Ice Planet Barbarians (Ice Planet Barbarians, #1)(48)

“Georgie will take a khui soon,” I tell them. She must. I cannot bear the thought of her declining it and leaving me to go back to her strange planet. The thought stabs me like a knife, and I fight back the agony it brings. “When she feels the khui within her resonate, she will know what it means to be mated. Until then, I court her with caresses and affection. Just because she does not resonate for me does not mean I shall treat her any differently.”

“Probably a good thing that she resonated for you then, Vektal, and not Raahosh. He’d have found her lacking,” Aehako teases.

Raahosh’s nostrils flare. He shoots me a cold look and then storms away from the gathering of men.

I rub my face wearily. I am glad to be home amongst my tribe, but my body aches for Georgie. I am eager to join her in bed. “I need hunters and supplies in the morning,” I tell them. “We go to rescue the other humans. Who will join me?”

Soon, I have a good group of hunters that have volunteered. It does not surprise me that they are all unmated males and young. The elder ones might be used to their solitude, but the others, like me, hunger for a mate. Young, brawny Salukh will go. Laughing Aehako. Quiet Pashov and his sibling Zennek. Hotheaded Rokan, who has a quick tongue but even quicker senses. Skilled Zolaya and grim, unsmiling Haeden, whose sad history serves as a lesson to others. I suspect that, come morning, Raahosh will show up and join us. He is an excellent hunter, for all his bitterness.

It is a good party. Maylak will want to go, but Kashrem worries that the trek is too far for her while carrying her kit. She will stay behind.

Once the hunters have been finalized, I give orders to find rations—blandly cooked and not spiced. Water skins for the human women. Warm foot coverings. Extra leathers. Blankets, as many as the men can carry. We will head straight from the humans’ strange cave-ship to a sa-kohtsk hunt. There we will get the women their khui.

Then, my Georgie will resonate for me. She will be safe, her life unthreatened by khui-sickness. Both she and our child will be protected from harm.

“Sleep,” I tell the hunters. “We will leave at dawn of the second sun.”

The men scatter, though I doubt any of them will be able to sleep. They will be dreaming of flat-faced human women with third nipples and welcoming bodies.

My own body hardens at the thought of Georgie, waiting in bed for me. I sprint to my cave, eager to see my mate again. Aehako calls out a jest, but I ignore it; I don’t care if I seem eager. Any unmated man would gladly trade his place for mine, and they know it.

The inside of my cave is dark and silent, no hearth-stones uncovered for soft light. I don’t need them; I know my small abode by heart. I move to the bed and hear Georgie’s soft breathing, and my khui thrums again. My heart swells with love and desire for this soft yet strong-willed human. She is already everything to me.

I brush my fingers over her soft mane, and she stirs. “Mmm, Vektal?”

“Go back to sleep,” I tell her, pulling off my leathers. “I will join you in bed.”

She sits up, and in the pale bit of light, I see her hair tousled on her head. “I thought you were going to wake me with a mouth-mating,” she says, and her voice is husky and full of promise.

I groan, my cock hard at her suggestion. “You are tired and must sleep, my resonance. We leave early in the morning.”

“Then we’ll have to be quick,” she says, and her hands go to my breeches. I dare not move as her hands undo the laces of my loincloth, and she tugs the leather free. My cock is met by open air and then a moment later is clasped in her small, warm hands. Impossibly, I grow even harder. “Mmm, I’ve been daydreaming about this all day,” she tells me in a delicious voice.

It seems too incredible to think about. “Have you?” My hands steal to her soft hair, unable to resist touching her. I stroke it off her brow as she wraps her hands around my cock and grips it tight. It doesn’t feel as good as burying myself deep into her cunt, but I’m fascinated and aroused by her motions.

“Yes,” she says, and when she speaks, her lips move over the aching crown of my cock. I suck in a breath, and my khui begins to vibrate—a hard, insistent pulse of need.

Then, I can scarcely believe it when she takes my cock into her mouth. I feel the head enclosed by a warm wetness, and I nearly spill my seed then. I groan, my entire body tensing in response. It feels like nothing I have ever experienced before. I’ve had women pleasure me with their mouths, but hers feels…different. Her soft sucking mouth with its smooth, slick tongue feels like dipping into her cunt. It is only through strength of will that I don’t push deep into her mouth. I don’t want to choke her.

She flicks her tongue over the head of my shaft, and I clench my fists against the need to pump into her. I’m too fascinated by what she’s doing. With little nibbling touches of her tongue and lips, she moves over my cock, down the shaft, and then licks her way back up again. Then she takes the head into her mouth and rolls her tongue against it. “You’re too big for me to take deep,” she murmurs, her voice sounding awed. “I can barely fit my fingers around you.”

“Is that . . . good?”

She chuckles, the sound throaty and sexual. “For me it is.” She swipes her tongue over the head of my cock again.

“Georgie,” I rasp. The blood in my body seems to be pooling in my cock. My khui pounds against my chest. “If I am not inside you in the next moment—”