Page 108 of Halfling
Bitterness burned his tongue.
No,he told the beast,I can’t force her. I won’t.
The beast raged like an animal caught in a snare, but he forced it down, deep down, alongside all the hurts he’d just put away. They bubbled and brimmed in his mind, prodding the desperation that’d lodged like a knife in his gut.
“We should stop here for the night. Do the rest in the morning. It’d be better to arrive in the morning, I think—it’ll be such a shock and…” Sorcha’s hands fluttered as nervously as her words, and she quickly set about starting camp.
Orek followed her numbly, setting down his pack and building a fire. He watched her in a haze, her movements like a hummingbird, zipping from one place to the next and all flapping, fluttering feathers.
She made one bed as usual and sat and ate beside him. It would have been like any night since the cave were it not for the tense, nervous jerks of her every move or the way his panic encased him in a shell of ice. Even though Orek sat still, it felt as though he careened downward, caught in a freefall with no way to catch himself.
When there was nothing left to do but undress and get under the blankets, Orek sensed her tension ease a little. Sorcha looked up at him for the first time since they made camp, and he knew the heated look in her eyes.
His heart kicked against his ribs when she unlaced his jerkin and cast it aside. He watched her intently, searching for…somethingas he let her back him against the rocks.
That nervousness bled from her as she ran her hands up and down his chest, finally hooking the hem of his shirt to draw it off, too. She hummed happily at the sight of his bare chest and took her time kissing and nipping a line down his body.
Orek held onto her shoulders, a flicker of hope burning through the haze.
Getting on her knees, Sorcha peered up at him through her lashes as she unwound the laces of his braies. His cock sprang forth, hot and ready for her touch despite his panic. He’d always want her touch.
Her grin was lopsided when she took his cock in her hand and nuzzled it before licking a hot stripe up the underside.
Orek hissed, burying his fingers in her curls.
“One more night,” she said to him, every word teasing her lips against his cockhead, “so we’d best make the most of it.”
Her mouth was a hot well as it wrapped around him, tongue caressing the flared head, but Orek barely felt it.
Rage exploded inside him, a thunderclap of anger that scorched away everything in its path.
She’s saying goodbye.
He tried to calm himself with the reminder that he’d planned for this—secure some land near her and buy more time.
But he didn’t fucking wantland.
He wanted her.His mate.
And she was going to leave him.
“No,” Orek spat.
Sorcha stilled below him, eyes widening in surprise. She released his cock, and then he was hauling her up and setting her away from him.
Her face fell, lips parted in hurt.
“Not like this,” he growled.
“What?” she murmured. “Not like what?”
“I don’t want this as a goodbye.”I don’t want a goodbye at all.
The color drained from Sorcha’s face, and she stumbled a step back. “I didn’t mean—”
Everything in Orek went entirely still, breath held in his lungs, every muscle locked, readying for her to destroy him with what she said next.
Sorcha buried her face in her hands. “Fuck!” she yelped, then, on a groan, “I’m messing this all up.”
