by Ruby Dixon
“Are you hungry?”
I smooth my fingers over his collarbones, fascinated by the way his velvety skin feels under my touch. Gosh, it’s been a while. I mean sure, we touch every morning and throughout the day, but we don’t touch. “It can wait.”
“Rukhar?”
“With Georgie for a few hours.” I look up at him and bite my lip. “We have some time alone.”
Around us, people laugh and pass skins of the fermented drink, and they celebrate loudly. We might as well be alone out here for all that we’re noticed.
He pauses, and my fingers trace small patterns on his skin. He looks down at my hands, then at me, and then knowing flickers in his gaze. “Not hungry?” he asks, and his voice is low and husky as he moves closer to me.
“Not for food,” I whisper.
Rukh places his hand over mine, pressing it to his heart. “Can we…”
I nod.
He grabs my hand and tugs me along behind him, heading for our cave. I suppress my laughter, overjoyed that we’re getting to steal this time together. Life is so wonderful, and I have my gorgeous mate and a precious baby and a tribe full of friends. I have my health. I couldn’t be more content.
We race inside our cave and Rukh releases my hand to draw the curtain securely shut over the mouth of the cave. It’s the closest we’ll get to privacy, but I’ve learned that when the curtain is shut? No one comes to bother you. It’s an unspoken law of the tribe, and a good one.
The moment Rukh turns around, I kiss him. Not the easy, quick peck of a morning kiss but a hungry, searching kiss that promises all the things we’ve been missing out on since Rukhar was born. He groans low in his throat and clutches me against his chest, his mouth devouring mine with equal fervor. And here I’d thought I was the only one feeling the need. The way Rukh holds me? It’s clear it’s been on his mind, too.
But then he breaks the kiss and gently nips at my mouth. “Are you sure you are…well?”
I nod, my hand sliding down his front to cup the bulge in the front of his leggings. “Maylak says I’m perfectly fine and more than ready for mating again.”
He groans. “You asked her?”
Is my mate shy? I giggle and stroke my fingers over his cheek. “Of course. I’ve been wanting you to touch me for forever. Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?”
He catches my hand in his and gently kisses my sensitive palm. “Har-loh, I will wait forever for you if I must. Time does not matter as long as we are together.”
I blink several times to clear my eyes. Just when I think I can’t love this man more, he says something new that sweeps me off my feet. I grab one of his braids and wrap it around my hand. The other cups his bulge. “That’s a wonderful thing to say, but I hope you aren’t disappointed when I tell you that I’m ready to have sex now.”
His eyes gleam wickedly. “Never disappointed.”
We kiss again, and he tugs at the ties of my dress. The next few minutes are spent quickly undressing, and then we’re naked together. My body’s a little different than when we first mated – my breasts are full with milk, my belly’s rounded and a little soft, and my hips feel a little bigger than before. But the way Rukh looks at me? I’ve never felt sexier.
He raises a hand and brushes his knuckles against my nipple, and a bead of milk wells up. “I liked your body before, my Har-loh, but now…you steal my breath from my body.”
I shiver at the raw need in his voice. I tug on his braid again, indicating that I want him down on the blankets. We can make long, luxurious love in a bit – for now I just want my mate inside me, and I want him to hold me. I crave the closeness that only sex can bring. When he kneels onto the furs, I push him backward, releasing his hair.
Rukh falls onto his back and I bend over him, running my mouth and hands over that gorgeous chest. He touches me as I do, his hands roaming over my skin as I drag my mouth over one hard nipple and then tongue the ridges over his breastbone. I lick my way down his flat, hard belly and then down to his cock.
“I want inside you,” he growls, and his hand fists in my hair. “Not your mouth. In my mate. In her body.”
I nod quickly. I want that, too. He releases my hair and I slide a leg over his hips, straddling him. It’s an awkward position because of his spur, but I raise up on my knees and use my hand to guide him into me, then slowly sink down.
