Page 13 of Hoof It

Thirteen

Chapter 12

Jimazu

A fter my mate and I have both taken in each other’s scents, I step back from her. “I want to show you my favorite part of my home.”

She nods eagerly. I lead her down the hall in the direction I have memorized. I no longer need the torchlight to be able to find my way to the hot spring. The closer we get, the more nervous I become. I want her to like it as much as I do. I already know that she enjoys being in the water, after seeing how she relaxed in the lake. But that doesn’t mean she’ll love the spring.

I stop walking as we approach the spring and turn to her. “I found this place many years ago. It quickly became my favorite place. I spend hours here every week. If I could live in here, I would. But I doubt my fur would like that much.”

She looks confused, so I step aside enough for her to see the pool of water behind me. Her face lights up when she sees the steamy water, and I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding.

“You have your own hot spring?” She pulls away from me and half runs closer to the warm water. “Zu, this is amazing!” Her excitement is contagious.

“I can leave you to enjoy the warm water alone and prepare something for you to eat, if you’d like.”

My mate spins around quickly and marches towards me. She takes my hands into hers. “I’d like it if you stayed with me. You don’t have to get in with me, but you can. I want us to enjoy this together.” Her voice is soft as she looks up at me. A smile spreads across my face at her words and I nod. She stands on the tips of her toes in a stretch. Realizing she wants to kiss me, I pick her up at her waist and bring her closer to my face.

Her soft lips meet mine. This feeling will never get old. I have no idea if my parents kissed; they weren’t affectionate with one another. I don’t even know if this kissing is something any of goatkind does. But it’s a human activity that I’ve grown to love doing.

Her tongue slides against mine and our teeth bump. She pulls away and laughs softly. She kisses my lips one more time before indicating that she wants down. I gently place her feet back on the ground, kiss the top of her head, then step back. Her hands move to the bottom of her shirt and before she can lift it, I turn away from her.

“What are you doing?” she asks me.

“I thought you would want a bit of privacy while you undress and enter the water.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “I don’t mind if you watch me, Zu. I like your eyes on me.”

Not needing to be told twice, I turn back towards her. She resumes removing her shirt. Her breast covering as well as her panties follow next. Before I can blink, my mate is fully naked. I take in all of her. Her long hair is loose and wild after the morning we’ve had. It’s partially covering her chest, so I step forward and brush it behind her. Her skin is kissed by the sun. I know now firsthand that her teats are as soft as they look. The flesh of her belly is a bit lighter than the rest of her, but still shows a faint hint of the sun’s touch.

Her hips are round and perfect for grabbing. Her upper legs are thick and I want to bite them. Where her hips and legs meet has very little hair, but what’s there is darker than the hair on her head. Hiding between her lower lips is the sensitive area she called her clit. I have an unexplainable urge to have my mouth on it.

Her lower legs beneath her knees are defined and perfect for wrapping around my waist. Instead of hooves, she has delicate feet that end on smaller versions of her fingers. Each one has some sort of paint on it in a deep red that almost looks like blood.

My gaze slowly returns to her face. Her cheeks are flushed and she’s breathing hard. One look at her eyes leads me to take a deep inhale. I can smell her arousal once again.

“I am the luckiest goatman in the whole of history. Pan has gifted me a mate unlike any other. You are truly beautiful, Darcy.”

She inhales sharply and her eyes film over with water. I close the distance between us and take her face in my hands. I softly kiss her cheeks and her eyes close. I kiss her eyelids one at a time. My arms wrap around her and I place a kiss in her hair. A moment later she pulls away from me and tips her head backwards to look at me. “Thank you. You don’t know how much I needed that.”

I lift her into my arms and her legs automatically wrap around me. Holding her like this feels natural.

“You never need thank me for being honest with you, little mate. Every bit of you is perfect, and perfectly made for me. Never doubt that, please.”

Her arms drape over my shoulders and her fingertips play with the hair at the back of my head. She uses her arms to lean up and kisses the end of my nose. I shift so that she gets my lips instead. Caught off guard, her mouth opens and I seize the chance to kiss her deeply. She pulls away before I’m ready for it to end.

“Can we get into the water like this, with you holding me?”

I don’t bother with words. I simply walk towards the edge of the water. My hooves easily find the spot that I use as a ramp to enter and exit the warm pool. I slowly step deeper until the water is up to the middle of her back. She sighs as the warmth touches more and more of her. I walk to the far side of the pool where there’s the perfect place for me to sit. The water isn’t deep; it doesn’t quite kiss her chest.

