Page 43

Towards the back of the stables is a large stall, its wooden door ajar. Tobi looks inside.

Tamello lies inside on a bed of straw and Harok is lying beside him, stroking his flank. Has Harok been here all day? Is that where he hurried off to? To spend the day nursing his injured horse?

Distinctly, Tobi can hear Harok murmuring the Ibian words Tobi had used, “Lalian. Lalian ary juzu.”

Tobi feels a strange heavy ache in his heart. Could this really be the same man who has forced him to dress so immodestly? Who took him so roughly in his bed last night? Who growled with pleasure when he made Tobi scream and spend harder than he ever remembers doing before? Who stalked off this morning with barely a word?

“Irgorye?” Tobi says softly. Harok turns and Tobi says, “How is Tamello?”

“Kushir Suskara,” Harok replies. He does not seem to have understood the question.

“Tamello?” Tobi says again. He searches his mind for something useful. “Ga?” he says, sure that ga means good. “Tamello ga?”

“Sho,” Harok replies. “Sho, Tamello ga.” He pauses.

Tobi wishes he could say more, express somehow that he is pleased, that he too is grateful to the beast that saved their lives.

“Suskara,” Harok says again, as he rises to standing. He walks over to Tobi and takes him by the wrist. His touch makes Tobi’s heart skip.

Harok takes Tobi out of the stall and back into the stables, dismissing the guards with a sharp word and a hand gesture, before leading Tobi through a door and into an empty stall.

With a sudden growl, Harok pushes Tobi up against the wall and kisses him, sudden and deep. Tobi gasps, Harok’s big body presses against his. Harok takes hold of both Tobi’s wrists and pins them to the wall above his head. Tobi moans and squirms against Harok’s body as Harok’s tongue takes his mouth.

When Harok leans back from the kiss, Tobi is panting.

Harok says, “Suskara.” His voice is deep, lustful. He nods once and says, “Dekuna.”

Tobi swallows at the tone Harok uses. It goes straight to his cock, clearly a sexual demand. Harok looks so big and imposing. His handsome face. His broad, bare chest.

Tobi looks up at Harok. “You know I don’t know what dekuna means, beast,” he says with a playful smile. But he knows that dek means cock. And from the way Harok nodded towards the floor of the stall, it isn’t hard to deduce what dekuna might mean.

“Dekuna,” Harok says again, correcting Tobi’s pronunciation to give the word a heavy clicking k in the centre.

“Dekuna,” Tobi says softly, mimicking the pronunciation.

Harok nods sharply, clearly meaning ‘down’ and again he grinds out, “Dekuna, kushir. Nal.”

“On my knees then?” says Tobi, lowering himself elegantly, with practised skill, enjoying the way Harok’s eyes turn dark to see it. He looks up at Harok with his sweetest expression. “As you wish, my beast. Is that what dekuna means? Kneel?”

Harok looks at him and nods. “Sho.” That means yes, but Tobi is certain dekuna does not mean kneel.

“I was taught one should only kneel for Zai,” Tobi says. He places a hand on each of Harok’s thighs. The floor of the stable is rough and uneven, but it feels good to kneel before Harok, trapped between his body and the rough stable wall. Harok smells as good as always. Tobi’s nerves are singing. His head is hazy with want. His voice sounds a little rough as he says, “But I think I prefer kneeling for you, beast.”

“Ga, Suskara,” says Harok, before jolting his hips towards Tobi’s face.

“So this is how you plan to communicate with me?” says Tobi.

“Sho,” Harok says. “Dekuna, Suskara.”

Tobi holds Harok’s eyes and tips his head onto one side. “Dekuna it is then.” He pauses, as he remembers the name of an Ambolk song. “Like the song,” he says. “Dekuna, Elisia?”

“Sho,” Harok says, “dekuna, elizzia,” he says, pronouncing the second word with a long sibilant hiss.

Tobi smiles. “So, I think I now know what that song was all about.”

“Dekuna, Suskara,” Harok says again. “Dekuna, elizzia.”

Tobi tries to match Harok’s pronunciation of the second word, elizzia, but he can’t seem to make that same hissing sound Harok did. He’ll have to work on that.