Amatista

“Oh yes, please,” she whimpered, circling wantonly against his hand.

She felt a powerful shudder course through him, heard his harshly indrawn breath. “I want you,” he rasped, his hand slowly retreating.

He stepped back slowly, straining to catch his breath while Liana fought for her own. “Kavi?”

A long moment passed before his lashes lifted. Hunger had darkened his eyes, but something else warmed them, something overwhelmingly tender. “I want you more than anything. But you are not meant for this life. Maybe you are not meant for me.”

“I was born free. I was meant to choose!”

“Then you must think on this,” he gritted out, grabbing her face and planting a dry, fierce kiss on her lips. “I will have you, but not for a night. If you are mine, you will be mine forever.”

Chapter Five

Kavi probably thought she was spineless. He probably thought she didn’t have the ability to commit to him, or was too weak to adapt to the Foher way of life.

Well.

Liana was determined to prove him wrong. Call her bubblegum or glue, she was staying right here. She would prove she was useful, knowledgeable, crafty and strong—and that he’d have to be an idiot not to mate with her!

“How does a Foher woman let a man know she is…interested?” Liana asked Galina the next morning.

They were both knee-deep in water as quick little fish danced around their calves.

Spear held high in the air, Galina looked up at her from the water and smiled brazenly. “We take what we want.”

Similarly holding her own spear, Liana cocked a brow. “Just like that? You take what you want, even if it’s…a man?”

“Yes.”

But Liana had done just that when she’d taken his cock into her mouth, and look what that had gotten her. Now she puzzled over Galina’s words.

“The ficco, Liana. You have to focus on the ficco.”

“I was thinking about—”

“Think fish!”

She did—and squealed with delight when she stabbed the water and felt the pole hit then vibrate all the way to the top.

“I caught a fish!” she squealed.

It was the first thing she said as soon as they strolled back to the camp. “Kavi, I caught a fish!” Never mind Galina had a whole string of them on her back. Liana had speared one all by herself.

Kavi sat on a log, sharpening a knife. He set it down and rose to greet her, a smile dancing on his lips as he eyed the fish she held out to him. “What a nice baby fish, Liana.”

She chose to ignore the “baby” part and focused on her gloating. “See? I’m not completely useless.”

“Why would you think you are useless? Every living thing has a purpose. Do you see the tiny leaf under your feet? Even that has a purpose.”

She wanted to hug him for that alone but then she’d have to drop the fish. And it was her first fish, after all.

Instead her smile spread up to her eyes. “All I’ve done for the past nine years is strip to be stared at like some sort of object, and I think I forgot there was a living, breathing person in here somewhere.”

His eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips in distaste when she realized what she’d said. He must think she’d meant whoring.

Liana quickly said, “It’s you I have to thank for that, Kavi. I want to be many things now, learn many things…” Be worthy.

With haunting gentleness, he stroked a finger down her cheek then smiled a smile that stabbed her heart with yearning. “You smell like fish as well.”