Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
It’s like I can practically hear the record-scratch in the air. “Um, what?”
“I am glad that we are pleasure-mates,” he says again. “I will speak to my chief about acquiring a cave for the two of us, alone. It might be this one, but I do not mind.” His mouth crooks in a half-smile. “Much of these supplies will disappear in the brutal season.” He leans in and nips my shoulder. “And this place will now hold special meaning for me.”
Oh dear. He thinks we’re mates? I try to wiggle out from under him, but it’s impossible with his larger arms caging me and his cock still buried deep inside me. “No, no cave necessary. This was just a fling. An itch-scratching.”
His hard brow descends, and he frowns at me even as he cups one of my breasts and begins to play with the nipple. “No, we are pleasure-mates.”
“If you mean we ‘fucked’ then yes, yes we did. That’s all it was.”
“All it was?” Hassen looks at me, incredulous.
I push his hand away from my tit before he can get me all hot and bothered again, which, really, wouldn’t take long. But this is an important conversation to have, and we need to set some boundaries before we fuck again. “Your people only mate when there’s resonance, right? Pretty sure we didn’t resonate just then.”
“We did not. But my people take pleasure-mates.”
“Okay, and explain to me how that works. Everyone that fucks automatically mates?”
“Well, no—”
I fling my hands up. “Okay, see? So why do you assume we’re mates? Why can’t we just be fuck-buddies?”
A possessive look crosses his face and he cups my breast again. “Because you are mine, Mah-dee. I am claiming you as my female.”
“Whoa, whoa, back up. No one said anything about anyone claiming! We’re just going to be friends.”
He scowls. “Do you do this with all your friends?”
“Only the ones with magical spurs.”
A look of alarm crosses his face. He sits up, and I want to weep with disappointment when his cock leaves my body. He grabs his loincloth from where it has fallen on the floor and starts to put it on again, an indignant look on his face. “You would pleasure-mate with any hunter in this cave? I am not special to you?”
Jeez, he sounds a little hurt. If I had known there’d be this much drama, I’d have rethought things. Most Earth guys are happy to hit it and quit it, but it seems that Hassen wants a freaking wedding ring. “If it makes you feel better, you’re the only one I’ve pounced.” And now that I’ve pounced him, I’m disappointed that there won’t be future pouncings, because damn, that sex was amazing.
But it seems that it also comes with a side dish of possessiveness, and that’s not what I want at the moment.
He scowls down at me. “But you will not be my pleasure-mate.”
“I don’t think the timing’s right,” I say, trying to keep my voice light. I sit up on the furs, and my muscles are deliciously stiff. Gosh, I need a nice bath. Maybe tonight after we’ve gotten a day of hunting lessons in. “You understand, don’t you?”
Hassen stares down at me, and then turns and stalks out of the cave.
Well, poo. Looks like our lesson has been canceled by Hassen’s show of manly jealousy. I roll my eyes, hoist my well-fucked body off of the furs, and dress again.
Maybe I’ll just bathe and stick around the cave today after all. One thing’s for sure, I refuse to feel guilty about his reaction.
The main cavern’s empty of all but a few of the new moms, so I take a quick dip in the community hot tub in the center of the cave and wash my hair. I’m still not a hundred percent used to the whole ‘bathing in public’ thing, but it’s easier when the vast majority of the tribe isn’t around to notice the size of my thighs.
Not that Hassen said anything about my thighs. He seemed to like them.
Okay, so maybe I’m moping a little over the fact that he turned out to be all possessive. Why couldn’t we just be fuck-buddies? Friends with all kinds of benefits? I don’t need a mate right now. Hell, I’m still figuring myself out. I don’t need to drag another person into my headspace, mostly because my headspace is way too much of a mess. I don’t know how these other girls handle being mated lickety-split. I heard Georgie and Vektal were a couple the moment they met. I can’t imagine.
Then again…I think of the spur and Hassen’s big, ridged cock shuttling in and out, his big body looming over mine as we had sex, and I feel another quiver of arousal sliding through me.
Okay, maybe I understand it a little.
But seriously, why’d he have to get so…attached? All I wanted was to get all the stress out of my system and to feel the touch of another human being, er, alien. I didn’t realize how lonely and isolated I was until I touched Hassen, and then I found myself craving him. I wanted more.