Epilogue
Stevie
I screamed when he entered me, and as my orgasm crashed over me, I slapped my hand over my mouth to contain my cries. I jerked and bucked beneath him, the familiar pleasure coursing through my limbs, as Garrak smirked down at me.
Oh my God.
Orc cock was made for pleasure.
With one final spasm of pleasure, I collapsed against the bed, my legs held impossibly wide by my Mate, who stood at the edge of the bed.
He’d carried me into our room after our shower—I was addicted to the way his thick fingers massaged my scalp as he washed my hair—and after he dried me off, he spread me out on the bed like a buffet.
A buffet just for him.
Yeah, I wasn’t going to complain about being gobbled up by this particular male.
“You done?” he growled teasingly. “Want me to have another go at you?”
Knowing he would—Garrak seemed addicted to giving me instant orgasms, over and over—I hooked my ankles behind his ass to keep him inside me, and moved my hand away from my face to glare up at him.
“Just fuck me!”
“Hmm…” He pulled out just slightly, then slid in again, causing me to gasp and wriggle beneath him, each ridge playing with my over-sensitized core. “Maybe if you asked me nicely.”
“Please fuck me?”
He did it again, frowning as if considering it. “I don’t know…”
I was already breathless, distracted by the pleasure coursing through me.
God, a ridged cock! I still couldn’t believe how fucking good it felt, and we’d been together for months now.
Every time he slid into me, I swear I shot sky-high with ecstasy.
And then he did it again, and again, until I was clutching the bedsheets, him, anything I could reach to keep me anchored beneath him.
“Garrak!” I gasped, and I could hear his grin when he replied.
“What is it? Is my Mate ready to start begging for it?”
“Please,” I moaned, knowing if he hadn’t been holding my thighs open, I would have wrapped my legs around him completely. Anything to keep this pleasure continuing. “Please fuck me harder.”
“My Mate wants to come on my cock like a good little slut?”
I went feral, bucking and mewling beneath him as he finally relented and reached for my breasts, squeezing and plucking and worshiping. Garrak leaned over me and began to thrust in earnest, whispering crude words of praise that drove me wild.
“You like that? You like taking my cock like that? Gods below, you do it so well. You’re mine, Stevie, my good little Mate.”
“Yes!” I think I cried. I was so high on his words and the feelings stuttering through my limbs that he could’ve been speaking orcish for all I knew…
“You’re so fucking perfect, dkaar. Love you,” he grunted as he thrust into me. “Love you.”
“I love you!” My words rose on a wail as my ecstasy mounted.
“Take it.” Garrak plunged in again, his own face slack with pleasure. “Take what you deserve, Mate. Take your pleasure, claim it—claim it!”
Hunt, catch, fuck! Yes, this was mine, my pleasure, and I was worth it.
Garrak bent down and captured my lips with his, and my orgasm burst over me.
My core was already slick from his earlier ministrations—that was the whole point of the insta-O, after all—and I wailed against his mouth as my pussy clutched him, trying to draw him deeper, tighter, farther.
Garrak grunted as my orgasm squeezed him, his hold on me tightening. I loved the way he covered my body with his like this, when he was deep in the throes of pleasure, as if he could protect me, enclose me.
His cock slid out, then in again, the movement prolonging my orgasm until I was shuddering beneath him… Then he pulled his mouth from mine, threw his head back, and roared as his seed spilled into me.
Yes.
By all that was holy, yes.
“I love you,” I whispered, my fingers digging into his back as I clutched him to me and kissed his shoulder. “Mate.”
This time it was Garrak who shuddered, then exhaled as he relaxed atop me. He was heavy, but this was my favorite spot; pinned beneath my Mate, whom I trusted to keep me safe.
My protector.
I kissed his shoulder again.
He did so much for me, for everyone. Each day, he was learning to allow me to do things for him, small things in small ways. And when he rested like this, enveloping me in his weight and letting me hold him, I felt like it was him permitting me to comfort him…and I loved it.
