Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eric
This was my first night alone with Hailey, and I was freaking out.
We had been dancing around the attraction between us for days, and even now, I wondered if I was moving too fast, but I was an orc.
I could smell her desire when she looked at me.
I could taste it on the air. I knew she wanted me, but was it enough?
A knock on the door shook me from my thoughts, and I walked over to get our food delivery from Louis’s front porch.
I’d ordered Turkish takeout because Hailey had mentioned it was her favorite cuisine, and my plan was to eat it in the living room around the coffee table while we watched her favorite rom-coms. That was romantic, right?
Maybe I should have tried candlelight and smooth jazz.
I didn’t want her to feel like she was missing out on something integral.
If she’d been another orc, I would have hunted for her for three weeks and then produced a bounty of cured meats and furs when I asked her to allow me to court her.
Well, that was what they did in Europe. In North America, most clans were more like my father’s.
They didn’t court. They barely asked permission.
I doubted Hailey would like skins and cured meats. Well, humans like charcuterie boards, so maybe the cured meats would have been okay. I made a note to buy salami at the deli tomorrow on my way home from work.
“That smells amazing,” she called from the living room, and I carried the paper sacks into the living room and spread them across the coffee table.
She’d queued up a creature led rom-com about a dragon who fell in love with a jeweler and slowly brought her his entire hoard.
It was cute, though I’d only ever seen snippets of it.
She made a happy humming noise as she picked up some bread and dunked it in the hummus.
“This is so good,” she said with a full mouth, which should have been gross, but I grew up around orcs.
If talking with their mouths full was the only impolite thing they did, I might not be so fucked up.
She swallowed the mouthful and frowned. “I should tell you something the guys found out today, and I swear I wasn’t hiding it, I just…
try not to think about it too much anymore. ”
“Okay.”
“My parents were killed in the riots.” She didn’t need to specify which riots. It was etched into the memories of everyone who lived here in Central Valley. “They were part of the preservers of humanity movement.”
I slumped back against the couch cushions. “Your parents were PHM?”
She shrugged. “My parents were junkies. They loved meth and themselves, and not much else, but somewhere in their crack-addled brains, they thought the problems with the world were because of creatures, and not because of their dealers who kept feeding them drugs they couldn’t pay for, despite having a kid at home who was starving so badly, she was eating grass in the overgrown backyard. ”
My chest ached at the bitterness in her voice and the pain she was trying to hide behind nonchalance.
“My dad beat my lover to death right in front of me. I’m not going to judge you on the sins of your parents, Hailey,” I told her softly, lifting my hand to brush her hair behind her ear.
“They sound awful, but you survived. That’s the only part of your history that matters to me. ”
She let out a long breath. “That’s good. I promise I have no more secrets, and I’m not harboring some loyalty to the PHM or anything like that.”
I almost snorted at the idea that Hailey would attend anti-creature rallies. “I believe you.”
“Good,” she said, reaching out to grab my hand then turning back to the TV. I picked up a kofte and popped it in my mouth.
She continued to watch the movie as she said, “You know, Louis isn’t home, so there’s nothing stopping us from taking this to the next level.”
I gasped, choking on my meat, until she slapped me gently on the back. I swallowed the now regurgitated meat. “The next level?” I repeated dumbly.
She turned to look at me. Her cheeks were pink on her pale skin, but her eyes were heated. “A more physical level.”
I blinked and blinked again. “You want to have sex?”
Why did I sound like a fucking virgin? I’d had plenty of sex in my life with men, women, humans, creatures, and other orcs. I wasn’t some kind of bumbling innocent, but I’d never had sex with my bonded mate before, and it was making me nervous.
She paused the movie and turned to face me. “You don’t want to? Have I read this all wrong?”
My orc was screaming inside my head. Somehow, I had her off the floor and on the couch in a move so fast, I barely remembered moving. She let out a soft whoosh of air. “Fuck, Hailey. I’ve thought about making love to you every day for months. I just didn’t want to rush you.”
I stayed kneeling on the floor between her thighs, and she leaned down to kiss me. Her lips were the softest thing I’d ever felt, and I could kiss her for hours if she let me, but my little mate was greedier, and she was already clawing at my shoulders, trying to pull me up into her body.
“Not yet, sweet mate. First, I want to taste you. No, I fucking need to taste you. I’ve dreamed about how you’d feel against my tongue. Please,” I begged. I wasn’t above pleading.
I pushed at the hem of her dress, and she lifted her perfect little ass so I could bunch it around her hips. She was wearing a pair of cheeky lace panties, and I wanted to rub my nose over the soft blue lace. I looked up at her, hoping I didn’t appear as desperate as I felt. “Yes?”
“Please, Eric,” she murmured, and that was the only encouragement I needed to give into my more primal urges. I was going to pleasure her on my tongue until she couldn’t think of anything but my name and the urge for more.
I rubbed my nose and lips over her lace-covered core, rumbling my pleasure at her scent, her taste, and her gasp.
She was perfect. She was everything. Hooking my fingers beneath the edge of her underwear, I pulled them down her thighs until her damp, pink folds were revealed like a gift on my birthday.
That was the last rational thought I had. I buried my face between her thighs, my tusks sitting perfectly to keep her spread, like she was made to ride my face.
“Oh fuck, Eric!” she exclaimed as I plunged my tongue inside her, my nose bumping that little bud of pleasure.
My cock was achingly hard in my pants, and I pressed it against the couch for some friction.
