Page 22 of Fall

Despite his appearance, she felt a little clench of ownership at thesight of him—and then felt a little embarrassed for feeling that way.

Remembering her purpose, she walked toward him.

He must have smelled or heard her before he saw her because he suddenlyturned in her direction. He lowered his spear and waited until she reached him.

His eyes had moved from her head to her toes, and they focused on thesupplies she was carrying. He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “Groom?” he asked,very seriously.

She nodded, telling herself there was no reason to feel soself-conscious. This was what she was supposed to be doing. “Groom,” sherepeated, just as soberly.

Couples could groom anywhere evidently—some did it in the cave and someoutside, some in the evenings and some in the middle of the day. Tamen wasacross the river from them, and he was watching them curiously.

Lenna didn’t want to make her first attempt at grooming where everyoneelse could see her, so she took Rone by the hand and led him farther down theriver to where she’d bathed earlier that week.

It was private here, and there was a large flat rock that Rone could siton.

He hadn’t said a word since he’d asked the one question, but his darkeyes never left her face as she gestured for him to sit down. She feltirrationally nervous as she set down the bowl of oil and the blade on theground and turned the comb in her hand. The teeth were thick and wide apart,which was a good thing. There was no way she could have gotten a fine-toothedcomb through Rone’s thick, tangled hair.

Taking a deep breath, she started to comb out his hair. It wasn’t an easytask. She tried to do it carefully, rather than yanking at all the tangles, butsometimes it was impossible to be gentle and still get the knots out. Sheworked on it for almost an hour, and Rone sat wordlessly the whole time.Finally, she could get the comb all the way down his straight dark hair, solong it reached halfway down his back. She took some of the oil and slicked hishair down before braiding it in one long, tight braid down his back, tying itoff with a short, thin cord.

“Good,” she said, letting out a relieved breath at how nice his hairfinally looked. It looked just as good as any other man’s in the tribe—just asgood as Tamen’s. No one was going to look down on Rone for her grooming job.

“Good,” Rone repeated, reaching up to feel his hair gently.

Now that his hair was done, she had to move on to his beard. It was alittle easier, though, since she could take the sharp implement and just chopthe length of it off section by section. Only when it was short enough to shavehim did she start being careful. She’d never shaved someone elsebefore—certainly not with such a primitive tool. She went very slowly, andgradually the thick hair on his face disappeared to reveal of square-chinned,high cheekboned, very handsome face.

She’d had no idea he would be so handsome beneath all the hair.

She rubbed oil into his face when she’d finished, feeling like she waslooking at a stranger.

He must have felt that way too because he kept reaching up to touch hisjaw and cheeks.

“Good,” she said with a smile, pleased with her handiwork and hoping Ronewould be pleased too.

He smiled back at her. “Good. Groom good.”

To her surprise, she felt herself flushing a little at this praise.

There wasn’t much left to do now. She had to oil the rest of his skin.She took off his clothes, secretly pleased with the look of his big, masculinebody. He had a lot of hair on his chest, arms and legs, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant.

What she really wanted was for him to get into the river to wash off, buthe would probably take that as an insult. Instead, she took a piece of her oldtop, which she’d kept in case she needed cloth for some reason. She dipped itinto the water and used it to wipe off the dirt from his body, rinsing andrewetting it several times before she was finished.

Then she took the oil, slicked up her hands, and rubbed it into his skin,starting with his arms, then moving to his chest, back, belly and legs.

She experienced the strangest surge of pleasure and possessiveness, as ifgrooming him had made him hers in a way he hadn’t been before.

She was on her knees in front of him when she finally finished, and shelooked up and met his eyes.

They were so hot her breath caught in her throat.

Her gaze immediately dipped down to his groin, and she could see that hewas hard. Very hard. Completely erect.

They had sex in bed every night before they went to sleep. Lennagenerally enjoyed it, although they always used the same position—that anddoggie style seemed to be the only positions this tribe even knew—and it neverlasted long enough for her to come.

She didn’t resent it. She doubted Rone even knew that women were capableof reaching orgasm, and a cave, surrounded by so many other people, was not aplace where Lenna would be comfortable teaching him otherwise.

He was never rough, and he was always pleased and appreciativeafterwards, so she had no complaints at all.

But she felt a sharp pang of desire and possessiveness as she saw howhard he was at the moment.

---