Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians #3)(10)

AEHAKO


There’s a fermented tea called sah-sah that Maylak’s husband Kashrem is an expert at making. It smells like the backside of a scythe-beak, but the taste is pleasantly warm on the tongue and it loosens inhibitions. The tribe is breaking out skin after skin of the sah-sah in celebration, and everyone is feasting, laughing, and happy. Old Kemli and her mate pull out their drums and flutes, and happy music fills the cavern, covering any noises that the now-resonating couple might make as they give in to their khui’s demands.

Kemli’s daughter Farli – still young enough to be nothing but a sapling – has out her paints and draws decorative symbols on the skin of anyone who will sit long enough to let her. I have a soft spot in my heart for Farli, so I’m one of the first to fall prey to her pretty begging, and when I’m done, she’s painted spirals on my horns and sweeping symbols across my face and chest. The elders smile at this – it was common for people to decorate their bodies in celebration of a mating back in their time, and they like to see the custom revived.

The humans are enthusiastic about the painting as well, and I watch as Joh-see gets blue shapes painted on her pale skin. Kira of the sad eyes sits nearby, watching. There’s a smile on her face but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It rarely does. Occasionally she glances over at me, and then just as quickly turns away.

Even amongst a celebration, she seems alone.

“Can I have this?” I ask Farli, reaching over for a pot of the reddish paints. She and Joh-see are giggling at the stripes she’s painting, and the red is unused.

“Of course,” Farli says in sa-khui. “Are you going to paint someone?”

I nod and gesture at Kira. “She looks as if she could use more celebrating.”

Joh-see grins. She doesn’t understand our words but she knows who I’m talking about. “Try to make her smile, please? She is bringing me down.”

“Bringing you down where?”

Joh-see just giggles again. “Never mind.”

Strange humans. I take the paint and a skin of sah-sah, and before I head over to Kira’s side, I lean in to Joh-see once more. “Do you know what a kiss is?”

She gives me a flirty wink. “You hitting on me, big guy?”

I chuckle. “You are too much of a handful for me.”

She giggles, and it’s clear she’s been hitting the sah-sah for some time. She hands another color to Farli, and then rolls up one of her fur sleeves. “Do my arms!”

I wait as Farli gestures and then begins to paint colorful circles on Joh-see’s skin.

“A kiss,” Joh-see says, musing. “I think Georgie and Vektal referred to them as mouth matings.”

Ah. I have seen this for myself. Vektal plants his mouth on his mate when he thinks others are not looking, and they lock together. It even seems like he sticks his tongue in her mouth, which is interesting. I have tongued a cunt before but never a mouth, and I’m eager to try it.

I look over to Kira. She’s moved away from the boisterous tribe, hiding in a corner to stay out of the way of the dancers that are beginning to move to the beat of the drums. Another kit on the way and another happy resonance is always a cause for celebration. It doesn’t matter that there’s no place for the new couple to make their home. There is always room for one more, even if we have to sleep piled atop one another.

I would not mind sleeping atop Kira.

Asha saunters in front of me as I walk through the busy cavern. “Is that for me?” she asks when she sees the sah-sah skin in my hand.

“No.” I stalk past her and ignore the irritated sound she makes. I head straight for Kira, who has hidden herself into a corner. She sits on a stuffed pillow, and there is an empty one next to her. Good.

The human gives me a frustrated look when I drop onto the pillow next to her. “I don’t want company.”

“You never do, Sad Eyes.” I offer her the skin of tea. “Lucky for you, I am not easily dissuaded.”

Kira sniffs the drink and wrinkles her funny, tiny human nose. “What is this?”

“It is…” I cast about for the right word. “Burns in the belly and makes you feel good? Yes?”

“Alcoholic,” she corrects. She sniffs it again and offers it to me. “You first.”

I take a healthy swig from the skin and grimace at the sharp taste, but the warmth floods through me a moment later. “Strong.”

She takes the skin back from me and sips it. I watch her small lips curve where mine were just a moment ago and lust shoots through me. Kira is a difficult one to chase, but I am determined.

She grimaces at the taste, but takes a second swig. “It’s awful.”

“Drink more. It will start to taste better.”

She takes another healthy mouthful and then coughs, wiping at her mouth. “I think you’re lying.”

“Perhaps a slight exaggeration,” I say, and when she tries to offer it back to me, I decline. “Keep it. You need a bit of alcoholing.”

“Inebriating,” she corrects.

“Your language is confusing,” I tell her, and dab my finger into the small red paint pot. “Your words are nonsense much of the time.”

“You’re not wrong. We should probably learn your language. Go back to the mothership and get the brain dump Georgie mentioned.”