Page 11 of Marked By the Wild Orc

I stand up. “Okay, I’m done with dinner.”

He waves a huge hand over towards the closet. “Why don’t you go ahead and get your pay for this last week.”

I open the closet and then I discover the huge safe in the office holds ridiculous piles of cash. I count out one-hundred-dollar bills in the correct amount, not particularly happy that I’ll be out in public, carrying that amount of cash on me. Then I sit back down to show him and double check it’s correct. “Let me guess, orcs don’t use banks either,” I grumble, half joking.

“No, we don’t.”

I drop my face in my hands. “I can’t believe this. You can’t pay me with cash for forever. I want to be able to declare this job on my taxes like a normal person.”

“I never had to pay taxes because I wasn’t a citizen and was instead taxed by my tribe. Also, I only recently moved into this store. Prior to this I ran my business out of my commune. Human business practices are foreign to me.”

“Maybe you need an actual CPA.”

“What?”

“An accountant. Or a bookkeeper.”

“No, I do not want more humans I do not know meddling in my business. And I donotmake fun of your dream to write and publish romance books, therefore you cannot make fun of my lack of banking.”

“This is different. You have been losing money by not investing your profits. And anyone could steal from you.”

“You wouldn’t steal from me.”

“Of course I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean that…” I wave a hand.

He looks truly affronted, stands up and starts pacing. “Are you suggesting that customers or employees would steal from me? No one here would steal from me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Are you trying to say that Oreg and Doril would steal from me?”

I stand up and move closer. “I’m telling you it’s stupid to leave your money sitting in this safe or I’m guessing under your mattress at home, not gaining interest and leaving it exposed to theft.”

His forehead lowers and his lips thin. “I’m not stupid.”

Now we’re close, too close, and dammit, he smells so good. I lean forward and poke a finger against his bare chest. “It doesn’t feel good to be called stupid, does it?”

“Hey,” a deep voice rings out from the open doorway.

I drop my hands and look over my shoulder.

“Can you two stop fighting and get ready for work?” Oreg growls. “All three of us have a busy day. Our next group of customers arrives for their appointments in five minutes.”

I instantly calm down, a bit embarrassed at how this must look. What is it about this orc that gets me so riled up? I’m normally known as calm and levelheaded.

“Get to work,” Talon orders with a low growl.

“Yep.” And I’m out the door, taking my position at the front counter.

Chapter 4

Talon

Two months later….

I’ve been living in the midst of a hellscape wherein I am becoming attracted to a human female I cannot claim. Each day that passes makes it worse.

I wasn’t attracted at first, simply intrigued at this beautiful female that Kavin had charged me to take care of for him. I needed a new employee and she’s proven good at her job.

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