by Ruby Dixon
“In your story, yes.” I kneel next to her and gently nudge her teat-band back into place.
“If I had to stay I’d pick you, though,” she whispers, reaching up and caressing my braid. “I like you.”
“I like you, too.” She reaches for me again and I do not trust myself, so I carefully catch her hand in mine and tuck it against her chest. “I like you very much, H’nah. And I will wait for you to choose me to be your hero.”
“Boop!” she says, reaching for my nose again.
I let her “boop” me without comment, and then ease her back onto the furs. “Drink some water, little flower. It will make your head feel better.”
“Little flower?” Her eyes go soft. “Oh my god, that’s so pretty. You had flowers on the island?” I nod. “I wish we had flowers,” she continues. “Something other than snow. I hate the snow.”
“It has its own beauty. And even if I do not like the snow, there are good things here in this land.”
“Like what?”
“I am looking at one.”
Her smile grows soft, and she takes the waterskin I offer her and sips it. Perhaps the initial surge of the chakk is wearing off. Good. She is too silly too quickly for my liking. Next time, she only gets one leaf. I forget that her human body is much smaller than even the smallest of the People.
“J’shel?” she asks, gazing up at me.
“Hmm?”
The look in her eyes is sultry and playful, and my cock jerks against my loincloth. I wish that she was not full of chakk and looking at me like that. I wish the heat in her eyes was there when she was herself, because I would take her in my arms and make her mine, just as our khuis demand.
“We should play a game,” she says, reaching for me with her good hand. “Come here.”
I bite back my frown, trying to figure out what she is doing. She pulls me down next to her on the furs and then sprawls herself against my chest, wrapping her arms around me.
“A…game?” I choke out. Her sweat-slicked skin against mine is distracting. Very, very distracting.
“They’re playing games back home, aren’t they? So we should play some here.” She tucks her bad hand against her chest and the other moves to my stomach. She “walks” them up my belly, still playful despite drinking water. “How about truth or dare?”
“I do not know this game.” I put one arm around her shoulders and gently pat her back. “Perhaps now is a time to rest instead of games.”
“So truth or dare is a game where you take turns asking each other questions,” she continues on, ignoring my words. I ask you something and if you don’t want to answer it, I dare you to do something.”
This sounds similar to some of the games kits played back home. “Very well.”
“Me first.” She pokes my navel. “Truth or dare?”
I frown down at her. “I thought you asked it and I decided if I wished to say truth or dare.”
“Oh. Right.” She purses her lips, thinking. “Okay. TRUTH.” She bellows the word out. “Would you rather be here with the chick from your old tribe? Your high school girlfriend? Than with me?” H’nah looks up at me, her eyes shiny with chakk but intent on my answer.
I do not know what a “hi-skool girl friend” is, but I can guess who she means. “No,” I tell her honestly. “I would not be here with anyone but you, H’nah. I like being with you.”
H’nah gives me another silly smile. “Good answer. Your turn.”
I think for a moment. I want to ask her the same thing—if she would rather be here with another male—but it feels like cheating at her game. Another question comes to mind. “Would you rather be back home on your planet than here with me?”
Her silly smile immediately fades and a look of uncertainty crosses her face. “I…I don’t know.”
She looks so sad that I feel guilty. I squeeze her arm, holding her close to my chest. “That is a bad question. I will ask a different truth instead.”
She bites her lip and nods.
“Would you resonate to another if you could?”
She thinks for a moment, her fingers playing on my stomach in the most distracting way. My cock is hard and aching, but since she is ignoring it, I will, too. “No, I wouldn’t,” she says. “I like you, remember?”
I smile. “I remember.”
“You’re pretty.”
And I have to chuckle at that. Not all the chakk is gone from her system, it seems. “It is your turn now.”
“If you could give N’dek his leg back but it would mean you never came here and just lived on your island the rest of your life, would you?”
She pins me with her gaze, and I cannot speak around the knot in my throat. Would I heal N’dek, knowing it would cost me H’nah? “I would not. Does this make me a bad person, H’nah?”
