Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Akara will not eat you. She eats the waters.”
“She what?”
I’ll have to show her some other time. For now, all that is important is that she learn to swim. “Just listen. You need not fear Akara, but there are things in the waters with sharp teeth that prey upon the wounded and the weak. If you are injured, stay atop Akara. Do not get in the water. And never thrash. If you do those two things, you will be fine. And if you keep to my side, you will always be safe. Understand?”
She gives me a wide-eyed nod. “I’m rather terrified right now.”
“Then stay close to me and listen well.” I can feel her trembling in my grasp, and that won’t do. I don’t want her to be afraid for her life every moment we are on the waters. She needs to respect the sea, but she need not live in constant fear. “Learn to swim, listen to my instructions, and stay close. I will keep you safe.”
Vali immediately puts her arms around my neck again, clinging to my chest in the water. Her breasts push up against me and she twines one leg around my hips. “This close enough?”
I cannot tell if she is flirting or if she is serious. “Swimming might be a challenge this way.”
“I’m less concerned with swimming and more concerned with being eaten.” Her breasts are practically in my face, and very distracting. In fact, all of her is distracting.
I need to teach her to swim before I lose my concentration. Gently, I pry her away from me. “I have an uncle with a human companion. We’ll ask what he uses.”
Vali nods. “Until then, can I just hold on to you?”
I should tell her no. I should tell her that her nudity won’t sway me. That I’m not interested in making her my wife in all ways. That she’s clinging to me like a barnacle and I don’t like it.
But all of that would be a lie.
Because I do like the feel of her against me. My cocks are waking up, stirring with interest, and every time she rubs against me, it takes everything I have to keep my face neutral. I know if I pushed my interest upon her, she’d happily mate with me, but not because she feels desire. She’d do it because she wants to ensure her safety. As a bargaining tool, a coin to barter with.
And I want no part in that. Yet I am still weak, because I don’t shove her away. I just hold her against me. “Let me show you how to float upon the water.”
Chapter
Ten
VALI
Lord Gental, the god of families, has a twisted sense of humor…because I get my monthly menses the very next morning.
Right after Ranan gave me lessons in swimming and made it very clear that I’m not to go into the deep waters of the sea if I have a wound because I’ll be seen as prey? Blood trickles from deep within me. I lie on the floor of the tent, hating the cramps and feeling utterly panicked. I don’t have rags to stuff into my undergarments. Gods, I don’t even have undergarments. I have nothing to soak up the blood with and I’m surrounded by the sea—a sea I am very much not supposed to get into right now.
What do I do?
I roll carefully on my side, hoping that will somehow keep the blood inside me until I figure out a solution. Ranan isn’t in the tent, and I’m relieved. He was gone this morning when I awoke to belly cramps. I should have known I was about to get my moon time—night before last I had utterly filthy dreams about Ranan holding me in the water and shoving me up against the turtle’s shell so he could drive into me from behind. I always have naughty dreams right before my period.
So much for swimming lessons. I’m going to be a burden to Ranan for the next several days. A bloody, messy, crampy burden. He’s probably going to be furious at me. If I was back in Parness, the wise-woman would offer me a charmed plug made out of wool and wrapped with herbs, but I’m starting to think her solution to all ailments is to shove things into holes where they don’t belong. It would at least be a solution, though. Right now I don’t know what to do. The stink of my period feels as if it’s permeating the tent and I need to fix this somehow.
I grab my ragged dress and rip a thick strip off the hem, then shove that bit of material between my thighs. It’s not enough to soak up much if my flow is heavy, but perhaps I can rinse it in the sea without Ranan noticing. It feels like a terrible idea, though—he said sea creatures could smell blood for leagues, and I’d be washing blood right into the waters where we are. What choice do I have, though?