by Jade Carr
"Not today."
Certain she knew why he'd said that, she decided to change the subject. "You're sweating. Have you been running?"
"Most of the time."
"As a man or—"
"Does it matter?"
"It does to me. I'm surprised I didn't see you earlier, but maybe I shouldn't be. You do so much I can't comprehend."
The shifter's eyes darkened. He looked weary. "We don't always understand ourselves."
Hah-Tee's arms stood out a little, as if he was ready for action. Risking a downward glance, she noted his erection. Even as she tore her gaze off that part of him, her body called out its need.
"You do that to me," he said. He pointed unselfconsciously at himself.
"Is that why you followed me?"
"In part."
A few moments ago, he'd stopped her in mid-question. She didn't want to say anything that might make him close up or, even worse, compel him to leave. Now that she'd made her peace with his presence, she hated the thought of losing him.
"Do you know what this place is?" she asked, hoping to distract him from his thoughts. When he didn't respond, she hurried on. "There's an incredible amount of history here, to say nothing of—were you watching when I got down on my knees?"
"I thought you might be praying."
If he knew about prayer, he must have spent some time as a man. Either that, or he'd been born knowing some things. Even more confused, she started to slide her hands into her back pockets, then changed her hand, clasped her hands together, and let them rest them against her belly. If she wasn't careful, they might stray lower, and he'd know how aroused she was. If he didn't already.
"Not praying," she belatedly responded. "I was thinking about—did you notice the hole in the ground?"
"The kiva opening. I know what it represents."
"I'm glad. That way, I don't have to—"
"I know many things about your world but not enough."
"If there's something I can answer, I'd be happy to," she said. What she really wanted was an explanation of how he'd come to be.
"Right now, I'm not interested in talking."
"Aren't you?"
"I only know one way of saying this. I want us to have sex."
Here?"
He frowned. "Will the Hopi spirits disapprove?"
"That's not what I'm talking about," she said, even though he'd made an important point. "People live in Oraibi."
"You and Nokoni fucked in the open."
Yes, they had. "I can't believe we're having this conversation."
"Can't you?"
"You're right. I shouldn't be playing word games."
His gaze intensified as he held out his hand to her. "Come here."
Chapter 13
Damn Hah-Tee's compelling male voice! Just like that, Terena wanted him. Wanted him hard and strong, with limbs intertwined and body fluids exchanged. There'd be nothing tentative or civilized about their coupling. Instead, maybe she'd heave him onto the ground on his back and jump on top of him. Not bothering with anything except his jeans' zipper, she'd expose him. She might take a few moments to tease him there, but maybe she'd simply yank her own jeans and panties down around her knees and impale herself on him.
That would keep him in place, all right.
Unless he got to her first.
"You know why I followed you, don't you?" he asked.
"I guess."
"Guess? I don't want there to be any misunderstandings between us." His gaze slid down her body to linger at her crotch.
Feeling heavy there, she fixed her attention on the bulge under his jeans. "No misunderstandings," she said, even though it was more complex than that. A wave of confidence rolled through her, accompanied by a recklessness she barely recognized. Feeling freer than she had in years, she ended the distance between them. He reached for her, but she pushed his hands away. When he didn't protest, she yanked his shirt out of his waistband and hauled the cotton T-shirt over his head. All right, so she wouldn't have been able to carry off the act if he hadn't leaned forward, but she'd started things.
There he was, naked from the waist up, his gloriously rich hair catching her attention, his muscles outlined by his dark flesh and his flat belly challenging her to press her lips against it. Her thigh and calf muscles felt as if they might melt. She locked her knees. Who had she become and why? Did it matter?
"Your turn." He ran his hand over his newly exposed chest. "Unless you want me to—"
"What I want is for you to keep your hands off me."
He cocked his head to the side and gave her a look of such raw need that it nearly stripped away what little strength remained in her legs.
"Why?"
Because otherwise there might not be anything left of me. "I don't think I owe you an explanation."
"Are you afraid of me?"
On the verge of insisting it was hardly that, she reconsidered. Hah-Tee was a stranger. A mystery. She didn't sleep around and had never put out for a man she didn't believe she could trust. If she had the rest of her life to work on it, she probably would never fully understand Hah-Tee.
"I don't know." She made fists to stop herself from running her nails over the chest of a man who couldn't comprehend the meaning of a soft life. "I don't want to be."
"I don't want you to be either." He folded his arms over his chest. "Terena, until last year, I only vaguely comprehended that there was more to my life than eating and waiting for my turn to take over the herd. I was terrified the first time my body became what it is now."
"Nokoni wasn't there to explain what was happening?"
He shook his head. "I'd seen him change, but it had little meaning for me. Back then, we didn't speak to each other."
"I'm sorry."
"I could have given him my thoughts, if I'd had them."
"Oh." Much as she wanted to take his hands and offer comfort, if that was what he needed, she stayed where she could look up at him. React to him. "What happened that first time?"
