I found myself looking forward to it.
True to her promise, Issa pampered me all day. We ate well, and by the afternoon, I was clean, comfortable, and wearing the softest blue gown.
“It matches yer eyes,” my hostess declared, stepping back to admire me. “Too bad yer hair doesnae curl. ‘Twould look fetching, all that thick brown draped over one shoulder.”
Self-consciously, I tugged on my long braid.
“It curls when ‘tis shorter. I prefer it shorter, but?—”
I swallowed.
“There was a woman in the village who was cast out when I first arrived—unwed and pregnant. The village women said ‘twas her unnatural curls which attracted a demon’s attention.”
Issa clicked her tongue against one tusk and rolled her eyes as she linked her arm through mine.
“Is that no’ disgusting? To blame a female for lust equally shared?”
Since she stood a head taller than me, she winked down at me.
“Ye’ll find, in our world, that desire is no’ a thing to be hidden. Or avoided. We celebrate it.”
Already today I’d seen evidence of such claims—one couple at the hot springs who didn’t seem to mind otherscould see them, and a female pressed against a wall of a cottage, with a male kneeling under her skirts while she writhed.
The sight had been…educational.
I wasn’t a virgin, but I had been smart enough to hide such information from the villagers who already thought me an outcast. But never had I imagined a male would care enough about a female’s pleasure to do such a thing. And the fact that no one around me had considered it wicked or depraved made it even more fascinating.
Unbidden, my thoughts had gone to Vrogul. Hadheever had his head—hismouth—beneath a female’s skirts? I wondered what those tusks, which had made me shudder when he’d scraped them against my jaw, would feel like against the skin of my inner thigh. Was his tongue as strangely formed as the rest of him?
These thoughts continued to plague me, much to my chagrin, even after Issa left me alone in Vrogul’s cottage.
“Think of yerself as a guest, Rowena,” she’d called laughingly as she’d abandoned me. “Ye’re among friends now.”
Was I?
Nay, he’d taken me assacrifice.
Except…
Vrogul had arrived shortly after, backing into the cottage carrying two steaming bowls, with a loaf under one arm. I pressed my back against the wattle and daub wall of his cottage, trying to make myself smaller, as he struggled to place everything on the small table.
“I usually eat communally, but I thought ye might be more comfortable?—”
His words broke off when he finally turned and got a good look at me. His gaze flashed down the length of the blue gown then back up again, andsomethingflared in his dark eyes. A green spark, something unexpected.
“Ye look…” His tongue flicked against his tusk. “Clean.”
“A compliment?” To my surprise, the words came out teasingly. “My trews are drying.”
His nod was jerky, and his gaze kept dropping to skim over my body again.
“Ye look… That is good. Ye had a day—a good day? With Issa?”
What was wrong with him? My palms were sweaty, and I ran them down the wool of the gown.
“Aye. She is very kind.”
“She is. Kind, I mean.” He cleared his throat, then scooped up the bowl again.
