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CHAPTER TEN

Myra

He’d kissed me in front of everyone .

‘Twas as if he’d stamped me, claimed me. Let the clan know I was…well, I wasn’t his , not exactly. But now they would think I was? Or mayhap ‘twas Vartok’s way of ensuring I didn’t think to run about practicing my newfound art of pleasure with anyone else?

What else could that kiss have meant?

When his lips had first met mine, I’d stiffened, even considered pushing him away.

After all, I’d been so careful to keep our little lessons a secret.

But that had been before wee Ella’s birth, before I began to sleep each day in Vartok’s bed.

It had started from necessity, but surely now the clan suspected ‘twas more to it than that.

Aye, I’d almost pushed him away, but …

But then I remembered his command.

I am the one who determines when ye need pleasure. I am yer teacher. I am in control of this little…game.

And he had been. It had allowed me to give up that control, to accept his lessons without worrying. He’d told me to stop him if he ever demanded anything uncomfortable, but this?

His kisses could never be uncomfortable.

And so, when he bent his lips to claim me in front of the clan, I’d melted into his arms, hearing the cheers and whoops of our friends around us, and felt him smile.

After that, it seemed so simple to prepare for our journey together.

I still wasn’t completely convinced that Nan was innocent in all of this. If I hadn’t personally checked her stores of sea holly and seen that the clan, in fact, was running low, I might have thought she’d had some ulterior motive for getting me out of the village.

Or mayhap, getting Vartok to escort me.

‘Twas difficult leaving my sister. Avie’s bleeding had slowed and she showed no signs of infection, but she was still so weak. Why, even nursing seemed to exhaust her!

I hesitated to leave her until Vartok took my hands in his and said, “Love, what can ye do that Nan cannae? Would ye prefer I find someone else to fetch the roots Avaleen needs?”

And I realized he was right. Avie needed this root to heal, and, for now, she was safe with Nan. The old woman would care for her and I had to trust that. Besides…after our first day of travel, I had to admit a sense of relief.

Because, liberated from the yoke of responsibility I’d gladly taken on in the village, while traveling with Vartok, I felt…free. I didn’t have to be in charge, not here. Not with him.

Aye, I worried over Avaleen—despite knowing she was in good hands. And aye, I would have preferred a more temperate time of year to go adventuring. But the cold winter nights merely meant that Vartok and I had to get… creative in our attempts to stay warm.

Luckily, he was known in the Highlands, and we were offered shelter and supplies more often than not. ‘Twas interesting to see the respect and admiration his allies gave him, despite him claiming he had no wish to be a chief.

“What?” he asked from his horse after we left a homestead of a particularly thrilled crofter. “Why are ye looking at me like that?”

I shrugged, grinning slightly as I sat tall in my saddle.

“Just thinking. You might not want to be a chief, Vartok, but you are very good at it.”

“Bah ,” he scowled, tugging his animal toward the path. “Charming people is easy. Making decisions that affect an entire clan, people I love?” He shot me an enigmatic look. “More difficult.”

This was undeniably true.

Still, ‘twas a treat to see his skills, his charm at work. No wonder the Bloodfire Clan were aligned with so many of their neighbors. With Vartok leading, everyone must like us .

Us ?

Aye, us. I could not go back to live in the human world, not after I’d experienced this paradise. True, I didn’t have a real place to belong, but in Bloodfire Village, I had a purpose. ‘Twas my home, if only because the people I loved called it home.

Avaleen, Nan, Mkaalad, Isadora and Amma and Verna…and even Vartok.

Aye, Vartok most of all.

I shifted in the saddle, realizing since wee Ella’s birth, I’d slept in Vartok’s bed, not my own. He’d fetched my clothing for me, too, so my two gowns hung on pegs in his cottage. ‘Twas temporary, of course; he was just letting me stay there while Avaleen recovered.

Except…

Except, it felt right . Sleeping in his bed. Eating at his table, helping to tidy his home. It felt right. Like I finally, at long last, truly had a place to belong.

Sighing, I shifted in the saddle again.

‘Tis temporary. You are only his student, naught more. He would still be treating you as if you did not exist had you not been drunk enough to beg him for lessons .

“Are ye feeling aright?”

At his question, my gaze snapped from the frozen trail ahead to Vartok, who was watching me with concern. I could feel his meaning, and my cheeks began to heat.

