VulcansWoman Page 12

  The broth tasted good but the vegetables were her favorite part. She took another bite, then another. The meat melted in her mouth and she barely had to chew. She ate in silence, savoring every morsel. She hadn’t realized the extent of her hunger until she’d emptied the bowl.

  “Would you like to help me with the blanket?” Jade offered after Wisteria set the bowl aside.

  “I don’t know how.”

  “It takes a little practice,” Jade said. “But if you can make jewelry, you can learn how to weave.”

  “How do you know I make jewelry?”

  “Vulcan.” Jade nodded toward Wisteria’s ankle. “Did you make the anklet?”

  “The what?” Wisteria’s eyes followed Jade’s gaze.

  “The jewelry around your ankle. We call those anklets.”

  “Oh. Yes. My sister wears one also. They signify our love for one another.”

  Jade smiled. “That is very special. It’s beautiful.” She grabbed a handful of leather strips and intricately placed them in a row near Wisteria’s knees. “Weaving is actually very simple. The end product makes it seem as though it’s a difficult process but it really isn’t.”

  Wisteria watched as Jade tacked the strips to the ground with sticks, securing them in place. After she’d woven the first two rows she handed the next piece to Wisteria.

  Wisteria worked slowly, feeding the strip in and out of the others. After she finished the small piece and tied the edges together she unattached it from the ground and held it in the air. It was loose and some strips sagged, opening many holes. She giggled while examining the finished product. “I’m not very good at this.”

  Jade smiled and tilted her head, examining the uneven square. She tapped her finger on her lips as if thinking of something to say that wouldn’t offend Wisteria. “Maybe it can be used as a bathing cloth for the children.” She removed a folded blade from her pocket and trimmed the strips close to the knots.

  “Where are the kids?”

  “They’re just on the other side of the forest with their parents,” Jade explained, pointing to the trees beyond the village of huts. “Only the boys are permitted to this side, but only those who show signs of fighters. When they’re old enough to train for battle they’re taken from their mothers and brought here.”

  “We never separate our children from their families,” Wisteria said aghast.

  “But your people are a gentle kind. You raise the young to hunt. We raise those with certain qualities for battle. Our men have fought to the death for positions of authority, for the woman they want or for any reason they see fit.”

  “Is that how Vulcan became chieftain?” Wouldn’t he want a son to follow in his footsteps? Maybe he did but had already chosen another woman to give birth to his offspring. “Does he have any children?”

  “Yes,” Jade replied, squeezing Wisteria’s hand.

  “He does?” Wisteria’s eyes flared. “How many?”

  “No. I’m sorry. Yes, that’s how he became chieftain,” Jade declared. “But no, he has no children. And since you’re considered his woman now, no one will bother or harm you.”

  His woman.

  Vulcan’s woman.

  Why had the prospect filled her belly with warmth? As a smile of pride embarked on her gloomy thoughts she drifted to the memories of making love for the first time. He’d kissed and traced his tongue along every part of her body from her eyebrows to her toes. Shortly before he applied the condom.

  A shudder of excitement raced up her spine. He’d done everything he said he would. He’d cherished her with his hands and mouth as if she were a delicate flower. She truly hoped he’d forgiven her for the prior insults because she still felt guilty, having said them. Oftentimes it was hard to overcome bitter words. She knew directly from experience. There were many things her father said that she’d never forgotten.

  What did being Vulcan’s woman constitute? Endless mating? Being at his disposal? Waiting in his hut while he provided food for other people’s children?

  “Ladies,” a masculine voice said at her back.

  She jumped and spun around. The startled beat of her heart turned into a beat of desire when she spotted Vulcan dressed in his furs, standing mere feet away. A rush of heat swept through her veins, banishing all prior thoughts.

  “Jade,” he said, reaching for Wisteria’s hand. “You’ll have to excuse Wisteria for a while. I need to speak with her.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  Wisteria’s tummy fluttered while she slid her fingers against his palm and pulled herself to her feet. The look in his eyes displayed more than a need to converse.

