Page 63 of The Orc's Rage

Gently he released her, then slid his arms under Cedar’s small body. She let out a squeak as he lifted her up and stepped out of the tub. He pulled down one of the warm furs hanging near the fire, then wrapped it around her as he set her down on the bed. Cedar blinked up at him in surprise as he used it to whisk the water off her, trailing it down each of her arms and then her legs. When he was finished, Kargorr used another one on himself, then retrieved both and hung them back up to dry.

When he returned to the bed, Cedar sat with her arms over her chest like she had the very first night they were in his tent together. She was hiding herself from him.

Instead of demanding that he see her, as he wanted, Kargorr sat down near her with his legs hanging off the bed. He pulled the bear’s head into his lap, examining the nose, the ears, the empty eye sockets.

“You thought of me while I was away,” he said at last, not looking at her. He continued petting it, feeling the soft fur.

After a time, she answered with a soft, “Yes.”

He nodded. Just as he had thought of her while he was gone.

“Thank you, little deer.” He held up the pelt, admiring the craftsmanship. “This is beautiful.”

She was silent. When he looked up, her eyes were red and wet around the edges. She gritted her teeth together as she met his gaze. He had never seen such hardness, never such searing, bare anger in her.

“You ruined everything,” she ground out, and the harshness of her words startled him. “You ruined it all!”

Her honesty took him aback. Kargorr studied her, how she covered herself, how she tried to hold back her tears, and knew she was right.

He brought in a deep, calming breath. Seeing hisyapirawith such misery and hate on her face... it made him ache, like a wound that wouldn’t heal.

“I know.” That was all he could say. He wanted to ask if he could ever undo what he’d done, but he already knew the answer.

She might forgive him, perhaps someday. But she would never forget, and there was no apology that could mend this scar.

Cedar

Lord Kargorr watched her for a long time, the bear pelt in his arms. Then, without answering, he set it aside at the foot of the bed. He turned to her, his brows drawn tight, and reached out to curl his fingers around hers. Then he brought her hand to his lips and pressed them there, fervently, as if he hoped she could feel what he felt through them.

She was warm, so warm inside from their bath, from the way he’d held her in his lap. Just this touch set a fiery blaze to her skin, and all the hairs on her exposed body stood up on end. Slowly, he kissed further up, on her wrist, turning her arm over so he could pepper another one on the inside of her elbow. Cedar felt helpless, unable to move or speak as he leaned forward, leaving another on her shoulder, and then her collarbone. When he reached her jaw, he was still clutching her hand tightly in his, the tips of his claws pressing gently into her wrist.

He stopped just before touching his mouth to hers. There, Kargorr looked at her, long and hard, his black eyes seeing through her like she was a brook of crystal-clear water. She bit her lip, resisting the need to bridge the gap between them. The ghost of a smile touched his cheek, and then he pressed his mouth to hers.

But he didn’t devour her. No, Kargorr took his time, sampling her, taking her lip between his and sucking on it gently, his hand never letting hers go. He gripped it even closer to him, and Cedar felt herself sagging into him. He steadied her with one arm on her hip, and despite his loose, languid kisses, his claws clutched her tightly. When his tongue gently laved over the crease of her lips, she parted them, allowing him to slip through.

Still, he didn’t invade, as he often had. Kargorr simply caressed the space, pulling her ever more deeply into him. If she wasn’t careful, he would swallow her up—and yet she wanted it, in that place below her heart where all her rotten desires lay.

It was her tongue that reached out, hungry for his touch. Kargorr welcomed it, greeting the tip with his own, circling it and cupping it. Cedar’s need grew as his teasing shed sparks upon her kindling, and soon the debris caught fire. She found her hand around his neck, pulling him in closer, insisting that he kiss her deeper. She was rewarded with a rumble in his chest, something between a chuckle and a groan.

At last, Kargorr gave in, slipping his tongue into her mouth and claiming it as his own. Cedar barely noticed when he dragged her toward him across the bed and the power of his kiss pushed her down into the furs. Still he held her hand, his thick, wide fingers twining with hers. He didn’t let it go as his body settled over her, his thighs trapping her hips between them. She felt the wet tip of his cock skate over her belly, but he didn’t move to use it. Instead, he drew himself back, releasing her mouth from his assault.

Now he rose high above her, his tusks catching the firelight, his broad chest heaving with his labored breaths. Those dark eyes traveled down her naked body, and she couldn’t mistake the raw thirst in them. He crouched down over her and kissed along her cheek, down her neck to the hollow of her throat, earning an involuntary twitch in her hips. All while her heart beat frantically in her chest, her pussy already tingling, steadily warming for him.

With a painful slowness, he continued down, circling each breast with his lips but never touching her nipples. Cedar’s back arched of its own accord, desperate for more, and at last he relented. He took one hardened point into his mouth, curling his tongue around it, then flicking back and forth, until she couldn’t stop the gasps that fell from her lips. Still, he took his time, traveling from one to the other, torturing both of them with his easy touches. She sensed his hand slide down her hip to her belly, the softened tips of his fingers smoothing over it to the thatch of hair at the crux of her thighs.

And still, he only teased, only hinted at what he could give her, and Cedar was steadily tipping into the well of her desire. Soon, she would fall and crash to the bottom.

Kargorr

His Cedar needed delicacy. She needed courting, and tantalizing, and slow deliberation. But he would convince her, tugging on each of the strings of her unfulfilled cravings, until she finally unraveled.

She was hisyapira, so he knew her body almost as well as he knew his own. He would find her wet when he at last reached her warm center, but he would wait as long as possible until she was starved for his touch. Only then would he offer her satisfaction. Now, he would build her want into a mountain and then climb it to the peak.

When at last her nipples were well-loved, Kargorr redirected his attentions to her soft belly, where he pictured their orcling curled up inside. He wondered what sort of orc it would be. A girl with bloodlust in her veins? A boy with a talent for metalworking? Perhaps someone else, someone just as fierce as their mother? It made his cock engorge even further, considering the future, this world where perhaps Cedar had forgiven him and he could care for them both as he meant to.

As his kisses swept south, so did Cedar’s body rise off the bed against him, urging him onward. He only traced the inside of her thighs, which parted for him without any insistence, foreshadowing what he could do if he moved only a few inches up. His clawless fingers circled closer and closer, and when a quiet whimper fell from her lips, he couldn’t resist any longer.

With a ferocious growl, he swept his fingers to the soft, warm place between her legs. Her hips bucked into his hand, driving him into her folds, where he was astonished to find exactlyhowwet she was for him. It filled her creases and dripped down from the bowl of her cunt, spilling to her ass. Kargorr’s cock leapt, longing for nothing more than to feel that wetness around it, to give her empty body what it so clearly wanted from him—but he had more to do. He had much still to show her, to convince her hard shell to soften and crack for him.

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