Page 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

RANAN

I tongue 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.”

“The gods can wait a little longer. There’s an Anticipation going on right now anyhow. He might not be there to hear your prayers, and an Anticipation can last for years.”

She snorts at my response and gets to her feet, her large, dark-tipped breasts bouncing as she does. I forget everything as they sway hypnotically, but then Vali puts on a shift dress and my view is gone. She clutches the simple dress to her body, a panicked look on her face. “Gods, Ranan. This is my only dress! I don’t have anything to wear around your family!”

“You don’t need clothing. My people are comfortable with nudity.”

“I will fry like an egg in a skillet under the sun,” she tells me. “The clothing isn’t just for modesty.”

She’s right—I’ve seen how reddened her skin can get if she’s not protected. She’s still peeling from when she rescued me, though her color has changed from a sandy shade to a deeper bronze. I get an idea, though, and sit up in bed. “There are things you can wear.”

“Like what?” She tosses a length of cloth to me so I can towel off from our mating.

I glance around the grotto. Before she’d reorganized things, I recall a few impressive pieces that I’d stolen. One in particular was a series of golden necklaces that hung like a net from a thick, jeweled collar. It would look perfect on Vali. The idea thrills me so much that I try to get up from bed so I can find it and make certain she wears it.

Vali squawks like a seagull the moment I try to get up. “What are you doing?”

“The jewelry, where is it? There is a piece I want you to have.” I flop back down against the bed because pain lances up my leg. I’m pushing too hard too soon, but I hate being trapped in one place like this.

She moves to my side and pushes on my shoulders, making certain I remain where I am. “I put it all in the chest in the corner. Is it really important that you look at it right now?”

“Bring it here,” I say, imagining her pretty breasts framed by the golden strands. It’s the perfect thing for her to wear, and she’ll feel treasured then, won’t she? I’m excited to prove my fealty to her once again.

“Just wait there,” Vali grumbles, but she pulls the chest out from its spot against the wall. It’s a fairly large one, and she ends up leaning against it with her hip and shoving it forward in small increments.

Once it’s close enough that I can reach it, I drag it the rest of the way toward me. Vali has thoughtfully organized things by making fabric dividers so the necklaces don’t all tangle together like I had them. It’s easy to find the piece I’m looking for— it’s the most ostentatious one. I pull out the choker, the golden filaments cascading down from it like water. “This.”

“It’s beautiful,” she says automatically. “Thank you.”

Another lie. I drop my hands, studying her face. “You don’t like it?”

Vali flinches at being caught in her lie. She hesitates. “It’s very expensive looking.”

“It is, but I want you sparkling and radiant.” I push it towards her, proud that I have this piece to give her.

“It…” She hesitates, staring at it as if it is a sea snake. Then she looks up at me, her eyes wounded. “It looks like chains, Ranan. Chains and a slave collar.”

I stare down at the piece in my hands, at the thick choker and the net of golden strands. It didn’t occur to me that she wouldn’t like it, but I have never been a slave before. But when she rubs her neck as if she can feel the weight of the band there and hates it, I shake my head. “Then it won’t do.”

“I’m sorry,” she says quickly, the worried note in her voice. “Please don’t be upset?—”

“Vali, I’m not upset.” I set it back in the chest and think of what else she might like, what else I might have that would make her feel confident to walk amongst my family. My fingers brush over a new piece and I hold it out. “This, then.”

The anxious, pinched look immediately leaves her face and she giggles as she takes the new item from my grip. “A tiara?”

“Aye. It won’t bother your neck, and it sparkles. Do you like it?”

She giggles again, touching the large blue stones that have been expertly fitted into the metal. There are three of them, clustered together like turtle eggs on a thin golden band made to look like a braid. “I’m not royal.”

“No one will care.”

“It’s very ostentatious,” she says, but she keeps touching the stones.

“Aye, and it’ll look glorious in that thick hair of yours.”

Her eyes glow. She puts it on and perches it atop her head, the sides of the tiara disappearing into her messy, tangled hair. “You don’t think it’s too much?”

“Not at all. I want you sparkling and lovely. I want my family to look at you and think I am lucky.”

“Do you feel lucky?” Her voice grows timid again.

I want to answer her, but I’m afraid of my tongue betraying me once more. I gaze into her lovely, worried eyes and then slowly reach out and caress her ear.

Vali smiles.