“Nah.” Her look turns mischievous. “It makes you my person.” She leans down and licks my nipple, a mischievous look on her face. “Let’s do dares now.”
I bite back a groan of need. “H’nah—”
“I dare you to lick me in all the spots you were thinking of,” she whispers. “All of them.”
I want this.
I want this more than anything.
She is looking up at me with heat in her eyes, her body pressed to mine, her mouth on my skin. There is an invitation in her smile…and she is intoxicated with chakk leaves.
I sigh. And because of the chakk leaves, this cannot happen. “No, H’nah.”
She pouts again, so lovely and enticing that I think I am a fool for turning her down. “Why not?”
I cast about for a reason. “Because…because it is my turn.”
“Oh, is it?” She blinks at me, her gaze hazy with chakk. “Okay then. Ask me a question.”
“We are doing dares now,” I tell her firmly. When she nods, I say, “Remember our time on the beach? When I had you in my arms and tasted your skin? You were soft against me until I said the wrong words. I dare you to tell me all the words that are inappropriate.” I need to know them so I do not misuse them again.
She giggles, delighted. “You know I was just saying that to fuck with you.”
“Were you?”
“Yes! You made me get all hot between my thighs and I didn’t know what to do.” She slides her hand away from my stomach and presses it between her legs, letting out a little whimper that goes right up my spine.
“You did not like it because you want to be in control,” I guess, and she nods at me, still rubbing between her thighs. I am the most foolish of men, I decide, because I gently tug her hand away from her cunt and place it on my belly, where it is safe. Where she will not rub herself and torture us both.
And because I cannot allow that to happen, I clasp her hand in mine to stop her from touching me.
“I dare you to tell me the words,” I say again.
H’nah blows out a long, frustrated breath and then drops her cheek down to my chest again. She yawns as if sleepy and smacks her lips, considering. “Off the top of my head I’m thinking…suck, fuck, kiss, cunt, cock, balls, slit, clit, vagina, and maybe cream. Oh, and moist. Moist is a gross word. Let’s not use that one.”
I swallow hard. “That is…a lot of words.”
“It’s a fun part of the body. Not that I have a cock. That’s yours.” Her eyes light up. “Can I dare you to show me your cock? Is it all weird and alien?”
“Not tonight, H’nah.”
She pouts and tries to lick my nipple again. “Why not?”
It is getting harder and harder to think with her like this. How long have I dreamed that H’nah would smile at me? Talk to me? After ignoring me for so long or running away at the mere sight of me? Now she is here, she is in my arms. She is almost naked and she is licking my chest.
She is utterly playful and seductive and I want her more than I have wanted anything in my life. “I like you, H’nah,” I tell her, stroking her mane and letting my hand trail down her back. “I like you very, very much. But I do not trust t
hat you want me outside of what the chakk leaf tells you.”
“It’s not just the leaf,” H’nah says, rolling away from me. I think for a moment she is going to roll right to the edge of the ledge and I grab her arm, but she only flops onto her back and stretches lazily. The band on her lovely, bouncy teats hitches down and it takes all of my willpower to gently move it back into place instead of tearing it off of her. “Maybe I really feel like this,” she says.
“Or maybe it is the leaf,” I say again. “In the morning if you act like this, then I will believe you. Until then, we will say it is the leaf.” And it is apparently very strong for humans. In my people, it makes us loose and relaxed, and it takes a great amount to get a hunter as silly as H’nah is right now.
She sits upright and looks over at me, her eyes wide. “I just had the best idea.”
“What is it?” I sit upright as well, wary.
“We should fuck and give in to resonance!”
H’nah looks so earnest that I just stare at her. Of all the bizarre things she has been spouting, this one has taken me completely by surprise. She has fought it for so long and so hard that I know this is not H’nah speaking. This is the leaf.
But oh, do I want it to be her. My body aches with the want of it. My khui hums so loudly I feel as if I am going to go mad from the incessant song of it.
“H’nah. No.”
