Page 13 of Obeying the Orc
“Nothing I feel comfortable repeating.”
“Hm. You planning on going upstairs tonight, priest?” She laughed. “If you are, might I recommend myself? I haven’t been with a priest since I left the Northern Isle of Glasstros.” She waggled her eyebrows and leaned down as she passed over the wine, providing me with an ample view of her generous bosom. “I have some very wicked things to confess, some very naughty things I ought to be punished for.”
I didn’t know how to answer. Had I so completely lost my senses that her offer had me considering what it might be like to join with a female? I wasn’t a priest anymore. I was just a male. A male who had needs just like all the other males who were here enjoying all The Sweet Siren had to offer.
Not for the first time today, Natalee’s pretty face flashed in my mind.
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her?
Feeling myself flush with my thoughts, I mumbled a vague response to Floura and took a sip of wine. A male seated nearby looked at his glass and chuckled, then downed a double shot of whiskey and ordered another. I liked the taste of whiskey but didn’t want a repeat of my last experience with the strong liquid, so I drank my wine and glanced over my shoulder at the stage in the main room. As the man on piano started a new tune, three sirens shimmied around on stage, occasionally lifting their gowns and petticoats to flash their stocking-clad legs and even a few inches of bare thigh.
A familiar face floating through the crowd suddenly caught my attention. I stared at the young female with gold-streaked auburn hair, instantly recognizing the beautiful woman I’d enjoyed a picnic with during my last trip to town. Mrs. Natalee Oakbees, who was recently widowed. I’d thought about her often, but I’d been absent long enough that I’d assumed she had already gotten married. Pretty young women didn’t stay single for long in a town like Faircross.
What was she doing here? The last time we’d spoken, she was staying with the Foxthornes. Surely she couldn’t still be living with them if she was working here. I doubted the prudish Mrs. Foxthorne would allow it. Furthermore, if shehadgotten married, as I’d assumed, no sane male would allow his wife to work at The Sweet Siren either.
I observed as Natalee moved gracefully through the crowd, serving drinks. She disappeared for a few minutes and returned with two steaming plates of food, which she placed in front of two fae males seated at one of the larger tables against a wall. Her hair was piled in an elegant updo, with curls falling around her face. She smiled now and then at the patrons, but she didn’t do anything overly flirtatious. In fact, though her dress was low cut, her breasts weren’t spilling out like most of the other females who worked here.
Gods, she was even more breathtakingly gorgeous than I remembered.
When she looked up from talking to one of the sirens, our eyes met from across the crowded room. Her face paled, and she immediately turned and bolted for what I assumed was the kitchen area.
Ignoring Floura’s question about whether I wished for another drink, I quit the bar and crossed to where Natalee had disappeared. I made to walk into the kitchen, but a tall half-orc female stepped in my path.
“Out! Shoo!” She glared at me with her hands on her hips. “No patrons in my kitchen. Shoo! Don’t make me call Trevonn. He’ll crush your kneecaps with one good kick from his hooves. Seen ’em do it over a dozen times, I have. Last week, he made a grown fae male cry.”
“Wait. Please, I’m looking for a female. Natalee. Mrs. Natalee Oakbees. I saw her come back here.” I tried to peer around the cook, but she rose on her toes and blocked my sight with her huge shoulder.
“I suggest you turn around and go back the way you came.” She arched an eyebrow at me, and even though I stood much taller than her, she didn’t seem bothered by our difference in size. Not that I had any intention of attacking the overprotective cook.
“It’s fine, Lottie.” Natalee suddenly appeared at the female’s side. “I’ll talk to him.”
Lottie put her hands up in exacerbation and waved a spoon around. “Fine, you can talk in here, but know that I’ll have no funny business in my kitchen.” She walked to the stove and commenced stirring something in a large pot, and the aroma that escaped made my mouth water.
I looked at Natalee. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Well, here I am. This happens to be where I live and work now.”
“Yes, Natalee, but you don’t seem like the type of female to be working in a brothel. Has something happened? What about the Foxthornes?”
A haunted look crossed her face, and she lowered her head for a moment. When she glanced up again, she said, “Nothing happened. I just couldn’t take the Foxthornes’ charity anymore. It’s time I earn my own keep.”
“Yes, buthere?”
She lifted her chin and her eyes flashed. “Need I remind you thatyouare standing in the same building as I am right now? Come to scratch an itch, priest?” The moment she said it, her face flushed. Lottie snickered at the stove.
“I came for a drink.”
“Oh, really? Just a drink?” She put her hands on her hips. “I don’t need your or anyone else’s judgment, Priest Thazurok.”
I flinched. “I’m not a priest anymore and I’ll never be one again. You know that, Natalee.” I’d thought we made a connection during our picnic, but maybe I was mistaken. She seemed awfully defensive at the moment, but damn if I didn’t want to help her.
“You can’t work here, Natalee.” I crossed my arms and glared at her. “Now tell me what happened with the Foxthornes.”
She rolled her eyes, and I had the sudden impulse to toss her over my knee, lift up her skirts, and spank her bare little bottom.
“Natalee, if you need money or a place to stay…”
“Don’t,” she said, putting up a hand. “I’m already working here. The damage to my reputation is done, so I might as well stay. I don’t plan on working here forever, Knot, but for now, this is where I’m meant to be. It’s where I need to be.”