A moan escapes my throat as he thrusts his hips upward, cramming his cock into me. God, that feels incredible.
“Shhh,” he whispers. “They will hear you.” But then the terrible man reaches up and caresses my sensitive breasts, and it’s not like I can keep quiet.
I moan again. I don’t care if anyone hears us. They’re having a party and I doubt anyone would care. Meanwhile, my mate – my gorgeous, glorious, handsome mate – raises his hips up again and thrusts into me, his hand moving to my hip to hold me steady on him. The spur slides through my pussy lips and brushes up against my clit with every stroke of his cock, and it just adds to the intense pleasure. Having sex with Rukh is always mind-blowing. I move my hips faster, until we’re slamming against each other, and the orgasm I’m chasing starts to bloom in my belly. It’s not quite there, and I grit my teeth, pushing harder against him, rocking my hips even more.
And because he knows me so well, he reaches between my legs and pinches the top of my pussy. Now, when his cock shuttles into me, the spur slicks against the lips of my sex harder than ever. I cry out as the orgasm takes hold, and I’m oblivious to everything – Rukh trying to shush me, my mate’s roughly jerking hips, the party going on in the other part of the cave – as the sweet rush of the orgasm rolls through me. I ride Rukh until the last ounce of the orgasm is wrung from my body and I go limp with pleasure. He rolls us over until my back is to the furs and he hitches one of my legs up, and then fucks me hard until he comes, and the force of his orgasm sends happy little aftershocks of excitement through my body.
He collapses on the furs, panting and sated, next to me. I immediately roll against him and snuggle against his chest. My nose burrows against his neck and I inhale his scent – wild, sweaty, and wonderful. “I love you.”
“You are my heart,” he tells me, brushing my tangled hair from my face.
I smile and cuddle against him for a moment longer, enjoying the sounds of our breathing mixed together. It feels weird not to have to tense for a baby noise – a wail, a restless hiccup, anything. It’s nice but at the same time, I can’t wait to get Rukhar back. Well, soon. My hand strokes down Rukh’s chest, over his suede-like skin. “Are you happy?”
“Of course.”
I sit up on my elbows and peer at his face. That’s a quick answer. “No, I mean, are you really happy here? I know you loved the cave by the sea. I know it’s hard when there are so many people around. Are you really and truly happy?” The tiny worry that’s been gnawing at me for the last month has finally surfaced. “Or are you just putting up with it because of me and Rukhar?”
He gives me a strange look, as if I’ve asked a weird question. His big hand brushes the tangled hair off my shoulder. “Am I happy to be here with the bad ones?”
I try not to flinch at his expression.
He sees it, and he taps my chin with his finger. “My father filled my mind with his ideas. His thoughts of good and bad. I never thought that he could be wrong. Now that I have you, and I have met the others? Sometimes it is frustrating, but more than anything, I am relieved that we are not alone. That you are not in danger because I cannot be everywhere at once. That we have others to lean on.” Rukh looks thoughtful. “And it is strange to have a brother…but I like it.”
“So even if we could leave for the sea cave tomorrow….?”
He shrugs. “I would choose to stay here. They are not bad people. They are just people. And they are willing to go to any length to help each other, because they are family. Even if they do not share blood, they are family. I like that.” He pauses, and then gazes at me. “We will stay. Our son w
ill need friends. You will need the healer. And I,” he says, grazing his thumb over my mouth. “Will always need you. A male cannot exist apart from his heart.”
Neither can a woman, and it’s clear that Rukh has mine. I lean down and kiss my mate again, determined to enjoy every moment of this time alone.
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading my Barbarians! It’s such a joy to write these books and I love the reception they’re getting. Here I thought I’d be the only one interested in ice barbarians. I’m happy to see that I’m not! As always, I’d love for you to leave a review and let me know what you think and what characters you’re interested in seeing more of. Sometimes your suggestions spark inspiration in the author, so keep ‘em coming.
