Chapter 4 #2
That first day, during that interview, Abydos had scared me, yeah. But since then…I’d been able to see him for who he really was. At least, a bit.
His anger was just curtness, his rigidness was just expectation.
He’d built an empire from nothing and was used to routine…
routine I could help maintain. In the last week, he’d even unbent to compliment me and thank me…
signs of basic decency, like that interaction in the kitchen or when he introduced me to his brother rather than dismissing me.
I expected him to be an asshole.
I didn’t expect to like him.
Don’t get me wrong, Abydos wasn’t likable. But in some ways, I could understand him.
You’re letting your libido influence you.
Yeah. My lips curled. There was that, too.
Abydos was everything I’d ever dreamed about in a guy: huge, strong, beautifully built, powerful, used to being in command… Maybe this explained the erotic dreams I kept waking up from recently.
I told myself it couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like anything was ever going to come from a little fantasizing, right? He couldn’t stand humans, had no interest in me as a female, and I…?
Well, I wasn’t going to be letting anyone touch me. Not for a long time. Maybe not ever. My body had changed so much in the last year that I didn’t even like lingering in the shower…the thought of letting a guy touch me, feel me…
I shivered.
“You want a blanket?” Sami asked me. “It’s chilly out here.”
Before I could tell her I was fine, her Mate lunged for the wood pile. “I’ll add another log. That’ll keep us cozy.”
I had to smile; Tarkhan was such a caring, gentle partner for my cousin, and it was obvious how much the two of them loved one another.
They’d entered a marriage of convenience a few months ago, and I think to everyone’s surprise—with the possible exception of my mother, who didn’t quite know what was going on—they fell hard for one another.
To orcs, Mating was different than marriage. Being married was just a legal thing, but Mating was like…well, Sami once explained it to me as a knowing. Something biological. They just knew they were meant for one another, which sounded really special, frankly.
She’d also explained all about how orcs’ cocks were built to cause a partner to orgasm instantly upon entry, so all I could say is: Good biology. Apparently, orcs were winning the evolutionary race, you know what I mean?
And for the record, I did everything possible not to think about that whenever I was in the same room as Tarkhan; I didn’t need to picture the two of them in bed together.
“Soooo…” On the couch across the firepit, Sami drew her feet up to sit cross-legged and leaned her elbows on her knees. “How’s the new job?”
I managed not to chuckle at her obviousness. She’d been dying to ask about Abydos since I arrived with s’mores fixings, and had done a good job of containing herself. Since she kept exchanging glances with Tarkhan, I shrugged, pretending interest in spearing my marshmallow on a stick.
“It’s okay. The kitchen is amazing. Full range, a huge fridge, the counter space is amazing—”
“Riven Michelle Starr, I do not care about the kitchen!”
I burst into laughter, and even Tarkhan chuckled. “You’ve given away your game, dkaar,” he announced, throwing his arm around Sami and pulling her closer. He grinned at me. “What my Mate wants to know is how you like working with my asshole of a best friend.”
Still grinning, I arranged the marshmallow over the fire. “He’s not an asshole. Just…prickly.”
Tarkhan’s brows rose. “I know that. I’m impressed you know that.”
“What’s he like?” Sami demanded. “What do you do for him?”
Shrugging, I launched into a description of my job and the menus I’d made and the decorations I’d picked up from the farmer’s market so I could start decorating his house while he was gone.
I knew my cousin well enough to know what she was interested in learning, so I told her about my interactions with Abydos…
although I didn’t say anything about how those interactions had made me feel almost proud that I could bring him pleasure and joy.
That knowledge was for me alone.
I was on my fourth marshmallow, and Tarkhan had eaten all ten of the s’mores I’d prepared with the salted caramel chocolate wafers, by the time I wrapped up. Sami’s head was against his shoulder, and she blinked sleepily.
He was the one who smiled almost shyly at me. “I know it might sound silly, Riven, but I’m really glad you’re there with him. He’s…used to being alone, even when we all lived in Bramblewood, and it’s not good for him.”
