Page 52 of The Orc's Innocent Plaything

“Lass, I’m no’ trying to embarrass ye. But what we did last night…”

Last night, and the night before, and the night before that. Vartok was fulfilling his role as a tutor with admirable enthusiasm. I was learning things about my body—and about his body—I had only imagined. Who knew there were so many parts which, when licked, could make my core flood with desire? Or mayhap such tricks only worked for him.

He’d ruined me for all other lovers.

“Myra—”

“I am well,” I announced firmly. “Well enough to ride.”

“If ye become too sore, ye’ll tell me?”

I lifted my chin and kept my attention on the path ahead.

“And what will you do, Vartok? Kiss it and make it better?”

The noise he made was somewhere between a choked laugh and an intrigued hum.

“I was planning on offering ye my lap to ride in, pet, but now ye’re giving me ideas of ways to spend my evening…”

That night, the night of the full moon, the night when Torvolk would be journeying back to the human’s world as the stones opened, we stayed in the home of one of his allies. Vartok did in fact kiss my soreness away with a thoroughness which had me crying out embarrassingly loud.

The next day we bargained for passage to Jura. The island was huge and populated by a few of the fiercer clans, butVartok assured me that we would not be considered threats since we were only there to gather herbs.

Still, as we led his horse—there was only space for the single animal on the small boat—across the beach, I saw him resettling his war hammer across his back, and I worried. Sea holly was available on the mainland. Should I have gathered some there? The quality would be better here, for certes, especially high on the slopes of the twin mountains the locals called the Tits… But was it worth it?

When he lifted me into the saddle to sit in front of him, in an effort to distract myself from worries about the dangers and how Avaleen was doing back home, I asked, “Which clans should I be worried about?”

He hummed and shifted me so I sat on his lap, snuggled against him.

“A sept of the Battleborn Clan have holdings here, separate from the villages on the mainland. They stage their raids from these shores. But ye will no’ worry about them, Myra. ‘Tis my job. Ye just look for our sea holly, aye?”

‘Twas easy for him to make such a command, but I’d grown up worrying. I wasgoodat it. I was used to being in charge, and that meant concerning myself?—

“I said stop worrying, pet,” Vartok breathed in my ear, as if he knew what I was thinking, and I sucked in a breath at the casual command.

When he called mepet, it meant he was thinking…thinking things of asexualnature. Our agreement was that in such things,hewas in command, and I was to obey him, unless I felt uncomfortable. Well, Lord knew I needed a distraction…

“Aye, Vartok,” I murmured dutifully, wriggling my arse against the hardness I felt under his kilt.

His little hum of approval had me smiling.

Not ten minutes had passed—we were off the beach now, with the horse carefully picking its way toward the north slope of the nearest mountain—when his hand rose. It had been resting on my thigh, but now he lifted it to cup my breast.

So casually.

As if ‘twashis. As if he had a right to touch me like this, where anyone could see.

While I was trying to decide if I was comfortable with this, he squeezed, and the rough touch had me melting backward against him, biting my lip to stifle my moan.

He seemed to not be paying me any attention—his other hand held the reins and he kept the horse pointed in the right direction—as he fondled me. That made his touch so much more arousing, truthfully.

And then his fingers rose, curling around the top of my bodice…and he pulled down. Between one breath and the next, my breasts went from being snugly covered by wool and linen…to being on display for the world to see. Had I not been wearing my cloak around my shoulders, I would have been half nude!

“Var—” I began, but his hand went back to my breast, and he caught my nipple between his thumb and forefinger and tugged on it sharply.

My word was swallowed in a sharp flood of arousal, and his dark chuckle told me he knew it.

I held my breath, barely aware of our surroundings as he fondled me,usingme in public for anyone to see. Granted, there appeared to be no one about, but if there were gawkers, I doubted I’d be able to see them; my attention was focused entirely on the huge male behind me, and what he was doing to my senses.

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