Barbarian’s Bride by Ruby Dixon
9
NORA
Gentle sex is a nightmare.
I stroke Dagesh's shoulder, trying to hide my frustration. The sex was fine. Not mind-blowing. Not amazing. Just…fine. I had a tiny orgasm. Just a tiny one. It's fine.
It's all fine.
No matter how much I ask him to be a little rougher, a little fiercer, he won't. He doesn't like the idea. He sees the bruises on my skin and feels like a monster, not realizing that they don't bother me. That to me, they're just signs of a good time. I'm starting to worry that the explosive wall sex was a fluke. That I'm not going to get taken hard like I want.
I'm going to be stuck with gentle vanilla sex for the rest of my days.
It's fine. Really. It's fine.
It's just…different. I really like Dagesh. I like his body. I like his voice. I like his smile, his earnestness, his determination to be a good mate to me. I'm realizing quickly though that no one on this planet is into kink. That my new handsome mate is going to be revolted at the thought of being rough with me, even if it's what I want, what I need to get off.
And this thing between us—this resonance—is so new. Everything is lining up to be great except for the sex. A relationship can still be built on decent sex, right? On tooth-achingly sweet, gentle sex?
I'm sure it can. So I play with his hair, and when he presses a kiss to my lips again and asks me how I feel, I smile and tell him I'm great. That I'm happy. There are bigger problems, I figure, than if my mate spanks me or not.
He's a virgin, too. Or he was. Maybe in time he'll want to explore things a bit more.
I can be patient.
* * *
DAGESH
No-rah and I stay out in the hunter cave overnight, and we mate several more times before we fall asleep, twined together. When I wake up, we no longer resonate to one another. The tone of our khuis has changed, the song becoming softer and more relaxed. I spend the morning kissing my pretty mate, beyond happy, and then we return to join the others.
We stay for a time at the ancestors' cave, and then head on to the home cave. Others have resonated—Zolaya has a female, now, and Zennek. Pashov is all smiles, hovering over his new mate, Stay-see. There is so much joy in our small group of hunters. To think we were to spend our lives alone, with no families of our own, and now we will have everything.
I go to sleep every night with my pretty mate in my arms, and I cover her with kisses and tell her how happy she makes me. Whenever I reach for her, No-rah is eager.
And yet…I feel as if something is missing.
But what?
