Page 36 of Secret Twins for the Orc

I suck in a breath and pull her closer. “Why did you leave.”

I don’t phrase it as a question. I don’t elaborate. I don’t even mean to say it, but when the vulnerable words slip unbidden from my lips, my meaning hangs clear between us, both of us knowing exactly what I’m talking about. We’ve stubbornly avoided the topic of our first night together for so long now, I might think it never even happened. But it’s clear that neither of us has forgotten about it, and her expression falls as she drops her forehead to mine with a slow exhale.

“I was afraid,” she whispers, barely audible in the quiet, warm cocoon of my truck. I push her gently back again so I can look at her, and she bites her lip and darts her gaze away. “That night we met two years ago, I…I felt something with you, something I’d been avoiding ever since—well, since my ex-husband left me. I refused all relationships, all romance, for so long that I didn’t know what to do with myself, what to make of it. I was afraid. I didn’t want to be hurt again, and you can’t be hurt if you don’t get close, so I didn’t—god, Rho, I…”

She leans further back, pressing her fingers just beneath her eyes as she looks to the ceiling, as if trying to avoid tears.

I swallow, my heart thumping against my chest as her words rush over me, because I know exactly what means. Haven’t I been doing the exact same thing?

“This is not the sexy fun I was anticipating when you told me to sit in your lap.” Her voice wavers with emotion as she lets out a self-deprecating chuckle, fans her face briefly, and then finally meets my gaze once more. “I’m sorry I left without a word that morning. I’ve regretted that moment ever since. I just—I felt…”

“What?” I ask, because I need one more piece of this puzzle on the board. “What did you feel that night we met? Tell me.”

“Something…more,” she says, her hands coming to settle against my shoulders. “I don’t know how to describe it. I trusted you immediately, wanted you immediately. I was so drawn to you, it was crazy powerful and I’ve never felt anything like it. Not before, and not since. But it was more than just physical, you know?”

Oh, I know…

“It was like I knew you, some part of me knewyou. There was a pull on my heart, like it was desperate to get to you. And it terrified me. I—”

I don’t mean to interrupt her, but of its own accord my palm snaps up to the base of her neck and pulls her forward to crush her lips to mine. Her words are lighting a fire in my soul, ripping down the protective walls I’ve spent so many years building. She wanted me. She recognized me, it wasn’t one sided. It might be real. It might be fated.

Maybe I’m not crazy for feeling this pull.

She makes a startled noise as I press my lips to hers, and her fingers grip against my shirt when I forcefully angle her head so that I can slip my tongue between her lips. Without hesitation she responds to me, and then we’re kissing, all heat and passion and desperate desire as our tongues lash in a tangled dance.

She’s so soft, so pliant and warm and eager for my touch, her sweet scent strengthening, her heat pressing into me, and I’m helpless against my body’s reaction to her. I’m fully hard beneath her within seconds, and I need her closer, closer.

My muscles tighten with tension, and without letting our lips part I yank at my seat’s lever and shove the backrest down, tipping myself horizontal to allow more room for her hips to slide over mine.

She moans lightly as she falls forward against my chest and I roll my hips up against hers, an answering growl reverberating through me, before I grip the hair at the base of her neck and yank her lips away.

“Fuck,” I groan. “I’m too old to be doing this in a car.”

“You started it!” she says with a husky laugh, grinding against my length and sending sparks through my entire body. I tighten my fingers even more, tipping her neck back further. But just as it registers that I might be gripping too hard, she bites her lip and lets out a breathy little mewl, and I feel my cock twitch at the sound, as if it’s trying to find its way inside her all on its own. She likes it. She isn’t afraid of my strength.

“Ella…” I mutter, but she isn’t listening.

“I don’t care,” she says desperately, tugging my shirt up and trying to get her fingers around my belt. “I don’t care, I need you.”

I push up then, sitting suddenly and tipping her back against the steering wheel.

“I care,” I growl as I lean my face into her neck and trail the back of my fingers down her stomach. Smoked honey engulfs my senses, and I close my eyes and let it course through me. “When I finally fuck you again, sweet thing, I’m going to do it properly.”

She gasps as my knuckles brush down over her clit through her pants, and my head spins with her scent, with the desire to see her and feel her again.

“I will lay you down, strip you bare, and taste every inch of your skin. You’ll come on my lips before you come on this cock, and I won’t compromise. Not for anything.”

I scrape my tusk across her throat before leaning back, and her blue eyes are wide as she stares at me.

“So you’ll be a good girl and crawl back to your seat, and wait until I get you into bed, alright?”

“Jesus, Rho…” she gasps, fisting her little fingers into my shirt and trying to pull me closer, but I don’t let her.

“Alright?”

“O-okay,” she manages to stutter, even as her scent thickens, sending my senses into overdrive. “You sure are bossy…”

“I’m not just bossy,” I growl as my hand finds its way back up to gently rest against her neck. “I am the boss.”

---