Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I hide my smile against Aayla’s hair as she plays with a leather doll in my lap.
“Excellent work, warrior,” Skarr tells the boy. “You will be one to fear soon enough.”
Pak’s rabbit-like tail flutters happily.
“Now fight me,” Z’hren says, bounding forward and putting up his fists in a boxing pose.
“I do not know if I dare,” Skarr tells him, all seriousness. “You have so many fists I am certain to lose.”
Gail shoots me an amused look. She’s sewing a fur ruff onto a hood, seated next to me by the fire. There have been people coming and going all day, but Gail seems to do a lot of her work by the fire. She says she likes to help out if anyone needs it. I suspect she just likes being in the thick of things, unlike me. She’s really nice, though. She makes a stitch in the fur and then leans towards me. “For someone that’s never been around children, he’s good with them.”
“He is.” There’s a sincerity to children that meshes well with Skarr’s loud personality. He tells them he’s an incredible fighter and they believe him, because children believe adults. And so when he solemnly tells them that they have real promise as warriors, they preen with delight.
“Show me how to throw a punch,” Liz’s oldest daughter Raashel demands, racing up to join the sparring group.
He nods at her, gesturing for her to come forward, and demonstrates how to position her fist, and how to hold her thumb.
“Is this the first time he’s been around the kids?” Gail asks me. “You guys have been here for a few days now.”
“I think this is the first time he’s truly noticed them.” He’s been caught up in resonance. We both have.
“Well, he’s going to be popular with them, I can tell. You’re going to have a lot of little faces at your hut each morning, wanting to play.” She smiles, shaking her head as she sews. “Just warning you now.”
“It’s fine.” And surprisingly, I realize that it is. I don’t mind children showing up on our doorstep wanting to spend time with Skarr. Children don’t make me uneasy.
“Did you see my doll’s hair?” Aayla asks, lifting her doll to show me. “It’s in two buns because her name is Princess Leia.”
“Very pretty,” I agree, and wonder how a child born on this planet knows anything about Star Wars.
Later that night, Skarr curls his big body around mine in bed. He presses his mouth to the crook of my neck, his favorite spot, and kisses me. “I think I like children.”
“I think I do, too,” I whisper back.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
SKARR
ONE WEEK LATER
“I promise you, this is how they’re supposed to look.” Vivi shoots me an amused look as she straps one of the skis to my boot. Just her bending over in front of me like that is enough to make my cocks want to extrude and my khui is singing loudly. Resonance presses upon both of us hard, but Vivi has not indicated she wishes to mate yet, so I wait.
And wait.
Truly, the waiting is not so bad. Vivi and I spend most of our time together, and at night we are in the furs, kissing and touching. But the longer this goes on, the more difficult it becomes to control my cocks. I extrude in my sleep and wake up grinding against her. I think about mating constantly. I ache with hunger for her. My cocks constantly throb with need.
I hope she decides we are mates soon, but until she does, I must control myself. I give her rounded backside a hungry stare and then bite back a sigh, forcing myself to look at the ski on my foot instead. “It looks ridiculous.”
Vivi laughs, unoffended. “It does not.”
“It does look a bit like a canoe,” Nadine offers, watching from nearby. She has been helping Vivi with skis for days now, both of them trying different versions before settling upon this one. I see them together often, their heads bent, smiling and laughing, and I am glad that my Vivi is friendly with her…and I am jealous at the same time.
I want all her laughter. All her smiles.
And because I am a jealous fool, when they suggested trying out the skis, I insisted I join them. Now I have a slippery wood-thing strapped to my boot. Nadine hands me a pair of poles and I lean on them while Vivi slips the other ski on my foot. By the time she is done, I am sliding back and forth on the snow, trying to remain in the same spot and failing. “I am drifting!”
“Turn your ski,” Vivi instructs without looking up.
Nadine finishes strapping hers to her feet and braces herself on her poles, testing them out. “Not bad, not bad.”
“Let me put mine on and we’ll give them all a test run.” She grins with excitement up at the others. The skis are twice as long as my feet and not very wide. I turn slowly in the snow, lifting each foot as I prepare myself. We are bundled up heavily and have taken to the hills just above the cove to test the skis out in the snows. Vivi worries they will not stay together well enough, so we’ve picked a “small” hill to ski down.