Page 18 of My Orc (Secret) Boss

He didn’t respond, but his arm, the one behind me? It wrapped around my shoulders so his hand dangled near my arm, and I felt…safe.

“Look,” he rumbled quietly, and nodded upstream where a heron was carefully picking its way through the small stream of water, its long beak darting down to snatch up the little finger mullet.

I smiled and dropped my head against his arm, content.

Finally.

This land would soon be gone, sold to some high bidder to strip into something useful. The heron would have to move into the nature reserve next door, and the blue crabs would have to find other marsh to inhabit.

Soon, this landscaping job would be done, and I would pay Memnon, and he’d go back to his reclusive lifestyle as I tackled bigger jobs on my way to my dream.

But here and now, they had a home, and I had a companion who understood the glory of this place, and all was at peace.

Here and now.

Just like me.

Chapter Seven

Memnon

By Friday,I’d learned a few things:

“Saw grass” is called “saw grass” for a damn good reason, and hand sanitizer can be used as an efficient—if fuckingpainful—disinfectant.

Physical therapy can apparently be any kind of repetitive movement.

Maya was living downstairs.

The first one is pretty self-explanatory, but didn’t completely suck, because when I landed in a stand of saw grass, Maya was there to fuss over me and clean my wounds. I was coming to realize that not only did I not mind her touch…I fuckingcravedit.

When I wasn’t around her, I was itchy and irritable and angry all the time. It didn’t help that Simbel was over-the-moon excitedabout Rissa and telling her that she was his Mate. He was annoying as hell, and that just made me more irritated.

Because each moment I was with him was a moment I wasn’t with Maya, and I’d never known anyone else I genuinelywantedto be around.

Now thesecondissue, the physical therapy?

I guess I should have known Sakkara would be right. If I did end up going to this Oyster Festival tomorrow, and he was there, I justknewthe smarmy bastard was going to crow about it. but yeah…

My legdidfeel better.

At first, it hurt like the blazes, but now? After a week of moving and exercising and lifting and squatting and bending and twisting? I should be miserable, and sometimes I got a crazy-hard cramp in my thigh. But overall, I could feel that I was moving better and easier than I had since before the injury.

And as for that last issue, the one about Myra living downstairs…

Well, I wondered how much that played into my feeling better when she was around. Now that I was attuned to her, I couldfeelher moving around down there, and I swear I could even smell her. Like sometimes, when we were together, I’d get a hint of a sweet musk I didn’t recognize…

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