  No sooner had they entered the hut than she stepped into his embrace and cupped his face, gliding her thumbs along his cheekbones. “And what is so important that you took me from my weaving?” she jested.

  His mouth lowered and he kissed her. Not gently. Not slowly. With desperation and impatience, and her knees buckled. Rather than catch her before she fell, he swept her into his arms and carried her across the hut where he laid her down on the hides near the fire pit. Her shoulders sank into the soft furs.

  “Vulcan, are you going to make love to me again?”

  “No, sweetheart. This time I’m going to rut you.” He fell to his knees beside her hips. “Forgive me,” he said and yanked off her garments.

  She’d feared the hidden strength behind his hands but right now it excited her beyond words. Knowing how desperately he wanted her filled her with wanton lust. She’d done nothing physical to this powerful man, this Barbarian, to entice him, yet he failed to control his restraint, and having been absent for many hours, he returned seeking her.

  When he’d risen to retrieve and apply a condom she bent her knees, placing her feet on the ground, and spread her legs. It was becoming easy. Way too easy to relinquish her modesty in his presence. It was something she couldn’t be taught but a trait obtained from experience. Observing him prance naked without any issues was a huge, huge lesson. How would she act in years to come?

  Maybe she was being presumptuous by thinking she’d be here that long but the way he’d made love to her proved he wasn’t ready to get rid of her anytime soon.

  As he turned around, his gaze wandered to her exposed vagina. He groaned and his eyes narrowed and when he sauntered back toward the fire his cock slightly bounced up and down.

  As he lay between her thighs he interlocked his arms behind her knees and shoved her legs forward to the outside of her waist. She gasped but hadn’t even released the breath when his thick penis plunged inside her, stretching her wide. Prickles charged up her spine and tiny pulsations erupted near her clitoris.

  “Damn it, Wisteria.” His jaws tightened and shoulders turned into rock-hard muscle. “You’re so damn tight. You’re fucking up my endurance,” he growled, withdrawing his cock then slamming it forward.

  She didn’t understand what that meant, nor did she care. She focused on the bam, bam of his thrusts against her cervix. Pressure built inside her chest. Waves of heat flooded her blood.

  “I promised…ah… Shit.” He rammed into her, each thrust plunging deeper and harder than the last.

  She tried keeping the pace, gyrating her hips, reaching and straining for the explosive ending, but he rammed so fast she lost rhythm. Her shoulders jerked and her back pressed so deeply into the furs, she felt the bumpy ground against her spine. She grabbed his biceps and sank her nails into his flesh as the pressure crested. Then it burst into a rainbow of flickering colors, branching to her fingers and toes. Her belly twitched and her vagina contracted, gripping, clutching and squeezing the seed from his cock.

  The long strokes pounding in her turned into short jabs. He tilted his head back and in conjunction with a robust moan he buried his cock to the hilt.

  It pulsed against her cervix and the intense sensation threw her into another internal explosion. Her neck arched. “Vulcan!” she screamed. The prickles and tingles and spasms were overwhelming. More so this
time. They lasted longer, dragging on forever, and she swore she briefly blacked out.

  Her face was drenched in sweat and her heartbeat throbbed. When she opened her eyes he was lying on top of her, propped on his elbows, gazing at her face. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked, nipping her lips.

  She modestly shook her head and smiled. “Rutting isn’t so bad.” She sort of liked it. Actually she really liked it. In fact it might even be her new preference.

  “It can be,” he said, rubbing her brows with his thumbs. “It’s all about passion and desire. I could’ve caused a lot of pain.” He shot her a genuine smile and winked. “But I knew you were ready for me. I’d never take you roughly otherwise,” he added, rolling off her onto his side.

  She narrowed her eyes and winced. “That hurt.”

  “What did?”

  “Pulling it out.”

  His brows furrowed. “It hurt?”

  “Yes.” She nodded and grinned. “I want you back inside me. I ache from emptiness.”