I hope you enjoyed Harlow and Rukh’s story and the glimpses of the others in the tribe. The next full length book will either be Tiffany or Josie. I’m still deciding between them. The book will most likely be out in Spring. I’ll announce it when it’s close to done.
To follow along with progress reports, see teasers of the work in progress, or just to check in and say hi, be sure to friend me on my Facebook page. Also, you can join my mailing list to receive a notice when the next book is out.
Thank you so much for being such enthusiastic fans of the books.
Ice Planet Barbarians
Ice Planet Barbarians, Book 1
You’d think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you’d be wrong. Because now, the aliens are having ship trouble, and they’ve left their cargo of human women – including me – on an ice planet.
And the only native inhabitant I’ve met? He’s big, horned, blue, and really, really has a thing for me…
Part One
GEORGIE
Up until yesterday, I, Georgie Carruthers, never believed in aliens. Oh, sure, there were all kinds of possibilities out there in the universe, but if someone would have told me that little green men were hanging around Earth in flying saucers, just waiting to abduct people? I would have told them they were crazy.
But that was yesterday.
Today? Today’s a very different sort of story.
I suppose it all started last night. It was pretty ordinary, overall. I came home after a long day of working the drive-thru teller window at the bank, nuked a Lean Cuisine, ate it while watching TV, and dozed off on the couch before stumbling to bed. Not exactly the life of the party, but hey. It was a Tuesday, and Tuesdays were all work, no play. I went to sleep, and from there, shit got weird.
My dreams were messed up. Not the usual losing teeth or naked in front of the class dreams. These were far more sinister. Dreams of loss and abandonment. Dreams of pain and cold white rooms. Dreams of walking in a tunnel and seeing an oncoming train. In that dream, I tried to lift my hand to shield me from the light.
Except when I went to raise my hand, I couldn’t.
That had woken me up from my slumber. I squinted into the tiny light someone was shining in my eyes. Someone was . . . shining something in my eyes? I blinked, trying to focus, and realized that I wasn’t dreaming at all. I wasn’t home, either. I was . . . somewhere new.
Then the light clicked off and a bird chirped. I squinted, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, and I found myself surrounded by . . . things. Things with long black eyes and big heads and skinny pale arms. Little green men.
I’d screamed. I’d screamed bloody murder, actually.
One of the aliens tilted its head at me, and the bird chirping sound happened again, even though his mouth didn’t move. Something hot and dry wrapped over my mouth, choking me, and a noxious scent filled my nostrils. Oh shit. Was I going to die? Frantically, I worked my jaw, trying to breathe even as the world got dark around me.
Then, I went back to sleep, dreaming of work. I always dreamed of work when I was stressed. For hours on end, angry banking clients yelled at me as I kept trying to tear open packs of twenties that wouldn’t seem to come open. I’d try to count out change only to get distracted. Work dreams are the worst, usually, but this one was a relief. No trains. No aliens. Just banking. I could deal with banking.
And that brings me to . . . here.
I’m awake. Awake and not entirely sure where I am. My eyes slide open, and I gaze around me. It smells like I’m in a sewer, I can feel a wall behind me, and my body hurts all freaking over. My head feels blurry and slow, like all of me hasn’t quite woken up yet. My limbs feel heavy. Drugged, I realize. Someone’s drugged me.
Not someone. Something.
My breath quickens as a mental image of the dark-eyed aliens returns, and I look for them. Wherever I’m at, I’m alone.
Thank God.
Ice Planet Barbarians is available now!
Barbarian Alien
Ice Planet Barbarians, Book 2
Twelve humans are left stranded on a wintry alien planet. I’m one of them. Yay, me.
In order to survive, we have to take on a symbiont that wants to rewire our bodies to live in this brutal place. I like to call it a cootie. And my cootie’s a jerk, because it also thinks I’m the mate to the biggest, surliest alien of the group.