This was my opportunity. What I’d been waiting for. So I took a deep breath and tried not to wince. “Will you…tell me about Bramblewood? And…everything?”
“Everything?” His smile turned gentle.
“How you got there. What he’s doing there.”
With a hum, Tarkhan snuggled back against the outdoor cushion as the fire sparked and crackled between us.
“Bramblewood Bluff is a cute little town in the Rockies populated mostly by non-humans. We found it after…well, after the scientists released us. You know how we came to your world?”
I mutely shook my head.
So he launched into a story about a clan dying out because of a lack of females, and young males being sent through the veil to make contact with the humans, knowing they’d never be allowed to return.
Sakkara—our mayor—had been their leader, and he made certain the military couldn’t claim them.
Instead, the orcs had been taken to a science facility and—I wrinkled my nose—experimented on for almost a year.
“When they were done with us, the media made a case that we deserved compensation, so we were given hush money. Abydos took his, found the lithium mine—no idea how he did that, but he’d always loved rocks and nature, climbing all over the mountains since we were kitlings.
Anyhow…” He shrugged. “He got rich, and some of the others invested in his company, and they got rich too.”
I had questions about the mine and his refining plant, and the town, and the year they spent with the scientists, most of which Tarkhan—and occasionally Sami—could answer. But when I started asking questions specific to Abydos, my cousin’s Mate became more and more reluctant to answer.
Finally, he winced. “I’m sorry, Riven. I know you’re only asking because you’re curious about your employer, but…if you really want to know about him, you’ll have to ask Abydos.”
I managed not to snort. Imagine me asking him all sorts of personal questions like that. Ha.
But I patted the air in a conciliatory gesture and propped my booted feet up on the edge of the firepit. “I understand, you’re loyal to him, and I’m sorry if I made you feel—”
“No, no, it’s okay.” Tarkhan smiled a little crookedly down at Sami. “I love him, I do. I just don’t feel right revealing all his secrets.”
“Especially to the help,” I quipped, and offered a bright smile when both of their disapproving gazes snapped to me.
“Okay, okay, one more question. Not about him specifically, just…ah…” I mean, it was about him, but also general.
I realized I was plucking at the cuff of my cozy orange sweater but didn’t stop.
“An orc’s tusks.” I snuck a peek across the fire. “Are they sensitive?”
Tarkhan hummed, glanced down at his Mate, then met my gaze. The flames threw his rueful expression into shadows and planes.
“Very sensitive,” he finally said. “We can feel and even taste with them.” His arm tightened around Sami, who giggled slightly, and I suspected there was something sexy they weren’t sharing, thank God.
“So, hypothetically…” I plucked at the orange thread again. “If a tusk was to break…?”
Tarkhan held my gaze, and I knew he knew who I was speaking about. But he finally answered.
“Hypothetically… Well then, it would hurt like shit. Traditionally, when a male breaks a tusk in warfare or whatever, he caps it to allow the nerves to heal. Leaving it exposed to the air causes pain and irritation. Only someone truly stubborn would leave it uncapped for eight years.”
My eyes had widened, remembering all the times I’d seen Abydos flick his tongue against his broken left tusk. “Eight years,” I whispered, wondering why he tortured himself like that for so long. “How did he break it?”
But across the fire, Tarkhan’s expression twisted ruefully, reminding me of his vow not to share his friend’s secrets. I held up my palm to interrupt him. “Nevermind.”
I didn’t need to know specifics.
Because it wasn’t only Abydos’s left tusk that was broken. He had scars up and down the left side of his face and body, didn’t he? Burn scars, wounds that hadn’t healed right. I wondered what had happened to him in that science facility, and if that was the explanation for his pain.
His hatred.
I remembered what he’d roared that first night, claws out as he’d pointed to his face. Humans are dangerous. I’d told him I hadn’t hurt him, I’d told him I had scars too.
And I did.
But my scars were still new.
In ten years, would my heart be as twisted as Abydos’s was now?