Page 51 of Bossed By the Orc

“My parents,” I gasped, my heart in my throat. It felt like the words were stuck there, so I shook my head. “I need to go home.”

“Are they okay?” he asked, concern lacing his voice. At that moment, I knew that I’d fallen for this orc. This giant, grumpy orc who’d laid siege to my heart ever since I’d met him. I fought against the need to tell him, knowing that I didn’t have much time before the last train left for my hometown.

“Yes, but I need to get to them,” I told him, trying to escape his hold again.

He nodded, pulling me into a hug and for a moment I allowed myself to be surrounded by his heat and comfort. But only for a moment. I struggled against him, but he pressed a calm kiss to the top of my head.

“We’ll take one of my planes,” he stated and I froze against him.

“No, Dristan—” I started, but he cut me off.

“Now who’s being stubborn? Don’t you need to get there as soon as possible?” He pulled away to grab his cellphone, dialing as he spoke. “Think about it, there’s nothing you can do there at this time of night. Get a bag packed and I’ll make the arrangements. Try and rest a little. We’ll leave first thing in the morning and we can get there within thirty minutes. Well before the bank opens.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know that?” I demanded.

“I checked the flight time as soon as I found out where your house is,” he told me as if that would be the most obvious course of action in the world.

“Right,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “We’ll talk about boundaries later. For now, I’ll go pack.”

He grunted his assent, lifting his phone to his ear and facing the magnificent skyline outside of the wall of windows.

I hurried into the bedroom, grabbing a handful of clothes and stuffing them into the smallest suitcase in the new luggage-set Dristan had bought for me. I bit my lip as I realized that this male had been proving himself to be the best provider for such a long time and I hadn’t been paying attention.

Maybe that’s why my ovaries are always quivering when he’s around.

I shook my head, dragging my thoughts away from him as I went into the bathroom and grabbed the essentials, cramming them into my bag and then zipping it shut.

In the morning, long before the sun came up, I was ready to go. I made my way to where he stood and he turned to face me, his serious yellow eyes surveying me from head to toe. “You seem to be handling this well.”

I nodded, taking a deep breath. “It’s got to be some clerical error. I’m sure once I get there and provide my receipts, everything will be sorted.”

He nodded before glancing away. “Alright. Let’s get going.”

The niggling sense that he was hiding something from me got pushed to the side as urgency rolled through my veins.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Dristan

I couldn’t admit to Penelope that I’d been digging into her personal life. She would flay me alive and I didn’t know if I could deal with her being angry with me now that I knew how sweet it was to be on her good side.

Still, if I needed to divulge what I’d found, I would. I’d called Rudgar and my brother was coming to meet us at the private airport. He’d go with us to Penelope’s hometown. He could dig up more information on the way there.

I ran my palm over my female’s knee as I drove and she turned to give me a smile, but I could see the worry in her gaze. “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out,” I told her.

She turned to look at me, squeezing my hand with her tiny fingers. “I shouldn’t be asking you to help me this much.”

“You didn’t ask, I offered,” I argued. “There’s no backing out now.”

She smiled, leaning in to press a sweet kiss to my cheek. I felt heat rise to my face while I pretended I was unaffected.

I wasn’t used to gratitude from anyone—but especially females. Most found me gruff and unbending. At least that was the complaint I’d gotten the one time I’d tried a relationship, when I was just starting out at the business.

After that, I’d been too busy for any more entanglements. Until now. I slid my gaze to my female again, where she was looking out the window. Her fingers were still stroking my hand on her knee and a smile stretched across my face.

The ache of my cheeks told me how unused I was to the expression. Us facing this crisis together spoke volumes about how much she was learning to trust me, though. It wouldn’t have been too long ago that she would have decided to take this trip on her own.

You forced your way onto this trip, though.

---