“Aye, of course,” I blurted, too high-pitched to be believable .

For certes, his lips curled knowingly, and he nudged his horse closer to mine.

“Lass, I’m no’ trying to embarrass ye. But what we did last night…”

Last night, and the night before, and the night before that.

Vartok was fulfilling his role as a tutor with admirable enthusiasm.

I was learning things about my body—and about his body—I had only imagined.

Who knew there were so many parts which, when licked, could make my core flood with desire?

Or mayhap such tricks only worked for him.

He’d ruined me for all other lovers.

“Myra—”

“I am well,” I announced firmly. “Well enough to ride.”

“If ye become too sore, ye’ll tell me?”

I lifted my chin and kept my attention on the path ahead.

“And what will you do, Vartok? Kiss it and make it better?”

The noise he made was somewhere between a choked laugh and an intrigued hum.

“I was planning on offering ye my lap to ride in, pet, but now ye’re giving me ideas of ways to spend my evening…”

That night, the night of the full moon, the night when Torvolk would be journeying back to the human’s world as the stones opened, we stayed in the home of one of his allies. Vartok did in fact kiss my soreness away with a thoroughness which had me crying out embarrassingly loud.

The next day we bargained for passage to Jura. The island was huge and populated by a few of the fiercer clans, but Vartok assured me that we would not be considered threats since we were only there to gather herbs.

Still, as we led his horse—there was only space for the single animal on the small boat—across the beach, I saw him resettling his war hammer across his back, and I worried.

Sea holly was available on the mainland.

Should I have gathered some there? The quality would be better here, for certes, especially high on the slopes of the twin mountains the locals called the Tits… But was it worth it?

When he lifted me into the saddle to sit in front of him, in an effort to distract myself from worries about the dangers and how Avaleen was doing back home, I asked, “Which clans should I be worried about?”

He hummed and shifted me so I sat on his lap, snuggled against him.

“A sept of the Battleborn Clan have holdings here, separate from the villages on the mainland. They stage their raids from these shores. But ye will no’ worry about them, Myra. ‘Tis my job. Ye just look for our sea holly, aye?”

‘Twas easy for him to make such a command, but I’d grown up worrying. I was good at it. I was used to being in charge, and that meant concerning myself?—

“I said stop worrying, pet,” Vartok breathed in my ear, as if he knew what I was thinking, and I sucked in a breath at the casual command.

When he called me pet , it meant he was thinking…thinking things of a sexual nature. Our agreement was that in such things, he was in command, and I was to obey him, unless I felt uncomfortable. Well, Lord knew I needed a distraction …

“Aye, Vartok,” I murmured dutifully, wriggling my arse against the hardness I felt under his kilt.

His little hum of approval had me smiling.

Not ten minutes had passed—we were off the beach now, with the horse carefully picking its way toward the north slope of the nearest mountain—when his hand rose. It had been resting on my thigh, but now he lifted it to cup my breast.

So casually.

As if ‘twas his . As if he had a right to touch me like this, where anyone could see.

While I was trying to decide if I was comfortable with this, he squeezed, and the rough touch had me melting backward against him, biting my lip to stifle my moan.

He seemed to not be paying me any attention—his other hand held the reins and he kept the horse pointed in the right direction—as he fondled me. That made his touch so much more arousing, truthfully.

And then his fingers rose, curling around the top of my bodice…and he pulled down. Between one breath and the next, my breasts went from being snugly covered by wool and linen…to being on display for the world to see. Had I not been wearing my cloak around my shoulders, I would have been half nude!

“Var—” I began, but his hand went back to my breast, and he caught my nipple between his thumb and forefinger and tugged on it sharply.

My word was swallowed in a sharp flood of arousal, and his dark chuckle told me he knew it .

I held my breath, barely aware of our surroundings as he fondled me, using me in public for anyone to see.

Granted, there appeared to be no one about, but if there were gawkers, I doubted I’d be able to see them; my attention was focused entirely on the huge male behind me, and what he was doing to my senses.

This time, when he squeezed my breast, I moaned in surrender, rocking atop him, needing him.

“Ye’re so responsive,” he murmured, shifting his touch to light caresses, as if soothing my skin. “Such a good little pet, hmm? Just for me?”

“Only for you, Vartok,” I whispered, allowing my head to tip back against his shoulder. “All for you.”

“Aye, I ken it.” He kissed my temple, then my neck. “Touch yerself.”