“J’shel,” she says firmly. “Yes.” She squeezes her good hand into a fist and puts it over her heart. “This thing is making me miserable. I can’t sleep, I can’t think straight, and it just won’t stop freaking purring. It makes me horny all the time and I can’t relax. I just want it over with, you know? Knock me up. Fill me with your baby batter and let’s make a kid.” She reaches for her loincloth and tears at it with fumbling fingers. “Let’s make three kids!”
“H’nah,” I groan, grabbing her hand before she can rip off her clothing. “No. We are not mating this night.”
“Taushen and Brooke are,” she says, waggling her eyebrows at me. “All the cool kids are doing it.”
More nonsense words. “Again, no.”
“Do you not want me?”
I give her an exasperated look. “I am constantly hard with wanting you, H’nah. But I will not touch you while you are not yourself.”
Her eyes light up. “What if you just jerk off in front of me?”
“What?”
She nods. “And then I’ll do myself.” H’nah wiggles her fingers at me playfully. “No one’s touching anyone that way.”
“No,” I say again, firm. “Ask that in the morning.”
“You’re no fun.”
“No, I am not.” I wish I was. Instead, I will be enduring another long night of no relief, my cock hard as a rock and aching, and this time it will be worse because the object of my desires is a handspan away and practically squirming with her own need. “I am no fun at all.”
“You know what I think?” She says, and leans closer to me. Then she taps my nose. “Boop!”
Truly, I am the most patient of males.
13
HANNAH
I’m dying.
I’m pretty sure my head has never hurt quite like it does right now. I groan, squeezing one eye open at the too-bright light overhead. It won’t go away and it’s making my head hurt so bad that my teeth throb. It feels as if my scalp is on fire, and my mouth feels as dry as a desert.
A desert with an aftertaste.
I lick my lips, disgusted at the taste, and pull a remnant of leaf out of my mouth, throwing it over the edge of the cave. Ugh. The far-too-bright world around me makes me squint, and I try to sit upright, only to have my head pound as if it wants to explode out of my skull.
Something big and pale blue looms in front of my face. “H’nah?”
I groan, clapping my hands to my ears. “Don’t yell at me.”
“Apologies,” J’shel says a moment later. He leans over me again, his long braid smacking my cheek. “You used your hand. Does it feel better? Does the burn still pain you?”
“I…guess? It’s my head that I want to amputate right about now.” I fling my arm over my eyes. “Can we turn the lights down or something? My brain hurts.”
There is a loud—oh so loud—rustling noise and then a moment later, I feel something cool flutter over my face, like a breeze. The lights go out. I squeeze an eye open and see that J’shel is setting up some kind of tent out of his cloak, tying the edges to one of the vines. It’s a thoughtful gesture and I appreciate it so much.
I’d appreciate it a lot more if I wasn’t dying, of course.
“Water,” I manage to croak out.
He touches my hand, and I expect him to hand me a skin. Instead, he unwraps the leather around my fingers, brushes the still-damp leaves aside, and studies my fingers. They don’t hurt, and he gives a grunt of satisfaction a moment later. “Your burn looks good.”
“Water.”
“You had too much chakk last night, I think.”
“Water.”
“It seems to be a lot stronger for humans,” he says, and there’s amusement in his tone.
“Water, motherfucker. Water.”
He laughs, and the sound rings in my ears, making my head swim. “Do you still wish for me to touch myself in front of you this morning?”
“I’m going to fucking kill you if you don’t get me some water soon,” I growl.
He laughs again, but this time he presses a waterskin into my hands and I take a long, long drink…only to have him snatch the skin away from me again. “Not too much too quickly or you will vomit.”
I snarl at him.
“Obviously you wish to vomit,” he says, and hands the skin back to me. “Be my guest, little flower.”
“Someone’s in a good mood this morning,” I grump, taking small sips.
“Why would I not be? I have a pretty female in my furs, a cave full of fine, ripe fruits, and the warmth caresses my skin like a blanket.” He closes his eyes and pretends to tilt his face up to the light. “I have nowhere to be but here, so yes, it is a good day.”
