Page 26 of Bound to the Orc Guardian

I love seeing her eat with such appetite.

“Moon Blade Village has a fine bakery,” I say.

“Tell me more about your village.”

Taking a bite to give myself a moment to think, I chew slowly, then swallow. “It’s a good place full of good people.”

“That tells me almost nothing.” She exhales in amusement.

I think back over the last few weeks and try to see the village as she’ll see it—as someone without any painful associations would see it. “My favorite time is evenings. Everyone cleans up from work, either using the magic of the cleaning cloths or by taking a soak in the communal baths.”

“Communal?” She raises an eyebrow, a coy smile curling her lips.

A possessive beast roars within my chest at the thought of anyone seeing her naked curves. It’s startling. Orcs aren’t precious about nudity. I normally spend every evening in the baths. By the goddess, not two weeks past, I brawled with Krivoth because he always hid his bride Taylor away in the private bathing room.

Fuck. I’ll have to apologize. But to do so would mean admitting how Selena makes me feel, when shewon’t be mine. Instead, I’ll have to live with knowing I’m a hypocrite. I scowl.

“So you don’t like the baths?” Selena asks, her smile slipping.

“I love the baths,” I growl, unwilling to lie to her, even if it would provide an easy way to cover all the confusing things I’m feeling. I smooth my expression and continue. “Afterward, most people eat at home with their families before going down to the pub.”

“Do you eat with your family?” Her voice sounds very casual as she drops her eyes to where her fingers pull a chunk off the cheese and work it into a little ball. “With your… wife?”

“No. I’m not handfasted, not mated.”

She glances up with a small smile and pops the ball of cheese into her mouth. “Good.”

That single word flashes through me. I shouldn’t like it so much.

But I do.

“The pub is the heart of the village,” I say. “Everyone drinks and brawls and tells tall tales. Anyone who doesn’t want to eat at home can find a hot meal. And the ale is some of the finest in the land.”

She gives me an assessing look, then shakes her head and points at me. “That’s not why you love it.”

“No, it’s not.” A frisson of shock goes through me that she sees me so clearly. Most people who’ve just met me seem to think there’s nothing beyond the grumpiness. “I love it because it’s where I sing.”

As much as my scowls put everyone off, my voice pulls them in. When I sing for the crowd, I become one of them. I’m accepted, valued for more than my strong sword arm.

“You’re Alarria’s rock god.” She holds up her hands so her thumbs and forefingers make a square frame she eyes me through. “I can see it. The good looks, the hair, the bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold scowl.”

I turn that scowl on her. “I’m no boy.”

“Relax. It’s a saying.” She pats my knee. “You’re clearly all man or orc or fae or however you say it here.”

My leg burns, branded by her touch, fire racing up my thigh to flash over my cock and set it hardening.

Selena deserves better than me, but that doesn’t stop the selfish need welling inside me that longs to claim her.

Dear goddess, however am I going to resist this woman?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Selena

Riding is so much more fun now that we can all talk. Dash is hilarious, telling us all about how he discovered his pooka magic as a baby unicorn playing with the other little ones in his herd.

“I didn’t understand I could ‘travel’ at first because no one else around me had pooka magic.” He turns his head and shoots me a mischievous glance. “But the second I figured it out, I used it relentlessly.”

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