The grunt he makes tells me that he doesn’t give a fuck about the weather right now. “Play with your teats for me,” he says, his head falling back in the furs, his gaze locked on me. “Make your nipples stand up.”

“Hey now, I’m the one that gets to give orders around here,” I tease. “Maybe I don’t want to.”

He groans, stroking his primary cock harder at my sass. I glance down his body at his hard cocks, and notice that the larger of the two—the “primary” and the one he reaches for first—is leaking a line of pre-cum down the head and over his fingers.

I lean over him and carefully pry his hand away. “It’s my turn to touch you.”

“Do it,” he rasps, his eyes wild with need.

I do, but I reach for his secondary cock first. I stroke it, working him with my fingers, and then I give my palm a messy, thorough lick and wrap my hand around him again and stroke. His breath stutters and his eyes widen. It’d really blow his mind if I licked him…

So I do just that. I lean down and lick his cock. Just once, and then he’s spurting his release all over my face and hands. He makes a sound that might be horrified, might be just relief at coming, and I stay still until he’s done. He drops back onto the furs with a sated sigh.

“Good?” I tease.

“Next time it will be better. I will be more ready for the glory that is your mouth.”

I chuckle at that, getting up to wipe my hands off with the nearest scraps of fur. When I’m done, I sit next to him in the bedding again, and he pulls me close. “Ah, my foolish mind,” he muses. “I do not miss the control of it.”

I poke his chest with my finger. “Quit acting like it’s mind control every time we touch each other.”

“It is true, is it not? Before I met you, I thought about battles and sparring and how to spring a move on my opponent. Now all I think about is your nipples and your clit and when I get to lick them. If that is not mind control, I don’t know what is.”

Sigh. This ridiculous man. Maybe the khui does have a touch of mind control, because instead of me being annoyed by his words, I find it…cute.

Pretty sure that means I’ve lost my mind, too.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

VIVI

When the twin suns are high in the sky, I poke my head out of the hut and test the air. I have to run to the bathroom anyhow, and right now I feel more like going to the tent-like latrines set on the far edge of camp rather than doing my business in the hut again. I want a privacy screen for that section of the house, I decide. I’m comfortable with a lot of things in this world but…not that comfortable.

I jog across camp, waving back awkwardly at the people that wave at me. I’ll probably never know how to strike up a comfortable conversation with anyone, but it’ll get easier with time. I hope. The weather does seem warmer, and several of the hunters have their skins spread on the pebbled sands, scraping them clean. Someone else is setting out drying racks for fish and seaweed, so I think it’s safe for Skarr to emerge. I finish my business and head back to my hut.

Just thinking about it fills me with a strange sense of joy.

My hut.

The hut that Skarr built for me. A private hut with the door facing the inside wall of the cliff so I can be as isolated as possible while still being in the village. It’s just so thoughtful of him and it makes my heart warm to realize he spent so much time and effort on this to please me.

He’s a good guy, even if he’s a little loud and overly in love with himself. Thinking about his boasting just makes me smile as if it’s a charming quirk, which means the khui is definitely doing a number on me. How have I gone from wanting him to fall off a cliff into finding everything he does adorable and sweet? I’m a little disgusted at myself, and amused, too. Is this all because he gave me a hut and I got a few orgasms? Or is it because we’re finally starting to understand one another?

I hurry past the fire and then pause, slowing down. Veronica—Ashtar’s mate—is there with her two small children. She’s talking to Penny, her hand on her arm, and one baby in her lap while her older son sits nearby, spooning breakfast into his mouth. There are others by the fire, of course, but I’m interested in Veronica’s children.

This might be a good time to test how Skarr is with kids.

Returning to the hut, I duck inside. Immediately, Skarr grabs me by the waist and pulls me against him, kissing me. “Mmm, you were gone a long time.”

“I was not.” I slide out of his arms, crossing the hut. “Get dressed. I want to go sit by the fire with the others for a bit.”

“You…do? That does not sound like you.” He puts his hands on his hips and regards me, a skeptical eyebrow raised. “Is something wrong?”

I pick up his tunic and shake it out, then hold it up for him. “Not at all. Just trust me. You’ll see what I mean when we get to the fire.”

He makes a few grumbling noises and it’s obvious he’d rather crawl back into the furs and let me sit on his face again. Okay, I might like that, too, but I also need answers. I need to know if this strange bond between us is going to work or if we’re going to have to take more drastic plans. “How many children are in this camp, do you think?” I ask casually. “Nearly every family seems to have at least one young child.”

“Do they? I hadn’t noticed.” Skarr folds his tunic over and then belts it.

I immediately grab another fur wrap and stuff it under his tunic, around his neck, to add warmth. Am I fussing? Absolutely. I haven’t forgotten what it felt like to find him limp and unresponsive in the hut, his skin ice-cold. “Bundle up just in case.”

“Bossy,” he says, but his eyes gleam and I can tell he likes it.

Getting dressed to go out into the frigid air is a production, but when I’m convinced that Skarr is warm enough and that the only part of him that’s exposed is his face and his tail—I need to make him a tail wrap of some kind, I realize—I toss a warm cloak over his shoulders and then lead him out of the hut.

Veronica is gone by the time we get to the fire, which is disappointing. Another woman is there, though. Her name is Steph, and she’s breastfeeding an infant while she chats with Penny and S’bren. Others are coming and going by the fire, but they look as if they’re sitting for a few. Good.

I take Skarr by the hand and all but drag him across the encampment, toward the fire.

“You must be quite hungry,” he comments, letting me lead him.

“Famished,” I agree. We make it to the fire circle just as Steph puts her baby on her shoulder, burping her. I point at the open seat next to Steph. “You sit there. I’ll get food.”

He does as I ask, and I grab a few bowls of “breakfast”—which just looks like a warm fish stew—from Lauren, who’s on food-and-fire duty today. I watch Skarr out of the corner of my eye as I do, and I’m a little worried to see that he barely glances over at Steph and her baby. If anything, he seems as if he’s avoiding looking in their direction at all.

“Can Skarr hold your baby, Steph? He was curious about infants,” I call out, deciding to take the bull by the horns.

Skarr sits upright, his eyes widening. He seems to notice Steph and her baby for the first time and stares.

Steph just grins at us, fixing the neck of her tunic and wiping the baby’s face. “I would love that. My mate’s off with our son practicing their traps, and I would love a break.” She holds the baby out to Skarr, watching him. “Have you ever held a baby before?”

The look on his face is one of sheer terror. After a panicked look in my direction, he turns back to Steph and shakes his head.

“Her name is Jethani. She’s a wriggler so make sure you hold her tight, but not too tight. Just let her sit on your leg and keep her occupied. Make sure she doesn’t put anything into her mouth.” She looks over at me and winks, then continues speaking to Skarr. “Think you’ve got it?”