“Can I show you where else I would lick?” J’shel asks, his voice muffled against my hand.
Oh god, I want to say yes. Instead, I shake my head and manage to somehow reclaim my hand, dropping back onto the blankets and pulling them high over my head.
“So no words and no licking,” he murmurs, and he rolls over, his body practically curling against mine. “That does not leave much, my H’nah, but I will think on this and how I can please you without those things.”
I feel like I just leapt from the frying pan into the fire.
10
J’SHEL
H’nah sleeps next to me.
After our talk, she drifted off to sleep and I have lain here, watching her. Here in the quiet of the cave, I can drink in the sight of her for as long as I wish. I can breathe in her sweet scent and study her every movement.
She fascinates me.
Now I understand why she is so sad. Why her eyes are full of misery. She thinks of this “book” and the stories she does not get to tell to her people. It sounds as if she would have been a chief, but of stories, not of people. Here she is no one. H’nah is unhappy to be here because she thinks of everything she has lost, and I understand this. Is N’dek not the same way?
She turns in her sleep, moving toward me, and I slide an arm around her waist. She started at the edges of the furs but has moved closer in her sleep, wanting to share heat—or wanting my touch. I do not know which one, and I do not care as long as she ends up in my arms. She feels good there. She feels right. Her curves fit perfectly against my harder body, and though she is small, she does not feel so fragile that I will break her. I pull her closer, unable to resist, and breathe in the scent of her mane. She wears it in two tails that bounce on her shoulders when she walks, and they smell of her, of sweat and leather and H’nah, and it makes me hard.
My cock aches with relentless need. I want so much to touch her, to feel her body give under mine. To claim her as my mate and end this relentless resonance that eats at my mind and spirit. Resonance has been the greatest gift…and my biggest challenge.
Like N’dek, she is stuck in the past, unable to enjoy what is in front of her. She cannot appreciate her new life with these people…and with me. And like N’dek, I have been far too understanding. I have allowed her to push me away when I should have forced her to see me for who I am. I need to make her want me enough that she will not care that she leaves her book and her old life behind.
I must get past her defenses. I must win her.
This is my new goal—to win my mate. And as she curls up against my chest in her sleep, I think this is something I can succeed at.
The next morning, H’nah is shy once more. She blushes when I look at her and avoids eye contact, as if we did not have a long conversation last night. As if I did not put my tongue on her hand and make it clear what I wanted. She can run from me…but I will only let her run so far.
T’shen’s mate fusses with H’nah’s mane as the two hunters prepare our packs for travel once more. The females move outside and as they do, T’shen nudges me. “You are in a good mood this morning.”
I am. I grin at him. “I am closer to figuring out how my mate’s mind works.”
He laughs, giving a shake of his head. “They are impossible to figure out, but that is part of the joy. Brooke and I fought over many things before we accepted resonance….and we still do not agree on everything. But resonance gives you the mate that is right for you, always. If you need a strong female, it will give you one.” He chuckles. “Sometimes I think I must have needed the strongest, but I do not mind. I like that she knows her mind. Have you and Ha-nah come to an agreement, then?”
“Not yet,” I tell him. “But she eases toward me every moment we are together. I am glad I came.”