Page 26 of The Orc's Captive Bride
She needed to observe, analyze, and adapt. That mantra that had gotten her through countless difficult digs and hostile academic environments. She could apply it here too.
She adjusted her glasses, and smoothed down the oversized tunic that had ridden up during… during. Then she forced herself to take another look at her surroundings.
The main room held more than she’d initially noticed. A writing desk stood by one window, complete with paper and what looked like ink. Bookshelves lined the wall next to it, although they were currently empty. It almost reminded her of her first office, absent the lack of modern technology.
She walked into the bedroom. The enormous bed dominated the space, but there were other furnishings—a cushioned bench at the foot of the bed and a wardrobe carved with intricate designs. A mirror—actual silver-backed glass, expensive even in her world—was mounted on one wall.
There was also a door she hadn’t noticed before. She doubted it led to an escape route, but her pulse raced as she pushed it open.
A bathing room rather than a corridor, but a huge bathing room with an enormous tub beneath high stained glass windows.Silver-clad pipes suggested running water, and the towels draped across them even promised hot water.
Hot running water, in what appeared to be a medieval-level civilization, which meant either magic or extremely advanced engineering. Both possibilities were fascinating, but both were currently irrelevant.
What mattered was that she could bathe, actually bathe, for the first time since arriving in this world.
She returned to the bedroom and opened the wardrobe to reveal clothing—clothing designed for someone her size, rather than Khorrek’s cast-off tunic.
They were mostly dresses made out of soft fabrics in muted color, but they were undoubtedly expensive. She even found medieval style undergarments, along with stockings and slippers. It was everything she needed to look as if she belonged in this luxurious cage.
She pulled out the least complicated option, a simple blue shift, and carried it back to the bathing room. After some experimentation, she managed to get water flowing into the tub—blessedly hot water. Definitely magic.
She stripped off the tunic that smelled of horse and travel and Khorrek. She stood naked in the steam rising from the tub and let herself feel, just for a moment, the full weight of her situation. She was trapped in a castle in another world. She’d been summoned by a king for unknown purposes and separated from the one person who’d made her feel safe. She was still reeling from a kiss that had rearranged something fundamental in her understanding of desire.
And she had absolutely no idea what came next.
She stepped into the hot water and sank down until it covered her shoulders. The heat slowly seeped into muscles that had been protesting five days of hard riding.
One thing at a time. A bath first, and then clothing. And then…then I figure out the rest.
She found soap that smelled of lavender and something citrus. She worked it through her hair, scrubbing away dirt and grime, before attacking the rest of her body. But even as she washed, her mind kept returning to the kiss. To the way he had responded to her, and to the desperation in his grip. To the taste of him and the way he’d shuddered when she’d touched his ear.
To the look on his face when he’d pulled away—like he’d done something unforgivable.
Why?
The question had no answer, not yet. But she was good at finding answers to impossible questions. It was literally what she did for a living—taking fragments of information and reconstructing entire civilizations.
She could figure this out too. She would figure out what Lasseran wanted, and figure out what that kiss had meant and why Khorrek had fled from it.
She just needed time. And information.And possibly a miracle.
She dunked her head under the water, washing away the last of the soap. When she surfaced, she felt more human than she had in days.
All righty then.She climbed out of the tub, and used one of the impossibly soft towels to dry off. Whatever happened next, she’d face it clean, dressed, and ready to ask all the questions thatneeded asking. Including the most important question—will I see him again?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Khorrek’s feet carried him down the corridor with a speed that bordered on desperation.
Away. Get away.
Thea’s taste still lingered on his lips—sweet and foreign and wrong. Wrong because she was a human and he was an orc. Wrong because she was Lasseran’s property. Wrong because he hadn’t been able to control his body’s response to her. Wrong because it had felt so devastatingly right.
His Beast snarled, furious at the retreat, and demanding that he return and claim what was theirs.
No.
He shoved the thought down hard, and locked it behind the iron discipline that had been beaten into him since he was a child. His Beast was simply a weapon, not something to obey, especially not about this.
