“I did like it. I’ve never done that before.” She smiles.

“Will you let me do it again?”

“Aye, I imagine I will.” Some of her shyness returns, and she wags a finger at me. “But not until you’re feeling better.”

We’ll see about that.

Chapter

Twenty-One

RANAN

Itongue Vali’s cunt again that night. My wife isn’t nearly as shy the second time, and climbs onto my face eagerly. Now that I know what I’m doing, I’m able to bring her off quickly, and she grows far wetter and louder this time, which makes my pride bloat like a pufferfish. I love the taste of her, the soft heat of her skin, but most of all, I love the surprised little noises she makes, as if she didn’t realize her body could feel so good.

I love doing this for her.

I use my tongue on her three more times throughout the next day. Vali blushes now when she looks at me and she giggles frequently. She seems happy and relaxed, and I am relaxed, too. If it were not for my leg and the fact that I am bed-bound, I would think of this as a very happy period in my life.

At dinner, my wife hands me a bowl of fish stew. She makes it better than I ever have, and knows just how to spice it to bring the most out of the fish itself. If I must have it cooked, I prefer it this way. She fusses over my leg, changing the bandages and adjusting the pillow it rests upon, and then slides her hand up the inside of my thigh, a meaningful look on her face. “Can I take care of you?”

It’s clear what she means. My cocks stir at her request, but I shake my head.

She pouts. “Why not? I thought you liked my mouth.”

Oh, I do. “I enjoy it far too much,” I admit. “But right now I am enjoying your pleasure instead of my own.”

I can see why she kept offering to touch me, and why she said she got pleasure from it. Receiving pleasure feels like a gift, but there’s a different sort of heady delight in satisfying your partner and taking nothing for yourself. Of making it about them rather than both of you.

Vali raises an eyebrow at me, even as her hand steals up under the blanket to cup my half-erect cocks. “You do know we can both come, yes? It doesn’t have to be one or the other?”

“I know.” I grip the bowl tightly and reach down to stop her hand at the same time. “But I want to focus on you.”

“And I love that. I do. But I’ve noticed that you jerk off after going down on me, and I keep thinking that it’s something I could do for you. Something that would give me joy to do for you.” She casually flicks my hand away and then reaches under the blanket again to stroke my lower cock. “Have you ever thought about me sitting on your face while I play with your cocks? I could lie on your belly, turned around.”

I am thinking of it now. I am thinking about it, hard. “You have done this before?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know about it. We could try it, right? What’s the harm? Your leg won’t be affected.” And she strokes my cock, her enticing gaze on me.

I set the bowl aside.

Some time later, a sated Vali is sprawled across my stomach, her flanks framing my face as we both pant for breath. My seed is in her hair and on her face and hands, and when I stroke her buttocks, she quivers in the aftermath of our pleasuring.

She is right. That was nice. Even if my leg doesn’t heal up as well as it should, we can still enjoy a great deal of pleasure.

But I won’t be able to provide for her, to hunt for her, or to protect her. And I’ve learned that human females need protecting, most especially from human males. I need my leg better, and soon. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Vali scrambles off of me, wiping her face and breasts with a towel even as she turns to look at me. “What did you just say?”

I blurted out the wrong thing, as I often do, and I curse my tongue for not letting my head catch up. “You are coming with me.”

She relaxes a bit at that, the hurt disappearing from her face. “Oh?”

“I would not leave you,” I reassure her, embarrassed at my words. “I misspoke.”

Vali brightens, scrubbing at her skin with the towel. “I just…thought maybe you were tired of me.”

“You are my wife. There is no tiring of you.”

“You haven’t been around a lot of married people, then,” she jokes.

“My parents have been married for a very long time and they are quite content. The more you tell me about human men, the more convinced I am that they are worthless.”

“Not all of them. Just…a lot of them.” Vali rubs some of my seed out of her hair. “Gods, you sprayed everywhere that time.”

I like that she sounds proud of my lack of control. “So I did.”

She grins, toweling her thick, dark hair. “Regardless, we can’t go anywhere yet. You’re not ready to travel.”

“No, I am as ready as I can be. We leave in the morning. Together.”

Her mouth falls open in surprise. “But your leg⁠—”

“We will be on Akara’s back. I am no longer bleeding, so there is no concern about leaving a blood trail. She will take us safely to the flotilla, and I will have the healer there examine my leg.”

“But—”

“Vali,” I say gently. “I promise you, if I am well enough to pleasure you several times a day, I am well enough to ride upon a turtle’s back.”

My wife still seems uncertain about this. She gnaws on her lip, considering, and then wads up the fabric in her hands. “I still don’t know how to swim. You said I needed to know how.”

“Neither of us will be swimming for a while.” Especially not now, considering there is a sea dragon lurking all too close nearby. Just the thought of Vali dog-paddling in the water to try and catch a fish and wandering directly into its territory fills me with terror. “We leave first thing in the morning. Pack what you will need.”

“What I need?” She sputters. “You’re the injured one. Tell me what we should bring for you.”

But I am already quite familiar with traveling upon Akara. I know what to bring—my trident, my makeshift tent, my drying rack, the dried pufferfish…but no, I will not need all of that, will I? I will need different things this time. “Blankets. Dried food.”

She jumps to her feet, eyeing the cave. “I don’t know if we have enough. We should stay for a while longer, at least a day or two, and make sure we have everything we need.”

“Are you stalling so you don’t have to meet my family?”

Vali scoffs at my suggestion. “No, of course not.”

“Lies.” How did I miss the cagey look she gets on her face whenever she’s not telling the truth? It’s rather charming, the way her gaze darts around even as she curves her mouth in a too-sweet smile. “Tell me the truth.”

“Why? Are you gonna spank me yet?” She tosses her hair defiantly. “Or have you come around to thinking my lying is cute?”

A slow grin curves my mouth, because she’s figured me out. I actually am starting to find her lying charming. That’s a new one for me.

She points a finger at my face triumphantly. “I see you grinning. I’m glad I can make you smile.”

“You will like the flotilla, Valessa. It’s very safe and my family will like you. I promise.” Once they stop being hurt that I am not returning to the flotilla permanently, that is. My family will not understand at first. They will expect me to eventually settle with them once Akara is through her wild phase. They will expect me to mate someone from another flotilla to bring fresh blood to our clan, because our flotilla is closely related and cannot mate one another.

Well…Valessa is fresh blood, that is for certain. It is simply human blood.

“I just…I’m nervous,” Vali blurts. “It’s a town on the open water, right?”

“It is perfectly safe. You can stay close to me.”

“As if I’m going to wander off into the sea? I still need to make my sacrifice to Lord Vor.”