Page 8 of First Comes Orc, Second Comes Baby
No, what she needed to learn was how to roll with it, not suppress it. But could anyone blame her? She snuck back to the tab with the Orc’s photo.
No. . .no one sane would blame her. It was why she hadn’t shown her twin Brahnt’s picture. Caro would have immediately put her foot down. Brahnt was a therapy session in a still photo waiting to happen, no matter what glowing reputation Orcs had for cherishing their wives. In fact—
“Charlotte?”
Charlotte jerked, almost knocked over her mug of herbal tea, and caught it in time. Which, unfortunately, meant she let go of her phone—zoomed into the Orc’s headshot.
“I see you are, indeed, Charlotte,” the voice said, a thread of amusement in it.
Charlotte froze, realizing she was somehow halfway out of her seat, and looked up. She tried to save the moment by straightening as if she'd intended on standing the entire time, and defaulted to shoving a hand towards the man, who looked at Charlotte, looked at the hand, and lifted a brow.
“Surely we can do better,” Brahnt Stonefist said, his voice smooth, and still amused.
“Oh. . .sure.” Charlotte gave a weak smile, mostly because her knees were shaking, and not because she wasn't insanely, instantly, unreasonably and detrimentally to her health attracted.
Blue-gray eyes that were the death of all Charlotte’s good intentions glinted at her.
Glinted.
She'd always wondered, reading Caro’s romance novels, how eyes glinted in real life. She now understood.
Brahnt extended an arm, though there wasn't much space between them, and wrapped it around Charlotte’s upper back, pulling her into a slow, friendly hug.
Friendly because Brahnt’s hold was light, and their hips were at a socially acceptable distance. But the hug lasted three seconds too long because Charlotte was counting.
Five seconds was the socially acceptable minimum unless you wanted to send “ick” signals, eight seconds to demonstrate you'd had a successful first date.
This was an eleven second hug.
Of course she was making all of this up in order to cope, but still.
Charlotte’s abdomen clenched. She hadn’t had caffeine—god, she didn’t need it—but her body began to tremble like she’d downed Pedro Pascal’s iced quad espresso with six shots.
And then Snowkiss barked.
The eyes that were glinting, darkened. Brahnt pulled away and looked at Charlotte’s feet. “You brought your pet with you.”
Uh, red flag number one, and she needed one right now considering her heart rate was accelerating. “You don't like pets?”
Brahnt paused.
Charlotte liked a man who thought before he spoke. So. . .downgrade the red to an orange flag? That it indicated Brahnt was searching for the answer he thought Charlotte wanted to hear, was not so great. But then, if one put a positive spin on it, that meant Brahnt cared about what Charlotte thought. So another spin on the side of positive—for caring.
“I don't mind pets.” Brahnt transferred his gaze back to Charlotte. “But as with all untamed creatures, they require a firm hand when they're misbehaving.”
Ohgeeze.Unfair.
When Brahnt's eyebrows rose, Charlotte realized she'd said that out loud.
After a beat of silence, Brahnt gestured. “Should we sit?”
Can I sit on your lap?
She managed not to say that out loud though.
Brahnt smiled at her anyway, a slow unfurling of lips that showed white, shining teeth. “Do you like what you see?”
Charlotte blinked. It was a forward question from an Orc, but then she realized Brahnt was staring down at the smartphone. Charlotte slapped her hand over the screen, though it was far, far too late.