Reaching down, I popped the button on my dress slacks before I decapitated the head of my cock on my waistband.
Hailey gripped my hair tightly, and I moaned against her sensitive skin.
She panted something incoherent, and her fingers flexed until I was sure she would rip out a handful of my hair.
I loved it. Every single minute was perfect, and when she gushed all over my face, her pleasure echoed through me and our burgeoning bond, making my aching cock explode all over the couch.
I collapsed forward, burying my face in her lower belly, kissing the soft flesh reverently. “You’re so perfect,” I whispered, shivering as she scraped her nails against my scalp. She tilted my face up so I could see the pleasure in her eyes.
“So are you. Come up here so I can kiss you,” she slurred softly.
She looked dazed, and I had never felt prouder.
I pushed up until I knelt on the edge of the couch and could cage her beneath me.
I kissed her with so much unhinged passion, I hoped it left no doubt that I belonged to her mind, body, and soul.
After the greatest kiss of my life, with the taste of her release still on my tongue, she finally pulled back, gasping. “Take me to bed.”
I didn’t trust my voice as I reached down, picked her up in my arms, and carried her to her room. If I spoke, I’d say things she wasn’t ready to hear just yet… things that would probably freak her out.
I placed her gently in the middle of the bed and stared at her with her flushed cheeks and wild curls, and I wondered if I was looking down at her like I loved her. I had no chill whatsoever. Every emotion I felt for her was white hot.
“Take off your clothes,” she ordered softly, and I grinned.
She didn’t have to ask twice for anything for the rest of our lives.
I’d removed my jacket and tie earlier, and as I unbuttoned my vest, she sighed.
“You have no idea what those three-piece suits do to me…” She trailed off and bit that full bottom lip that I wanted to suck between my teeth.
Removing my vest, I made faster work of my dress shirt buttons, and then I flicked the waist of my pants open. She watched each movement with an almost predatory focus until I stood in front of her with my tight boxer briefs barely concealing the last remnants of my modesty.
The dick print was probably insane, and my cock head was basically playing peekaboo above my waistband. She let out a whooshing breath. “You are so fucking sexy,” she murmured, sitting up so she could shed her dress.
I shook my head, because how could she say that when she was sitting there in the middle of the bed like a fucking angel? Better than an angel, because they could be pompous assholes. No, she was a vision, an artist’s muse. She was sunshine.
For too long, we just stared at each other, and then I knelt on the edge of the bed and crawled toward her. I laid my body over hers and kissed her possessively, pulling away only long enough to murmur words in orcish that I wasn’t brave enough to say in a human dialect yet.
I loved her. She was the other half of my soul. I would adore her forever.
I kissed every inch of her skin as her sweet little human nails pressed tightly into the muscles of my shoulders, and her gasps clouded against my skin.
At some point I’d kicked off my underwear, and there was nothing between us but hot skin and promises of forever.
“Eric,” she pleaded, and I knew what she wanted.
I wanted it more than anything too. Clutching the pocket of my pants, I pulled out a condom and slid it on.
I hadn’t had any of the important conversations with Hailey yet, and I could protect her until we got to that point.
I notched against her sweet little pussy and groaned.
“You’re so fucking big,” she whispered as I gently pressed forward. “How is that even going to fit?” She was teasing, but I wondered if there was some real worry there.
“Slow and steady, sweetheart. We have eternity.” I played with her clit as I rubbed up and down her slit, gathering her wetness.
Finally, I gently pushed in, inch by inch, until I slid home with a release I felt in the very marrow of my bones.
We both groaned, and I moved slowly, my hands on her hips as I sat back on my heels.
I needed to go slowly, even though every part of me wanted to pound into her, to remake her tight little channel in the shape of my cock.
Finally, she wrapped her legs around my ass and pulled me tightly against her.
“Faster,” she moaned. I thanked every deity that had ever forsaken my kind as I gripped her ass in both hands and held her still as I thrust into her like this might be the last time.
I wished I was part snake shifter so I could bend in half and suck her clit, but instead, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand down so she could play with herself as I worked on holding back my release.
I wanted her to come at least twice before I found my own end.
Maybe three times. It was the least she deserved.
“Fuck, Eric, fuck,” she rasped, and then her perfect little body clenched on my cock. I gritted my teeth, thrusting through her orgasm, even as she screamed my name.
“One more, mate. Give me one more.” I kept up my rhythm, grabbing her thigh and lifting her ankle over my shoulder until I hit all new places, bottoming out.
The bond between us lit up like a Christmas tree, and when she came again, I finally let go, grunting like the monster I was as I shot my load inside her.
I wanted to paint her cervix with my cum, wanted her big and round with my young—primal, bullshit reactions that had no place in a bond this new, but one day.
Pulling out, I collapsed beside her, burying my face in her throat. We said nothing for a moment, just panting as I tried to rearrange my very soul around hers.
She said, “That was…” finally breaking the silence. “Will it always be that good?”
I hid my smirk in her throat, inhaling her deeply. “Hopefully it’ll be better.”
“I’m not sure my synapses can cope with better.”
Leaning over, I kissed her softly. I was so lucky she was mine. “We’ll work up to it. My only job in life is to make you happy, and if the suits don’t give me away, I take my job very” —I kissed her jaw— “very” —her neck— “seriously.”
I showed her just how dedicated to my job I was another two times before we finally fell into a deep, contented sleep.