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 that 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