Page 75 of Halfling
With a choked roar, Orek came apart, cock throbbing and pulsing in his hands as he lashed the ground with strips of pearly spend. He pulled everything he could from inside him, purged all the building lust and hope, and left it on the forest floor.
It glistened like wet spiderweb in the moonlight.
Forehead falling onto the tree beside him, Orek heaved gulping breaths. His panting echoed overloud in his ears as his body shook with the release, hand and cock hanging loosely against his thigh.
After a moment, he ground his forehead into the tree bark, welcoming the sting. It brought him back in increments to the forest, and with a few long draughts of crisp, pine-scented air, he managed to get ahold himself.
It was a shaky hold, but a hold nevertheless.
Rearranging himself, Orek trekked back to camp less hurriedly than he’d left, giving his knees and hands time to stop shaking from the force of his release.
His chest was still pulsing with his heartbeat when he stepped back into the firelight.
Sorcha sat cross-legged in her bedding, playing with Darrah. Cradled in her legs on his back, Darrah pawed at her hands as they swooped down to tickle his exposed, rounded belly. The kit made playful little growls, rolling about in her lap.
Fates, he was so jealous of that raccoon.
The sight shouldn’t have aroused him; he’d seen her play with Darrah plenty of times. At this rate, Sorcha could sneeze and his cock would kick in interest.
Orek settled back down at his place near the fire, wincing as the material of his braies rubbed against his semi-hard cock. He returned barely better than he’d left, except now he was overly sensitive, as if his skin was pulled too tightly over his flesh.
He’d have to wait for her to fall asleep and creep back into the forest. Quieter this time, since he couldn’t stray as far, not with her asleep.
It didn’t matter how hard he ached and throbbed, her safety came first.
When he looked up again, it was to find her watching him with an unreadable expression. Darrah half-heartedly gnawed on one of her fingers, eyes blinking heavily.
Orek cleared his throat. “Did you find the sock?”
Sorcha blinked. Blinked again. Cleared her own throat. “Oh…erm. Yes.”
Darrah didn’t like being in the basket during the day while they walked, preferring instead his usual roost on Orek’s shoulder or head, so Sorcha swung it in her hand and used it to collect anything that might interest her or the kit. As she scampered over to something else to look at, Orek shifted Darrah a bit.
“You’re getting too big for this,” he grumbled at the kit currently sitting on his head.
Darrah’s whiskers tickled his ear as the kit snuffled at his temple.
“You’re going to be too big for that basket any day now, too.”
Although far from full-grown, Darrah was coming to an age where Orek could almost watch him getting bigger by the moment. But the kit did enjoy the basket, and the children had been so adamant, they’d had to take it.
Cara and Anghus had been good enough to send them along with plenty more, as well. Dried meats and fruits, loaves of bread, a wedge of cheese, a new length of rope—and the coin purse Sorcha had given them for his help.
He and Sorcha had insisted that the couple keep the coins, but Cara and Anghus flatly refused.
“You were more than a help while here. We’re ahead of schedule on everything,”Cara had said, pressing the purse into Sorcha’s hands.
“Earned your keep,”Anghus summed up.
Sorcha had continued fretting, but in the end, they’d left with more than they’d arrived with. Orek was glad for the coins, though, if only because it continued their game. It sat in his pack now, having been hidden in his hood the night before. It also meant he’d have something to help provide for Sorcha on the rest of the journey.
He’d enjoyed his experiences at the farmstead—healing from a stabbing not withstanding—but he was happy to have Sorcha to himself again.
If he couldn’t have her kisses or pleasure or future, he at least could content himself with her undivided attention.
Sorcha returned to his side to show him what she’d found now. As they continued walking, she held up several rocks with green streaked through them.
“I think they’re malachite,” she said. “We find these and others like it sometimes around the house. Aunt Sofie likes to collect them. She has a way of knocking them open to see if there are crystals inside.” Sorcha scratched at the rocks with a nail to see if she could work any piece free and expose the green interiors.
