Page 40 of Taken to Nobu
Where else would I rather be?Among all the places I’ve been and all the ones I have only imagined, I cannot think of one.
I pull back just enough to see him. To reallyseehim. Purple skin. Black hair streaked with just one flash of white, a tease of years to come. Stoic and regal and utterly unlike anyone I’ve ever come across. And maybe the first being to trulyseeme in return.
I lurch up — not to fight — but to crush his mouth to mine. I pull at his lips with my teeth, suckling them one at a time. They’re hard, much harder than a human man’s, but they’re smooth, like polished stone. I lick a line across their seam, feeling powerful as he sucks in an inhale, gasping at the promise of me. Of more.
His hand tenses around the back of my head while his other comes between us. He wrenches forward on the buckle across my chest and my whole body tumbles against his until we are pressed together, chest-to-chest, my thighs straddling his hips, my knees punching into the hard ground below. My fingers spear his hair and when he finally reacts to kiss me back — lips parting, tongue meeting mine hesitantly, teeth nipping at my lips hard enough it hurts just a little bit — I moan.
The sound echoes through the front half of the cave and even I can hear the sudden splash of noise that his warriors make in response. Okkari pulls away from me suddenly and wrenches us both to our feet. My body is limp until he kicks my feet apart, forcing me to plant them. Still, I hold onto his arms to keep myself steady.
He leans down and whispers gruffly against my mouth, as if wanting more, but denying himself — or as he put it, depriving us both. “I cannot share you with my warriors. Not even your moans. And I cannot let them see what you do to me. I am unraveled.” I glance up and see his forehead full of light, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Maybe more color. More purples. Brighter.
I reach a hand up, ignoring how it shakes. Or trying to. But this is uncharted territory. I’ve never done this before. I’ve kissed boys, sure. I even had sex with a couple before the Hunt, before, when I thought that sex meant a few passionate seconds in a field or some dark closet with a cute colony boy who traded whatever pennies he had for a few extra rations so he could treat me to real meat in the hopes that this would happen. They were nice, those times, quick and quickly forgotten. But this is new.
I’ve never touched a man before with intent, with promises unspoken. Never suspended my fingers and traced his face, started at his temple, dragged that touch across his raised ridges and then down the bridge of his nose. Watched him close his eyes and lose the strength in his torso, smiled a little as he gently swayed. Watched his lips open and his ridged tongue slide between them. Pressed my fingertips to his tongue, feeling its warmth and wet roughness, watched him inhale and exhale my name…
“Kiki.” His eyes open and I pull away. Closing my hand, I can feel electricity fire through it and I know that even if I were never to see him again from this moment forward, I’m sure that the touch of his skin would be branded to mine for life.
“You got your kiss,” I say, clearing my throat into my fist to clear the desire from my warbling tone. “So I guess I’ll have to wait for our next fight to continue unraveling you.”
He makes a small, choked sound in the back of his throat and takes a step away from me. I don’t have any trouble seeing what the effect of my words are on his body. His pants are tented around the crotch. I try to cage my smile with little effect. I look away instead, grateful that he can’t see my mirrored response.
“You speak as if you have forgotten your own prize or no longer want it.”
“I do want it.”
“Then you speak as if you do not intend to win.”
I look away, but he slides his finger under my chin, just as he’s done so many other times. “On the coming solar, you will come here to train with the warriors after your second meal. You will join the group led by Ka’Okkari.”
Shock. “I’m joining a group? Training with the other warriors?”
“Hexa. You have sufficient foundation, but you need refinement, control, and an introduction to our hunting formations and our weapons. I will join you after your training to provide you with additional instruction.”
“You will?”
He growls, “As Okkari I am not accustomed to repeating myself. If you demand this of me again, then I will punish you.”
I swallow. “Punish how?”
He gives me a scorching look and all thoughts of rebellion die. Being punished by him is suddenly all I want in this world. I bite my bottom lip. Even without irises, I can see how he focuses on it, mouth parting in response.
“During your training, of course.”
“Of course,” I say quickly, and then I follow him out into the cold.
He walks me to Re’Okkari’s home and waits for me until I step inside. I pretend I’m not disappointed that he doesn’t follow, almost forgetting for a second that Kuana’s still here, dutifully cleaning the same spot she’s probably already cleaned a dozen times.
“Thank you, Okkari,” I tell him before the doors glide shut. “For including me, even after everything.”
“You are welcome, Kiki.”
I nod, searching for something else to say. Some way to keep him here. “It was a really good date.”
“I am pleased.”
“And I will have your name, Okkari. Eventually.”
“Do not make me wait. I wish to hear it on your tongue,” he says, breath forming clouds in the cold. “And I do not wish to wait long.”
