Page 14 of Guarded By the Orc

“But when I do, I want to kiss these soft lips,” he groaned, his huge palm coming up to cup my jaw, his thumb swiping over my lower lip. My tongue darted out to lick him—without my permission—and his eyes went black with lust.

“Careful, Gul-ar,” he whispered, leaning even closer. “You don’t want to trigger my rut.”

“Your rut?” I gasped, my lips parting as a hot flood of lust washed through me. From the way his nostrils flared, I realizedthat he could smell how turned on I was. “What’s that?”

A small quirk of his lips was the only answer he gave me. He pulled away, taking a deep breath before he released my face. “I’ll need five minutes to find the information you need.”

“Five minutes?” I asked, blinking at him. “That’s all?”

“Now that I know who they are, it’ll be easy,” he said with a shrug. “I already have quite a file compiled on them after they took Rok. In case they ever decided to cross us again.”

My eyebrows swung up. “Paranoid much?” I teased, and he bristled.

“I prefer to think of it asbeing prepared,” he huffed, before becoming focused on my mouth again. “I’ll be right back, and then I want my reward, Gul-ar.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, my eyebrows knitting together.

“It means you’re my little witch,” he said, leaning forward to nip his strong fangs in front of me. “And I’ll be taking a bite out of you in a few minutes.”

My jaw was still on the floor when he walked away. “No one said anything about biting!” I called after him, but he ignored me, a dark chuckle making its way to my ears.

Well, shit.

CHAPTER 7

Rudgar

Ipulled the file markedThe Sisters of the Sageup on the computer in my home office, rubbing my fingers across my mouth—where my mate’s lips were going to be in a matter of minutes. I hit print on the section with the members, anticipation flooding me.

I wouldn’t give her the entire file. I wanted to hold onto it in case she offered me future rewards for more information. I had no problem letting my little minx use me for anything she wanted. I wouldalwaysgive in to her.

But I also needed to find a way to bind her to me and so far the only thing she responded to was my body. If that’s what I needed to use to keep her here, I would. She held herself back from me, but I couldn’t understand why.

Mysteries intrigued me. And she was a mystery personified. Her body said one thing while her emotions and mind said another. I saw the way she softened when I was near her. But she didn’t give in. I was almost certain she knew I was her mate. Icould see the longing in her eyes when she looked at me, but she didn’t want to admit what we were to each other. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but I hoped to get her to trust me enough to tell me.

Taking the papers to her, I waved them in front of her, knowing my eyes would be gleaming with anticipation. So were hers. No matter what she tried to tell me, the way she angled her delicious body toward me, her lips parting sweetly as she looked at me said everything I needed to know.

I can make her mine tonight.

Seduction wasn’t my forte. But she was made for me. My perfect match in every way. It would only take a little nudge to have her in my bed. I’d show her so much pleasure, she wouldn’t even think of leaving me.

The first step before making her fall in love with me.

That would be more difficult. When we were growing up—after my parents had passed—we’d had a guardian who’d showed us the ropes of taking over the company they left behind,plustaught us countless life lessons that we hadn’t been able to learn from our parents. Traditions that were passed down from our ancestors that needed to be continued.

Courting was one of them. While Dristan had been angry as soon as he’d started speaking—rushing off and insisting that he didn’t need help courting his own mate from an old coot of a male—I’d stayed and begged him for all the tips and tricks I could get. There was never enough information that you could have on winning a female’s heart.

Most of that had been with the assumption that the female herself would be an orc who knew the traditions of our kind, but this made it all the better. I would be able to introduce my Gul-ar to the ways of my kind.

With that in mind, I leaned down with a small smile on my face. “My prize?” I asked, and she rolled her eyes, but movedtoward me, pressing her lips against mine. The zing that shot through my veins froze me in place, but she pulled away with an abrupt gasp, swallowing hard.

Her breath sawed in and out of her and I reached forward, cupping the back of her head, twining my fingers through her springy curls. They wrapped around and clung to my fingers like they wanted me to stay there.

“That can’t be it,” I told her with a low murmur—my voice almost too husky to understand.

“You asked for a kiss,” she whispered, keeping the intimacy going between us. “You didn’t specify the length of it.”

“Tsk tsk,” I tipped her chin back with my fingers, staring down into her eyes. “Witches are more tricksy than I thought. Here I was thinking that my female would play fair,” I told her with a quirk of my brow.

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