her knee, stroking lightly as I go.
"Really?" she asks in a dry voice.
I glance up. "Really what?"
"I give you carte blanche to touch me and you're going to fondle my kneecap?"
"Would you prefer I immediately shove my hand between your thighs?
Where your smell is strongest? Because I know you're aroused, April.
I can smell it. I've been smelling it since I entered.
But I am not an idiot. One starts with deliberate precision when contemplating a worthy foe. Battle plans are formed."
"And are you making battle plans right now?" Her tone softens, and some of the tension in the air evaporates.