Denis Cherie - Busy [Caveman Love 1] (Siren Publishing Allure) Read online

  Gem looked around the cave. Many dwellers were watching. Did her father have to be so disgusting? If only he would go somewhere else. The whole thing made her sick to her stomach. The couple continued to play. Gem wanted to laugh. The long-haired fur blanket looked silly as it wiggled up and down. She didn’t want to know what was going on under it and hoped Hoe would go home soon. Gem finished sand scrubbing the stone bowls. If only she didn’t have to live with her parents. She couldn’t wait until she could choose a mate and get away from her father's fire. When she was done cleaning the bowls, she neatened their niche.

  Yes, Gem tried to ignore their grunts and cries, but her mind wouldn’t let her. She wanted Og with all her body, and the noises her father and Hoe were making only served to remind Gem how much she wanted to be Og’s mate. How much she cared for him. How much she wanted Og.

  Gem took a small stick and drew on the ground. She wanted to design a new pot to replace the one she had broken. It was hard to find stone soft enough to carve out the insides yet remain strong enough to cook in. She would go looking for the right stone tomorrow.

  Gem sighed. Hoe was making a lot of noise.

  Hoe didn’t talk much, but she was very vocal when mating. She left little to the imagination.

  Hoe was always bragging about how the men admired her baby-feeders. Yes, they were large, but one day they would droop to the ground like all the old women. Then Hoe would be nothing special and it would serve her right for being a showoff.

  Cia called baby-feeders titties or teats. She said it was easier to say, and Gem agreed. Besides, they were used for much more than feeding babies. The men seemed to like them and were often pinching or licking their mate’s teats.

  Gem lay awake many nights wondering what it would be like to have Og suck and nip her titties.

  Gem wanted to leave the fire, but go where? She searched the cave for a sign of Og. She was tired of waiting for him to take her to mate. Her body and tits ached to be nipped and suckled.

  She was so hungry for Og’s mouth on her body, his man-shaft in her woman’s place. Why was he always avoiding her? Every time Gem tried to catch Og’s attention, he pretended not to see her, or he turned his back. Worst of all were the times when Og told her to leave him because he was busy.

  This very rising of Tec, Og’s mother, Ke, had boldly reminded her that her son was the most beautiful man in the cave, and he was too good for the likes of Gem. He had every unattached girl in their clan and other nearby clans to choose from. He did not need Gem. Why should he choose her?

  Seated, she didn’t see his glorious golden hair reflecting anywhere in the main cave, so she stood and scanned all the fire-pits. At last she spied him hunched over his own fire-pit.

  From what Ke had signed earlier in the day, Gem thought Og would be eating his evening meal at his mother’s fire.

  She stood silently rocking back and forth on her soft, fur-lined boots. She had waited long enough. She wanted Og, and she was going to have him. As for her father, he could take a flying leap off the ledge at the opening of the main cave.

  * * * *

  Og didn’t bother to look up. He had smelled her long before she squatted on the other side of his fire. Her scent was a combination of the large flowers floating in the cool pond and the sweet fruit that covered the trees in hot days.

  Gem. Beautiful Gem. His man-shaft strengthened, filling with life-giving juices. His balls tightened against his body. He wanted her so much. But first he had to ask her father for her, and Tog was not an easy man to hunt with or spend any passing of Tec. Tog was a brutal hunter and often destroyed the hides of his catch.

  Og did not look forward to signing with Tog and avoided him whenever possible. Tog was as hardheaded as a wild boar and twice as ugly. Once his mind was made up, the negotiations were over.

  Tog had placed a high price on his daughter’s body. Then he issued a dare and a warning to every unmated man in their cave and the caves surrounding the valley to pay the price or forget about taking Gem for a mate. He wanted many antelope hides for his beautiful only child.

  Og had been hunting for many passings of Tec, and he had killed everything from antelope to tiger, knowing antelope hides would not be enough to satisfy Tog. Og usually let his mother do most of the work on his hides, but this time he did not trust her. He had tanned each hide carefully, folded it gently, and stacked it, along with the others he'd cured in the corner of the carved niche where he slept. The pile was growing each day. In fact, it was now so large, he’d been sleeping wrapped in a bear skin near his fire-pit. Soon, he would have enough wealth to approach Tog.