I kissed him a third time, the smallest little brush of my lips, and Garrak exhaled, pushing himself back to his feet.
When he reached for the towel he’d used to dry me, I knew the pleasure was over—for now.
He withdrew from my pleasure-sated pussy, and used the towel to catch the cinnamon-flavored cum that spilled from me.
Then, without a word, he tossed the towel into the hamper and climbed onto the bed, gathering me in his arms and tucking my head under his chin.
“Tell me more about your plan for the craft series.”
The command had become a ritual, one we shared over dinner: Tell me about your day.
Tonight we’d been discussing a new idea of mine, to bring in artists from around the island to teach classes on their art form.
Karnak, the orc who kept the ancient artistic methods alive, would be one of the first, but we had an active art community that regularly appeared at our markets and fairs, and I knew it would be easy to find human volunteers as well.
Garrak approved of my plans, of course, and we’d discussed the classes before. But this was another way he was accepting my help. As I spoke, I felt him relaxing beneath me, my voice soothing him—perhaps not to sleep, but someplace completely sated and tranquil.
Occasionally he’d grunt or ask a quiet question, and I’d happily go off on another explanation about plans for the community center.
I’d been right; I needed a place on Eastshore Isle, a place to make a difference.
And Garrak had been right: The community center was my place.
I loved my job, I loved my staff—mostly volunteers now, but our funding was slowly growing, and next year we’d be able to hire more part-timers.
The fact that I’d accepted a much lower-than-normal salary in order to use the endowment for upkeep of the center had helped, but Garrak and I didn’t need riches.
We had each other.
Although he was talking about hiring Brakkor and Korrad’s company to begin building a house on the property he’d purchased months ago.
Garrak had teased me that then I could be as loud as I wanted when he fucked me…
but I would always point out that he was just as loud, which then usually resulted in him pleasuring me then and there to prove his point.
God, I loved teasing him.
Garrak’s loud yawn interrupted my ramblings, and I chuckled, pushing myself upright. “You ought to sleep.” I patted his chest. “Jet lag is no joke.”
“It was only one time zone,” he grumbled. “And I had to get home as quickly as possible to my Mate.”
Grinning, I dropped a kiss on his brow.
The delayed poker tournament had finally happened in New Orleans this week, and my Mate had won big.
Perhaps not the whole pot, but enough that we could live easy for…
well, probably for the rest of our lives, when added to his other nest egg.
But I knew Garrak would pour that money back into the community center.
And Eastshore Isle. And his guys’ future.
Still looking out for everyone.
His palm slid up my side, making me shiver even as the calluses moved around to my bare back. “Have you thought about the LeClair brothers’ offer?”
I had to grin. “For poker lessons? That’s ridiculous.”
“They were impressed by you. As well they should be.”
After all this time, I still went all gooey when he praised me so casually.
He’d returned from the tournament with a message from the LeClair brothers. They absolved me of any blame for my father’s cheating scheme, and vowed that I’d always be welcome in their territory. It was a hell of a relief, but I wasn’t anxious to toss myself back into that underworld.
Since they’d asked me to return to teach them how to spot their tells and become better poker players, I was going to have to go back there…
Oh well. I could always turn them down—although the offered payment was good—or just send them a letter.
If I did return to New Orleans, I knew Garrak would be there.
To protect me.
“If I don’t go back, do we have to return the fifty thousand they sent?”
Garrak’s hum sounded speculative as his touch moved around to my breast, which now hung more or less over him. My nipples responded to his touch, of course.
“I don’t think so. They made it clear it was a gift, an apology for the shit your father pulled.”
The fact that it was the exact amount my father had owed Garrak couldn’t have been a coincidence.
“And…” It was a tough question, and I was distracted by his fingers, but I asked anyhow. “Did they say anything about…him?”
