Chapter Two
Dristan
The female was the center of all of my attention as soon as she stepped out of the elevator. My eyes were glued to her luscious body through the one-way glass of my office walls and door. The uniform that the cleaning team wore wasn’t flattering. It was a plain gray cotton that washed well and was cheap to replace.
I’d seen it on dozens of bodies. Somehow on hers, it seemed different . Sexier. Tempting.
“Dris?” my brother’s voice came from the phone pressed to my ear. I’d forgotten all about it and him. We were in the middle of a conversation, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what the hell I was saying.
“Are you still there?”
I really should answer his question. I knew that I should. A response was going to come to me at any moment, I was sure. In the meanwhile, I ran my gaze from the top of the female’s head down to the sensible sneakers she wore. My entire body tightened with lust—a lust the likes of which I’d never known before.
“Dris, I can hear you breathing. Is this some kind of joke?” Rudgar asked. He released a scrapy laugh. “Then again, look who I’m talking to.”
I wanted to scowl, but I couldn’t argue with him. Between the two of us, I definitely wasn’t the jokester. Not that Rudgar was either, but I took serious to another level.
He’d be the same way if he’d had to scramble after our parents died. I’d had to keep us afloat—keep us together—and even as a teenager, I’d taken the responsibility seriously. I’d never faltered in my duties. Not once.
“Dris, what the fuck is happening? Do you need me?” The urgency in my little brother’s voice was what made me unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth—where it had been plastered since the gorgeous female had exited the elevator.
One that only granted access to a few people. They either needed the code or the keycard.
“Security breach, Rud. I’ll call you right back,” I said.
He started arguing—after all, he was the head of security here and owned his own company specializing in protection as well. I didn’t listen, tapping the button to end the call, and narrowed my gaze on the female.
Based on her uniform, I knew she would be with my cleaning crew, but I’d never seen her before. She rolled the cart forward, her hips sashaying as she walked.
I’ve definitely never seen this female before.
I could feel my frown deepening. This wasn’t my usual response to females. Especially humans. They were a bit taboo for most orc males.
Our history of kidnapping the fertile species and carting them off to our mountain hideaways for mating still held censure centuries later. Now, we might live in skyscrapers instead of caves, but humans gave us a leery distance.
I didn’t want any distance from this female though. I groaned when she bent over my assistant’s desk. Her ass was going to be the death of me, I was sure.
I unlocked my office and stepped outside to find out who she was and what she thought she was doing, walking around and looking like a felony waiting to happen. Her ass was perfectly aligned in front of me, bent over the edge of Fionel’s desk as if she was waiting for me to lift that skirt that was so close to her ass cheeks. A small tug would gift me the most wondrous sight, and I barely restrained myself from moving forward to do just that.
Her eyes were all over me. I could feel the burn of that gaze on every inch of my skin. I didn’t look away from that delectable ass, though. Her skin was a creamy brown with hues of red and gold, but I knew that it would redden sweetly under my hands. One spank would be all that it would take.
As my fingers flexed, my neatly filed claws curling just a little, I knew that she’d be able to handle me. She wasn’t like most of the fragile humans that ran amok on the streets of Grebath. She was taller than most of them for one, but it was her curves that called to me. They were made to cushion a male. All that softness would mean that my grip wouldn’t crush her. No, this female looked like she was made for my hands. My body.
Jarred by the thought, I uncrossed my arms and licked my lips.
“I don’t remember approving any staff to enter this floor,” I said to her.
She lifted herself from her position, turning to face me, and I almost groaned out loud.
Of course the front would be as phenomenal as the back.
The buttons between her breasts were straining—almost ready to pop and I sent a fervent prayer to the Gods that they would. The beauty sent a smile my way, her pouty lips curling sweetly and her ponytail of curls swinging with her as she gestured frantically at the desk and cart behind her.
Those chocolate eyes that I could get lost in were sending me a frantic message that my brain was having trouble computing. What would she look like in the morning? With fuck-knots in her hair and a well-pleasured drowsiness in her eyes? Drowning in my fantasies, I barely heard her response.
“I–I was told to clean this floor but not your office. I’m so sorry, sir,” she gasped.
It was the sir that did it. It snapped me back to reality. To the fact that I’d been daydreaming about an employee. Stiffening, I gave her a curt nod, looking at the top of her head and trying to control every thought that popped into my mind.
“I don’t like being disturbed. Keep it down next time,” I growled.
The frantic movement slowed and her eyes narrowed at me. “I didn’t make any noise. The cart barely rattles and I was just disinfecting the desk,” she snipped.
I grunted, flustered by the truth of her words. I hadn’t expected her to talk back to me. No one usually did. Instead of ceding the point, I shrugged. “Perhaps to your human ears, it might seem so. But orc senses are more acute,” I huffed.