"I ran for a long time, trying to get used to what I was now capable of becoming and what I'd lost. Finally, exhausted, I stopped and tried to make sense of where I was. That's when I became a stallion again."
"That must have been a relief."
"It would have been better if I'd known I had some control over being stallion or human. I liked having hands and learning what they're capable of, but I missed the speed I'd always taken for granted. Standing on two legs made me feel vulnerable."
"I guess it would. I never thought about that. Understanding human speech must have been terribly confusing."
"Not as much as you'd think because my intellect kept up. If it hadn't been for my ability to comprehend—I don't want to talk about that. I need to look forward, not back."
"All right."
She should ask him more about how he'd gotten here, needed to understand so many things, but he stood before her with the sun worshipping his flesh and his arousal proclaiming everything her body needed to know.
For reasons that had probably made sense at the time, she'd put on a blouse today instead of one of the pull-over tops that made up the bulk of her wardrobe. She freed the top button. Some of the Hopi who lived at Oraibi might be watching. As she understood it, for the most part, the Hopi saw sex as part of the relationship between a man and a woman as it related to clan membership, not something hot and spontaneous.
Hah-Tee pointed. "There."
Spotting the rock wall that marked the edge of the street closest to the slope leading to the kiva, she started toward it. When she reached the wall, she climbed over it and dropped to the ground below. Hah-Tee landed beside her. Studying his graceful move, she wondered if he was younger than her, not that it mattered.
She again started in on her blouse buttons.
"I don't understand those things," he said.
"Spoken like a man who—who has never… I have to ask you something."
"Now?"
"Noko
ni has had sex with several women. I suppose I could wait and judge your performance but—how experienced are you?"
When Hah-Tee looked down, she half expected him to kick the ground like a tongue-tied boy. Instead, after a moment, he lifted his head. "Not enough. Only one woman."
"Who?"
"I don't know her name."
"A one-night stand, then?"
He frowned. "Maybe. I'd gone to Tuba City to find some clothes. A woman—"
"What you just said about clothes, what do you mean by find?"
"What do you think?"
"Are you saying you steal them?"
"What else would you have me do?"
I don't know. "You met a woman there?"
"We found each other."
His explanation was simple, but perhaps it said everything that needed to be said. "She showed you—"
"My body knew what it needed to do. She approved."
A woman would have to be out of her mind not to want to have sex with this man. She certainly did. What she didn't want was a one-night stand.
Hints of how much warmer it was going to get rode in on the erratic wind that carried his scent. She'd started to unbutton her blouse when Hah-Tee grabbed it and hauled her against him. His features blurred, his cock prodded her waist, and his heat stole over her. He was sex, pure unbridled sex. Yes, a brain and heart went with the wilderness-carved body, but right now, that didn't matter. Flames danced over her skin. Heat pressed against the sides of her neck and over her breasts. Even more pooled between her legs.
A world away from wanting to keep her vulnerability from him, she slid her fingers over his hips, reached around his waist, and pressed her fingertips against his spine. She rocked forward.
His hands spread over her buttocks, and he held her there with his cock practically bruising her. Words were no longer needed. She slid her hands over his ass and met him strength for strength. Her lips ached with loneliness, but she didn't try to pull herself together enough to lift onto her toes and go in search of his mouth. Kisses were expressions of intimacy while these moments were all about sex. She leaned into him so that her breasts were flattened against his hard chest.
Her body knew only Hah-Tee's presence, but her mind came alive with a thousand impressions. She had scant control over the circumstances that had brought them together and couldn't fathom how he'd found her. Too deep into herself for questions, she drank in the smell of male warmth. There was something about his scent, size, and strength—an indefinable substance, perhaps.
Her limbs trembling, she ground herself against him, but it wasn't enough. She needed more than an embrace, more than her pelvis sealed to him and his arms locking her in place. If she could have, she would have crawled into his skin. They'd become one in ways that weren't possible with sex alone, their separate selves coming together and lifting higher, going further.
"I'm glad you're here," she admitted.
"Just me? Not him?"
For now. "Yes."
He rolled his knuckles over her spine, the pressure so strong she felt it all the way to her womb. A shudder forced her to cling to him for support.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing. I just, I can't think with you here like this."
"Do you want me to leave?"
"No."
Instead of leaning back and looking at him to reinforce what she'd just said, she rested her cheek against his chest. Doing so made her dizzy, and she listened to his heartbeat. His deep rapid breathing carried messages a more calculating woman might have used to her advantage, but her own heart pounded, and she could barely keep enough air in her lungs.
When her shoulders started aching, she ordered her muscles not to release him but to relax. Bit by bit, a little of her desperation slid out of her. She still wanted him, but sex didn't have to take place right now. She'd wait, touching and caressing all the while. Show him what tenderness from a woman was like. Connect.
The thought had barely formed when her pussy clenched and moisture slickened her passage. A low, animalistic sound rolled out of her.
"What?" he asked. "I'm holding you too tight?"
