Appearance was important, it seemed. It had been that way with Benn too.
It discomforted me to realize that. However, I knew, even just from tonight, that Wrune’s horde actually respected him. They might fear him as well but it was easy to see that his people were cared for. That they were healthy. And, with the exception of the lingering fog not that far away,safe.
Wrune wanted us to create a strong front, asVorakkarandMorakkari, for the sake of his horde. That was what he was telling me, what he was willing me to understand.
And in return, I would receive everything his horde did. I would be cared for. Safe.
“Lysi?” he rasped, tilting my chin up with the hand that wasn’t slowly sliding to the junction of my thighs.
And I will be in his bed, I added silently. I would have a powerful male seated deep between my legs each night. And why did that knowledge make me feel more powerful, though I didn’t quite know what to expect?
I swallowed. I looked out over his horde, focusing on the laughter and the taste of sweetness on my tongue.
He was offering me everything I’d ever wanted. All I had to do wastake it.
“Lysi,” I whispered to him, saying the word in Dakkari.
And if I had power, I would have power to help Tess. To help those underneath the Dead Mountain that wanted it.
AsMorakkari, I had the power of an entire horde at my back.
Would I be able to wield it? If the time was right?
His fingers traced the crease where my upper thigh met my hip.
“Good,” he grunted.
And I wondered if this was what Tess felt when she slept beside Benn each night. I wondered if he made her feel powerful and that was why she’d done everything she’d done.
“Now watch,rei Morakkari,” he murmured, nodding his head towards the celebration. “The dancing will begin soon.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
My heart was throbbing alongside the drums.
I was full and sated.
I was warm and surprisingly relaxed, though I assumed that was partly due to the wine.
And sometime after Wrune fed me the last morsel I could possibly eat and when the dancing was well underway, I had begun to feel a different kind of heat entirely.
A heat that had something to do with the primal, gyrating, erotic dancing I witnessed…and everything to do with the male that was stoking it with his maddening touches.
“I can smell you,sarkia,” Wrune growled. “If I touched you now, would I find how wet you are for me?”
Well, that was mortifying if that was the case, I couldn’t help but think. But my cheeks didn’t flush and the embarrassment was short-lived. My eyes were glued to the dancing spread out before us. My gaze flitted from couple to couple, each performing dances of their own, as mesmerizingly beautiful as they were breathlessly erotic. Graceful limbs twisted expertly, passionate kisses were stolen. The more brazen of the couples had the female’s legs wrapped around the male’s hips. Their dancing looked more like a desperate coupling, as moans lifted towards the night sky.
Throughout it all, however, Wrune’s eyes had only been on me. I’d felt them, hot and observant, as if he foundmemore arousing than the dancers.
His lips brushed the back of my shoulder again. He’d swept my hair to one side long before to stroke the column of my neck with his claws. It made me shiver though it wasn’t unpleasant. The opposite, in fact. And I was beginning to fear that maybe he was right.
I was beginning to fear that maybe hecouldmake me beg for him tonight.
Sexual pleasure was not something I was very familiar with. I’d never coupled with a male in my lifetime. And with the exception of Benn’s unwanted gropings, I had never been touched by a male either.
Back in my village, when life had been much easier than it was now, I still remembered the first time Tess had told me about an orgasm. She’d told me that she’d touched herself—and wasn’t shy about leaving out the details either—and that she’d felt the mostsublimesensation. Those things were whispered and giggled about often, especially among the younger generation, though I had never been privy to other conversations about it, considering I’d been somewhat of an outcast even then.
The first time I ever touched myself, I’d understood what Tess meant. I’d done what she said she did. Touched that little pearl between my legs, the thing she’d learned was called a ‘clit.’ Heat had built. My legs had shaken and squeezed. Though I had no idea what I was doing back then, my body had seemed to catapult me effortlessly towards the pleasure I was unknowingly seeking.
