9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Nalina
I was neither naive nor innocent and I knew what being alone in this cave with him would likely entail. What it would lead to. I opened my mouth to deny him.
And no words came out.
“Beauty? Please, I swear you will not regret staying.” He cast me a soft look that melted something in me. Resolve, probably. It had to be that.
It certainly wasn’t my heart.
My feet moved almost against my will. My stomach was in knots from hunger and my mind was flushed with the memory of him holding me as he carried me through the cave entrance. The spicy smell of him. His firm muscles under my cheek.
The way he cradled me like I was something precious.
“Come sit here, beauty,” he murmured, and Fades help me, why did his voice sound so good ? Every time he spoke with that rich, buttery vibration, it felt like my insides were turning to mush. Like I was melting for him.
I wasn’t! Certainly not. I just wanted the food.
But I sat down where he patted, regardless. On one of the boulders near the wall of the cave. The space was large enough I didn’t feel cramped, lit enough there were no dark spots where dangers could lurk, and ventilated enough I could feel a cool breeze on my cheeks.
To say nothing of the fact that it was filled with riches beyond anything I could have imagined. My eyes remained on the cloth he had piled up in a large crate. Their colors were incredible. I’d only ever seen them on the back of the former orc chief. A male whose magical power was immeasurable and who’d always dressed to match the part.
“Were those Chief Ergoth’s?” I asked as Hendr peeled the apple with his claw.
He glanced at the cloth before going back to his task. The peel came off in one long strip. “They were.”
“Really? How did you get them?”
“None in the clan would want to be donned in that male’s cloth.”
“I suppose so.” I turned my thoughts away from the turbulent past and examined the huge pile of goods he’d collected. “What exactly do you want for all this?”
He brought a freshly sliced piece of apple to my lips. “You.”
I moved away from him and his eyes blinked wide as he lowered the food. Suddenly, the roomy cave felt far too small, and I was calculating the distance between here and escape into the forest. “You said you didn’t want a conquest.”
“I do not.” His voice was low with the intensity of that truth. Was he that good a liar? “I said I want you , Nalina. Not a babe off you.”
All air exhaled from my lungs so fast my head spun.
Hendr snorted. “Beauty, if you are so shocked by all my truths, you are going to suffocate.”
“Shut your mouth.” I sucked in a hard breath. “You can’t want me , Hendr. You hardly know me!”
“I’ve been watching you for a whole moon, beauty.”
“Don’t remind me of that.” Suddenly, his little pet-name for me felt a bit too personal. “Don’t call me beauty.”
“Fine.” His shoulders slumped.
His pitiful expression was not getting to me. “All we’ve done with each other is fight .”
“Enjoyable fighting,” he said under his breath.
“Fighting is not enjoyable.” The words tasted like a bitter lie on my tongue.
“Are you saying you have not enjoyed my company at all? Not even a moment of it?”
Fades, wreck me. Why did he have to sound so dejected ? “It’s not that, Hendr, it’s just . . . I don’t even know you! We’ve spoken only a handful of times.”
“Perhaps we have, but those few times were enough to prove to me how incredible you are.”
My head swirled at the unusual praise. “Right. So incredible that you constantly point out how stupid I am for upholding my family traditions.”
“Not stupid,” he said firmly. “I don’t believe you are ignorant, Nalina. Only misguided and too firmly set in your ways. You have hidden strength in you, and standing up to me proves that.”
His words were low and warm in a way that stirred me up inside. I was mesmerized by the tone and couldn’t seem to find the will to speak.
“Let me tell you what I see when I look at you, Nalina.” He lifted the slice of apple again as I blinked at him. “I see a bold, intelligent, striking woman who is not afraid to let her feelings be known. I see someone who does not bend to my gruff ways, whose stubbornness is delightful and whose very nature matches my own.”
“I-I’m nothing like you.” My cheeks were so hot they were about to bake the apple he held.
“You are like me, Nalina,” he said smoothly. “But you seem to only be brave enough to show it when I’m around. You need to be this bold when facing that obnoxious old woman.”
“That’s only because I know you wouldn’t retaliate. Waston has enough friends to turn half the town against me. I could tell you to fuck yourself right back to the Fades and I doubt you would even shake a fist at me.”
He raised his brows and then a grin stretched across his face. “You trust me that much?”
“I didn’t say that.” My voice was tight.
“You can speak your full mind around me,” he said slowly. “You can be your true self with me.”
“That’s not what that means,” I insisted, even as my mind railed against the truth of it.
All my life my mother had told me to be nice. Placate the customer. Keep those harsh opinions under your tongue.
“I’m the only one you can be your true self with, aren’t I?”
I opened my mouth to refuse him, and nothing came out.
Because he was right . The truth of that was loud in my mind, so hard I could feel it like a quake under my skin. Even when my mother was alive, I kept my harsher words in check. No one ever wanted to hear them.
And yet this male had laughed because of them. Multiple times.
“You’re an ass,” I muttered, even as my cheeks heated.
