Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Korrad
I don’t think we put on our clothing at all that day.
I carried my wife straight into the tall shower I’d just emerged from, handed her a shower cap I’d bought because I knew she had a strict regimen of hair care, and turned on the warm water to wash my cum from her.
My Kteer objected—of course it did; it saw all that pale green cum dripping across her dark skin as a claiming and roared its approval. I comforted it by promising I’d fill her up again and again.
And why not? We were married, we were in love… It didn’t matter that we wouldn’t have a Mate Bond, right?
The thought wasn’t the right one to have, not when Kesha was standing there all wet and slippery and delicious. I turned her around, planted her hands on the tile wall in front of her, and slipped my cock into her still-wet pussy.
When she threw her head back and screamed my name as she came, it echoed around the shower and made me want to withdraw and do it again.
So I did.
We both lost track of how many times she came that day, although it became a bit of a joke. We didn’t get back out to the kitchen to clean up the mess on the floor until close to noon, and I made a new batch of waffles for what we decided to call brunch.
Kesha sat on my lap—naked—as I fed her. Providing for her made my Kteer purr happily, but it still wasn’t satisfied, and I wasn’t certain why.
With her wriggling so distractedly atop me, was it any wonder why my cock sat tall and eager between us? Kesha teased me about it as I fed her—to keep her strength up, I said—but she was the one laughing when she reached between us to stroke me.
Then, with one little move, she lifted herself up and sat down on top of my cock, both of us groaning in satisfaction. Her instant orgasm caused her to gasp and moan, then she relaxed with her back against my chest.
I held her like that, boneless and satisfied, my hard cock stuffed inside her, as I alternated between feeding her and playing with her magnificent tits…until the food became irrelevant.
Yeah, I think we ended up fucking all over the kitchen…the living room…the patio, the sunroom—gods below, seeing her draped across the keyboard as I drove into her from behind? That’s the kind of image dreams are made of.
I couldn’t get enough of her.
Vaguely, I had memories of our mother speaking of the Mating Heat that would take us when we met our Mates, and I could barely remember those first few days with Sharra.
What Kesha and I were sharing now was more meaningful because we cared about each other, but there wasn’t any way it could be a Mating Heat.
Right?
All I knew was that my Kteer wasn’t satisfied, no matter how many times I claimed Kesha, marked her. All she had to do was smirk at me, or sashay that hot ass across the room, and I’d go feral for her again.
Eventually, I dragged control of myself back enough to call for takeout, which we ate naked, again.
I drew a hot bath for Kesha to soak in while I forced myself to sit in the sunroom and play Green Day until I felt more myself.
And by the time my wife emerged from her bath—flushed and damp and satiated, I was able to gather her in my arms without immediately needing to fuck her again.
That control lasted long enough for us to pop some popcorn and settle in front of the television. I picked up the remote.
“What do you want to watch?”
“You.”
I cocked a brow at her, my lips already curling into a chuckle, when I realized she was staring up at me in a way that said she was serious. I shifted, made uncomfortable by her focus.
“What about me?”
She smiled softly and lifted one arm to rest on my shoulder, so she could brush my hair away from my forehead. “Do you have any idea how remarkable you are?”
In case you’re wondering if orcs can blush: we can.
“I’m not remarkable. I’m just a male—”
“You are.” Her words were stern, but she kept smiling, and shifted her touch to my head, her fingernails scraping across my scalp in a way that threatened to turn me into a puddle of goo. “I don’t know any other male with the capacity for caring that you have.”
I wanted to object, to tell her that my brothers were caring, that the other males I knew were caring…but I couldn’t do much more than roll my eyes back in my head and groan in pleasure as she scratched my head. Who knew that a little head scratch would feel this good?
“Korrad, I’ve never, ever had a lover who cared so much about my pleasure. You don’t just pay attention to what I like, but you make sure I like it each time.”
“I…” I forced my eyes open and flicked the tip of my tongue against my tusk to ground myself. “I like seeing you enjoying yourself. Your pleasure is addicting, Kesha.”
Her chuckle was low and throaty and made my stomach warm. “See? This is what I mean. And it’s even more remarkable, because…”
To my surprise, she cut herself off with a little sigh and pressed her cheek against my shoulder, her fingernails still working their magic on my scalp.
I waited, but she didn’t continue. Finally, I prompted her. “Because what?”
