Barbarian Lover(5)

“Not your friend,” she mutters. “And I’m not small.”

I chuckle at that. “You should pull a few of the intisar plant there,” I tell her. “It’s good for eyesight.”

She shoots me another glare.

I don’t mind. I prefer her angry expressions to the sadness in her eyes that is so often there.

“I don’t need herbs for my eyesight,” she tells me.

“No?” I tease and move to her side, then point at another bush. “That one is for potency.”

She gives me a shocked look, and the pink returns to her cheeks.

“I do not need it, of course,” I tell her. “My cock can stay erect for many hours without flagging. It is mostly for the elders or men that have been ill for a long time and wish to couple with their mates.”

The noise she makes is strangled. “I don’t want to hear about your…penis.” She shoots me another vicious look. “Maybe you should go and talk to your friend about it more. She seems interested.”

“Are you jealous?” I ask, pleased. I’ve tried to make it clear to Kira that I am interested in courting her, but she’s rebuffed me at every turn. Has she changed her mind? I admire her fine brown hair as it blows in the wind and imagine it spilling over my chest.

And then I have to adjust my breeches again.

“Jealous? Ha! Why should I be jealous? I’m ugly, remember?” She taps the shiny metal shell attached to her ear. “I heard every word of your conversation!”

I cannot keep the delighted grin from my face. She did hear me speaking to Asha. And she is jealous. This pleases me greatly.

Perhaps Kira is not so aloof after all. It’s time to present her with my courting gift.



KIRA



But they’re so ugly.

Does it matter?

The words ring in my ears as I rip leaves from one of the wintry plants. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. I like how he doesn’t care what I look like as long as he gets laid. “Why don’t you just go inside and leave me alone?”

“How can I leave you alone?” Aehako still has that teasing note in his voice that makes my stomach flutter…and makes me want to punch him at the same time. He puts a hand over mine. “You’re plucking all the leaves from this plant. If I leave you, I’ll find the entire hill bare.” He tsks. “Maylak will be most displeased.”

I glare over at him, but I stop denuding the bush I’m attacking. He’s right – I’ve taken way more leaves than I should have, but the man gets me so darn frustrated. “I’ll stop with the plant. You’re free to go now.”

He doesn’t leave, though. Instead, he reaches out and touches the translator sticking out of my ear. His fingers brush against the shell of my ear where it’s attached, and I have to fight back a shiver. “Does this thing hurt you?”

“It doesn’t feel good.” His touch does, though. His finger feels insanely warm against my skin, and a prickle of awareness runs up my arms. “It’s heavy and I can’t sleep comfortably. It gets cold, too.” That, and I can hear every conversation for a mile around.

“Can you take it out? Do you want me to try?”

I pull away from him. A rush of horrible memories burst through my mind and I hug my furs tighter around my body. “They surgically implanted it. I tried pulling it out myself but it’s in deep. I’ll just have to live with it.”

It could be worse. They could have raped me like they did Josie. They could have removed my baby like they did Megan.

“I want to help you,” Aehako says softly, and all the teasing is gone from his voice.

I give him a faint smile. “That’s sweet and all, but I’m fine. Really.” I drop the crushed leaves into a leather pouch. He’s right that I’m squeezing them to death. I don’t even know if I can give these to Maylak. They look pretty mangled.

“You’re angry at me, aren’t you, Sad Eyes? Is it something I said or did?” He leans in close and I catch a whiff of his scent. He smells like the berries they use for soap, and a hint of sweat that somehow smells wonderful on him. “My goal is to make you smile, not bring more sadness to your face.”

“I’m fine,” I say, even though his earlier conversation with the female sa-khui still stings. To me, it matters if he finds me attractive or not. I’m only human – ha.

“You’re not fine.”

“Yes, so you like to point out,” I respond automatically, then mentally wince. Ugh. Why did I go there?

“What is this word? I am not understanding.” He tilts his head. “Is ‘fine’ the wrong word? Raahosh says he doesn’t understand half of what Liz says, so I worry our language barrier is worse than we thought.”