Tell me ...

Somewhere along the way Ramza had been relieved of his command as Or. I wasn’t sure of the whys but I had a sinking feeling inside that I knew. Since we had more time on our hands, we made plans to ride to the trading post. It would be good to get away from the wagging of tongues and simply be able to breathe the air of the plains for a little while. Lela would stay behind and much to my surprise nakia would too. It was going to be just the two of us.

I was dressing for an evening at the outer fires when I stepped out to find my mate standing at the bottom of my platform. There was something different about him tonight. Something different than the last time I spoke with him in a fiery rage that he had to loop an arm around my waist and lift my feet off the ground to keep me from heading back to the main fires to give a few a piece of my mind. His whisper against my ear … “Ignore them” helped ease some of the anger for a while. But tonight he wrapped me in his arms and pulled me to him. His kiss had a tenderness that caught my breath but I couldn’t help step back leaving distance between us. My hand came to rest on his chest then rose to touch his cheek and I watched those dark eyes for all that they held within them. Is there something on your mind? That is mating call for the two of us. One I was still reticent to answer with more than a soft-spoken reply. It is easy to read what is on yours sometimes. He spoke now of regretting that he pushed me to the furs with such intensity that he should have shown more consideration. I’m not used to such words coming from a Tuchuk man. I know he is a healthy warrior with albeit a much more healthy appetite than I can handle. I tried to tell him the yearning I had for … more … inside. There is more to life than the feel of furs, there is more between a man and a woman than the breathless feel of sexual pique.

Tell me what is wrong, Nette.

It all came rolling out in one long winded blow your hair back run on sentence that dotted only in the sniffs of feminine emotions. I do not want to be your slave. I don’t want to be treated like one. Of all the people in the universe … I did not expect it of you ... not you!

He stood back then half staring at me and half running all that I said through the filter of a male brain. The dawning flooded his face and filled his eyes. He gathered me in his arms and sat on the stair of the wagon just holding me for a long time. Not like a man laps his slave, not like a child but the way a man will hold a woman close that he cares for. When he rose he took me inside and lay me in the furs but instead of the pressure to remove my clothes, to fill the night with the cries of passions ... we lay together, fully dressed, in each others arms