Page 99 of Halfling
“Yes!” she gasped. “Everywhere.”
He rumbled in pleasure at her answer. “Good. Hold onto me.”
She’d just thrown her arms around his neck when his hips slammed into hers, drawing another wail from her. His thrusts grew brutal, a delicious drag followed by a fullness so deep and intense, she had no choice but to come again.
Sorcha raked her nails down his back, and she felt the muscles bracketing his spine shudder. With a roar, Orek came, lashing her with ropes of spend that made her spiral into another release. The wet sounds of their bodies soon overtook the echo of his roar, and with one final thrust, Orek collapsed over her, holding his weight on his arms.
“My perfect female,” he mumbled into her neck as he licked and sucked at her skin.
Sorcha hummed in happiness, lifting her knees to cradle his hips. He was in no hurry to move, and she was content to hold him in her arms as her spent body buzzed with ripples of pleasure.
After a time, Orek placed one last kiss to the center of her chest then carefully withdrew from her. With a wetted kerchief, he gently cleaned her before wiping himself off much less carefully. Before rejoining her in their bed, he made sure to draw her shirt back down and rearrange the furs so she was covered in layers and layers of furs and blankets. She’d taken to sleeping just in her shirt, as braies got in the way of so manyopportunities, but she hardly needed the thin layer for warmth tucked tightly to the furnace of his naked body.
Orek laid down beside her and drew her into his arms. Sorcha buried her face in his chest, finding her favorite spot and sighing. He pressed soft kisses to her head and played with her hair as he’d become wont to do before falling asleep, twisting her curls lazily around his fingers.
It wasn’t long before she heard his breathing even out as he fell into sleep.
Sorcha, though, lay awake for a long while, tracing the strong lines of his throat with her drowsy gaze as his question from earlier tumbled through her mind, now no longer distracted by all those addicting kisses.
Would your lord sell land to someone like me?Her ears still rang with how much it’d startled her, and she hated that she’d nearly gone mute afterwards. Orek had been gracious enough not to press, but she wanted to roll up into an ashamed little ball for how she’d answered.
A question like that deserved more thought, more response. As she thought about it more, she almost wanted to shake him awake and ask,Why? Why would you do that? Does that mean you’ll stay?
She didn’t, though. Because while Sorcha wasn’t intimidated by much, it seemed her heart was a coward.
What if I don’t like his answer?
Sorcha could admit that in her quest to seduce her handsome halfling, she hadn’t quite considered what the end of the journey would bring for them. She’d wanted to claim him, to give him all the affection and pleasure he’d been denied. But what thatmeant, at least outside this forest, she hadn’t given much thought.
She’d never…truly considered what a future might look like with a man in it. All her past affairs had rarely risen above a dalliance, and those that had quickly fizzled when faced with the reality of her family. The Brádaighs were boisterous, proud, and numerous—and Sorcha adored them. She couldn’t leave her family, not again, and the men she’d been with hadn’t been willing to accept that. They hadn’t felt like much of a loss when they left her, and Sorcha’s heart had never been in danger.
Not like it was now.
Sorcha burrowed further against Orek, almost under him as they lay holding each other. She pressed her face into the searing warmth of his neck and shoulder, feeling his sleepy rumble as his body shifted, even in sleep, to pull her closer.
She loved it, loved that it felt like he couldn’t get his fill of her. Despite her lackluster response to his question, he’d spent the rest of the evening torturing her with kisses. He made love to her just as thoroughly and confidently as he did all other things, and it was both thrilling and terrifying to be the sole focus of all that intensity. She loved it. And she loved that when it was over, when they both lay spent in a tangle of limbs, he always took care of her.
It took her breath away, watching him care for her like that. Few of her partners before had. None had wrapped her up in their arms, tucked her head under their chin, and sighed with pure pleasure into her hair, like they were exactly where they always wanted to be. Perhaps it spoke more to the caliber of her past partners, but Sorcha hadn’t really sought such things from those men.
With Orek, she craved the tenderness and care as much as she did the heat and passion. She wanted his soft looks as much as his dirty talk. She wanted to hold his hand and snuggle late into the morning and laugh over meals together. She loved all of it.
She’d sorely miss it when it was gone.
She’d misshimfiercely when they reached Granach and he left her.
But he doesn’t intend to leave,her heart whispered.Why else would he ask about land?
Her heart, that foolish, hopeful organ, thumped in her chest. Inexplicable tears stung her eyes, and she closed them against the sudden wish to cry.
She didn’t want to give up this beautiful thing growing between them. Delicate as butterfly wings and just as beautiful, she worried clasping it too tight, wanting to hold on too much would crush it. She had him now and would enjoy every moment, but to hope for any more than that…
Did orcs even do something like marry or take partners? All she’d ever heard of them were the tales told about their viciousness and cruelty. It was hard to imagine a race so brutal, that took captives and slaves and used them in the most horrific ways, in loving partnerships.
Orek himself was the result of such horrible violence. Was that how all orclings were made? Did most males roam the wilderness, hunting and providing for the clan, only taking bedfellows, willing or not, to slake a need? Did they take a new partner every season like harpies, or collect harems like sirens?
What if he prefers to be on his own?
He’d been alone most of his life, a solitary hunter always moving. While her company may be welcome, a whole household of siblings, as well as her parents, and not to mention the busy stables they ran full of horses and grooms and clients, was another matter. It wasn’t the life for everyone.My own father never stayed for long.