This is more like the J’shel I know—always cheery, always talking, never in a bad mood, never met a person he didn’t like. I take another drink of water and when he taps my arm, I reluctantly hand the skin back to him. I squeeze one eye open and glance at my companion…and I’m surprised to see he’s a dark green.
I put a hand to my eyes, rubbing them, and then look at him again. “You’re green,” I say, pointing out the obvious.
He glances down at his impressive chest, then shrugs. “I was climbing while you were sleeping. Old habit.” He touches his naked chest with one big hand, drawing my attention to rock-hard pectorals that I vaguely, vaguely remember licking last night…which is alarming. “Back in the trees, I would automatically shift colors so I would not be seen by predators. It is a habit I have gotten out of here in this cold land, but the scents and the vines bring me home again.”
“Neat,” I croak out, feeling like death warmed over. I want to ask him if I really did lick his chest, but I worry that the answer is going to be “yes.” My brain is reminding me of a lot of stuff I did last night. “Hey, uh, does chakk cause you to forget what you did?”
“Forget?” He tilts his head, his braid swinging. “Do you not remember who you are?”
“No, I mean, forget in general.” I rub my brows, wishing the throb behind them would stop. “Humans drink alcohol so their brains get fuzzy and when they wake up the next morning, sometimes you don’t remember all the crazy shit you did.”
“Ahhh. No, chakk does not do that. If you did something, you will remember it.”
Oh good. So I licked his chest like a wanton, but nothing more than that.
Well. I also told him to fuck me.
And I rubbed myself.
And I distinctly remember some “booping” which I thought was hilarious last night and seems ridiculous this morning.
But…I also remember that J’she
l did not touch me. Not even when I rubbed myself up against him. Not when I demanded that he fuck me, or jerk off in front of me, or any of the other lewd things I was suggesting.
I even remember him straightening my clothes.
Basically…I made a damn fool of myself and he didn’t take the bait. He treated me kindly and ignored my terrible attempts to seduce him. And god, the booping. How embarrassing. I almost wish I’d forgotten everything that happened last night. That probably would have been kinder. I close my eyes again. “Thank you for being a gentleman.”
“I do not understand what you mean. I will always be gentle with you.” He brushes my hair back from my brow with careful fingers.
That’s sweet. I smile, leaning into his touch. Without anyone else around, it’s so easy to like this guy. There’s no pressure to be anything other than Hannah, a somewhat out-of-shape bossy person who’s not good at making friends. J’shel doesn’t care. He never tries to make me feel like I’m being difficult or pushy. And that’s…nice. “A gentleman is a guy that doesn’t take advantage of a situation.”
“Ah,” he says, understanding. “I would never push you to do something when you were not thinking clearly.” His thumb strokes along the curve of my cheek. “More water?”
I nod and open my eyes and lift my head just enough to take a few more sips.
“How is your mind now? Clear?”
“I think so. It hurts like the dickens, but I’m guessing that’s just a temporary hangover. If you’re asking if I feel like booping anything, the answer is no.” I give him a wry smile and lie back down, relaxing. The water’s definitely helping the throbbing behind my eyes. Maybe I’m just dehydrated.
“I am glad your mind is clear…because I wish to play our game again.” The look he gives me is intense, his expression utterly serious.
I lick my dry lips. “Uh…what do you mean?”
“The game. Truth to dares.”
Oh shit, that’s right. Leaf-drunk me convinced him to play games. I’m suddenly nervous. “You want to play again?”
“I want to play the same thing, now, while your mind is clear.” And he strokes my cheek once more, the look on his face making my breath catch in my throat. That…is not a traveling buddy look. That’s an I-want-to-strip-your-clothing-off look if I ever saw one. “I am tired of waiting for you to decide if you want me or not, my H’nah, so I am going to tell you exactly what I think and what I want. Now that your mind is clear, I can say these things. I want you. I want you in my furs. I want you in my arms. I want you on my cock. I want to wrap my tail around your ankle and pull your soft thighs wide so I can slide between them. I want to lick you everywhere.”
