Page 25 of The Orc's Bride

And all the time, I kept telling myself it didn’t mean anything. It was his custom, not mine. For him, the bread meant something. For me, it was food, and I was hungry.

No matter how many times I reminded myself the bread meant nothing… I couldn’t extinguish the small flame of hope glimmering in my chest. That I, too, could have a family.

Chapter 9

Urgan

“They will keep watch,” Urgan said. “We can sleep now.”

“Um…” Una fidgeted. “You said that when I close to you, you be, um, alert. Don’t you think you rest better without me?”

Urgan’s eyes narrowed. He could tell she was bluffing again. She was trying to avoid him but chose not to be upfront about it. What was it with this woman and her lies? He would have to find out the whole truth as soon as possible.

“But I warmer with you,” she added quickly, giving him a cheeky grin.

She was perceptive, too. Urgan nodded once, pleased despite himself. She could tell already when he didn’t trust her, and she could change her strategy quickly. He beckoned for her to come closer.

She lied down in front of him, pressing her back against his chest and accidentally pushing her hair into his mouth. Urgan growled, a low sound of surprise and annoyance.

This wouldn’t do.

He lifted her up effortlessly and rearranged her body. Now, her bum was firmly pressed against his groin. And her hair was out of his face.

“Oh,” Una gasped, when he slung his arm across her chest, hugging her closer. He could feel her heart beating frantically. The smell of her need was thick in the night air and it took all of his willpower to resist the urge to just take her.

“I like your hair,” he rumbled, his voice amused, “but not so much that I want it up my nose. This is much better.”

She murmured softly, sounding sleepy. She fell asleep so easily in his arms, he noted. A lesser orc might feel offended about it… but Urgan was pleased. It meant she felt safe. It meant she trusted him.

Or, at least, her body did.

He glanced up at Grikh and Zadran, who were setting up new torches in place of the ones that had burned down. Both orcs looked vigilant and ready to take on their watch. Good. He could sleep.

When Urgan woke up, the wood was gray with the morning light. And Una was squirming against him, rubbing her perky backside against his cock and sighing softly.

She was still asleep and Urgan was painfully hard.

It would be so easy to hitch up her dress, tear off her underwear, and bury his length in her slick flesh. He could bet she would enjoy it too, mewling through her sleep, waking slowly to the rhythm of him impaling her on his shaft again and again…

Urgan cursed under his breath, forcing the fog of lust out of his mind. She hadn’t said yes yet. Her body could be sending multiple signals of arousal, but if Una’s mouth didn’t speak the words of desire, he wouldn’t touch her.

But maybe he could get some truth out of her in her sleeping but active state.

“What do you want, Una?” he asked quietly, his mouth brushing against her ear.

She ground herself against him with a moan, making Urgan clench his teeth. It had been a bad idea, then. He was about to break away from her too tempting body, when she sighed and moaned: “I want… Urgan…”

He didn’t move, watching her with a new intensity. So it wasn’t just her female body reacting to his male one. She really wanted him.

“What else do you want?” he asked softly, drawing on the last reserves of his self-control.

Una turned to him, her eyelids fluttering gently like a butterfly’s wings in the wind. Urgan didn’t dare move.

“Want…” she said in human. “Want… to kill…”

Her eyelids fluttered again. And shot wide open.

With a shriek of alarm, Una sprang up and away, stopping a few steps from him and breathing hard.

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