She leans her head back to dip the length of her hair into the water. Her neck extends, and I slip a hand into the water before I trace a finger down the front of it. I don’t stop when I come to her chest. Her head lifts back up and her eyes are on mine as I slowly trace my wet finger down and across her chest. Her nipples are hard pebbles, and I long to take one into my mouth again. She sees me staring at her chest.

“You can touch my breasts as much as you’d like, Jimazu.”

Unsure of what the word means, I pull my eyes away from her chest and look at her face in question. Her hand leaves me and moves to her chest. She traces the same line that I did as she speaks. “These. They’re breasts. Or tits. Or boobs. Whichever you prefer to call them.”

“Breasts.” I repeat the word as she takes my hand and guides it across them. Then, she guides it down under the water.

“This, you already know, is my clit. Most human men struggle to find it. Or they just don’t care to.” She rubs my fingers in a slow circle before moving it away. “This is my vagina, or pussy. Either word works.” She slips my fingers inside of her then pulls them out and thrusts them back in. She groans when I take over.

I lean down and capture her lips with mine. I kiss her slowly. Her hips buck against my hand and her mouth pulls away from mine as she throws her head backwards. I use my free hand to hold her head above the water. I dip my head down and take one of her breasts into my mouth. I roll my tongue around her nipple in a slow circle. Lightly, I drag my teeth across the hardened point. My mate gasps and I feel her release build. I let her nipple go and bring my mouth near her ear.

“Let go, little mate. Give me your release. Cry out for me.”

Her pussy spasms around my fingers and my name leaves her lips on a whimper that leaves me aching. I slow my fingers, but don’t stop sliding them in and out of her until the spasms stop. I lift her head up, and her eyes open. I pull my fingers the rest of the way out of her and bring them to my mouth, savoring the way she tastes Her eyes widen as my lips close around my fingers. I suck them clean. She launches herself at me and pulls my hand away from her mouth right before her lips attack mine.

Our tongues meet in a passionate dance. My mating appendage is rock solid and she slides her clit across it repeatedly. Even in the water, I can feel her release still dripping out of her. Her hands reach up and grip both of my horns. The tip of my member is weeping with my seed. She grips the base of my horns tightly and grinds on me slowly. I can’t take my eyes off of her.

“Use me, Zu. I want you to come too.”

My hands find her hips and I guide her clit over the top of my leaking member repeatedly. I refrain from entering her, but gods know I want to be inside of her. I want to fill her with all of me. I want her so full of me that my seed leaks from her for the rest of the day. But she’s not ready for that yet, so instead I let her continue grinding on me. It’s an exquisite torture. Her hands twist and stroke my horns and that’s when I lose it. A guttural bleat is the only sound that leaves me as I release. Soon after, she yells out my name.

She slows her movements and finally stops. Her hands drop from my horns back onto my shoulders and we sag against one another. We’re both quiet for a few moments. My fingers work their way into her hair and I slowly untangle the wet strands.

Eventually she leans backwards a bit. Her eyes meet mine. There’s a slight reddish tint to her sun-kissed chest. I noticed it last night as we were laying in bed. One of my fingers leaves her hair and outlines the redness. I look at her in question.

“That happens when I orgasm.” She shrugs. “I haven’t ever been able to fake it. My body will always let you know that you’ve satisfied me.”

“Does orgasm mean the same as release?” I question.

Darcy nods. “Yeah. It’s the fancy word for it. Another is come. No idea why we use that one, though. English is fucking weird.” Her head moves from side to side as she rolls her eyes.

“I have to agree with you on that, little mate.”

I go back to untangling the last of her hair. Once I’ve finished, Darcy shakes her head lightly to move the strands. She glances around the whole pool of water, then looks back at me.

“I know it isn’t big enough to swim around, but I’d like to just float for a bit, if that’s okay?”

Rather than answer her with words, I kiss the top of her head and gently unwrap her legs from my waist. One of my hands grips the backs of her knees, and the other moves to her lower back. I guide her body away from me, nearer to the center of the water and slowly remove my hands from her body. Her entire back side is submerged, and only her breasts, face, and toes peek out of the water. Her eyes are closed as she enjoys floating in the warm water.

I take a moment to once again send a prayer up to Pan, thanking him for sending Darcy to me. Now that I know some of what happened to her before she came to this forest, I’m even more grateful that she’s here with me. She didn’t deserve to be hurt by someone that said they cared about her.

Humans’ willingness to hurt one another is just one of many reasons why I have avoided them for most of my life. Goatkind aren’t like that. Are we a perfect species? Not by any means. But we don’t go out of our way to hurt another. I cannot fathom ever willingly hurting the ones I love.

