Page 18 of Loved By the Orc

Tark frowned.

“Eager, aren’t you?”

“Oh, well…” I began blushing at once. What must he think of me? “I didn’t mean?—”

“Hey—it’s okay.” He stroked my cheek again. “Don’t beembarrassed, baby. It’s okay to be curious. Just…not now. Not yet, all right? I want to get to know you first. This…what I’m feeling between us—and I think you feel it too—is special. Too special to rush.”

I felt my heart swelling at his words and the soft way he was looking at me.

“Yes,” I whispered. “I…I guess you’re right.”

“I know I’m right,” he rumbled. “So for now, let’s keep things above the belt. Okay?”

I nodded reluctantly.

“Okay.”

“And now I’d better check the cabbage steaks,” he told him. “If I don’t they’re going to get mushy.”

7

HARMONY

Hidden Hollow had come into my life at just the right time. As my work grew more difficult and degrading, I began looking forward to my visits there more and more. I started taking lessons with Madam Healer, who seemed eager to teach me anything I wanted to learn. But even better, Tark and I saw each other regularly—almost every night—and things progressed until I felt I could confidently call him my boyfriend.

The only thing was, we hadn’t slept together yet. Not that I’m super eager to hop into bed with a new guy—on the contrary, I’m usually really careful about that kind of thing. After the debacle in high school, it took me years to trust again and let myself have sex with another guy. But he was the one who got drunk and couldn’t finish, as I think I mentioned before. And we broke up right after, so that was the end of that.

I had admitted my sexual history—or lack thereof—to Tark in a round-about way and he seemed to think it was my way of asking him to go slow. But after our first few dates, I didn’t want to slow things down anymore—I wanted to speed them up! Every time I was with the big Orc, my body was primed and ready to go. Just smelling his warm,woodsy scent seemed to flip a switch in me that made my nipples hard and my pussy wet with sexual need.

But though we had done a lot of kissing and what my aunt would have called “heavy petting” on his enormous sofa, Tark still wouldn’t do anything below the belt. And because of my inexperience, I was too shy to push him or to ask for more.

It still seemed hard to believe that someone who looked like him could want someone who looked like me. I think I was afraid that everything was going to end—that he would suddenly decide he wasn’t interested anymore, which was why I was holding back from him.

These thoughts and feelings that I’d been harboring came to a head on the day when I came to his house after an especially bad time at the office. My awful boss was the cause of it, of course.

I’d been sitting in the break room eating lunch with two other executive assistants—Katrina and Jeremy. Both of them were nice enough but they weren’t really friends, just acquaintances. Still, it was pleasant to have someone to eat with and talk about school, since they were under the same kind of contract I was with Bentley Pharmaceuticals. All of us were just trying to get through school without drowning in debt.

I was listening to Katrina tell us about a new show she was watching about aliens who came to Earth searching for brides when Mr. Price walked into the break room.

I froze immediately with my sandwich halfway to my mouth. It wasn’t huge or disgusting—just a plain turkey on wheat and I had carrot sticks on the side. But I’d made the mistake of bringing a cupcake for dessert and it was sitting right on my plate, in front of me.

My boss walked over and got something from the break room refrigerator and I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Maybe he was just here to get creamer for his coffee and he would leave the three of us alone.

But of course, Mr. Price couldn’t do that.

He came over to our table and looked pointedly at the food on my plate, his pale eyes narrowing when he saw the cupcake.

“Well, Miss Ward, it looks like you’re not eventryingto lose weight,” he remarked, frowning disapprovingly. “You know, we’re developing a new weight loss drug here at Bentley—maybe I should put you in for the clinical trials. You’re getting bigger by the day.”

The old, familiar shame washed over me and I wanted to sink through the floor anddie. Katrina and Jeremy just sat there. Both of them were an “acceptable” weight, so Mr. Price hadn’t picked on them. I felt them staring at me with pity and probably with disgust, I thought miserably.

Why had I brought the cupcake to lunch? Why couldn’t I just have a nice, normal lunch break with acquaintances without being made to feel like some kind of freak?

The minute my boss left the break room, I started gathering my things. I wasn’t even halfway done with lunch but my appetite was completely gone.

“Hey, Harmony…” Katrina said tentatively. “He really shouldn’t have said that. He?—”

“I have to go,” I mumbled, not looking at her. It seemed like if I didn’t get out of there right now I was going to burst!

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