  He took a deep breath and savored the scent of Gem. The sweetness of flowers and honey filled his nostrils, and his man-shaft trembled. Her scent drove him crazy. No other woman in this cave or any other cave smelled as good as Gem. He knew this because he had spent many days sniffing other women, nuzzling their necks and licking noses only to be disappointed. They smelled like dirt or the hides they wore. Whatever their scent, Og was always disappointed. The women were all unpleasant. Gem’s scent was enough to make the juices in his mouth and shaft start flowing.

  Sweet Gem.

  “Og?” Her soft voice tickled his ears. He liked when she spoke to him and didn’t sign.

  “Mmm?”

  “Can we speak?”

  He looked up and willed his man-shaft to stay hidden. “Why?”

  Her hair, the color of clouds on a hot day, fell over her face in long waves. She brushed it back and he could see her sky-blue eyes. They were softer than a doe’s, and often they said far more than her lips.

  If anyone saw them talking, it could cause trouble. The old ones didn’t approve of speaking in words. Even worse, Og was staring into Gem’s eyes. It was not proper, but he couldn’t stop himself. Her eyes were so pretty and expressive. The things her eyes whispered made his shaft tingle.

  “Because…” Gem said.

  He turned his eyes from hers and tried not to smile. He picked up a handful of sand and went back to working on the saber-toothed tiger skin he’d been tanning for many nights. “Can’t you see I am busy, girl?”

  Her pale skin turned pink. “Yes, I see you are busy. You can talk and work, can you not?”

  “Hmm.” He growled and brushed the sand off the hide, shook it, and Gem jumped back. Sand flew in many directions and settled on Gem’s head. She’d covered her eyes with a hand, for which Og was relieved. He did not want to hurt her. He only wanted t her to leave before he exploded baby-making juice all over.

  Maybe she would leave if he continued working and ignored her.

  He stood, grabbed the huge skin, and walked to the cave opening. He could feel her eyes watching his every move. He unrolled the skin and shook the sand off. Some of it blew back and stuck to his sweat-dampened chest and in his eyes.

  Tec!

  He was a mess. Would it matter to her? Would she finally leave him to his work?

  Back at his fire-pit she was kneeling, waiting.

  Og flipped the tiger skin fur side down on the ground. He squatted and reached into a deep stone bowl next to him, pulling out a mixture of entrails and ash his mother had made for him.

  Gem shifted slightly but didn’t move.

  The disgusting stench of the mixture did nothing to cover the womanly scent of her. Og sighed. It was good to know the woman he wanted as a mate was not going to let a handful of rotting entrails chase her away.

  Still, it would ease his aching shaft if she would leave him alone. He stared at her, and she met his eyes. Her eyes sparkled, and she smiled. Her teeth were as shining as Tec and as bright as her cloud-colored hair. Most of the clan women used their teeth to chew skins thin enough to use as a travois. They chewed, bones, wood, whatever they needed to make something. . The bones were chewed and carved with obsidian to make sturdy, small tools to sew skins together for clothing. The wood was used to draw on after it had been chewed many passings of Tec to break down the fiber. Then the women s
pread out the mass in the shining of Tec and left it to dry. Small branches made fine writing tools. The children used small pieces of burned wood to draw on the dried wood mash. The clan artists drew animals and people on the cave walls using a concoction of herbs, oils, and ground charcoal.

  All the chewing usually wore the woman teeth down to brown nubs in their mouths. It was not nice to look at. But Og couldn’t fault the women for they worked hard every day.

  The women of the clan were very smart and hard working.

  It was not something the men liked to talk about, but it was true. The men were great hunters, but the cave women were the keepers of history with drawings. The women made sure the men and children were fed. A cave could not function without its women.

  Og admired Gem. She was beautiful, smart, and talented. She had been taught well by her mother and the other women of the clan in the ways of the ancients and their healing skills. She would make a good mate. Not to mention she had all her teeth. Her slender, sturdy body and her bright teeth made her a prize well worth every skin Og could find to appease her father.