“An ass who is wholly thrilled by you.” Hendr’s voice was rich as cream. I drank it up helplessly. “The true you. Not the pretty, people pleasing mask you put on. I want to see more, Nalina. And I want to prove I am the right fit for you as well. Will you let me?”
My breath caught. I should say no! I should demand he take me back to Oakwall right this moment!
But then he placed the apple slice to my lips and all I could do was part them. He slipped it into my mouth, and the sweet flavor burst on my tongue.
I chewed and swallowed as his thumb brushed against my lower lip.
A spike of longing made my thighs clench, and suddenly, I was as overwhelmed as I had been when he’d been carrying me through the mouth of the cave with his firm body tight around mine. The feel of his muscles rolling against me . . .
There was something wrong with me.
“I want you . I want this .” He stroked his finger over my bottom lip again and my body went hot. His voice was back to that rich timber. It twisted me up and rang me out as I squirmed on the rock.
“Let me taste you,” he said. “Let me kiss you.”
My eyes popped open.
“Say no, Nalina.” His voice filled my empty stomach with longing. His thumb brushed my lower lip again, so fleeting it shot tingles all through me. “I vowed never to touch you against your will, and I will uphold that. Say no and I will release you.”
I should not want his kiss. Absolutely not!
But I did.
“You . . . can.” My voice came out as a quiet gasp. “You can kiss me, Hendr.”
His eyes opened wide as if he hadn’t expected me to agree. “Your inability to say no is going to get you into trouble one day. But not today, Nalina.”
My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest as he leaned forward.
His lips slanted over mine, tusks caging my face. He tasted exquisite . Spicy and intoxicating. So much better than the apple.
An orc wasn’t supposed to taste like this, was he? To feel like this. His tongue traced my bottom lip, and my body almost melted into him. The longing to open my mouth was overwhelming. I wanted to eat him up.
Fades, what was I doing ?
I pulled away from him and pressed my fingers to my lips. My eyes were so wide I could feel the chill on them.
Hendr exhaled shakily. “Why’d you stop, bea—Nalina?”
Fades, my body was buzzing, and my pussy clenched with want.
Resisting him was far too difficult.
“W-we need to be more careful.”
His eyes widened with alarm. “Did I hurt you? I tried to keep my teeth away.”
My attention went to his mouth, to the gleam of his sharp, white teeth. “N-no. I just . . . this is risky.”
“Risky?” He scratched the back of his neck. “Don’t tell me you are one of those humans who thinks touching lips could render you with child.”
I sputtered. “No! I’m not an idiot. I’ve been with a man before. But kissing like that . . . I mean—”
He growled so low that everything in me snapped to desperate, needy attention. Fades help me. I could feel that growl in the pit of my stomach, vibrating through my pussy.
“Don’t speak of other males when you’re with me, Nalina.”
I blinked, mouth dry, hardly able to form words. “W-why?”
“Because you are mine.”
I swallowed thickly. “I wasn’t yours then. We hadn’t even met.”
“You have always been mine, Nalina.” He growled right into my ear. Delightful shivering prickled all the way down my spine. “Always.”
Oh, fuck . That made no sense, and yet, I couldn’t deny him. I didn’t want to deny him.
He must have sensed that somehow because he claimed my mouth again without hesitation. I met him with equal vigor. He stroked my tongue with his, tasting me, drinking me up.
I was consumed by him as he pulled me into his lap. His arms were tight bands around my waist. His hands splayed up my back. He grabbed my braid and pulled it gently. It felt so good I groaned.
He broke off the kiss with a curse. He was breathing so hard against me I could feel every breath. Every heartbeat. My legs were spread across his waist, my skirts had ridden up.
His cock was jutting into my lower stomach, so rigid and huge that . . . that . . .
I scrambled out of his lap.
Oh fuck, what were we doing ?
“Are you well, woman?” Fades, he was a sight. His cheeks were colored up brightly from the exhilaration, his eyes were glittering in the firelight, his abs were outlined in the dim . . .
I still wanted him. He was a huge, battle-scarred, obnoxious orc. And I wanted him anyway.
Fades, where was this even supposed to lead? I’d never once considered being with an orc in any other way besides conquest, and even that had been out of desperation.
But I felt a pull to this male that was stronger than anything I’d ever felt to another living being.
“Nalina.” The low rumble of his voice made me squirm. “Nothing I have planned for you could possibly render you with child.”
My cheeks warmed and I could have sworn they’d caught fire. “P-planned?”
He grinned wolfishly. “Do you want me to show you?”
Show me what ? I looked down his body and got all caught up in the sight of him again. His panting chest and contracting muscles. The thin trail of dark hair that led all the way down to . . .
Oh, Fades help me. His cock was still rock solid beneath his pants and the outline looked huge.
“Nalina?”
I sucked in a hard breath, and my gaze shot back to his face. I shouldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t want him.
But I did.
“Yes, Hendr. You can show me.”
His grin widened, and he cupped a hand around my ass, squeezing gently as he pulled me closer. My mind reeled from the intimate touch.
“All right, Nalina. Just remember to breathe .”