Chapter 9 #2
I sit up, because I want to study him. His strange markings that go up one side of his face in perfectly drawn patterns continue all down one arm and leg, narrowly missing his groin.
The other side of his body has scars on it, from thigh to shoulder, most of them small tracings of silver against blue skin.
Some of his flesh looks to be a different shade than the rest of it, which is surprising.
As he crawls into the furs with me, I place my hand on one patch on his belly. “Why is your skin lighter here?”
“You didn’t know? It’s artificial. I guess I should have said something.”
“Art-ee-fish-ul?”
“Not real. It was replaced when I was injured in war. Part of my hip,” he says, bringing my hand down to one taut buttock, and then moving it back to his stomach.
“My belly, and my arm.” He gestures, and now that he has said that, I can see a strange line along one elbow, as if his entire arm was dipped in a lighter shade of blue.
“It looks very real,” I say, awed. I poke him experimentally.
He chuckles. “It’s part of me now. The flesh was grafted to mine, and the nerve endings all feel the same. Which, I’m guessing, doesn’t mean much to you. Let’s just say that I had holes in me and they fixed me up.” His fingers brush a lock of mane off my face. “Do you find it strange?”
I cannot help but frown. “Why did you have holes in you?”
“War. It’s…it’s not a good thing. It’s when…” He pauses, thinking. “Well, I guess it’s when one tribe sends out their hunters to attack the other tribe’s hunters.”
Attack another tribe’s hunters? “But why?”
“You don’t like what that other tribe is doing.” He shrugs.
“But are they not your kin?”
“Not always.” His tone is growing remote, cold. This is part of the thing he does not like, the thing that hurts him deep inside. “It’s complicated, Farli.”
“Then let us save it for some other time,” I tell him, and fling my arms around his neck so we can kiss some more.
I bear him down to the blankets and press my teats against his bare chest. Now he feels good and warm against me, and I moan again because I like the sensation of my skin against his, our bony plates rubbing up against one another.
“This is much better than before, do you not agree?”
“You’re so soft,” Mardok murmurs. “Funny how you’re so soft and yet such a badass at the same time.”
“Bad-ass?”
“Never mind. We can leave that for some other time, too.” His hand slides down to my flank and he caresses my buttock. “I have to admit, this is a lot warmer.”
“Is it not? And we can explore each other,” I tell him happily. “I want to touch all of you.”
He leans in and nudges my nose with his. “Farli…this is a strange question, but how much do you know about sex? Mating?”
I giggle. “Do you think I do not know what mating is?”
His chuckle feels warm against my skin. “It’s not that. I mean, when I met you, you were naked. But sometimes I think you know about something and you surprise me. So just humor a guy on this, all right? I don’t want to make you run away screaming if I try to touch you.”
“Am I screaming with pleasure?” I ask, trailing a finger across his hard chest. “And am I running slow enough so you can catch me?”
“Woman, you are entirely too much of a tease. Be serious for a moment.”
Be serious? He is already far too serious for the both of us. Besides, I like making him smile. “If you are asking where kits come from, I know already.” He relaxes against me, and so I cannot help but add, “They come from the magic basket.”
“Uh…what?”
“Yes,” I say firmly, doing my best not to laugh.
I avoid looking him in the eye as I trail my fingers up and down his abdomen.
Such a nice, firm, flat abdomen. “When a khui sings to another khui, it tells the mated pair that it is time to make a magic basket. They work for many days and nights to make the basket as perfectly woven as they can, and when they are done, they put the basket out in the snow. They wait for the suns to fill the basket up with light.”
“Gods help me,” he whispers.
I smother my giggles, continuing in a choked voice. “Then, when the basket is full, the male sa-khui takes out his cock and fills the basket with his seed—”
“What?”
A giggle-snort escapes me, because I cannot hold it back any longer.
“Oh, I see how it is.” There’s laughter in Mardok’s tone, and he grabs the hand I have on his chest and tugs it over my head, pinning me down to the furs. He leans in close, an amused smile on his face. “You little tease.”
I flutter my lashes at him. “You do not think I believe in a magic basket?”
“I think you are a minx.” He leans in closer again. “So I guess it was a dumb question, huh?”