"No, no. I'm feeling overwhelmed."
"So am I. Terena, I don't know what you want."
Again reminded of his limited experience as a man, she let instinct take over. Maybe by the time they were done, he'd have learned more about what his body was capable of. What about me? How would today change me?
She pushed away from him and sank to her knees, her hands gliding over the shifter's thighs as she did.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"Don't ask, experience." Fortunately, she hadn't landed on any rocks. She concentrated on blowing her breath against his jeans, heating his erection.
Groaning, he caught her hair in both hands. Even if he'd anchored her head, she would have found a way to continue, but his hold was only a wordless communication. Feeling as if she might float forever, she wrapped her arms around his legs and rubbed her cheek against what she could reach of his cock.
When she increased the pressure on his cock, he groaned again, the sound rawer. Driven by what was racing through her system, she turned her head so she could press her other cheek against him. His fingers jerked.
"Do you want me to stop?" she asked.
"No. I just didn't…"
"It's all right." As she spoke her breath again washed over the trapped mound.
"Yes."
Taking his word as approval, she lightly raked her teeth over taut denim. Again and again, she ran her teeth along his contours. As long as his clothing was in place, she couldn't hurt him, couldn't touch him, really. But even with impatience making her jaw ache and her pussy tighten repeatedly, she fought the beast inside her. She wasn't part animal like him, not yet.
Despite the disjointed sounds of their breathing and the tension in her spine, a long and plaintive moan sped along her nerves. With as much of his cock in her mouth as the barrier of his jeans allowed, she acknowledged the increasing wind. If they had an audience of the creatures and birds that made their home here, so be it.
Her mouth dried, and she reluctantly let go. After waiting out a case of nerves, she tackled his jeans' button with fingers that had nearly forgotten how to work. That done, she pulled on the zipper. With each moment, Hah-Tee dominated more of her world. Nothing and no one else mattered.
"Damn, damn." He surrendered his hold on her hair only to press his fingers against her scalp.
Much as she needed to say the same, she didn't trust herself to speak. Maybe she'd forgotten how to make human sounds.
His jeans still caressed his narrow hips while his cock filled the gap she'd created. He wore plain white briefs, and dark male flesh pressed against the slit, prompting her to peel aside the cotton and free him. His uncircumcised cock burst free. Sucking in his breath, he started to rock away. She again clamped her hands around his buttocks.
"Please stay," she begged.
"I wasn't—"
She ran her tongue over the mix of swollen veins and satin flesh. A shudder rocked him. Oblivious to his fingers pressing against her scalp, she bathed every exposed inch. Turning her head this way and that, she licked his length and breadth, pausing at the tip and lapping at the drops gathering there.
She licked faster and faster. Her neck burned, and blood raced through the veins in her temple. They should have started with a conversation followed by touches, a hug, perhaps. From there, they'd move on to the touch of lips against lips, all civilized.
Instead, here she was, crouched before a man she didn't understand and had no claim to.
Giving up trying to make sense of anything, she again rocked forward. At the same time, she gently closed her thumb and forefinger around his foreskin. His breathing again raged, and he went back to using her hair as reins. Drinking in a great draught of the smell of presex, she lathed his vein-corded length. Her tongue was no match for his steel, yet she reveled in the difference.
"I never thought anything like this could…" He sounded drunk.
Rhythm came from a place she'd never been. She was tireless and insatiable. Hands roaming his buttocks and knees by turn, she bathed what she longed to bury inside herself. Dizzy didn't even come close to half of what she felt, but even as her vision faded and her nostrils flared, she fed off her own drunkenness. His essence was everywhere, her tongue satiated yet still starving. She slurped and sucked, barely touched and plowed. Her cheeks flamed, and her belly clenched.
He kept making raw sounds, swaying and jerking by turn. Her clothing abraded her skin, her bra grated against her now too-big breasts. No matter how much she moved about, her clothing trapped her sex.
Finally, the strain on her knees demanded attention. Her mouth still around his half-swallowed cock, she acknowledged the hard ground. For a moment, she held discomfort at bay while taking him deep and deeper yet. Her head felt as if it might explode, but she didn't care. At the touch of flesh against the back of her throat, she blinked away tears. Then she started to gag.
Reluctantly freeing him, she tried to lower her head so she could concentrate on breathing, but he wouldn't let her. With her head immobilized by his hold, she stared at her flesh-colored world. "What?" she managed.
"Any more of that and I'll come."
A vision of him letting loose on her blouse returned her to reality. Using his legs for support, she planted her feet under her and stood. Her knees creaked.
"So you've never experienced that?" she asked.
"No."
Hah-Tee might be a newcomer to human sex but surely he'd had sex with mares and knew—
No, he didn't. Mares and stallions bred to continue the species, not for pleasure.
"I wish I could be your teacher." She couldn't muster the courage to face him.
"I can't stay."
"I know."
He lightly touched her cheek. "Do you?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying there's a great deal we don't understand about each other. We share the same space, but is it enough?"