My khui thrums hard at her expression, at the way her khui is growing louder by the moment. We stare at each other, panting as if out of breath, even though neither of us has moved a muscle.
"Get a room," someone calls out nearby.
I turn and see we are being watched by several of the tribe who have followed me over to April's hut. Nosy creatures. Jason has his hands cupped to his face, and he is the one calling out.
I should crush him like a sand-scorpion. Insolent fool.
April scowls at the group watching us. "Hey, why don't you take a photo?" she calls out in return. "It'll last longer!"
"No one has a camera," Jason calls back.
She rolls her eyes, as annoyed with him as I am. "Thinks he's a damned comedian."
"Should I go silence him?" I ask and pound a fist into my palm meaningfully. "I would be more than happy to."
"No, leave him alone. Come on in so we can talk privately." She steps aside and gestures that I should enter the hut. April waits for me to join her and then calls out, "Show's over!"
I stand just inside her hut, tense, listening as the others slowly depart. Their sounds and scents grow distant. All of it is muted, of course, compared to the incessant, intoxicating hum of resonance. I can hear April's song as much as my own, I can drink in her scent, tinged with arousal. I can practically feel her pleasure as she twirls the leather rose in her fingers, expression thoughtful.
Get a room, Jason had called out. It reminds me that I am to build a hut for my mate, a home for the two of us. "We cannot get a room yet," I tell her, mindful of the rules Devi had informed me of. "Not until the snail-vasion is over."
"Getting a room is a figure of speech," April says.
"Yes, and right now, it is against the rules."
Her brows go up and she gives me an amused smile, as if I've said something funny. Her head tilts to the side as she considers me. "You're big into rules, aren't you?"
"You aren't?"
April shrugs. She takes a slow step to the side. "I just didn't think a guy like you would be so into boundaries and being told what to do."
My tail flicks, my heart beating faster as she circles around me. "Why not? A good parameter lets me know what's acceptable and what isn't."
"Parameters are important," she says, her voice growing soft.
My breathing speeds up, and I can scent her arousalgrowing thicker. Her voice is changing, growing huskier, and her khui and mine are both humming wildly. It seems we cannot be in a room together without wanting to touch one another. The urge to claim her as mine grows stronger. No other male gets to look at her. Not when she's mine. "Let me mark your door again," I rasp. "I need to layer my scent."
"Not today." April continues to circle around me, regarding me. It makes my skin prickle with awareness. To think that she is so near and yet out of my reach. "You haven't asked to touch me."
"You haven't given me permission."
"And it'd be against the rules if you touched me without permission," she muses. "So very interesting. Aren't you curious, though?"
My cock throbs in my trou. I'm curious about a great many things, but I need to be certain as to what she is referring to. "About...?"
"About touching me? Or have you had so much experience with female prizes as a gladiator that this is ho-hum to you?" She drags the leather flower back and forth across her lower lip, and I cannot stop staring at it. Or her.
But her teasing words bother me. Do I confess everything? Admit that I have no memories of battles or competition guidelines? That Chalath is full of this information and I am a blank, which makes me suspect I am newly cloned and was found lacking and that is why I am here? I don't want April to think me inferior. I don't want her thinking she has been paired with someone who is a mistake. "I have not won a female," I admit grudgingly. It feels safe to confess that much. "Nor a male, before you ask."
"Okay, so you're just not curious, then." Her fingers go to the collar of her thick tunic, and she toys with the fur lining, her fingers stroking it in a way that makes my groinprickle.
"I did not say that."
"Oh?" Her tone is playful. "Then you are curious about learning a human woman? Or do you already know all the answers there?"
"I have no answers," I admit slowly. "But I am an eager learner."
"I do like the word 'eager.'"