I chuckle, wiggling under him. “There is much I do not know, but I know how to do that. I just have not practiced it myself.”
“So I’m your first?” He looks proud, and I am suddenly glad I waited.
I nod. “Am I your first, too?”
A look of chagrin crosses his face. “Not…exactly. I wish you were, though.” He presses a light kiss to my mouth. “Are you disappointed?”
I shake my head. “Nothing about you disappoints me. I could not have asked for anything more in a mate.”
He kisses me lightly again, and I flick my tongue against his lips as he does, encouraging him to kiss me deeper.
He does, and for the next while, we are lost in a tangle of tongues, our mouths mating over and over again.
Heat pools in my body, focused between my thighs, and I raise my hips to rub up against him.
The feel of him is driving me wild, and I roll him onto his back, kissing him hard before I break free. “I want to touch you everywhere. Can I?”
“Of course.”
I sit back on my haunches, my tail flicking with excitement. His tail grabs mine and wraps around it, and I gasp. It feels as if he’s touched me in my most intimate of spots with that small gesture. Tails have taken on quite an appeal suddenly.
“Did I distract you?” he asks, putting his hands behind his head. His body is long and lean like this, and I cannot help but admire the breadth of his shoulders and the finely muscled arms…and the way his cock juts, thrusting upright from his body.
I will play with it soon enough, I decide. “Is there anything you do not want me to do?”
He shakes his head. “I’m yours, Farli.”
I like the sound of that. I lean forward and decide I will start at the top.
I skim my fingers along the bristles of his shaven scalp.
With his mane cut away, it makes his horns look even more prominent than usual, and I decide I like it.
It is different, and I like all the changes he has that make him unique.
I rub his head for a moment, and he closes his eyes with pleasure.
It makes me smile, but I move on, because there is so much to explore.
I let my fingers glide up the length of his horns, moving over the shiny stuff. “What is this that covers them?”
“Metal. I guess you guys don’t have it here.”
How very strange. “Does it hurt to have your horns covered?”
“Not at all. It’s just a trend, kind of like piercings.”
“These?” I touch his earlobe, where a small ring has been pushed through the flesh. “It is just because it is pretty?”
“Most are. Some are…useful. Like the one on my cock.”
I blink. Did I not look close enough? I let my gaze travel down his long, lean body and focus on his cock. Sure enough, there is a metal bump on the head of his cock. “What is that for?”
He rubs a hand over his face. “Uh, so, when I was younger, I was a bit of a ladies’ man, or so I thought. I got a piercing there because it’s more pleasurable for the woman.”
I am suddenly fascinated. I poke the piercing there, and it feels warm to the touch, the metal heated by his skin. “It is? How?”
“Well, the female mesakkah has a knot just inside her, located on the inside wall. So if you rub against it, it feels good. If the piercing hits it, it feels really good.”
“Better than normal?”
“Way better.”
“Can we take it out and try it both ways?”
“No, once it’s in, it’s in.”
So I only get him with the better-than-normal? I guess I can handle that. “And you had it pierced because it gives females more pleasure?” I beam at him. “You are so thoughtful, Mardok. Hurting yourself so you can please your partner more.”
He rubs a hand over his face again and looks embarrassed. “I’m not a saint, Farli. I did it because I liked hearing the girls scream my name.”
I frown, because hearing him say it like that makes me jealous. “Have a lot of females screamed your name? Do they use your full name, or just Mardok?”
“This is seriously awkward, Farli.” He strokes my arm. “I haven’t been with a woman in well over three years. Haven’t wanted anyone to touch me. You’re the first person I’ve wanted in forever. Does that help?”
“A little.” I cannot help but pout a little, imagining him in the arms of other females. Did I say I did not mind? Clearly I was not thinking straight. I have a lump in my throat as a new, horrible thought occurs to me. “When you leave me behind, will you be seeking out other females?”
Mardok blanches. “I don’t even like to think about that. I don’t want anyone else but you. Not sure I could let another woman touch me.”
That makes me feel better. “You should be mine and mine alone.”
A smile curves his mouth again. “I agree.”
I touch the piercing again, and when he gives a little shiver, I decide to skip exploring the rest of his body with my fingers and move straight to the interesting parts.