  Oh, help me, Tec, Og pleaded silently. I’m going to take her now.

  “Go away, girl. I am busy.” He threw the handful of rotting entrails on the skin, picked up a sharp stone, and began scrapping on the tiger skin, taking care not to push or pull too hard and make a hole in the fine skin.

  Gem squatted at the head of the tiger and watched him intently. In order to see better, she leaned close, and Og began to tremble. She had pulled up the long winter garment that flowed around her lower half, giving him a clear view of her long, slender legs. She did not use the thick, fur leggings and short skirt covers like other men and women but wore a wrap of fine, woven fibers.

  She was the only woman in the cave who dressed in the soft garment. Her mother, Ret, had hunkered down next to her fire for many passings of Tec and worked with the soft fur of the cave dogs to make the coverings worn by her beautiful daughter.

  His mother, Ke, felt Gem and some of the other girls showed too much of their bodies before they were mated, but Og did not agree. He liked watching the young women working in the cave wearing very little.

  He and the other young men cheered when the young women walked past taking steps hard enough to make their baby-feeders jiggle. He sat with the other men only in hopes of seeing Gem walk past. But she was very careful to keep her body covered and walk lightly.

  Og had a secret. He spied on Gem and her sister-friend, Cia, when they bathed in the warm pool.

  Tonight, Gem was showing more of her body than normal. She didn’t know he was watching her.

  Og was scrapping the skin so hard, she had to be thinking he was simply working on a skin for a new cover for his mother.

  She’d shown Og her legs. Would she show him her baby-feeders?

  If he hadn’t been watching, he would have missed the flash of her flushed skin. She leaned even closer, and her covering dipped, giving him a clear view of her creamy skin. Her baby-feeders were large and rosy-tipped.

  Shame made him forget for a moment what he was supposed to be doing. Gem gave him a strange look.

  “Are you ill, Og?”

  “No.”

  She had no idea how often he had followed her and her sister-friend, Cia, to the bathing pool. Gem was so beautiful, he couldn’t stop spying on the girls. He would watch impatiently for Gem to bare her slim body, long, strong legs, and large baby-feeders.

  Cia was also unusually beautiful and smart. Og didn’t understand why he wasn’t interested in her. He only had eyes for Gem.

  Not only had he watched her in the heated pool, he’d watched her running like a gazelle across the valley. It was a wonderful sight to see. She ran naked with her hair streaming behind her. Watching her made his shaft rise every time. It was agony to watch and not join her.

  Every step long and perfect. Her arms moving in harmony with her feet and legs. Her baby-feeders taut against her body. She was more beautiful than the sky when Tec settled behind the cliffs.

  She was going to make him a wonderful mate. They would hunt together. They would lay under a large tree, open the sack she had made, and they would eat a mid-day meal. They would mate many times, and then they would continue their hunt.

  It was difficult to keep control of his body when he watched her bathe, wash her silky hair in the pool, or run with the wind. He wasted a lot of his juices on the ground.

  One day soon, he would no longer waste his juices. He would be filling his mate, Gem.

  “Og,” Gem whispered.

  She was leaning too close. Og inhaled, and his shaft grew.

  “What?” He tried to not sound angry. He wasn’t. He was hungry for her. Hungry to taste her and lick her all over.

  “Will you tell me about hunting this tiger?” She smiled.

  “No. I do not have time. Why do you not listen to me? I am busy, girl. Go away.” He did not like treating her harshly, but until he had enough hides to please her father, he would have to. All he could do was hope she would not become angry enough to stop bothering him and go to another man’s cave.

  Og shuffled around until his back was to her. She did not go away. Her scent was still in the air around him.

  “Please, Og,” she begged. “Talk to me. I will only listen. I will not speak.”

  He looked up to see her standing in front of him. Og shrugged a shoulder. “No time.”

  She spread her long legs open, and he could see the soft hair guarding her woman parts. Her scent surrounded him. He could barely stop himself from leaping on her and jamming his man-shaft into her untried body. No, the first time would have to be gentle. He did not want to hurt her or injure her. Mating with her would be like flying through the air with the tiny winged animals that made music.

