Hannah's Hero - Ruby Dixon Page 0,68

my spear, missing over and over and over again.

H’nah pulls out of my arms and takes my hand in hers, tugging on it. “Come sit with me for a while. Over here, where it’s comfortable.” And she points at the nest of furs. She has turned them fur side down so the tufts do not touch our sweat-glazed skin, but rather the more comfortable leather side. She is clever, my mate, and once again, I am so pleased she is mine.

Or at least, she will be.

If we live. If Old Grandfather does not snatch her from my grasp first.

I fight back those terrible thoughts and sit down when she points at the blankets. To my surprise, she does not lie with me, but instead moves to stand behind me. “What are you doing?”

“I,” she says in a tone of voice that I recognize now, “am going to give you a massage because you are tense as hell.”

I try to turn around to look at her, but she grabs my braid and holds my head steady, forcing me to look straight ahead. She is being bossy, my mate, but I do not mind it. In fact, I like it. Amused, I remain still as she slides my braid forward over one shoulder and then puts her small hands on my skin.

“A massage,” she says, running her fingers over my muscles slowly before continuing, “is a human thing. It’s rubbing the neck and trying to make the other partner relax. It’s therapeutic.”

And she puts her hands at the base of my neck and then rubs the muscle between shoulder and spine.

I groan, surprised at how good that feels. Not just in my shoulders but…elsewhere. My cock has stiffened, my body alert, and my khui begins its endless song of need.

She chuckles at my response, her hands digging into the muscle and working it with surprising strength. “Feels good? Relaxing?”

“I…do not know what to think of this,” I admit. I am not thinking of relaxing as she touches me. I am thinking of other places she can put those hands, other places I want her fingers instead of my neck.

She scratches lightly at my skin, chuckling, and I bite back a gasp. Her nails on my skin seems to go straight to my cock, and that felt…too good. “I’m not seducing you if that’s what you’re wondering,” H’nah says. “At least, not yet.”

Her tone is playful and it brings a smile back to my face. “You will let me know when it is seduction? My khui cannot tell a difference.”

H’nah reaches forward and lightly pats my chest, right over my heart. “Poor, beleaguered khui.” I grab her hand in mine, but she moves right back out of my grasp. “I see it’s not the only thing that thinks this is seduction time,” she says, but goes back to rubbing my shoulders.

I glance down and sure enough, my cock is straining against my loincloth. “Every time you touch me, I feel as if I am going to punch through the leather.” Are we joking about the resonance we have yet to fulfill? It should not be funny to live with this needy, awful ache, but we are talking about it at least. Teasing each other. And I feel we are…close. As if H’nah is simply deciding the right place and time.

Thoughts of claiming her completely distract me, and as she rubs my shoulders, I close my eyes and picture the look on her face as I push her thighs apart and sink deep between them, thrusting hard. Her soft body will jiggle all over with how hard I take her, and the thought is an enticing one.

“It’s going to be all right,” she tells me firmly. “I know you’re worried about that monster outside, and with good reason. It’s as big as a fucking plane and looks nasty as hell. But I promise you, we’re safe here and I know you’ll take care of me. We’ll just sit here and wait. We have dried kah in our bags, we have plenty of fresh water, and we have so much fruit we won’t be able to eat all of it. If we have to wait here a month, that’s what we’ll do. Please don’t stress, all right?”

She makes it sound so simple. I know sky-claw, though, and I know how they get once they feel an area is their territory. They will shred anything that comes close. “And if he does not leave?” I ask