Free Barbarian's Taming: A SciFi Alien Romance (Ice Planet Barbarians Book 9) by Ruby Dixon

not what I want at the moment.
    He scowls down at me. “But you will not be my pleasure-mate.”
    “I don’t think the timing’s right,” I say, trying to keep my voice light. I sit up on the furs, and my muscles are deliciously stiff. Gosh, I need a nice bath. Maybe tonight after we’ve gotten a day of hunting lessons in. “You understand, don’t you?”
    Hassen stares down at me, and then turns and stalks out of the cave.
    Well, poo. Looks like our lesson has been canceled by Hassen’s show of manly jealousy. I roll my eyes, hoist my well-fucked body off of the furs, and dress again.
    Maybe I’ll just bathe and stick around the cave today after all. One thing’s for sure, I refuse to feel guilty about his reaction.

    * * *
    T he main cavern’s empty of all but a few of the new moms, so I take a quick dip in the community hot tub in the center of the cave and wash my hair. I’m still not a hundred percent used to the whole ‘bathing in public’ thing, but it’s easier when the vast majority of the tribe isn’t around to notice the size of my thighs.
    Not that Hassen said anything about my thighs. He seemed to like them.
    Okay, so maybe I’m moping a little over the fact that he turned out to be all possessive. Why couldn’t we just be fuck-buddies? Friends with all kinds of benefits? I don’t need a mate right now. Hell, I’m still figuring myself out. I don’t need to drag another person into my headspace, mostly because my headspace is way too much of a mess. I don’t know how these other girls handle being mated lickety-split. I heard Georgie and Vektal were a couple the moment they met. I can’t imagine.
    Then again…I think of the spur and Hassen’s big, ridged cock shuttling in and out, his big body looming over mine as we had sex, and I feel another quiver of arousal sliding through me.
    Okay, maybe I understand it a little.
    But seriously, why’d he have to get so…attached? All I wanted was to get all the stress out of my system and to feel the touch of another human being, er, alien. I didn’t realize how lonely and isolated I was until I touched Hassen, and then I found myself craving him. I wanted more.
    He apparently wants a lot more.
    It’s clear to me that I’m obsessing, so I get out of the bath, dress, and head to my cave before someone can stop me and start a conversation. I’m actually disappointed that we’re not hunting today; I was really looking forward to that.
    Maybe Hassen will get over his butthurt by tomorrow and we can pick up our lessons.
    In the meantime, I guess I’m stuck with—ugh—Asha, Miss Cheerful herself. I guess I can change my clothes, since these smell a bit like sex and I don’t know that I want to get caught smelling like arousal and leather.
    I head back to the cave. Surprise, surprise, Asha’s got the privacy screen up. I ignore it again and head in, moving to my furs. I have a change of clothing and I dig around in the small basket of my possessions, all the while trying to ignore my roommate. Asha is in her bed. Again.
    She sits up when I start to undress, though, studying me. “What are you doing?”
    “Changing.”
    “Why?”
    “These leathers smell. Who are you, my mother?”
    She’s silent at that, and so I pull my new tunic over my head and glance over at her. There’s a knowing smirk on her face.
    “What?” I demand, and I can feel my face heating up. What is it she thinks she knows?
    “If you take a pleasure-mate, I suggest that you learn to be quieter.” She fluffs her pillow—one that she’s stolen from my bed, it seems. “You and Hassen woke me up.”
    Oh, god. Guess we weren’t all that quiet. It’s even more embarrassing to think about considering that the storage cave is a fair distance from my cave. Whoops. Guess that cat’s somewhat out of the bag. “You heard?”
    “I would have to be deaf not to.” She smooths a hand along her blankets. Before I can ask if that’s a dig at my sister, she continues, “I