Page 54 of Bossed By the Orc

This male would wait for me. And it made my heart swell for him. “Ah, to be young and in love,” Rudgar said, leaning back in his seat. Even through his joke, I saw the genuine joy and affection in his eyes.

“We’re not,” I murmured with embarrassment, biting my lip—but I refused to pull my hand from Dristan.

Rudgar scoffed, but glanced at his watch. “We should talk about the plan of action. I assume you’re going with Pen when we get there, Dris,” he said, looking down at his phone. “What should I do?”

“We’ll go to her house,” Dristan announced, “and I want you to go to the bank. We’ll meet you there, but I need you to get them to gather all documentation pertaining to Pen’s loan. Something’s going on and we need to dig into it.”

Rudgar nodded and I marveled at how efficiently these two males—who I hadn’t met before a couple months ago—were taking on my issues as if they belonged to them.

“Don’t worry, Pen,” Rudgar said, most likely taking my silence to mean I was worried about the outcome. “We’ll get everything sorted.”

That was the thing, though. When it came to Dristan, I wasn’t worried. I trusted him in a way I’d never trusted anyone except my family. I knew he was looking out for me and with every inch of my heart, I was sure he would do right by me with zero ulterior motives.

Dristan would take care of me even if I decided I wanted our relationship to be platonic—which I most certainly did not. This realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

I love him.

I loved the big, grumpy male who was currently threading my fingers through his beard after I’d stopped—too frozen with shock to continue. Rudgar’s eyebrow was quirked as he looked at me.

“Pen?” he asked, glancing at Dristan, who ran his thumb over the back of my hand—the one he still had buried in his beard.

“I—I need a moment,” I gasped, standing and teetering toward the bathroom. I took a quick moment to appreciate how large it was before I leaned against the door, keeping it closed.

Oh fuck.

I wasn’t supposed to fall for him. Not yet, at least. Rubbing my hand over my chest, I gnawed at my lower lip, allowing the panic to settle in my chest. The rap of knuckles on the door had me jumping almost a foot high.

“Rega,” Dristan called from the other side of the door, “what’s wrong?”

I opened the door with a shaking hand before yanking him in by his gray tie. He settled his hands on my waist, glowering down at me. “Tell me.”

I swallowed hard, searching his face and wondering how I could get myself out of the hole I’d dug myself into. “I did something stupid.”

His eyebrows swung up and his expression transformed from annoyance to concern in a second. He lifted his huge palm to cup my jaw, sweeping his thumb over my cheek. “What can I do?”

And this is why.

How could a male be so thoughtful and sweet while being a bossy, gruff grump the other ninety-nine percent of the day? But even when he was being high-handed and insisting that I do things his way, he treated me with the utmost care.

I leaned into his hold, leaning forward to hug him. He didn’t hesitate, releasing my face so he could squeeze me closer.

“Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it,” he murmured against my hair and a smile spread across my face, the panic settling now that I could feel his heartbeat.

“Nothing,” I whispered, nuzzling closer and letting his scent surround me. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“You just needed to touch me,” he said, but even the smugness in his voice didn’t spark the usual annoyance. He was right, after all. His touch settled me in a way that nothing ever had before.

“Shut up,” I huffed, not willing to let him know that quite yet.

I was going to have to tell him, but not yet. I needed to make sure everything was settled with my family first. I didn’t want that between us. We already had enough on our plate without my ill-timed confession.

“Okay,” I sighed, pulling away to look up into his beautiful yellow eyes. “Let’s go back out there.”

He shook his head, stroking my hair between his big fingers. “Tell me what happened.” The words were still demanding, but his voice was gentle.

“I’ll tell you when I’m ready,” I replied, tiptoeing until I smacked a kiss across his bearded chin. “I promise.”

He grunted, lowering himself to kiss me. It was a greedy kiss—one that told me that he wanted more, but had to hold himself back. “We should be landing soon. Let’s get settled.”

---