  “Wisteria,” he growled. He reached down and tickled her knee. “I think I’ve created a monster.”

  She squealed and knocked his hand aside then quickly sat up, pulling a pelt over her shoulders. She loved his playful side, his serious side and would possibly even grow to love his Barbarian side.

  She smiled adoringly as she roamed her eyes over his face and upper body. On the outside of his arms, just below his shoulder, she spotted moon-shaped indentations from her fingernails. Traces of blood had risen to the surface of his skin and one scratch had actually bled. “Oh Vulcan, I’m so sorry.” She lightly brushed her fingertips over the marks.

  He gave them a sideways glance. “Like I said, I’ve created a monster.” He grinned. “Don’t fret, sweetheart. What are a few more battle wounds?”

  That remark initiated a complete, frontal, visual inspection of his nude body. He had minor scars on his chest, stomach and thighs she’d failed to notice earlier but now, feeling more at ease with looking at him, she missed nothing. Unfortunately the worst lesion she discovered was the wound on his forearm where he’d cut himself. For her.

  That regret would undeniably bother her for the remainder of her life. She sighed and lifted his arm to her lips where she kissed it, as the mothers from her clan did to their children’s injuries. “Why, Vulcan? Why’d you cut yourself on my behalf?”

  “I wasn’t letting Grunt anywhere near you.”

  “But it’s only fair. Do unto others.”

  “No way. Not an option.” He sat up beside her and kissed the top of her head then began running his fingers through her hair, starting along the base of her scalp. “I’ve seen him severely hurt people while seeking vengeance. Man or woman, he doesn’t care.”

  “But it isn’t vengeance if not performed by the victim, right?” she asked, pulling her knees to her chest. His fingertips snagged a knot near the base of her neck. She winced, scrunching her shoulders.

  “Sorry, sweetheart.” He gently removed his hand and, little by little, carefully separated the strands. “I can deliver the punishment for my people if I choose to. In this instance, I didn’t give it a second thought. You did nothing unjust to Grunt.”

  “I could have seriously hurt him. I had no business stealing your blade.”

  “I ordered him to seize you. Despite escape deserving its own form of punishment, you acted in self-defense, and in my eyes, you did nothing wrong.”

  “Let Birmon heal your wound. Maybe I won’t feel as guilty then.”

  “He wants nothing to do with my blood.” Vulcan leaned forward and again kissed the top of her head. “Don’t feel guilty. I would’ve done anything to protect you from Grunt.”

  She rested her chin on her knees and closed her eyes while Vulcan resumed running his fingers through her hair. Inhaling a semi-content breath, she relaxed. She loved having her hair fondled. Even at times when Ivy played with it, Wisteria had fallen asleep. “You can do this all night along,” she said, patting a yawn.

  “There are other things I can do all night long as well,” he whispered in her ear. “It’s becoming impossible to keep my hands off your beautiful body.”

  Prior to meeting Vulcan she’d never been attuned to her appearance. It just wasn’t important. Strangely she desired to look nice now. For him. She wanted to fit the description of beautiful as he’d envisioned it. She’d seen her reflection in the lake but an ordinary woman glared back. She couldn’t even see her eye color. Vulcan said they were blue but she didn’t possess any striking traits like Jade.

  “Vulcan, how does Jade remove the hair from her legs?”

  His fingers stopped filtering through her hair. “She shaves with a special tool. Why?”

  “Can I do the same?”

  “The hair on your legs is sun-bleached and barely visible. You don’t need to shave.”

  “But her skin is so smooth it shimmers in the firelight. I want to be beautiful like her.”

  “You already are.”

  Her cheeks warmed. “I don’t feel like it.”

  “Would you like to see just how beautiful you are?”

  She scrunched her brows. “How?”

  He stood and walked to the crate. She watched his naked bottom flex and her insides heated instantly. Minutes later he returned, holding his hands behind his back, and knelt down. “Look in here. It’s a mirror,” he said, lifting a round object in front of her face.

  She needed a moment to gather her breath because she’d just had her eyes on his penis, and her insides were rejoicing and coming alive.

