Page 52 of Enchanted with the Orc
She ducked her head, a shy smile spreading across her face, and she nodded. “Yeah. I can be patient. And so can Gabbi. She’s… needed a father. And I know it’s a lot to ask—”
“It’s not,” I murmured, reaching out to run my thumb over her chin until she tilted her hair back to look up at me. “It’s nothing. From the moment she first called me Abu, she’s been a daughter to me. I just don’t want to cross any boundaries with you that you don’t want me to. Tell me you’ll let me know.”
Her smile turned into a mischievous grin. “Are you bossing me around right now? After talking about boundaries?”
My eyebrows went up as I shrugged. “I’m a little more bossy with you than you’re probably used to,” I sighed, scrubbing my free palm over the back of my neck. “Sorry.”
She bit her lower lip, drawing my gaze there. “I like it,” she whispered, moving closer, her luscious breasts pressing against my chest. But beforeI could lean down to kiss her the way I wanted to, she turned from me, already meeting the little rocket that was our daughter, lifting her into her arms.
“Are you guys kissing?” Gruk-ir asked, looking between us, her face expressionless.
Tasia gave me a worried look, that cute furrow between her eyebrows and I felt panic rising inside of me.
What the hell were we supposed to say to our daughter?
“I was thinking about it,” Tasia explained. “But I wasn’t sure that was okay. Can I kiss Abu?”
That word out of her mouth started an ache in my chest—one that was so sweet, I didn’t know if I could call it pain—and an inconvenient rush of blood to my cock. I prayed to every God that I could that Gruk-ir didn’t look down.
“Yes,” our daughter said with a firm nod. “Because friends can kiss.”
It was my turn for my brow to furrow. “Wait, what the hell does that mean? Have you kissed that little centaur?” I demanded and she giggled hard, launching herself from her mother’s arms into mine. I caught her, holding her up and giving her a stern look, but it was as if she knew mine was meaningless.
“Yes,” she announced. “When he told me it was his birthday. I kissed him.” She nodded, and then smacked a kiss on my cheek. “Like that.”
Relief swept through me, and the breath that I’d been holding left my body in a slow hiss. “Okay, that’s fine. I still don’t like it,” I told her with what I hoped was the expression of a firm disciplinarian—although based on the way she was laughing, I doubted it. “But cheeks are fine.No lips.”
“Lips means more than friends, right?” she asked in a sweet voice.
I nodded, wondering where she was going with that. “You haven’t kissed anyone on the lips have you?” I asked, worry tearing through me. She was too little. Too innocent. And I couldn’t handle the thought.
“Mommy,” she said with a nod. The relief almost took me to my knees again.
“Good,” I nodded. “It’s okay to kiss Mommy, butno one else, okay?” I questioned her, hoping she would agree.
“Okay,” she answered with a flippant shrug that didnothingto cure me of the stress that I was certain was going to plague me for the rest of my days.
“Not until you get married,” I told her.
“I’m going to marry Jael,” she said with another shrug.
I looked at Tasia with what I was certain was pure horror on my face and saw her doubled over with laughter. Betrayal was quick and true.
“You’renotmarrying that little centaur,” I told her, ready to start the lecture I had planned on why all males couldn’t be trusted except me and her uncles.
“Is kissing on the lips okay if you’re going to get married?” she asked me, her curiosity souring some of my plan.
“Yes, but you can’t get married until you’re older,” I told her, starting up again, taking a deep breath.
“Then you and Mommy can kiss on the lips, since you’re going to get married,” she told me with a firm nod and it deflated me, the breath leaving me in a hiss that ended in a wheeze. A punch to the gut would have been less shocking. I looked over at Tasia who wasn’t laughing anymore. Her jaw was dropped and her eyes were huge in her face as it was now her turn to stare—with obvious horror—at our daughter.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Enka
Icovered my mouth so my grin wouldn’t show as Tasia tried to change the subject so quickly that it was the most obvious thing I’d ever seen. It was very cute and I loved seeing her a little flustered. It made me want to kiss her until she calmed down.
After all, our daughter knows we’re going to getmarried.