Stating a fact of the difference between our species should’ve ended the conversation. When I watched her lips part, I realized the gorgeous minx was going to continue arguing. I turned my back to her instead, striding into my office and slamming the door as if I had a million tasks to do that were more important than her. If I didn’t I was going to toss her over that desk and do something that we’d both enjoy in the moment, and likely regret tomorrow morning.
I did have piles of work to do. That wasn’t a lie. Normally, that would keep me motivated to focus throughout the night. Instead, the urge to continue to verbally spar with the beauty was an itch that made my fingers twitch, as though to open the door. Strengthening my resolve, I moved to sit behind my desk again, noticing that I hadn’t run the female off.
Instead, her pouty lips tipped down into a frown before she turned to give me her back as she continued cleaning the rest of the floor. The idea that she was thinking of me—possibly of ways to murder me, but still, thinking of me , brought a strange joy to my chest that I was unfamiliar with.
Five minutes hadn’t passed before the elevator opened again. I groaned in annoyance. The world was determined to interrupt my work tonight. Rudgar stepped out, his eyes narrowing on the female. She smiled at him and spoke. I couldn’t hear her through the glass door—I’d lied about that. They’d been soundproofed so well that even with my keener senses I could barely hear her if she decided to vacuum.
Irritation filled me as my brother smiled at her, responding. I narrowed my eyes at her expression. She didn’t seem annoyed merely by his presence the way she had with me.
Fickle creature.
Rudgar bowed his head at her before moving to my door, pushing it open. One of his dark eyebrows quirked upward as he saw me at my desk, staring out at the female.
My younger brother resembled me in many ways. He was just as tall but a bit bulkier. Something he’d crowed about endlessly when he hit puberty. His features were close enough to mine that everyone knew we were brothers—despite my beard—but his eyes were blue instead of yellow.
Sky blue, just like our mother’s, while mine had taken the yellow hue of our father. Those piercing blue eyes were focused on me now.
“You said there was a security breach. I was already in the building. I came right away,” he said, his voice clipped with urgency.
I lifted my hand, one large finger pointing at the female currently causing a distraction with her body while she watered the plants.
“Her?” Rudgar queried, jerking his thumb in the female’s direction, eyebrows sky high now. “The… human?”
Nodding, I folded my arms over my chest. “I’ve told that cleaning crew time and again that I didn’t want anyone on this floor. Fionel can clean it,” I grumbled.
Rudgar was looking at me like I’d lost my mind but I didn’t care. I was right and I knew it.
“It was Fionel who put this floor back in the rotation, Dris,” Rudgar explained. My brother shook his head as he made his way closer. “He already has to clean your penthouse. Did you want him over here, too? If you make him clean both places, he’s going to revolt. He’s your assistant, not your maid.”
I could feel my jaw grinding but couldn’t do anything to stop it. “I don’t want her here,” I snapped.
A mild sense of panic filled my chest as Rudgar glanced at the female behind me and then back at me, a small smile curling his lips. “I mean, they really did assign the cream of the crop to you. I haven’t seen a prettier female in a while,” he mused.
My spine was stiffening and I had to control my breathing instead of leaping out of the chair at him. He shouldn’t be looking at her and thinking she was pretty. No one should be doing that but me.
Rudgar hummed, his tone pensive as he said, “In fact, she was so nice to me earlier. I think I might ask her on a—”
My fist hit my desk before I could stop it and Rudgar’s smirk became a full-fledged grin.
“I guess you don’t like that idea, Dris,” he laughed. He was loving everything about this, I could tell.
It took me a few moments to calm down. I straightened my tie with the same shaking hand that had almost splintered the mahogany in front of me. It was my father’s desk. One that I’d brought to the office with the dream of making him proud. With that thought in mind, I cleared my throat.
“I just wanted to remind you that while you’re both employees here, there shouldn’t be any fraternization,” I explained, my voice strained.
His fangs flashed with a grin, the white sparkling against the deep green of his skin. “Of course. Wouldn’t want to ruffle the big boss’ feathers with fraternization of all things,” Rudgar chuckled.
I narrowed my gaze at him as he waved, leaving my office. He spoke to my female— the female, I corrected myself—and then left. As she stooped to pick something miniscule off the floor, her glorious ass on full display again, I covered my eyes with my palm and groaned deep in my chest. I prayed that I could regain the control I’d always had over my baser urges. I might want to snatch this female off her feet and take her back to my penthouse, sequestering her away for weeks at a time, but that didn’t mean that I could give in to the urge.
I groaned as I pictured doing exactly that, my palm acting like a screen for my filthiest fantasies. The things I would do to her perfect body. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the images, but it was futile.
There was no way to get her out of my mind now that she was there. Even as I told myself I would call her supervisor in the morning, I knew I was lying to myself. She was trouble, but I was willing to torture myself with her while keeping her at a distance.
There isn’t anything wrong with looking.
I repeated the words to myself, measuring the logic and deciding that it was sound.