“Well…” Another sigh. “I’m not Sharra.”
The sound of my dead Mate’s name on Kesha’s lips had me jerking upright, even though it moved my head away from her touch. “What? Of course you’re not.”
“And I’m sorry.” She wasn’t looking at me. In fact, as I turned to face her, Kesha pulled her hands down into her lap and stared down at them. “I know how much you miss her.”
Oh hells, what?
I covered her hands with mine. “Dkaar, what are you talking about?”
Her shrug was slight. “You had this grand romance, this amazing love, and you lost it. The fact that you can even consider bringing me as much pleasure as you do, knowing how much you loved her…it’s remarkable.”
Love?
Her words surprised a bark of laughter from me, and her gaze darted up to meet mine. So I offered her a smile and pulled her into my arms.
“I loved Sharra, yeah,” I told her gently. “But I don’t miss her.”
Kesha sucked in a shocked breath, her eyes wide enough to make me smile sadly and place a kiss on her nose.
“How can you say that about your Mate? The one the gods chose for you?”
“I’ve often suspected the gods made a mistake when it came to me and Sharra.” I sighed. “Or we met too early. Maybe, if we’d matured a bit before we met, if we’d grown into different people, we might have been better matches. She was…difficult.”
With my arm around Kesha, I settled deeper into the couch, stared at the dark television screen, and told her about my contentious relationship with my Mate. About the fights, her demands, and our differences.
“Don’t get me wrong; I was just as much at fault,” I made sure to explain. “I thought I knew how to take care of her, and I dismissed her demands as frivolous or expensive.”
Kesha shifted in my hold. “Sounds like they were. Especially after she got pregnant.”
“Yeah. I mean, she was carrying my kitling, I would have done anything for her. But she refused to stop partying, and she kept spending the money I was making as fast as I made it. I’d come home from a twelve-hour shift in the mine, and she’d complain that I was too dirty and too tired to do anything. ”
“Damn.” My wife sighed and snuggled closer. “That must’ve been hard to hear. Sounds like the two of you were really different.”
“We were. Too different, really. By the time Jay came along, Sharra and I were on opposite schedules, barely talking. I suppose that was a good thing when it came to caring for a newborn, and I noticed…” This part was hard to talk about, but Kesha needed to hear it.
“By the end, our Mate Bond had deteriorated. I still cared for her, but not in the way I had when we had first Bonded.”
“I’m sorry,” Kesha whispered.
“Her behavior was increasingly erratic. She talked about taking Jay and returning to our world, where she’d be revered just for being a female.
I was terrified of the possibility, because I knew it was the truth, and knew I’d lose access to my son.
She would go visit friends from nearby towns, be gone for days at a time, leaving us in peace, then come home still drunk and rant and rave at me for not doing enough for her. ”
“You were still working at the mine?”
“Working and taking care of Jay—that was my life.”
“Damn.” Kesha pushed herself upright. “I’ve spent our marriage jealous of someone I probably didn’t need to be jealous of, huh?”
My lips twitched. “Probably right. She…” I had to clear my throat.
“She died in a single-car accident on the way home from one of those trips; she was still drunk when she drove off one of the hairpin turns on the mountain. I didn’t feel her die.
” I remembered the way my Kteer had acted so uncertain that day, knowing something was wrong, but unable to identify it.
“That’s how I knew our Mate Bond had deteriorated.
I suppose, if she hadn’t died, we would eventually have grown apart enough that we’d be able to formally repudiate one another. ”
“I hate that you wasted your one chance at a Mate with someone with whom you were so poorly matched.”
Kesha’s tone sounded so disgruntled, so irritated for me, that I began to chuckle. Pushing aside the maudlin memories, I gathered her closer, pulling her into my arms, fluffy robe and all.
“I hate it too,” I admitted, burying my nose in her neck. “But maybe this is better. I got to choose you and fall in love with you. We’re perfectly matched, dkaar, and I’m ridiculously lucky to have you.”
I could feel her embarrassment. “I don’t know about that…”
“I do.” I turned my head enough to scrape my tusk along her skin. “You’re not still keeping score, are you?”
“Maybe…”
“Remember what I said last night about the amazing things you bring to this family? How could I not love you?”
“Korrad, just because—”
I’m not sure what she would have said, but when I licked her, Kesha’s words cut off with a moan. She twisted in my arms, threw her arms around my neck, and pulled me down for a kiss.