That deep feeling has returned; the one that my mate called anger. It pulses heavy in my chest. I want to rage. I want to hurt the one she called Mat. It is a good thing that I have no idea where he is or how to find him. Or else I would do the one thing I swore I’d never do—hurt a human.

Movement catches my eye right before I’m hit in the face with water. Darcy giggles and walks backwards away from me. I swipe the water from my eyes with one hand. The other stretches out and reaches for my playful mate. She backs all the way against the side wall. I decide to splash her back since she’s just out of my fingertips reach.

She giggles again and drops down under the surface of the water. I can see her walking, bent over, towards me. Unsure of what she’s planning, I stand still. She doesn’t keep me waiting long. She pops up out of the water behind me, her hands stretch up to my shoulders. They attempt to push me down under the water. My body proves to be too big for her to shove down. Rather than give up, she growls in determination.

I turn to face her, and the look on her face is as adorable as a kid learning to walk. She wraps her legs around my waist once again and uses the new height to bring herself higher up. Her hands move from my shoulders to the top of my head. She pushes down with all of her strength, but I remain standing. Her face screws up in determination, and I struggle to keep a laugh locked inside.

I cock my head to the side, and her hands lose their grip. My hands move to her hips to keep her from falling backwards into the water. Her lips purse to the side and her eyebrows scrunch in frustration. Then, before I have a chance to blink, a smile that I can only describe as naughty changes her entire expression. She unwraps her legs from me and disappears under the water. Before I realize what she’s doing, her hands have wrapped around my lower legs near my hooves and I’m forced under water.

When I stand back up and wipe the water from my face once again, Darcy has moved away from me again and is laughing. My eyes zero in on her and she squeaks out, “Zu, whatever you’re planning, don’t you do it.”

I make it to her in no time and pull her towards me. As I wrap my arms around her sides, I begin to lean backwards and tell her, “You might want to close your eyes and hold your breath, little mate.” Then I drop backwards and we both go under the water.

I bring us back up right away and she laughs again. This time, I join her laughter as I brush her dripping hair out of her face.

She runs her fingers through my wet hair. I surprise her when I shake my head vigorously and my goat ears twitch to free the water that’s in them. Her face transforms with a look of awe. She reaches up as if to touch them before stopping herself.

“Is it okay if I feel your ears?”

“You may touch any part of me you wish.”

Her hand returns to my ears. As she rubs them softly one at a time, my eyes fall closed. Her soft skin feels incredible on the most animal part of my body. My ears are nearly as sensitive as my horns, but far less erotic. Her touch is gentle as she explores them.

Her hands move to my horns. Her fingertip lightly touches the tips of them one after the other. Slowly, she traces a finger down each horn. I know that she isn’t trying to arouse me, but when it comes to my horns, I cannot help but harden. The moment is far more erotic than she knows, and I don’t want her curiosity and exploration of my animal features to end. So, I choose to keep my arousal to myself. Though, if she spends much longer with her hands on my horns, my arousal will become obvious to her.

My patience pays off only a moment later when her hands withdraw from the top of my head. She strokes my cheek and speaks quietly. “You are incredible, Jimazu. A month ago I’d hoped that the legend and folklore were actually true. Now here I am, being held by a goatman. And to make it even better, he’s my gods gifted made. A creature made specifically for me. I don’t know how I got so lucky to call you mine.”

My eyes open and I look into hers, taking her face in my hands. “I don’t know that it was luck, little mate. I think you and I are fated. I could have chosen to live in any forest, but I chose this one. You could have chosen to hide yourself away from the world after everything that happened, yet here you are in my home in my arms. You are correct in that I was made for you. You are mine just as I am yours. You’re my heart, Darcy. For however long the gods see fit to allow me to live.”

Her arms wind around my neck and she pulls herself so close to me that it’s as though we’re one body. She stays like that for a few moments and I just breathe her in. Her body begins to shake gently, and I worry that something is wrong. I walk forward until her back is against the wall of the pool. I shift her away from me enough to see her face. Tears are falling from her eyes and her nose is starting to drip.

“What’s wrong, little mate? I’m sorry if I said something to upset you.”

She cries harder. I wipe the tears from her cheeks as they fall. Her head shakes back and forth before she finally speaks. “You didn’t say anything wrong, Zu. It’s the opposite. What you said, it was perfect and sweet. It’s the sweetest, most honest thing that anyone has ever said to me. You always seem to know exactly what I need to hear, before I even know. These are happy tears, I promise.”

The smile that lights up her face tells me that she’s being honest with me. I let out a sigh of relief. Darcy reaches her arms up to the back of my neck. She starts to pull my face towards hers, but stops herself at the last minute.

“I want to kiss you, but my nose is so gross right now. I don’t want to get my snot on you.”