Page 82 of The Orc Chief's Baker
TRINIA
Those were the most words she had ever heard him speak, and they made her stomach do flips and her heart fluttered like it had grown wings.
“W-well.” She couldn’t break eye contact. Blast, what was happening to her? Her head felt all muddled. “Thank you. That’s really sweet of you to say.”
A satisfied look flooded his features, and all her breath left her in a rush.
The teapot on the stove began to squeal.
Brovdir backed away from her in an instant, looking almost as if he was unnerved by his show of confidence. She was farlessunsettled. In fact, she felt like she was soaring. Excitement bubbled up in her chest and heated her through.
The second round together was going to be fun.
Her gut twisted up as she adjusted the teapot. It wasn’t supposed to befun. This was an agreement. A business deal. She couldn’t let herself get attached. Not to him. Or to the baby.
She could do this.
She ignored her reservations about the cracked cup and its ability to hold anything heftier than air as she poured the tea and added the honey.
Brovdir had sat down at the table, and she walked over with the mug. “Here.” His brows furrowed with confusion as she placed it in front of him. “Drink up.”
He picked up the cup and downed a large gulp.
“Biscuits and jam, not that fast! You’ll burn your tongue.” She rushed to the tap to get cold water on a cloth and went back to him. “Stick out your tongue.”
He did so without any hesitation, displaying the large, dark green tongue that had given her so much pleasure just a few moments ago.
She flushed so much she could feel it in her neck and shoulders, then tried to distract from it by patting his tongue with the cloth. Brovdir sat stock-still with wide eyes and simply let her.
After a moment that wasfartoo long, it dawned on her how absolutely ridiculous this was. Why had Brovdir not taken the cloth from her? Why had he justlether pat down his tongue like this?
“Is... is that better?” she asked. Fades almighty,pleasesay yes.
“N-oh bhur-nh.”
She was a complete ninny. She took the cloth away from his mouth. “What was that?”
“No burn.”
“What?” Her voice was too shrill, and it made Brovdir blink. “You aren’t burned? Then why did you let me put a cool cloth on your tongue?”
“You . . . ordered it.”
“I did not order it! I was trying to help you.”
His face fell. “I apologize.”
Blast it all. She didn’t want to make him feelbad. “You don’t need to apologize. I should apologize to you! I’m the one who forced myself on you.”
He quirked an amused brow at her.
“You know what I mean.” She was going to burn to cinders from embarrassment. “You don’t have to be so obedient all the time.”
He tipped his head at her in that way that made her heart swell. “Don’t want me obedient?”
Ohfuck, why did that make her stomach go all quivery? “W-well, I don’t—I mean?—”
He took a deep inhale. Too deep. His brows rose.
