Page 47 of The Orc's Bride

I shivered, my breath hitching. Everything inside me was trembling with expectation. What would happen now? I was afraid of the unknown yet eager to find out.

So I stood up, stumbling a bit, and Urgan’s arm snaked around my waist, steadying me. He looked down into my face, his eyes darker now, like the sky growing leaden before a storm. My breath stuck in my throat, my pulse roaring wild in my ears.

“You smell like mint,” he said. Whispered almost.

He bent his head lower, his huge body folding so his head could reach mine. But he didn’t kiss me. He touched his forehead to mine, breathing deep. We stayed like this for a moment, the wind whistling in the reeds around us.

Finally, he raised his head slightly. I was looking up into his eyes, soft and silver, and the world around me shrunk. Nothing mattered now. Nothing but us.

“I want you to be my mate,” Urgan said, his voice raspy.

Something inside me twisted. So he wanted me, after all. My body trembled and sang… and only one dark thought spoilt my joy. I bit my lip.

“I’ll say yes,” I said. “But please tell me one thing. Is it only because you want to avoid that Urzulah? I just… I must know. How much I can expect of you. How much… I can want.”

Urgan snorted softly, his breath blowing past my cheek.

“You can want anything and I’ll give it to you,” he said. My knees weakened from relief and he held me up as they buckled under me. “You risked your life to save mine. There can be no other female for me now and never. You will be my mate. The mother of my cubs. And one day, you will be my Empress. You will be mine and only mine. And I will be yours.”

I had no words to say to that, so I just nodded, gazing up at him. Drinking him in. The soft, untroubled face of Urgan. The face that he revealed just to me. Not the face of Urgan the Bloodthirsty, although I liked that face, too.

But this was the face of Urgan who wanted me to become his family.

He picked me up, cradling me in his arms, and walked to the edge of the lake, where the water was gently lapping at the shore. He put me on my feet and kneeled in front of me. He grasped the hem of my dress and slowly hitched it up.

I raised my hands above my head, and Urgan took the dress off me.

My blood was boiling now, heat coursing through me, wetness spreading slowly between my lower lips. For once, there was no reason to hide it or to feel ashamed. We were alone, and he wanted me just as much as I wanted him.

I stripped off my underwear and stood in front of him, brazenly naked.

Urgan’s eyes burned with a silver fire. With fast, effortless movements he threw off his clothes. His dirty, bloodied shirt, his breeches, his heavy boots.

My breath hitched in my throat. I drank him all in. His chest, wide and hard with the defined lines and bulges of muscles. His abdomen, hard and muscular. The green, scarred skin of his broad torso.

The way his abdominal muscles formed a sharp downward V, like an arrow pointing at his groin, where a tangle of curly hair, silver like his eyes, surrounded the root of his… cock.

I licked my lips. That word fit more than any other.

It was jutting out, pointing in my direction. It widened from its root to its tip – the head being its thickest point. Bulging with veins darker than Urgan’s skin, it was almost as long and thick as my forearm.

The tip, its color a slightly lighter green than the rest of Urgan, glistened with a viscous, silvery fluid.

And behind his cock hung an enormous green sack, heavy with the weight of his orc rocks. I could see their outlines pressing against the bottom of his sack: two perfectly round balls. Full of orc seed.

I squirmed, rubbing my thighs together. I moved a step closer, but haltingly. I wanted to touch his length. To taste that most intimate, hidden part of Urgan. But I couldn’t help feeling apprehensive at its size.

Urgan stepped closer to me, laying his hand on my cheek. He was so close now that the head of his cock pressed into my skin right under my sternum. I stared at it, breathing so fast I was getting dizzy.

Urgan put his finger under my chin and raised it so I was looking into his face.

“We’ll get clean first,” he said. His voice was hoarse. “And then, we’ll mate. I know how to make it safe for you. You will enjoy it.”

I took a deep shuddering breath and nodded. So what if I was still afraid? I wanted him too much to let the fear stop me.

There was no turning back now.

Urgan took my hand, and we waded slowly into the lake until I was covered almost up to my collarbones. Urgan rubbed his hands together in the water, cleaning them thoroughly. When his hands were clean, he gently stroked my cheeks, wiping the dust and sweat off my face. His fingers dipped lower, onto my neck, as water trickled down my face.

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