Page 56 of Ogres Don't Play

“Come with me to my shop, and see the harp I’ve crafted for you. It has everything to match you, with a slight iron ore corerunning through it that gives it strength and a slight variation to the sound that I think you’ll really enjoy.”

Okay, that sounded absolutely fascinating. I never would have thought of that, but if Rook the Luthier did it, then it would be amazing, unless it was more of an experiment. “And if I don’t like it?” The idea of me not liking something Rook the Luthier created was heresy.

He smiled, a half-smile that was so adorable. I wanted to snuggle into that smile forever. “Then I’ll make you another. I will, anyway. You’ll continue to grow in your musical gifts, and I will do my best to keep up with you, creating the most exquisite instruments that you’ve ever imagined. My life will be dedicated to your music.”

That was ridiculous, and flattering, but also terrifying. He was Rook the Luthier. I was one musician. Yes, I was okay, but Rich was much better than me. I couldn’t listen to him say those words, so I sealed his mouth with a kiss.

Every other kiss had been sweet, chaste, but this was not. The second my lips touched his, it’s like I’d lit a fuse and he exploded. His hands held me so tight while his mouth left mine and found its place at my neck. He worked over my skin with those delicate tusks while I turned into several different species of gasping fish.

He felt like…I wasn’t even sure how to define it. Intense, focused, like I was an instrument he was going to craft and smooth down, until he’d gotten to my core and revealed all the beauty and ugliness inside of me. Also shivery sweet, and also hot, feverish, hungry. He rumbled deep in his chest and then physically expanded until I had Magr holding me in the backseat of a suddenly very small car, his open mouth entirely around my throat.

I knew that they were the same person. At least Magr had told me that they were, and Rook never contradicted him, but tohave the one come out of the other when I was being seduced by the luthier was a shock.

Wait, Rook was seducing me? Of course he was. That’s why he was trying to lure me to his shop with promises of harps. What else would seduce me without question? Well, maybe whatever he was doing with my neck. His hands were so large, impossibly strong, capable of crushing me, but instead, he was agonizingly gentle, as he caressed my head, my back, urging me closer without any use of raw force. His tongue and tusks sent shocks of electricity through me with every sweet contact.

I held onto his ridiculously large shoulders while my breathing came short, and his tongue lapped over my skin, from my neck and then around my right shoulder, the scraping of his teeth combing with the softness of his tongue to create an orchestra of sensations that flooded my brain until I was left with one thought.

“What would this sound like?” I mumbled as I threaded my fingers through his satiny, dark blue hair.

He rumbled in his chest, like that was an answer, and then his teeth were tugging on the neck of my elven light armor tunic. He growled and tugged harder, but the stuff was meant to withstand explosions and shrapnel. Probably if he really bit down on me, he’d bite me in half and get through the armor, but he was being incredibly careful with me.

He pulled away and found the hem of my tunic before tugging it up.

The feel of cool air on my wet shoulder brought me to my senses, and I covered his hands with mine, holding my shirt down while I blinked rapidly and tried to recover what was left of my brain. “So, that’s lust. Huh. I think it sounds like Dvorak.” I shivered and trembled from the force of it.

He stared at me, his eyes burning and gold light patterns chasing over his skin as he flexed his magic. “I will compose apiece for you that touches every one of your sensations. Consider the music that we will create together.”

Not a chance could I do that and stay sane. I patted his face, feeling the pulse of energy just beneath his skin. “Driver, take me to the music hall before Rook does something he regrets.” Except maybe he wouldn’t regret it.

He captured my hand in his, swallowing it whole, like he’d no doubt like to do to the rest of me. “I regret nothing, not when it comes to you.” His low voice was the perfect baseline to the music of my heart.

I forced a smile while my pulse leapt in my throat. I’d never felt so alive, awake, aware, like every single one of my nerves was doing acrobatics. “I don’t suppose you’ve found a way to break up with your troll girlfriend without going to war,” I said, trying to sound light, but instead, I did a very good impression of hyperventilating.

His brows lowered into a very impressive scowl. “Not yet. Sacrificing thousands of lives sounds better all the time.”

I patted his face, and then my fingers trailed down his cheek with the glowing intricate pattern to his tusk. It was smooth, like ivory, and he probably thought it was weird that I was touching it until my fingers touched his bottom lip, such silky smooth satin. I shivered and the golden lines in his skin brightened as I traced the line of his bottom lip.

I swallowed and curled my hand into a fist, trying to shake off the desire that wracked me. “There are no other options?”

“Other than someone challenging her claim on me and defeating her in the battle? No. Lanise has volunteered, but then I’d be betrothed to her, so that doesn’t exactly work. Also, Lanise would die.”

I stared at him, those eyes, the golden flashing over his skin, my heart pounding as I studied him. “How do you defeat a troll?”

His eyes narrowed, and he put me on the seat beside him before crossing his arms and glowering out the window. “Absolutely not.”

“I just asked a question.”

“A bad question.”

“There are no bad questions.”

“No, that is most definitely a very, very bad question you must not think, much less ask. You already did.” He turned his gaze on me, serious concern in those depths. “You can’t defeat a mountain troll. All she has to do is sit on you, and you’re dead. She’ll rip off your arms first, then your legs, then eat you whole.”

“I thought I was your miracle, who could accomplish impossible things, like resuscitating the music hall in Singsong City.”

“That doesn’t translate to defeating a mountain troll. Several females have tried, and they have died very gruesome deaths. Besides which, you don’t want to be bound by something as unromantic as a contract I am under against my will.”

I shook my head, because I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to be bound by anything at all, but the idea that some mountain troll could own him was absolutely untenable.

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