14. Laina #2
He did, deliberately this time, letting his tusks drag across sensitive skin while his hands worked at my bra clasp. He got it open on the second try and pulled back to look at me.
“You’re staring,” I said.
“Yes.” His voice had gone rough. “I’m memorizing.”
Then his mouth was on my breast and I could only think of him. His tongue circled my nipple while one hand palmed the other breast. I made sounds I’d be embarrassed about later.
Or not, because I was enjoying this, and I wanted him to know.
His free hand traced down my belly, his fingers hooking into the waistband of my pants. He stopped. Looked up at me with a question.
“Please,” I said.
“Please what? I want to hear you say it.” His finger stroked above my waistband, dipping lower with each pass. “Tell me what you want, Laina.”
“I want you to touch me.”
“I am touching you.”
“You know what I mean.”
His smile was wicked. “Say it anyway.”
“I want—” I lost the words when his hand slid lower, cupping me through my pants. The pressure was exactly what I needed and nowhere near enough. “That. I want that.”
“This?” He pressed harder, and I arched into his palm.
“Yes.”
“May I remove these?” His fingers found the button of my pants.
“If you don’t, I’m going to do it myself.”
He laughed, popping the button and sliding the zipper down. “Efficiency. I appreciate that in a partner.”
I lifted my hips, and he tugged my pants down, taking my underwear with them. The conference table was cold against my bare skin before he slid his hands under my backside, warming me.
“Look at you,” he said softly, crouching between my legs, spreading my thighs wide.
I was completely exposed on the conference table where we were supposed to be reviewing adoption applications.
I didn’t care.
He brought his face level with my hips, and hooked my legs over his broad shoulders.
“If I do something you don’t like, tell me,” he said. “Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Good.” He kissed my inner thigh. Then kissed higher. “Because I plan to do several things, and I need to know which ones to repeat.”
His mouth found me, and I stopped thinking in complete sentences.
He started slow, his long, thick tongue tracing patterns that made my legs shake. Those ridges… They dragged across my skin, making everything inside me quiver.
One of his fingers traced my entrance, testing.
“Please,” I said again, because that appeared to be my only word now.
He slid one finger inside while his tongue circled my clit, making stars burst behind my eyelids. He added another finger, stretching me, gliding them in and out, finding a spot that made me arch my back off the table.
“There?” he asked, voice muffled.
“There. Right there. Don’t stop.”
His fingers moved in a steady rhythm while his mouth did things that should be illegal. The pressure built, tight and sweet and relentless.
His other hand reached up, finding my breast, circling my nipple, and that was all it took.
I came with his name on my lips, pleasure crashing through me in heady waves. He brought me through it, gentle now, until I pushed at his head because it was too much.
He kissed my inner thigh again before standing, a tusky smile on his face.
I stared at him, boneless and satisfied and completely undone.
“You look very pleased with yourself,” I said.
“I am.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You make excellent sounds when you—”
The door handle rattled.
We both froze.
“It’s locked,” Krem’s voice came through. “Why is it locked?”
Brovish’s eyes met mine, wide with panic that would’ve been funny if I wasn’t currently naked on the conference room table.
“Brovish?” Krem called. “Are you in there?”
“Yes,” Brovish said, his voice remarkably steady. “I’m reviewing sensitive adoption files. Privacy required.”
“Oh. Should I come back?”
“Yes.”
Footsteps retreated down the hall.
I started laughing, which turned into near hysterical giggles. Brovish helped me sit up and handed me my clothes, his ears dark green.
“Sensitive adoption files?” I asked, struggling into my underwear.
“It was the first thing I thought of.”
“It’s technically accurate.” I pulled on my pants. “We were supposed to be reviewing applications.”
“We were also supposed to remain professional.” He helped me with my bra clasp, his fingers much steadier than mine. “I believe we failed.”
“We did.”
He handed me my shirt and I pulled it on, finger combing my hair into something less obviously just-had-an-orgasm-on-the-conference-table.