Garrak’s caress stilled, his dark eyes—a fleck of green in the center—staring up at me solemnly. “No. Do you want me to ask?”
There’d been no word from my father since that night in New Orleans. I remembered my fears about what the LeClair brothers were capable of, and I shuddered. “No,” I whispered. I didn’t want to know. “As long as I don’t have to hear from him ever again.”
My Mate squeezed my breast gently. “You’re safe, dkaar.”
Yes.
Yes, I was.
Here with Garrak.
I had a full life, a new life. A purpose, a Mate, a future.
That is what I would focus on, not my past.
I nodded once, firmly. “Then I think for now, my decision is that I don’t want to return to New Orleans.”
Garrak’s response was immediate. “Then I’ll come up with something to tell the LeClair brothers.”
“We will find something,” I gently corrected him, and he smiled softly.
“Right. We. Thanks for the reminder.”
I bent down to kiss him gently. “Thank you for listening.”
He’d spent so many years taking care of others that it was still something he took on unthinkingly. But I loved that he was willing to allow me to help him now.
Speaking of which…
I pushed myself up again and wriggled around, shifting myself so I could reach down across his body…
My intention was to reach for the socket of his prothesis, but I ended up with my cheek pressed against his engorged cock.
“Stevie?” he choked.
“Just a minute!” I kept my voice light and airy, as if I hadn’t noticed his erection. “Just making you more comfortable!”
When I pulled off his prothesis, he groaned in relief. I propped it against the bed with one hand as I massaged his stump with the other, my breasts rubbing against his stomach.
“Stevie,” he growled, and I stifled my giggle against his skin. Since it was the skin at the base of his cock, it just made him groan again.
Suddenly he twisted, grabbed my legs, and flopped back to the mattress, pulling them with him. I gasped as I ended up straddling his chest, and then again when he yanked, pulling my ass back toward his head.
Or more importantly, toward his mouth.
As his tongue swiped along my sensitive folds, I moaned and buried my face in his hard stomach. My “What are you doing?” came out muffled.
“Making you more comfortable.” I could hear his smirk.
Well, two could play at this game. His cock was too far from my mouth to reach, so I grabbed it with my free hand and began to stroke him, the ridges still slick from my desire.
His tongue circled my ass, and I groaned, pushing back against him unconsciously. God, I loved when he made me feel dirty like that. His tusk scraped against my butt cheek when he lowered his tongue to my folds once more, and I could feel him grin.
From this position, Garrak could slide his tongue into me or along my lips, but my favorite was when he curled those ridges around my clitoris, stroking lightly as he nuzzled against me.
When I came, I muffled my scream against his stomach.
Yeah, maybe we did need a more private home.
I collapsed, spent, spread atop my Mate.
“Gods below, Stevie…” He kissed the inside of my thighs. “You’re magnificent.”
“I’m magnificent?” I muttered, managing a little head shake. “That was…”
I began to wriggle down his body, and his hold switched to my thighs. “That was what?”
“That wasn’t fair.”
I reached his cock and licked along the underside, feeling him stiffen beneath me as my tongue stud teased him.
“Dkaar…” he began warningly.
But I poked him in his side. “Remember what we talked about?” I licked him again.
“What?” The guy sounded genuinely confused.
“To accept more help.” Lick. “To allow me to do things for you.” Lick. “To give up control sometimes.” Lick. “To let me pleasure you.” Lick.
I felt Garrak’s laughter before I heard it, his chest shaking beneath my core. His fingers tightened around my ass. “Fuck me sideways, I love you, Stevie. So godsdamned much. How did I get so lucky to get a Mate like you?”
My grin grew. He thought he was lucky to have me? That right there proved my worth as much as anything. I tightened my hold on the base of his cock with both hands and lifted my head.
“Good. Because Garrak? I love you.”
And when I took the head of his cock into my mouth, his laughter turned to groans, and I smiled around the ridges, pleased to be pleasuring my Mate.