Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Mah-dee?” Hassen’s hand touches my backside, which is raised up in the air. “Are you well?”
I think your dick broke me. “I’m fabulous,” I say in a breathless voice. “Boneless but fabulous.”
He rubs his hand on my ass. “This is going to get cold. I do not want it to freeze—I like watching it move when I take you.”
With any other guy, I’d probably be insulted at him telling me my big ass is jiggling when we have sex. But the way Hassen says it—like a caress—tells me that he likes my ass. “I’ll move in just a minute. I need to get my strength up.”
He taps my butt cheek. “Rest, and then we will go out onto the trails again. Taushen is gone.”
Wait, he expects me to hunt after that? Moreover, he expects me to be able to walk? I roll onto my back and stare up at him. “I think you are overestimating my recovery. I’m gonna need a few more minutes.”
He chuckles. “I do not understand many of your words, but I will let you rest if you need to rest.” He adjusts his pants, retying them, and looks quite pleased with himself.
“Yeah, so while I let my lower half recover, maybe we should talk about what we just did.”
Ever graceful despite his enormous size, Hassen folds his legs under him and sits on the floor next to me. He reaches out and smooths some of my sweaty hair back off of my face, and just that small caress makes everything tingle in response. “What do you wish to say?”
“I thought you didn’t want to do the whole ‘casual sex’ thing.” And I mentally brace myself for another round of chest-beating man proclamations about how I’m now his woman.
But he only shrugs. “I have given thought about what you said.”
“Oh?”
He nods. “If you wish to use me to scratch an itch, as you say, it is only fair that I use you to scratch mine.”
Er, okay. So that isn’t what I expected to hear. Instead of talking about how I should be his and we should set up a happy little cave together, we’ve moved on to ‘using’ each other. Is it weird that I feel a little wounded by that? I shouldn’t, because it’s what I wanted…but damn. The guy sure moves on fast. “You’re not going to ask me to marry you again?”
His face is blank. “As an exile, I can offer nothing to a mate. I realize that now. You were right to turn me down.”
Oh. “That wasn’t why—”
“It does not matter. If this is what you want, this is what we shall do. It means pleasure for both of us. I do not see a problem with this.” He caresses my cheek.
I smile and can’t help but feel like this is a lot easier than I expected. He’s caving in to what I want just like that? “What made you change your mind?”
“Your nearness,” he says bluntly. “I could smell your hair and feel your body against mine and I wanted you. So I took you.”
I shiver. “Yes, yes you did.”
HASSEN
Mah-dee is smiling at me. She is pleased with my declaration that I wish nothing more than to mate with her.
It feels as if I am deceiving her, yet I will go along with it. The truth is, I have not changed my mind. In my mind, Mah-dee is mine. She is my mate. But being close to her and not being able to touch her is torture. I will not choose that. I will choose another route.
Let her think I have given up on my quest to claim her as my own. I have slept on my anger, and I now have a plan. I will not blindly rush forward. I will enjoy these few days with Mah-dee while the weather is pleasant and she learns to hunt. And when the heavier snows come, I will endure the brutal season as an exile, and hunt harder than ever before. When it is over, I will talk with Vektal about rejoining the tribe as a hunter. Then and only then can I claim Mah-dee as a mate. By then, Li-lah will be carrying Rokan’s kit and all will have forgotten that I stole the weak, crying sister when I should have stolen the fierce one.
Today was a risk. Not because Taushen might have seen us, but because Mah-dee might have decided that she did not want to be touched by me again. The fact that she craves my touch as much as I hunger for hers makes me weak with relief. Mah-dee initiated mating with me yesterday. I was not sure she would welcome me today.
The fact that she has means I can show her how much I need her. I plan on taking Mah-dee out on many ‘hunting’ excursions.