Because D’see realizes she is less competent than a kit and flinches back, hunching into herself once more.
I say nothing, because if I do, they will be angry words.
That night, we stop in a snowy clearing, no hunter caves nearby. R’khar is all chatter, excited to eat the fruit that tomorrow will bring. His father is silent, preparing a fire, and I pull out my fire-making kit and dig a pit for D’see. She can make our fire and practice while R’kh and R’khar roast their dinner. But they watch her attempts and she gets flustered, and no fire gets made. I cover her hands after she bangs one of the rocks on her knuckle by mistake and shake my head. “Tomorrow, perhaps.”
“Sure,” she says in a wobbly voice.
I pull her close, sharing furs with her a short distance away from the others. This annoys me, too, because now that we have company, I do not get to enjoy mating with D’see. My cock is hard and aching with want for her, and I cannot stop thinking about her rising over me this morning, her smile playful as she licked my cock.
I can only hope that R’kh and R’khar leave quickly once they get to the fruit cave.
“We’re here,” R’khar calls out happily as we enter the valley. “Look! Can you see the entrance, Daisy? It’s tucked into the side of the cliff!”
“I can see it,” she says, voice sweet. “Why don’t you go on ahead with your father? We’ll catch up.”
“Come on.” R’khar is all energy, practically racing in circles. “I bet I can beat you to the pool inside!”
“I bet you can,” she says. “I won’t even race.”
I lean in, trying to make her laugh. “I hope they beat us back to the tribe as well.”
She only smiles at me, tilting her head in the way that tells me she’s trying to divert attention away from her cheek. “Maybe you should go ahead with them. I’ll be there soon.”
The walk through the valley is not a long one, but D’see’s steps are dragging. She is clearly exhausted and forcing herself to keep pace with the rest of us, and once again, I am irritated by R’kh and R’khar’s presence. “I will stay with you. If I go with them I might shove fruit into R’khar’s mouth to silence him,” I grumble.
“Don’t you like kids?” she asks, tensing.
“I do. Right now I do not like that one…or his father.”
“Don’t get mad at them. They’re just trying to be helpful.” She pauses in her walking to glare at me, leaning heavily on her spear. “It’s not their fault I’m terrible at everything.”
“Are you trying to argue with me so I will get angry at you?” I ask incredulously. Is she trying to push me away? To get me to change my mind about our agreement? I look over at R’kh and his son, and they are waiting a short distance away. I wave a hand at them, indicating they should go on, and they turn and head deeper into the valley, leaving us behind. “D’see, you are picking a fight.”
“I am not. I’m just saying if you decide you want to call this off, I wouldn’t blame you. We can still be friends.”
She needs to be shown how I feel. I look around the valley for a suitable location. When I spot a large, flat rock half covered in snow, I move toward it, taking her by the hand and half dragging her behind me.
“O’jek, seriously,” she pants. “Maybe we should talk. Maybe—”
I get to the rock, brush the snow off, and then direct her onto it. When she sits, I immediately kneel between her thighs and push them apart.
“What are you doing?” she asks, breathless.
I push up her skirted tunic and find the laces of her leggings, undoing them. “Our agreement is that we practice mating every night, and I did not get my turn last night. I am taking it now.”
“You…what?”
The moment her leggings are loosened, I slide my fingers into the clothing, touching her. She is dry, and my fingers are cool against her skin. She stares up at me in shock.
Right. The cream. I toss my pack to the ground, digging through my supplies until I pull it out.
“I’m serious. If everyone in the tribe is going to be dead set against us doing this, maybe we should give up the idea. You said yourself that we could wait a year but I’m not sure I want to do that. In my head, this was a more immediate sort of thing, but if you want me to learn how to hunt…”
I scoop a good dollop of the cream onto two of my fingers and then set the small pot aside.
“…I just worry that you’re going to get sick of this, and me…”