Tonight, I need to convince Bridget that she did the right thing, even though it is not what I thought she would do.
Her feet are sticking out of the shelter, and she is lying on top of the blanket.
I crawl in next to her. This is a terrible place to take a mate. If I’d known that she planned to choose me, I would have put something better together today. I take my sword off and place it near the entrance.
“I’m sorry.” It is not me who usually storms off, it is Orik.
“It’s okay. This is new for both of us.” She stares up at the peaked inside of the roof.
I lie next to her. “It’s not okay. You’re my mate and I shouldn’t have left you.”
She props herself up on her elbow to look at me. “I don’t know enough about your ways to hold you to them. I’m sure we’ll disagree on things, and it will take us time to find a solution.”
I smile, liking the way that she thinks there is always a solution to be found. “I will try not to stalk away so that we can find the solution.”
She nods. “Did kissing me start the rut?”
“No. Or at least I don’t think so.” Maybe it did, and that’s why talking about Orik angered me. I close my eyes. The annoyance is still there…but it’s directed at me, not her. Because she’s right. I could have them both if I accepted the obvious solution.
Her fingers trace along my jaw. “What are you thinking?”
I open my eyes. “That this is not a suitable bed, or house, for a mate.”
It was different, sharing a blanket under the stars with another warrior. There is no room for him in here, even if I knew what to do with both of them. He would know, but I don’t know how to ask him those questions.
“I don’t see any other options.”
“You had limited options, not a whole tribe to choose from.” And I was who she picked. It’s a curious mix of pride and sadness that I was the best option.
“I didn’t need to interview a whole tribe.” She laughs. “That would have been too many, and I wouldn’t have known where to start.”
“You knew what you wanted, though.”
She studies me. “Yeah, I wanted someone kind and caring. Who promised nothing more than themselves because as banished, that’s all we have.”
I catch her hand and kiss her palm. She understands what it is to be banished more than some of my brothers. “I’d like to promise you pleasure, but my lessons were a long time ago.”
“You can start by kissing me again.”
That order is easy to obey. Our lips meet and this time there is more need. With each heartbeat, the heat in my blood burns brighter. My meq hardens and rubs against my pants. I want to grind against her, to slide my hand into her pants and seek out her channel.
The scent of her arousal is on her skin. Sweeter than what I’m used to, but sharp enough to hook me and lure me in. I leave her lips and kiss down her throat, spreading open the neck of the shirt and kissing the newly revealed skin. I find her hard nipple through the cloth and suck.
She gasps and arches into my touch and my meq jumps, needing to feel more than the rub of my pants. I lift the shirt and kiss her stomach, working my way higher.
There’s a part of my mind that reminds me how different this is to what I’m used to. That last night I was in another’s bed. That this is somehow not right. But my body is already craving the rest of her, needing to complete the mating.
While I had heard others talk about the rut, I had imagined it to be little more than lust. It is not the same at all.
This is a pull deep in my gut. A pulsing in my body that will not be soothed by any other means. If the kiss started it, tasting her skin is only feeding the need that has woken.
I undo the rope belt and unlace the borrowed pants that she wears. She lifts her hips so I can tug them down. With so little room to move, it is not as graceful as it could’ve been, and I end up kneeling between her legs. From the way she’s looking at me, I suspect this is exactly where she wants me.
I draw in a breath that’s laced with her arousal. I want to taste it.
I kiss her inner thigh and she spreads her legs a little wider, but I’m the one who hesitates. This is not something I can ever take back. It will change me in a way that I can’t imagine, even though I have seen the physical changes in others. Whatever causes the rut exists in human women as Edilk was affected, and it soothed Sunif’s long suppressed hunger.
“Do you not want to?” she whispers. “You don’t need to.”