  Everyone in the cave knew she was ripe for the taking because her father, Tog, bragged about it all the time to any man who would listen. Tog wanted to sell her soon. She was now eighteen summers, and Tog did not want to wait much longer. It was time she left her father’s fireside and started her own family.

  Tog had been threatening to take Gem to other caves. Her mother cried whenever the subject came up. The other caves were too far away. She might not see Gem very often. Tog had growled and signed it was time to find out if any man was interested in her. Every time Og had noticed Tog signing to his friends about taking Gem to other caves, he became sick with worry. Why couldn’t her father wait a few more weeks?

  Og worried. If he didn’t have enough skins to impress a man of such importance in the cave hierarchy as Tog, he would lose Gem to some fool from another cave.

  Please, Tec, don’t let Tog give her away!

  Og wanted Gem for his own.

  “I talked to your mother today,” Gem tried again. “She spoke of you.”

  Og waved her off. “She speaks of me to everyone.” She also lectured Og on a daily basis, telling him it was time for him to take a mate. He had not told her of his plans to offer for Gem because his mother did not approve of Gem. Og had a feeling his mother would never agree to accept any woman as his mate. She might tell him it was time to mate, but she always shook her head when Og mentioned a woman’s name.

  One was too fat, one too stupid, one too lazy, one ugly, another had bad teeth, one had been mated three times and every one of her mates had died. His mother was adamant that woman was not coming near her beautiful son.

  Once he casually brought up Gem’s name, and his mother had ignored him for seven passings of Tec.

  Gem inched toward him, and Og backed up so fast he nearly lost his balance. If her father saw them too close together, he would blow up. Her father had been known to flatten a man with one blow.

  “I prepared a large meal tonight.” Gem’s gentle voice interrupted his thoughts. “Are you hungry?”

  He was starving. Not for food but for her. “My mother has fed me.”

  Gem laughed softly. “You lie. I know she no longer makes your meals. Come sit at our
fire and eat. You are working too hard.”

  “I said I am busy, girl. Go back to your fire-pit.”

  Her shoulders drooped, and her smile disappeared.

  He felt lower than the lowest cave dog snuffling the ground for bones. He had hurt her, which was the last thing he wanted, but it couldn’t be helped. She had to leave. Now.

  She turned, but not before he saw tears gather in the corners of her eyes. He watched her walk away and ached to call her back.

  If he called her back and laid her on his bear skin, her father would demand double payment for her. If Og took her maidenhead, Tog would demand Og be turned out of the caves without a spear or club. Without the protection of cave and clan, Og might be killed by the beasts roaming the valley. If he was very lucky, he might be taken in by another clan, but if they knew why he’d been turned out of his own cave, they could refuse him the safety of their cave.

  He was used to his comforts—a warm fire and plenty of pelts to cover him when he slept.

  None of the alternatives were appealing.

  Despite the fact he had Tog’s anger on his mind, Og couldn’t stop thinking about Gem’s body, and his man-shaft would not go back to hiding between his legs. His shaft pulsed and throbbed, begging for release. He slipped his hand inside his deer-skin wrap to stroke his shaft. He imagined it was Gem’s small hand wrapped around him, caressing him, and minutes later, his juice sprayed onto the cave floor. Much relieved, he returned to scrapping the tiger skin.

  * * * *

  Rejected again.

  Gem walked across the cave and squatted next to Cia and Hoe’s mother, Fa. Fa and her husband, Dec, had seen at least forty summers come and go. Their great age made them revered among the cave people. The fact Fa was with child made her even more revered by the people.

  Gem used a finger to designate each child Fa had given birth to and realized there were more than the fingers on her one hand. No wonder she was held in high esteem. Especially since all of them had survived. Many children seldom lived past the time they toddled around the cave. There were many accidents with the fire-pits, a few minutes’ lack of attention and a baby would wander out of the cave and tumble down the rock walls. Sickness and hunger during the white time were also the enemy of babies.