The driftwhisps fluttered down from where they may have been watching from the ceiling beams.
“Oh no,” I said. “How long have they been there?”
“The entire time, I’d imagine.” Brovish’s mouth twitched. “They like observing emotional energy.”
“They got quite a show.”
“They’re very pleased about it.” He pulled me close, kissing me properly. “As am I.”
“We should probably leave before Krem comes back.”
“Agreed.” He unlocked the door, checking the hallway before gesturing for me to follow. “Though I want to be clear about something.”
“What’s that?”
“This isn’t finished.” His gaze held mine. “What just happened. It’s not nearly finished.”
Heat pooled low in my belly again. “Good.”
“Good,” he echoed, and the promise in his voice followed me all the way back to the medical bay.
I drove home at six with Sofia sitting on the passenger seat and my mother’s text churning through my mind.
Gotten yourself into.
I hadn’t replied, but that wouldn’t dissuade her. Once she had an idea in her mind, it was full speed ahead without stopping.
Or considering anyone but herself.
I passed the gas station and the diner on Main Street, the trees on both sides showing off their baby spring leaves. My father had driven this route at all hours for years and known every curve before the headlights found it.
My mother would arrive Friday and she’d look at the facility and the orcs and the creatures, and she’d turn to me, and she’d have questions. Good ones, probably. Sensible. The kind that would make me feel thirteen while I was answering them.
Sofia made a low sound.
“You’re right,” I said. “I need to stop thinking about this. I have a few days before she arrives.”
I drove the rest of the way home thinking about twins who stood up on their first morning and a notebook with my name in it more than once.
Gotten yourself into.
My mother wasn’t wrong. I had gotten myself into something. Whether she understood that this wasn’t a problem or not would soon play itself out.
What would she think when she stood in front of the mirrormoose, watching her own face look back at her?
I pulled into my driveway as the last of the daylight faded.
Sofia chirped from the passenger seat, eager to go inside, where I’d feed her.
My phone sat in the cupholder, my mother’s text still unanswered.
I picked it up, my thumbs hovering over the keyboard.
What would I tell her? That I’d spent last night delivering twins in a cave?
That I’d kissed a seven-foot orc in the medical bay this morning and then let him give me incredible pleasure in the conference room this afternoon?
That creatures had chosen me, and I’d chosen them back, and maybe I was building something here that looked nothing like the life she thought I should want?
The cursor blinked, waiting.
I typed, Friday works. See you then.
I hit send before I could reconsider.
Sofia peeped, and I looked over to find her watching me with her round, knowing eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said.
She peeped again, which I’d learned meant she had opinions, and I should listen to them.
“Fine. You’re right. This is probably going to be a disaster.”
She settled into the seat, satisfied she’d made her point.
I sat in the truck a moment longer, looking at my cottage.
Dad’s cottage, technically, though he’d been gone three years and I’d lived here alone since.
The porch light sent a warm yellow glow across the front lawn, and through the front window I could see the kitchen table where I’d left the clinic sale paperwork.
I’d walked away from that building, the exam rooms that still smelled like him, and the life he’d built, and I’d been maintaining instead of living.
And I’d walked toward something new. My life included creatures who mirrored their surroundings and tiny orange emberkits who built gift thrones, and an orc who wrote my name in his notebook.
My mother wouldn’t understand any of it.
But I didn’t need her to.
I got out of the truck, Sofia flying ahead to the front door, and went inside to figure out how to explain the unexplainable.
Inside, I fed Sofia and made myself dinner. I barely tasted it. I tried not to check my phone every five minutes to see if Brovish had texted.
He hadn’t.
I washed my dishes, changed into pajamas, and was brushing my teeth when my phone finally buzzed.
A text from Brovish. I want you to know I don’t regret today. Any of it. Regardless of what complications Friday brings.
I don’t regret it either.
Good. Then sleep well, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
I set the phone down and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked the same as I had this morning except for my eyes. They looked happy.
Sofia peeped from the bedroom, and I went to join her, already thinking about tomorrow.