I stroke his spur, fascinated by the hard stem of it.
Females do not have one, and though I have seen my male tribesmates naked many times, I have never touched one here.
It is hard, but a little bendy, a bit like the hard ridge along the top of my ear.
He sucks in a breath when I caress it, and so I practice different touches to see which ones he likes the most. Rubbing my finger along the underside makes him practically arch off the furs.
Oooh. I do it again, and his cock twitches in response.
Beads of fluid appear on the head, and one begins to slide away.
I catch it with a fingertip and raise it to my mouth.
“Oh kef, you just have no boundaries, do you?” His eyes are slitted with arousal, heavy-lidded and sensual.
I lick my finger. The taste is salty but pleasurable enough. “I want to taste you. Is this bad? Should I stop?”
“Don’t stop. Hell no. I just…” He closes his eyes when I twirl my finger over the head of his cock again, making little shiny trails on his skin. “Where I come from, there are so many people and so many diseases that no one does much touching anymore.”
“It sounds miserable.” And he wants me to go with him?
“I never really thought about it until now, watching you.”
“So how do you mate if you do not touch or taste each other?”
“Body gloves,” he says, and I notice he’s panting, just a little. “You put a thin plasfilm over your private parts and any other exposed skin before you touch one another. It prevents from sharing diseases.”
That does not sound like fun. “But I like the feel of your bare skin against mine.”
“I do, too.” He reaches for me, caressing my thigh. “I keffing love it when you touch me.”
His words fill me with a warm, glowing pleasure.
I want to do more. I decide to use my full hand, gripping the hard length of his cock and giving it a little squeeze.
He’s thick and rigid here, the textured, plated ridging less prominent along the bottom of his shaft than the top.
He groans again when I give him another squeeze, and arches his hips.
I love his responses, and I want to do more. “Can I put my mouth on you?”
Mardok sucks in a breath. “Absolutely.”
Pleased, I bend over him and give the head of his cock a test-lick.
“Ahh!”
I jerk upright, startled. His eyes are squeezed shut, his face drawn tight. “Mardok! Did that hurt?”
“Gods, Farli. I…I’m not sure I can handle that.” He groans again and drags one of the furs over his face. “Kef, and here I thought I was experienced. The moment you put your mouth on me, I’m ready to blow.”
“But I like that,” I tell him, happy that I’m able to drive him wild with just a lick. I lean over once more, eager. “Can I do it again?”
His answer is muffled by the furs, but I think it is a yes.
Amused, I give him another lick and feel his entire body shudder.
Such small touches, and they eat away at his control.
It is fascinating to me. I love being the one to bring him this much pleasure.
Another droplet beads up on his cock, and I lick it away, then swirl my tongue over the head.
It is a bit like licking an icicle, which we used to do as kits.
I grip him in my hand to hold the length of him steady, and then drag my tongue over him once more.
The ridges on my tongue catch on the little pierced bead near the tip, and he makes another choked sound.
“I love touching you, Mardok,” I breathe, and it is almost like I am telling his cock and not him, because my head is down between his thighs.
“I like seeing how you respond. It makes me wet between my thighs.”
Mardok’s breath hisses out again. “Dirty talking, too? Gods, Farli, you are my every dream come to life.”
I like that. It makes me want to do more. So I lick him again, imagining that icicle when I was a kit, and let my tongue drag up and down his length.
He snarls, and then, in a flash, he is upright in the furs. His arms go around my torso, and then he drags me down into the bedding and I am underneath him. His handsome face is beaded with sweat, and he is panting hard. “No more,” he rasps. “I can’t take it. I’ll spill all over your pretty face.”
“I would not mind,” I tell him boldly. “You can do that.”
“Farli, Farli, Farli,” he says, and buries his face against my neck. “You filthy, gorgeous thing. I don’t want to use you like that. Not yet.”
I wrap my arms around him and shrug. “It is not using if we both enjoy it. I liked licking you, very much. I did not even get to lick you everywhere yet.”
“You’ve licked me enough,” he says, and presses a kiss to the side of my neck. It sends shivers through my body and an ache through my nipples. Then he lifts his head and grins at me. “Now it’s my turn.”