I gesture at my things in the corner. “I…came to retrieve my bedding.”
“Oh.”
“I will sleep elsewhere. So you are not disturbed.”
She bites her lip and gives me an unhappy look. “You don’t have to, you know. If we’re going back to how we were before, I wouldn’t mind if you stayed. I have a hard time sleeping in the hut alone.”
I know that. I thought of it as I trudged through the mountains with an overly chatty A’tam at my side. D’see hates to sleep alone. She likes someone to be in the room with her, because her old master kept her in the same bed as him and his lover. She feels isolated when she is alone, forgotten, and I find myself giving in to the yearning that aches through me. “You…want me to stay?”
D’see nods quietly. “I would love that.”
This strikes me as…strange. I have crushed D’see’s dreams. I have spurned her. And yet she invites me to sleep in the hut with her and to remain friends? “Is this a game?”
“Is what a game?”
“This? You inviting me to stay.” I gesture at the furs. “Do you play games with me?”
The look on her face is full of hurt. “Why would I play a game with you?”
“You should be angry,” I point out. “I have decided not to take you as my mate. I have embarrassed you in front of the tribe and abandoned you for a week, yet you have nothing but kind words for me. It feels like a game, and I do not know what to make of it.”
She gives me a betrayed stare, her mouth deep red in the flickering firelight. “It’s not a game.” Her tone is cool now, distant. “And I’m not angry at you. I’m hurt. Really hurt. I’ve agreed to everything and you pushed me away without giving me a chance. If anyone’s playing games, it’s you.”
I say nothing. I play no games with her, but she will not believe me.
D’see lifts her chin. “But if you want me to play games, I can play games, O’jek. I can play lots of games.” She lies back into the furs and pulls them up to her chest. “Goodnight.”
I wait. When she says nothing else, I assume she is going to sleep. Disgruntled, I consider taking my furs out of the hut and abandoning her, but I remember that she does not like to be left alone. It makes her sad…and I cannot do that to her.
So I unroll my furs across the far side of the fire pit and settle into them. I close my eyes, since staring at the ceiling will do no good, and wait for sleep to take me.
Across the hut, D’see makes a soft noise. My cock pricks, but I ignore it. Of course I am hungry for her. Have I not dreamed of touching her for days? Of the clasp of her hot cunt tight around my cock, squeezing me as she comes? Whatever noise D’see makes, my body will respond. Her scent is everywhere in this hut. If I breathe deep enough, I could swear I scent her arousal, and it makes me hunger.
The furs rustle.
D’see makes a little gasp, and then there is a distinctly wet sound of sliding flesh.
I bolt upright, looking over at D’see’s furs. She is just a mound under the blankets, but as I watch, something moves under the furs.
Is she…touching herself?
A moment later, I scent her arousal on the air, and I hiss aloud. She is touching herself. “D’see! What are you doing?”
“Playing…games.” She shudders, making another soft, gasping noise. “If you won’t touch me, I’ll just have to touch myself.”
I bite back a groan. Is that what she is truly doing? I cannot stay on my side of the hut. On hands and knees, I prowl over to her side and rip the furs back from her body. She gasps again as I reveal her body to the cool air. Her legs are splayed wide, her tunic hiked up to her teats. She has one hand on her nipple, and the other between her legs. As I stare down at her, she meets my gaze and continues to touch herself, her fingers making wet sounds between her thighs as she strokes her cunt.
“If you were my mate,” she says softly, her fingers moving frantically against her clit. “You’d be inside me right now. My nails would be digging into your back, and it would feel so good.” She bites her lip, gazing up at me, and a little whimper escapes her throat. “You’d be filling me with that thick cock, making me want you so badly.” D’see arches up against the furs, her teats pushing toward the roof of the hut as she gets close to her climax. “Oh, O’jek…”