Page 29 of Claimed By the Wild Orc
Working.
Thinking.
Meditating.
Maybe he did this to distract himself, to calm down in my presence.
There was something beautiful about his actions, his stoicness, his steadiness, his quietness.
Immovable.
Patient.
I watched the flicker of flame against his skin, the way his long fingers curled so carefully around the hilt of the knife.
Something inside me had cracked open.
Not all at once. Slowly. Quietly. Over days and moments and stolen glances. It was in the way he looked at me without expectation, in the gifts he gave without demand, in the way he held back when everything in him strained to take.
I couldn’t pretend anymore.
And I knew.
There was no going back. Not to the keep, not to that cold little room with the warped shutter and the silence that felt like suffocation. That life was gone. I was different now. My body had changed. My mind. My heart.
I rose, barefoot, the furs sliding from my lap, and crossed the stone floor with slow, steady steps.
He looked up.
He stopped humming.
His eyes tracked me, firelight catching in the green and gold. I saw his jaw tighten, but he didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He just watched, a quiet storm beneath the surface.
I didn’t say anything.
I straddled his lap.
His hands went still.
Slowly, he set the knife aside.
I reached for his face, fingers threading into his dark hair, and kissed him.
Hard.
Deep.
He growled against my mouth, a low, shuddering sound that vibrated through his chest and into mine. His hands gripped my thighs, holding me steady, his restraint snapping thread by thread.
He kissed me back like he’d been starving, like I was the only thing that could satisfy him.
I could feel the hard ridge of his arousal pressing up against me, thick and hot even through the layers of cloth. Gods, he washuge,but what did I expect? My breath hitched, not in fear, but in anticipation. He was big. Everything about him was, but the press of him didn’t terrify me.
It thrilled me.
I rocked against him, and his breath hissed through his teeth.
“You’re sure?” he asked, voice ragged, breaking at the edges.