BARBARIAN ALIEN is a sequel to ICE PLANET BARBARIANS. You do not have to read both in order to understand the plot, but the story will be richer if you do!
Part One
LIZ
Kira and I watch as Megan and Georgie run their fingers along the panel of the alien ship's hull, trying to figure out how to pry it open and get out the girls enclosed inside. There are six capsules, and each one has another captive girl. Each girl inside has no idea of where she is or how she got here.
"I can't decide if they're the lucky ones or the unlucky ones," I tell Kira.
"Lucky," she says, her soft voice flat. Her gaze is fixed to the blinking lights and the dark wall of the hull. "They don't know what we've gone through for the last few weeks."
I grunt a maybe sort of agreement. I don't know that I agree with Kira, but she can be a real Debbie downer at times. The last few weeks haven't exactly been a party for the rest of us, but maybe it's better to know everything than to be blind to it.
I guess.
Kira and I are watching the others work because we're too weak to actually help. Of the six of us, Georgie is the strongest still. She's been with the alien guy so she's been getting three squares a day and warm clothing. The rest of us have been stuck in the hull, and Megan is doing the best out of our small group. I'm weak and lethargic, and my toes hurt like mad. Josie has a leg that looks like it's broken in two spots, and no one knows how to fix it. Kira's ankle is swollen and she's super weak. Tiffany is possibly dying, since we can't wake her up out of the deep sleep she's in. She roused for a bit of broth and then fell unconscious again.
We don't need a warning from the aliens that this planet is killing us. Big duh there.
"It's opening," Megan says, and she and Georgie step back. The panel lifts from the wall with a hiss, just like in the sci fi movies. Inside is a girl in a t-shirt and panties, weird coils wrapped around her body and feeding into her throat.
I shiver despite myself.
Georgie and Megan study the sleeping girl, trying to figure out the best way to free her. Eventually, they just start ripping tubes and cords off of her and she wakes up and begins to gag. A moment later, the new girl is collapsed on the floor and vomiting up the last of the tubes as Megan strokes her back.
Well, that did it. For better or for worse, we have another person.
The girl begins to sob, her eyes wide. She's clearly confused and frightened, and Kira stands up, opening her arms to pull the girl to her. She makes quiet, soothing noises and enfolds the girl in a hug, helping her away from the wall. Without a single person touching them, the rest of the pods suddenly open.
"Shit, I think we triggered something," Georgie says, and they get to work freeing the next girl. In moments, there are several more girls collapsing on the floor. I get to my feet as best I can, ready to help out.
I limp forward, and as I do, I hear the sounds of the aliens talking. I look over even as the girl nearest to me begins to hysterically wail. "What's happening? Where am I? Who are you?"
I offer her my hand. "I'm Liz and I'll explain when we get the others, okay?"
She keeps wailing and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from shouting at her. Look, I feel like shit and am probably a few steps behind Tiffany on the death ladder, but am I squealing and moaning? No, no I am not. I am sucking it the fuck up.
I gather up a second new girl, this one with freckles and bright red hair, and as I do, Squealer starts to make horrified, choking cries. "Oh my God, what is that?" She points a trembling hand in the distance, and I slap it down.
Barbarian Alien is available now
Barbarian Lover
Ice Planet Barbarians, Book 3
As one of the few humans stranded on the ice planet, I should be happy that I have a new home. Human women are treasured here, and one alien in particular has made it clear that he wants me. It's hard to push away the sexy, flirtatious Aehako, when all I want to do is grab him by his horns and insist he take me to his furs.
But I've got a terrible secret - the aliens who abducted me are back, and thanks to the translator in my ear, they can find me. My presence here endangers everyone...but can I give up my new life and the man I want more than anything?
BARBARIAN LOVER is a sequel to ICE PLANET BARBARIANS, and BARBARIAN ALIEN. You do not have to read THEM in order to understand the plot, but the story will be richer if you do!