  She inhaled a mouthful of air and glanced into the object. She touched the face of the woman staring back. “That’s me?”

  “Yes. Now do you believe me? Look at your eyes.”

  They were the color of the sky as Vulcan had indicated. Her lashes were long and dark, the same shade as her hair.

  Her skin was a little darker than her mom’s and Ivy’s, having spent many hours in the sunshine by the lake, but not as dark as Vulcan’s. She puckered her lips and watched her features contort into a funny face. That wasn’t very pretty at all. She stuck her tongue out and tried touching the tip of her nose but it wouldn’t reach. She tried again, stretching it as far as she could, but failed. She opened her eyes wide then squinted then flared them open once more. Nor was that very pretty. She giggled.

  Vulcan laughed while removing the mirror from her fingers and he lowered it to the ground. “Now you’ve seen what I see,” he said.

  “Do I always make those expressions?”

  “No. The ones I see are curious, or angered, or afraid.” He paused, drawing his mouth close to hers, and nibbled on her bottom lip. “Or glowing with arousal.” He kissed her, slipping his tongue briefly between her teeth.

  A smooth, fluttery sensation trickled from her chest to her belly, intensifying as she closed her eyes.

  He separated the kiss and placed his mouth to her ear. “As it is now,” he continued in a voice slightly higher than a whisper. “And as it was when I watched you touch yourself at the lake.”

  Her eyes popped open. Her heartbeat escalated in embarrassment. Should she respond or bypass the statement completely? Thank goodness Loo-La had shown up that day or he would’ve seen the outcome and that could’ve been a lot worse.

  “Do it now, Wisteria,” he goaded, his warm breath cascading along the side of her neck. “Touch yourself for me.”

  If watching her from a distance mortified her, she couldn’t imagine her reaction if he watched her up close. Somehow, some way, she needed, no, he needed a distraction. “Can I shave my legs first?”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s horrible timing, but if it’s what you really want.”

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “Okay, shaving it is.” He pushed his hands off his thighs, stood up and dressed in the loincloth. “I’ll be right back.”

  When he left the hut she picked up the mirror and observed her
self again, making numerous faces, but she couldn’t see beyond her inflamed cheeks.

  Vulcan laughing at her back startled her.

  “Like what you see, sweetheart?”

  Additional warmth rose from her neck to her face, tainting her cheeks to a deeper shade of red. She dropped the mirror.

  “Don’t be embarrassed. I can’t take my eyes off you either.”

  If he only knew the extent of her shame.

  “Come here by the waterhole,” he said as he sat down, setting three objects on the ledge.

  “Where did you get all this stuff?” she asked, ogling the items as she crawled beside him.

  “They belong to Jade. She’s letting us borrow them. This,” he lifted the first object, “is a tube of shaving cream.”

  How odd.

  He set it down and picked up the second item, which was filled with pink liquid. “This is a bottle of lotion.”

  Hmmm. Even odder.

  “And this,” he raised the third object, “is a razor.”

  “That’s crazy.” It was the oddest-looking of them all.

  A flowery, refreshing, clean scent breached her nose. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. “What’s that smell?”

  “It must be the lotion.” He lifted the bottle, took a sniff then held it beneath her nostrils. “Is this it?”

  Gosh, it smelled wonderful. Like a meadow full of flowers and berries. “Yes.”

  “That will be the scent of your skin when we’re finished.”

  She opened her eyes. “What should I do first?”

  “Give me your leg.”

  “I can do it,” she stated rather frankly, although she had no clue as to what to do.

  “I’ll show you how,” he said, draping her leg over his lap and positioning her foot on the center of his thigh. “You need to be really careful because it’s easy to cut yourself. Nicks made with this type of blade bleed a lot.”

  She watched carefully as he dunked his hands in the water and moistened her lower leg. She shivered from the cold and tightened the fur around her shoulders.

  “Would you like me to heat it over the fire?” he asked while he filled his palm with white stuff from the tube.